Should we be pragmatic or biblical? Can we be both?

I don’t know about you, but I often run into situations that demand a clear, simple answer to very murky, complex questions.  Sometimes the Bible doesn’t directly address a situation.  What am I to do then?  Other times the Bible is very clear, but it is unclear how to apply it to a specific situation.  Now what?  Still other times I feel a pressure to act on something or to take a stand about an issue, but I am simply not sure what steps to take. 

How can I move forward in a way that pleases God?  Can I be pragmatic and biblical at the same time? 

Don’t know what I am talking about?  How about issues like: abortion, ethics in business, divorce, civil disobedience to the government, jobs Christians can take or not, relationships Christians can be involved in or not, how to act in a way that honors Jesus in an environment filled with sinful actions outside of your control, etc.

John Wesley came up with a way to address these kinds of issues and his method has been dubbed the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.  Here is how it works.  Wesley understood that whenever we face tough questions we must filter our decision-making properly or we will likely make a mistake and go in the wrong direction.  For him that filter comprised four “authorities.”  Each one of them are important, but they don’t carry the same weight.  Here they were:

1.       Scripture.  This is the obvious foundational authority for our faith and practice as Christians.  We want the whole Bible to speak into our lives and inform the way we think, speak and live.  When the course of our lives comes up against the teachings of the Bible, the Bible must speak to us and change us, not the other way around.  Everything must submit to this authority.  It is the central cog of the wheel for us.

2.       Tradition.  We don’t know everything and even though we may enjoy advances far greater than earlier generations, we are not the pinnacle of wisdom and knowledge.  Previous generations of Christians need to speak into our present context.  How the Church has lived with the Bible, spoken into the culture, practiced its faith, taken stands for justice and holiness, etc. throughout history matters a great deal.  While God continues to work and speak in fresh ways, we must be informed by our spiritual mothers and fathers from the past and how God worked through them as well.  In other words, we don’t act in isolation from the rest of God’s people.

3.       Reason.  It is true that “the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight” (1Cor. 3:19).  It is also true that, “the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor. 1:25).  Our perspective is simply limited.  As Paul said, “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Cor. 13:12).  Our reason and our ability to reason will be limited on this side of Heaven.  However, God has given us minds to use and we must use them.  We must reason through problems and questions with the best wisdom and discernment available to us.  In the end, though limited, reason is our friend and, when collectively embraced by God’s people, a very strong ally. 

4.       Experience.  We cannot forget what we live through in our day to day walk with God.  We each have a unique and dynamic experience with God that informs us.  Our journey with Him is real and it is directive for us and for those we have influence over.  The text is alive and speaks to us.  The traditions of the Church are alive and inform our individual walks.  The wisdom of God’s people is alive and broadens our worldview.  Quite simply, what we experience shapes us, either strengthening our resolve, breaking our spirit or steering our lives. 

These “authorities” are real.  They must be brought to bear in every question that we must answer as Christians.  They must be used to filter through all the possible options in order to come to the most God-honoring solution to our problems.  In short, I think when we do utilize them properly we can find the best answers and the clearest direction possible.  Will we always be absolutely sure?  Probably not.  That is why we must live and speak with humility.   However, we will have a much greater clarity and confidence as we move forward.

What do you think about these filters? 

Can evangelism still happen on Sunday?

I have really been wrestling with some ideas in a book by Tim Chester and Steve Timms called Everyday Church: Gospel Communities on Mission.  They say some pretty challenging and thought provoking things about our typical approach to mission and evangelism as Christians.  Look at this:

It is no good blaming the lost for failing to turn up.  It is no good bemoaning the drift of our nation away from Christianity.  "Our persistent 'come to us' mind-set suggests that we really believe that people who refuse to come in the front door are beyond the reach of Christ."  A farmer cannot blame his crops if he fails to sow and reap.  Sunday morning in church is the one place where evangelism cannot take place in our generation, because the lost are not there.  Evangelism will not take place until we go out to connect with them where they are, where they feel comfortable, on their territory.  We cannot assume people will come to us..  We must go to them. (377-385)

They argue that the church as we see it now must continue to preach the Gospel to those who "come in the front door."  In other words, we don't stop everything we have done.  However, they push us to look beyond the walls toward the estimated 84-100 million people in the United States who have no connection with a local church or intention of ever having one.

What do you think about their call?  

What does that mean for the way most every church thinks about its ministry and its focus? 

Are you a grace abuser?

A few weeks ago I read a book by Mark Steele called Christianish.  There are a number of interesting and thought provoking insights in the book, but one continues to ring in my head.  He says some important and tough things about a very important part of our faith and our ongoing relationship with God: grace.

Here is what he says:

We love that Jesus died for our sins and that His grace cancels out the Old Testament need for sacrifice . . . Jesus died on the cross.  He took the blame.  His scars and blood and death replaced the need for mine.  That’s what grace is – and we love, love, love grace. 

Sadly, we also abuse it.

In an attempt to be a more free church – less bound up in legalism – we have embraced grace so heartily that we have also eradicated responsibility.  We cave to sin and temptation and desires and whims and preferences very easily, especially in the church, and we feel bad fleetingly.  Then grace comes in and spanks guilt and we have a half hour of worship and feel awesome.  But we don’t do a whole lot of dirty work to truly seek permanent healing – to truly sprint away from sin with all our might.

Grace is the greatest gift anyone could have ever given us.  It should humble us, prompt us to make our lives right.  It should make us want to please that sort of caring Savior so much that every time we fail and need grace, it drives us toward purity – toward accountability.  Grace should be met by gratefulness, and gratefulness should prompt reasonable action. 

Instead, daily sins, shortcomings, and affliction are rampantly increasing in the modern church.  Why?  Because we are seeing grace as a coupon – as a voucher that allows us to not worry about destructive actions leading to disastrous consequences.  It is as if we believe that for everyone else sin leads to hell and death, but for us it leads to a scolding that is quickly forgotten.  We act like sinful actions are a cakewalk because we are lucky enough to know about the grace discount. 

To live in such a way disrespects grace.  It shames grace – it insinuates that Jesus suffered and died so that we could sin more freely . . . What happened to the reverence?  The heartbreak that is supposed to come from displeasing God?  Have we gone so far to the other extreme that the only part of sin that matters to us is whether or not it is going to keep us out of heaven? (2420-2431)   

Have you been a grace abuser?  What makes that possible?

Steele argues that we abuse grace because we believe the lies that our actions don’t matter and that our lives are not ministry. 

Grace comes from God and makes us right with Him.  However, the presence of God’s grace does not mean the absence of my responsibility.  Change to please God is still necessary, but now, for the first time, grace makes change possible and worth it.  God’s real grace is making me grateful and true gratitude never takes grace for granted.

What do you think about Steele’s words?  How do we overcome our tendency toward grace abuse?      

When Jesus Haunts Your Halloween

Below is a blog I found VERY interesting written by David Mathis.  Read, enjoy and let me know what your reaction is:

Unclean spirits stir. Demonic thrones and dominions gather. Cosmic powers over this present darkness come to attention. And the devil himself, ready to devour and destroy, ignites his fiery darts and stretches his legs for the lion’s prowl.
As All Hallows’ Eve draws nigh, the spiritual forces of evil align, and Satan prepares his hordes for the party of the year — the grand harvest festival, celebration of darkness and death, when they pretend to be their strongest.
Halloween is almost here. But so is their final defeat. Jesus haunts their Halloween.

One Little Word

As the demonic rulers and authorities make ready, the one who sits in the heavens laughs (Psalm 2:4). To him, the devil is no threat, with all his orcs and goblins and the wickedest of witches. This is no evenly matched bout. If the incarnate Christ, in his humblest state, commands unclean spirits and they obey him (Mark 1:27) — how much more the risen and glorified Lord? Jesus does the real haunting.
Even as his adversaries marshal their best, they can’t escape serving his purposes. It is all through him and for him. “By him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). Jesus haunts their Halloween.
No demon lurks apart from his will. No spirit pounces apart from his plan. He is sovereign over even the movements of evil minds. “God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled” (Revelation 17:17).
Luther nailed it — one little word shall fell them. Jesus haunts their Halloween.

He Put Them to Shame

It is precisely when the devil feigns to be his fiercest that Jesus delivers the deathblow. It was a Halloween-like gathering of ghouls and goblins at Golgotha when “he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them” (Colossians 2:15).
Jesus came to conquer fear, to haunt whatever haunts. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). He stooped to share in our flesh and blood “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery” (Hebrews 2:14–15).

Every Single One

Those who are in Christ have no need to fear the night. This is now our day. He has won it for us, and will not leave us to fend for ourselves in the devil’s domain. God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13). This we know: “he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
“Take heart; I have overcome the world,” he says (John 16:33). Every inch of this universe — every single one — is his. And that includes All Hallows’ Eve and all its worst. He is the one who empowers us to “withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm” (Ephesians 6:13). And he says that just as he squashed the Serpent’s skull with his heel, so “the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20). Our feet. Get your boots.
Jesus haunts their Halloween. And so too he must haunt ours.

Dressed Up for Real

When Jesus haunts our Halloween, we “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14) and “put on the new self” (Colossians 3:10). Dressed in the full armor of God, we “stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11) on the exact night when he’d most want us to circle the wagons. We have a Book and will “not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11). We take up the shield of faith “with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16).
When Jesus haunts our Halloween, we pour in the extra energy and creativity to capitalize on this opportunity to meet new neighbors and go deep with the old — whether we’re ushering our kids from house to house or leaving our lights on and giving out the best candy.

