Are you asking them to enter and then making them crawl?

So I'm listening to U2's "One" and this lyric made me think. "You say love is a temple. Love a higher law. You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl." I don't pretend to know the context of what Bono is saying here, but it did cause me to reflect on my observations of Christians and their interaction with the world. Jesus scolded the religious elite in his day, Mat 23:13  "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in."

Is this what is happening in the church today? Are we expecting a perfection that only Jesus could attain in order to be a part of the "in crowd"? Have we lost sight of the Gospel which means good news? Christianity stands on God's grace... period! That means that we have received something that we haven't earned. Are non-Christians getting the idea that they have to live up to an impossible standard? When guests enter church, do they sense that everyone else has got it together while they are the only ones with something wrong with them? These are questions to seriously be pondered. Is that the Gospel that is being preached? One person interpreted a typical church sermon as, "You've failed, try harder."  I hope that is not the case.

I'm certainly concerned about the Gospel being lost in our message. It is the heart of Christ. His Grace is a free gift that cannot be earned, only received. We must go to great lengths to make sure that this message is understood. It is what sets Christianity apart from all other religions. Nobody can earn their way to heaven. Yet that is exactly what so many that are still lost in their sin believe. "If I can just be good enough, God will accept me." It is a tragedy that so many have either given up or somehow believe that they will be okay as they attempt to live a moral life but have never lived by a trusting faith in God's sacrifice for their sins.

The only crawling that should be demanded to enter the Kingdom of God is that of humble repentance, not that of legalistic rules and regulations.

This leads me to the flip side of the coin. Christians have also been greatly misunderstood when they speak of holiness. On one hand, those who repent of their sin and trust in Jesus Christ have been declared holy. That is what makes grace so amazing. I have done nothing to earn my salvation. However God says that I am holy. Holy means to be set apart. God has set me apart as His own. When we ask someboby to enter the Kingdom of God, there are no strings attached in the sense that one must have faith, but also must do this, this and this. This is to put a heavy burden on a person as the religious people in Christ's day did. Nobody was ever good enough, well, because people fail. I know I do and I'm a pastor. I hope that doesn't shock you. If it does, you too have a major misunderstanding of the call of Christ.

Here is where I will defend the Christian call. Jesus also told those that would follow Him that they were to count the cost. The call to holiness is also an ongoing process. The Apostle Paul said that the moral law was not to be done away with, but rather upheld. Jesus doesn't do away with the high standard of God so that we can be saved, but rather He doesn't count it against us when we place our faith in Him. There is a huge difference! God is God and He does not and cannot change His standard. He requires sinlessness and that will never change. However, by sending the very Son of God to live a sinless life and then take away sin by His sacrifice, God no longer has to count sins against those who trust them with their lives. The high standard doesn't change though, it just doesn't condemn the believer (Romans 8:1). Therefore we uphold God's righteous law. That is, it is the desire of the Christian to live by God's commands though they are not counted against them. This is the call to be holy.

However, even as salvation is a work of God through faith, so is the call to holiness. Christians are to exhort one another unto good works realizing that through faith God has given them the power to do so. So the call isn't to try harder, but rather follow Christ's lead. He didn't just die, but rather defeated death. This means that the living Christ is guiding the Christian through the Holy Spirit. The Bible says that He gives the Spirit freely to all those that trust Him. He will lead you in to places that you may not want to go, however by faith He will lighten your burden as you follow. So the exhortation isn't to try harder to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but rather for those who have already entered to follow the One whom they claim to have placed their faith in. Christ will lead you in the way of true love. Simply put, the call is a high calling, but we enter it by grace. We as believers can follow the calling in confidence knowing that we have been justified in the sight of God by this grace.

Questions or discussion: scott@psalm22.net

--
Scott A. Hescht

Life Spring Church  <)))><
(832) 217-9278
http://www.lifespringfamily.org

Psalm 22 Ministries
GOD has not forsaken you
http://www.psalm22.net

"By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." - Jesus

What is Success?

 By J. R. Miller

The true test of life—is character. Everything else is extraneous, belonging only to the husk, which shall fall off in the day of ripening! Character is the kernel, the wheat—that which is true and enduring. Nothing else is worth while—except that which we can carry with us through death, and into eternity!---- It is altogether possible that a man may fail of winning any earthly greatness, any distinction among men, anything that will immortalize him in this world's calendars—and yet be richly and nobly successful in spiritual things, in character, in a ministry of usefulness, in things which shall abide—when mountains have crumbled into dust! It is possible for one to fall behind in the race for wealth and honor—and yet all the while to be building up in himself—an eternal fabric of beauty and strength! What is the standard of success in the sphere of the unseen and the eternal? It is the doing of the will of God. He who does the will of God—makes his life radiant and beautiful, though in the world's scale he is rated as having altogether failed in the battle. He who is true, just, humble, pure, pleasing God and living unselfishly—is the only man who really succeeds—while all others fail. Really, there is no other final and infallible standard of living. One who writes his name highest in earth's lists, and yet has not done God's will—has failed, as God Himself looks at his career. God had a purpose in our creation—and we only succeed, when our life carries out this purpose. The most radiant career, as it appears to men, means nothing—if it is not that for which God made us. We fail in life—if we do not realize God's will for us. We live worthily—only when we do what God sent us here to do. A splendid career in the sight of men—has no splendor in God's sight! Not the making of a fine worldly career, therefore—but the simple doing of God's will—is the one true aim in living. Only thus can we achieve real success. If we do this, though we fail in the earthly race—we shall not fail in God's sight. We may make no name among men, may raise for ourselves no monument of earthly glory—but if we please God by a life of obedience and humble service, and build up within us a character in which divine virtues shine, we shall have attained abiding success!

Psalm 22 Ministries
GOD has not forsaken you
http://www.psalm22.net

"By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." - Jesus

It's All Perspective

Kenneth Boa in his book "Conformed to His Image" illustrates two contrasting value systems and their ultimate end. This is the temporal perspective which finds its value in the the life of this world hear and now, and the eternal perspective which finds its value in the eternal life in and through God.

TEMPORAL: Pleasure, Recognition of people, Popularity, Wealth and Status, Power = Emptiness, Delusion, Foolishness

ETERNAL: Knowing God, Approval of God, Servanthood, Integrity and Character, Humility = Fulfillment, Reality, Wisdom


--
Scott A. Hescht

Life Spring Church  <)))><
(832) 217-9278
http://www.lifespringfamily.org

Psalm 22 Ministries
GOD has not forsaken you
http://www.psalm22.net

"By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." - Jesus