Love Lived Out

With Valentine's day this week, I've been thinking about a love that is so much more than easily spoken words or roses or candy hearts. We need to keep this in mind - that the cross of Christ is the greatest manifestation of love this world has ever seen. His blood was poured out for us. As Jesus said, "greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." I've been challenged to contrast that with my own life, because I know I'm not living that way.

I was just listening to part of a message by Francis Chan the other day, in which he said something about the fact that our generation is getting some of the best, most biblical teaching that has been around for a long time. He was concerned with our propensity to respond with "Wow, that was such a convicting message!" But as to what we're going to do about it? "Well, I'm going to go back tomorrow and hear another one!"

His point was so convicting for me. And yes, I realize the irony of that statement. Wow, yeah, another great biblical, moving, convicting sermon... but, uh, what am I going to do about it?

You see, I'm getting tired of this lukewarm Christianity that I so often see creeping into my life, and the lives of so many others in this generation who profess Christ. As Francis Chan said, we will face a greater judgment because we have been exposed to greater truth.

Jesus talked about that kind of judgment in Matt 11:21-24, when He says it would be more tolerable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for the cities which witnessed the living truth of Christ himself. In Luke 12:48b, Jesus warned that "From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." I, and probably most who read this, have seen and heard much about Jesus. We've listened to compelling sermons, attended Bible studies, accepted sound doctrine, and probably read our Bibles daily. But have we believed? Have we sold ourselves out to this truth we claim? Our spiritually rich environment is only magnifying the judgment if we fail to produce fruit in keeping with repentance.

So what's stopping us? What's stopping me? Fear. Fear of failure, of rejection, of discomfort, of embarrassment. But God says perfect love casts out all fear! If we truly love Him, this will radically alter our lives. 1 John 2:3-6,9-11 states this clearly,

"We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.

Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar,

 and the truth is not in that person. 

But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. 

This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did...

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.  

Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, 

and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 

But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. 

They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them."

Are we blinded by darkness? I have to think of the many times I've bought new clothes to put in my overflowing closet, when so many families don't have shoes to wear, or the times I've overeaten when millions don't know where their next meal is coming from. I can't help but think of the many times I've kept my mouth shut when I could have proclaimed Christ. I think of the times I've clung to my pride rather than asking for forgiveness. I fail at this daily, but oh how I want to give as God has given to me! By His grace, I can see Him beginning to work this in my life, though it is a slow and painful process.

I think the reason we'd rather go to a convicting message than actually live it out is that real life is hard. It feels really good to have all the right knowledge, to be able to spout it off in "Christian" settings - but when we're at the place where the rubber meets the road, we can no longer depend on ourselves or our own knowledge. It is the power of the Spirit who works in us when we step out in faith, and He produces that supernatural fruit in us. I think of the scripture in Jude 1:12 that warns about those who are like "autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted - twice dead."

I've been reading in James lately, and was so convicted by these verses...

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,' but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (James 2:14-17)

Which reminded me of this song - which is what I'll end this post with - "Asleep in the Light" by Keith Green. Another convicting tidbit - but I'm praying that this wouldn't just end with a feeling of conviction, but would truly get us on our knees, seeking the Lord for how to live out the grace He's given us in Christ Jesus!

A Downhere Kind of Day

It's a beautiful day today. A turkey-sandwich-and-chocolate-milk kind of day. Peanut butter chocolate chip cookie for dessert? Sure, why not!  I'm looking out my window as the green turns to orange in the trees and the wispy blue sky continues to turn above me.  I love these stay-at-home days.  I just bought Downhere's album "The Altar of Love" and I'm listening to it as I'm researching my History essay. Good stuff. It's a Downhere kind of day.

Center Stage

I'm always so encouraged when I find music that is truly Christ-centered and biblically sound... even in the so-called Christian music industry, this is seldom the case.  I recently discovered Jimmy Needham, an artist who is intent on making Christ famous.  I enjoyed playing some of his tunes today while running my brother and I to music lessons.  The air conditioning wasn't working, so the other drivers got to hear some truth through our open car windows. ;)  Sure beats a lot of the offensive stuff we hear on the streets in the summertime!

I'm really enjoying the album Nightlights, because it has so much variety... each of the tracks has its own blend of styles.  I love the lyrics in "Grace Amazing".  I'm not sure if I've ever heard a song that puts the words of Ephesians 2:1-5 so plainly... "you were dead in your trespasses and sins".  Jimmy Needham wrote a blog post about the song, and I'd highly recommend reading it (here) and listening to the song - it truly is refreshing and powerful to hear that marvelous gospel truth of God's grace, without all the "fuzzy stuff".  "Part the Clouds" is another song that has some really solid lyrics.

This living water will not quench us
If it's watered down
It's not our place to hide again
This treasure that we've found

We might as well just fold our hands
If we can't call a spade a spade
Cuz we will miss the heart each time
If we won't ever shoot them straight
These pleasantries shading me and you too
Let's part the clouds

And show the world the Son

Anyways, the music may or may not be your style, but I'm enjoying it, and I'm thanking God, who in His grace has raised up servants to speak truth in this dark world.  Needham himself has said, "the most dangerous place for the human heart is on stage".  I pray that ambassadors for Christ who have been called to that position would seek to bring God glory and not themselves.

This poem is the last track on the album Nightlights, and I think it has the power to convict each one of us of our infatuation with self.  May God alone receive the glory!  He needs to take center stage - we're just the stage hands, who are called to shine our "nightlights" to point to the blazing Son.

Be Thou exalted over my reputation

‘Cause applause is a poor form of soul medication

And I’ve tried it for years but my symptoms remain

Still fretting the day that they’ll misplace my name

Still selling my soul for American fame

Treating the promotion of Jesus like a well oiled machine

Advancing His kingdom just to snag some acclaim

Now, I’m both comforted and haunted that it isn’t just me though

I see a nation of people needing to feed their own egos

Parading status like steeples

Do we not know it’s evil to love ourselves more than both God and His people?

But see, here’s where you turn this poem on it’s head

‘Cause the greatest among us came as servant instead

And You humbled Yourself to the point of Your death

Apparently love for the Father’s glory runs red

So friends, will we point to the Son till our own flames grow dim?

Will our bright lights become merely nightlights near Him?

Words echoed once, let them echo again

Be Thou exalted over my reputation

Christmas Melodies

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He would give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

For many, Christmas is all about warm fuzzy feelings. It's about being with family and having "chestnuts roasted o'er an open fire".  We dream of a white Christmas, remembering the times of old.  These things are not inherently bad, but for Christians this should not be the focus of our the holiday.  True, Christ was probably not born on December 25th, but we remember Jesus' birth for a reason- so that we would not become caught up in a "winter wonderland" but in the "wonders of His love".  We should focus, this season and every season, on the gift of God who sent Christ to the world, coming in the likeness of sinful flesh, to save us.  He came as the perfect, spotless lamb of God, to carry our sins upon him and wash them away with his blood.  We are unworthy of the gift of His life! Oh so unworthy!  But he came to us, meek and lowly, to heal, to bind up the broken, to be the Good Shepherd, to convict and rebuke, and ultimately to suffer and to die for my sin.  For your sin.  I feel helpless to adequately convey how astonishing this is!  He was perfect and he was complete.  God is in no way dependent on us.  He could have wiped away the blight of the human race from the earth with a word, but instead he took compassion on us, vile and hateful as we were, and died for us- while we were yet rejecting him!

So I pray that you and yours would have a wonderful Christmas- a Christmas caught up in the wonder of Christ's sacrifice which washed us white as snow.  Isaiah 1:18b - "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."