List-eater Christians

I started the Daniel Fast on Monday. My plan is to do it for 40 days and maybe longer. As I have changed my diet, I have seen how many things I run to before Jesus. These are not just food, but many other things. This fast has just provided an opportunity for me to be reminded of my dependency on so many things before Christ. I have also found that the list of things I find emotional comfort in before Jesus to be long and worn out. I believe the term for this in the Bible is idolatry.

Idolatry – placing anything in a position of greater importance than the most important thing; worship of anything that is not meant to be worshiped but to cause worship of its creator; replacing things of ultimate worth with things of temporary and fading worth

I have also found as the week has gone along that my ability to stick to the rules of the fast has increased. I have learned the things that I can eat, I like to eat, and that fill me up. I have found a way in my humanness to do my list. As this has happened, I have struggled with opening the Word and remembering my dependence on Christ. Early in the week, I found it easy to dwell on Christ because I was often hungry and unsatisfied. But now, as I have adjusted to the differences, it is much harder to remain in that constant state of dependence. This fact points out my weakness all the more. Christianity is not about a list, but life. If we just had a list, then we would learn to keep that list and never enter into a relationship with God. My list has changed from two weeks ago to now, but even in 7 days I have adjusted to keeping this list instead.

There is an old Aggie story about the ‘list-eater’. To get tickets to football games, you have to wait in this line according to your seniority throughout the week. Many people camped out for days and days to get the best seats. To make sure that it was known who was there first, they kept a list. Apparently, one year before the big Texas game, things got pretty tense and tight. There was a major argument about the list and who was in the right order. The famed ‘list-eater’ took the list in a moment of frustration and rage and proceeded to eat the list, never to be seen again. This caused even more confusion and ruckus than before since the list was gone.

I want to be a ‘list-eater’ Christian. I want the list of things that I feel like I have to do to please God to be digested and thrown out. Sure, some of those things on that list might have been around a long time and deserve some importance. Sure, I cannot get away from doing things on that list whether the list exists or not. But based on my experience with God and with the Bible, the list is meaningless. The list is Satan’s attempt to keep us entrapped, entangled and in bondage to rules and not relationship. The list is our attempt to stay in God’s good graces. Sure, not having the list might cause some confusion because we are used to a set of guidelines and not a relationship. But the relationship is what matters, not following an obscure set of rules.

I have also found that freedom and life is in Christ alone. Everything else that we call life, is only a tainted image of what true life is about. I have begun to see a glimpse of that life over the past few years. I have seen life more fully this past week than I had previously.

For those of us who are in Christ Jesus, we need not work to earn our salvation or favor in God’s sight. We could not increase nor decrease God’s view of us. He is wisdom and therefore sees all things as they truly are. We are what we are, and that comes through Jesus Christ. We are accepted because of Him. We are treasured because of Him. We are valued because of Him.

Our lists are a form of religion that is not pure and undefiled before God. Our lists get us nowhere fast. Our lists cause us to forget the gospel. Our lists hinder growth and life.

Let us be ‘list-eaters’ and seek God and not the rules we make up.

Romans 8:1 – There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Hosea 6:6 – For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Isaiah 64:6 – We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

Invitation to our Funeral

Eric Clark brought it this morning at Men’s Morning Bible Study.

Romans 6.

The first part of Romans 6 is the invitation to our funeral. (vs. 1-11)

                Die to self – the old man has passed away with his longings and desires

                Life in Christ – the new man has come; not a ‘better version’ of the old man, but Christ in me, the hope of Glory

                Our IDENTITY has fundamentally been changed to:

                                PURE, HOLY, BLAMELESS, RIGHTEOUS, SON, REDEEMED

                Even though in God’s sight the old man is gone, he still haunts us …

The second part of Romans 6 is an invitation to become a slave to Christ instead of sin. (vs. 12-23)

                Sanctification is the name of the game

                We are all slaves to something

                Instead of presenting ourselves to SIN and obeying that master, we as the REDEEMED should present ourselves to Christ and obey him

                The fruit of SIN is death and the fruit of Christ is life with Christ forever

                Sanctification is dual effort

                God’s Role:

                                1 Cor 3:5-8 – only God gives growth, not man

                                2 Cor 3:17-18 – The Spirit is transforming us (in degrees) as we behold the glory of God

                                Phil 1:6 – He began the work and will complete it

                                Phil 2:13 – He works for His glory and good pleasure

                Our Role:

                                Rom 8:13 – living in the flesh is death and we must put to death the flesh in us

                                Phil 2:12 – work out our salvation with fear and trembling

                                Phil 3:12-16 – pressing on to the goal

                                Romans 6:12-16 – present ourselves to the better master; Christ, not sin

Be reminded of IDENTITY in CHRIST through the GOSPEL.

Become slaves to Christ.

MAKE WAR against sin.

Communities of Remembrance

At my community group this past week we discussed different Biblical events and people. The focus of the discussion was times in their lives where their faith was tested and grown. These times in their lives were times where they came to know God better through either their trials or good times. We talked about people from Old Testament all the way through to the end.

Moses. Elijah. David. Lazarus. Martha. Mary. Paul. John.

