Category Archives: John

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The Chief Conviction Officer

Pump the Brake, Pray More, Let God Do His Job

Getting Closer to Jesus: Have you figured this out yet? You do a horrible job at being the Holy Spirit in other people’s lives.

Yet how tempting it is to do his work for him. It is easy to do when you are passionate about the truth. It is easy to do when you see how someone you care about is living counter-productively to a bless-able life. And frankly, it is easy to do when people aren’t fulfilling your vision for their lives. Yes, God loves them, and you have a wonderful plan for their lives—and it is your job to make sure they live up to your high calling. Right?

Wrong!

Spiritual maturity demands that we take care in observing the fine line between serving as the voice of reason for people and allowing the Spirit to transform their thinking. We step into the Spirit’s territory the minute we assume the role of CCO—Chief Conviction Officer. To be effectively used by the Holy Spirit in the lives of others, we must figure out the difference between sharing the truth in love, respectful persuasion and passionate debate—all of which are good and necessary to being the influencer Jesus calls us to be—and with being argumentative, rude, nagging, arrogant and flat out irritating. We have been called to lead the horse to water, so to speak, but only the Holy Spirit can create the unquenchable thirst that makes them want to drink deeply from Truth.

It takes real discernment and sensitivity to figure out what to say, how much to say, and when to say it—and when just to shut up and let God go to work. Oswald Chambers said, “One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s plan for others.”

 

The truth is that God, indeed, has a wonderful plan for people’s lives, but we need to allow him to convince them of how that plan needs to play out. By all means, we ought to take the role of encourager, exhorter, and at times, admonisher, but only the Holy Spirit can bring the change of heart, the right thinking, and the proper steps that will lead them to the incredible life God has envisioned.

Chances are, in this season of time, you are being tempted to tell certain people how to think, how to feel, and how to do life well. Perhaps it is your child, maybe it is your spouse, it could be a friend, or it might be a co-worker—it is just part of the human equation. So, let me suggest that in that particular situation, you simply take your foot off the gas pedal, pray a lot more, and let the Holy Spirit work. My guess is the transformation in that person’s life will happen a lot more quickly, deeply, and enduringly if you take that approach.

Try to remember at all times: You are not the Holy Spirit!

Take the Next Step : Ask God to reveal where you have been doing the Holy Spirit’s work for him. When he shows you, first, repent, then second, ask for greater discernment and sensitivity to fulfill the role of influencer God has called you

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Relational Terrorism

Cruelty is Never Biblically Justified

Getting Closer to Jesus: These days, not only the threat, but the daily reality of terrorism has occupied the twenty-four-hour news cycle, dominated water-cooler conversations at work, and planted fear in the hearts of ordinary citizens. And now, regular debate in our political discourse focuses on what terrorism is (I’ve even heard some say dismissively, “Hey one country’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter”), what to call or not call it (so as not to inflame the terrorists), why terrorism is on the rise (perhaps our Western values and lifestyles are to blame for the rise of terrorism around the world), and how to combat it (do we send in the special forces to wipe them off the face of the earth or send the terrorists to the corner for a time out?).

Often, the what, why, and how in our conversations about terrorism turn absurd on both ends of the discourse: “Let’s nuke them back into the stone age,” or “let’s be nice to them and maybe they will leave us alone.”

But what is not debatable or absurd is what God says about terrorism—as well as those who carry it out and those who perpetuate it through educational, philosophical, financial and spiritual support: Anyone who diminishes, hurts or kills another in the name of their god does not know the one true God or his Son, Jesus Christ, whom he sent.

There will even come a time when anyone who kills you will think he’s doing God a favor. They will do these things because they never really understood the Father. (John 16:2-3, The Message)

Thomas Carlyle said, “One of its worst kinds of waste … is that of irritating and exasperating men against each other, by violence done, which is always sure to be injustice done; for violence does even justice unjustly.” Make no mistake, violence of any kind done in the name of faith—in the home, at the church, in the community, between political belief systems and countries—is terroristic, morally bankrupt, and evidence in and of itself that those who inflict it (or stand by in tacit approval of it) are as far from God as can be.

