Paul: A Model for Cross Discipleship Living
The great Apostle Paul struggled mightily with his sins, recognizing that, while dedicated to righteousness as set forth in the law of God and in his own heart, he failed to keep the law through the propensity to sin inherent in his humanity (Rom. 7:19-8:2). Sin has a grip on him he could not completely break! You can hear his anguish in these words, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" He follows this plea with a peon of praise, "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! … For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death." Regardless of the theologians who say Romans 7 is pre-Christian and Romans 8 is for Christians, I still see both chapters at work in my life after 57 plus years of knowing the Lord Jesus as Savior. Though I will never be totally free of sin in this life I can increasingly be freer if I seek and choose the growth path of cross resurrection creativity!
Paul invested his life in spreading this message of freedom in Christ. Eventually, he was imprisoned by the Roman government. As he waited for the final disposition of his case, he wrote to his dearly loved church in Philippi. Commenting on the work of both friends and enemies who preached the Gospel of Christ for varied motives, including those helping and harming him, he rejoiced that Chris was proclaimed. Paul was convinced that Christ would be exalted both in his life and his death. He expressed this certainty thus, "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." If he lives, he will be able to continue his "fruitful labor" for the sakes of his dear friends in Philippi and elsewhere. But death entices him for he desires, "… to depart to be with Christ, for that is very much better…." Paul’s heart is torn between, first, his work for Christ in the world and the love he holds for the people he has ministered to and, second, being in the presence of the Lord in whose pleasure and service he has poured out his life (Phil. 1:15-26).
We, like Paul, finally become aware that the only reason life matters is that we can experience more of Christ Jesus, do more for the Savior, draw closer to our Lord and share Him with others in Messiah Love. Conversely, we learn that the only reason we can face death … not only without fear but with excitement … is that we are convinced that seeing Him is the most precious, exalted, invigorating and phenomenal experience imaginable! Our hearts race knowing we are approaching that full and final revelation of our Divine Lord, Lover and Deliverer! It is this kind of expectation that makes the Cross Disciple an overcomer.
To him who overcomes I will give … (all things)! Revelation chapters 2 and 3
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
The Bullet of Godly Goals, Part 3: Happiness
Amidst all of life’s activity one should stop and ask, “Am I really happy?” "Have I found true joy?” “Do I know where I’m going?” Activity is NOT synonymous with happiness.
There is real barrenness in the cluttered life. The greatest Christian who ever lived … Paul … said he did one thing: pursued the knowledge of God! If your pursuits haven’t yet taken you to life’s greatest adventure, maybe you’d better re-examine your direction. Don’t clutter you life with second rater priorities!
After all, it’s not how many years you pack into life BUT how much life you pack into your years that determines real success.
This is what Jesus meant in Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
Amidst all of life’s activity one should stop and ask, “Am I really happy?” "Have I found true joy?” “Do I know where I’m going?” Activity is NOT synonymous with happiness.
There is real barrenness in the cluttered life. The greatest Christian who ever lived … Paul … said he did one thing: pursued the knowledge of God! If your pursuits haven’t yet taken you to life’s greatest adventure, maybe you’d better re-examine your direction. Don’t clutter you life with second rater priorities!
After all, it’s not how many years you pack into life BUT how much life you pack into your years that determines real success.
This is what Jesus meant in Mark 8:36, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
Thursday, January 24, 2008
The Bullet of Godly Goals, Part 2: True Success
The kind of person one is can always be measured by one’s goals. The highest goal of life is to live first in relationship to God then in relationship to man.
The man who thinks all people will call him blessed if he succeeds is deceived. Your success makes little difference to your true friends! They will love you anyway. Your enemies will be jealous of your attainments and hate you more. The vast majority of folks don’t even know who you are and couldn’t care less whether you succeed or fail!
Those who do attain the top positions find life rather lonely. In fact, leadership can be defined as “having responsibility for situations over which you have no control!”
Goals are essential if one is to get the most out of life. If you’re seeking nothing in particular, that’s what you’ll find … nothing in particular. One who fails to plan, plans to fail.
The kind of person one is can always be measured by one’s goals. The highest goal of life is to live first in relationship to God then in relationship to man.
The man who thinks all people will call him blessed if he succeeds is deceived. Your success makes little difference to your true friends! They will love you anyway. Your enemies will be jealous of your attainments and hate you more. The vast majority of folks don’t even know who you are and couldn’t care less whether you succeed or fail!
Those who do attain the top positions find life rather lonely. In fact, leadership can be defined as “having responsibility for situations over which you have no control!”
