Tag Archives: Grace

The Place of Political Incorrectness!

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I’m very amused by the incredible lengths we go to, to avoid controversy and conflict in the name of cultural approval. Australia is rampant with it. Especially the Christian Church.

It seems like criticism follows the individual who goes too far (in some people’s minds) but never follows the individual who isn’t prepared to go further than their thoughts. It’s far easier to hide in the shadows, then stand on a dock and give a reason for the hope that you have.

When it comes to the office of the sacred desk, there is no place for political correctness. Line up John the Baptist, the Apostle Paul and Jesus Christ against the majority of us preachers and we fall far behind their commitment to speaking the truth in love. Keep in mind, all three were killed by their enemies. There’s a price to pay for speaking the truth, even in love.

I’m not advocating arrogant rants or angry outbursts or being offensive for the sake of it (although a good shout in the pulpit, every now and then doesn’t hurt), I’m calling for a commitment to speaking and living God’s truth with Christ-like compassion, love, wisdom AND boldness.

Any preacher worth their salt will eventually have a long line of people wanting to offer their opinion on what they could do better or do away with.

Why? Cause the cross is folly to those who are perishing and Christ continues to be a stumbling block of offense for many people. When a preacher is committed to letting the biblical text speak for itself and systematically working through the bible, at some point, it’s going to hit a raw nerve. Preacher, rather than shying away from it, run to it and embrace it. It’s your job to herald such a gospel.

I pray for God’s grace, wisdom and boldness to mark gospel preachers everywhere to declare the full counsel of God’s Word without fear or favor, and to the end of God’s glory and the salvation of people’s souls, let the pulpit be a place of political incorrectness.

Grace! (Matt 13:57; Rom 9:33; Gal 5:11; 1 Peter 2:8)

What’s Your T-Shirt Statement?

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If you could summarize the BIG Idea of your life into a single idea, what would it be?

This exercise is perhaps one of the most important and demanding activities that you could ever engage in. Your T-Shirt statement is the BIG Idea narrowed down into one, pithy, overarching sentence that brings definition and meaning to your world. You must be able to fit it onto a T-Shirt. Your T-Shirt statement is all about bringing focus to your life and purpose to your activities.

Every month I interview a leader from across the Body of Christ and my last question is always, “What is your T-Shirt statement?” I get a range of answers, including scripture verses, motivational statements and ‘one word’ answers. Regardless of the form they come in, they all mean something significant to the people sharing them.

Your T-Shirt statement will be different to mine and it should be. You are a different and unique person to me and every other person on the planet. Whatever it is, are you living it, embodying it and sharing it with the world around you? Would the people you work with and live with be able to identify you by your T-Shirt statement?

Your T-Shirt statement is likely to change in different seasons of your life. As you mature and grow, you will develop more and more clarity around your BIg Idea, so don’t feel like you have to get the perfect statement. Just work with what’s burning in your heart and mind currently.

Let me share with you my T-Shirt Statement?

“I’m a nobody, telling everybody about somebody.”

I would love to get feedback from you on what your T-Shirt statement is. Send in your T-Shirt statements via comments and wear your T-Shirt proudly.

Grace!

Rethinking Christian Progress!

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The one thing the bible promises us regarding life in this world is that it will be hard and filled with trials, temptations and tribulations. Nowhere does the bible promise that we’ll have our best life now (as popularized by Joel Osteen). in 2 Timothy 3:12 Paul tells Timothy, “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”

This morning I tweeted an important phrase from pastor Tullian Tchividjian’s book Jesus + Nothing = Everything and it is the idea of an “over-realized eschatology”. I want to use this term to say, too many Christians live with an “over-realized eschatology” expecting  now on earth what God has promised only later for eternity. This causes us to live with unrealistic expectations for what we will and won’t face in this world.

In light of this how do we approach growth and progress in our faith?

The Gospel didn’t just ignite my faith but it’s the fuel that keeps it going and growing me everyday. The Gospel has “delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:13-14). Progress begins with understanding that in Christ, we’ve already been qualified, delivered, transferred, redeemed and forgiven. Working out your salvation with fear and trembling is focusing on working out what Christ has already given to us and worked into us by his will and for his pleasure.

Our natural instinct as believers is to almost exclusively measure Christian growth around behavioural improvement but the greater issue is what is behind the good or bad fruit of our behaviour? Bad behaviour happens when we fail to believe that everything we need, in Christ, we already have. On the other hand, good behaviour happens when we daily rest in and receive the finished work of Jesus in deeper and deeper ways, destroying any need to secure for ourselves anything beyond what Christ has already secured for us.

The hard work of growth we are called to is to believe again and again the gospel of God’s free justifying grace everyday and resting in what Christ has finished on our behalf. I think real spiritual progress happens when our natural understanding of progress is rooted out and it’s not about first behaving better but believing more fully what Jesus has already accomplished.

Gerhard Forde, in his work, Justification by Faith, once said, “It’s not our movement toward the goal but the movement of the goal on us” that helps us progress in the Christian life. Pastor Tullian (Pg173) says, “Sanctification involves God’s daily attack on our unbelief – our self-centered refusal to believe that God’s approval of us in Christ is full and final.”

When we stop narcissistically focusing on our need to get better, that is what it means to get better. The more we focus on our need to get better, the more neurotic and self-absorbed and worse we actually get. I have to admit that I’ve been too pre-occupied with myself for most of my life and my pre-occupation with my performance over Christ’s performance makes me increasingly self-centered and distant from God and others.

Christian progress is forgetting about yourself! So, aim for progress but remember what it isn’t, your personal improvement and moral progress. Progress is washing your hands of you and resting in Christ’s finished work for you, which will inevitably produce personal improvement and spiritual growth.

Grace! 

Grace for the Call!

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Grace for the Call

Romans 12:3 “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

Paul was given grace by God and he recognized the grace God had given to him. Paul then exhorts us to not rate ourselves higher than the measure of faith that God has assigned to us. This is an interesting thought. From God’s perspective, we are to think about ourselves in accordance with the grace and measure of faith, heaven has assigned us.

When was the last time you ever thought about yourself in this way? I’ve observed that I sometimes think about myself in relation to how I’m feeling that day or what I have or haven’t accomplished in my life. Sometimes we think about ourselves in relation to other people’s opinions. But God says, ‘none of these are valid filters to measure yourself through.’

God assigns to all of us a measure of faith. This measure can grow based upon our hearing of Gods word and our obedience to it. The potential for growth in grace and faith challenges me to position myself before God in a way that I can access more of him to fulfill the call he’s given to me.

Romans 12:6 says, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.” One of the things I have observed about ministry gifts in the Body of Christ is that they are all ministering out of the grace God has given to them. I think too often we think that our ministry is all dependent upon our efforts and works. It’s true, faith apart from works is dead but I’m coming to realize more and more that our ministry sphere of influence is directly connected to God’s grace upon us and the measure of faith we are currently exercising.

What must be our response to this? I believe that we must discern the grace God has given to us and soberly measure the faith we currently have, whilst we are being diligently faithful to the assigned sphere of influence God’s grace has extended to us. Much can come from little in God’s economy but we must position ourselves to maximize the grace God’s given to us and fully exercise the faith we have been assigned. Here’s some basic tips to do so:

  1. Honour spiritual authority
  2. Increase your intimacy with God
  3. Hear God’s Word and obey it
  4. Develop your gift and use it to its fullest potential
  5. Trust God’s plan for your life and ministry

Insight!