Self-help or God-help (Followed by a Note on Why Look to the Bible)

What is the power of humanity?

What is the result of our greatest thoughts? Atom bombs - destruction

What are the highest aspirations of our people? World power - Riches and Fame - Comfort - Pleasure

Is this the pinnacle of human thought? Is this the best we can do?

Yes, it is.

Man's ideas lead to Concentration Camps, Empty pursuits, and Selfish behavior at the expense of others.

And yet we want to look to man to save our souls. Be a better you! Think Positive!
What you need is a self-help seminar....more human wisdom and human ideas.

You need to puff yourself up in pride and in your abilities.

Yet you can't control tomorrow, you are gone with the wind, everything we so cherish is gone with the wind. What kind of trust do you place on sinking sand that washes away? Who would build on sinking sand? Who would base a life on dust in the wind?

As we step into eternity, money rots, fame is worthless, and human power is confronted with true power in our maker.

But yet, they say all you need to do is dig down deep and be a better person. This is the height of human wisdom. On what do we base this confidence in human wisdom? Because it has worked so well and because we seem to do such good things based on our human understandings?

The greatest empire on the planet today - what is so great - its guns, its bombs? Its wide-spread sexual perversion? Its do whatever it takes to get rich upon the shoulders of the poor and expendable? Idolizing of celebrities who offer us no character, no righteousness, no role models for young peole to look up to? And yet we reward them more than any other in our society?

How promising a prospect is it to look to the same wisdom of humanity on how to save himself? How hopeless a thought, that man can save himself? How ridiculous!

Even the church is chiming in on self-help. The faith becomes so watered down that God has no place in it. The faith is presented as all about us, all about what we get, all about what we do - empty of God. It becomes selfish. It becomes nothing more than self-fulfillment, how to have the best marriage, how to have joy, how to have peace in life, how to be a good person, how to live the life you've always wanted.

Thats not Biblical. Biblical faith is not focused on man - it is focused on God and what He is doing with man!

Biblical faith points to man's need for help outside himself. Man's inability to do anything that will stand. Man's wickedness cries out in the Bible and as we look around today. Even though the world will call sin good, sin is always evil and we reap what we sow.

Man needs help. A help found in God. We need God-help, not self-help. A help from God stepping down from heaven to take on flesh in Jesus Christ. To do for us on our behalf what none of us could do on our own.

We are totally dependent upon Christ. Upon the Cross. The Cross is the place our wickedness receives its due. And we receive forgiveness by Christ, not because we deserved it - by no means. It is the gift and goodness of God toward us.

And as Christ was risen by the power of God from the dead, He reigns today - forever. And He has begun to raise us to new life, as we accept the Cross of Christ, realizing what He has offered to us - salvation from our wickedness and our inability to free ourselves from our own follies - we accept His help and receive the Holy Spirit. In God's power, we walk in newness of life. We walk in a life of obedience to God, obedience to His Biblical revelation given to us, dependent on Him and no longer in rebellion against Him. It is His doing, His power, His intervention, His guiding, His new creation. A journey onward with God perfected as we enter glory prepared for life ever-lasting.

I am afraid for a people that tries to depend so much on man - and refuses to look to God. The answers to our questions, failures, brokenness is not found in ourselves, our help is only found in God.

And if you come to God for help, don't come to be a better you, don't come because you want a better life, if you come to Him, come to Him because He is worthy, come because you're desperate for the Living God, come because you know you need Him. Come because this world is empty without Him and He is everything. Come to him to die to yourself. Allow Him to rebuild you in His ways, in His plan, not looking to get His help in what your plans are - NO - looking to burn your plans and receive His in their place. A total rejection of trust in yourself, a total rejection of your wisdom, a total rejection of what you thought was good, or what you thought life was about - a death to self. Trust God as the answer, for the plan, for whats good, for what your life should be about. Because you desperately see that nothing in you can be trusted - only God is to be trusted. Its about Him and His willingness to show us!

