Accepting Christ is the Road Less Traveled

Jesus warns us in the Gospels about the narrow and wide gates.  He is speaking about heaven and hell, and makes it quite clear to everyone that salvation is a special gift.  For those who listen to his teachings and accept God's grace, eternal rest is promised.  But for those who do not respond to His call, a worse fate awaits.  Matthew 7:13-14 says, "Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

We understand that this truth is still at play today, two-thousand years after Jesus first said it.  This Scripture deals with the idea that those who wish to live a Godly life must pass through the narrow gate.  In other words, heaven isn't the default setting for everyone.  It takes an action on our part - namely, accepting Christ and becoming baptized in order to be saved.  Conversely, it also says that a good many people in this world will not do what it takes to seek after the Lord and be reconciled to God.  Instead, they will listen to what the secular world tells them: be selfish, acquire wealth, and run after whatever makes you feel good.  This is the wide gate, and many pass through it on a daily basis.

We have all heard the expression ‘a road less traveled.’  It is often used in conjunction with the idea that the most enjoyable destination is sometimes found in remote places.  While it may be much easier to traverse distance on a nice, paved four lane Interstate, the fact remains that this route may never move us past tourist traps and traffic jams.  If we really want to see nature, we must take the old, gravel road sometimes.

Rest assured, once we get out of the car and locate that special spot, the trip is well worth it.  But resisting the urge to join the rest of the pack and shop at the seductive tourist areas is difficult.  In a spiritual sense, the outside world is constantly calling to us.  It tells us to follow our own heart, compromise our beliefs for the sake of political correctness, and engage as a follower instead of a leader.  Let's face it, as time goes on, it will become more and more difficult to stick to Biblical theology and pass through the narrow gate unless we take the road less traveled.  It will be tempting to veer to the left or the right, and compromise the teaching that Jesus and the apostles left us.  The red letters in the Bible are sometimes difficult, but also well worth the effort.  We need not compromise our faith walk.  

We live in an era of hypersexuality, affirmation and celebration of sin, and lukewarm theology.  But this leads to the wide gate - many will pass through it.  They will mistake a spiritual feeling for true salvation.  Only Jesus saves, and this occurs through acceptance of his resurrection and grace.  It is a simple truth often left out of modern worship services today.  Grace through faith, and repentance from sin (or at least the attempt at fighting our sin).  These are the weapons of the spiritually wise. 

My prayer for all of you is that you continue to gauge what you hear today on YouTube and television against what the Bible actually says.  It will be difficult in the short run, but you will find new life through Christ in the long run.  It's a marathon not a sprint, and we must ensure that our shoes fit well during the race.  No off-brand sneakers will do ... only the real thing will hold up over time.  The Biblical Jesus is the real thing, and he always has been.  You will likely need to head off the beaten path a bit to find him, but he is there.  You just need to be willing to look. 

 

 

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The Light of Christ

Let me begin by saying that I do not believe Christianity is a silent faith.  God wants us to talk about Him with other people and show the world that Jesus has changed us.  Changed us in ways that 'rub off' on others.  Changed us in ways that we could not accomplish on our own steam.  Indeed, the Bible isn't just another self-help book, like some fad diet where we need to just try really hard to focus our will power, and then we might improve.  No, it is much more than that.  It is a religion that does something, that moves inside of us in a way that translates out from the overflow in our hearts to those around us. 

With this idea firmly in view, I want to discuss two Scriptures today.  The first comes to us as part of the famous Sermon on the Mount section of the Gospel of Matthew.  Chapter 5, verses 14-16 says, "You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put  it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."  Similarly, in Luke 11:33, we get the curious statement: "No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light."

I believe that it can be plainly said, that the light of this world we inhabit comes from Jesus Christ.  But what about the darkness?  What about all of the sin that transpires on our planet every day?  This is a more difficult question to think about.  In order for sin to exist and thrive, it must be kept in the dark.  You may have noticed in your own life, that keeping secrets is a great way to build up animosity.  Nothing deflates trust between two people more than finding out that you have been lied to, or that someone withheld information from you longer than they should have.  It makes it that much harder to trust again.

The catch, however, comes from the fact that in order to purge ourselves of sin and begin our journey down the path of righteousness - we must bring that thing we regret into the light.  Evil cannot stand or survive in the light, much less the light of Christ.  In this glow, there is only room for confession, repentance, and healing.  Secret keeping goes out the window.  You will note that in this way, the light of Jesus will edge out sin (both yours and mine).   It's painful at first - I'm not saying it isn't - but ultimately it is the only way to permanently kick a bad habit.  There is something about illumination and confession that resets the spirit I think.

