Free Indeed?

Psalm 22:5 says, "They cried to You and were set free; they trusted in You and were not disgraced."

As Christians, we are like prisoners who have been set free from our chains. Jesus took our shackles and burdens and tore them into pieces when He rose from the grave. But sometimes, we don't act like free men and women of Christ. I've myself found myself acting more like a slave than a free man in this life after Christ. Why? What does that look like?

Imagine if all that was said happened; Jesus took your chains in substitution, through His death, and broke them into pieces, through His ressurection. Sometimes as Christians, we go back to the place where He shattered all of our pain and start picking up the broken pieces of our shackles. Can you imagine seeing that? A prisoner who has been set free yet runs back into his cell to take with him the burden of heavy iron?

What does this really look like in our lives? The truth is we all do this. Even after Jesus paid for our sins completely, we picked up our struggles and our pains and brought them with us. Why? Because glorification comes later in the Christian life. God sent His Son to die for us and then gave us the Holy Spirit to walk this journey. The Spirit helps us take our focus off of our chains and on to the Kingdom of Heaven. When we focus on our shackles, they get heavier. When we look towards the Kingdom, the city becomes brighter. The Spirit is sent by the Father to refine us so when it's time to reach the gates of Heaven, the only weight we carry are the refined peices of gold and silver fit for a crown.

John 8:36 says that if the Son has set you free then you are free indeed. What does that mean?

Everytime I hear that phrase, I think of it as useless repetition (Even though nothing in the inspired Word of God is useless). But think about that. When the Bible says free indeed, it urges us to live out that freedom; to live as free men and women. This means living without holding the weight of sins but instead living in light that God has lifted that burden, put it on His Son, and it is paid for and dealt with.

So that is the urge; to live in light of the freedom. I am the best boxer in the world when it comes to self-affliction. I am always the first and last person to tell myself that I am a failure, but that's not what the Bible says. Sure, man is depraved, but even more so is man redeemed. So let's live in light of our redemption and not depravity. To live with the idea of depravity (which I completely believe in) is to live in an old and done-away-with state of mind. When you mess up, you are forgiven. Done. Paid for. When you try to fix it (which can sometimes, but not always, be in the form of praying more or reading more or writing a blog even) you are telling Jesus "Hey, is their room on that cross for me? I know You're God, but I really feel like I need to do at least something!"

No, that's inconceivable.

If this is new news to you, please, contact me by e-mail and we can talk further about the Gospel and the work of Christ done for you.

Philippians 1:27a "Live your life in a manner worthy of the Gospel of Christ" - Forsake All

Abandoning Ship

Matthew 6:19-21 says “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

There is a story of a King who sends a group of men by ship to reach a new land. The men say goodbye to everyone they love and climb aboard. They start a trek that seems to take forever and the more time spent on the boat increases the amount that they miss their families. They not only think about the people they miss but also the control that they used to have. They finally get so caught up in their reminiscing that they began to frantically move around the boat.

One man takes his place as captain. His fierce hold on the ship’s wheel cannot become unclenched. Another takes his place at the top of the mass and rebukes anyone for even touching his wooden home. Still another drew a circle around him and hissed when people got close. Everyone had their place on the ship and that was all that they cared about; except for one man.

This man watched the madness take place and stood back and shouted to the men, “We’re not there yet!” Everyone heard the yell clearly and turned their attention to the man with no appearance of belonging. “Beware your grip,” he exclaimed, “for the day will come when we will reach the new world and we’ll leave this ship behind; never to return.”

I started thinking about this story when I read this passage. It kept coming up in my mind and it made no sense for why the men were holding on to things that would soon fade away. But then I thought, “How many times have we done the same?”

This world will end - soon. When we store up treasures for ourselves on this earth, we are just like the men who draw lines and erect boundaries on their ship. One day, Jesus will come for us and take us to our Home where we will spend the rest of eternity, and when that day comes, we’ll leave everything behind; never to return to any of it.

