Speaking of Jesus...

As a Christian, I am highly supportive of Christian musicians who include Jesus Christ in their art.  Artists like Lecrae and the metal band "For Today" are a couple of my recent discoveries of musicians who do not shy away from using the name of Jesus in their songs.  I find this very refreshing.  Many Christian artists are content with using vague allusions to Christ in their music rather than coming right out and saying His name.  When I hear a musician, actor, athlete, or person in the public sphere mention the name of Jesus, I rejoice.  I am sure God also rejoices in the boldness of His loyal followers.

Professing Christian musicians in the public eye often face harsh criticism from people in the church.  They can be criticised for their music style, dress, piercings, tattoos, the other bands they tour with, their lyrics, record label, for becoming "secular" or "sell-outs."  It is almost safer to shed a "Christian" label to not have to deal with the judgment of other professing believers who presumes to know how a person should handle stardom.  Realise it is very easy for us to sit in a throne of judgment over other Christians, smugly asserting if we were a famous musician or actor we would use the platform in a far more constructive and evangelical manner.  We wouldn't merely make shadowy allusions of Jesus in our songs, no:  we would come right out as sold-out followers of Jesus Christ!

While we are up on our high-horse in judgment of others who are at least known by the world to be professing Christians, perhaps we would be better served to issue a judgment of ourselves right now.  How often does the name "Jesus" roll off your tongue in casual conversation?  When was the last time you spoke even one complete sentence specifically about Jesus to someone you didn't know?  If praises and glory to God do not flow from us in random conversations during everyday interactions, do we really think we would speak freely of Christ on a stage in front of millions?  He who is faithful in little is faithful over much.  Instead of criticising supposed missed opportunities by others, why not redeem the opportunities God gives you every day?  God has given you personal, direct contact with more people than you realise.  Jesus didn't draw people with music or reach people with an amplified voice from a stage.  He didn't turn the world upside down by interviews over the radio, TV, and online, or with printed lyrics in a CD jewel case, but spoke of the Kingdom of God and lived righteously wherever He went, speaking to all who would listen.

Most Christians think they would better handle the big platform for the glory of God.  I say it is better for us to seize the opportunities God lays before us daily to speak freely to one person the name of Jesus and faithfully live in the way which fully pleases Him.  God may never give you the platform you crave or feel you deserve.  You may never have the opportunity to speak to hundreds, thousands, or millions, but it is the man, woman, and child who faithfully follows Jesus in truth when no one is watching who will actually have anything of value to say on the platform for the glory of God.  Whether or not someone redeems their opportunities, what is that to you?  You follow Jesus and speak of Him often!

Desire and Denial

"Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."

Matthew 16:24-25

Jesus has extended an invitation for anyone to follow Him.  The conditions are simple enough:  desire to be with Jesus, deny self, take up his cross, and follow Jesus obediently.  It is an tragic position when a man desires to follow Jesus but is unwilling to give up his own life.  Jesus talked about many people who would call to Him "Lord!" on the day of judgment, citing their great works for His sake, but Jesus will deny any knowledge of them.  They called Him LORD with their lips, but they never met His conditions of self-denial and faith demonstrated by obedience.  Unwilling to carry their own cross, some wander from Calvary and substitute good works which cannot save.  If I am unwilling to deny and die to self, than I am not Christ's.  Of this I am certain.

Our existence on earth is really a struggle between the life of Christ and the ways which lead to death.  It is not like Jesus holds one of my hands and Satan the other, both pulling and entreating me to go their way.  One major trouble with this picture is I am not neutral in my allegiance, but naturally selfish and sinful.  Another problem with the view is it is not consistent with the character of Jesus.  He does not play tug of war with souls.  The reality is my sin nature and Satan have held me with countless bounds in prison awaiting death for my crimes and Jesus came to me in my ruined, powerless state.  When I admitted my guilt in repentance, Jesus broke every bond which held me fast.  He caused me to be born again and the door of my maximum security prison cell swung open.  If I desire life, then I must desire Jesus and abide in the Way, Truth, and Life.

Let me ask you:  what was your motive for coming to Christ at the beginning?  What is your motive for seeking Him now?  When I was at Camp Kedron, I took part in an object lesson where all the campers were given four playing cards.  The object of the game was to obtain a "perfect score," four cards which added up to 40.  Each face-card and the "10" was worth 10 points.  The rules of the game are every person was required to walk around the room, find someone with cards, place your finger on a card held in someone else's hand (like "Old Maid") and draw at the same time.  You need not play the game long before you realise it is impossible to have the perfect score.  A player may hold a card worth 10 points for a while, but it is only a matter of time before it is swapped with a low card.  Even if by chance you did obtain the perfect score, you would need to continue swapping with other players until game end.  One different aspect of this game is all who did not have a perfect hand by the end of the game would be subjected to a punishment - which in our case was a cream pie to the face.

