“Live By the Spirit”

Scripture: Romans 8:9-17

(Note: This message was part of a "cyber-worship service" that was held on line March 31, 2020, due to the covid-19 virus pandemic)

As our world continues to struggle with the Covid-19 virus, and as we strive to figure out just how to deal with this newest plague on our lives, it appears that there are two distinct approaches to living under this threat. One tactic is to listen to the medical community and government researchers regarding recommended precautions, and by following the guidelines that they put in place. The other tactic is to ignore the warnings because they seem too restrictive, and to go on doing whatever we want to.

The first tactic will soon defeat the disease and get us back to some semblance of normalcy and life. However, the second will only continue to spread the virus from the young and healthy to the more vulnerable of society, and will continue to enable infection and death to be part and parcel of our lives for a long time to come. The first is the most obvious, sensible, and considerate way to live, while the second is nothing short of being short sighted, irresponsible and self-centered.

Isn’t it strange that faith has a tendency to mimic the culture, when scripture tells us that this situation must never happen (Romans 12:2). But it’s true – the church has the same choice to make as our world has right now –staying true to the way set down by Christ, or to continue to live without consideration for the call that the Lord has placed on our life.

Read Romans 8:9-11

Paul tells us that there are two natures that are competing to control our lives – the nature of sin, and the nature of the Spirit. The nature of sin is about self-control, self-gratification, and personal pleasure. It’s about passion, pride, power and ambition that serves to bring honor to us alone. The very nature of sin is about elevation and glorification of self.
But the nature of the Spirit can never be about ourselves – it’s about that which the Lord God Almighty would have us do and be, and it’s about our bringing praise and glory to him, not to ourselves. It is about our surrender and our servanthood on behalf of God. It is about our desire for Christ, as well as for his will, his Law, his authority, and love for the guidance that he brings to us in faith.

The implication is that through a solid faith in Christ, there is a real benefit to all who believe, that a relationship in God will blossom in ways that it never can if we are focused on a life in the world. As a matter of fact, Paul lets us know that faith will not prevent our mortal death, a death because of sin, and that it is a certainty for everyone – for those of the world, as well as those of the Spirit. But the difference comes when we have the Spirit of the Lord within us, that death will not have the final word over us, and that the resurrection power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead will have the ultimate authority for life over us, too.

Read Romans 9:12-14

When we give our life to Christ, our commitment to the ways of earth is broken. It’s like an adoption, where both the child and a parent, or parents, surrender their relationship in favor of the child’s new relationship with new parents and a new family. Everything about the former relationship is no longer pertinent for any of the parties, and the new relationship is as if it had always existed. Legally, it is as if the child had been born into the new family.

The child becomes, in effect, a new person. All debts and benefits from the former family are dissolved, and legally, a new family is created. When we become a member of the family of God, our old self is as good as dead, and we are born anew into a divine relationship. Our mortal self is still held to the limited existence that sin has created in us, but our spirit now has an immortality that reflects the resurrected life of Christ. This is what Jesus was telling Nicodemus on that night when the Pharisee learned that his only chance to experience the kingdom of God is if he was “born again.” (John 3:1-21)

This is what Paul is telling us, that we can only have one relationship – either we live as one in the world, or we live as one in Christ.

Read Romans 8:15-17

And here is the truth of what we inherit when our life as a slave to the world is exchanged for life as a child of God. Christ’s Father becomes our Father, our “Abba”; Christ’s resurrected life becomes our new life; Christ’s glory will be our glory; the truth of Christ becomes our truth; and the suffering that Christ endured will also become our suffering.

Life in a new family, with its new relationships and new opportunities, also brings with it new obligations that cannot be denied. The world would have us believe that scripture is not the final word regarding God’s way and will for our lives. They want to blur the line that separates us from the old life, but the truth that Christ represents is made clear by the light of his life – and if we fail to live the same life that Jesus lived, it means that we have never left the old one. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit will testify to our true life, but that doesn’t mean that temptations and lies will stop plaguing us – after all, Jesus was under attack throughout his entire ministry! And that is part of our inheritance, too!

But Paul’s parting verse is the promise that is given to all who claim the new family name – the name of Christian. That our sharing in the sufferings of Jesus – the hatred, the lies, the temptations, the denials, the betrayals, the attacks are all inevitable, but as a member of the family of God, we have the Spirit to help us through those times, and the promise of eternal life at the throne of glory becomes ours through perseverance in Christ.

A life in the Spirit? It has no connection to our former life in the world, and our new life teaches us to despise those old ways. It can never be any other way when we come to live anew in Christ.