I pray that this message comes across not to beg you to sell every last bit of material but to look at what you own with an eternal mindset - a Kingdom Mindset. This also is not slander against those who have more than they need for their place in the Kingdom is just as important and needed as the ones who give up their lives. This story is to encourage you to examine how you’re doing. Are you storing up treasures in Heaven or are you gripped tight to the boat that you’ll soon leave?

“Cause one day we’ll get there and start life anew. Please keep your minds on Abandoning Ship” –Forsake All

By Grace

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Romans 3:24 says, “Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:27-28 says, “Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.”

I’m writing this having had a conversation with a man at Panera. I went there to study and not really to get into any sort of conversation. I was sitting at one of the couches by the fire reading in Acts 10, when a man, looking as homeless as could be, came up to talk to me in passing. I have seen this type of person so many times. Usually, they are assured that they are filled with the Holy Spirit and although they have no occupation, they believe it’s their job to do the Lord’s work.

I said to myself, “Lord, please don’t let me talk to this man, for he is a lost… “and that’s as far as I got. I started to look again at the passage that I was reading and saw how Peter was corrected for trying to judge who was and who wasn’t worthy of the grace given by Christ.  God tells us very plainly not to call unclean what He has called clean. Who am I to say that one is worthy of the Gospel while another one isn’t. So there I sat; convicted.

I began to probe questions towards him as he sat in the chair close by. He was very hesitant to answer any sort of question, maybe with the fear of being too well known. I asked him if he went to church anywhere, which is usually my opening question to talking about Christ, and he said no and that he was just passing through. He made a comment after answering that said something like, “I know you’re trying to tell me about Christ, but believe me, I could tell you more than you can tell me. I don’t have a job that allows me to live well, but I do the Lord’s work.”

Instantly, I tried to understand in the most loving way possible, although every ounce of pride in my system wanted to say, “OH YEAH?!?!?!” I restrained myself.

I didn’t find this out until I left him, but he wanted me to call him Brother, again, another way not really to not give me any information about himself, but in this story and in our prayers, this will be his name.

An hour had gone past and I began to tell my brother, who was at first meeting with one of his friends, about a verse that I thought was really telling of the work of God through personal suffering (which may be blogged about in later time). Brother (again, not my brother. This is why names are important) heard me talk about this verse and began to talk to the two of us about his beliefs. He was just as I had thought.

He began to tell us that the key of life was to be filled with the Holy Spirit that is talked about in John 14:26 and in John 15:26. However, the more he talked, the more evident it became that he believed that salvation came not by faith but by the works that we did out of loving God, taking verses from 2nd Corinthians 12 and James 2. My brother and I began trying to tell him that this was complete heresy, but he said otherwise. We left the conversation in disagreement with the beauty of the Gospel that it is by grace and not of works. So we continue to pray for Brother that God may reveal this truth to him.

It pains me to see people whose eyes are closed. This isn’t to boast in my open eyes because with what power could I ever open my own eyes when I was an enemy of Christ? It is truly by the grace and mercy of Christ that I am able to pick up the Bible and believe in its truth. However, 2^nd Corinthians 4:4 says, “in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

These people who do not accept the grace of God literally have no choice to do so because they are blind. This is beauty of the work of Christ in our hearts is that He literally opens our eyes. In the same way that God heals the blind in the Gospels, He heals those who believe, not on their own merit but because of His grace that extends to those whom He chose to let see.

So my heart burns for those who are still blind, and all that can be done is prayer and obedience to God for their sake.

But let me not let you leave this page without the knowledge that there is nothing you can do to earn the grace of God. Grace is unmerited favor, which means that there is no good work you can do for it to be given to you. To obtain a relationship with God, all you must do is trust in Christ being sufficient for your salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. If you trust in your own works, you too will find yourself never being good enough to reach a Holy and perfect God. The only way to have this security is to have it in someone else; namely, Jesus Christ.

