Need Some Help

OK, if you read this blog, I need some help figuring this out. There's a set of verses in 2 Corinthians that's intriguing to me, but I want to learn more about it. Here it is:

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says:
"In an acceptable time I have heard you,
And in the day of salvation I have helped you."

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

This is the end of chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6. I'm curious to know what this means: "...[do] not receive the grace of God in vain."

Any takers?

The Ministry of Reconciliation

In chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians Paul refers to the gospel as the ministry of reconciliation, or the word of reconciliation. It's not too hard to understand that, because of our sin, we were all at odds with God at one point in time. But now that Christ has come and paid the penalty for our sins, as we put our faith in Him, we are now reconciled to our Father.

But this passage carries with it another application, one that I sometimes have trouble doing. If God has forgiven us so that we might be reconciled, we need to be very intentional in forgiving one another so that we can be reconciled with one another. Sure, we won't see eye to eye sometimes, but it's a testament to the ministry of reconciliation to those who are on the outside looking in if we can just forgive each other and be reconciled to one another. That means no holding grudges and no unforgiveness. That means tell your wife you're sorry for being a bull-headed idiot.

How can we teach others about this word of reconciliation if we won't be reconciled to each other?

Treasure in Earthen Vessels

2 Corinthians is one of my favorite books. I'm at that critical verse in chapter 4:

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us." NKJV

And in the NIV:

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us."

Here you have two things. First off, you have this "treasure." Of course, it's the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. As Colossians puts it, "...Christ in you, the hope of glory." (1:27) As Jesus lives inside all of us who believe, we must keep in mind what exactly He is living in--clay pots. So we have this "treasure" in "clay pots." It really should put some perspective into our lives. In other words, remember, who is the clay pot, and who is the treasure?

So many of us have extremely high opinions of ourselves. I know I do. As a matter of fact, we are trained in the public school system on the importance of having "high self-esteem." And that's exactly what we do...we esteem ourselves very highly. But if we take an honest inventory of ourselves, we realize we're really not all that great. We have pride, attitudes, and short tempers, not to mention the more hideous sins we harbor deep in our thought lives.

We are clay pots to be sure...nothing much to look at, very fragile, and they don't really do much...except provide a place for beautiful flowers. Understand what I'm getting at?

However, despite all this, God delights in using us clay pots. He puts nothing less than Himself in us to use us for His glory. Even though we have many shortcomings, He doesn't abandon us or give up on us. This brings a great deal of joy and comfort to me, because no matter how many times I mess up, as long as I have a repentant heart and keep turning back to Him, I will always have this treasure in me. This is grace.

It would do us well to remember who's the treasure, and who's the clay pot.

The Ministry of Righteousness

"For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory." 2 Cor. 3:9

This passage is loaded with so much about the superiority of the New Covenant over the old. I could write a whole book on this chapter alone, but I didn't want to do that. This thought crossed my mind though:

The Law - referred to by Paul as the ministry of "condemnation"

The New Covenant of grace - referred to as the ministry of righteousness

Righteousness does not come through good deeds or following the law. Righteousness comes another way...through the cross. And because I believe, I have this righteousness! I can think of no other way to put it than this:

Woo hoo!

Some days it's very easy to realize that we don't have it together. Our lives are full of mistakes, bad attitudes, and pride. But it's so important to remember that, apart from our performance, we have the righteousness of Christ. That is so awesome!

One of My Favorites

The first chapters of 2 Corinthians are some of my favorite passages in all of scripture. I went over one of those again this morning:

"Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant...."

It's so important to be reminded that, apart from Christ, we can do nothing. It's also important to remember that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. It brings peace to know that we can rest in His abilities rather than trusting in our own. In other words, when God gives us a mission to accomplish, He gives us the enabling of His Holy Spirit to get things done. We don't need to (nor should we try to) accomplish a spiritual mission through natural means.

"...our sufficiency is from God...."

I love that.

Remember that today.

The Fragrance of His Knowledge

"Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place." 2 Cor. 2:14

This is a great verse. Note the phrase, "always leads us in triumph in Christ...." In Christ, no matter what is happening, no matter how dire the situation, there's always triumph. Nothing can keep us from God's love, nothing can keep us from the life God has for us, and sin no longer has dominion over us. How awesome is that?!

I also love the second part: "...and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. My in laws make potpourri for their business. When they make it, the scent is very strong, and you can smell it everywhere and on everything. The same is true when we have the Holy Spirit inside of us. People can "smell" Him...people can know that He's real and that He loves them through us.

Complete

"Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us...." 2 Cor. 1:9-10

Here are a couple of verses that struck me the other day. Actually, the one part that really struck me is the three different "time applications" of the deliverance from death.

We know that death results from sin...so what Paul is saying with the phrase, "who delivered us from so great a death," is that God has stepped in with regard to our sin. By the death and resurrection of Jesus we have been delivered from the death that we all deserve. And no matter how many times it's said, it never gets old to hear that Jesus took our place, and took the penalty of death for us. We've been delivered from death to life.

Now Paul also says, "and does deliver us...." This is a personal application on the part of Paul and his company. Jesus was working in the midst of their troubles in Asia. They really did face death on a number of occasions for their confession of Jesus. Even so, Jesus was still delivering them.

Finally he says that they trust "He will still deliver us." Paul speaks of a future time when death, the last enemy, will be defeated. There will come a day when all who believe in Jesus will no longer face pain, or sorrow, or death. We will fully realize the life that Jesus purchased for us.

I guess the implications of this passage really spoke to me. The victory that Jesus gives us over sin and death is all encompassing, complete, and full. As He said on the cross, "It is finished."

Completed. Totally. Once for all.

The Body

Well I'm currently in 1 Corinthians. I recently read chapter 12 where Paul is talking about the Holy Spirit and gifts and functions in the body. Two points I noticed:

1.) The Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

No one can claim they have no gift. We all need to find out what it is and use it. The idea that ministry is left up to the paid professional with the four year degree is not biblical. God empowers regular people by the Spirit for the profit of the entire body. Not using your gift is (putting in harshly) disobedience.

2.) God has put apostles, prophets, and teachers (along with others) in the body.

The "teachers" interest me. Who are these people, and what are they supposed to be teaching? Obviously, they are to be teaching the truths God has set out in His Word. How important are they? I'm not so sure that we can "rank" the importance of each gift in this fashion: you're more important than him because you're a teacher and he just has the gift of helps. No, Paul actually addresses this mindset in this chapter. But he does say, "first apostles, second prophets, third teachers," meaning that these offices are critical to the health of the body. It makes me wonder if we have men and women like this. Each local church needs men and women like this.

Life is Good

The other day I was walking down the drive from the shop back to my house. It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and I'm loving my new job. I've got great kids, a gorgeous wife, and work is busy. Life is good!

An Interesting OT Verse

I ran across an interesting verse today:

So the Lord said to the children of Israel, "Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the people of Ammon and from the Philistines? Also the Sidonians and Amalekites and Maonites oppressed you; and you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand. Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in your time of distress."

And the children of Israel said to the Lord, "We have sinned! Do to us whatever seems best to You; only deliver us this day, we pray." So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord. And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel. (emphasis mine)

Judges 10:11-15

What an incredible glimpse into God's heart! One thing I've learned over the past few years is this: if you're not paying attention, you could miss an opportunity to learn something about God. It's like those Highlights pictures. At just a glance, it looks like just a picture. But if you spend time looking, you can find hidden stuff. I think God likes showing us hidden stuff in His Word. It develops your relationship with Him.

Anyway, when I look at this verse, I think God as having the heart of a father. He was punishing them for their disobedience, to be sure, but His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel. So He did something about it.

Here's a verse that came to mind as I thought about this thing:

But Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me." "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.

Isaiah 49:14-16

Leadership

Lately I've been thinking about leadership. What happens in an organization of some sort if there is a lack of leaders? What effect does a lack of leaders have on the overall mission of an organization? What effect does that have on the leaders that are there?

If a church exists (an organism rather than an organization) that is a little behind the curve on the number of leaders it has, is it because people are saying "no" to God? After all, it's Jesus that builds the church as He sees fit, and I find it hard to believe that He would build something that is missing leaders. Or perhaps He is building dependence in the leaders that are there. There's so much work to be done and few people to do it. And in a situation like this, you can either be bummed out or you can pray. I choose to pray.

~

WJS

Parenting

Okay, okay, so its been awhile since I posted. But I did start my other blog recently, and I didn't think this particular post should go on there. So I'm kind of getting into this blogging thing again. I finally have time to do it since I only have one job now!

This last Sunday we finished a series called "Waiting." We talked about one particular aspect of waiting that is (should be anyway) a part of every Christian's life: waiting for the return of Jesus Christ. We talked about some of the aspects of the days leading up to His return, especially how these days will be like the days of Noah, where unrighteousness is quite prevalent.

Now I just finished Joshua and I'm starting Judges. The stones that Israel took out of Jordan really intrigued me. Essentially they were to be a reminder to the generations after of how God worked in their midst.

"You see that pile of stones over there, son?"

"Yeah, Dad."

"Well let me tell you where they came from." And so the parents were to pass on to their children how God worked in amazing ways. It was their responsibility to make sure they knew what God had done.

As I got into Judges, chapter 2, verse 18 caught my eye:

"When all that generation [Joshua's generation] had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel." Wow! How did this happen? How could an entire generation of people among whom God worked so mightily NOT pass on these incredible things to their kids? The real question is, am I doing the same thing? Do I recognize God's work in my life? And if so, am I telling my kids about it? And if I'm not, what will be the consequences?

Here's one more passage I came across today:

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents...."

This comes from 2 Timothy 3. I find it very interesting that in Paul's description of the last days he includes that the younger generation will have a reputation for being disobedient to parents. Even more interesting is what Paul says to Timothy later in the same chapter:

"But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures...."

So what's the common denominator? Well, here's what we should learn from the Joshua and Judges passages: pass the things of God on to your kids. Tell them how God is working in your life. Read them Bible stories and pass on biblical principles to them. Pray with them. The Lord is their heritage, and it's your job to give Him to them. Otherwise, an entire generation of people will grow up and not know the Lord. And what would this do for society? Well this is what happens in the last days. There will be an entire generation of young people who will not know the Lord. Society as a whole will abandon godly principles and holy living. It will become like it was in Noah's day. And how much of that responsibility will lie with parents who did not pass the things of God on to their kids?

~

WJS

Dear Daddy

While I was at the conference this weekend, I decided it would be cool to email my daughters to show them a little love. Here's what I got back in response from my 4-year-old. My wife typed it word for word while Jama dictated:


Daddy
I love you so much and I love you very much and I am sorry I cried last night. I love you so much and I hope when you come back I can hug you. And I love you very much and miss you very much. I hope when you come back you will read us the golden gate bridge book. And I hope you have fun with your friend. And I love you, because I miss you alot and um I hope we have fun only us girls we can go get a movie from the library tomorrow, And I love you very much and I hope you don't spank us when you come home.

And I love you so beary much and I hope you have fun with your friend. I love you so much and you give me joy, I hope you have a good time with your friend. I hope you are not scared, and I love you and miss you.

Love Jama



Wow.

~

WJS

Ancient-Future Group Life Conference Main Session 2

This session had some incredible worship. It really was a good time. After that, this guy named Will Miller went up on stage. I'm still not really sure what he does for a living. I think he said he is a comedian/psychologist/consultant/something else. This guy was hilarious. I had a couple of gut-busters during his talk.

He did have some good points to pass on to us, though. From the social sciences perspective, he told us that what people really need is to be connected in community. It helps with anxiety and depression. It's interesting in light of my last post, that even though there are a few basic tenets of some branches of psychology with which I disagree, psychology and sociology both point to the incredible benefits to mental and emotional health of being in a small group. In other words, having close relationships with other human beings helps with the crap of life that can cause anxiety and depression. So here we have a science once again confirming what the Bible says. Pretty cool.

Main takeaway: Life happens. Be in a LifeGroup.

~

WJS

Ancient-Future Group Life Conference Breakout Sessions 3 and 4

Well, we started today in our various breakout sessions and will end the day all together in the main auditorium. The campus is absolutely beautiful. Here are my main takeaways from the sessions:

Guiding a Group to Spiritual Maturity

Scott Vaudrey

This was my least favorite session. The psychological influence was heavier and more discernable in this session. I suppose this kind of rubs me the wrong way, in that I don't want to see groups become therapy groups. Everyone's got a problem, everyone's got to share it, and we need to create a safe atmosphere where people can people can feel accepted. To me, being accepted is not equivalent to growing into spiritual maturity. I define spiritual maturity this way:

You've grown in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to the point where you can be used to disciple others that are going on toward spiritual maturity.

I suppose spiritual maturity could be defined by 1 Timothy 3 as well.

Now don't get me wrong; people should feel safe enough in a small group to be able to share their struggles, to get people to pray for them, and to be there for them. But should a small group's emphasis be on the people in the group, or on Jesus? I want the point of a small group to be to get to know Christ on a deeper and more intimate level. I want people to know the life-changing truths of the Bible. I want people's lives changed because of these truths. In light of all this, we must keep in mind that it's the Truth that sets people free, not psychological theory. I guess I just don't want to leave people with this impression:

The Savior can only go so far, but after that, you might need a psychologist.

I know, I know, this might actually get a few comments from some random readers. I guess the question is, can something physiologically go wrong with a person's brain, affecting their personalities and their quality of life? Sure. Can we prescribe medicine for this stuff? Probably. But my thinking on it is, mathematical science is a pretty exact science. Biology and medical science is also a pretty exact science. But when it comes down to knowing what's going on in the deepest parts of a human being, I'm not so sure we as humans are equipped enough to understand deep spiritual problems. We must not ascribe spiritual problems (i.e. sin) to psychological underpinnings (your childhood was bad, that's why you do this or that). Jesus Christ is the Hope of the world, not Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung. The church needs to be really careful about this kind of stuff.

Well, enough of my rant. Session 4 was pretty cool. It was all about finding and developing small group leaders. My one big takeaway was this: Make your leaders feel like they are part of something big. This last week I shared at our LifeGroup Fall Kickoff event. All of the small groups were invited to come to the school where we meet for dessert, fellowship, and just kind of talking about this small group thing. One of the things I shared was the picture that you see at the right. I think this week I'm going to follow up with all my leaders by sending them a copy of this picture and just a few words from me. Something like this might do:

"I shared at the kickoff that God is doing some incredible stuff through New Life. The airplane is an excellent picture of where New Life is right now. Well I want you to know that God is doing these big things through you. You are an integral part of the extraordinary life change that is occurring at New Life. We just wanted to say thank you for being a part of something big. Keep looking to God and dreaming big things for New Life."

That might work.

~

WJS

Ancient-Future Group Life Conference Breakouts 1 and 2

In the afternoon at this conference, we had two breakout sessions. My first one was about coaching life-changing small group leaders. One of my big takeaways was the first essential skill of being a LifeGroup coach: Modeling: Pursue Christlikeness.

In this breakout I was challenged to "take the time and trouble to keep myself spiritually fit." Just this week the though ran across my mind, I'm way too busy. Honestly, I'm surprised I had time to think that. Seriously. I need to make sure I spend time regularly in the Word, not just random 5 or 10 minute spots here and there. To disciple, you have to be discipled.

The other challenge I received was that I need to model "Spirit-filled leadership." I do spend time praying for all my groups, but can anyone really pray too much? I doubt it. Little prayer, little power; much prayer, much power. If we want LifeGroups to be a powerful, an integral ministry at New Life, we need to pray for it constantly.



The next session was "Promoting Growth in Your Leaders" with Mike Hurt. This guy was really good and down to earth. I remember that he articulated a LOT of the same frustrations I had with leading and coaching, especially coaching. Here's the good stuff from that session:

Every leader needs three things from a coach:

1.) Know them personally - This is key. When entering a coaching relationship, we need to concentrate a ton of time on just this. You will not get into the actual "coaching" of the leader for his/her group until this critical personal relationship is established. It just doesn't work any other way. So I guess the first key to just to get to know someone very closely. It will take time.

2.) Encourage them spiritually - "How can I pray for you?" Share with them what God is teaching you. People like to follow godly people. I've personally learned in my own experience that people will eventually respond to stuff like this. "I'm praying for your group specifically this week. What do you want me to pray for?"

3.) Equip them - Everyone needs real world tools. And each leader will have different skills. What one leader needs another may not. What that means for general training sessions for leaders is that you may have to get creative to equip each leader in their own individual needs. If you are doing a training session on something in particular that you know one leader does NOT need, have that particular leader do the training session, then you can also see if that leader could end up being a good coach.


~

WJS

Ancient-Future Group Life Conference - 1 and 2

Today I'm at Willow Creek's Small Group conference, and so far I'm liking it. The first speaker was Scot McKnight, author of The Jesus Creed. He was a pretty insightful and funny speaker. Some of the highlights I got from his talk were:

1.) In one sense, Jesus introduced a new "creed" into the Jewish culture. It used to be that Jewish people would recite the verse from Deuteronomy that says, "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord, He is One [interesting communal reference]. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." Jesus also introduced, "And the second command is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself." We should have BOTH at the forefronts of our minds, not just the first.