In this same way, I am imploring the reader not to hide away your faith.  Resist the urge to shelve away your personal belief system into the darkness.  Do not buy into the way of the nominal Christian, which says you can praise God one day a week at church, and then act like nothing is different Monday through Saturday.  Instead, let others see your faith in plain sight.  Let the light of Jesus shine through you, and because of that, into others as well.  This same light that quenches sin and offers salvation will hold you up when the need arises.   
The Bible tells us to be salt and light.  Allow your faith to shine; it will be okay.  Don't treat your religion as a forty-hour-per-week job, where you act one way at the office and another way at home.  Christianity asks more than that from us (and we should be grateful for that I think).  Otherwise, it would be just another social club or mundane organization.  Unfortunately, I have been to a number of funerals in my time.  I have been to funerals for both family members and friends.  And I think we can all relate to attending a funeral now and then, where we simply cannot be certain of the deceased person's eternal state.  We hope always that the person is in heaven of course, but we know from the Bible that the 'narrow gate to salvation' is difficult to enter, and there are many who don't make it. 

By grace of God, the funeral for the true believer is an entirely different thing.  Oh there is grieving that occurs, don't get me wrong.  But there is also hope, faith, and a certainty that this person is now with God forever.  They had the light of Christ in them.  We can have assurance of this because they were a light in the world while they were living.  They talked about Jesus, they went to church, and they glorified their Father in heaven on a regular basis.  My grandmother was like this.  No doubt about it - everyone knows that lady is in heaven today.  We miss her of course, but there is an assurance.  She was salt and light.  Anyone she talked to could tell she loved God within the first five minutes of the conversation.  It was never in question.

Jesus is ultimately the judge, and we must be careful also that we don't become arrogant in our spiritual assessment of others.  Someone's eternal salvation isn't secured by what we think of them, but rather by whether or not they are born again.  So often it is human nature to forget that fact, I think.  And so much more comes from the way in which we live, not just how we die.  Are we living for God now?  Do others around us sense and see our faith?  Does the Spirit preserve us and enhance us like salt?  And finally - do we reflect the light of Christ with our actions, our language, and our hearts?

Christianity is not a silent faith; it is too important for that.  If you are loved by God, and you love God back, then good luck containing the light that abides inside of you!  It will spill out.  If others don't see this light, then it's time to take stock and examine your walk with God.  Don't keep the things that God has done in your life quiet.  And if you boast about it, then boast for His glory, not your own.  For it is Jesus that saves each of us, and who lights the flame which can never be extinguished.

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"Holy House: The Mystery of Marriage" sermon

Looking to get married, or simply to improve your existing marriage?  Then this sermon from my friend Pastor Jacob Sandholm is for you!  Click the link below and listen today:

Marriage Sermon

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Sermon: Humble Before God

I was honored to give the sermon message at church this last Sunday morning.  I discussed how rejecting pride and embracing humility can increase your faith walk through obedience with God.  (NOTE: the sound takes a few moments to kick in)

Click the link below to listen:

Humble Before God sermon

 

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Cheap Grace?

Any one of us could benefit by reading the life and history of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  It is one of those accounts that often draws forth the gamut of emotions.  Joy, sorrow, envy, frustration; all of these things can result from learning about what he went through.  Bonhoeffer (as some of you may know) was a renowned Christian scholar and philosopher.  His writings still permeate the mindset of many Christians today, in both the academic realm, as well as the secular world.  It must have been difficult not to like him.  At the age of twenty he wrote a book about the Christian faith that impressed even influential theologian Karl Barth.  In 1935 he helped establish an underground church in the middle of Hitler's rise to power in Germany.  In 1941 he become part of a Jewish rescue operation, smuggling people to safety.  And in 1945, he is eventually executed at the hands of the Nazi party in a concentration camp.  You get the idea; he did not believe in soft soaking Christianity or lukewarm living.  

And this leads us to next discuss one of his most famous books.  'The Cost of Discipleship' was first published by Bonhoeffer in 1937, after his seminary was closed by the Gestapo.  In this book, he writes, "That is what we mean by cheap grace, the grace which amounts to the justification of sin without the justification of the repentant sinner who departs from sin and from whom sin departs.  Cheap grace is not the kind of forgiveness of sin which frees us from the toils of sin.  Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves." 