“Live in the Light”

Scripture: Ephesians 4:1-14

We are living in a time of darkness. Not that ordinary sin (whatever that may be!) is reigning over our lives, but that fear – the “handmaiden” of Satan – has taken hold of our hearts and spirit. In Romans 8:15, we read “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The problem with fear is that it has no place in faith with Christ – fear exists as part and parcel with the spirit of slavery, and it stands in direct opposition to God’s grace and glory.

But that doesn’t mean that we ignore the revenges of earth, or ignore the threat that has spread worldwide and plagues us today, and we are to never think that if we take unreasonable chances in addressing the world’s onslaught of disease that God will always protect us, simply because we have faith. In Matthew 4:1-11, we read of Jesus’ temptation as he was fasting and praying in the wilderness. Satan tried three times to persuade the Lord to give up his Godly mission to the people of earth, in favor of receiving secular power and authority from Satan, simply by transferring his loyalty and worship from his Father to the prince of darkness.
When Jesus is taken to the pinnacle of the temple, and told that if he jumps off, that the angels will catch him, and never allow him to even stub his toe on the rocks below (my translation, obviously!). But Jesus replies to the Adversary with these words from Psalm 91:9-13 - “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” (verse 7)

We may be “tempted” to make a life’s decision based on our own understanding, but the best choice is to listen to the Lord’s words first – Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to trust in the Lord, to follow his ways, and to never depend on our own understanding.

In today’s look at living in Christ and his ways, we consider the power of the Light of Christ and how it will reveal both the truth of God and the errors of earth so that we might understand him fully.

Read Ephesians 4:1-6

Paul opens this passage by reminding the Church that he is currently in prison – not as a prisoner of God’s, but as a prisoner for the Lord. He doesn’t fight against his imprisonment, but instead, sees it as an opportunity that his Lord has given him. Just as the authorities of Israel tried over and over to discredit Jesus by claiming that he was violating the laws of God, Jesus used every chance he had, not to condemn them, not to attack them, but to teach them the truth of God right where they were. That is the Light of God at work in us – not through anger or fear or retribution or judgment, but through faith and trust and obedience in our Lord.

The apostle continues with 5 aspects of our response to the Lord’s call on us while we serve our “prison sentence” here on earth. Each of these 5 attitudes could be a message on their own, so I won’t elaborate on them. So I’ll offer just a brief reflection on each:

Be humble – we must never think that we are greater than anyone else. If we ever ignore the Lord’s call to humility, and become impressed and self-elevated with how much God loves us, the world will humble us very quickly!

Be gentle – arrogance and pride must vanish from our life, and in return, a confidence that our new guide and new purpose for life is service in the name of Jesus. And then we will know that this is enough.

Be patient – don’t think that our job is to help God out, to move things along when it appears that the divine process is taking too long! His timing is far more important than our plans will ever be.

Be loving – 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that love enables and completes every action and every step that we take in faith. It can never be about our agenda, or our plans, or our expectations – it is about “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” of Jesus Christ (John 14:6-7), and that will be the purest and fullest form of love we will ever know.

Be peaceful – peace is the summation and fulfillment of the first four. Without peace, there can never be a satisfying relationship with others; without peace there is no true life in Christ; without peace, we will never escape bondage in the world; without peace, the Body of Christ will be broken.

And until peace is restored, restoration with the Lord will always be just out of reach, and “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” will rest somewhere else.

Read Ephesians 4:7-10

Every good gift that we receive, and in particular, the five mentioned above, come through the grace of God. Grace is one of those things that people have been trying to understand and define for centuries, and for the most part, they have failed. But in general, the best description of grace that I’ve ever heard is that it occurs when we receive that which we don’t deserve, could never earn, and will never gain on our own. Of course, that is only how we experience it, but the better part of grace must always be based in God’s perspective and purpose, which we still can’t understand.

At this point, Paul gets a bit rambling and confusing, but what he is trying to tell us is that as the ultimate Conqueror of evil, Jesus, unlike the kings of earth, will give gifts to all who surrender their lives to him. These gifts will be given to the most unexpected people, and when they use these gifts in the way that the Holy Spirit directs, glory will be proclaimed on high, and they will produce honors and praise to the One who has defeated the ways of earth.

And the point of Christ’s ascent and descent? Paul doesn’t seem to explain that very well, but here is my take on the expression. Christ “descended” from heaven to come to earth, and his coming wasn’t just for the elite of this place, it wasn’t just for the leadership of the nations, it wasn’t just for the righteous – it was for all. As we read through the gospels, who do we see Jesus spending the most time with? He chose the lowly, the rejected, the outcasts - those who the educated, the very ones who should have known better, had deemed as unworthy of a relationship with their Almighty God.
And his “ascent” to a place that is “higher than all the heavens” is to the throne of God, where he is to be praised - above all, and for all, and by all, throughout eternity. This is the place where the glory of God, that “Shekinah Glory”, the Light of Christ, will shine upon all, revealing the fullness and truth of God to all.