There are so many stories to recount of how God was Faithful, Provider and Sovereign over circumstances in the lives of the righteous and unrighteous. God showed up time and again, or didn’t show time and again, so that His name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

It was interesting to talk about these and to think about how quickly these people forgot what God had just done in their lives. They often saw God do something amazing and incredible that only God could do and the next verse will read that they quickly forgot. They not only forgot what God had done, but they cried out against Him. They cried out in sin and then often rebelled and went the other direction away from God. This is a common thread that runs through the whole of Scripture.

God is good, all the time.

Humans rebel against Him and His goodness.

God reveals Himself and many believe and worship.

Humans forget and rebel again.

God is Faithful to the end.

I started reading through the book of Exodus, chronicling the life of Moses and the people of Israel coming out of Egypt towards the Promised Land. After reading this last night, a couple of main things stuck out to me about these events.

·         God is faithful, even when we are unfaithful and resist Him and His will for our lives.

·         God is ultimately after His name being proclaimed in the world, not our success.

Moses was born into struggle and strife. Moses was born a slave and should have been killed immediately, but was preserved and blessed for God’s purpose. He was raised up in the house of Pharaoh. He eventually kills a man and has to flee the land of Egypt to the wilderness, where He spends 40 years away from where God would send Him. Some would say here that he resisted what God meant for his life, but I believe that this ‘wilderness’ experience was necessary for him to grow into the man that God desired him to be.

Moses then met God in a burning bush and Moses still resisted God’s call on his life to go and speak.

“But Moses said to the LORD, ‘Oh my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since You have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.’ Then the LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be your mouth, and teach you what to speak.’” –Exodus 4:10-12

God offered to fill His weaknesses with Himself, but Moses still resisted. God used Moses anyways, even though he resisted God’s call on his life. God is faithful even when we are unfaithful.

Second, God told Moses to go speak to Pharaoh and tell Him to let His people go. God threw in this caveat though: Pharaoh will not listen to you because I will harden his heart, but I want you to go tell him anyways. God just told Moses that nothing will come of you doing exactly what I tell you to do. God told him to just be faithful to do what God called him to do and leave the results to God. God continues to harden Pharaoh’s heart and do miraculous signs to show Himself as God Almighty, Yahweh, the LORD. But Moses is still unsuccessful in changing Pharaoh’s heart. God had to do the work, not Moses. God says this in the midst of all the plagues to Pharaoh.

                ‘But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.’ –Exodus 9:16

God could have just wiped them off the face of the earth with one breath, but wanted His name to be made famous and worshipped. God is ultimately after His name being proclaimed in the world, not our success.

Once God finally allows the people to leave Egypt, they get into much trouble in the wilderness. God set up important events in their culture to remind them of these Exodus experiences (Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, etc.) In the wilderness, they constantly gripe and grumble and resist that God is Almighty, Provider, and Faithful. The Israelites were so forgetful and rebellious, not quick to listen and obey and so short-sighted. They desired their best good now, but God desires a better good that is far-reaching. God desires to show Himself as the only true God and desires that we become worshippers of Him only.

We are not unlike the Israelites. We are slaves to our sin and flesh. We want to be freed from that, but even when we are we still resist that God is after His glory and our good. We have ‘wilderness’ experiences. We gripe, grumble and forget. We run from Him, even as He is providing for us and being faithful to His promises. We do come back at times and worship Him for who He is. But, then we forget what He has done powerfully in front of our eyes and in the scope of human history. We need to be reminded of who God is. We need to be reminded of who we are. We need to be reminded of our need and His great Grace in the cross (i.e. The Passover). We need to be reminded that He is Faithful to the end.

This is why we need a community that is reminding us of these things. We need each other, because without each other, we will quickly forget all that God has done and all that God is.

I pray that our communities would be about reminding each other of God Almighty. I pray that our communities would be about the gospel and a constant remembrance of it. 

Almost-kinda Resolutions

I am not big on resolutions. In fact, I do not think that I have ever made one legitimately, let alone kept one. I am somewhat of a rebel, so when I see everybody doing something, I tend to want to run as far from that thing as possible. Resolutions have been one of those things for me. But maybe 2012 will be different.

Currently at work, I am working on 2012 plans for production, spending and development. I have been thinking a lot about those things for Chevron-Dollarhide, and I think that it would be good to think about those things in my own life. What is my plan? What do I need to change? What do I need to keep? Where am I heading?

I don’t want to necessarily make resolutions, but just think about what 2012 might look like for me. Instead of being long-winded, I am going to try to write very simply and concisely, like my dad says the best writers do. With no further ado, these are my ‘almost, kinda’ resolutions for 2012.

The Gospel – learn to speak it more clearly and more often

Live openhandedly – knowing that my stuff is not my own but has come from the Father

Learn to live lean – this will be an area of growth (does that even make sense) for me in 2012; learn to trim out the fat and excess in my life (literally and metaphorically)

Get rid of excess – figure out what it is that is ‘necessary’ and ‘essential’ and get rid of the rest

Read and Study the Bible every day – ‘The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.’ John 6:63b

Invest in lives – learn to give up self and seek the wellbeing of others; learn to pour out my life into others

Seek the Father and His will for my life – this includes more prayer, more fasting, more community, more quiet, more study, more exposures and more seeking

Boom. There they are. Now it is time to go make them happen.