December 7

John 1: 11: He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive Him……

Dear Jesus, Please help me to understand that in spite of who I am and what I do, in spite of my constant rejection of your presence and power in my life, that in spite of what I see each time I look in the mirror, that you are at work in my life. Please help me to know that I can trust you with the likes of me. Amen.

I am one of the unlovely. Although I entered the ministry over 25 years ago with the intent of serving the Lord Jesus and communicating his love to others, I find myself a flawed human being who often does more to turn people away from Jesus than I do to turn people toward Jesus. I join with the apostle Paul in proclaiming that although I have a desire to do what is right, I so often cannot carry it out. There are times I get it, don’t get me wrong. There are times when I get to see people find God through my words, discover Jesus through my testimony, and see the glory of God through my actions. But more often than not I find that I am struggling to attain any semblance of what others might call holiness. The real question, however, is this – “Is God as concerned about my holiness as those who are watching me?” Is it really my life that is the “do or die” of the matter, or is there a basic flaw in the dominant theology of those like me that causes us to actually limit God’s ability to use us in our fallen, sinful and far less than perfect condition? As I walk through a few parables and some very important common church phrases, I want to explore the possibility that we often wrestle from God a very important concept that He wishes for us to retain – “The righteous will live by faith”.

I often wrestle with a phrase in the New Testament that has caused me and others much confusion. Paul once coined the phrase, having come to him as a direct revelation from God, “my grace is sufficient for you.” (2 Cor. 12:9)   Sufficient to what end? What on earth is the grace of God sufficient to accomplish, exactly? Is His grace sufficient in terms of covering my incredibly tainted reputation? Is His grace sufficient in convincing you that I am loveable when you can see clearly I am so unlovable? Is His grace sufficient in covering my sin that so easily captures my will and my psyche on a daily basis? Is His grace sufficient when I am under the attack of the enemy, the Accuser of the Brethren, when he speaks his venomous attacks through the unsuspecting mouths of fellow human beings? Is His grace sufficient to take my human flaws and exhaustive shortcomings and actually accomplish His purpose in the lives of people I am so ineptly trying to love in His name? When Paul coined this phrase, “my grace is sufficient for you”, was God just speaking to him, or is He also speaking to me, to you, to all of us?

My wife daily sees my flaws. There is not a day that goes by that I manage to fool her. It is not from my lack of trying. I try daily to convince her she is married to a prince when she finds a frog beside her in bed. I try daily to convince her that I have her best interests at heart when I ask her to lose a little weight. I try daily to convince her that it is sacrificial love which guides me to finish watching the football game rather than take out the trash, convincing myself that she believes me when I speak of stress relief making me a better husband……..somehow. My wife daily sees my flaws. She knows me, and yet somehow I find so often the grace of God in her eyes in spite of all the secrets she uncovers and all the flaws she encounters and all the failures she endures.

I’ve never understood myself as the holy type, even the pastorally type. This is probably one reason I fought my calling every step of the way in my early years. I knew the place from which I had come. I knew how far I needed to go in order to resemble that which others think of when they say the word “preacher man”. I remember the first week of one of my first appointments in Campus Ministry. I was greeted by the man who had just served in my position for the last eight years or so. I had taken over a campus ministry position in northern WV, and he was there to visit and see how things were going. I had never met him, had never had a conversation with him, and did not even know who he was until someone told me. He came to me after the Sunday morning service, told me who he was (I had just been told), shook my hand like a good minister should, and said these words to me: “be sure and live a holy life before these students.” I cannot even tell you how close I came to losing my breakfast on the spot. No, “hi, how are you?”, “how are things in Morgantown?”, how are my students treating you? or even an “is there any way I can help you?”. None of this. It was just, “be sure and live a holy life in front of these students.” Talk about flunking the test. I had no idea what a holy life looked like, much less how to live it. I was struggling to figure out who I was in Christ, how my gifts could be used to do campus ministry, and how I was going to manage to serve Him as a single man in a new college community. HOLY LIFE!!! And the worst thing was, he said it as if they had grown so accustom to it watching him live a “holy life” that I was sure to be found out my first month there. I walked away from this encounter shaken, trembling, and contemplating the need to resign. You see, I already knew I was not the “minister type”. I already knew that I would soon be found out. I already knew that the leaders of my campus ministry group were making a mistake placing me in this town. And now I had to somehow figure out how to live a “holy life” in front of students who had just lost their holy campus minister in this holy church in front of a holy congregation. The only thing holy about me was my jeans. And I knew it.

