Is “Christian” Just A Label?

Josh SchramOur youth pastor, Josh Schram, shared a message yesterday which really convicted me. Here are my notes just as I took them Sunday morning.

Some stereotypes of Christians aren’t very flattering. If we ask someone to think of a farmer or a plumber, we probably all get the same sorts of images in our minds. But when we say “Christian,” there are a lot of images that come to mind. And many of them aren’t very flattering.

The word Christian only appears three times in New Testament (in the NIV)—Acts 11:26; Acts 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16.

The followers of Jesus preferred to call themselves disciples (see Acts 26:11). That signals a lifestyle, not just a label.

Does my lifestyle reflect the fact that I’m a follower of Jesus, or am I just happy with the title “Christian”? Am I trying to justify not doing the discipleship work that Jesus commanded me to do, namely loving God and loving others (Luke 10:25-37)? Notice especially this verse: But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29).

Why don’t Christians want to put their love into action? They say they’re busy, or don’t have enough resources, or don’t want to get involved, or they think helping may be a trap. But the priest and Levite who didn’t stop to help may have saved the injured man’s life! How much so the Christian of today!

Does my faith in Jesus change the way I live, or is “Christian” just a title I’m happy to live with?

As kids, when we play “follower the leader” we follow all the actions of the leader. But Christians seem to change the rules: “I just need to believe what He says, but I don’t have to do what He says.”

To truly be called a “Christian”—a disciple of Jesus—my LOVE should be in action, just like Jesus (Luke 10:27-28; c.f. Acts 10:38).

If you’re ready to be challenged, check out Josh’s message for yourself—

Links & Quotes

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“No man can murder his brother who has not first murdered God in himself.” —Oswald Chambers

“We love our neighbors when, like Jesus, we seek them out to love them (cf. Luke 19:1-10). Jesus did not wait for lost or hurting people to find their way to Him. He went looking for them. He learned the names of many of them, and used their names freely. He took the initiative in making certain contacts, some of which He repeated many times during His earthly sojourn. Jesus started conversations with people and was doubtless a good listener. And He prayed often for others, seeking their wellbeing before the Father. We can know that we love our neighbors when, like Jesus, we go seeking them, in order to touch them with His love.” —T.M. Moore

“The Word of God is our only hope. The good news of God’s promises and the warnings of His judgment are sharp enough and living enough and active enough to penetrate to the bottom of my heart and show me that the lies of sin are indeed lies. Abortion will not create a wonderful future for me. Neither will cheating, or dressing provocatively, or throwing away my sexual purity, or keeping quiet about dishonesty at work, or divorce, or vengeance. And what rescues me from this deception is the Word of God.” —John Piper

“If you spend too much time looking for your next big break, you’ll be stealing your opportunity to do your best work. Which is the the most important break of all.” —Seth Godin

“God’s definition of promotion isn’t a move up the ladder, it is a move toward your call. Don’t let someone ‘promote’ you out of your call!” —Max Lucado

“In the parable of Matthew 18:23-27 did the king overlook his servant’s sin? Did he wink at his debt and merely excuse it? No, not at all. The fact is, by forgiving him, the king placed upon this man a weighty responsibility, a responsibility even greater than the burden of his debt. Indeed, this servant now owed his master more than ever. How? He was responsible to forgive and love others, just as the king had done for him.” —David Wilkerson

If you don’t think Planned Parenthood’s business of abortion is a huge money-maker for them, why are they spending $20 million in 2016 to elect pro-abortion candidates?

For Detroit Red Wings fan, here is a nice mini-biography of Mr. Hockey: Gordie Howe.

[VIDEO] Barbabas Piper and Bobby Conway on the difference between knowing and believing

Links & Quotes

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“There is only one basic reason why we disobey the commands of Jesus: it’s because we don’t have confidence that obeying will bring more blessing than disobeying. We do not hope fully in God’s promise.” —John Piper

“The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’ your neighbour; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less. There is, indeed, one exception. If you do him a good turn, not to please God and obey the law of charity, but to show him what a fine forgiving chap you are, and to put him in your debt, and then sit down to wait for his ‘gratitude’, you will probably be disappointed.” —C.S. Lewis

Cedar Springs has annual worship service for all of the churches in the area to come together. We call it UNITED. Check out this post on loving as Christians.