Sent into the Harvest

When Jesus haunts our Halloween, we remember that our enemy is not the scariest-clad Halloween reveler, but “the god of this world” who has blinded their minds and keeps them “from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). We war not against unbelievers but “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Ephesians 2:2). We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but the rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness, and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).
When Jesus haunts our Halloween, we look on the cheekiest carousers with compassion — as “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). On this night, as much as any, “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few,” and so we “pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:37–38). And we walk in faith to be those workers.

Freed from Fear

And when Jesus haunts our Halloween, we fight not only Satan, but fear in our souls. We see that our Halloween horrors reveal our lack of faith in who Jesus is, what he has accomplished, and that he has commissioned us.
When Jesus haunts our Halloween, we do not flee, but go on the offensive. “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). We don’t retreat, but resist — with level heads and open eyes. “Be soberminded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9). We engage, with care and with courage.

Staring Death in the Face

When Jesus haunts our Halloween, we remember that the forces of evil, which we can be so prone to fear, are actually terrified of Jesus. Everyday is a spook for the devil and his demons, and Jesus does the haunting. The decisive blow has been dealt, and soon we will land the final punch.
Jesus has promised his gospel will advance (Matthew 24:14). He will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail (Matthew 16:18). And so when Jesus haunts our Halloween, we join the triumphant anthem:

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55–57)

Grace in Theory or Grace in Reality

Last week I posted tweet from Tim Keller on my Facebook page that caused an interesting comment from a former college friend.  Here was Tim Keller’s tweet:

Christians believe we are saved not primarily by following what Jesus said but by believing in what he did.

This seems so simple, but in my experience as a pastor it tends to be something only accepted in theory, as a theological abstract, but not where it counts in real life.  One of my college friends even asked this question after reading it and the comments of others in response:

When I read James 3:2, I feel relief ("We all stumble in many ways" NIV). But then I read I John 3:9 "No one who is born of God will continue to sin" and I'm like, I'm doomed. Verses like I John 3:9 make it hard to accept that I'm saved by accepting/believing in Christ's redemptive work on the cross, even though I feel like that is enough, given John 3:16-18... Or I am indeed saved if I accept/believe it, but I must not truly accept/believe it yet, if I still sin. Am I missing something in the context of I John, or...?

What a powerful, heartfelt and very important question (You can see the helpful responses on my Facebook page if you want.).  While it isn’t always worded like this, I hear questions like this all the time.  I wrote about this kind of thing before because I believe this type of thinking is spiritually debilitating.

On the one hand, people are sometimes driven to what I call “belief-centered religion.”  The foundation for being right with God is getting all my beliefs right.  The problem is that this either produces spiritual arrogance because I am so right and others are so wrong.  It also produces fear because somewhere deep down I think I might not always be right and if I am wrong somewhere maybe God won’t accept me.  In either case, my doctrinal position gives me a false understanding of my right standing with God.

On the other hand, people are sometimes driven to what I call “behavior-centered religion.”  The foundation for being right with God is my moral or righteous behavior, the good deeds that I do and the sins I avoid doing.  The problem is that this either produces judgmentalism, because I quickly find myself comparing and contrasting my behavior with others and judging myself to be superior.  It also produces tremendous guilt because deep down I know the places where I haven’t measured up and I am filled with guilt and shame about it.  In either case, my performance or lack thereof gives me a false understanding of where I am with God.

Both of these approaches are so false.  The Bible is clear about.  Our theology as Christians is clear about it.  Our sermons and our lessons are clear about it. But the problem is that we end up believing in grace in theory, but not in reality.

So what’s the problem?

Why do we find ourselves practically trying to justify ourselves before God by so many other ways that will never work rather than the simple means offered to us through Christ in the Gospel (Ephesians 2:8-10, Romans 5:1-11, etc.)?

Sheep(s) and the Shepherd!

In John 10 Jesus makes pretty clear that His followers are to know Him by the sound of His voice and they will follow that voice. 

You can read the whole chapter, but the two main pieces I find interesting are verses 3, 4 and 14:

 . . . the sheep listen to his (the shepherd’s) voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. – John 10:3-4

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me . . . – John 10:14

Clearly Jesus’ analogy is one where His followers are compared to sheep and He is the shepherd.  At the same time it is clear that Jesus’ followers are to know Him so well that they listen to His voice and follow Him as a result.

That means they must know what His voice sounds like.

It also means that they must trust that He has their best interests at heart.

They must believe that He knows the way.

And, maybe most importantly, they then have to choose to follow His voice over any other voice.

When you look at this simple passage, what does it say to you?

How is it that so many people who claim to be Christian end up going in such different directions, sometimes clearly away from the one Jesus would lead them?

What is the way forward for us oftentimes stubborn and dim-witted sheep?