Deny Thyself

In Mark 8:31-33, Jesus informs his disciples that he is about to suffer many things, be rejected by the leaders of Israel, and be killed. After three days he will rise again. Peter, expecting the warrior Messianic King, does not like this news and he decides to pull Jesus off to the side and rebuke him. In turn, Jesus rebukes him in front of all of the disciples. Then Jesus has some interesting words for all who are thinking about following him…

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

Jesus has just told them that he will give his life for the sake of the gospel. Now, he tells all who want to follow him that they must be ready to give their own lives for the sake of the gospel. “Deny ourselves”… our lives are not our own. If we, in an attempt to save ourselves, choose a life of comfort, ease, security… a life without risks… then we will ultimately lose our lives. However, if we are willing to sacrifice our lives for the gospel of Christ… living dangerously, courageously, and boldly… then we will ultimately live forever (immortality at its finest). Jesus’ message to those who would follow him, “Life without Jesus and the gospel… zero dollars. A life lived following Jesus for the sake of the gospel… priceless.” Erwin McManus nailed it when he described accepting the call to follow Jesus as living “the Barbarian Way.”

It is high time for us to step out of the comfort and complacency of our Sunday morning experience and truly live. We must stop waiting for people to take a risk and come to us. Jesus asked his followers to take the risk. Jesus asked those who would follow him to step out in faith. Jesus was crucified because he was seen as a threat to Jewish leadership of his day. His movement was making waves. People wanted to follow the way of Jesus rather than the ways of old. I have to ask myself, very convictingly, is the Christianity of today a threat to the leadership of today? Actually, the leadership of our world today is stomping out Christianity. Why? It is happening…slowly but surely. What are we as Christians going to do? Will we sit in our pews comfortably every Sunday and Wednesday offering our sacrifice of praise? Will we live our lives quietly minding our own business, afraid to disturb someone else with our Jesus? Will we continue to tell others that if they want Jesus they must come to us?

I often like to dream about how this world might change if we actually understood what Jesus meant when he said, “Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me (to death)”… parenthetical words are mine, of course. I am just as guilty. I sit in my office each week preparing for the next class or the next sermon. I realize that at the end of the day… I have risked absolutely nothing for Jesus or his gospel. What have you risked today?

I will close with these words from Thomas a Kempis… “Jesus has many who love his kingdom in heaven, but few who bear his cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share his feast, but few his fasting. All desire to rejoice with him, but few are willing to suffer for his sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of bread, but few to the drinking of the cup of his passion. Many admire his miracles, but few follow him in the humiliation of the cross.”

May the Lord grant me the strength and the courage to deny myself, take up my cross, and follow him. May I live dangerously for the sake of Christ and his gospel.

Perspective

I read something today that has really got me thinking. It spoke to me and wanted to share it with you. When I first read it, it made me kind of angry, defensive. I had to go back and re-read it several times. Then I had to put the book down and think on this for a while. I had to consider the possibilities. I had to put it into perspective. The more I thought, the blurriness of these words began to come into focus. The more perspective I gained on these words, the more I began to understand why they made me a bit defensive. These words convicted me. What about you? Take a look at these words taken from Rob Bell’s book, Velvet Elvis…

“The Bible is not pieces of information about God and Jesus and whatever else we take and apply to situations as we would a cookbook or an instruction manual.

And while I am at it, let’s make a group decision to drop once and for all the Bible-as-owner’s-manual metaphor. It’s terrible. It really is.

When was the last time you read the owner’s manual for your toaster? Do you find it remotely inspiring or meaningful?

You only refer to it when something’s wrong with your toaster. You use it to fix the problem, and then you put it away.” (p. 62)

If you are like me, you have used the owner’s manual metaphor when referring to the Bible. Surely I am not the only one that has told someone that God’s word is like an owner’s manual…instructions for living. While it is true that there are instructions for living within the Bible, think about what he is saying for a moment. As you are contemplating these few words, take note of the very next sentence he writes (p. 63)…

“We have to embrace the Bible as the wild, uncensored, passionate account it is of people experiencing the living God.”

Oh man, I am going to be praying with all that I am that these words convict me. The Bible is alive. It is inspiring. It is meaningful. This story (the Bible) is my story. As I read, may I experience the living God. As you read, may you experience the living God.

Blessings…

Crazy Love

Love…it is one of those words in our culture that we have devalued. In our world today, we toss that word around far too easily and carelessly. In our own selfishness and sinfulness, we have weakened the impact of love. I get confused today when I hear parents tell their children, “You don’t even know what love is.” Even though that may be true, I struggle with this because I believe there are many adults in our world today who do not even know what real love is. For many in our world today, love is such a relative term. We say “I love you,” so easily, but what we really mean is, “I love you as long as it is convenient for me.” When pain surfaces, when restlessness sets in, or when it just no longer feels right, then we believe we have the right to quit. We convince ourselves that we have the right to choose to love someone else.

