Below are some random questions. Some are more reflective than others, but all are ones that cause me to think and do a bit of “soul searching.” Hope you spend some time thinking through them as well.
Jeff Kennon Posts
We too readily think of mission as extraordinary. Perhaps that’s because we find it awkward to talk about Jesus outside a church gathering. Perhaps it’s because we think God moves through the spectacular rather than the witness of people like us. Perhaps it’s because we want to outsource mission to the professionals, so we invite people to guest services where an “expert” can do mission for us. But most people live in the ordinary, and most people will be reached by ordinary people.
(taken from A Meal With Jesus by Tim Chester, p. 91)
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Jesus said some interesting things about the Kingdom of God. Two parables however, which are much the same, stand out to me.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:44-46)
So what is the Kingdom? There has been much thought about this, but I tend to conclude that it is the reign of God through Christ in which hope and a future are now guaranteed. It is a people oriented to the ways of Christ. Now granted, this is a pretty simple definition, but it will do for what I think Jesus is trying to tell us.
This Kingdom, says Jesus, is most valuable. In fact, it is worth everything. If you really saw it for what it truly is, you would sell everything in order to get it. That’s what these guys in the parable do. They sale everything to get that one thing that is the ultimate treasure. No cost is too great.
I don’t believe Jesus is telling us we can buy the Kingdom. We don’t earn it. What he is giving us is a picture of how beautiful it is. Living in the Kingdom, under the reign of Christ, is the good life. And that should capture our hearts and change everything about us. James K. A. Smith writes that “our ultimate love is oriented by and to a picture of what we think it looks like for us to live well, and that picture governs, shapes, and motivates our decisions and actions.”
Do we picture living in the Kingdom to be the good life? Do we visualize how living under Christ is the way to joy? Are we convinced of the value of orientating our lives to the ways of Christ? To do so requires more than just knowledge however. It requires a reorientation to what we do.
“So, what if we sought to discern not the essence of Christianity as a system of beliefs,” writes Smith, “but instead sought to discern the shape of Christian faith as a form of life?” In other words, our obedience and formation to Scripture moves us deeper into desire and love than just mere knowledge. We obey, therefore, in order to truly have our hearts changed.
Jesus told us that the Kingdom is of ultimate value. But we will not have our hearts shaped by that unless we begin to live under the graceful, loving rule of Christ. Our loves will not be moved to live such a good life until we approach the Scriptures beyond information. We must come to God’s Word in worship, ready to receive transformative grace as our hearts become attuned to that which is presented to us as the true picture of the good life.
God, may we be awakened a bit more today to see how the Kingdom for what it truly is. And may it reorder what we love. Amen.
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We live in a world that can be graceless! We are told that “You get what you deserve” and “There’s no such thing as a free lunch!” There is also a sense of entitlement that rears its head as well. It can become easy to think that because of who we are or what we have accomplished that we have certain privileges that others do not. After all, we have earned it.
It can be dangerous to live amidst gracelessness as we can slowly become “discipled” into being merciless. Instead of people who are give grace, we become people who demand more from others and are quick to judge when they don’t do their part. We forget about our own short-comings and only look at the faults in others.
So what do we do? I think we have to continue to immerse ourselves in the truth about ourselves and the reality of how much we need grace. If we don’t, we will end up like the Pharisee who went to the temple to pray. “God,” he prayed, “I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get” (Luke 18:11-12)
How righteous this man was. Much more righteous than the poor tax collector that happened to be in the temple praying at the same time (notice his allusion to him in his prayer: “even like this tax collector”). This religious leader had earned his right standing before God and others. And he had worked hard for it. But he had become blind to his own need. He was good at comparing himself with others, especially this tax collector, but he had forgotten his own need for grace and as a result, became graceless.
We do well to realize that we are in daily need of God’s grace and mercy. We must become like the tax collector in this story who when he came to the temple to pray, he stood in a corner, cast his eyes downward, beat his breast, and cried out to God for mercy. He knew he was not fit to stand before God and pray. And yet we find that he, not the religious leader, was the one who walked away “justified before God” (Luke 18:14).
It is when we understand who we are as people in need of mercy, and then dive into the grace of God, that we protect ourselves from becoming graceless people. In fact, I think understanding our daily need for grace protects us. Specifically, it protects us from at least three things…
Grace protects us from being judgmental
Our world is quick to judge others. In fact, when it comes to first impressions, scientists tell us that in takes only a tenth of a second for us to determine in our minds who that person is and how we will treat them. Like I said, we are quick to judge!
Being judgmental also carries with it the attitude that communicates that we are better than others. Remember the Pharisee and how he viewed the tax collector? If we are not careful, we can become like him, look down our nose at someone else and say things like: “I can’t believe he would do that.”
I believe that self-righteousness is the most dangerous sin. And it’s probably why Jesus addressed it so often with the religious leaders of his day. As we come to think that we are beyond the grace of God, we become people who wonder why people can’t live up to our level of goodness. And we judge them for not doing so.
Grace protects us from being separated from others.
When we think we are better than those around us, we generally don’t associate with them. Or if we do, we have such a “holier than thou” attitude that no one wants to be around us. The reality is that we have just as many problems as everyone else. Just because we sin differently than others doesn’t mean our sin isn’t as serious. It’s amazing how I am quick to notice others with huge sin problems while only viewing myself as struggling with a few bad habits.
The danger of being separate is that you can’t love people from a distance. And they can’t see that you, too, are human. The reality is that we are like everyone else in that we all want to be loved and accepted for who we are. And our deepest need for love can only be met by God Himself who created us in His love.
Grace protects us from ungratefulness.
When we understand what God has done for us in and through Christ, and how wonderful our salvation really is, we become grateful people. I like the words of Martin Lloyd-Jones when he wrote:
Do you habitually think of your own salvation as the greatest and most wonderful thing that has ever happened to you? I will ask a yet more serious question: do you give your neighbors the impression that you have found the most magnificent thing in the world? I have a terrible fear that many people are outside the Christian church because so many of us give them the impression that what we have is something very small, very narrow, very cramped and confined. We have not given them the impression that they are missing the most glorious thing in the entire universe.
Paul, at the end of Romans 11, after he has expounded quite profoundly in all the previous chapters about the salvation we have that comes from God alone, seems to get caught up in all that he has written and can only conclude by writing:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
How amazing is the grace of God? We can’t speak enough about it and yet we must swim in it daily lest we forget our greatest need and become judgmental, aloof, and ungrateful people. Let’s continue to have the heart of the tax collector.
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Service is the greatest act humans can do, as it imitates the self-giving life of God. If Jesus is the most deserving recipient, then denying ourselves and serving Jesus is the most satisfying thing we can ever do. The road may not alway be easy, but have you ever met anyone who regretted taking up their cross and following Jesus? I’ve never heard an older saint say, “You know what? I wish I had lived a little less committed to the Lord. If I had to do it over again, I would have been a bit more selfish with my time and money, especially when I was establishing my family and career. I would be better off if I had served Jesus less.”
(taken from Becoming Worldly Saints by Michael Wittmer p. 83)
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Blaise Pascal wrote, “All men seek happiness, this is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” If this is true, then it means that we will do whatever it takes to find happiness. But our search within the creation, according to Pascal, is to no avail. We seek and seek only to come up empty. Why? Because we are searching in all the wrong places.
“The infinite abyss,” writes Pascal, “can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object.” Augustine more famously stated the same type principle when he wrote, “God, You made us for yourself and our soul will not find rest until they find rest in thee.” We were created to be loved by God. And not only were we created to be loved by Him, but we were created in His love as well. We were not designed to be apart from God.
You know the story, however. Our first parents made the decision to go it alone. And we have followed suit ever since. Now I know we know this (or at least I’m assuming most of those who are reading this do), but it seems we still seek after those things that only bring fleeting happiness. Why is this?
I have recently been reading some of James K. A. Smith’s work. In You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit, he writes that we are unconsciously being lured into loving ultimately those things which in themselves were never meant to be loved so strongly. Notice that he said “unconsciously.” We are not even aware of how we are being shaped.
For Smith, our formation as humans is bigger than what we know. We are more than just cognitive beings. It’s what we love that forms us. “We become what we love,” he writes. “And you might not love what you think.” The world around us does really well at molding our hearts without us even knowing it.
One example for Smith of how the world forms us is in the area of consumerism. Consider the mall experience or the commercials we watch. These things go after our heart, not just our minds. They show us that to have the good life you need to own this product or buy this experience. And it’s all so subtle. Personally, I think we know that having the new iPhone won’t lead us to the promised land, and yet we have to have it (not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with getting a new phone…I think).