And God will judge it! Jesus said, “those who live by the sword will die by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52) Death will come—spiritually, relationally, perhaps even physically—likely in this life from the irreversible law of sowing and reaping, or in the next life as people, people groups, nations, and world systems stand before the Great White Throne judgment of Almighty God. (Revelation 20:11-15)

Jesus spoke of the threat of religious violence to give his disciples a heads-up that this kind of religious zeal that embraced terrorism was certainly coming. And his forewarning was to serve the purpose of settling them in their faith when that awful reality was finally upon them. We, too, would do well to simply acknowledge the reality that religious terrorism will increase as the final days of Planet Earth draw to a close. Jesus still doesn’t want his followers to be unsettled in their faith—either to begin doubting God or getting carried away in unproductive debates about terrorism—by the rise of evil and violence done in the name of religion. Mark it down—and get prepared.

Yet I can’t help but think there is a more practical application we should latch onto from Jesus’ insights into religious violence. In a sense, is spiritual terrorism occurring in our homes when violence or the threat of violence or some other form of intimidation is used to control others—and justified by the Bible? Do we commit relational terrorism when we can fling incendiary, hateful, and hurtful words via social media—all justified by our spiritual point of view, of course—in ways for which we are not held to account? When we speak critical and judgmental words anonymously, isn’t that akin to throwing an emotional grenade into someone’s life without having to stick around to view the damage that it does—that we have done?

I have a feeling that violence—not just physically, but more likely, through emotional attacks, financial coercion, and spiritual abuse—justified Biblically, happens more often, is inflicted more subtly, and is carried out more creatively than we are either conscious of or care to admit. But from here on out, with the help of the Holy Spirit, the Chief Conviction Officer in our lives, let’s soberly remember that if we resort to relational terrorism, that in itself is evidence that we do not know Jesus like we think we do!

Take the Next Step : Ask God to reveal to you where you might be inflicting pain on another in ways that you have justified by your faith. You might want to ask those close to you as well. And where there is evidence that you are guilty, repent of it, repudiate it, and change!

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The World Hates You—God Loves You

Love of the World is Hatred of God

Getting Closer to Jesus: It is a real dilemma for Christians: God loves the world so much that he gave his Son to die for it, but the world hates God (they didn’t like his Son too much either) because it belongs to the Evil One. But wait, there’s more: The story that God has commissioned His followers to bring to the world is received mostly as bad news because this Good News first must address the problem of human sin—which can make sinners a bit uncomfortable.

Hold on, I’m not through yet: You and I belong to God, and since Satan, the current strongman who dominates this world and its inhabitants, hates God and everything of God, we are included in that hatred. Jesus couldn’t have put it in any clearer terms:

Since I picked you to live on God’s terms and no longer on the world’s terms, the world is going to hate you. (John 15:19, Message)

Now that’s a hard pill to swallow, especially in our culture where Christians have been brought up for the last couple of generations on a steady diet of positive mental attitude pablum, seeker-sensitive evangelism, and a church growth movement that tries everything in its power to make the unbeliever want to come to church. For the last thirty-plus years, too many churches in the Western world have placed more emphasis on making sinners comfortable than making committed disciples, which requires preaching Christ and him crucified. And a critical part of the crucifixion story is that we, too, must experience the crucifixion of self to enter the blessings of Christ’s crucifixion on our behalf. More energy and resources have been devoted to creative messaging and capturing the “cool factor” than cross-bearing, dying-to-self discipleship.

Don’t believe me? Just walk into any number of church lobbies, and you will feel like you are in a Starbucks rather than a sanctuary’s vestibule. When the service starts, listen to the music and you will think you are listening to America’s Top 40 in a sea of fans enjoying a rock concert rather than among engaged worshipers offering up the sacrifice of praise to please their God. Sit through a sermon and you will think you have just listened to a cross between a late-night talk show host and a self-help guru. They will help you smile your way to your best life in seven easy steps. Check out the altar call at the end of the message, if there even is one, and you will think people have just signed up for a thirty-day free trial of Netflix rather than surrendering the rest of their lives to Jesus Christ.

What you are unlikely to find, though, is any talk of sin—it just makes people feel too uncomfortable. You may not hear words like “repentance” or “surrender” or “obedience” or “Lordship”—it may just scare the pre-Christian away. What you are going to hear, however, is what I would call a Burger King Christianity—the kind that says, “special orders don’t upset us…have it your way.”