Cheap grace, in this sense, represents  what we often do to comfort ourselves in the midst of sinning.  "Just a few more times disobeying God," we might think, "God will be okay with it, after all, I'm covered under His grace."  It is true, the born again soul is indeed saved by grace through faith.  But let's look at what Jesus has to say about lukewarm living in the book of Revelation.  Rev 3:15-16 says, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other!  So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth."  Here, Jesus reminds us not to waste His grace.  Not to accept the gift of salvation, only to turn around and keep it to ourselves ... never taking a chance, and never taking a stand for the God we say we love.  

The stakes were real for Bonhoeffer.  His generation saw one of the most powerful political and military forces of our time search out and destroy people who held God sacred.  Repentance was always the work at hand for the true believer, at least in his opinion.  And repentance is the work of you and I also, even now.  It means simply to turn from sin, and choose what God has to offer us instead.  Easy to write about, difficult to do.  But there is good news.  We need not repent perfectly all the time.  Hopefully your church teaches this truth alongside the others as well.  When it comes to eliminating sin from our lives, we will need God's help.  Even then, we will drop the ball sometimes (maybe a lot of the time)!  I prefer to think of success through repentance as long term trajectory, rather than short term perfection.  Sanctification is often a painful and imperfect process as well, as opposed to an impressive dossier to look back at with pride or arrogance.  I hope that understanding the difference between being called to a more perfect life versus being perfect helps you.  I know it has for me.

I pray that we do not take God's grace for granted.  I pray that we don't think or say things like, "I can do whatever I want, and then just ask for forgiveness at the very end."  This is salvation as fire insurance I think.  And if you are living that way, ask God to show you those areas you need to change, and then He can help you going forward.  We are not all meant to be a Bonhoeffer, or to stand up for our beliefs in a way that gets us martyred.  But we are all called to stand up.  If you belong to God, then you are stamped with His image and likeness.  And that image is not to be trifled with or shelved away.  Instead, allow His goodness to overflow from your heart and out into the world.  Live in such a way that other people talk about your faith, and that they can see the light which is in Christ also resides in you.

I will conclude with a rather famous Scripture from 2 Corinthians 5:17.  It says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"   Be a new creation.  Live up to it, and own it.  God's grace is sufficient for you and I; it always has been.  Live into your new freedom in Christ, things go better that way.  It will not always be easy, but at least it will not be 'cheap.'  Costly grace feels different - and it looks different also.  But don't catch yourself trying to be the perfect penitent, as there was only one of those.  Jesus shows us how to live, we follow Him through the Spirit, and God works it out through us in the end.  Cheap grace is a waste of time.  God's crucified Son died for so much more than that.  Now go embrace your life as a new creation.  There is nothing cheap about you. 

 

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Watching God from a Distance

In the book of Exodus in the Bible, there is an account of Moses walking into a tent to speak directly with God about how to lead the Israelites.  It was called the tent of meeting (eventually referred to as the Tabernacle), and it was always a certain distance outside of the main camp.  What a curious thing it must have been for Moses to actually hear the audible voice of God and get advice directly from Him.  Scripture also says that a pillar composed of clouds would show up each time this happened - it has been referred to as the glory cloud in later generations.  It further says that God would speak to Moses 'as if to a friend.'  Astonishing, isn't it?  The creator of all things choosing to speak directly with a mortal man.  

Exodus 33:9-10 says, "As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses.  Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent."   The Israelites watched and waited as Moses received instruction from the Almighty.  What a sight it must have been to see the cloud, and come to the realization that God was with them in physical form. 

We love to watch what God is doing, don't we?  We enjoy the idea that He may be speaking to certain people here and there through the Holy Spirit.  But it always seems more comfortable to watch and wait from our own tents I think.  It's much safer that way.  Let the pastor or the priest go out and receive divine instructions, then they can bring it back to camp later.  Maybe we can even see the faint outline of the glory cloud from a distance if we squint.  But that’s as close as we want to get. 

So, I believe the question for us could be phrased as such: where is God's presence at work today?  I think that we can answer this successfully in three ways.  God is present with us in churches, in the mission field, and in His people.  In all of these ways - if you look closely enough - you will see His love expressed through both faith and action.  The Bible says the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.  I take this to mean that no matter what is going on around us, we will still have at least the teaching of the Christian church to fall back on.  It will be communicated in some way, even in the end times during severe persecution and martyrdom.  God will be at work in what the church is doing, and who they are serving.

The second idea is that God will be present on the mission field.  This can occur of course to those for whom the Lord has pressed upon their hearts to travel overseas and build homes or  cultivate farmland.  For these 'harvest workers,' you can never spend enough time in other countries where the faith is just beginning to take hold.  It is rewarding beyond compare for those whose heart points in this direction.  To hear them recount experiences in the field can be both mesmerizing and contagious. 