My role in the game was to walk around and make offers to the players.  Instead of trading cards, my role was to say, "Give me your cards, follow me, and I will take your punishment."  The various responses of people was interesting.  Some were so intent on playing the game they looked blankly at me and walked away.  Others were happy to unload their cards.  The most common response I had was people handing me their cards and in a carefree manner walked away!  I said to them, "Hey, you can't just walk away:  you need to follow me."  "Oh!" they would say, and sometimes they would actually follow me.  Some would head off to hang out with their mates.  The game continued until my "followers" were confronted for not having cards, and at that time I held no less than 70 cards with only one face-card among them.  I revealed my hand which had been hidden during the game:  four Kings, a perfect score.  Even though I held a perfect hand, I needed to take the punishment for holding those horrible cards for others.  Hopefully the pie to the face I received made the impression intended:  Jesus took our punishment on the cross for our sins, and we must follow Him.

I believe many people today are like those kids who were happy to unload their damning cards which demanded a punishment but had no desire to follow me at all.  No one wants to be condemned, and the concept of someone taking our punishment for nothing has appeal.  If we have only come to Christ to unload our guilt so we could go our own way, we have not followed Christ.  According to Christ's conditions such are not born again or saved!  We must want Christ and the life found only through faith in Him - not just forgiveness of a debt we could not pay.  People in financial difficulty choose to declare bankruptcy - not because they are sorry about their spending habits or have taken intentional steps to repay all debt - but to cut their loss of possessions, to avoid creditors, jail time, or foreclosure!  There were likely many in the bunch which heard the words of Jesus that day who fit in this category in a spiritual sense, and no doubt there remains many to this day.

We are all guilty sinners before a holy God, and He alone has the ability to cleanse and redeem us.  He will do this only when we meet His conditions to repent and place our faith in Him.  If we want to go where Jesus is going and be where He is for eternity, then we must follow Him.  This means committing our past, present, and future entirely into His hands.  We must lay aside all our selfish aspirations, dreams, and plans, burning them on the altar as a freewill offering.  We are called to obedience and to submit to God so the life of Christ can be lived through ours.  Jesus has become our life, much more than a belief system or moral compass.  As a purchased possession by the blood of Jesus, we can joyfully submit to His guidance and find contentment in every situation.  There are times we am not content, but when we repent and fix our eyes upon Christ again joy and peace is restored.  Are you following Jesus today?  Our desire of Christ is evidenced through denial of self.  If you want to dwell with Him for eternity, today is the day to begin in earnest.

The Satisfying Answer

At camp last week I had the privilege of some lovely conversations with leaders and campers.  One camper in particular had a question to which there seemed no satisfactory answer.  Often this can be the case, where we have a desire to know something definite when God in His wisdom has seen fit to conceal it.  There are many legitimate questions we can ask without a single answer provided satisfying our curiosity.  We want to know how, who, what, when, where, and why, and even if all these were laid out for us it doesn't mean we would agree or be pleased with the answers.

I love how Jesus answered questions people asked Him - or how He didn't answer them.  Read through the Gospels and take note of how Jesus dealt with questions.  Sometimes He answered them plainly with an explanation.  Other times He spoke in parables, even linking different parables which on the surface didn't seem to fit together!  Jesus also answered questions with questions.  And my favorite is when Jesus disregarded the question altogether and talked about another subject entirely.  This shows me I can be asking the wrong questions because I am focused on the wrong thing.  If we are satisfied with Christ and trust Him, then we can be pleased when He knowingly changes the subject to reveal important things our curiosity isn't keen enough to consider.  Is that possible, that God wants to reveal something far more fulfilling than the answer to my question?  Are you fine with that, even when at the time the answer to your question seems so important and critical for your rest?

Job was a man who asked a lot of questions, and rightly so.  He was a man who enjoyed fellowship with God through worship and sacrifice.  He trusted God even when his life seemed to go to hell after Satan attacked him (with permission under God's watchful eye) and robbed him of his goods, children, and health.  Some of Job's friends came to "comfort" him but spent the majority of their time attacking, judging, and suggesting his sin had contributed to his pitiful condition.  In his pain Job asked questions of men and God, and there seemed no answers for why such terrors had befallen him.  God finally weighed in on the conversation in Job 38:1-3:  "Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: ² "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? ³ Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me."  God did not answer Job's questions, telling him why He had allowed him to be born or see such days.  Instead, God launched into a extensive series of questions and Job was unable to answer a single one.  God provided Himself as the answer and Job finally understood.  In trusting God He would find satisfaction - not in answers to petty or hypothetical questions.  Job put his hand on his mouth and was silent before God, repented, obeyed His command, and God restored Job.

