If I'm Secure in Christ

If I'm Secure in Christ

 

The first two paragraphs are by Tim Keller of New York City, and the rest I completed.  The Scripture is 1 Corinthians 3:11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 

The Christian singles at Redeemer really aren't that different than everybody else in Manhattan.  In most of Manhattan the men wouldn't even think about dating any woman who is overweight or any woman who is not really good looking, and the women would not even think about dating any man who is not on a pretty good looking career track.  It's no different inside the church than outside the church. 

Do you know why the average Christian single cannot bear to even think about looking at somebody with wonderful character and deep spirituality but who really isn't very cool, polished or good looking enough.  It's because their self-esteem can't handle dating somebody like that.  It is one thing to experience God's grace, but it's another thing to look at people differently through the lens of God's grace.  When you do this, you view social reality different (end of Keller excerpts).

If I'm insecure, then my spouse has to be perfect.  I tell her that she needs to work out and eat right and be a certain size.  I explain that it is for her health.  The real reason is that I need her to look good in order to make me look good.

If I'm insecure, then I push my children to be the best athlete/musician/scholar, etc.  You have to practice and practice and practice.  I tell them it is for their own good.  However, it is not be about them.  The better they look, then the better I look.

This "if I'm insecure" list is endless.  However, if I'm secure in Christ and my foundation is there, then maybe I can love others more like Jesus. 

 Acceptance leads to influence.  We close down around rejection, and we open up when we feel accepted and loved no matter our performance or behavior.

 Champions, have a great summer!-David Vining

Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst

Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Susan Neder, and the Scripture is Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

True hunger and thirst are a matter of life and death and reveal deep and profound needs.  They are cravings which don't end unless they are satisfied.  In spiritual well-being, hunger and thirst for righteousness are the same thing:  A real need which must be satisfied if we are to be healthy.  A characteristic of a child of God is this craving which must be satisfied.

We can be invited to a banquet with all of our favorite foods but have no appetite for them if we eat a lot of junk food just before the banquet.  Likewise, we can lose our appetite for Christ if our lives are too busy for Him or if we feed our mind with spiritual junk food and unwholesomeness. 

Looking at life in America today reveals great driving hungers, a restlessness, always looking for something else, something more, something that will satisfy, something that will entertain.  There is a sense that something is missing even when things are going well.  The deepest things of this life do not satisfy because they weren't created to satisfy us.  We were created to be satisfied completely by a relationship with the one who made us.

We could talk for days about what righteousness is, but basically it means being like Jesus.  If we are truly hungering and thirsting after righteousness, after God Himself, He promises that we will be given what we desire.  We will never fill ourselves with righteousness.  Instead, it comes in a very different way.  Our hungering and thirsting is satisfied in the person of Jesus Christ alone.

If we hungering and thirsting after this righteousness, it will show.  People who really want something always give evidence of that fact  and do not just sit down, passively waiting for it to come.  They actively pursue what they desire.  The more we are filled with Him by meeting Him in prayer and in the Bible, the more we hunger and thirst for more of Him, never having enough because He is so wonderful. 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Blessed Are the Meek

Blessed Are the Meek

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is mainly by Susan Neder with a little help from Tim Keller, and the scripture is Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Many people connect meekness with weakness, but meekness refers to power under control. It is used of a spirited animal who is trained to obey a command.  Think of a wild horse that has been bridled.  His power is still there, but it is being channeled by another.  After it has learned to accept its master's control, it is able to race more powerfully than ever.  For us, this means a submitting of all that we are to the leadership of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.

From Tim Keller:  I know all kinds of people who say, "I'd like to become a Christian, but does that mean that I have to drop my girlfriend because she is not real big on faith?  Does this mean that I'm going to have to spend less money on myself because I really like this and that sort of activity?  I'd like to become a Christian, but do I have to do this and this and this?"  They are saying.  "I'd like to give God the Lordship of my life as long as I can stay in control."  Ultimately, after all of the thinking, at some point you're going to have to say, "I don't even know what it's going to bring into my life, but because Jesus has done so much for me, I give up the Lordship and control of my life.  I am no longer the Lord of my own life, but I am the servant." (End of Keller Quotes)

Meekness accepts God's dealings with us as good, so we accept them without rebelling or resisting.  It refers not to just outward behaviors but to an inward condition of our hearts and minds.  At its root, it is a trusting and submissive attitude toward God.  Therefore, true meekness musts spring from who we think God is, and how He expresses that toward us.  Unless we know Him as good, loving, forgiving, and seeking only the best and highest for us, how can we trust him?

Jesus describes Himself as meek.  He was not meek because He couldn't help Himself, but He chose to place Himself in trusting submission to the authority of His Father.  He said, "My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me and to accomplish His work."  I do nothing, but what I see my Father doing." 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Running Away Or Returning

 Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Henri Nouwen, and the Scripture is Matthew 11:28-30  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Judas and Peter present me with the choice between running away from Jesus in despair or running to him in hope.  Judas betrayed Jesus and hanged himself.  Peter denied Jesus and returned to him in tears.

