Freedom and Obedience

What it looked like when my friend started our fire

Like most red blooded American males, I love starting bonfires and burning stuff(legally!!).  The bigger the bonfire, the better.  One of my favorite memories is a big party I threw at my parents house in college and we had built a giant pile of wood and rubbish...then we doused it with gasoline....I know terrible idea...and my friend Matt did the honors of lighting it on fire.

He was being "safe" by lighting a long stick on fire and slowly getting it closer and closer to the gasoline soaked pile.  There was a moment of delay as he touched the burning end of the stick to the pile where nothing happened, and then...

WOOOSSSHHHHHHH

A giant fireball exploded AROUND Matt as the gasoline fumes and the pile all lit at the same time.  There was an audible boom that could be heard a few houses away.  Luckily Matt only lost some arm hair.  Do not try this at your own home though.

The woooosshhhh and the boom were the sounds of the oxygen being rapidly consumed from the surrounding area and the collapse of air to fill the void left by the hunger of the fire for air.

Which seems so contradictory on the surface.  If you ever tried to light a candle while a kid keeps blowing at it, you know that the air puts it out.  Yet, if you place a flame in an airless vacuum it will immediately die.

Air might seem like an enemy to fire, but without it, there is no fire.  It was actually one of the saddest discoveries of my youth that all the amazing explosions in Star Wars were completely fictional because there wouldn't be a fiery ball of death in the airless vacuum of space(not to mention no lightsabers possible either)

In the same way freedom only truly exists where it is balanced with obedience.

There is this idea that rules or standards are by definition limiting on freedom.  If you tell me "no" it is in some way directly conflicting with my autonomous free will and squashing my freedom.  So much of our western civilizations rot today is the outflow of the idea that my own personal feelings, desires, "truth", is all that matters and anyone who gets in the way of that is oppressive in some capacity.  When the truth is that doing whatever you want is the most oppressive life you could imagine.

Let me easily prove it.

Every choice that you make has intended and UNINTENDED consequences.  It doesn't matter what you intended, you can't help but be faced with the multiplying effect of unintended consequences of every choice you make.

Example 1:  I am "free" to jump off the top of a tall building.
Intended Consequence: I want to feel the thrill and rush of the wind.
Unintended Consequence:  I am now dead.  Freedom is completely gone

Example 2:  I am "free" to cheat in my math class
Intended Consequence:  I get a better grade
Unintended Consequence:  I either get caught and get kicked out/flunk, OR, I simply never learn the actual material and limit my future self from all that I could have been capable of.

Example 3:  I am "free" to steal something from you
Intended Consequence:  I get something for nothing
Unintended Consequence:  You got jail and lose a whole bunch of freedom.

While those might seem like overly simplistic examples, think about it just a bit.  When we operate in a way that doesn't take into account the world around us, often what feels initially like freedom becomes the swinging door of the jail cell we have constructed for ourselves.

To truly maximize freedom is not about doing as much as we could possibly imagine we should be "allowed" to do, but to instead understand the reality of the world in which we live and operate within the bounds of what is true.

In Galatians 5:1 we are told,

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.   

Perhaps you are tempted to say Jesus WANTS me to be FREE.  What is this all about obedience Adam??

When Paul closes this statement with, "a yoke of slavery", he isn't talking about people giving you rules.  He is talking about living a life for sin.  Jesus came to give us freedom, not to do whatever we can come up with, but to instead experience the freedom to do what we are actually made for in this life and for eternity.  When we live according to sin, in opposition to God's word, it often feels free at first, but it is ultimately a yoke of slavery that slowly removes the freedom from your life that you thought you were getting.

Jesus came to give us hope FOR obedience, and it is an obedience that provides FREEDOM.

James puts it this way in James 1:25

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it--not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it--they will be blessed in what they do.

The LAW(God's word) GIVES freedom.  Not just the hearing of it, but in the DOING of God's word.  Without the oxygen of life that is breathed into us that is Godly obedience we are left with a false freedom, one that ultimately enslaves and takes away any hopes we might have to be truly free.

God's law is good.  And it isn't a bunch of arbitrary rules because God is a killjoy, but because God made you.  He knows you better than you know yourself.