God gave us minds to think and question, but there is no question or dilemma man can have which is greater than God.  Sometimes there are no answers to our specific question from God, the Bible, or our friends, but we are called to trust the God who has become wisdom for us.  He is not just enough but our everything, our life, our all.

Two Are Better Than One

"Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labour. ¹⁰ For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up."

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

During last week at Camp Kedron, I had the rare task (for me, anyway!) to prepare for, light, and maintain a campfire during two evening activities.  I don't have a fireplace at home and can't remember the last time I actually went camping so it was a fun challenge.  The success of dinner one night and sharing testimonies about how Jesus has saved and is working in our lives depended in part to my preparation and timely stoking of the fire.  The first night a fellow leader, campers, and I was able to gather enough sticks for kindling and wood for the fire.  During the men's night, all the male campers brought a can of food and we mixed it all together and cooked the "bivouac" (affectionately called by some "the biv") in a large pot suspended by wire from a long pole heated to boiling over an open flame.

The next day I was faced with a dilemma.  We had plenty of wood from gum trees gathered the previous day for the fire, but it was in large, uncut boughs.  All the large pieces of wood needed to be cut down to a manageable size, but finding a saw in the shed up to the task proved to be a challenge.  Had the wood been wet it would have been much easier, but some of the fallen branches were extremely dense and hard.  I was able to find a couple of pruning saws, but as I suspected the blades were far too flimsy.  Then I found an old rusty handsaw, but it too was useless to cut the wood.  It cut through bark easy enough, but the teeth were dull and the rust made pulling the saw through the wood impossible.

When I first poked my head into the tool shed, I saw a large two-man saw.  Because I was the only one working on preparing firewood for the evening, I didn't see it as a viable option.  But time was beginning to run short.  So I pulled the antique-looking saw from the tool shed and asked a fellow worker to help me.  It took us a few minutes to figure out the best way to position the limbs for cutting, but progress was being made.  About halfway into the process the saw bound right when I was pushing and injured a spot on my palm.  I could see the blood pooling under the surface, so I used my other hand to push and pull.  After about half an hour of coordinated pushing and pulling in unison the work was nicely done, and I am glad to say we had wood left over at the end of the night.

It occurred to me how we can approach our labours for the LORD in ministry in a similar way to how initially I went about cutting firewood.  We feel with the LORD alone we are sufficient to accomplish the work He has called us to do.  But the fact is, to do some work we not only need the right tool but other people united with us as well.  I could have tried using the big saw by myself, and perhaps the work would have been done in time.  Yet the saw was designed for two to handle big jobs, and with my partner the work was easily done.  As I looked at my injured hand after the work was done, it occurred to me that many pastors and leaders can be hurt in ministry.  A flawed response of mine would be to point to my injury and say, "Next time, I'm not going to ask for help.  I will do it myself."  If I could have used the two-man saw myself, who is to say my hand would not have been more damaged by the end?  I would rather sustain an injury and have the work finished than injure myself trying to do it myself and never complete the work.  In my case, I was only able to do the work with help and though I sustained an injury in the process, I could smile with a job well done.  Two are better than one.  When I dropped the saw because of the pain, my friend held the saw and asked if I was alright.  I wouldn't have been able to receive such care, support, and encouragement if I was alone.

If we want to work in unity with God, then we must be willing to take risks in labouring with others.  I am not suggesting we be cavalier, foolish, or irresponsible, but there are those among us who tend to take on more than we should because we feel comfortable with an illusion of control.  We want our firewood cut just so, and God help us if someone does things differently or questions what we are doing.  In our walk with Jesus there will be pains, difficulties, and injuries along the way, but it is important we do not allow these to deceive us to think it wise to push others away.  We must trust God has called us, and that He has provided the tools and people necessary to accomplish the work before us.  My eyes fell upon that saw at the very beginning, but I ignored it because it looked old and required two people.  It very well may be there are people serving alongside you who are perfect assistants for the work God has called you to do, but because they seem busy or some other hollow reason you have looked elsewhere.  I was looking for a power tool with a sharp blade, but the antique saw is what was needed on that day.  We all want perennial All-Stars on our team, yet it is the unified team of hard workers nobody has heard of but plays best together who wins the big game.

If I needed help to cut a few dry limbs from a tree, don't you suppose we servants of Christ also need help from others to accomplish great works for God?