Now listen, I am not just a grouchy, out-of-touch, aging preacher—okay, I am at least not one of those. I don’t think pastors ought to go out of their way to be offensive. I do believe that churches ought to think creatively about reaching the disinterested and hostile in their community. I love excellence and think the church service ought to be our best offering to the King of kings. And believers ought to do what they can to build bridges to the lost people in their lives.

But our job is neither to impress the world by trying to be a cool version of it or to tell it that everything is mostly okay with it—except for a few minor adjustments. Our job is to talk about the Good News that Jesus died for our sin—sin that separates us and makes us hostile to a holy God. Once we deal with the sin issue through proclaiming the truth in grace and love, inviting sinners back to God through the repentance of sin and calling them into a surrendered lifestyle of committed, cross-bearing discipleship, both we and the sinners we help to rescue will realize that what we have found is something more satisfying, more valuable, more positive by far than anything this world can provide—the pearl of great price!

Quit worrying about whether the world will like you or not. It won’t—that is guaranteed. If you belong to Jesus, you will be hated, but that is okay, because you will be loved by God. And that is all that matters.

Take the Next Step : How much have you bought into the mentality that your job is to get the world to like you? Ask God to help you jettison that unhealthy need from your life. And take a moment to meditate on 1 John 2:15 (NLT): “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.”

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The Secret To Uncontainable Joy

True Love Loves the Unlovable

Getting Closer to Jesus: Several times throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus has tied true discipleship and authentic love for him with our obedience to his commandments. That is a message our current brand of Christianity needs to hear—and frankly, it’s tough medicine. The truth is, you cannot claim love of Christ while doing whatever feels good to you. Real faith requires the surrender of your will to God’s. It is this simple: If you love Jesus, you will obey his commands.

By our definition of love, that doesn’t seem too loving. Love and obedience or love and commands usually aren’t terms we link together. But what we must realize about Jesus is that his commands are not oppressive. In fact, the Apostle John reminds us in I John 5:3, “Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.”

On the contrary, Jesus’ commands are the gateway to our joy. And not just joy, but Jesus described the gladness that would well up within us as overflowing. Jesus’ equation for authentic faith was that obedience to him would equal organic, unstoppable, spilling-over joy in us.

But there was a particular kind of obedience that Jesus said would lead to this special kind of joy: Loving one another. And not just a brotherly love, but it was to be the same kind of love that Jesus demonstrated for his disciples. What kind of love was that?

It was proactive. Jesus actually searched out his disciples to be the object of his love. He didn’t wait to see if they were lovable or even if they would love him in response. His love went out of its way to find them, and then he poured out his love upon them—even on one of them he knew would end up betraying him.

It was unconditional. His disciples did nothing to deserve his love, and they certainly could do nothing to earn his love. In fact, they often did just the opposite. They fought with each other. They selfishly jockeyed for position with him. At times, they didn’t listen to him and often they didn’t understand what he taught them. They left him in his hour of trial. They even betrayed him. Yet he stubbornly loved them.

It was sacrificial. Jesus laid down his life for them. Yes, he ultimately died for their sins, but he also died to his own rights in order to serve them. He told them that even as the Lord of all creation, he didn’t come to be served, but to serve and give his life to redeem them. Nowhere do we see a more powerful and clear demonstration of sacrificial love than in Jesus giving up in order to give to his disciples.

It was inexhaustible. Nothing in their past, nothing they did while with him, and nothing they could ever do in their future (because, as the Omniscient Sovereign Lord of life, Jesus knew what was in their future) could or would diminish his love for the disciples. Since God is love, and since Jesus was God, we find in him that true love cannot be extinguished.

Jesus said that if we decided to act toward one another with that kind of love—and make no mistake, Jesus made it clear by his life that divine love was a choice, an act of the will—it would unleash from deep within us an inextinguishable flood of uncontainable joy. While our flesh, along with the Evil One, supported by the philosophies of this world, continually lies to us that joy comes from what is done for us, Jesus says it comes by what we do: proactively, unconditionally, sacrificially, and inexhaustibly loving others!