Finally, I do think that the presence of God shows up in the hearts and minds of His loyal followers and believers.  When one person forgives another for example, the divine nature is on direct display for all to see.  It is most definitely not human nature to forgive, much less to do so easily and quickly.  No, I'm afraid that most of us, if left to our own devices, would rather hold on to a grudge or hurt feeling until the very end.  But with God in the mix, we are commanded to forgive as many times as it takes.  It is truly God at work. 

My advice then, is to walk with God into our own version of the Promised Land.  Follow the pillar of cloud in conjunction with the church, mission field, or the people.  You might be surprised where it takes you.  One thing remains certain however - if you never leave the threshold of your own tent, then most likely nothing miraculous or faith sustaining will ever happen.  Instead, you will keep wondering what God wants from your life and where your place in this world might be.  You will never leave the confines of the dugout and step out onto the ball field. 

You get an inkling of something special and supernatural from time to time, because you can see something over there that resembles divine activity.  But it's hard to make out from a distance.  Easier to watch other people trust and follow God.  But if we live this way all the time, we will miss out on countless divine opportunities that were put in our path since the dawn of time, before we were even conceived.  We will forfeit our chance to partner with a loving and caring God.  In short, we will give up our own personal Mt. Sinai experience.  We will continue being content with a golden calf instead. 

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Guided by the Holy Spirit

People by and large, are looking for someone to follow who will guide and mentor them.  Someone they can trust.  Politics can often fail us in this regard.  Bosses and organizational leaders may let you down from time to time also.  After all, they are only human, just like we are.  But what is it like to try to listen to God's voice in the midst of all the other voices out there competing for our attention?  How can we allow God to faithfully guide us by His Spirit?  Or to ask the question another way: how do we zero in on His voice alone.  

Ephesians 2:10 says, "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  Do you believe this?  Do you agree that each and every one of us has been hand-crafted in order to accomplish something important for the kingdom of heaven here on Earth?  I do believe it myself, and I hope you do also.  It is entirely possible, however, that a creature intended for good can lose his or her way and end up performing evil.  I also don't think this acts to discredit the notion that people have a special meaning and purpose from God.  The Bible says that even the Devil himself used to be beautiful and lofty above all other angels, right up to the moment he pridefully rebelled against the Creator.  

Bear with me a bit longer, and look at Psalm 32:8: "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you."  This is one of God's many promises to us from the Old Testament - that if we keep our eyes fixed on Him, He will guide us along the right path with love.  And so these two ideas come together quite nicely to form the following axiom: all of us have been created with purpose and meaning, and God will help guide us to complete these good works for which we were originally created  This remains true as long as we stay engaged with what He is so often trying to tell us through our conscience, and through other people.  It is always possible to ignore Him of course, and many people do.  

This raises a question, and doubtless some of you might already be wondering this as you read along.  How do we know for certain it is God that is counseling us in any given situation?   It's an excellent question, especially given that false teachers abound these days.  Some of us might remember that David Koresh used spiritual trust to ensnare many people into following him into the Branch Davidian cult.  You may also remember it was a pretty big news story out of Waco, Texas back in 1993.  Things didn't end well for those poor people, and they didn't end well for Koresh either.  

The key to deciphering whether or not you are following the Holy Spirit is to stay in the Bible, and stay in fellowship with other Christian believers.  Do not isolate and leave yourself vulnerable to misinterpretation.  I must mention here also, that it doesn't hurt to stay in prayer with God either.  Had Harold Camping (a false prophet telling people that the second coming had a set date) clung to Scripture in this way, I believe he would have seen the command in Matthew 24 telling us that no one knows the day or the hour that Jesus will return.  Attempting to calculate when the end of all things will occur simply isn't possible (or Scriptural).  It was a basic misstep by an extremely intelligent and charismatic individual.  

Likewise, if we suspect that the spirit of God is nudging us to do something, please do run it past other believers.  Feel free to ask your pastor about it.  Run it by your friends in the church (people you trust, not just those who you know will agree with you automatically).  Allow common sense to prevail, and wisdom to kick in.  Give yourself enough time to discern what is really going on.  

If it really is God guiding you, watch for little pointers and signs all around.  Little nudges telling you to stay engaged, and stay with God.  If you are reading the Bible and talking through Scriptural truths with fellow believers, then you are headed down the right track.  Do not try to do your faith journey alone; it was never meant to be that way.  Instead, open your eyes to what is going on around you, and then open your heart to what God might be telling you personally.  It can be a wild ride, but it also won't violate the Bible. 

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