Read Ephesians 4:11-14

And here, Paul gives us another list of five that, again, we need to discuss briefly. These positions are sometimes described as offices of the early church, but in truth, they continue to be descriptions of those who lead the Church of today. And we are told that their purpose as a whole is to build up the Body of Christ, not in a cursory way, but to lead all new believers to a mature faith and understanding in Jesus. But they also have a purpose in the lives of those who have attained a maturity in faith. They are to watch for heresy and deviation in the basic tenets of faith, and when Christian principles begin to deteriorate, each has a responsibility, within their own areas of ministry, to bring the Church back to Godly truth. So what are those areas?

Apostles – originally, were defined as those who had 1) experienced Jesus personally, and 2) could testify directly to Christ’s resurrection. Today, they are those who 1) have personally experienced the power of Christ at work in his or her own life, and 2) have come to know the power of Christ’s resurrection in the lives of all who surrender their lives to the ways of Jesus.

Prophets – are not actually fortune or future tellers, but more accurately, they proclaim the word of God as the consequences of both faithful and unfaithful living.

Evangelists – are preachers who proclaim Christ, but who are not held to one place or to one congregation.

Pastors – the word comes from the Latin word meaning “shepherd”. They care for the people in both their spiritual and human needs. They preach the gospel, and care for those under their care just as Jesus did for his.

Teachers – are those who teach the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to young and old alike.

And while there may seem to be some overlap in each of these ministries, each one is vitally important to the maturing and the faithfulness of the Church. For without them, the Light of Christ will dim in these lives, and as Paul writes in verse 14, “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.”

The Church must not only be walking in the Light of Christ, we must be living and proclaiming that Light in all that we do, regardless of what comes against us, and regardless of what the world is doing, this day, and always.

Amen.

“Live By the Blood”

Scripture: Romans 5:1-11

As we continue on our journey through Lent, we have been considering what it is about our faith that proclaims life in Christ above the life that we know within our human experience. Today, we take a look at the life that comes to us through faith in the Blood of Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament contains many references to sacrificial blood, and in Leviticus 17:10-11, we read that many people in the ancient nations consumed blood, but that Israel was forbidden from doing that. It was believed that the power of life was contained in the blood of both animals and conquered people. To defeat a more powerful enemy was a great victory, and some would consume the enemy’s blood, in the belief that they could gain even more power for themselves.

But the passage tells us that blood is not for eating, but rather for sacrifice on the altar to receive atonement for sin. In this context, the word “atone” refers to the act of substituting a sacrifice of a life’s blood to gain forgiveness for our transgressions against the Lord. A blood sacrifice, the giving of one life for the redemption of another, was so important for the people of Israel, that it was only to be used at the altar, and never within your own body. It was to be an offering to God, not to themselves.

In the Christian context, blood atonement has become a vitally important concept for believers, in that the blood of Jesus Christ was poured out on the Cross, as a sign that we might be forgiven for our sin. And this also points out the place of the Cross in our faith, in that it has now become our spiritual altar. This is the reason that Christian churches place crosses in our sanctuaries – it reminds us that salvation is about sacrifice, both that which Jesus accepted for our salvation, and that which we must accept in surrendering the life that disgraces God, in favor of the life that will bring honor to our Lord.

Faith in the power that the blood of Christ holds is our only hope for receiving forgiveness through atonement.

Read Romans 5:1-5

Without the atonement that comes to us by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, we remain unworthy to come into the presence of Almighty God. He is perfect, and we are not, and the two – perfection and sinfulness – cannot exist together. For Israel, this division was symbolized by the curtain in the temple. It separated human worship from the Holy of Holies – that place which represented God’s existence. The only one who was allowed to enter that space was the chief priest, and then only on the Day of Atonement after he had undergone extensive ritual cleansing. But by Christ’s great act at Calvary, as we read in Matthew 27:51-52, this curtain, this divide between God and us, was torn from top to bottom, opening the way for salvation by faith in the One who made it possible for all to become one with God once again.

As Paul writes, our justification, or rather our atonement through the power that comes by faith in the blood of Jesus, we receive the peace and grace and hope of our Glorious God. But as he continues, we discover that this does not include a life that is free of pain and struggle! As a matter of fact, he tells us that we should rejoice in the sufferings that the world brings against us – not that we should be happy at the prospect of pain and struggle, but because our God will be with us, and guiding us through whatever comes against our faith. Persecution, hatred, disbelief, loss of friendships and family, and on and on – these are what Satan will use to try to convince us that faith is useless, that it is worthless in this life, that it only tears us down and throws us out.