Who can you love like that today—and every day from here on out? Who can you seek out to love as Jesus has loved you? What would be a way to love them unconditionally, in a way they did not deserve and could never repay? How might you offer love that is costly to you, and not necessarily in terms of the money you spend? And as you love them, can you—or will you—do it with a commitment to sustain that love indefinitely?

Fair warning: Choose to love like that, and you are choosing to unleash the unstoppable joy of Jesus in your life. Good luck.

Take the Next Step : Who are you being led to love as Jesus has loved you? Specifically identify that person. Then, just love them as Jesus would!

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How To Get What You Need—And Want

Start With Making God Happy

Getting Closer to Jesus: Have you ever been around fruity Christians? Not the kind you are thinking. I’m talking about the believer who seems to enjoy more of God’s blessings than the ordinary Christian. They tend to get more prayers answered than you, live in a greater degree of Divine favor than you, appear to have more of an inside track with the Almighty than you, overflow with a lot more joy than you, and they definitely produce a ton more spiritual fruit than you.

They’re fruity—their lives produce much fruit.

In my younger days as a believer, I had a friend who was the most spiritually passionate person I had ever met. She talked about Jesus constantly, lived in complete dependence on God, and prayed about everything. And I mean everything—all her needs and even every single one of her wants. She prayed about things I wouldn’t have bothered the Almighty with. When she wanted a better car—she was even specific about the year, make, model, and color of the exterior and interior—she asked God. And she got it—the year, make, model, and color of the car she prayed for miraculously showed up one day not long after—I kid you not. When she decided a trip to the Holy Land was in order, she prayed for the funds to go. Guess what—she got it. She went on an all-expense paid trip to Israel—and I stayed home. That was just her life as a believer—she was a fruity disciple.

Perhaps you wish you could live her kind of blessed life, but secretly feel a little selfish in asking God for it. Don’t feel selfish one second longer. God wants you to experience that kind of abundant life, too. In fact, Jesus said the God-blessed life is arguably the best proof that you are his disciple. Furthermore, he pointed out that your fruitfulness as his disciple is what brings much glory to his Father. The fruitier you are, the greater glory that goes to God. The more God answers your prayers, the more he receives the praise. That’s how you make God look good!

Wanting to live the God-blessed life is not selfish at all. It is no more selfish than God wanting to be glorified by giving you your blessings. It is simply the rule of God’s kingdom to ask for his favor and to live in his blessing.

That’s what God wants for you. So, stop feeling weird about asking and start asking expectantly. What do you desire for your life? Ask for it. If you are connected to Jesus—and make no mistake, that is the key to receiving—the Father will allow you to bear not just a little, but a whole bunch of fruit. That’s what he wants for his disciples, and that includes you.

Now the proviso is, of course, to use the fruit he grants you to glorify him. This isn’t about satiating your flesh. It is about reflecting the abundance of God’s grace in your daily life. Make sure that is your organic, all-consuming desire.

If you are not at the level of fruitiness that you would like to be, that ought to be your first prayer today.

Take the Next Step : Speaking of asking the Father for anything you want, why not ask him for much fruit! And along with that, ask him to help you be ever aware that his blessings come only by you staying connected to him.

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Abide!

Fiercely Guard Your Place of Spiritual Rest

Getting Closer to Jesus: As a society, we are busier than ever, and with that, we have much less capacity to experience and enjoy what’s most important in life. Cardiologist Meyer Friedman, a respected authority on the Type-A personality, says that modern America suffers from what he calls hurry sickness—the relentless drive to do more, have more, and be more in less and less time.

That’s not new; it has been the steady march of fallen humanity asserting independence from God. Even 200 years ago, Soren Kierkegaard said, “The press of busyness is like a charm. Its power swells … it reaches out, seeking always to lay hold of ever-younger victims so that childhood or youth are scarcely allowed the quiet and the retirement in which the Eternal may unfold a divine growth.”

Even believers have fallen prey to uncontrolled purposelessness. We have elevated intensity of living over intimacy with God and predictably, that is stunting the fruit-bearing, joy-filled, abundant life described here in John 15 that Jesus died to provide—and which is the most compelling witness, arguably, to a hurried, stressed-out world that desperately needs the Christ-follower to be an oasis of unforced centeredness in a sea of chaos.