Goals are essential if one is to get the most out of life. If you’re seeking nothing in particular, that’s what you’ll find … nothing in particular. One who fails to plan, plans to fail.
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The Bullet of Godly Goals, Part 1: Choices
The drive to success, status, attention and prominence is one of life’s most insidious traps. Many try to live out their own frustrations and failures through their children. The little ones are pushed beyond good sense to satisfy the status needs of the parents!
Goals are only as great as the value and greatness of the thing we pursue. One man’s goal is to drive an expensive car. Another man desires wealth so he can give to the needy. One man desires to live for himself, another to live for others. One man gives his life in service to his company (employer). Another man gives his life in service to God. Whose goals are greater? Is it greater to shoot 70 in golf or be a great leader to one’s wife and children? (You could do both but only one is necessary!)
The drive to success, status, attention and prominence is one of life’s most insidious traps. Many try to live out their own frustrations and failures through their children. The little ones are pushed beyond good sense to satisfy the status needs of the parents!
Goals are only as great as the value and greatness of the thing we pursue. One man’s goal is to drive an expensive car. Another man desires wealth so he can give to the needy. One man desires to live for himself, another to live for others. One man gives his life in service to his company (employer). Another man gives his life in service to God. Whose goals are greater? Is it greater to shoot 70 in golf or be a great leader to one’s wife and children? (You could do both but only one is necessary!)
Thursday, January 17, 2008
The Bullet of Success: Modeling Maturity
To “look like Jesus” requires that I answer the question: “What does a mature man or woman look like?” You might find it interesting to consider the following list compiled by the social scientists as criteria for mental health:
Jesus had these. But He had more. I always thrill to read His High Priestly prayer in John 17 which concludes with the words: “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You …” (v.25).
Jesus Christ knew the Father and that was the reason, the source, the contact for His magnificent life. People are goal-less, misdirected and drifting from one escape to another because they don’t really know God.
Almeron has said, “The best and noblest lives are those which are set toward high ideals. And the highest and noblest ideal that any man can have is Jesus of Nazareth!”
Or to put in more simply, aim your goals at Jesus Christ and you will hit everything worth hitting in life. “For in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).
If you can’t honestly say your goal is better than Jesus Christ, then I lovingly suggest you change directions!
To “look like Jesus” requires that I answer the question: “What does a mature man or woman look like?” You might find it interesting to consider the following list compiled by the social scientists as criteria for mental health:
- The warm association of at least one person who accepts you.
- Coming to terms with life instead of fighting circumstances, having achieved a sense of self-identity.
- Not suffering from an overwhelming inner conflict (guilt, fear, anger) so as to contribute to others instead of protecting self.
- The establishment of clear goals. Possessing a calm confidence that they can be reached.
- A feeling of belonging to a valued group.
Jesus had these. But He had more. I always thrill to read His High Priestly prayer in John 17 which concludes with the words: “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You …” (v.25).
Jesus Christ knew the Father and that was the reason, the source, the contact for His magnificent life. People are goal-less, misdirected and drifting from one escape to another because they don’t really know God.
Almeron has said, “The best and noblest lives are those which are set toward high ideals. And the highest and noblest ideal that any man can have is Jesus of Nazareth!”
Or to put in more simply, aim your goals at Jesus Christ and you will hit everything worth hitting in life. “For in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).
If you can’t honestly say your goal is better than Jesus Christ, then I lovingly suggest you change directions!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
The Bullet of Success: Setting the Goal
Without a goal we drift aimlessly and arrive nowhere! The Apostle Paul was clean in his mind about the goal of the Christian life: “This one thing I do, forgetting the past … I press toward the mark of the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:13-14).
In Romans 8:28, Paul defines this goal by saying every Christian has been called to “conform to the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.” God intends, says Paul, to so work in us that when He is through, we will look like Jesus!
To affect this transformation means we must take all the teachings of Christ seriously and in detail. No man or woman reaches a goal unless they have a clear cut idea of what that goal is and how they can reach it.
Without a goal we drift aimlessly and arrive nowhere! The Apostle Paul was clean in his mind about the goal of the Christian life: “This one thing I do, forgetting the past … I press toward the mark of the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:13-14).
In Romans 8:28, Paul defines this goal by saying every Christian has been called to “conform to the image of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.” God intends, says Paul, to so work in us that when He is through, we will look like Jesus!
