From blessing to disobedience

September 10, 2009

Blessing-Disobedience

I’ve been wrestling with this thought since I heard a guy say something similar recently:

Remember, the place you are today that once stretched your faith and offered you blessing will one day become a place of disobedience if you fail to take the next step of faith God is calling you to.

Wow.

It seems whenever God is really blessing a particular work, one of the biggest “arguments” I hear is that there is little depth.  That’s probably fair considering our misunderstanding of what it means to be “deep”.

This is not a post about what people really mean when they say that…even though it usually has more to do with a teaching style than anything else.  It’s actually a very shallow comment made by shallow people who are more loyal to a three point alliterated expository preaching style that Jesus, or the apostles for that matter, never modeled.

Real depth is measured in baby steps and giant leaps. It is more about ongoing sanctification than accruing more knowledge that we don’t apply anyway.

Real depth is about obedience. Yesterday’s obedience can become today’s disobedience. Depth is progressive…we grow deeper as we walk in obedience. The only step of faith that really matters is your next one!  Spiritual depth is not a destination we arrive at, but a journey we commit to.

Real depth involves sacrifice. Jesus loves us sacrificially.  Why should our response be any less?  Many of us live lives completely devoid of sacrifice.  Our walk with Jesus should cost us something, shouldn’t it?

This is not popular speech. We want the gospel to be attractive and draw people in.  We want a Jesus who hangs quietly on the cross but is raised in rapturous glory in the resurrection.  We embrace the Christ who liberally provides for and blesses his followers but we dismiss the humble, foot-washing, servant Jesus.

The thing is, He is both of those and much more.  Think about that the next time you or someone else says “I just want to go deeper…“

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Posted by Chris Lewis

A dude who has been there before

December 11, 2008

Psalm 27 is a favorite of mine. David probably wrote this after a guy named Doeg talked smack about David to Saul, who was the King of Israel at the time. Saul pretty much tried to kill David every chance he got after that!

There’s a ton to this Psalm. I’m going to take a look at the first 3 verses today:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.” (Psalm 27:1-3, ESV)

CONFIDENCE IN GOD

Some say when you are born you only have two natural fears: the fear of falling and of loud noises. Others would argue that those aren’t fears – they’re actually reflexes. If that’s true…then we actually come into this world FEARLESS! I love that concept! We don’t stay that way for long though…

Are you afraid of the dark? One of my scariest memories as a young child is of the curtains in my bedroom. They had tie backs on them and when the night light hit them, it cast a shadow on my wall…of DARTH VADER!!! There are caves so deep they are considered to be the darkest place on earth…when the flashlights are turned off, the darkness that engulfs is so thick that people become disoriented and their equilibrium is affected.

David knows what the dark is like. David knows that light dispels darkness. He understands that God is the source of spiritual light in our darkness of humanity. But he ascribes more…God is not just the source of light…He IS the light! That is altogether different. I can get light from a flashlight…but the flashlight is not the light. David says that the Lord IS my light and my salvation!

How about dying? Even if you’re secure about where you’ll spend eternity, most people aren’t in a hurry to get there. As the masterful biblical expositor Joe Diffy says, “Lord I wanna go to Heaven…I don’t wanna go tonight”. But then again, while we will all die at some point, very few of us face the prospect of death in the manner David was speaking. Just so we are clear, when he wrote “when evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh”, he was talking about people hunting him down to destroy him like savage animals!

That’s not where we live…PRAISE GOD! But, we all have very real fears…and David’s words are a comfort:

The Lord IS our stronghold! My heart WILL NOT fear! I WILL BE confident!

Fear is rooted in an awareness of vulnerability and a sense of helplessness. David speaks of armies surrounding him and his corresponding confidence. Even valiant warriors’ heart race in the moments before battle – but not David’s – his response is confidence!!! That is not natural – it is SUPERnatural!

Charles Spurgeon wrote that “confidence is the child of experience”. David responded with confidence not because he was cocky or arrogant. On the contrary, David displayed confident humility because he had been there before. He made these statements in a real life situation from actual experiences with God. These were not theoretical statements – they were experiential!

I hope this is an encouragement to you. I hope your fears are neutralized in the face of God’s faithfulness and that your faith is stretched with each new experience.

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Posted by Chris Lewis

Monday’s Message – (Christmas Edition)

December 24, 2007

I have spent some time recently reading through several passages and studying up on the incarnation of Christ.  The incarnation is that incredible, one of a kind miracle, through which God came to earth as a man.  For anyone who has been in church any length of time, the wonder of that statement can be somewhat lost.  God came to earth as a man!  There is no other event ever to occur in all of human history that compares to this miracle!  It is unparalleled. Read the rest of this entry »

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Posted by Chris Lewis

Monday’s Message

September 17, 2007

I have been reading in Joshua lately and I ran accross something this morning that struck me.  Up to this point the Israelites had been wandering around for 40 years waiting for all the men to die that had disobeyed God.  Now they had just crossed over the Jordan River at flood stage when God stopped the water from flowing.  All the men of Israel now have to have some minor surgery with flint knives (ouch!).  Where’s your HMO when you need it?  They waited a few days to heal and then they celebrated the Passover together on the plains of Jericho.  The Bible tells us the very next day they ate from the fruit of the land and the manna stopped right then.

For 40 years, God had supernaturally provided a means to meet the physical needs of his people during their time in the wilderness.  I realize that I am making some inferences to scripture here, but go with me for a minute.  For all this time, the Israelites had not had to do anything to survive.  They had their pancakes waiting for them when they woke up each morning.  They didn’t even have to call room service, it was just there.  Now, they are on the very edge of the land God has promised to give them and they are able to gather and eat food from the land.  I have a question.  I wonder how many Israelites spent the next several days going hungry because they kept waiting for their morning manna delivery? 

What’s the point?  There is a time for action!  There comes a point in time when simply “feasting on the bounty of God’s grace and provision” will not suffice.  Do you know what would have happened to the Israelites if they chose to do this?  They would have died!  Now was the time for action.  No more could they rest on the future hope of the promises God had given them.  Now it’s time to act!  I believe the church is in that boat today.  We have boudless volumes of theology and doctrine stockpiled so that generations to come will know of our scholastic aptitude.  But what will future generations know of our boldness for Jesus?  What lasting evidence and legacy will there be from your life and my life that we loved the Jesus we study so vigorously? 

I think now is a time for action.  We have a choice to make.  We can either put legs to our faith and make an impact for the Kingdom of Christ or we can sit back and complacently admire what a great God we serve.  James 2:17 has something to say about that.  There is nothing wrong with the thoughtful and careful study of theology, in fact it’s expected!  The question is what do we do with that knowledge?

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Posted by Chris Lewis