Romans 9:24-29 :: It Was, Is and Will Be About Grace

Romans 9:24-29 (The Message and TNIV)

"In the very place where it was said to them, 

   ‘You are not my people,’ 

   they will be called ‘children of the living God.'"

How good and pleasant it is to hear these words from Paul.  I am not his people, but I get to be called a child of the living God.  Can't you just see this on a decorative piece in the gift section of the local christian bookstore?

Paul quotes from Hosea 1:10 here.  Check out the original context of these words.  Just prior to this, in verse 4, God tells Hosea that he will put an end to the kingdom of Israel...break Israel's bow.  Led by Jehu, Israel had conducted a massacre at Jezreel.  God is definitely not heaping praise when Hosea 1:10 is uttered.  He is removing his blessing from Israel and now including Judah into the family.  This had to blow some minds.

Fast forward to Romans 9.  Paul is planting his argument firmly into the larger story of God's history.  God's inclusion of Gentiles in salvation is not unprecedented.  God has reached out to those who were not loved by him and loved them.  So, if we FF to today, should we expect anything less from God?

I am indebted to God's grace forever because he reached out to me, not in his family, and made me part of his family.  That grace ought to be the same grace that pushes me outside my comfort zone to those who are not yet part of the family.  That grace doesn't produce hospitality in me...it is the hospitality in me.

If you want to get the devotionals for chapter 9, click here for the pdf version of Chapter 9 in the Reading Plan.  Chapters 9 & 10 will be included in the updated pdf and epub files this weekend.

Acts 8 :: It Grew Like a Weed

Acts 8 in the Messsage and TNIV translations

Every time they tried to kill the early church, they only made it grow.  Saul and his henchmen stoned one of its leaders to death and scattered the Christ-followers, and it only made the "problem" worse.  Wherever they went, they told people about Jesus, and new churches began to pop up in cities and countries all over the map.  Verse 4 tells us how the gospel really took over the world.  We can get caught up in our story's heroes - great men of faith like Peter, Philip, and eventually Paul (although he's a villain in our story right now) - and mistakenly think these men took the gospel all over the world by themselves.  While they did a lot, it was thousands of people whose names don't make it into Acts who took the good news of Jesus to their homelands or places of refuge as they were persecuted.  The stories with names are only anecdotal; they represent thousands of other stories we'll never hear this side of heaven.

This is great wording from the Message: "Forced to leave home base, the followers of Jesus all became missionaries. Wherever they were scattered, they preached the Message about Jesus."  Isn't that the way it is.  We end up being forced out of our security and comfort.  We think it's the end of the world.  From a human perspective, everything sucks.  But God's perspective on the whole thing is completely different than ours.  "My church is becoming unstoppable.  My message of life and hope is advancing.  My people are becoming the heroic men and women of the faith that I created them to be."  And in my experience, God makes himself known in those times of struggle and pain, those situations none of us would have chosen.

I was part of a conversation this morning with people who are decision makers in our local economy.  Phrases like "10,000 lost jobs by October" were spoken several times.  While those statements may or may not turn out to be accurate, we all know stuff happens.  Whether it is financial, relational, physical, or emotional, many of us may be forced into situations we would never choose.  Nobody wants it to happen.  But in such times, God shines.  And He calls his people to become missionaries.  Will you be one of them?

Acts 2 :: We Have Liftoff

Acts 2, The Message and TNIV translations

Acts 2 is one of the pivotal chapters in all of Scripture.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed for the first time (and in dramatic fashion!).  Due to God's strategic timing, representatives of 15 countries (by my count) hear about Jesus and respond. Important side note: at this point, Christianity is still an exclusively Jewish faith.

Then we get the first, and perhaps to this day the most important description of the life and activity of the very first Christian church, the Church at Jerusalem.  The portion of the three thousand new believers who lived in Jerusalem began to live in community with each other in a way no one had ever seen before.  While much is made of the miracles and spiritual authority of the apostles, I strongly believe the first Christians' radical commitment to the life together was the more powerful proof of Christianity.  Jesus said that his disciples would be known by the love they had for each other, and the first believers fulfilled that by embracing each other, growing together, serving one another sacrificially, and enjoying each other's company on a daily basis.  And while they were devoted to each other, the community was not internally focused or closed off.  They lived this life together in a rather public way, in full view.  More and more people wanted to be a part of it and embrace the Savior who had transformed them.

I've read this passage dozens of times, maybe even hundreds (like I said, it's a really important passage), and the same question always seems to pop up for me: how did we start with Acts 2:42-47 and end up with what we experience as "church" today?  When you read this passage, what aspects of early church life do you long for?  What parts are you experiencing today, and what parts do you think are sorely lacking?

Matthew05::You Are Light

Matthew 5

Anyone else remember singing that song as a little kid? Or at least singing it to your kids? I remember that my favorite part of that song was getting to yell “No!” when we asked if we were going to hide it under a bushel. I’m not sure I always knew what a bushel was, but I seemed to be a natural at yelling “No!”

