Be Hearers Not Doers?

On May 7, 2012 By BrianIn Habit of Scripture1 Comment

In the last Passion Points I recommended a post on irritability. As I was first reading the post, I was irritable. It had been a long day. My family wanted to go for a walk. I wanted to crash. I was irritable. As I read, I recognized the obvious immediate application, but resisted. I was being a hearer and not a doer.

Of course, James calls us to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22). Hearing or reading is not enough. We must respond. We must apply. We must obey. We must do what the Word says.

As we spend personal time in the Word, we must seek to respond to what God is saying to us. As we hear a sermon, we must strive to apply the message to our lives. But what about when we read blogs?

The danger it seems to me is that we can surf through numerous posts at one sitting, taking in the Biblical teaching but never responding to any of it. That is what happened as I read the post on irritability. And I have caught myself surfing blogs looking for posts to feature in Passion Points but never grappling with the manifold teachings myself.

The nature of a blog is that posts tend to be short (or no one will read them). And the nature of the web is that people tend to surf. Rapidly taking in numerous posts simply doesn’t encourage response. There is simply too much information to really process. And so we read but never apply; we hear but never do.

And this may be a deeper problem than just reading blogs. I wonder if the way we read blogs affects the way we read Scripture and hear sermons. Are we learning from our blog reading not to respond, and then taking that learned failure to our Bible reading and sermon listening?

These are serious issues. We dare not ignore God when he speaks to us. So I encourage you to examine yourself. Do you surf blogs without ever grappling with and applying the Biblical teachings? If you are like me, what might we do? Two suggestions that I want to apply to my life:

As we read numerous posts, let’s look for one post that we can wrestle with and seek to apply to our lives.
If we come to a post in which God seems to be really speaking to us, let’s just stop surfing (even if you haven’t come to my blog yet!) and just camp on that post – pondering and responding as God would lead.

Let’s strive to not only be hearers but doers also!

Home Sweet Home

On April 16, 2012March 26, 2016 By BrianIn Books of the Bible1 Comment

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
– Psalm 91:1-2

There is no place like home. Home is where we dwell. Home is where we abide.
For the Christian, home is God.

A man’s home is his castle. For the Christian this is especially true.
We find our home in his shelter. We are at home in the shadow of the Almighty.
He is our refuge and fortress.

Home is where the heart is. Our home is in God. Our heart should be with God.
God should be our great desire, our burning passion.

God is our home. He is our castle. He has our heart.
Home sweet home!

Consider His Compassionate Promise

On April 5, 2012March 26, 2016 By BrianIn Book of Luke

In Luke 23:39-43, one of the thieves on the cross joins the soldiers and rulers in mocking Jesus. But the other thief rebukes him. He acknowledges his sin, and expresses faith in Jesus. And Jesus makes him an incredible compassionate promise: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Truly. No doubts, no questions – it is certain. And today. The moment the thief dies, he will be in Paradise with Jesus.

And when we acknowledge our sin and believe in Jesus, he makes that compassionate promise to us. We need not fear death. Yes, death is horrible – just ask Jesus. Yes, death is a result of the Fall. But on the other side of death is Paradise. That word has the idea of a garden, which brings our minds back to Eden, and forward to the new earth which is a new Eden. It speaks of a perfect place of peace and harmony and love. It speaks of a place with no more pain or sickness or death or sin. And we will one day be there with Jesus forever.

And he calls us to share this compassionate promise with others. Others need to hear it. They need to know that judgment is coming for their sins. They need to know that Jesus died to pay for their sins and take them to paradise if they will simply trust in him. How can we keep this to ourselves?

Consider His Compassionate Forgiveness

On April 4, 2012March 26, 2016 By BrianIn Book of Luke

They have beaten him. Whipped him. Falsely condemned him. Now in Luke 23:32-38, they hang him on the cross. The rulers scoff at him. The soldiers mock him. And Jesus responds with…forgiveness. Forgiveness! That he would ask the Father to forgive them speaks of his own heart of forgiveness. No bitterness. No wrath. No anger. No reviling. No malice. No hate. Just kindness. Compassion. Forgiveness.