Sometimes despair seems an attractive choice, solving everything in the negative.  The voice of despair says, "I sin over and over again.  After endless promises to myself and others to do better next time, I find myself back again in the old dark places.  Forget about trying to change.  I have tried for years.  It didn't work and it will never work.  It is better that I get out of people's way, be forgotten, no longer around, dead."

This strangely attractive voice takes all uncertainties away and puts an end to the struggle.  It speaks unambiguously for the darkness and offers a clear-cut negative identity.

But Jesus came to open my ears to another voice that says, "I am your God, I have molded you with my own hands, and I love what I have made.  I love you with a love that has no limits, because I love you as I am loved.  Do not run away from me.  Come back to me--not once, not twice, but always again.  You are my child.  How can you ever doubt that I will embrace you again, hold you against my breast, kiss you and let my hands run through your hair?  I am your God--the God of mercy and compassion, the God of pardon and love, the God of tenderness and care.  Please do not say that I have given up on you, that I cannot stand you anymore, that there is no way back.  It is not true.  I so much want you to be with me.  I so much want you to be close to me.  I know all your thoughts.  I hear all your words.  I see all of your actions.  And I love you because you are beautiful, made in my own image, an expression of my most intimate love.  Do not judge yourself.  Do not condemn yourself.  Do not reject yourself.  Let my love touch the deepest, most hidden corners of your heart and reveal to you your own beauty, a beauty that you have lost sight of, but which will become visible to you again in the light of my mercy.  Come, come, let me wipe your tears, and let my mouth come close to your ear and say to you, 'I love you, I love you, I love you.' "

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

The One Concern

The One Concern of the Devil

Dear Champions,

Thursday, May 2nd was the National Day of prayer , so that is the reason for this scripture and short excerpt found in Jim Cymbala's book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire.

Satan's main strategy with God's people has always been to whisper, "Don't call, don't ask, don't depend on God to do great things.  You'll get along fine if you just rely on your own cleverness and energy."  The truth of the matter is that the devil is not terribly frightened of our human efforts and credentials.  But he knows his kingdom will be damaged when we lift up our hearts to God.

Listen to David's confident assertion in Psalm 4:3.  "Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him."  That was David's whole posture, his instinct, and especially his approach to warfare.  It doesn't matter what the Philistine armies have.  If we call out to God, he will give us the victory.  If we backslide and don't call, then we can be defeated by a tiny army.

I can almost hear David saying, "You can chase me, you can persecute me, you can do anything you want - but when I call on God, you're in trouble!  The Lord will hear when I call to him."

The devil is not terribly frightened of our human efforts and credentials.  But he knows his kingdom will be damaged when we begin to lift up our hearts to God.

Are not we all prone to be a little cocky and think we can handle things just fine?  But let some trouble come, and how quickly we sense our inadequacy.  Trouble is one of God's great servants because it reminds us how much we continually need the Lord.  Otherwise, we tend to forget about entreating him.  For some reason, we want to carry on by ourselves.

From 18^th Century Teacher Jonathan Edwards:  "The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from prayer.  He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, pray­erless religion.  He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray."

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Susan Neder, and the Scripture is Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  Luke 7:37-38,47  When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. . . . I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

In the story of the sinful woman, we see two very different persons and heart attitudes.  The Pharisee, Simon, was cold, satisfied with his own integrity, judgmental, critical and not even providing Jesus with the barest minimum of courtesies.  "The woman who had lived a sinful life in that town was conscious of her sinful past, rejoicing in her forgiveness, and lavishing on Jesus the outpouring of her love.  Simon does not cast himself at Jesus' feet because his proud heart was not broken.  He sits opposite Jesus, confident and satisfied with himself.  Yet, the woman is overflowing with lavish love for Jesus, bathing His feet with her tears and perfume, wiping them with her hair.  Her repentance and sorrow for her sin (mourning) had led her to the joy of her forgiveness.  The one who had the biggest debt canceled was the one who loved greatly.

The mourning Jesus speaks about is the mourning that comes from an awareness of our sin and a right understanding of the evil of sin.  We need God's help with this as we have such a desire to excuse and defend ourselves.  Today, we have a superficial and wrong conception of sin.  We don't see it as the cancer that God says it is- a cancer which will destroy us.  Therefore, we don't deal with it as we would as a cancer that we must be rid of.

We don't stop with the mourning, but we go on to the comfort?   In fact, it is only out of this deep conviction of sin that the joy and the comfort of the kingdom becomes ours.  This is true not just as we first come to Him but as a style of life.  We recognize something in us as sin, and at first it gets us down (mourning).  But, if we allow this awareness to drive us back to Jesus, then peace and happiness return, and we are comforted in the reality of His forgiveness and cleansing. 

This is the astounding meaning of this Beatitude.  Great sorrow over our sin leads us to great joy and comfort as we bring it all to Jesus.  Dealing with our sin in this way brings us "joy unspeakable and full of glory."  Not to live like this means that we have to hide much of who we really are from ourselves and each other.  Let's pray for eyes to see ourselves and our sin as He sees it, and then let's respond to Him as did the woman in Luke 7 whose heart was overflowing with love and joy for the greatness of His forgiveness?

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining