How to Live Free From Bondage to Sin

"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." -James 4:8, ESV

I have spent a lot of time thinking about this lately as we have been preaching through Paul's letter to the Galatians in my church. What does it look like to actually live a life that is free from bondage to sin and death? Being the weak human that I am, it is actually hard for me to envision what it would be like. I don't think I am alone in this. The Apostle Paul himself let us into his own struggle with sin in Romans 7. Although he understood better than most his new reality in Christ, that is that he was indeed free from sin and death, he also understood that there is still a real struggle with sin in his mortal body. We have not yet been glorified brothers and sisters. Even so there is a sense in which we experience some of our future glory today. In certain moments we experience God's power. We sense the Spirit within us. God does the miraculous through us. We have felt the transformation he has begun in our hearts. Our hearts are warm with his presence and for that we are grateful, but the struggle is still present and very real. So how do we win? The answer is both simpler than most people make it and more complicated at the same time.

To put it as succinctly as possible, victory over sin begins with God and not with us. We did not initiate the work of salvation, God did. Neither can we advance it nor can we complete it. It is a work that only the Spirit of God can accomplish in us. We tend to be overly focused on our part rather than on what God has done and is doing. This is a fatal error in our attempts to grow up into maturity in Christ. It kills our efforts because, as Paul writes, it is an attempt to finish a spiritual work by the flesh (see Galatians 3). To use a very imperfect illustration, can you imagine trying to chop down a huge tree with a hammer? It is entirely the wrong tool for the job. Sure you may make some advancements, but it will come at a great cost and much greater than if you had the right tool. Have you used a chainsaw? It's magical.

To be honest though, trying to win over sin in our own strength isn't even as effective as trying to cut down a large tree with a hammer. A nail file may be more comparable, but really there is no tool which could possibly be as ineffective at cutting a tree down as our own strength is at inner transformation. We cannot do it, not matter how hard we try. Sure we may be able to change our behavior to some degree at much cost, but we can never change our true disposition. Our hearts are forever dark until the light of Christ shines in. That light chases away the darkness and that light is precisely what we need in order to truly change. External change will always fail in time because it does not have the internal framework to hold it up. So when we focus on what we can do rather than on what Christ has done and will do, we are simply working with the wrong tool for the work at hand.

The enemy knows that if he can get us focused on ourselves, he will always win the day. He knows that when we are operating in our own strength, we have no power over our broken human nature. In fact, trying harder in our own strength is something the devil would most certainly encourage. This is why the Holy Spirit says through the Apostle Paul...

"If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." -Colossians 2:20-23, ESV

Our sin nature will win every time when we rely on our own ability to keep ourselves holy and righteous before God. There may be an appearance of wisdom or of having things together, but it is a mere facade and not the truth. I am convinced that the reason why many Christians fail to walk in a manner worthy of Christ is because they are constantly trying to do spiritual works from the flesh rather than by the Spirit. This is a recipe for disaster and most of us don't even realize we are doing it.

This takes us back to the beginning of this post, to the verse I quoted from James. The key to living a life that is free from bondage to sin is not trying harder or doing better in our own strength. The key is drawing closer to God. As James wrote, when we draw near to God he draws near to us. When God is near, the light is bright enough to wash out the darkness in our hearts. We are as scripture says, a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) and the nearness of God empowers us to live like that is true. James 4:7 says to submit to God, to resist the devil and he will flee from us. We have power to resist the devil whenever we are close to God. Do you see what God is calling us to? Do you see the freedom in it? Every other religion and human ideology essentially says, "do better, achieve, get your life together, do more." Jesus says, "come to me all who are tired and loaded down with burdens and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). But how can he give us rest when he is calling us to such a difficult task? The only way it can be restful for us is if he does the work in us while we are at rest in him. That is not to say we have no part and are to do nothing at all, but that we must first be with Jesus before we can join him in the work of true transformation from the inside out.

We must first be in Christ before we can become like Christ and once we are like him, we will do the sorts of works that he does. So stop striving in your own strength thinking you will be able to become the person you aim to be that way. Instead, draw near to God through Christ and he will empower you. Pray. Engage the scriptures. Seek after God.  He will do the hard work within you which will begin to bleed through to the surface over time and you will find yourself acting more Christian naturally rather than striving so hard only to fail. Draw near to Jesus brothers and sisters! Only in him can we find true freedom from bondage to sin.

The Idol of Self-Promotion

"Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips." -Proverbs 27:2 (NET)

*This is sort of a part two in a series of blog posts. Previously I wrote about living a quiet life in a loud world. While today's post can stand on its own, it pairs well with the last one.

We live in a loud world. What I mean by this is that there is a perpetual stream of voices entering our heads at any given time. Social media, a constant flow of news from around the world, smart phones, streaming, music, and text messages seem to inundate us. There is always an outside voice. Few of us ever take the time to find silence and solitude in this world. On top of it all, there is a pressure on many of us. We feel like we have to promote ourselves, to grow our brand. Right? Do you feel this as I do? I mean, if you don't promote yourself who will? I hear this often. As a person who literally makes a living speaking, teaching, and writing, I tangibly feel this pressure often. However, the Scriptures tell a different story than our culture is telling.

Remember that time when Jesus' family and I'm sure many others were pressuring him to go out and promote himself, to build his brand? Take a look...

"Now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near. So Jesus’ brothers advised him, “Leave here and go to Judea so your disciples may see your miracles that you are performing. For no one who seeks to make a reputation for himself does anything in secret. If you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." -John 7:2-4 (NET)

There is a lot going on in these few verses, but I will mention only a few things. First, Jesus' brothers doubted him. Verse 5 says as much if you want to open your bible and take a look at it. They were pushing him into a situation, perhaps a bang or bust sort of scenario. It was a "show us what you got hotshot" sort of moment. Sometimes the pressure to self-promote comes from this sort of negative attention. Someone tells us they don't believe we can do what we claim to do so they tell us to prove it. Then we feel that we need to justify ourselves before them so we self-promote. Second, Jesus' brothers essentially give him some business advice rather than biblical, God-centered advice. They tell him that basically, everybody who wants to be anybody goes out and promotes his personal brand. Jesus' response to them was that his time had not yet come. Interesting. He was doing many miracles already, but he was not willing to make a performance out of them, nor did Jesus seek for himself to be elevated before others. In fact, Jesus actually tried to hide what he was doing. Many times he told those who were healed to go see the priest to make the proper offering as thanks to God, but to tell no one about what happened. According to worldly wisdom, this is the opposite of how you get the word out about yourself. This is the opposite of how we are taught to grow ourselves as speakers, authors, theologians, philosophers, and general leaders but this is how Jesus operated.

Jesus himself said that it was his Father who glorified him, not others' opinions of him or his own ability to promote his personal brand. In other words, what mattered to Jesus wasn't his popularity or the approval of people, but the approval of his Father in Heaven. This was really the heart of his true appeal. He was indeed human, but he did not behave like most other humans who were all about self-promotion and seeking their own glory.

I will submit to you one more example. One of the greatest men to live in our time was (in my humble opinion) Dallas Willard. You may or may not have heard of him, and I guarantee he would be fine either way. Dallas was a philosopher who loved Jesus with all his heart. He wrote many books about discipleship and walking with God. The amazing character of his life was evident to everyone who knew him. He was a very unassuming man. He would not have looked like a celebrity if you met him and yet millions were drawn to him. I heard a story recently from a man who had attended a conference in the early 2000s. There were many notable speakers holding breakout sessions there. Many were well know church leaders and young pastors who were articulate and acclaimed. The man who told this story said he walked around during the breakout sessions to see how many people were in each one. They all had a handful of people in them, but one breakout in particular was packed to the brim. It was so full people were sitting in the hallway. You probably already see where this is going, but most people would think it was probably one of those popular celebrity pastors demanding such an audience. Of course it wasn't. It was an old, gray haired, somewhat pudgy man sitting on a stool and talking about his life walking with Jesus. Those young pastors filling the room hung on his every word. Why? It wasn't because he was flashy or had it all together. It wasn't because he was the greatest speaker and had really propped himself up. He didn't have his own line of clothing or a fancy logo. He had never pastored a mega-church. What he had was character forged by relentless commitment to Christ, and God himself loves to promote that. He loves to promote it because only God can produce that in a man. These men were in Dallas Willard's workshop because the Holy Spirit drew them there. God promoted Dallas, not Dallas.

This brings us back full circle. Our world is loud and each of us are pressured into contributing to the noise. We feel that we have to promote ourselves, to make a name for ourselves. We think we need Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook followers to make a great impact. We clamor for likes and retweets. In truth, the only one we truly need to know who we are is God. If we live for his glory and not our own, if we focus on building character in Christ rather than a brand, God himself will promote us. People who want to follow Jesus will follow us as we follow Christ. They will do so not because we are great, but because Jesus is great in us.

So... let's not buy into all the hype. Don't listen to the people who say you have to make much of yourself. If you are doing worthy things, the Lord will accomplish his will through you. Jesus didn't seek out the crowds, they sought him. Be like Jesus. Oh, and just in case you forgot the Proverb I quoted to begin this post...

"Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips." -Proverbs 27:2 (NET)

Living Quietly in a Loud World

"Now on the topic of brotherly love you have no need for anyone to write you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another. And indeed you are practicing it toward all the brothers and sisters in all of Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers and sisters, to do so more and more, to aspire to lead a quiet life, to attend to your own business, and to work with your hands, as we commanded you. In this way you will live a decent life before outsiders and not be in need. -1 Thessalonians 4:9–12

I will be the first to tell you that this has often been a struggle for me. Social media is both a powerful tool, and also an adversary. On the one hand, a person has a powerful platform from which to share meaningful thoughts. On the other hand, we humans tend to struggle with the ego inflation that comes from so much perpetual attention. Not only this, be we find ourselves often pressured to make that next zinger of a post. We speak our minds. We polarize. We don't think about who is affected, the consequences, or whether Christ is honored with our words.

Wisdom dictates that we don't say everything we are thinking, even if we are right. This is particularly true when we are angry. Proverbs 29:11 says as much. Anger and outrage make fools out of just about everyone. What should we do when we get so passionate about something, when we are triggered to the point of outrage? The wise people of old knew what to do, as did the Apostle Paul. We wait. We pray. We go to the scriptures. We listen for the voice of God. Just because you have an opinion, does not mean it must be said, particularly at the moment you feel that you want to give it full vent.

Often I have found myself giving full vent to my frustrations, political beliefs, and etc via social media. The Lord checked me on this a few years ago, and made me aware that the way I present an idea is just as important as the idea. Also, the Lord has reminded me that people are more important than my being right or setting something straight with a scathing post.

Many of us today have the mind of the world on this rather than the mind of Christ. Everyone has an opinion, most just say whatever they think. WE however, should seek to live a quiet life. What does this mean? It means we should not say too much. We should not be overly concerned with putting ourselves out there. We should be considerate of what we say. We should not make it our aim to cause a stir unless we have sought the Lord and believe it is absolutely what we are supposed to do. The voice that matters most in the culture is not the most frequent one, but the most well considered one.

I am not saying that we should never say anything difficult or controversial online. To do this we would have to abandon our call to preach the Gospel. What I am saying is that we should be careful how we say what we say and seek peace to the extent that it is possible for us to do so (Romans 12:18).

So let's do what the Scriptures say. Let's strive to live quiet lives, only stirring as the Lord leads us. Let's mind our own business and work hard at being good citizens of our communities. Let's not be rebel rousers, or contrarians, or busybodies, or pawns in the World's games. Rather let us seek to be the aroma, the peace, and the presence of Christ in this world.

The Humility of God

"At Babel, as someone has said, 'earth proudly tried to ascend to heaven,' while at Pentecost 'heaven humbly descended to earth.'" -Sam Storms (quoting John Stott in Chapter 2 of The Language of Heaven)

What a profound observation the above quote draws us toward. As I read this, it got me to thinking about human striving in the history of all things. Consider the fact that God, from the very beginning, took a humble posture towards humanity. He condescended to us where we were. The God of the universe... do you understand actual weight of who he is? The literal God who created everything and holds all things together walked personally with our first father Adam. Most of us would probably think that someone who is running the universe wouldn't have much time for such a small creature as a man. Yet he did. God took the time to walk with Adam. That's amazingly humble and it is our example. The only one who ever had a reason to be proud, that is God, walks humbly. Amazing!

So what about humanity? Clearly something has gone amiss with us. We are not humble like God. Some would challenge God's humility by pointing to his severity when responding to sin and evil in the world. Our problem is that we are short sighted. God is a humble God, but he is also a very good and just God. He will not allow injustice to stand and when we fell into sin, we became injustice in the flesh. At that point we had placed ourselves against God and he was forced to react to our rebellion. A king must do what is right even if he does not like it. In the same way, God takes no pleasure in the destruction of anyone, but he must carry our justice. We will get back to that again in a moment.

The people of Babel are representative of the whole of the broken human condition. Back in the Garden of Eden, people walked with God in his humility and grace. He tested them by giving them a restriction. Would they trust God to descend to them and raise them up to their proper place in time? Or would they strive to take it for themselves? We know how the story goes. Rather than trusting in the goodness of God to disciple them and train them so they could rule by his side, they proudly tried to ascend to heaven on their own and thus began a series of failures which do nothing more than perpetuate our rebellion against God and our destruction.

Every time we trust in something other than God to grant us life, we fall into a pattern of striving for heaven on our own power. We attempt to usurp God's rightful position and claim it for ourselves just like Adam and Eve, the people of Babel, and many who came before us. God calls us to something different, and it is hard for us to accept. It's so simple and requires us to trust in his goodness rather than our abilities. He calls us to rest in him with the promise that when we are at rest in him, he will come to us and give us the heaven we always wanted in the first place.

As God has always done, he has condescended from heaven to earth in order to draw people to himself and to train them how a person should live as a citizen of his kingdom. Rather than just destroying us, Jesus came to us and took the punishment we earned in our place. He was crushed for us and rose from the dead, declaring sin and death forever defeated. You see, God always wanted Adam and Eve to be wise, to know right from wrong. Their desire for knowledge wasn't wrong, but their striving for power apart from God was. Jesus does for us by the Spirit what he wanted to do for Adam and Eve. He is training us to live the way God created us to live. You see, the Kingdom of God is a kingdom of royal priests. Each citizen has dominion over a part under the leadership of God. We get to join God in building the earth out the way God intended. Earth is to become an extension of heaven! We see that at the end of Revelation and it is amazing.

The humility of God is truly an amazing thing. He has come to you. Have you heard his voice? Perhaps he is calling you now. You were meant for much more than to strive to scratch out a small kingdom for yourself before you die. You were made for eternity, to join God in building out his kingdom on earth. Don't you want to be a part of that? If so, why don't you stop striving and start resting in Jesus? If you want to pursue this further I highly recommend you reach out to me or a pastor near you. I also recommend you to pick up the Gospel of John in the Bible and read it, asking God to reveal himself to you and to teach you what to do next. I am certain of this, everyone who turns away from his life of sin and turns to Jesus, believing the gospel, will be saved. Come join the journey with this amazingly powerful, yet amazingly humble and loving God who is calling out to you.

A Discipling Movement Begins with Feeding Jesus' Sheep

"Feed my sheep." (John 21:15-19)

Jesus had just spent years pouring his life into Peter and the other disciples. It had gone fairly well, but of course there was a lot of heartache and pain too. Judas turned his back on Jesus. Peter denied Jesus three times. All of the disciples except John ran away. All of that time invested and Jesus still had a messy lot of ragamuffins. Such is disciple making. People are deeply broken and we need to be reparented in what it means to be human, to live a good life, and what actually matters. We know that people were created to glorify God and enjoy him forever. I appreciate the Westminster Confession for making this clear for us. The truth is, we can know this and fail to believe it. If the disciples who had been with Jesus fell into this trap, we are likely even more vulnerable to it. Jesus looked at Peter in John 21 and asked him if he loved him several times. Peter replied with a resounding yes every time and with increasing grief that Jesus had to ask. Of course Jesus was doing something symbolic here by having him declare his love three times, the same number of his denials. He followed each yes with "feed my sheep." Peter was to show his love for Jesus by pouring himself out for new disciples in the same way Jesus had poured himself out for Peter and the other disciples. Everything he had learned from Jesus, seen Jesus do, and practiced with Jesus was coming to a head with this command of Christ. This is just as true for us today as it was for them.

We cannot expect to make new disciples if we are not ready and willing to feed the sheep we already have. A movement of disciple making requires many disciple makers ready to engage the mission. We are at a phase in church history, where our churches lack people who have been discipled and are ready to make disciples. It will be very difficult for us to make any real attempt at building a discipleship movement in the church until we have several who have been apprenticed to a high level in the ways of Jesus. We have been good at giving information. We have well informed churches to a large degree. They know theology and perhaps some catechism, but knowledge will never be enough.

Mike Breen, in his book Building a Discipling Culture, reminds us that Jesus not only informed but provided an atmosphere for apprenticeship. Here people can watch the master and learn to imitate him. This is important because by imitating a discipling leader people learn to actually apply what we have learned in real time. Then we can innovate and learn to how to live our lives in our particular context as Jesus would live if he were us. Mike makes it clear that immersion is critical to learning the way of Jesus, not just a core of theological concepts. We indeed want to have a strong theology but we also need a practical theology.

So back to where we started... the sheep are hungry and they may not even know it. In fact, they are often starved. How can we go about getting a new disciple making movement started in our local churches? It starts with each leader discipling a few potential leaders. It will be a slow burn. It will require some major shifts in the way we operate. It will take a lot of time and just like it was for Jesus, it will be messy. Also, few of us have been discipled in a meaningful way that goes beyond an information dump into our heads. We lack the experiential part so we will likely struggle, but we have to trust the Spirit to lead us and go for it.

I suggest that we do three things. First let's pour over the scriptures, especially the Gospels and Acts, while asking the question "how would Jesus make disciples if he were me?" Second, if there is someone in your life you want to pattern your Christian life after, ask that person to disciple you. I don't care how long you have been a Christian or even a pastor, if you have never been intentionally disciple in both word and deed, you need to sit under someone in order to see an example. Knowing isn't enough. We need to be apprenticed. Thirdly, jump into the pool even if you aren't quite ready. We have the Holy Spirit to help us and he will. The best way to learn is to be immersed into discipling ministry. You will make mistakes, but as long as you follow Jesus, staying committed to his Word and Spirit, you will be okay. You will stay on the path by following the signs you get from Jesus. Let the Spirit be your discipling GPS and invest into a few other people who need to be discipled.

So... what is God saying to you though this? Who is he calling you to disciple? Who can help disciple you so your gaps can be filled in? Let's not settle for less that what Jesus called us to do. Let's feed his sheep so we can build an army of disciple makers who are ready to take on the yoke of Jesus and help others along in their journey. This is the only way we can be truly effective at passing on the ways of Jesus to new believers. Jesus body must be equipped and engaged. You and I are the ones to prepare them. Let's go!