Who are you counting on for eternity?
Yourself, what you've done.
Don't count on yourself and your goodness built on your own efforts, count on God.
What reason do you have to trust yourself? What have you done to prove yourself capable of creating your own tailored-plan of salvation?
We are hopeless in ourselves. This is the clear declaration of history. A history of human wickedness and rebellion against God and the result of sinful choices flowing from generation to generation.
Find your sole salvation in God and God alone - in His finished work on the Cross - in His promises to you found in the Bible.

Why the Bible:

Because over 40 men were inspired by God to write His story for us. Because over a 1,500 year time period these men were all coordinated to produce one consistent theme throughout the Bible. The need for Jesus Christ, Man's inability to do right without God, and God's passion to reach out to a rebellious mankind.

Because there is no other book that has such a large testimony of God's inspiration. Because you don't have to take my word for it, or the word of just one man who says he had an experience with God and expects us to believe it. Because over 40 men who didn't know each other over 1500 years were led to testify to the very same God and this God's plan for His creation.

Because a dozen men witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ first hand, because over 500 saw Him risen from death. Because in any court of law, this many first-hand witnesses would be enough to make a decision. Because Christianity is founded on historical realities, concrete realities. Jesus is a historical fact and the power of the Cross stands forever. Pointing to us the only way of man's salvation found in God stepping down from heaven to take the suffering sin deserved and His promise to forgive us in accepting what He has done in our place.

Not self-help, God-help.

Begging at God's Table

I sit and wrestle with divinity
my little mind wrestles with the mysteries of God
so much you have taught me
so much you have shown me
little scraps from your table
back I come begging
searching
wondering
what a foolish endeavor
to think I might understand you God who is beyond all human comprehension
God who made all that is and stands apart from everything I know and see
God who interacts with Creation
Apart from anything I know
Apart from anything I see
Untouchable
Wisdom beyond measure
Love never-ending
Yet I come back for more
More scraps at your table to savor
I come back because you have been so generous to me
so generous to share with me, just what I needed, just as I needed it
to serve you
At times, I thought I might fully grasp you
In my arrogance, I thought too much of myself
Can I be at peace, in knowing in part but not in whole?
Can I rest in what you've done? and what you've shown?
Your Holy Spirit convicts me and moves me
Your truth burns in my soul
Love, justice, mercy, joy, peace, and patience
they point beyond and assure me of what is
That you God, you God stand behind it
You move me, you guide me, in your paths of righteousness
You move me where I desire to be, where I love to be
In your goodness, in your grace, with purpose and joy supreme

even when it doesn't make sense,
even when its hard times
this I know, you have been good to me
scraps I've savored from your table
by no merit on my own
but because you are good, and you desire to share with me

misundertood word: gospel

When you hear the word gospel, what do you think of?

It is the most important part of the Christian faith. Do we know it?

Gospel literally means, good news.

Why don't we just say good news...? Maybe then it won't sound like such a foreign concept to people who have never heard the word gospel.

Good news.

We all like good news.

Good news, even though we have all messed up and done bad things in our lives, God wanted to provide a way to cover all our bad choices and remove them from his sight. He did this by coming in the flesh as Jesus Christ, and took on the penalty, Himself, for all of our bad decisions. God chose to do this for us. God chose to sacrifice Himself on our behalf. None of us deserved it. None of us earned any favor with God. It was a free gift given by God, the same God who gave us life in our mother's womb.

Good news of a forgiven past.

It is belief in the good news that can purify a heart, after all Jesus loved you enough to die for you. It is belief in the good news that can cleanse a conscience, after all it was all of your wrong choices that required Jesus to be crucified. It is belief in the good news that can break through idle talk, after all there is a world that needs to feel the good news. The good news brings our dead souls to life. Fully alive, in God.

Good news! You have been forgiven, so forgive others. Good news! You have been helped, so stop and help others. Good news! You have been loved by the greatest lover of everything that exists, so love others.

Cheap Grace Vs. Costly Grace

Following are a couple quotes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer on what he saw as one of the biggest problems facing Christianity during his time in the 1940's. He stood up for Christian love and returned to a Nazi occupied Germany, his homeland, to minister to his fellow neighbors. He did this knowing it could mean his death in a country where opposing Hitler was certain death. He did in fact become martyred for Christ's sake. He was executed at the hands of the Nazi's, all the while loving those imprisoned unjustly. It seems that much of what he points out is still relevant today. Read it and see what you think....

Christian life comes to mean nothing more than living in the world and as the world, in being no different from the world for the sake of grace. The upshot of it all is that my only duty as a Christian is to leave the world for an hour or so on a Sunday morning and go to church to be assured that my sins are forgiven. I need no longer try to follow Christ, for cheap grace, the bitterest foe of discipleship, which true discipleship must loathe and detest, has freed me from that. Dietrich Bonhoeffer The Cost of Discipleship

By cheap grace, Bonhoeffer illustrates: Preaching forgiveness without repentence, grace without embracing the cross, communion without confession, baptism without discipline, and so on . . .

I believe Bonhoeffer calls us back to the true meaning of Christianity. Learning from a Risen Savior and following Him to the Cross! Not on our own power, but in fellowship with Him, He leads us to our cross and helps us find it and enables us to embrace it with Him. Who is preaching like this today (See post on the Janitor for February 16th)? Is grace still cheap or are there preachers of costly grace? Grace that costs the life of a disciple and asks him to leave behind his old life. Christ doesn't allow Peter to remain a fisherman, or the young rich man to remain a rich man, the circumstance of who they used to be must change. The one quickly obeys and follows leaving behind his fishing trade, but the second example refuses to obey and refuses to follow. Both must embrace following Christ no matter the cost to their life, because Jesus says, that "whoever looses his life for Christ's sake will find it" (Matt. 10:39).

Running

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win. Roger Bannister

Roger Bannister was the first man to break the four minute mile, once thought to be impossible.

I like that quote. I enjoy training and running. There seems to be many life lessons in this quote. Many life lessons I take away from running and training. Obviously, there is always the pain from working out or even those points you reach that you just want to quit. Pushing past those points toward that goal whatever it is, you learn something about yourself.

Life seems to be much like this. There are problems that barrage you every day. All the time I have moments where I don't feel like doing some thing. But I do it anyway, because I have goals and I have a vision. I know the things I am doing right now, whatever that thing is I don't like fits into the big picture of things I do enjoy.

In running, there is that freeing feeling in the physical of overcoming all obtacles. Overcoming the pain, pushing past the problems, you can find yourself set free from the troubles that come in life as well. It can reengerize you to take on those problems fresh having conquered other problems/pains/challenges during a run or other physical challenge.

In faith, we are called to be faithful till the end. We are to hit the finish line at full steam. I have heard Chuck Swindall I believe say, I don't want to limp into heaven.

There are obstacles, temptations, and pains we will experience and just like Roger Bannister quoted, we are too drive ourselves further to Christ and hold onto the Word ever tighter to overcome the troubles of life. We are called to be holy, to grow in faith, to change. By the grace of God, may we bend ourselves to God's will to let this happen to us.

May we lay down those things in our lives that are not of God's Word.

Remember

Forgive me Lord for all the things I have forgotten. Forgive me for not carrying your praises with me to freely proclaim your awesome power.

Like the time that you delivered me from my empty pursuits. No money, no drug, no pleasure, no status, no not anything but you can satisfy my soul. How you look upon such a lost soul and shine your mercies and graces. How you filled my heart with purpose. Thank you for saving me in my waywardness and watching over me during my car crash. My God has set a path before me to walk in. A path that takes me away from what I once knew. Takes me away from lies and guides me into truth. Truth a life can be built upon.

Like every time you have answered prayer. When I prayed to be used by you for your glory. So numerous are the times, I am ashamed to forget them in my day to day life. As you opened the way to Kokomo Urban Outreach. As you worked miracles of baptism of my immediate family into your kingdom. As you work your plan to place other travellers on your path beside me for fellowship. As you open doors into my neighbors lives.

So great in your timing are your answers to prayer. You heard me pray for my brother, his wife, and my nieces. Awesome to watch them turn to you for leadership and making choices to do your will. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine my 44 year old brother being soft enough to be baptised, or my 65 year old mother.

Remember the time that you delivered two-fold the amount of shoes prayed for needy children in Kokomo. What I asked you doubled and worked a miracle on the day beyond what I had enough faith to trust for.

I wish I could carry with me every day how Great you are God to answer and deliver to the fullest my feeble prayers. I wish I would always remember how you deliver me and watch over me. When my body hurts, when things don't go my way, when stresses overwhelm, when tragedy strikes, things seem impossible, then I wish I would remember what you have done and trust you for deliverance in all troubles.

"Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life." Psalm 23

Remember, remember, remember what God has Done!

He did it all

Jesus did it all for us. He was whipped, beaten, shamed, betrayed, denied, mocked, pierced, and crucified for you and me. He was rejected, cursed, and there was no room for Him when He was born. He took it all for us, He suffered all there was to be suffered. He was committed to embrace his own sacrifice. And on the 3rd day He was risen from the dead having conquered death.

So while we wait to see Him lifted high on the Judgement Seat before heaven, let us remember, "He did it all," so how much will He be willing to forgive here and now, since He did love us enough to embrace death, yes even death on a cross?

There is nothing we do to earn it, he loves us and extends us pardon freely.

If we could only hold onto a vision of Jesus and His love for us. That no matter what we have done, Jesus' willingness to forgive us is sufficient. His love and grace is so large, that He bore the cross and was tortured beyond comprehension for us. How much more willing does that make Him to extend grace, if He would embrace such torture for us? A love that motiveated Him to lay down His own life, will surely be tender enough to accept a heart felt cry to Him that loves so much. My brothers and sisters in Christ let us always approach the throne room of grace with confidence knowing what He has already done and is longing to do right now. Give your burden to Jesus. He has paid the price to take away your burden and guilt.

I find myself dependent upon Jesus grace, mercy, and love. My sinful nature will flare up and come out of nowhere and blind side me. So I call out to the name that Saves, "Jesus." I am on my knees again in this dark room asking your pardon. I hear Him say, "My grace is sufficient for you little one." "If I suffered so much on the cross, will I not hear you now and be very willing to forgive you?" Yes, Yes, tis true, tis true.

Amazing Grace

The longer I am a Christian, the more I realize...It's more than just a one day conversion and we don't need Jesus anymore...It's more than just choosing Jesus one day of our life 3 years ago. It's choosing Jesus and relying on Him to supply us bread daily. It's seeking His will every day. It's seeking His grace, every day. It's picking up our cross and carrying it until the death of self is complete. It's taking step after step with that cross following Jesus.

I ran smack into a brick wall this weekend. The more I fight against my flesh. The more I strive to be "perfect, as my Father in heaven is perfect." The more I listen to Jesus say, "Go and sin no more." I can't even do good without being prideful about the good that I do. I can't keep the least of His commands. I fail to do what Jesus has asked of me. I realize, I deserve death, but Christ, He deserves my life...for what He did for me. Maybe if I can get myself out of the way enough, He just might be able to do something good, something genuine through me.

I am broken with failure asking for forgiveness for what I fight not to do. Not to run to my Savior asking for forgiveness for what I have asked for many times in the past. Oh how great your Mercy Lord! Oh how glorious, the love you have to wait on me to journey farther with you, to give you total access to me. That I may fully submit all areas of my life. That you may remake me into what you will. My patience for myself grows thin. I can't bear to fail you. Please take this poor sinners life and make it into something, something that brings glory and honor to your name.

Unimaginable, unfathomable...your love! Did you know when you asked of us, what you asked? Did you know the difficulty of what you asked? I think you probably did. So much failure, to strive to be like my Jesus. So much pain, when I fall so short. So much different than what I am, to serve and not to be served, to seek humility and humbleness rather than prop myself up with pride for everyone to look at. Why does it feel like everyone but me has it altogether? Why does it feel like I'm the only one who struggles to follow you? Why does it seem like everyone at church has it altogether?

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me....I once was lost, but now, I'm found...was blind, but now I see so clearly...Halleluah, grace like rain falls down on me. All my stains are washed away. Thank you Lord, for stepping down out of heaven to offer the only life line that can save me...You with me, every day, leading me through this journey, gazing into my eyes letting me know, everything will be alright, one day.........