And He knows that you are made for more than what you see in front of you today.

But the choices you make today impact not just tomorrow, but all your tomorrows.

Exercising your freedom in conflict with God's truth is like ignoring gravity because you think you deserve to feel the wind blow through your hair after jumping off a tall building.  It WILL be thrilling at first.

Yet that freedom ends in a fall that will end in a markedly unfree sort of way.

One of the joys of parenting is seeing this principle play out in small ways with children.  They often do not want to trust you when it comes to certain tasks or skills.  As if they, after 4 years of age, know much better what it takes to ride a bike then their ancient parent does.  They WANT to ride the bike, they want to have that fun.  And you want it for them too.

But they struggle with trusting you.  Just like we struggle with trusting God.  They struggle believing you.  Like we struggle believing God.

And then, they accept your help and they do things the right way, they follow the steps.  And you can see the joy that overtakes them when they whip down the driveway the first time on their own and realize a whole new world of freedom has opened up before them.

Too bad they don't remember that life lesson the next time you are trying to help them with something difficult ;)

Our freedom as people, image bearers of God, is like that.  We want to resist God's truth.  We say, no, that can't be freedom, that sounds too restrictive, too overbearing.  Yet, when we truly and fully let God have his way and trust him, a whole new world of freedom opens up before us.

There is no fire without oxygen.

There is no freedom without obedience.

Parenting and the Cross

Being a parent forces you to focus on priorities.   Every moment of every day is limited.  And this is especially true when your kids are still quite little.  You blink and another year has passed.  Just the other day, my wife and I had lost track of the time and realized that we were about an hour behind on starting the bedtime routine.  Clearly this made for a relaxed evening of well-behaved children……

Success means knowing what is and isn’t important and not compromising on getting those most important priorities accomplished.  It is easy to get distracted by the non-essentials and miss out on key moments.  A five year old needs to learn to pick up their own room, but it is more important that they know they are loved than they have a clean room.  And it is vital that they don’t confuse being loved with a result of the cleanliness of their room!

Well-meaning parents will sadly sometimes miss the most important priority in what it means to be parent; Love.  Nothing else matters if your parenting isn’t driven by love.  A child who doesn’t feel like their parents instructions are coming from a place of love is a person who will grow up to be resentful of the behaviors and habits they were unfairly “forced” to have.

“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is useless, and so is your faith” -1 Corinthians 15:14

Being a follower of Christ I have one priority.  Christ crucified and Christ risen.  As the Apostle Paul points out in 1 Corinthians, our faith begin and ends with the message of the Cross.  Everything else hinges on that.  It is easy to focus on the peripherals first.  What I like to call the behavior modification aspects.  But Christ didn’t come to help us behave better, but to die for our sins, defeat sin and death, and offer, through HIS finished work, hope for eternity. 

The power of whatever I do as a preacher is sourced from one place.  The unconditional love offered at the Cross.  The people in our lives don’t need a better approach to achieving some sort of “better life” goals.  They need to hear the Gospel of the Cross. 

My kids need to know that they are loved deeply before what I teach them, hold them accountable to, and expect from them, makes sense.  And they need to know that their success and/or failure at achieving these standards is not the basis of whether their daddy loves them.  The love is unconditional, which gives them the freedom and hope to get back up when they fall. 

We need to know that we are deeply loved BEFORE we are equipped to pursue the Holiness that Christ calls us to.  And the Cross tells us that this love is not dependent upon how well we are currently doing at running hard after Christ.  People change because they are loved.  They can’t change so that they can get loved.

Some of us need more help as parents than others.....

True Love in a Romanceless Marriage

Why did you get married?  If you aren't married, what are the reasons you would want to be married?

If you read Nicholas Sparks books(please please don't) you would probably answer something about love, romance, fate, etc.  The common dream is that we find some perfect person who will give us continuous butterflies in our stomach and satisfy our deep desires for romantic intimacy.  If you can only find that perfect Prince(or Princess) your story book life will begin and you can live happily ever after. 