But Paul writes that our suffering, those pressures of life that come against us, in conjunction with our faith, all serve to teach us how to persevere against the attacks that will, inevitably, come. By trusting that the Lord will see us through the most difficult of circumstances, we can begin to see God’s light at the end of the world’s tunnel of darkness.
And when we can see the Light of Christ awaiting us, we realize that the Holy Spirit has been guiding us through the darkness of affliction, and will see us through to the completion of our journey. And as the struggles of life continue to try to close in around us, we become stronger, and faith continues to grow richer, and trust in the way of Christ will become our way, too.

Our Christian character, our Christian nature, slowly takes on the nature and character of Christ, and hope is restored to our life. Without faith, there is no rejoicing in our struggles; without rejoicing that God is with us, there is no standing against the attacks; without resistance to the ways of earth, our character will never be able to model the life of Christ; and without the life of Christ, there can never be hope for eternal life. And without living in the hope of Jesus Christ, the Spirit will never be able to fill us with the love of God.

Eternal life, with and through our Lord, hinges on our believing all that God has done for us through the life and blood of Jesus!

Read Romans 5:6-8

Until Calvary, humanity was lost. Life had no chance whatsoever of knowing anything about the love of God, or the life that awaits each and every one of us. We were totally unworthy and unaware of God’s presence - sin controlled our lives, and it had a death grip on our hearts. There was no hope at all, because the only blood sacrifice that we, or rather Israel, could manage had be made for each and every sin that was ever committed, and human intellect is incapable of remembering all of it. We were doomed.

But in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, in the rending of the separation that existed between us and the way of God, we were granted access to the way of faith. It isn’t because we had become perfect, it isn’t because we were suddenly worthy, and it definitely isn’t because we suddenly became righteous and Godly – it is simply because we are dearly loved by the Lord. And that is the hope that Paul was writing about – the hope that comes to us by faith - faith in the power that the Life Blood of Jesus holds for us.

At the Last Supper, when Jesus picked up the third cup of the Passover, the cup of Redemption, he proclaimed that this was no longer just a reminder of the events of Passover, but that it was a new covenant, created through the shedding of his blood, and offered to all by faith in him. And when he told them that they were to drink his blood, the blood of his new hope, they were appalled at the thought. Their Law had demanded that this practice be banned many centuries before. Of course his command wasn’t to be taken literally – it is a spiritual drink, a faith drink that is given for our forgiveness.

Christ’s blood atonement was given for us before we were worthy to receive it, and in place of our death in sin, we have been offered life in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Read Romans 5:9-11

Faith is still at work in Paul’s letter, when we read that it was by God’s act at Calvary, through the shedding of divine blood, that even though we are still far from being perfect, we now have a means to pass through the vail of sin and death, the wall that we can never breach on our own, the barrier that separates us from our Gracious God, and know the love and life of eternity. The agonizing blood sacrifice that Christ endured is our only hope for the Lord’s gift, but we still must choose to take the step of faith which carries us beyond the penalty for our failure to live a Godly life. But there was still more that had to be done.

His death was the means of our reconciliation, our restoration, our reuniting with God. But we have to remember that in Jesus’ death, his body was relegated to the tomb of earth. Life was still missing on that Friday before Easter, but it was soon to reappear in a glorious, abrupt, mysterious, and shocking way. While the blood gained us a path to righteousness, the resurrection that left the tomb of death empty, is our path to eternal life. And the hope that each brings to our life hinges solely on whether we believe the truth and power of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, or not.

So the choice is before us – do we continue to live as “enemies” of God, simply because of the life we lead and our refusal to accept the atonement that Jesus created for us, or do we surrender our dependency on what we can never accomplish on our own, and claim the Life Blood of Jesus as our only hope?

The choice shouldn’t be all that difficult, but apparently it is for many! May it never be so for us.

“Live Faith, Not Law”

Scripture: Romans 4:1-8, 13-17


Today, we continue in our Lenten series on living for Jesus by claiming the good things he brings to our lives, and letting other things, those things that aren’t of him, go. Today, we claim faith in Christ, and release the hold that legalism has on us.

There are so many people in this world who still believe that their “good works” will bring them the reward of heaven. In fact, every major religion in the world, with the exception of Christianity, offers this hope – that living the good and right life is all that we need to strive for. Help other people in their needs, love them right where they are in life, support charities which are active in meeting cultural necessities, be nice to others, and celebrating other such opportunities. Israel had those same types of laws for their nation, presumably because Jehovah God demanded it.