2.) Create an atmosphere where Christ's Presence is experienced.

3.) Pharisees: If you're clean, you can eat with me.
Jesus: If you eat with Me, I'll make you clean.

4.) Jesus hung with the wrong people.

5.) Allow people to ask the tough questions; you don't have to have an answer, just create a community where people feel comfortable to pose the tough questions.



The second session was a dialoque with Bill Donahue and Henry Cloud. Here's what I picked up:

You're not responsible for others' growth, just responsible to create an atmosphere where people can grow. God will bring the growth.

Five essential practices:

1.) Safety

2.) Be authentic (you don't have to be deep to be real. We don't want people to hide.)

3.) Offer Help

4.) Provide Care-Be careful not to offer the quick fix. Be there. Listen. Soft eyes. Soft heart. Compassion.

5.) Encourage growth - move people toward spiritual growth. Encourage to take risks.



Sitting in that second session, I realized how absolutely critical small groups are. I wonder if we can even do church the MOST effectively without small groups. I sincerely doubt it.

Peter was Sleeping

I was reading my Bible tonight in Acts 12, and something caught my eye. Herod killed James, one of the apostles, and when he saw that it pleased the Jews (apparently there was political motivation behind this persecution), he had Peter put in prison. His plan was to bring him before the people after Passover.

This really is reminiscent of what happened to Jesus.

Anyway, what struck me was this. Peter was in prison with numerous guards watching him. The prospect of death wasn't really that far off base. And what was he doing?

"And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping...." 12:6a

When I read that, I was reminded of what happened in Mark 4. The disciples were with Jesus in the boat, and the storm was raging. Who was asleep then? It was Jesus. The disciples were all freaking out, and Jesus was asleep. So they woke Him up and asked Him if He cared that they were going to die. Then He calmed the storm and said two things to them: Why are you so fearful? and How is it you have no faith?

So what's the picture? Freaking out in your situation = having fear and no faith. Sleeping (having so much peace and rest that you DON'T freak out in your situation) = having faith and no fear.

Oh that God would move me more toward having faith and no fear.

~

WJS

Leadership Summit: Session 7

John Ortberg

Well, I've never heard this guy speak, but I've seen his name on a few books. I never read any of his stuff either...but he was good. He said:

"Leadership is disappointing people at a rate they can stand."

That was pretty good.

Anyway, he basically gave a sermon on Esther. The funny thing is, it didn't feel like a sermon. There were a lot of good things he pulled out of that text. The whole basis of his talk was this idea of having a shadow mission. A shadow mission is basically something that has a bit of a resemblance to what we are really called to do. It's parallel to our real mission, but it's dark, shadowy, selfish, and evil. In other words, my mission in life might be to be a full-time pastor. So my real mission is to love people, to teach the Word of God, and to help people through that to become free. My shadow mission might be then to use my gifts to create a name and reputation for myself, to sell books and make money, and win people's admiration and respect. The thing about that is, while it may look like I'm accomplishing my real mission, I'm accomplishing my shadow mission. The thing of it is, other people are at the heart of my real mission, while I am at the heart of my shadow mission. Pretty creepy, huh?

Here are a couple of things Ortberg posed to the crowd:

What is your depraved shadow mission?

What is the shadow mission of the church?

Who's the Mordecai in your life? Who's ready to challenge you when you're about to slip into your shadow mission?

Chronic sense of soul dissatisfaction: will you name and challenge the shadow mission of the people you lead?

Are you trying to figure out some less costly way than the cross to fulfill your mission?

**God is at work behind the scenes.**

Leadership Summit: Session 6

Bill Hybels interviewed Colin Powell during this session. It was pretty good. The thing that struck me most about Colin Powell is that you could see clear decisiveness in his demeanor. He seemed to be a no-frills guy. 'Here's what's going to happen and how we're going to do it. Go do it.' He wasn't in the least bit wishy-washy like I can be sometimes.

Here are a few highlights:

Allow a Clash of Ideas
-take advantage of differing viewpoints and experiences

Only People Get Things Done
-you can sit around and talk, plan, strategize, etc., but people get things done

Reward Best Performers, Get Rid of Non-Performers

Be Prepared to Disappoint People
-check ego at the door; don't wear your heart on your sleeve

Have Fun along the Way

Perpetual Optimism is a Force Multiplier
-things always look better in the morning
-people will see your attitude and trust you

All of us have a debt of service we may not be able to repay.

~

WJS