My Utmost 10/30

Here is the Utmost for 10/30

In the past few posts I have been interacting with these devotionals because I have found them spiritually helpful. I hope to pass them on for however sees this.

I have really struggled with the question: when is it faith and when is it stepping out on stupidity/arrogance/etc.? When is it faith to do an action that seems against common sense and when is it just acting out? I am not sure there is a clear cut answer, or one any more clear than it is faith when it is the will of God.

What I do know though is that we must grow in faith in Jesus. It is easy for me to think of Christianity as "knowing stuff," or "educating myself." But faith in Jesus is not mere knowledge. Knowledge is a part of faith, but not its totality or end. For too long I have thought that being a Christian meant learning things. But again that is not the goal of faith. The goal of our faith must be depth of love for Jesus. It must be trust in him. And we must understand that Jesus speaks through his word (in the Bible), but also continues to guide us (through his Spirit) today.

We cannot split these two. We cannot just become Christian scholars, thinking our faith leads to intelligence only. And we cannot become Christian spiritualists, thinking our faith grows only through action but none through study of the Word. This is a hard balance for me.

Keep in mind that our faith's foundation and goal is in Jesus, who speaks through the Bible and through the Spirit. (Balance, Balance, Balance).

Utmost 10/27

Check out My Utmost for His Highest for today.

I like this devotional because it is altogether ironic and true. Those who find themselves in Christian leadership (pastors, youth ministers, elders, missionaries) can find themselves very far from Jesus.

It is so easy to get consumed with the idea that, "I am a leader for Christ," that you altogether for Christ and just think, "I am a LEADER."

We must not forget who he is (our leader, savior, all in all, first and last) so that we become arrogant and rely on our own wits and strength. If you are a Christian leader, be careful not to forget about your relationship with Jesus. Pray without ceasing. Remember who he is. Lead by following him.

Utmost 10/26

I read My Utmost for His Highest for 10/26

I have been reading a biography on George Whitefield recently. For those who don't know, he was an evangelistic preacher in the 1700's who traveled throughout England and the 13 colonies and was a part of what would later be known as "The Great Awakening." The message he carried with him was the importance of the New Birth and joining one's heart with the Lord. He always emphasized loving the Lord more than all else.

He was a man who did great work and who saw the importance of keeping God's purposes first. Even though at times he was tempted to focus on peripheral things, he always focused on what he believed to be his calling, preaching Grace to sinners.

Today we are focusing on good things. There are groups like International Justice Mission and others that help the oppressed in this world. But these groups must be outgrowths of the Gospel message, not replacements of it. As Christians our central and foundational thoughts must always come back to the Gospel message (Colossians 1:21-23).

Let us not forget. If start putting the cart before the horse, we might wind up running straight into a ditch.

Break with a sermon pt. 3

Text: Mark 10:17-27

Theme: We approach God in poverty and he makes us rich

Subject: Salvation Overview (beginning and end)

Title: Rags to Riches

INTRO

Salvation is something all men desire. Everywhere, everyman has this inner sense for well-being and wholeness, which means we all feel a sense of incompleteness. We all desire to be connected to something that seems distant, to be filled as opposed to the emptiness inside, to know something bigger than ourselves and connect with it.

How many of you remember the day you were saved? The day you were baptized into Christ, forgiven of your sins?

Today’s account that we will read is about a man seeking salvation.

READ MARK 10:17-27

This account is like a what-not-to-do story. We cannot be too hard on the guy, it says Jesus loved him. And how many of you responded correctly the first time you heard the gospel? Me neither. But let’s see what we can learn something about salvation from this account.

1) When we approach God for salvation, we must approach him in poverty

Now I am not necessarily talking about how much is in your bank account. In fact, there are some verses that talk about how God blesses people with wealth (Proverbs 10:22), and Abraham was one of the wealthiest men in the OT.

