The Reward of Obedience

At New Day we often talk about wanting ‘more’ of God. What we mean is that we desire to know God better, to have more intimacy and passion for God. We want to taste and see his presence in our lives. And having more of God in our lives is an increase in the attributes of the Kingdom in our lives:  more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control.

Pursuing more of God is a movement that we make towards God. God is always good, and he is ready and willing to pour out another wave of his love into us. He is always ready to give us more of himself. But, how do we make this move? How do we open ourselves up to the more that the Father desires to give us?

We move towards more through obedience: obedience to the voice of God. In Genesis 22, Abraham is tested by God. Having previously given Abraham some incredible promises (see Gen. 15), God says, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love…and sacrifice him as a burnt offering” (22:2).

Abraham has a choice to make. Will he hold on to the thing he loves more than anything on the planet, or will he hold fast to God? Abraham chooses to trust God and is willing to do what was asked of him. At that moment an angel stops him and provides a replacement sacrifice, and the Lord says, “Because you have done this, I will surely bless you.”

I believe that Abraham could have said no and he would have still been loved by God and blessed to a certain level, but God was inviting him into the fullness of his destiny. He was inviting him into more.

You have a promise and a destiny as well. There is more available for you. You can stay where you are and receive the benefits of God in your current location. Or you can go deeper through obedience and step into the fullness of what is God inviting you into. What is the Father inviting you into? What is he asking you to sacrifice? What can you surrender so that you can receive more of him?

Why Church?

Really, why church, anyway? Of all the ways that God could reach the world, He picks a group of mostly dysfunctional, often grumpy, imperfect, divided, self-obsessed, uptight, and otherwise messed up people!?! (Not New Day of course, we’re all perfect. I’m referring to the “other” churches ;-)

“For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. 1 Cor. 1:26-29.

Paul explains, “God's purpose in all this was to use the church to display His wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was His eternal plan, which He carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.” Eph 3:9-11

WOW. Do you see what God is telling us? We, the church, was His plan from the beginning. Some people say this isn’t talking about church as we know it, but the ideal church, or the first century church. Some think we’ve made such a mess of things, we are no longer qualified. God has given up on the church. What rubbish! The church was never perfect. Just like the Hebrew nation in the Old Testament. We are a work in progress. God designed it that way so that no one should ever be fooled into putting their faith or confidence in people. Our faith is in Jesus. But He is describes as “The head of the Church” Col 1:8. Anyone who wants Jesus without the church is worshipping a disembodied head… yuck. 

It’s a package deal folks. And that means every one of us gets to be part of Jesus’ body, the church, and fulfill the mysterious plan of God by communicating the gospel through broken clay vessels.

Impression Management & The Practice of Secrecy

If you take notice, a certain amount of what you say can be categorized as impression management. For instance, we may tell someone about a show we were watching, and start with the disclaimer, "I don’t usually watch TV, but the other night. . ." Or, we may have bought something nice for ourselves and find it necessary to explain to a friend (who didn't ask) "Oh, I only got it because it was on sale. I usually don't …"

Why do we do this? How much we watch TV has nothing to do with what you were going to say, and your friend wasn't asking how much that thing cost. We do it because we want to make sure the other person is thinking about us the way we want to be thought about. We want to manage our impression so that we're seen in the best possible light.

Jesus shows us a better way.

Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven… When you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. (Matt. 6:1, 3-4 NASB)

Here's my exhortation: fast from image management & practice doing secret acts of love, generosity, and kindness. . . and don't tell anyone. 

As author and pastor John Ortberg puts it, "the practice of secrecy exists to liberate those who are trapped by a desire "to be seen." 

There is a reward that we forfeit when we do things "to be seen", and there is a reward that we gain by doing good work in secret. We can give up trying to control what others think of us. We can embrace a life of unrecognized love & good deeds. I pray we choose the better way. 