The thing is, God saw me, unholy and broken, desperately in need of a new change of clothes. And in spite of my unworthiness and my ungodliness, he provided a way to deal with my rejection, my shortcomings, and my sin. Romans 5: ⁶ Declares: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Thank God above for the gift of His Son which enables Him to save and to work through the likes of me……..and the likes of you.

December 8

John 1: 11,12: He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive Him. Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God………

Dear Jesus, During those times when I forget how fortunate and blessed I am to be your child, bring me back to the place of understanding and gratitude. Help me to daily comprehend the incredible gift I have received that I might be called a child of God. Amen.

When we fail to honor and embrace the visitation of Truth among us, we do this to our own peril, revealing that our personal beliefs and commitments take precedence when it comes to the decisions we make. Who needs an experienced coach to call plays from the sideline; I can do it from the comfort of my living room. Who needs an experienced teacher to open the Truth of Scripture to me; God and I have a thing going on. Who needs the community of faith to help mold and shape me into a disciple of Christ; I’ve got my own prayer closet to climb into.

The absorption of a cultural mindset and postmodern values into our churches has happened so subtlety and so quietly what we don’t even know it has occurred, and we don’t understand it enough to question the cultural habits that now govern the contemplations and choices of most American born Christians. The divorce rate among those who profess faith in Christ is practically identical to those who do not profess faith in Christ. A Christian is just as likely to have an abortion as those outside the Christian faith. When truth becomes a matter of personal preference, it is only a small step to believe that moral choices are determined by personal preference as well. If there are no spiritual absolutes, no Truth, why would we ever believe in moral absolutes? And how can we even pretend to be a society of spiritual absolutes when the very notion of questioning a person’s religious beliefs is taboo, politically incorrect, arrogant and unkind? If we cannot defend the faith and passionately present Truth for fear of coming across as offensive and insensitive, then how can we be left with anything other than understanding truth from the vantage point of personal preference? If I don’t have anything to teach you about Truth, and you don’t have anything real to offer me about Truth, then what is truth except whatever opinion you and I choose to hold at the time? It is precisely this elevation of personal autonomy and individualism which gives rise to the postmodern world in which we find ourselves.

Jesus was born into a world searching for truth. The Romans protected the rights and privileges of truth seekers precisely because they believed there was such a thing as actual Truth, albeit a truth bound and connected to government, power and political agendas. Power ruled, Might was victorious, and Law governed. Nothing else was necessary in the political world Jesus was born within. So they thought. The secular world the Romans attempted to create brought the people on the street to the brink of spiritual starvation, as people longed for some connection, any connection, to the Divine, a Truth beyond the scope of the Roman Army and the Pax romana (the peace of Rome) it provided. The Greeks had invented a plethora of gods, the Jews put God in a box with Moses’ name on it, and the Romans worshipped the Caesar. People needed a Divine visitation. However, they did not expect the Visitation they received: God in a manger; the Devine Babe in a cave. The Almighty God appearing to us with tiny hands and feet, making unintelligible baby sounds, and crying like any other child through the long dark night. The Creator of all takes upon Himself the form of a dependent creature just so that lost people might be called “Children of the Everlasting Father”.

So, they rejected him. He came for them, He came to them, He came right up to the very threshold of their lives, and they had no place for Him, no “room in the Inn” of the hearts of His own people. The God of Israel and the Creator of the universe at our door step, and we turn him away. This was the way of the people of Jesus’ day. This is the way of most in our great land. To long for a Messiah that does not fit our fancy is to prepare to reject Him and not recognize Him when he comes right up to the threshold of our life. But, those who will, those who do, those who invite this babe in a cave to turn us into babes in a New Creation will forever be called – Children of the Living God!!!