Christian Unity

Colossians 3:11
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

God calls his church to unity. The church is one body of Christ with one purpose, and that purpose is to be a reflection Jesus Christ.

We all have different DNA. We are all individuals that God has made in a unique way. We are sort of like snowflakes, no two people are the same.

We all have different talents. I am a graphic artists. Others are skilled at music or building or administration, etc.

 As Christians, we all have different gifts. The Bible says that when we receive Jesus Christ into our lives, we receive his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives gifts to each and every believer in order to be used to build and build up God’s church; that is his people.

So, while God has a unique purpose for each, we are still one. This is because Jesus Christ is all, and in all. In order to realize this we must first come to understand three things about Jesus. We must understand who he is, what he did and where he lives.

Who He is.

The man Jesus who walked this earth 2,000 years ago was not merely a man, though he was fully man. Jesus was the Son of God. This means that he is God himself. He is Yahweh. He is the great I AM that spoke to Moses from a burning bush. He is the same God of the Old Testament who walks among his people in the New Testament. He is the son of His heavenly Father (distinct), yet every bit of the same God as was his Father (one). As God, the Bible says that Jesus created all things. This includes you and I. He also sustains all of creation. At his word, all of creation would cease to exist. So he made all and sustains all.

Understand what He did.

Jesus was punished by his heavenly Father while dying for your sins and for mine. Then Jesus defeated death by being raised from the dead. He saves all who believe upon him and when he returns will raise them from the dead as well. Jesus saves all who believe.

Understand where He lives.

He dwells in everyone who believes. As stated earlier, Jesus works in his people by the working of the Holy Spirit. This is what the Bible refers to as being born again. Jesus is in all who believe.

But Christ is one. 
It is the same Christ who created each of us, who sustains each of us, who saves us and who works in us. His church is being made into his image, the one who is all and in all.  Therefore as the people of God there no distinction of race, gender, class, or otherwise.
 There is only Christian.

Christian Maturity

As immature Christians we see God as a means to an end. He is there to bless us and is there to help us in our need. This is a great truth, but by its self tends to be self focused much like a child is toward a parent.

Hopefully we come to realize that God is concerned about our personal transformation and our prayers shift from simply "God help me" to "God change me".

When we enter maturity in Christ, our focus shifts to God and other people. We become consumed with impacting the world around us for God's glory; not just family, not just friends, not just those who are like us, but love without walls. This is where God wants to take us; all the while he continues to transform us as we recognize our great blessing whatever our circumstances. This is the life of Christ.

So Do We Fear God or Not?

Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin." - Exodus 20:20

Often I have ran into people who misunderstand the fear of the Lord. On one hand, we see that God loves us and we don't understand why He would tell us that fearing Him is the beginning of wisdom. Why would God want even believers to be scared of Him? The other extreme is to suppose that fear means to respect God, sort of like I respect a loved one, pastor or role model. The fear of the Lord seems to be an important theme throughout the Bible and a key principle to understanding the fear of God, so it would be 'wise' to seek a proper understanding of what the fear of the Lord means.

In Exodus 20:20 when Moses addresses Israel, He uses the word 'fear' twice. The first time he says to not fear God because He hadn't come to bring evil against them but rather to test them. Then he says the reason for the test is that Israel would fear the Lord so that they wouldn't sin. So which is it?

I'm so glad that God gave us the difference in one passage so that we can understand what it means to fear the Lord. First, those who understand that God loves His people are exactly right in the sense that we shouldn't fear that God would bring any sort of malicious evil against His children; especially in light of our faith in the great intercessor Jesus Christ. This is what is communicated in the first part of Exodus 20:20. However, we see God's goal is that mankind 'would' fear Him as seen in the latter part of the passage.

You see, a person that has no fear of God is foolish. They either deny His existence or they are apathetic toward the acknowledgment that He does exist. I fear for such individuals. God is GOD! He is not our earthly father, our earthly pastor or simply a role model. He is the Lord of all creation; the great I AM; the self existent One! He deserves much more than just our respect. He deserves our devotion, worship and adoration! He is the God that came upon Mount Sinai in a thick cloud of thunder and lightning causing the earth to tremble! Even at a glimpse of God's glory we would all fall to our faces.

But we are not at Mount Sinai. Christ changed that and God came to dwell in the believer at Pentecost. The believer now has total peace with our Heavenly Father. Grace and mercy will follow the believer forever! What a blessing! But just because we have been reconciled back to God as followers of Christ does not mean that God is a different God than the One who descended upon Mount Sinai. We just have peace with that same Holy God through the blood of Jesus Christ and now God is able and willing to walk with us once again. He also loves us just as He loved the people of Israel that Moses spoke to.

God is awesome and as believers we should all stand before Him, not just in respect, but in awe! He is Holy, Holy, Holy! That God, the great I AM, loves you Christian! Doesn't that truth floor you? When you grasp that, then you grasp what the fear of the Lord is and why it is the beginning of wisdom. When we grasp that, we desire not the things of this world, not the sin in this world, but we desire God and His commandment to walk in love toward Him and others.

The fear of the Lord however is not something we can bring about in ourselves. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. If you desire this passion for God, He is already beginning to work. Ask Him to fill you with the fear of the Lord. Ask Him to fill you with love and awe. That is a prayer that He will definitely answer (Luke 11:13).

You see, unbelievers would be wise to fear God, for without Him all one can expect is judgment. However for the believer, though there is no fear of judgment, our source of wisdom comes from the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10).

