Refocus

For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. -- 2Co 12:10

In reading 2 Cor 12 this morning I was struck by two things. The first was Paul's undeniable deference to Christ and his mission. The second was that Paul's ultimate aim was not for right theology or right ecclesiology, but for right hearts. Verses 10 and 14 bring these two thoughts to the forefront.

In verse 10, Paul states that for the sake of Christ he will be content with hardships. It isn't some Spirit driven masochism that Paul is describing. It isn't some sort of spiritualized denial of reality. Instead, Paul is boldly claiming that weaknesses, hardships, calamities, persecutions and insults actually serve a bigger, better purpose. They serve the purpose of Jesus.

Is that purpose in our own lives? Perhaps. There is the ever present battle with pride. There is the continual learning that this world is not our home. There is the never ending fight against sin, in all is multifaceted effects on our hearts and minds and bodies.

But, perhaps there is also a bigger, broader purpose to the hardships, insults, weaknesses, persecutions and calamities that Jesus allows (dare I say ordains) into our lives. Perhaps these things come along to take our focus off of the god of ourselves and place our gaze back on the God who made us, who redeemed us, who called us, who is sustaining us, and who will one day deliver us unblemished before His glorious throne. Perhaps it is to use us as a signpost for others who are traveling this narrow road of faith. Remember Jn 9:3? Perhaps it is to give us a chance to say with Christ, not in despair or defeat, but with sorrowful joy, Father, not my will but yours be done.

Now, add to this Paul's thought in verse 14. He says to the Corinthian church, I came not for what is yours but for you. In that one statement is the essence of the Church. In the end, it is not about what I can contribute to the church or what you add to the body. It is about you and its about me; it is about the condition of our hearts. The church is a family and as the Spirit has knitted this family together, God's desire is for his children to be rightly related to Him and to each other.

Are there gifts? Absolutely. And they should be used for the glory of God. Is correct theology important? Without a doubt. Correct ecclesiology? Amen. But whatever ology you bring up, as important as they all are, they all serve the bigger, broader purpose of God calling a people to himself.

So, where does this leave us? For me, I am left in need of refocusing. Refocusing on the purpose of Bible study and prayer. Refocusing on the purpose of worship and sermons. Refocusing on the purpose of giving and of serving.

In the end, it means refocusing on Jesus and His blood-bought bride.

To God Alone be the Glory

Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!

Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift! - 2 Cor 9:15

A verse like this serves to remind us, especially me, that the mercy and grace that we have received from God in Jesus goes way beyond what we can grasp. Somehow we think we can come into God's presence in a spirit of praise and actually express to Him the depth of what we've been given. But, in the words of Job, these are but the outskirts of His ways (Job 26:14).

May the Holy Spirit revive in us a holy awe at the magnitude of our salvation in Christ. There is the depth of the sin Jesus' paid for. There is the entrenchedness of our selfishness and pride that He is graciously removing. There is the security Jesus has guaranteed to us both by his resurrection but also by the send of the Holy Spirit. There is this new community that Jesus is gathering to himself to the glory of God.

And, as magnificent as these things are, they are only the gifts and blessing we can perceive. How many times has the Holy Spirit redirected our lives to keep us in the love of Christ? How many ways has God answered our prayers and we have not been aware of it. How many holy coincidences has Jesus orchestrated so that we can sit here today a say, I am a follower of Christ?

You see, everything we have, the mundane to the magnificent, is a gracious gift of God. And because of this, the gospel and the cross should drive us to continually proclaim:

Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!

To God Alone be the Glory

Ambassadors for Christ – 2 Corinthians 5:14-21

The following is the conclusion of a sermon preached today. Read the whole thing here

In the end my friends, we are ambassadors because of 3 things.

• We are ambassadors because Jesus has claimed us as His own.
• We are ambassadors because God has given us the ministry and message of reconciliation, the unbridgeable gap between God and man has been bridged in Christ.
• We are ambassadors because Christ’s love compels us to plead with our friends and neighbors and all who the Spirit brings into our lives: Be reconciled to God.

I think it is fitting to close with the words from Isaiah. Despite the cultural decay and spiritual apathy around him, he continued to plead for reconciliation on God’s behalf:

Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
  Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
  Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
  let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

To God Alone be the Glory

Light & Momentary?

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (2 Cor 4:17-18)

There is a risk in commenting on any verse in the Bible, especially the well known ones. Many people, much wiser people have probably weighed-in on what the verse means and how it can apply to our lives. What can my words add to the long history that has preceded me?

The answer is, maybe nothing. Or, maybe something, that by the grace of God, may touch a heart or a life.

Each time I read these verses (and really all of 2 Cor 4-5) I walk away with the sense that my focal point is all wrong. Paul refers to our "light momentary affliction". For me at least, the affliction I am experiencing does not seem light or momentary. But when my life is compared to others, my affliction is not as bad nor is as enduring as what they are experiencing. And then take whatever we may be going through (as bad as cancer or killer tornadoes) and compare it to eternal life with God, and suddenly our perspective changes.

For me, I don't wrestle with the truth of these verses. They make sense. We endure small pains for great gains all the time. What I wrestle with is getting my heart and soul to the place Paul was when he could look at the struggles and the trials and the setbacks and the beatings in his life and say they were all light and momentary when compared to the eternal weight of glory that God is preparing for us.

I guess it all comes back to focus. When my focus is on me and my life, my struggles will seem big and probably insurmountable. But when my focus is on Christ and the fact that He has orchestrated my struggles so that I can glorify God and grow in Christ-likeness and that there is a payoff in the end, then maybe whatever I'm going through, whether its cancer or martial strife or job loss or simply a bad day at the office can be viewed as slight and momentary.

And we all need to remember (and be reminded daily) that what is seen (i.e. the cancer and the strife and the  job loss) are transient. Whatever I am facing, whatever you are facing, even if it is as bad as Job's ordeal, it won't last forever. What God has for us, even though it is currently unseen, it is eternal.

To God Alone be the Glory