Marriage has become a strangely one sided affair.  Yes, I know it involves two people.  But the basic assumed premise of a successful marriage is that YOU are in some way satisfied by the person you are married to and the circumstances you find yourself in.  And when either one person or both individuals no longer feels this way the marriage comes to an end. 

While many may bravely soldier on under these conditions for a period of time the foundational narrative of personal satisfaction overrides other senses.  In my relatively young life I know a number of my peers who have been divorced.  In not once instance were there occurrences of abuse, infidelity, criminal behavior, etc.  They were all cases of, "We(or I) are no longer in "love" with that person". 

No wonder people keep waiting longer and longer to get married!  When you are contemplating committing your life to another person against the backdrop of a culture that says marriage is about love alone when we know how fleeting such emotional feelings can be, the risk seems too great.

In Ruth chapter 3 we have the story of Ruth basically using cultural and religious obligations to convince an older man(Boaz) to marry her.  Our modern sensibilities balk at this story.  Where is the love we ask?  The romance?  The passionate kiss in the rain after they both discovered how much they truly needed each other!!?!?!

The book of Ruth is a foreshadowing of the story of Christ and His Bride(the Church).  The picture of what a marriage is in Ruth is a radical departure from our modern concepts.  Yet it is a picture of the most important love we can ever observe and experience. 

Marriage is not based on "romance", but Love.  These are wildly different concepts.  Starting with Love can, and often, develops romance, romance is not a natural step on the progression to Love. 

Romance is something you feel.  Love is something you do, regardless of feelings.

Romance is an outflow of attraction.  Love is not based upon attraction.

Romance is a temporary event or condition often sourced in impulse.  Love is a permanent act of the will.

Romance is conditionally offered.  Love is unconditionally provided. 


The message of the Gospel is that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  And the maintaining of our relationship with Christ is not dependent upon us, or, our actions, but completely based upon the character of Christ. 

How would it feel to know that your Eternal destination was dependent upon your "wining and dining" God through your own "appeal".  And, if for whatever reason, God grew tired of you, or you were no longer up to snuff, He said, "You know, it's not you, it's me.  We have just grown apart.  Sorry".............

The True Love Boaz and Ruth experience is not trying to find some perfect person to compliment their personal preferences, but to instead commit life to service to the other.  This is an act of the will, not the impulsivity of feelings.  Christ offers us the Gospel not because we satisfy some sort of romantic need in His life, but because He has chosen to be our Agape Lover and Guardian Redeemer.  Our appearance, intelligence, personality, etc, have no bearing on the stability of our marriage to the Lamb. 

Ask yourself, "Am I looking for a romantic marriage, or, am I looking for sacrificial Love that serves the other, and not the self?"  When the years go by, the kids and jobs come and change.  When the decades tire you out and exhaust your patience.  Which will sustain you?  A whirlwind trip to Paris, or, a spouse who is committed to give the best of themselves to you regardless of the circumstances?

The modern marriage is not a picture of the Gospel.  The Gospel is a picture of Marriage! 

Old couples don't get there because of how many romantic dates they took, but how many unromantic days they stayed.

Proof is in the Pudding

CS Lewis wrote that for us to say we love our neighbor, but then to avoid them, is not love at all.  If we are to truly love our neighbor, we are to act in accordance to what love is.  Active, engaged, sacrificial.  He goes on to say that when we begin to discipline ourselves to behaving AS IF we loved them, we will soon discover that we have truly come to love them.

Lip service is what we are most comfortable offering to people.  What we are most comfortable offering to God.  Telling your spouse, "I Love you" is easy.

But the words do not make it true

Affirming with words all the truths of Christianity is easy.

But it doesn't make you a Christian.

There is a funny little truth about the way we are wired.  Actions drive our feelings.  Feelings rarely create consistent action.  When the butterflies of new love wear off, we are left with nothing but the decision to either, by an act of the will, continue to live in love, or, to not. 

When we wait until we "feel" like something to do something, those feelings and those actions become ever more spaced apart.  Consistently applying the will to act in accordance with the behaviors we know to be true and right, develops the feelings and allows them to grow over time.

This does not mean "resigning" oneself to misery and obligation.  A willful act of love is actively aligning your heart with you behavior.  Begrudgingly forcing something grows resentment.  Engaging the whole self towards acts of love changes us from the inside out. 