To affect this transformation means we must take all the teachings of Christ seriously and in detail. No man or woman reaches a goal unless they have a clear cut idea of what that goal is and how they can reach it.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
The Bullet of the Forgiveness: The More Difficult but Better Way
So few of your sins can be paid for. Seldom does the victim possess the power or the advantage to demand payment. In most cases, “making things right” is beyond possibility. This is why so many of us turn to revenge. But revenge is worthless. It ruins the avenger and convinces the victim he was right all along. If repayment is impossible and revenge useless, what’s left? Forgiveness! In other words, act like God!
The price of forgiving is high. There are no cheap reductions. No bargain pardons. Just saying, “I’m sorry,” won’t hack it. We must bear the cost of forgiving just as Christ has done for each of us. Real forgiveness is rare, hard, costly. It demands that the forgiver pays a price. If true forgiveness wasn’t hard, it would be a farce.
God paid the immeasurable cost of our forgiveness in His death on the cross. How can we hesitate to pay the infinitely smaller cost of forgiving our brother – or our “enemy”? I thank God for His forgiveness and patience with me. How about you? As never before, the poet’s words are with me:
He drew a circle that shut me out,
Hectic, rebel, a thing to flout,
But love and I had the wit to win,
We drew a circle that took him in.*
The cost of forgiving is high, but the value of forgiveness is so much higher!
*"Outwitted" by Edwin Markham
So few of your sins can be paid for. Seldom does the victim possess the power or the advantage to demand payment. In most cases, “making things right” is beyond possibility. This is why so many of us turn to revenge. But revenge is worthless. It ruins the avenger and convinces the victim he was right all along. If repayment is impossible and revenge useless, what’s left? Forgiveness! In other words, act like God!
The price of forgiving is high. There are no cheap reductions. No bargain pardons. Just saying, “I’m sorry,” won’t hack it. We must bear the cost of forgiving just as Christ has done for each of us. Real forgiveness is rare, hard, costly. It demands that the forgiver pays a price. If true forgiveness wasn’t hard, it would be a farce.
God paid the immeasurable cost of our forgiveness in His death on the cross. How can we hesitate to pay the infinitely smaller cost of forgiving our brother – or our “enemy”? I thank God for His forgiveness and patience with me. How about you? As never before, the poet’s words are with me:
He drew a circle that shut me out,
Hectic, rebel, a thing to flout,
But love and I had the wit to win,
We drew a circle that took him in.*
The cost of forgiving is high, but the value of forgiveness is so much higher!
*"Outwitted" by Edwin Markham
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
The Bullet of Forgiveness: The New Start
We at Ventures hope you enjoyed your holidays and are ready to launch into a New Year. Let’s begin 2008 with some thoughts on forgiveness.
I heard an old proverb once that says, “Too quick we get old and too late we get smart.” That goes for all of us. No one fully escapes the heartbreaking blunders of their ignorance and immaturity. Sometimes, I feel like a turtle racing at the “Indianapolis 500” when it comes to mature living. I’ve done so many stupid things; uttered many words I wish I could take back; ignored folks I should have loved; not taken time to be a good neighbor; showed too little patience in understanding other people, etc., etc.
In so many ways, I wish I could start all over again and strive to be more like Christ. But I can’t. None of us can. There is only one good answer to all our mistakes and sins of the past. Forgiveness!! A lot of folks in town have hurt and disappointed me just as I have them. But playing the game of “who hurt who most” and “whose fault is it” always results in a dead end. Jesus Christ says there is only one way to begin again and that’s to forgive. In fact, He told His followers to forgive and freely as God has forgiven you” (Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:32) and to “love others as I have loved you” (John 15:12). That’s a heap of love and forgiveness!
We at Ventures hope you enjoyed your holidays and are ready to launch into a New Year. Let’s begin 2008 with some thoughts on forgiveness.
I heard an old proverb once that says, “Too quick we get old and too late we get smart.” That goes for all of us. No one fully escapes the heartbreaking blunders of their ignorance and immaturity. Sometimes, I feel like a turtle racing at the “Indianapolis 500” when it comes to mature living. I’ve done so many stupid things; uttered many words I wish I could take back; ignored folks I should have loved; not taken time to be a good neighbor; showed too little patience in understanding other people, etc., etc.
In so many ways, I wish I could start all over again and strive to be more like Christ. But I can’t. None of us can. There is only one good answer to all our mistakes and sins of the past. Forgiveness!! A lot of folks in town have hurt and disappointed me just as I have them. But playing the game of “who hurt who most” and “whose fault is it” always results in a dead end. Jesus Christ says there is only one way to begin again and that’s to forgive. In fact, He told His followers to forgive and freely as God has forgiven you” (Colossians 3:13; Ephesians 4:32) and to “love others as I have loved you” (John 15:12). That’s a heap of love and forgiveness!
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