And he shows that compassionate forgiveness to us. He hung on that cross for my sin and your sin. He hung there for our rebellion, our rejection. He hung there for all the times we fail to love and serve our Creator. He hung there for all the times we become so self-absorbed and fail to love those around us. He hung on that cross so we might be forgiven of all of our sins.

And he calls us to show compassionate forgiveness to others. When someone hurts us, our tendency is lash out or run away. But Jesus calls us to forgive. To forgive as we have been forgiven. To put away all bitterness, wrath, anger, reviling, malice, and hate. To rather show kindness, compassion, forgiveness (Ephesians 4:31-32). Jesus told us to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who hurt us (Luke 6:27-28). And in this most extreme situation on the cross, Jesus lives out these instructions, and calls us to follow in doing so too. What a challenge! We can’t do this on our own. We need to stay so close to Jesus. And how convicting! How easily we fail, and need to run back to the cross to find his compassionate forgiveness again.

Consider His Compassionate Care

On April 3, 2012March 26, 2016 By BrianIn Book of Luke2 Comments

In Luke 23:26-31, Jesus is on the road to the cross. He is bleeding from the lashes and the thorns. He is bruised from the beatings. He is exhausted from the torture and lack of sleep. Every step is utter pain. And he is too weak to carry his own cross, so the soldiers grap Simon from the crowd to do it for him.

Here then we see the depths of his compassion, as he looks not to his own great needs but to the needs of others. He stops to show compassionate care to a group of weeping women. He cares enough to warn them of the coming judgment.

And does he not show this compassionate care to us? Does he not comfort us in our weeping? Did he not warn us of coming judgment and call us to himself? And as we came, did he not forgive us, embrace us, and celebrate over us? Did he not endure the cross for us?

And he calls us to follow in his steps. He calls us to show compassionate care to others. To comfort the weeping. To warn the sinner. Even in the midst of our own suffering. In our trials, we can become so self-focused that we see only our needs. We disolve into self-pity. We expect others to minister to us. And certainly we need care in our suffering. But Jesus shows us that we can care for others even in the midst of our own suffering. What a challenge! And how convicting. How often we fail in this and must run back to the one whose compassionate care provided a way to be saved at such great expense to himself.

Seven Marks of Humility

On March 30, 2012 By BrianIn Virtue of Humility

In case you haven’t noticed, the focus around here lately has been humility. I read two books on humility and spent three weeks recently preaching on the topic, so the idea is in my head (and I hope working into my life). It is an area I want to grow in. Next week we will be taking a break to refocus on the Christ’s death and resurrection. But before we do, I want to point you to a post by Paul Tautges who shares seven marks of humility from Philippians 2:1-11. Actually this passage might be a good way to start thinking about Christ’s death and resurrection too. His seven marks are:

Humility begins in the mind.
Humility is a conscious choice of the will.
Humility is an attitude of the heart.
Humility lowers oneself, while at the same time entrusts the possibility of any future exaltation to God.
Humility’s earthly end is death.
Humility accepts the likelihood of earthly shame.
Humility’s heavenly end is exaltation.

The first three remind us that humility is directly related to what we believe, desire, and do. Head, heart, and hand. The final four bring us back to the idea of humbling ourselves and leaving it to God to exalt us.

For a further description of each point, I encourage you to check out his post.

Humility and Absolute Truth

On March 28, 2012 By BrianIn Virtue of Humility1 Comment

Today when Christians hold to the absolute truth of the Bible, they are often accused of pride. How arrogant for us to hold that our views based on the Bible are better than others! And if the Bible was merely a human book, it may in fact be pride for us to hold that our views based on the Bible are better than others.

But what if the Bible is in fact God’s Word? And what if God is our Creator and the King over the whole world? Then everything changes. When we hold to the truth of the Bible, we are submitting to God’s view. We are holding that God’s view is better than all others, including views we might otherwise hold. We are humbly acknowledging that God is greater than us. Suddenly it is no longer those who hold to the Bible who are proud. Rather it is those who hold to their own view as opposed to God’s view. If the Bible is God’s Word, then humility is to hold to the Bible as absolute truth, while preferring our own views is the height of arrogant pride.