Christian's are not called to have feelings about God.  But to live in accordance to the truth about God.  Life is messy.  It can be tragic, and broken.  There are times when our pain and frustration will cause us to say, "No more, not today, I can't do it." 

These are the most important times for our internal(and eternal) development.  When the deck is stacked against us, how do we respond? 

"The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart and saves such as have a broken spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him from them all."

- Psalm 34:18-19

 

I bet you missed something when you read that. 

 

It doesn't say WHEN deliverance will come.  The act of Christian faith is to not to always have the answers RIGHT NOW, or, to have an easy care-free life, but to be rooted in the hope we have in the promise that is found in the Cross. 

 

And that takes a daily act of the will. 

 

Our hope cannot be based upon some previous feelings of bliss and heart racing palpitations of early love.  Because those things fade.  And if that is all you hoped in, you will be crushed when difficulties arise. Instead, in the person of Christ we have a promise that doesn't erase the struggle today, but points to the hope of every tomorrow.  When we begin to be shaped by this, it changes our behaviors today. 

 

Let me challenge us in two ways....

 

1- Are you waiting to feel good about God before you hope in God?  That will get you no where.  Make a decision to actively seek Him even when it is not easy, and you will find your hope. 

 

2-  This is about us as people living with people as well.  What relationships are you struggling in right now.  Can you begin to stop trying to change how you feel, but change how you act?  Your relationship doesn't need jump started feelings, but a new way of loving.

 

 

If I Had a Hammer

I Corinthians 1:18
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

One of the greatest life truths about how we operate as people is, "To the man with only a hammer, every problem appears to be a nail!"  Our tendency is to fall back on to what it is we are most comfortable with.  That which we feel we have the most success with. 

For example, if the only thing you know how to do when there is an interpersonal problem is to argue and fight, when there is a problem, your go to place is anger and antagonism.  Whether or not it is the most effective tool for that particular problem, it is what you know, so that's what you do.

Generally speaking, we are very one dimensional as people.  We adopt behaviors and mindsets pretty early on in our development and we stick to them.  Making new choices can be difficult, and, even painful.  So we avoid those.  Even when the "hammer" causes as many problems as it fixes, we keep using it.

A few months ago I went with a team of men to help build a turkey coop for a troubled boys home in rural Ohio.  No one told me that I needed to bring anything.  I really only own a hammer, so I did bring that.  Everyone else brought a truckload(no exaggerating) of power tools and other assorted specialty items.  Needless to say, when we got there, the only help I could provide was on those rare occasions they actually needed something hammered.  I felt pretty silly.

The problem in our lives is not just that we only have one or two tools at our disposal, but that we are constantly facing problems that are in constant flux.  You can clean up one mess, to only find yourself in completely uncharted territory that you still aren't prepared for.  It can feel like we are always playing catch up. 

But what if there was one universal tool that spoke directly to every problem?  One second it is a hammer, the next it is a power drill.  If you could invent that, you would have ALL the money.  Everyone would have a tool bench with this one miraculous tool that adapted to perfectly fit the need.

People are a lot more difficult than nails and screws, wood and metal.  Our hearts are an ever changing, and often hurting, cornucopia of heart ache, old wounds, new frustrations and anxiety.  And we often approach everyones problems with our very limited self-created tools.  And, sometimes it helps, sometimes it.....does the opposite.

There is one tool that is perfectly suited for every problem.

The Cross.

In the very midst of our labyrinthic messes, the Cross comes in and speaks the exact truth that is needed.  Applies the correct salve to the wound.  Picks up the very thing that has fallen apart.

Paul reminds us that the one power we have is that of Christ Crucified.  The cross.  For the very reasons your life is falling apart Christ went to the cross.

Your problems will always change.  What works today, will be broken tomorrow.  How you cope with something now, will fail  you later.  Only the power of the Cross will ultimately satisfy. 

What anger causing you to boil?  Christ died to give you peace.

What resentment is eating you up?  Christ died to bring healing.

What relationships are broken?  Christ died to restore you to fellowship.