“Hitler was successful not because of the righteousness of his cause, but because of the way it was packaged and sold to the public. Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry are successful for very similar reasons.” Read more about Planned Parenthood’s Big Lie.

Links & Quotes

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“God made humans in His image so that the world would be filled with reflectors of God. Images of God. Seven billion statues of God. So that nobody would miss the point of creation.” —John Piper

“I do not admire the extreme of one virtue unless you show me at the same time the extreme of the opposite virtue. One shows one’s greatness not by being at an extremity but by being simultaneously at two extremities and filling all the space between.” —Blaise Pascal

“The most striking thing about Our Lord is the union of great ferocity with extreme tenderness.” —C.S. Lewis

“Our Lord in His infinite wisdom and superabundant love, sets so high a value upon His people’s faith, that He will not screen them from those trials by which faith is strengthened.” —Charles Spurgeon

“Christians are priests, but how priests if they offer no sacrifice? Christians are lights, but how are they lights unless they shine for others? Christians are sent into the world, even as Christ was sent into the world, but how are they sent unless they are sent to pray? Christians are meant not only to be blessed themselves, but in them shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, but how if you refuse to pray?” —Charles Spurgeon

John Stonestreet shares some alarming information that makes pornography a public health threat.

 

Thursdays With Oswald—Love Like God Loves

Oswald ChambersThis is a periodic series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

Love Like God Loves

     There is only one Being who loves perfectly, and that is God, yet the New Testament distinctly states that we are to love as God does; so the first step is obvious. If ever we are going to have perfect love in our hearts we must have the very nature of God in us. In Romans 5:5 the apostle Paul tells us how this is possible; he says, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us.” …

     That means I have to identify myself with God’s interests in other people, and God is interested in some extraordinary people: in you and in me, and He is just as interested in the person you dislike as He is in you. … 

     God grant we may not only experience the indwelling of the love of God in our hearts, but go on to a hearty abandoned to that love so that God can pour it out through us for His redemptive purposes for the world. He broke the life of His Son to redeem us, and now He wants to use our lives as a sacrament to nourish others.

From Conformed To His Image (emphasis mine)

Quite simply: we need to love God more, so we can love others more. Will I let the Holy Spirit shed that love in me? Will you?

Love The Sinner

Love the sinnerIf anyone sees his brother commit a sin…he should pray…. (1 John 5:16)

The King James Version says this a little more poetically, “If any man see his brother sin a sin.” The Greek does not have the indefinite “a” in front of sin, and the verb tense makes this an ongoing process, so it’s probably more accurate to say it like this: “If anyone sees his brother sinning sins.”

The apostle John is head-over-heels in love with Jesus. So time and time again his counsel is for us also to fall more in love with God, and to demonstrate this by loving others. There is no more loving thing we can do for someone sinning sins than to pray for them (see also Galatians 6:1 and James 5:19-20).

John doesn’t ask us to catalogue their sins; otherwise he would have said “a sin” or even “their sinS.” We are not to be the sin police trying to document each and every infraction! Instead, when we see a brother or sister with a lifestyle that is separated from the love of God, we need to pray for them.

I think John might ask us to pray that they would see the love of God so clearly that the love of sin would become cold and pale and unattractive.

Love Cycle

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on AppleSpotify, or Audible.

…Whoever loves God must also love his brother. … This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands. (1 John 4:21, 5:2)

Love cycleThis is a really cool cycle! I know I love God because I obey His command to love others, which I can only do because I love God and obey His commands.

Here’s the cycle breaker: If I don’t love others, it’s a clear indications that I don’t love God, and the cycle of love-obedience-love is shattered.

Loving God is the natural fuel to obey Him. He is love. He demonstrated this by loving unloveable, sinful me. If He loved me, how could I do anything less than love Him? If I truly love Him, I will naturally want to obey Him. His commands aren’t difficult because He empowers me to do them. His command is to be like Him—He is love so I must love.