God’s Math Works Differently

On March 26, 2012 By BrianIn Habit of Stewardship

Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”
– Luke 21:1-4

God’s math works differently than ours. According to human math, the rich are obviously giving more. But according to God’s math, it is the widow who gives more. Consider further what God’s math looks like:

We never earn too little to give. The poor widow is unable to earn hardly any money, yet she gives. Human math may tell us we earn too little and discourage us from giving. But the widow frees us from seeing only through human eyes. She helps us see through God’s eyes. If she can give, then so can we.

God doesn’t despise small gifts. The rich are giving great sums of money. Human math would say that the widow’s gift is insignificant. God’s math says she gives more than all the others. We might despise her gift, but God values it. And he can use it. Human math may tell us our gift is too small. But God values and uses small gifts. What an encouragement for us!

God is more interested in percentages than amounts. The rich are giving much money, but a small percentage. The widow gives only two small coins but a hundred percent. Human math says the rich gave more. God’s math says the widow gave more. God sees the percentage. We may not have a large amount to give, but everyone can give a percentage. How encouraging!

God looks at the heart more than the gift. The widow doesn’t have to give, but she wants to give. Human math only sees the money, but God’s math cares more about the heart. What moves our hearts to give? The widow’s gift occurs during the week before Christ’s death for us. The widow could be seen as a type of Christ who became poor to give all that he had – his very life for us. The more we grasp his sacrificial gift, the more we will desire to sacrificially give to him.

The real issue isn’t giving, it’s trust. In giving all she has, the widow must trust in God to take care of her. One reason people struggle to give is that they trust in their money more than in God to take care of them. They follow human math, and forget God’s math. If we don’t trust God, we won’t give until we have more than we need. But God is well able to take care of us.

Christ’s return should motivate us to give. After observing the widow, Jesus begins to predict his return. We can invest our money in trinkets that will mean nothing when Christ returns, or we can invest our money in the kingdom that will last forever. Human math sees only this world. God’s math looks to eternity.

We can live like the rest of world using merely human math, or we can begin to see the world using God’s math. May God help us to see as he does.

The Humble Are Strong

On March 19, 2012 By BrianIn Virtue of Humility1 Comment

Many think of humility as weakness. The humble are door mats that people walk all over.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It takes great strength to be humble.

Consider Jesus. It took great strength for Jesus to humbly submit to the Father’s plan for him to die on a cross. It took great strength for Jesus to humbly put our interests above his own to die for our sins. Proud self-indulgence would have run. Arrogant self-centeredness would have never come to Jerusalem, or to earth for that matter.

And so it is for us. It will take great strength to humbly submit to God’s plan for our lives. It will take great strength to humbly submit to God’s commands. It will take great strength to humbly serve the needs of others. Indeed we need the Spirit’s power at work in us, as he was at work in Jesus, to truly be humble.

The humble are strong.

Humility: The Example of Jesus

On March 14, 2012 By BrianIn Virtue of Humility

In the last post we looked at humility with others:

We are all sinners, so I will not act morally superior to others.
We are all valuable as God’s image-bearers, so I will not act as if I am more valuable than others.
We are not gods but creatures, so I will not act as if the world revolves around me.

Then comes Jesus:

He is not a sinner. He is holy. He is morally superior to others, but he doesn’t act like it. Instead he eats with and identifies with sinners. He identifies with us.
He is God. As such, he is more valuable than others, but again he doesn’t act like it. He welcomes children, men, women, crowds, and disciples. He welcomes us.
He is God, and so the world does revolve around him. But again, he doesn’t act like it. Instead he comes as a servant (Luke 22:24-30). The Creator serves his creation. He serves us.

If a holy greater God can humbly identify with, welcome, and serve sinful inferior creatures like us, how much more should we humbly identify with, welcome, and serve one another?