Don't Quit Your Day Job

Consider this: God's loving care for you comes to you largely through the labor of others. The chair you sit in, the car you drive, the food you eat. You did not make any of it. Instead, God created the raw materials, and people other than yourself took those raw materials and made something of them. Whether they realize it or not, through their work, however glorious or monotonous, God is loving you. 

Seen the other way around, one of the primary ways that God's love is expressed through you is through your work. Not just when you mention Jesus. Not just when your work is overtly Christian. And not just on the days when you pray without ceasing. No, simply by doing good and honorable work, God loves people through you. This is common grace - God's benevolent hand sustaining his creation whether we realize it or not. 

Here's why this is important: Often, Christians can fall into the dualism of thinking that their work only counts for God and pleases Christ if it is explicitly Christian, as if God was left delegated to a church gathering or confined to an ichthys symbol. Another, more insidious dimension of dualism is found when Christians only think of themselves as Christians within Church activities; that their Christian life is what they do on Sundays and maybe a weeknight group, but the rest of the week is theirs, to do with as they wish, uncritically accepting and living into their culture's underlying values & idolatries of individualism (it's all about me), materialism (I matter because of what I own), and so on. 

However, God is inviting us into a wholly integrated Christianity that tears down this sacred / secular divide; where we see Him not as the first of many items to check off on a list, but as the hub on the wheel that is our lives. It’s time to shed the residual guilt many of us carry around with us from day to day, that feels bad because we enjoy our work and don’t see how God’s connected to it, or that says "you should quit your day job and do something that really matters to God." 

What you do (everyday) matters to God. Don’t quit your day job. Shed the residual guilt and do good work. Perhaps you’ll see that God was there all along. 

This is obviously a much bigger conversation. Come to the Redeeming Work Seminar this Saturday, June 8th at New Day Nichols to hear more! $15 - includes lunch. Register at http://bit.ly/RedeemingWork2019 

Renewed Easter Awe

For many of us, we've heard the beautiful story of Easter year after year. God gifted his precious son to die in our place, be raised from the dead, and provided a way for us to have our sins forgiven and restore relationship with Heavenly Father. It's absolutely wonderful! 

This year I'm pondering how wild this circumstance was and how it might have felt to experience it for the first time over 2,000 years ago. As I pondered, I was inspired to write a poem.

May you reflect upon Easter with renewed awe along with me...

No one could have imagined it.
No one could have fathomed it.
No one could have dreamed up such a harsh, audacious plan.
How about the God Of Heaven come and die for man?
How shocking and unthinkable such an ask would be!
No human would have thought up such absurdity.
King of Kings please leave your throne, come live here as a man!
Live a completely sinless life, cause we need a spotless lamb.
Then die the most agonizing, painful, bloody way,
With the weight of every sin upon you alone to pay.
After torture of the cross brings your life here to an end,
Confusion and deepest sorrow consuming every friend,
Being placed inside a tomb won't complete your story,
God will resurrect you, alive again in glory!
Jesus, would you do that, pay the consequence for sin?
Then we could all be close to you, healed, forgiven.
Yes, that plan sounds great to me.
Are you up for it, God Almighty?

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.”1 John 4:16

You see, only God, who is love, could have dreamed up this harsh, audacious plan.
Love knew it was the only way that would work to rescue us. So Love dreamed it up and did it! That’s Easter!

A Theology for Adversity

Something goes wrong...something tough happens...the good thing we were expecting doesn’t work out. What then? Do we say, “God abandoned me.” “God didn’t answer my prayer.” “God must not be good.” If these are our responses to trouble, there’s a good chance we are lacking a theology for adversity. 

I can relate to these feelings of confusion and I believe every Christian needs to grapple with this issue and come to a resolution regarding facing adversity. The sooner we do this in our Christian walks the better! 

God never promised a trouble-free life. In fact Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble but take heart, I have overcome the world.” John 16:33. Because God is so masterful at turning every situation into good, we can mistakenly assume he initiated the circumstances. But remember, God is good. It’s the devil that’s bad. If something bad happens, somehow the devil is connected. God doesn’t sin or cause people to sin. We experience evil things as a result of living in a world under the influence of sin and the painful consequences sin causes. Remember Jesus explained, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10. We’ve got to have it straight where it’s coming from. 