I know I am loving God because I am loving others. I can only love others because the love of God is in me. This love inspires me to obey Him and love others. This obedience draws me closer to God, which fuels me for even greater love.

Love fuels my obedience. Obedience fuels my love. And this virtuous cycle can go on and on and on and on and on!

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Do You Want To Be A (Better) People Pleaser?

I know a lot of people who want to please others. This pursuit, however, can get you into hot water. For instance, when you need to confront a friend on their poor behavior. Or when someone doesn’t properly express their appreciation to you for appreciating them.

The Bible gives us a better way to be a people pleaser. 

Paul wrote: So we make it our goal to please [God]… (2 Corinthians 5:9).

Instead of goal, the King James Version says, “we labor.” If it is labor, then it truly is a labor of love: work that is challenging, but rewarding. In fact, the rewards are so overwhelming, that the sweat of labor is quickly forgotten.

The Greek word for labor/goal means work that is activated by the love of honor, and so it brings forth our very best effort.

I desire to honor God and please Him, and I desire to be honored by God and find my full pleasure in Him. After all, as the Westminster Catechism says, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”

So my labor of love is activated first by my love for God; and secondarily by my love for others. Isn’t this what Jesus gave us as the Great Commandment (see Luke 10:27)?

It is God Who has made us for this very purpose [to enjoy Him forever] and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come [honor and eternal pleasure]. (2 Corinthians 5:5)

The Holy Spirit helps activate and direct my labor of love. The Spirit uses my labor of love to draw others to Christ; the Spirit assures me that my labor of love is bringing honor and pleasure to the Father. And in that knowledge, I find my pleasure to continue to labor in love.

So if I want to please people, my goal must be a labor in love that pleases God. Out of the knowledge of His pleasure and honor, I am better prepared to present a labor of love to others.

God pleaser (first) → People pleaser (as an overflow) 

The better we please God, the better we’ll please people.

Intentional Blessing

As many of my regular readers know, I often wake up with a distinct song in my mind. Many times these songs—which I believe are God-given—prepare me for my day. (I know it may seem like an unusual way for the Holy Spirit to speak to someone, but, hey, it works for me!)

Today’s song is an old hymn. One part of it goes like this…

Out in the highways and byways of life,
many are weary and sad;  
Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife,
making the sorrowing glad.
Make me a blessing, make me a blessing,
Out of my life may Jesus shine;
Make me a blessing, O Savior, I pray,
Make me a blessing to someone today.

I want to be a blessing to others, but I don’t want to be an “accidental” blessing.

I think it’s a good habit to pray through my day before the day even gets started. I can then begin to think about my coworkers, my breakfast appointments, my board meetings, my classmates, my friends, even my family. I can begin to pray specifically for those interactions that God will give me the specific words to say in that moment that will bring the greatest blessing.

Of course, there will often be those unplanned interactions where you can bless someone. But let’s make sure we’ve done our part to be ready for those planned interactions.

I pray that you are letting Jesus shine out of your life and that you are being an intentional blessing to someone today!

Reciprocity

Listen to the podcast of this post by clicking on the player below, and you can also subscribe on AppleSpotify, or Audible.

Reciprocity is a big word that simply means: You will get what you give.

Hear me correctly. I’m not saying give more just to get more. It doesn’t work that way because that’s not true reciprocity; that’s just plain selfishness.

Reciprocity is giving to others just because you have it in your power—and in your heart—to give, and it will “bounce back” to you.

Reciprocity is from your heart. God makes sure you get the return blessings.

And, by the way, if you have something you could give but you don’t give it, your “bounce back” becomes a world that is smaller and smaller, with greater scarcity.

Reciprocity is win-win. Selfishness is lose-lose.

When you’re kind to others, you help yourself; when you are cruel to others, you hurt yourself. (Proverbs 11:17)

The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. (Proverbs 11:24)

The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; those who help others are helped. (Proverbs 11:25)

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