In Matthew05, verses 13-16 jumped out at me this morning. I love the translation of The Message here, we are put where we are to be “salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors “ where we are. We are also light that “brings out the God-colors in the world.” What a picture!

Have you ever noticed that the older people get, the less sensitive their taste buds become. I’ve seen elderly people eat with a fork in one hand and salt shaker in the other. There’s a certain rhythm to it. A meal with no salt is still a meal and is still experienced by everyone at the table. Being one of our basic tastes, salt actually enhances the flavor to our taste buds. It’s just better with salt... Darkness hides colors from our sight. When light is shown in darkness, colors are brought out. It doesn’t mean the shirt wasn’t there or that the couch wasn’t brown. Light reveals color that’s already there, much like salt enhances taste that is there. It’s just better with light...

I thought about this in light of our faith this morning. Does our faith bring out the color in the world around us? Does our faith bring out the color in our neighborhoods? In our families? In our kids? Does our faith enhance the workplace where we spend our days? Does our faith bring out the God-flavors in the relationships we have? As much as I want to say yes, the truth is that often times, I’m not sure that it does as much as I think. It’s easy to recall times when someone’s faith has blinded everyone around them, or when a co-worker’s faith made the office taste bitter instead of better. If we are to be the Springs God intends for us to be where we live, work, play and rest, what do you think it means to shine our light where it brings out the God-colors in the world, and share our faith in a way that brings out the God-flavors in others?

You don’t have have salt, you are salt. You don’t have light, you are light.

Thanks for visiting and I look forward to bantering this around today with you.

Core Practice::Giving Away My Faith

We give away our faith to accomplish God's purposes.

"Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should."

Ephesians 6:19-20 (TNIV)

When I was growing up sharing your faith with someone was akin to going to the dentist to get a tooth pulled for me. When I was in high school, I took a course called "Continuing Witness Training," which was a 13-week course on memorizing a "gospel presentation" that could be shared with anyone, but primarily unsuspecting "lost" people on a random night of the week, in their homes. As any good presentation, I was able to work through any answer they gave me to get them back to the issue of their salvation. Every night we would go out into our community was the most uncomfortable times I remember. Something about it just didn't seem right to me. It didn't last long in my life and beyond that particular course, I don't think I ever brought out the presentation.

Another instance in my life that proved terrifying was in seminary. In my personal evangelism class, we had an assignment to "share the gospel" with one person that semester...for a grade! Cold sweats, cotton mouth and serious procrastination followed me all semester. How could I get out of this? How could I manipulate the assignment to pacify my insecurities about the task. Again, something just didn't seem right. I copped out and did it for the grade, but there were no angels rejoicing on that day.

One of the problems I have with the approach to giving away my faith that I learned is that I don't find it anywhere in the New Testament, or the Old for that matter. I watch Jesus invite people to life and never once present a canned presentation. Jesus invited people to follow him. He saw them where they were and he invited them into something bigger - fishermen to become fishers of men, hookers to healing, blindness to sight, release to captives, etc.. Maybe I've missed the invitation. Just maybe the "giving away my faith" conversation isn't anchored in how bad a person is without God and how they need Jesus, but to uncover for them what God is doing around them and invite them into that life. I realize for some, this may appear like a semantics issue, but I think it's more than that.

Have you ever had a friend try to sell you on a "new, revolutionary product"? They start by telling you how what you currently have or what you are currently doing is bad, then they offer their solution to fix everything. You know from the beginning that this is probably a con, no matter how sincere the person is or how much you like them. I imagine that is how people feel when we start "giving away our faith" by telling them how bad they are or how wrong they are living.

Think about a time when you introduced Friend A to Friend B. You've known Friend A for a long time and you think a lot of this person. You recently met Friend B and you thought they'd hit it off well. You have dinner at your house and you invite Friend A over to come and you then go to Friend B. You want Friend B to come to dinner, so you invite him over to dinner with some other friends and you let them know how much fun it will be. You don't start the conversation by telling Friend B how bad he is, but you simply say something like, "We're having dinner with some great friends Saturday night, and we'd like you and your family to join us. Would you come?" This works because Friend B has gotten to know you well enough to trust you and your friend-judgement, so they are open to the invitation. The goal of the night is to introduce them to Friend A, but the invitation was simply to dinner with Friend A.

What if we began to see "giving away our faith" much more like dinner rather than a sales pitch? What if we invited our neighbor who is good with carpentry to go to work on a Habitat house on a Saturday? What if we spent time with the neighbor who is eco-friendly and invited her to join us in a stewardship project by going to a local reservation and picking up trash? Once we spend time with people, then we know how to invite them to the life that is truly life. This is giving away our faith.

Related competencies include: Humanity, Personal God, Salvation by Grace, Love, Patience, Gentleness, Hope, Humility

KidsKreed: I love my neighbors by telling them about Jesus.

Parents, the first and most important people you will give your faith to are our children. We may do so in a conversation or by your actions. We are giving away our faith to them everyday. We are their model, so we must invest in this incredible opportunity that has been given to us. Our kids need us to help them see that life with Jesus is more than just a set of rules and regulations, but a real relationship in which they are invited as well.