He is the perfect sacrifice. He is the sufficient sacrifice. – Forsake All

Compelling Love

1st John 4:10 says, "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."
If you lead worship often, you'll notice that some congregations have a hard time getting into the worship. We watch videos of Hillsong, Elevation, Vertical Church, and so many other bands and we see everyone in the crowd raising their hands and screaming to the music. So this begs the question, "What makes this congregation than mine?" We first say that they are a younger congregation, so we pursue connecting with the younger generation. Then we see the music and lights and visuals and try to mimic their every move. We are trying so hard to do everything we can to create an environment that is worth hundreds of thousands of views on youtube.
The desire to see a congregation worship is one to be had by each and every worship pastor (even though the intentions may not be the best, Paul says that for someone to do ministry apart from intentions is still gain for the Kingdom Philippians 1:16-18). So I think the question that needs to be asked is, "What can I do to help my congregation worship more?" I hope to dedicate a whole blog post to the power of prayer and its importance in church leadership, but for now I will say if this is truly the desire of the worship pastor, the best thing he can do is pray for their hearts to be compelled by the love of Christ.
A personal pet-peeve of mine is when people would come to Liberty University and tell us that they use their platform to share the Gospel, but we never hear anything apart from their story. Their story is not the Gospel but what the Gospel is doing in their lives. The Gospel is the relational and redemptive story of God creating us to abide in Him and to have communion with Him. When we fell away, He had a plan to bring us back into fellowship with Him, which is why He sent His Son to die on a cross for the forgiveness of sins. Now, we have complete access to the throne of God to have communion with Him with the hope of having perfect fellowship with Him when He comes to get us. Amen!
So now that we have defined the Gospel within a paragraph (as a world map defines the city of New York), we can say that God's love for us is pretty intense. By no means is His love for us greater than His love for His own glory, but the abounding love He shows us is incomparable. Our prayer for our congregation is for the love of God to become real to them and even more so to ourselves.
The Holy Spirit's convincing of the love of God in our hearts is like pulling back the string of a bow to let the arrow fly straight into the target. We can't expect an arrow to go very far if the string it is attached on isn't pulled back. How can we expect a congregation to engage in worship with their whole hearts if they don't first know that God loves them and that His love for them is greater than anything else they know?
When I say that they understand the love of God, I am not talking about their salvation, for I know that many know that God loves them but my fear is that some don't really know how much. The love of God stretches from creation (birth) to the cross (salvation) to grace and strength (sanctification).
We just sang 10,000 Reasons this morning in church. This song means nothing if there is someone in the congregation doesn't have a reason to glorify the Lord. The purpose of the song is to think of all the things that God has loved us, through forgiveness and grace and His slowness to wrath. This song can get so old after a while because we lose sight of the way that God has loved us and the things He has done for us.
Therefore, my theory is that if the love of God is truly contemplated in a congregation's heart, through the work of the Spirit, then it will be truly compelling. This is not to say that the heart of the worship pastor is to see people physically engaged but spiritually transformed by worship. It never gets old to say that I'd rather see one heart transformed then everyone's hand in the air.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky - The Love of God by Frederick M. Lehmman
Lets pray that our congregations would be compelled by the love of God - Forsake All

Set Your Mind

Colossians 3:1-3 says, "Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
This is my life verse right now along with Matthew 6:33 that says, "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you."
I have entered into a time in my life that should have consumed me at a younger age, but as they say, better late than never. I believe that God desires me to chase after Him and only Him for the rest of my college life. I have the conviction to become the Pastor and Man that I need to be in order to have the best ministry that I can have according to the measure of given grace. I want to be filled up like a sponge so that when I go into the ministry and start working, the substance of which I pour out will be gracious, loving, and kind.
You're probably thinking that that was a pretty gross analogy...
...and you're probably right.
I've been convicted about 1st Corinthians 7 and the desire Paul has to see single people step into ministry because of their sole goal, which is to only do the Lord's work without worrying about how they should please their family or wife. So to all of you college students, and even more so high school students, this is aimed, I believe, directly at you! Paul says that some people need to get married so that they don't burn with passion, but the truth is that if you're not in a place to get married, you under the beautiful title of being "single".
All throughout high school, I was convinced that this was a curse, but the truth is that it is more of a blessing than most anything else on this earth. When we are lonely, we understand that there is a reason that we are lonely, and in that state of mind, we then come to grips that the only person who can satisfy this longing for belonging is Christ Jesus; who has made us sons and daughters with an inheritance of righteousness and everlasting intimacy. Amen?
Paul went into Arabia to spend time away learning the Way from the Lord (Gal 1:17). John the Baptist grew strong in the Spirit by being in the wilderness (Luke 1:80). Most of all, Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness (Luke 4:1-2).
So my conclusion is that for great ministry to happen, there needs to be great preparation; and that is exactly what I long for in this time.
If you also have the desire for ministry, then see whatever situation you are in as preparation for that ministry. - Forsake All