Also we can see that some of the greediest people are those who do not have much. It reminds me of the story of a poor farmer. This poor ole boy who lived in a shack on a dirt farm was approached one day by a real estate developer. He said, son I am going to give you the opportunity of a lifetime. Tomorrow from sunrise to sunset, whatever land your feet touch, I will give to you. So the next day when the sun rose, our poor dirt farmer started walking. The only catch is that you have to be back here at your house before the sun sets. He kept going along as far as he could. He mind was racing with what he could do with all the land he would soon own. He concentrated on this so much that he didn’t notice that the sun had moved from in front of him to above him. In fact, he didn’t even notice when the sun was behind his head. Finally he looked up and saw the sun was much closer to the horizon than he wanted. So he started walking fast back towards his shack. And the sun kept moving. He became worried, so he started running back. He didn’t think he could make it, so he stared sprinting back towards his house. As the last rays of the sun hit above the horizon, he ran up to his shack and collapsed before the real estate agent. He died of exhaustion and he died of greed. It doesn’t take a lot of money to be greedy for us humans.

And when I read this account, there seem to be two things going on with this young man. First he loved his money more than he wanted to follow Christ. He approached Jesus rich in money. Think about it. READ MARK 10:21. This is not a unique command of Jesus. When he walked beside the lake, he told Peter and Andrew to follow him. He said the same thing to John and James. They all dropped everything they had to follow him. Levi the tax collector walked away from his booth in the middle of the day. All these men were willing to sacrifice everything to follow Jesus. But this man’s property held him back. He is more loyal to his money than to the man who could give him life.

The other thing that seems to be going on is that he approached Jesus rich in good works. READ MARK 10:17-20. What must I do…When he counted off the commands to the young man, he response was, oh yes I do all that just fine. He claims he is blameless in the eyes of the law.

But this is not how we can approach God for salvation. We must approach him poor in spirit. We must be willing to give up everything for him, and we must know that we cannot save our selves by how good we are. If you look a few verses up, in Mark 10:14-15, this is a picture of total dependence. Or think about Luke 18, the Pharisee stood at the Temple and thanked God that he was not like other men, who are sinners, and then talked about how good he was. But the tax collector beat his chest and said, Lord forgive me a sinner. One man walked away forgiven and justified and it was not the Pharisee. Or remember in Luke 7, a sinful woman poured an entire jar of perfume on Jesus. She wept on his feet, dried them with her hair, and then kissed them.

This is how we must approach Jesus for salvation. We must throw off any hindrance, and know that our sins weigh us down and we need the forgiveness he provides.

2) When we approach him in poverty, he makes us rich.

Everyone loves a good rags to riches story. Did anyone see the movie Slum Dog Millionaire? It is about a little boy growing up in India without any family. He then goes on the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? He has his chance to change his life from living on the streets to providing for himself. That is also the story of our life. We approach God with nothing to give and willing to give up everything; and the beautiful thing is he makes us rich. READ MARK 10:29-31.

Jesus says that those who follow him receive wealth in this age and the age to come. How does God bless us in this age? First he says, that we might lose family, friends, wealth, jobs, when we become a Christian, but we receive back READ MARK 10:30. We join God’s worldwide family. We join God’s people who are now our brothers, mothers, and sisters. They open up their homes to us. They love us. We have a common bond. And this bond stretches from nation to nation all across the world. The sun is always shining on one of God’s people and they are your brothers and sisters. I do not know if you have had the blessing of being put up by a fellow Christian while you were traveling, but it is always a great experience for me. People opened up their doors, let me sleep on their bed, and fed me because they understood that we were family in Christ.

He makes us rich, not only in this age, but in the age to come. READ MARK 10:30. Have you ever read some of the descriptions of heaven in the Bible? READ REVELATION 21:19-21. Do you see the greatness and riches that are to come? He is preparing that.

CONCLUSION

You have to ask yourself, you are almost screaming at the text, young man, don’t you know that if you only let go you can receive so much more. Don’t you know it is at your fingertips and you are walking away? Jesus didn’t walk away. You are walking away. But then we look at ourselves. We get so caught up in this world. We let things hinder us from following Jesus. Or we approach him thinking we can do it on our own. And we have to say don’t you know. It is all right in front of you. Give up, throw off whatever hinders you. Ask for forgiveness of sins, not advice on how to be better. And we know all this and sometimes it is still tempting to walk away.

Remember this, Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. When you approach him, approach him poor and see what he has in store.