Are You Spiritually Inauthentic: Five Warning Signs

The following was adapted from John Ortberg’s “Surprised by Change: The Goal of Spiritual Life”. It’s based on the idea that Christians can often look to superficial distinctions between themselves and non-believers instead of real transformation brought about by the Holy Spirit. The religious people did it in Jesus’ day so we would be wise to at least consider the possibility that we may have fallen into the same trap. Ortberg uses Jesus’ rebuke of these religious folk in Matthew 23 as the basis of his five warning signs.

Pseudo-Transformation Warning Signs

1.    Am I spiritually “inauthentic”?

Matthew 23:25-28

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
²⁷ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Inauthenticity involves a preoccupation with appearing to be spiritual. We try to say the right things and do the right things in front of others. Yet we hide our sin and work harder at making people think we’re a loving person than we actually do at loving them.

 “The meaning of true authenticity is this: that my exterior truly reflects my interior.”

- David Augsburger

Question: What are some things that keep you from being truly authentic?

2.    Am I becoming judgmental or exclusive or proud?

Matthew 23:6

⁶ They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,

Pride is a potential problem for anyone who takes spiritual growth seriously. As soon as we start to pursue virtue, we begin to wonder why others aren’t as virtuous as we are.

Question: Do you tend to rate people in comparison to yourself? When and where does this tend to happen most frequently for you?

3.    Am I becoming more approachable, or less?

Matthew 23:7

(They love) ⁷ greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’

Question: Do you ever feel that you’re too busy or too important for someone?

Question: Which of the three previous questions hits home with you the most?

4.    Am I growing weary of pursuing spiritual growth?

Matthew 23:4

For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

The pursuit of righteousness is always an exhausting pursuit when it seeks a distorted goal.

Question: Have you been weary and burdened by trying to live up to a certain standard? Who’s standard is it? There’s GOOD NEWS! Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

5.    Am I measuring my spiritual life in superficial ways?

Matthew 23:24

²⁴ Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

“Suppose someone were to ask you, ‘How is your spiritual life going these days?’ Quick – what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? For many years I thought about this only in terms of a few special activities. If someone asked me how my spiritual life was going, my first thought would be how I was doing at having a quiet time – praying and reading the Bible each day. If I had prayed and read the Bible for several consecutive prior days, I was likely to say that my spiritual life was going well. If not, I was likely to feel guilty and downcast. So prayer and Bible study became the gauge of my spiritual condition. As long as I did those two things I could go through the day confident of God’s approval.”

Question: How do you tend to measure your spiritual life? What is your response to the questions discussing above?

“I suspect that if someone had asked the apostle Paul or the apostle John about his spiritual life, his first question would have been, ‘Am I growing in love for God and people?’ The real issue is what kind of people we are becoming.”

“Practices such as reading Scripture and praying are important – not because they prove how spiritual we are – but because God can use them to lead us into life.”

Trouble in Big "D" (and I don't mean Dallas)

The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached Part XIII

Reflections on the Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5-7

(Commentary by Guy Glass and Scott Hescht)

Matthew 5:31-32 "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Scott: Jesus takes marriage extremely serious.

On an another occasion He answered the religious officials by saying,

"Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."

They said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?"

He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery."

(Matthew 19:3-9)

Divorce is rampant in our culture. Celebrities wear spouses like hats and many in America have followed suit. What has happened?

One of the big issues is a lack of understanding of what love really is. Couples are saying vows everyday in wedding ceremonies but not truly grasping the idea of commitment. Young people are learning more about love from rock ballads and prime time television than they are from Scripture. Couples “fall in and out of love” because their skewed view of love is based on selfish emotion.

The Bible says that husbands are to love their wives just as Jesus Christ loved the church. He died for the church and lives to work through the imperfections of the church for the good of the church. That is sacrificial love. It looks out not for self, but loves the other as one’s self (Ephesians 5:22-33).

Love is a conscious choice to be committed to your spouse for better or for worse. In my home, divorce is not an option. That is not something that I commanded of my wife, but rather a commitment we made to God and to each other on our wedding day. What reward there is in working through problems instead of running from them! Jesus allows for divorce in the most extreme of circumstances (sexual immorality or abandonment of the believer [1 Corinthians 7:14]) but reconciliation is always preferred if possible.

Maybe you have already been through a painful divorce. Now what? Is there any hope? Of course there is! We serve a merciful God who is ready to forgive those who seek it. However, the issue may be whether or not you have sought it. Have you justified what God has called sin or have you humbly bowed your knee in repentance seeking God's forgiveness?

Maybe you are now in another marriage and you have a hard time reconciling your current happiness with regret over a prior divorce. What are you to do? First of all, realize that we serve a God that can even work evil for our own good (Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28). God is not asking you to compound a wrong with another wrong by divorcing your current spouse to marry a prior one.

However, if there is not a recognition of the sin of an unwarranted divorce, that sin still has a grip on your life. There is no way to walk in the intimate relationship that God wants with you if there is unconfessed sin hidden in your heart. Maybe you are a believer and you recognize that your sins were forgiven 2,000 years ago on the cross, however unconfessed sin can cause a great deal of pain in your life and rob you of spiritual blessings. A spiritually numb state is not the place to be and that is exactly what sin can do to a professing Christian.

Trust me. I carried the heavy burden of unconfessed sin for years. It is imprisonment, and there is nothing like the freedom of a clear conscience.