Time With God
A devotional trip through the Bible with a caring community to support, love and care for each other... while spending Time With God. If you would like our daily email version of this podcast send me a note to info@pinegrovecommunitychurch.com
TWG - August 12, 2008
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TWG - August 12, 2008
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Leviticus 22; Acts 26
Today is August 12, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. This is your invitation to take one step forward every day in your relationship with Christ. We invite you to do something unbelievably radical. We invite you to deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Jesus
Our first day of Vacation Bible School is over! We had a great group of helpers and a wonderful group of kids. What a lot of fun. We set up a market place and tried to make it like old town Jerusalem. It was complete with a Synagogue and a Rabbi. We still have the need for some help Thursday and Friday. After VBS, Ken came over frantically, “all my drains are clogged!” He had to go to work, so I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to flush the clog down the drain. I finally found the outlet valve and we flushed it all away, then I took a shower to wash all the sewer smell away. I put a picture of one of our VBS shops on the Blog at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com. Check it out.
This week’s theme verse is Mark 8:34-38 "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."
I was thinking about what kind of commitment I expect out of other Christians. I expect them to show up at church weekly – that’s a minimum. I expect them to step up to ministry, to show up on time and prepared. I expect them to pray, to read and study the Bible. I expect them to give of their time, treasure and talents to Jesus Christ. Those are some of my top expectations. Pretty demanding huh? God on the other hand only expects me to lay down my life for Him! Hey! Maybe I’m not asking for enough! I should be asking what God is asking. “Whoever desires to be my disciple let him take up his cross and follow me!” As Christians we try to satin coat the cross. It looks so regal and varnished in its honored place at the front of our sanctuaries. We proudly display it in gold and silver earrings and necklaces. But the Cross Jesus was talking about was rough and splintery. It was blood stained from its many crucifixions. The cross was not an ornament it was a place of execution! It was a symbol of fear and death, much like the skull and crossbones. Imagine hanging a sliver plated electric chair around your neck, or making earrings out of a hang man’s noose. There was nothing pretty about the cross! When Jesus said “take up your cross,” he did not mean put on your jewelry! He meant that you had to be prepared to lay down your life for Him! He meant that you had to pledge your life, your breath and your all to him if you want to be His disciple. Jesus expects His disciples to live for Him, and they must be ready to die for him. In the same breath he also said, “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the Gospels will save it.” So where are you in your commitment to Christ? Does Jesus mean that much to you that you are ready to die for Him? In every other continent, in most every other country of the world, Christians get this chance! People all over the world are being persecuted and killed for their faith… right now! Our time may be coming, and the question to you is this: “Is Jesus worth dying for? Is the Gospel worth dying for?” If you want to be one of Jesus disciples, you must come to the place in your life where you pass these challenge questions. If you are not willing to die for Jesus, I doubt you’ll do well living for Him. There are many “Christians,” but few disciples. Out of all the hundreds who followed Jesus he only chose twelve disciples… and one of them betrayed Him! Out of the other eleven, only one died a natural death. The other ten literally “took up their cross and followed Jesus.” So what is it going to be for you?
I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship
Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 9:24 AM | 2 comments
2 Comments:
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Dennis Kreiss
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Morning Dennis,
As you know, I thoroughly enjoy your postings. Today's was no exception, and it got me
to thinking how we often translate God's desires for us into expectations for us. It
seems to me that God can't really expect things of us - He already knows what we're going
to do. But He can and does have desires for us. In the same way, expecting things from
others too easily leads to legalism and compliance out of guilt, not love. The harder
road, it seems to me, is focusing instead on God's desires for us and our desires for one
another, which leads to obedience out of love. And, of course, most certainly His desire
for us is that we die to ourselves and put on the mind of Christ. Not an expectation -
just the desire of a loving God for his creation.
Anyhow, just some ramblings spurred by your post. Thank you!
Some great insights. Thanks. I'd like to understand it all better, since I don't really understand "God's psychology" as much as I wish. I like your progression that our expectations often translate into legalism. Too true. It does lead to compliance out of guilt or duty. And motivation is the key to true obedience out of love.
I'm not quite so certain about God's "expectations" vs God's "desires." I think I need to clarify the meaning of the word expectation. Not having looked it up before I'm kind of surprised at the difference between "expectation" "expect" and the way I understood them. The dictionary says that an expectation is the belief about something that will occur in the future, anticipation, the feeling that something is going to happen and it can relate to human behavior. That is certainly not the way my brain defined it when I used the word! In that sense God doesn't have expectations about us because He knows the future. The word "expect" also has to do with future events. But seems more to do with what a person is obliged to do. Still, the word is not used the way I thought it would be.
I suppose to use the word I was thinking of, I would have to default back to the word "command" or require instead of expect. Are there things God requires New Testament believers to fulfil in life. "This is my commandment that you love one another." "You be holy as I am holy." "Children obey your parents, this is the first commandment with promise." There are about 1000 "commands" in the New Testament! WoW! What does that mean to us? And my question is Can we really equate a command with a desire? Are they the same. Does desire have the same force of language as a command. Did God discard commands and replace them with desires? Does talking about commands and requirements and what I am obliged to do always lead to legalism or are they a healthy check on my motivation and behavior? Lots' of questions about "God's psychology" of obedience.
However I think we also need to define legalism. Strictly speaking Legalism is a set of rules I must follow and works I must do to please God in order to be saved. Legalism says that if I fail to do these good works and I fail to follow these rules I will not be saved. Galatians was written to counter that error. Paul curses anyone who falls into legalism.
The corollary to this is that some believe that there is a sent of rules and works I must follow to please God in order to stay saved. If I don't do these good works I will displease God and loose my salvation. Thus people who believe they can loose their salvation really fall into the trap of legalism because it is works that save us and keep us saved. - in the legalistic view.
The question I believe we are talking about has to do with "residual" legalism or the application of the principles of legalism to the Christian life. And that is should the Christian life be "rule" oriented or should it be "relationship" oriented. Hands down it should be relationship oriented. My relationship to God. There are really only two commandments that matter to us #1 Love God, #2 Love Neighbor. The rest is details. But are relationships without rules? I don't think so. It is just the rules are subordinate to relationships. It is just that commands are meant to initiate and stimulate understanding and then prayer (because we can't meet them) and then maturity is meant to kick in where we desire to obey them, rather than because there is a demand to obey them.
a legalistic outlook thinks that if I do my duty then everything is ok with God. Whereas a life of love realizes #1 I can never live up to God's standards, and #2 I am going to follow God because I love him, not because I have to.
1 Timothy tells us we should use the law legally. And how is that? The law is made to convict the disobedient of their sin. The first application of the 1 Timothy passage is that we should use the law to show unbelievers that they are sinners in need of a savior to save them from their sin. Is it possible that we can also use the law to show believers that they also have fallen short? If a Christian steals, the law is an appropriate application, thou shalt not steal.. but we need to do more... the question is why? because it harms your neighbor and because it hurts Jesus (top 2 commandments). As I understand it, "the law is good" but we must be careful in our application of it.
Now I have rambled a lot... and have shared some of my philosophy... I would really like it to hear your perspectives on it... because the philosophy of motivation and the psychology of obedience are huge factors in the Christian life and I am constantly exploring them and trying to understand them... not only for others, but for myself! The truth will set you free... I'm in a search for it!
Love your comments!
God Bless