Faith is a Fight

One thing that is certain is this... growing and maintaining faith in Christ will always be a battle. The Apostle Paul reminds us that we are to "fight the good fight of the faith" in order to "take hold of the eternal life" we have been called to (1 Timothy 6:12). What are we fighting against?

Many things...
1. The undercurrent of culture that wants to pull us away from Christ.
2. The darkness within ourselves that longs to go with the culture.
3. The devil and his minions who know all too well your sin patterns, where you are weak and prone to failure.
4. Other people who would rather you play nice with the world than follow a counter cultural revolutionary like Jesus.

I could keep going but you get the idea. The deck is stacked against us with regards to following Jesus in the world. So how do we win this battle? We win through grit and determination, through discipline empowered by the Holy Spirit. We win by having a relentless commitment to achieve everything Jesus said that we would be able to in him. We were never promised ease or worldly contentment. We were only promised that those who persevere to the end would be saved, rewarded with eternal life in the presence of Christ Jesus and a place at his table. We get to be his family, adopted through his blood as sons and daughters of the Most High God.

Christian, do you want this more than anything? Because my observations tell me that there are many in our churches who want a lot of other things more. Are you willing to be truly inconvenienced for the cause of Christ, for his church and his kingdom? This is a question every Christian needs to be asking and it's a very important one. Our answers will show us a lot about where our hearts truly are and what truly moves us.

What do you see in yourself? What's going well in your walk with Jesus right now? What is a struggle? What is God saying to you about all of this? May the Spirit lead you into all truth, just as Jesus said he would.

Time to Let Old Things Die?

"It's time to let old things die." -Kylo Ren

Kylo Ren may be evil, but he has a point. I mean, honestly, let's consider the idea he set forth. There are times in history where something old has to fall by the wayside in order for something new to emerge. Sometimes it's something entirely new, and sometimes it is a refreshing of something old. In any case, something old has to step aside for the new thing to arise. Of course I am speaking about that which is spiritual, though the point applies elsewhere too. Just because something is new does not make it better. This is often the case. However, if we do not try to do new things, we cannot move forward and I am convinced that God wants us always moving forward. The Gospel must advance. The church must flex and grow all while holding steadily to our ancient truth we received from God through Christ and his Apostles.

Churches tend to struggle at changing and taking new roads. It is true that we humans tend to be creatures of habit, so this is no surprise. We get attached to that which worked, ways we saw God move and form us in the past. Our tendency is to think it was the form rather than the Spirit who provided the growth. It has never been about the forms. The gospel was designed to perfectly meld itself to any time and culture, appropriating what is true and jettisoning what is false. As cultures change, so must the way we express ourselves as the church. Our content is unchanging but our form must always be.

Kylo Ren saw Jedi and Sith orders which had lost the ability to change with the times. As a result, they both failed to accomplish the will of the Force and they both fell apart. Even though Star Wars isn't real, it echoes something which is. We Christians can get so focused on what we think is the right format, that we forget to seek out the God who has called us to follow him. Thus we may find ourselves giving lip service to Jesus but failing to serve him and becoming obsolete with regards to his mission in the world. We must be quick to reform ourselves however Jesus leads us to. We must hold loosely to forms and firmly to Word and Spirit. Some things never change, particularly the gospel, our need for community, and spiritual discipline. Other things must change. Jesus told us that new wine is meant for new wineskins unless we want our efforts to be disastrous (Mark 2:22). Jesus' words were a commentary on the spirituality of his day, but they are an important word for us too. We are just as prone to stagnation and unwillingness to follow God as they were back then. God does not want his church to be lazy or stagnant. He is calling us out. Will we depend on what we know and what we can do? Or will we depend on Christ and where he is leading us? Will we be willing to get out of the way so Christ can shine through us?

This is an important question for anyone who desires to follow Jesus well, but especially for leaders. I pray that God will give you wisdom to see where he is leading, and willingness to go where he has called you to go.