So what do we do? Smith argues that we need to see through the “liturgies” of the world around us. And how do we do this? One way is through story. Though the “consumerism story” can be quite appealing, there is a better story. A story that brings ultimate fulfillment. We know it as God’s story. And we must let it rewrite the story that our world tells us.
To have our story rewritten according God’s story, however, involves more than just our minds. It involves our bodies. Smith writes that the “practices of the church are a spiritual workout, inviting us into routines that train our heart muscles, our fundamental desires that govern how we move and act in the world.” Our days must be spent adjusting our lives to God’s word in obedience. It is the actions of obedience that move our hearts and cause greater belief.
I’m still thinking through much of what I’ve written in the paragraphs above. As a result, you may read more of what I’m plodding through in later posts. But until then, let’s dive into The Story and let it redirect what we do and therefore, change what we love.
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At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry on earth, when Christ asked Peter and Andrew to follow Him, he told them that as they did so, He would make them “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). Later on, near the end of Jesus’ time on earth, Jesus told his disciples that “just as the Father has sent me, so I am sending you” (John 20:21) He would also pray to His Father that “as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18).
I think we understand what Jesus was telling His disciples about what it means to follow Him. We know that we are a sent people into the world who are to be “fishers of men.” We can quote the “Great Commission.” We get this stuff! Knowledge is not our problem (or at least it’s not mine). Ed Stetzer, commenting about the Transformational Discipleship study he helped to conduct, writes:
We asked 3,000 protestant churchgoers how many times they had personally shared with another person how to become a Christian. Sixty-one percent said that they had never shared their faith. Zero times. Forty-eight percent said they hadn’t invited anyone to church during that period of time.
Again, it’s not a knowledge problem, it’s a problem of praxis. Somehow we need to move what we know to do and become to the area of daily living. The key is that we just have to start doing it. We have to develop the practice of sharing the gospel with others (more could be written about this in regards to developing habits and virtue). So where do we start? I believe it needs to begin in your ordinary everyday life. Therefore, consider these four things…
Prayer
I hope you realize the importance of prayer. Consider the following quotes by N.T. Wright in his book Simply Good News:
Prayer is standing between the one true God and his world, becoming a place where the love of this God and the life of this world (and especially the pain of this world) are somehow held together.
Prayer is part of the larger vocation in which we humans are supposed to be bringing God’s love to bear on his world.
Do we see prayer as a part of our “vocation?” Do we really understand that prayer is where we battle for the souls of those around us to connect them to the love of God?
So who are you praying for? Are you praying for those around you? Do you have a list? Do you write down names daily of people you encounter? If not, start today. Buy a small notebook or start plugging in names into your phone. Regardless of how you do it, begin praying specifically for those around you. And pray that God will awaken them to His love and grace!
Presence
Wherever you are, be all there. Practice the presence of people. Turn off technology and realize who is around you. Don’t be in such a rush everywhere you go. The reality is that you probably come into contact with many people each day that you might not even be aware of. As I’ve written before, we see people as either scenery, machinery, or ministry. So how do you see those around you?
Being present is being incarnational. In our hurried up world, can you imagine how refreshing we could be to others if we slowed down to be present among them? Can you imagine how life-giving we could be if we slowed down enough to listen to people? I believe people are starving to be heard.
Proclamation
You have to speak! Now I’m not talking about preaching at others. What I mean is that you have to converse about the gospel. But if you are praying for others and if you are present among them with a listening ear, you might find more open doors to begin talking about God than you thought imaginable. But you do have to be willing to speak.
The key is to be who you are. Talking with others about Christ is not about having a certain type of personality. Don’t turn into your pastor when you start sharing the gospel. I’m sure there is nothing wrong with your pastor, but you are not him. Be yourself. Be honest. Be caring.
Perseverance
Keep going. Be faithful. Don’t stop praying for those around you. Don’t stop caring for someone. Don’t give up. It might be years before you see something happen in a particular person’s life, but keep trusting that God is working. Stay committed. I think this is especially hard for us in our world of having everything “on demand.” But stay the course!!!
Begin today! Don’t put it off. Start praying now. Make a list. Pay attention to who is around you. And be open to where God is working. Start a conversation. Take a risk. And keep going.
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The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves and, we imagine, to others. To be unavailable to our friends and family, to be unable to find time for the sunset (or even to know the sun has set at all), to whiz through our obligations without time for a mindful breath, this has become the model of a successful life.
(quote from Sabbath by Wayne Muller found in The Power of Full Engagement, p. 39)
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