But the truth is that the Lord only gave them a few laws – the 10 commandments in Exodus 20:1-17, the Shema in Deuteronomy 6:4-8, and possibly a couple more, but the countless laws that Israel would receive over the centuries were actually interpretations that the Hebrew leadership developed to define what was required if God’s word was to be obeyed. It was all by human intention, not divine inspiration.

So to correct these misconceptions, Jesus came to earth, to reestablish Godly will and word in our lives. But the world had endured the law for so many years, and through so many different understandings, that it had become “truth”, and Jesus’ words were seen as blasphemy. But even though he was condemned as a heretic, it in no way proves that his life was a lie.

But how do we know? What does God’s word in scripture say about the life we are to live?

Read Romans 4:1-3

The problem with the law is described in the previous chapter – Romans 3:22-24 – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Perfect adherence to the law would proclaim the glory, but unfortunately, we are totally incapable of perfection, unless the law is watered down to the point that anyone could live it. But if that were the case, the law itself would become impotent and worthless to God.

But when God made his covenant with Abram, there was no law, and while this meant that there was no violation, it also meant there was no standard for perfection. So why would the Lord choose this man to have a relationship with, instead of with others? In Genesis 17:1-7, we discover that the Lord told the man that if he walked before him “faithfully and blameless”, the divine promise that Abram would be the father of many nations would be upon him, that his name would become Abraham, and that the covenant would extend to all of his descendants.

But how would Abraham walk faithfully and blameless if there was no law to guide him? It would have to be by following God’s commands when they were given! And faith, his trust in the word that God gave him, would be the source of his “justification”, not the blameless life he lived. Blamelessness, our obedience to the Lord’s word, comes not by our efforts, but by faith. It’s that old mantra – “Which came first …?” With the Lord, the first thing must always be faith.

Read Romans 4:4-8

In his passage, Paul’s reference to work and wages has nothing to do with the compensation that we receive for our daily jobs – but it has everything to do with our good works and any reward that we might expect for those efforts. And we read that the reward for our good deeds is not God’s gift to us, but rather we receive whatever we deserve, whatever we have earned through our works. And since our efforts always fall short of what God would have us do, our reward for our own goodness will never, can never, be his gift of eternal life.

Forgiveness, worthiness, grace, wisdom, victory, righteousness – these all come to those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior, and none of them will ever come to those who depend on their own good works! It’s what God has, will, and can do for us, not what we decide to do for God. For Israel, even though God had told them that he simply wanted their trust and obedience, they had never lived like this before. The Law of Moses was all about the things they did – the vast number of sacrifices that were required for every indiscretion or blessing, the law that defined how to observe Sabbath, the who and what and how to love, who they should pray for, and who to offer blessings to, and on and on and on. The Law was supposed to lead the people into Jehovah God’s will and way, but all that they did was to make faith totally impossible.

To Abraham’s credit and benefit, he had no law to follow – he only had faith and trust as a means to show honor to his God, he believed that God knew best and that he never made a mistake, he had confidence that God would always work to his benefit and blessing, and the truth is that this was all that the Lord ever wanted in the first place!

But legalism still reigns in the lives of many, even many who are in the Church. But the problem is that God’s definition of “Goodness” is doing those things that he calls each one of us to do, instead of the good works that are solely by our own means, by our own way, by our own description.

Read Romans 4:13-15

The Jewish attempt at living a Godly life through their own efforts, by doing the “right” things, by working to gain the Lord’s blessing, by earning righteousness, was a total failure. This is why Paul writes that “For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath.” Why does the law bring wrath? Because the law is impossible to keep, and is based in judgment and condemnation, while faith is God’s to give to all who will accept it, and is based in love, trust and forgiveness – none of which exist in the law.

Unfortunately, there are far too many people today who see God as vindictive, hateful, punitive, angry, and never come to the realization that they are loved infinitely and eternally by the very same God who they see as condemning! That’s what living by the law does for us – it tears us away from our Lord.

When obedience takes first place in our lives, faith never has a chance to flourish. But when faith in Christ becomes our focus, love of God will thrive through the life and presence of Jesus, and obedience to his teaching becomes a desirable aspect of this life.

Read Romans 4:16-17

Think back to the Garden of Eden. The “first couple” had it made. A beautiful garden for their home, a bounty to sustain them, God’s friendship, the perfect existence without any need of labor of their own, and a life unlike anything that they could have created for themselves. Until, that is, they decided that they could make life even better through their own decision! And what happened? They lost it all (Genesis 3).