That is not the way love was meant to work. Over 2000 years ago, love made is greatest move; love gave its greatest demonstration. Love as it was intended was defined by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” That is love, “crazy love.” It is so simple and has become so common that I am afraid we are missing the total and awesome impact of what this verse it actually saying. The only reason we know what love is, the only reason we have a clue, is because we have seen it in Jesus Christ. This love is insane, foolish, and it turns our world upside down. This love is so crazy that the world cannot grasp it, does not understand it, and does not promote it. Unfortunately, I am afraid that even Christians are beginning to lose their grip on the impact of God’s crazy love. My prayer is that all followers of Christ, all over the world, will be re-enlightened to the crazy love of God. For us to once again appreciate the awesomeness that is God’s love, we must understand a few things.

First, may our hearts be enlightened to the crazy love of God. Check out these passages of Scripture (Romans 5:5-10; 8:35-39; Ephesians 3:17-19 look this one up in the New Living Translation if you have one available). At just the right time, while we were still sinners, enemies of God, Jesus Christ gave his life for us on the cross. That act was God’s greatest demonstration of his love. In Jesus’ death, God poured out his love into our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit. That is “crazy” love. Paul explains that very rarely would anyone die for a righteous man. Some might even consider dying for a good man, someone they believe is worth their time. Who, though, in their right mind would die for a selfish, inconsiderate, and sinful, enemy? Jesus did! Paul also explains that if Jesus has gone through all of that for us, then we can be sure that there is nothing in this world, or even beyond this world, that can separate us from the love of God. In Ephesians, Paul prays that our roots would go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous, God’s crazy love. He prays that we might experience the love of God, even though it is so crazy that we will never fully understand it. As we begin to understand the crazy love of God, it will change the way we love God in return.

We should have a crazy love for God. As we come to understand that God’s love is undeniable, unconditional, and unchanging, how can we not love God back? Jesus said in Matthew 22:36, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind.” It is so simple that I cannot for the life of me figure out why we try to make it so complicated. Jesus didn’t ask for our time, money, possessions, or our position. He didn’t ask for those things because he knew that if he could get our hearts, our crazy love in return, he would get all of those other things as a by-product of our love. For God so loved the world…and all he wants is for the world to love him back. Here are a few simple questions to answer that will help determine if you have a crazy love for God. Who dictates your schedule? If you have a crazy love for God, you will use Sunday and Wednesday to schedule your other appointments instead of allowing your other appointments to dictate whether or not you are able to attend church. Who dictates the prioritizing of your time? If you have a crazy love for God, you will be early for worship rather than late; and it will not bother you if worship takes one hour or even two. With a crazy love for God, you will want to soak up every single minute worshipping the Lord and fellowshipping with his church. Who dictates your finances? If you have a crazy love for God, you will make absolutely sure that God gets the first fruits of your labor rather than the leftovers. As we receive God’s love and practice giving that love back, it will change the way that we love others.

We should have a crazy love like God’s. This is by far that most difficult for us to practice. It is much easier to love God sitting in the building and singing praises to him than it is to have God-like love in the world for every single human being. This is not a new problem. Take a look at these New Testament passages where even some of the first disciples of Christ were struggling with this same issue (Galatians 5:6; Ephesians 5:1-2; 1 Corinthians 13:4-8; John 13:34-35). Jesus knew how difficult it was going to be for us to move ourselves aside and love others with the love of God. He indicated that in the second greatest commandment, “Love our neighbors as ourselves.” Ahhhh! That is a problem for us, though, isn’t it.

We all have those lines in the sand when it comes to loving others. Because we are human, we judge others based on our own style, our own tastes, and our own standards. We are willing to love others up to a certain point, but then we make rationalizations for not going any further. We shy away from them because they don’t match up with our standards. For some it is tattoos…for some it is body piercings…for some it is drinking and/or smoking…for some it is dirty, ratty, or tattered clothing…for some it is what side of the town you live on…for others it is race (yes, unfortunately many are still there)…and for some it is what church they attend (have you ever wondered what Jesus really thinks when he looks at this world and notices how many different denominations we have divided “his” church into).

Praise be to God that Jesus doesn’t love us this way! Aren’t you glad he doesn’t love you based on conditions or standards. Jesus is perfect, holy, righteous, blameless, and sinless. If Jesus loved us on those conditions and standards there is not one of us that stand a chance of ever seeing eternity. With God’s crazy love there are no limitations. God’s crazy love is unconditional. It is refreshing and calming to know that no matter how imperfect I may seem in the eyes of the world, I am always perfectly lovable in the eyes of God. We will have a crazy love like God’s as soon as we admit and accept the fact that we are just a bunch of imperfect sinners just like the rest of the world. The only difference between us and them is that someone took the time to tell us about the crazy love of God. Doesn’t the rest of the world deserve the same chance?

Live with Crazy Faith. Hold on to your Crazy Hope. And love with world with a Crazy Love.