What self-hate is destroying you?  Christ died to give you perfect and lavish love.

When we bring our hurts, pains, disappointments and concerns to the Cross, Christ tenderly takes them from our shoulders and hangs them there with Himself.  With Christ they die.  And through Christ you will live. 

If everything feels hopeless, come to the Cross.  Even if you don't believe it fully.  Come to the Cross.

Every problem is a nail.  The hammer is the Cross.

What will you do with the hammer? 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaWl2lA7968 (The song)

Regret and Redemption

We love redemption stories.  Some of the most popular movies are about heroes who have made mistakes, been down a dark path, but find their way back to be the hero.  One of my guilty pleasures is the show "True Hollywood Stories".  Without fail, at approximately the midpoint of the show, the narrators voice gets foreboding as he says, "but then it allllll fell apart......"  Then the rest of the show details their recovery from the fall from grace.

Why do these stories resonate with us? 

"For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God"

Within each of our experiences we have a consistent theme of mistakes and regrets.  And sometimes those regrets are debilitating.  Bridges have been burned, lives ruined, futures deterred.  Often the weight of the heartache of our past(and even present) creates an inability to even perceive a future that could be shaped by hope and joy.

There is a quiet desperation in all of us that weeps over that which we cannot fix.  Decisions that cannot be undecided.  Actions that cannot be changed.

How do we move forward?  How can the future be different from our past?

The other day I came across one of the most powerful quotes.  It was in the context of how faithful Christians should read the Old Testament.  It said that when we read/interact/try to understand the Old Testament we should do so with the Shadow of Christ cast over it.

????

Everything that we struggle understanding in the OT takes a new shape when we read it through the understanding of Christ moving within it towards the New Covenant.  Nothing that has happened makes sense and has hope and value if it is not moving us towards Christ.  And, if it is moving us towards Christ, even that which was difficult becomes a beautiful testimony of hope within hurt.

How can we move forward?  How can the future be different from our past?

Allowing the shadow of Christ to cover your past. 

In the story of the regrets that dominate our hearts we cannot hope to have hope without redemption.  Redemption does not make that which you have done, or that which was done to you, suddenly become "ok", or "right".  But it changes the results from destruction to construction. 

Joseph(from the hit musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat) is the picture of what this looks like.  His brothers have quite literally destroyed his life.  When, years later, he has the chance to confront them, he says, "What you have intended for evil, God intended for God to accomplish what he is now doing"   His brothers had done evil against him, but God never let Joesph's hope be defined by what happened to him, but what God was going to do through him and for him.

When we stand alone we cannot redefine our past.  There is only one who stands outside and inside of time who straddles the reality of our lives and shapes it according to His purposes.  What choice will we make?  To give Him control to redeem and heal what has happened?  Or, will we allow the infection of past pains rot us away from the inside?

Run.  Run to the one who will take your pain and give you promise.  Lay down your burdens and rest in the shadow of the Almighty and rest.

The hope of redemption is in forgiveness.  In Christ everything

 is forgiven, EVERYTHING is redeemable

 

Justification By Faith

This is a powerful quote that was too long for twitter...

"Thus it is that justification is ascribed to faith, because it is by faith that we receive Christ; and thus it is by faith only, and not by any other grace.  Faith is peculiarly a receiving grace which none other is.  Were we said to be justified by repentance, by love, or by any other grace, it would convey to us the idea of something good in us being the consideration on which the blessing was bestowed; but justification by faith conveys no such idea"
-  Andrew Fuller  The Complete Works of Reverend Andrew Fuller, vol 1ed.

I came across this quote in the book "Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God" by John Piper and just had to share it.

Today it is so common to hear the refrain, "God will save those who are truly loving, or truly "this" or "that" "  Or some other sort of high ideal sounding gobbly goop.  What Fuller puts so succinctly here is that there is nothing we do(because there is nothing we CAN do) that is the basis of salvation.  Only by receiving, through Faith, the finished work of Christ will we be saved. 

So lets have quite enough of that watered down universalism that parades itself about as "caring" Christianity.  To love is to be truthful.  And the truth is only Faith in Christ can save.  Everything else leads to destruction.