The Lord’ covenant, his promise of righteousness, his gift of life through him, comes to us by faith in Jesus Christ. And faith is the only way to know the goodness of God. Remember Jesus’ words in John 15:6 – “If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.”

Life comes to us only through faith in Jesus; death only exists outside of him. And there is no middle ground. Choose Jesus and live!

“I Have Some Good News and Some Bad News!” (A Lenten Evening Worship Message)

Scripture: Luke 14:25-35

Many years ago, there was a farmer who was considered rich by the people in his village because he owned a horse. One day, the horse ran away, and the villagers said to the farmer: "How unfortunate your horse ran away." And the farmer said, "How do you know it's unfortunate?"
And his friends didn’t understand!
The next day, the horse returned bringing with it a wild horse, thereby making the farmer even richer. The villagers exclaimed, "How fortunate." The farmer again said, "How do you know it's fortunate?"
And his friends didn’t understand!
The following day, the farmer's son, while trying to tame the wild horse, was thrown from the horse, breaking his leg. The villagers commented, "How unfortunate." And once again the farmer said, "How do you know it's unfortunate?"
And his friends didn’t understand!
The following day, the king's men rode through the village and took all the young men for the king's army. But they didn't take the farmer's son because of his broken leg.
And his friends began to understand!

The moral of the story is that one person’s good news may very well be another person’s bad news, and vice versa!! And even for ourselves, that which may seem impossible or way too strange, or totally undesirable can look like “bad news”, but when it’s the Lord who is sending that news, we need to remember what Isaiah 55:8-9 tells us – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Even when we know, without a doubt, that the news is not to our benefit, God’s plan and his call will always be the best we will ever hear!

Read Luke 14:25-27

This is the first of our “good news, bad news” for this evening. Bad News – we have to hate our family if we are to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? That doesn’t make much sense – after all, doesn’t one of the Ten Commandments tell us that we are to “honor our father and mother” (Exodus 20:12)? Why would Jesus want us to hate them?

The Good News is that the literal interpretation of these words is not what Jesus wants us to know. For Israel, family was everything – it was your name, your identity, your life, your worth, your past and present and future. Family was everything, and they were seen as being the foremost people in your entire life. Above all others, they were your number one influence and commitment.

In telling us that we must hate our family if we wish to become one with Jesus, he is saying that they can no longer be our number one, we have to surrender everything about this life, and begin living in him. The Lord is to be our identity, our worth, our present and future, and that we are to take on his name – the name of Christian. Our earthly family can no longer hold first place in our life.

Our New life in Jesus, and setting aside the priorities that we had in our worldly life, are both the Good News AND the Bad!

The second of our “good news, bad news” is that we have to pick up our own cross and follow the way of Jesus. The Bad news is that we just might have to suffer death, just as Jesus did. But again, the Good News is that while some may suffer death in the name of Jesus, that isn’t exactly what each of us will experience. What Jesus wants us to understand is that a life in him will be anything BUT a “cake walk”. There will be opposition, there will be conflict, there will be those times when lifelong friends, as well as family, will decide that they can no longer be with us.

Our walk with Christ, along with letting our previous contentment go, is both the Good News and the Bad – change is never easy, but when we are changed through a life in Christ, the past no longer matters – not our strengths, not our weaknesses, and not even our sin.

Read Luke 14:28-31

The third is that before we take one step with Christ, we need to understand what it will mean for our life. Obviously, the Lord isn’t suggesting that we build some kind of tower, but he is saying that we are to prepare and understand what a life in him will entail.

The Bad News is that all that we had ever depended upon can no longer be part of our life. Our abilities, our experiences, our strengths, our accomplishments can no longer help us or encourage us, because life will be totally new. But the Good News is that in our new life with Christ, we will have the Holy Spirit providing all of the support, all of the authority, all of the power that we will ever need.

The Bad News is that the familiarity that had always comforted us will no longer work to our advantage. The Good News is that we will never need that kind of help again.

The Good News and the Bad News is that by faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord will be making all things new for us. We just have to trust it.

Read Luke 14:32-33

The fourth is that surrender will be the most difficult part of gaining faith in Jesus. Remember Isaiah 55:9? This “Good News, Bad News” is all Good News! That we will be giving up our limited abilities and understandings, and in return, will be able to depend upon the higher and greater ways of the Divine, which will enable us to do far greater things in the name of our Lord.

But giving up the old ways and dependencies will never be easy, and may very well be the most trying aspect in our new understanding of life. But not for long, for as the power of God begins to work within and through us, we will soon realize that this will be the Good News of our eternity.