The Journey

Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Please understand that for the rest of the duration of this post that I am writing this to see make logical thoughts. I’m trying to figure things out for myself and if I seem harsh, it’s not because I am mad at anyone, but understand; it’s directed towards me.

So much has happened in the past three days. It’s so unbelievable the shift and change that has happened in my life and it all was caused by my failure to understand this passage. Most people understand the truth behind verse seven in the first chapter of Proverbs. They would agree that to fear the Lord is to have knowledge and understanding. However, there is a common and universal misunderstanding of what it means to fear the Lord. I’ve heard people who love the Lord say that it means to literally fear Him and be scared of His presence and such while still others who are devoted to knowing God say that it means to respect and revere.

Both of these groups of people love the Lord and chase hard after Him, but which one is right? We need to understand so we can start having understanding… I hope you understand the importance of this question. However, James says in his first chapter in verse five that if we lack wisdom, we’re just to ask for it. God is not afraid to give wisdom to anyone who asks but does it willingly, without hesitation. Maybe we need to pray that prayer right now…

There are so many things we can say and passages we can look up but I want to look up one clear passage that will tell us exactly what this means.

Proverbs 2:1-6 says, “My son, if you will ¹receive my words and treasure my commandments within you, ²Make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding; ³if you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; ⁴If you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth comes knowledge and understanding.”

So in this passage we see four things that we need to do to discern the fear of the Lord. It’s important to understand that this scripture is from the heart of God and this is God’s Word that He wants His people to know. When He says, “My son,” we can understand both in the idea that this a father-son relationship in which we should listen to our fathers (which is supported by other proverbs and scripture), and this is also a statement asking the son to believe in the words of God. God’s Word has authority in all times of life and is vital for discerning the fear of the Lord.

The next three steps can be looked at backwards in chronological order. Starting with verse four, we see that seeking wisdom is more than the idea of going to the grocery store and picking it off the shelf. It’s like the parable of the man who found a treasure in a field and sold everything he had and bought the field for the sake of the treasure. This is equated with our search for the Kingdom of God, but can also be used in our fervent desire to have wisdom. Sure, we ask for it like James says, but maybe God’s way of giving it to us is different than just handing it over.

Verse three makes mention of one crying out for wisdom. Sometimes, this can be pretty literal when someone literally has no idea what to do and needs wisdom. This may be a cry of desperation because of the situation or possibly because the crier just wants to be wise. Wisdom, in chapter one of Proverbs in verse twenty, “Shouts in the streets and lifts her voice in the square.” In the way that wisdom wants to be known, we must also desire to know and obtain wisdom; even if it means crying out for it.

 We’ve been on a journey. We’ve sought after wisdom with our whole hearts. We’ve searched every nook and cranny hoping to find this jewel. While walking down the road, we’ve cried, “Wisdom! I am in need of you!” While turning the corner, we hear a cry saying, “Here I am!” Once we see her, we sit ourselves down and listen to everything that she has to say and we treasure every single moment with her. Our hearts must be inclined to love wisdom, which if we do these things, cry out and search for wisdom, then the easiest part is listening to it and doing what it says to do.

Are you ready for the journey to wisdom?