I recently heard John Arnott talk on this topic and was moved by his perspective: Have you noticed how every Bible character had trouble? We often admire the anointing of these heroes of faith, but forget what they went through to get there. They overcame and if we are to be overcomers, we’ll have to overcome some things. As long as our faith remains and we keep pressing in and don’t give up, everything will turn out alright. God is the great reverser when we keep pressing in. 

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them all.” Psalm 34:19

Life is full of setbacks and challenges so when something goes wrong we must hang on, be steady, and trust even when it doesn’t make sense. The devil is hoping you’ll cave and agree with him, not The Comforter

God allows a lot of things. He allows free will. One day He will intervene and say, “ENOUGH”! Meanwhile, don’t blame him for what the enemy did through people. Instead respond to adversity with faith in a good God who will see you through, love you, comfort you and heal you. Bless you Church!

The Power of Truth

Two weeks ago during the sermon about the Parable of the Yeast I told a story about our dog - Moo Moo. This 8 year old coonhound-labrador mix is having a crisis of belief. 

We moved into our new home a year ago - a home with an amazing backyard. We immediately set up an underground dog fence system. The borders of this fence allow Moo Moo room to play in the grassy backyard and in a wooded area beyond that. In terms of suburban dog living - this is the cream of the crop. Our design and plan for his life is really good. 

The only problem for Moo Moo is that his belief system does not match up with reality. From the beginning he was convinced that the wooded area is outside his boundary. Then several weeks ago something changed. Now he believes something bad will happen if he goes out into the grass. So he stops at the edge of the brick patio and won’t go any further. Usually he just stays up on the deck looking down at the yard but not enjoying it. 

It is so sad that Moo Moo is not partaking of the good things we have given him. And all because of a belief system misalignment! But isn’t the same true with us humans?!? God has designed for us a way of living that is gracious, abundant, and meets our every need. But we so often don’t enjoy his goodness due to a misalignment of beliefs. We have believed a lie or failed to see the truth.

Jesus said if you hold to his teachings “...you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." [John 8:32]

My encouragement to you is to leverage the Kingdom Parables sermon series and Life Groups to take hold of the truth and experience the abundant life God designed for you. He wants you to enjoy the whole yard!

The Fresh Air of Forgiveness

Spring flirts with us this time of year. Winter one day, spring the next. On one glorious, warm day recently, I was inspired to fling open the windows and let fresh air into my house. As the new air blew in, I felt encouraged by the Lord to apply this principle to our spiritual lives in the area of forgiveness.

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Colossians 3:13 NIV

We are motivated and commanded to forgive because of Christ’s example of extravagant forgiveness towards us. In the course of normal life, people hurt us, and after awhile, the air in our hearts can become stagnant with unforgiveness. 

I was recently offended by someone. My husband, Bill, was present during the encounter and did not notice the offense. I later told him my perspective and he soon became as offended as I was. We soon realized our need to forgive, so we followed the Healing & Restoration forgiveness prayer. We acknowledged our hurt before the Lord, forgave the person who hurt us, repented for holding onto unforgiveness, and listened as God spoke healing truth to us. We felt great afterwards!

Can you relate to Bill in that story? I was offended and Bill took on a secondary offense. A secondary offense happens when someone takes on unforgiveness after hearing secondhand how someone else was wronged. 

They are very common and require just as much attention as firsthand offenses. When we choose to forgive someone it doesn’t mean that what they did was okay. It simply means we no longer hold that offense against them anymore. Anything they owed us is between them and God. We are free to move on from the hurt to the life God intends for us.

Let’s take time this week and evaluate the space in our hearts. Spring is the perfect time to fling open the window of our hearts and let forgiveness in as we say goodbye to the stale air of unforgiveness. Bless you!