Read Luke 14:34-35

The fifth, and last, of our Good News / Bad News is this confusing saying about salt. After all, how in the world can salt loose its saltiness? The truth is that I can only think of one way – if it was diluted to the point that the salt is undetectable. And again, Jesus isn’t actually talking about salt – he is warning us about the depth, or rather shallowness, of our faith.

All too often, faith becomes “diluted” by our dependency on the world’s ways. If faith remains shallow and nearly undetectable by those we come in contact with, what good is it? In Revelation 3:16-17, in the Lord’s words to the Church in Laodicea, we read “So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” That sounds like the ultimate in being relegated to the manure pile!

These five warning for our life in Christ, our discipleship, have struck a chord for me. Let me take just a moment for each one, and share how they have applied n my own life.

First, that I had to “hate” my previous life. For years, I had prayed that God would reveal his desires for my life, so that I could go and do it for him. The problem with this attitude, was that “I would do it”. Since those days, I have discovered that it isn’t that we are to do anything grand for God – in my case, the only thing he wanted me to do is to Trust Him. After that bit of revelation, and after I had received my new identity in Christ, the Bad News got a whole lot Better!

Second, it wasn’t that I would be directly persecuted or oppressed in any overt way, and I wouldn’t have to face death because of my love of Jesus. It was my dependence on my own intellect, my own abilities, my own understanding that would have to die. I must confess that it isn’t quite dead yet, but it is wavering between being on critical life support, and Satan’s resuscitation. But faith in Jesus continues to encourage me in his New Life, and less and less in my old one.

Third, at first, I thought that my new life in the Lord was just a great relief from my past, but as time went on, I discovered that he had more and more that I had to give up, and more and more that he wanted me to claim. First, he called me to a nursing home to lead worship once a month, a calling that has now grown to worship at 5 additional nursing homes. Once I was fairly comfortable with that, he gave me an invitation to join a ministry team at Waymart prison – a place that I had tried my entire life to stay out of! But when I grudgingly went, I discovered that the Holy Spirit was already at work there, and that I was there to watch and help and learn. And of course, that led to pastoral ministry, which I truly believe has yet to reach maturity.


Fourth, by that time, surrender was becoming a way of life, and each time he calls, and each time I have to give something else up, it has been getting easier and easier. It isn’t second nature yet, but we’re getting closer.

And the fifth, my saltiness for the Lord, has been gaining in strength and intensity with every passing day, and with every opportunity to walk closer to him.

Christ’s passion for me and for all people throughout the earth, has been having that kind of effect on my life, and I fully expect that my Lord and Savior will continue to strengthen me and improve my focus on what and who he would have me be.

Glory to God, all praise to my Living Lord, this day and for the rest of my life. Amen and Amen.

“Live and Let Die”

Scripture: Romans 5:12-21

As we approach Easter, we are filled with a mix of emotions. On the day that Jesus entered the City of Jerusalem, the streets were lined with people who were straining to catch a glimpse of the celebrated Rabbi. There were thunderous shouts of praise and adoration, but there were others who wanted nothing less than to end his “blasphemous” teaching. That final week of Jesus’ humanity would be fraught with contradictions and conspiracies, and yet, they all played directly into the Plan that had been in place since before time began.

But what about that Plan? If God had really put it together, why did it have to include all that animosity and arrogance and vile rhetoric? Why did he have to allow so much unbelief and pain and death? Couldn’t there have been a much more direct, and far less brutal way to show us how much we were loved?

Apparently not! If there had been, wouldn’t our all-knowing God have done it that way? Of course he would!
But would we have accepted it? Would we have believed it? Probably not!

But why? Why wouldn’t we believe without Jesus having to suffer and die before he returned to his glory?

Read Romans 5:12-14

Sin is not a collective event – sin is individual. Our sin can never be blamed on the actions or teaching of others – it is by our own, personal decision. Sin is not inherited from our parents, sin is not genetic, sin is not God’s fault – it is ours, and we have to deal with our own failures.

We sometimes understand this passage to mean that we sin because Adam sinned – that it is his fault, not ours! That “first man” had as much free will as we do, and until the temptation of Satan, in the form of the serpent, he never knew that any other life existed except that which he had with God. And when he came to the realization that he could choose between that which God had told him, and what Satan was offering him, he took the more interesting path, he took the easy way out.

It isn’t so much that Adam sinned first, it’s just that he was the first to uncover the problem with “choice”! If the only way we knew was the way of our Almighty God, we would never have to decide between the ways of earth and the way of the Lord, either. IF – and that’s a huge if - because this “IF” doesn’t exist anymore. It isn’t so much that sin has entered the world, it’s that the temptation to go against the Divine Way has become as integral a part of our lives, as God’s perfect way has. But only one of those ways can exist within us at any given moment.

The second part of this passage speaks about death, and we have to wonder what Adam’s life would have been like if he had resisted the serpent’s suggestion, that if he ate the forbidden fruit, he would understand all that God did!
And we have to wonder just why those two unique trees (the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the tree of life) were in the Garden in the first place? Were they there to cause death? If creation wasn’t supposed to enjoy them, what was their purpose?

We aren’t actually told, until later – that these trees would be an integral part of eternity. The Tree of Knowledge became ours in the Garden, but it would come to us again in the form of Jesus Christ, who brought the full truth of God to our lives so that we could choose wisely between good and evil. The Tree of Life – it also existed at creation (Genesis 2:8-9), but we weren’t to enjoy it’s nourishment until Christ returned and the Judgment was complete, as it will provide all of the food that the saved will ever need (Revelation 2:7 and Revelation 22:1-2), with its production of a different harvest every month.

And without the Tree of Life that exists solely in the Garden of God, only death could prevail over us. But Jesus Christ has become our Life, and with him, death is defeated now and for eternity. But why, you may ask, why Jesus?

Read Romans 5:15-17

The penalty for our sin is, obviously, death. By Adam’s sin, we have come to know the difference between God’s goodness and the world’s evil, and still we prefer the world’s temporary pleasures over the eternal joy of the Lord. Death has become our choice.

But God’s plan for creation was that we, those who alone were created in his image (Genesis 1:26-27), would live with him in eternity! But how could he live with those who denied the relationship that he had created for us? He can’t, so somehow, the relationship had to be reestablished, and the life that the Lord had planned for us had to be restored.
Unfortunately, we are incapable of ever accomplishing that on our own! As long as the world’s attraction is before us, as long as the only visible life we know is that which is in the world, as long as our only knowledge of God is limited to the story of Adam walking with the Creator in the beauty of his Garden, we will continue to make poor choices for our life, and death will continue to be our legacy.

But since the penalty for all who sin and ignore the goodness of God is death, only death can satisfy the sin, and without Jesus, we are trapped in our own choices. Since the sin of humanity demands death, and since Jesus was the only man who was without sin, his Godliness would take on our sin, and his humanity would pay the penalty that we so richly deserve. Only human death could satisfy the sin, and only the grace of God could provide the forgiveness. And it is only by faith and trust in Jesus and his teaching that we will ever know the righteous life.

Read Romans 5:18-21

“so grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” I think the main point that Paul was trying to make is that it was sin that brought death into the world, and it was by the death that Christ suffered that made righteousness available to us. But once again, the problem that we are forced to deal with is that, once more, we have to make a choice – a choice between faith in the life that Jesus calls us to live, and the life that we are constantly being exposed to in the world! And there are still so many in this world who continue to choose poorly.

Faith in Jesus Christ doesn’t mean that we suddenly live the perfect life, that we no longer make those choices that result in sin. What faith actually does for us, though, is to make us aware of whether our life’s decisions are for the good, or for the evil, and it reminds us of what we have learned from Jesus, about how our choices are important for a relationship with him. And in those times that we still fail, it is by faith that we can go to the Lord, to seek his strength and forgiveness, and trust that he will make our life right again.

As we begin this season of Lent, we are called to be in a time of reflection, to consider the ways we live, to examine the depth of our faith in Jesus, of whether we are walking and serving and loving in his way, and what we need to do to live closer to the life that God has laid out for us.

But how are we ever going to know what the Lord wants from us, how will we learn what he would have us give up, and what he would have us add? And in the context of our passage for today, what is there in those decisions that we have made, that we should let go of and condemn to death, and what is there of Jesus that we should be adding to our life?

We need to return to the spiritual disciplines that John Wesley celebrated. In the book written by Dr. Henry Knight, “The Presence of God in the Christian Life: John Wesley and the Means of Grace” he lists 9 disciplines that helped John stay focused on his life and service with Christ. The list includes:
- Prayer
- Fasting
- Journaling (keeping a record of both your Christian experiences and failures)
- Solitude (finding a quiet and private place to reflect on your faith)
- Silence (using a time of quiet to listen for what the Lord wants us to know)
- Bible Reading, or study
- “Feeding” the Poor – service
- “Christian Conferencing” (spending time in sharing your faith through fellowship and conversation with other Christians)

During Lent, I want to encourage each of us to choose 1 or 2, or maybe even more of the above, and faithfully engage in them each day. By Easter morning, I believe that we will have discovered some of the things that Jesus would have us surrender to death, and other ways that he would have us begin to live within. These disciplines are never intended to be a burden, but rather as a means to draw closer to our Almighty God.

May you be richly blessed during this Lent!