As believers, we have been called to abide. And Jesus, who perfectly balanced the relentless demands of people and mission with quietness and solitude, is a great mentor for us. He knew how to make space in his life for what was most important in life: abiding with his Father. Mark 6:31-32 is a great example of how Jesus practiced abiding in his Father:

Because so many people were coming and going that Jesus and his disciples didn’t even have time to eat, he said to them, ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.’ So they left in a boat to a solitary place.

Now we are not told what they did when they got there. They may have enjoyed a season of prayer. Maybe Jesus led them in a devotional. Perhaps they took a nap, or had a potluck, or played tag—all legitimate activities when you are with Jesus. We don’t know for sure, but we do know they did this:

  • They ceased their normal activity.
  • They retreated from the demands of people.
  • They set aside a specific time and place for quiet.
  • They were with Jesus in an undivided way.

And that experience of abiding resulted in rest. Now that same practice of abiding will work for us too:

Pausing from our normal routine; scheduling time and place for solitude and reflection; giving full and unfettered access into our lives to Jesus. That’s a simple but sure template for abiding in Christ if you looking for one.

Without a regular and fiercely guarded time for abiding in Christ, life will constantly remind you that this world demands your blood, sweat, and tears. But by abiding in Christ, you will be reminded that your eternal soul belongs to Someone and someplace else.

In John 15:4, Jesus says, “Abide in me, as I abide in you.” That is not only a command, but also an invitation that requires a choice on your part. Jesus invites you to come away with him from the busyness of life and the bondage of hurriedness for a satisfying renewal of your soul. “Come with me” Jesus says, “to a quiet place and get some rest.” (Mark 6:31)

Will you? If you want to really live the fruit-bearing, God-honoring, joyful life Jesus came to give you, you have to make the choice to abide.

Take the Next Step : Most of your life you are required to “wrestle with the world, wringing profit from the earth” (Abraham Heschel), but Jesus calls us to carve our a regular time where we get away with him just to abide. Do that today…and everyday this week. And while you are with him, simply reflect on who you are and to Whom you belong and why he put you on this earth. And in those moments, gratefully remember intimacy with him is greater than anything else in life!

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Unconditional Love—With Conditions

Love Calls for Authentication

Getting Closer to Jesus: Three times, as Jesus speaks to the disciples about his going and the Holy Spirit’s coming, he repeats this phrase: Your love for me will be indicated by your obedience to me. Obviously, it was very important to Jesus that his disciples understood this.

It still is. In an age where love has become a very squishy concept, Jesus still wants those who claim to follow him to demonstrate their love not just in language, but in action. Now, the fact that love calls for proof in no way diminishes the doctrine of unconditional love—love with no strings attached. It simply clarifies what unconditional means. To love unconditionally means the love you have and express toward another is not dependent upon their worth or the work. Rather, that love emanates from the core of your being. That love is the subject, but a noun needs a verb as well as an object to tell the full story of what love is. And what love is cannot be told without showing what love does.

The Apostle Paul taught that in I Corinthians 13, the great love chapter, when he writes “love is…” But Paul defines “love is” by demonstrating what love does: It acts. It works. It affects. It produces an outcome.

Jesus says the outcome of love for him is obedience: The one who loves him will obey his commandments. If they accept his demands, they will prove it by obedience to those requirements, thus authenticating their love for him. They will do what he says. Jesus can’t be any clearer than that: love for God has conditions—it obeys.

Furthermore, the God who loves us unconditionally sets some conditions upon his love for us and our loving response to him; some “if…then”: I love you, and if you love me by doing what I say, then I will give you another Advocate (John 14:16); If you obey my commandments then my Father will love you and I will love you too and reveal myself to you (John 14:21); If you love me then my Father and I will come and make our home with you (John 14:23).

Love doesn’t work to be love; it works because it is love. That is very clear when you look to the source of love, the Being who defines what love is by demonstrating what love does. God is love. His love is not the sloppy, vague, anything-goes kind of love our world knows. It is not the ever-changing love that rises and falls with one’s current emotional state that far too many people today understand love to be. It is not the selfish kind of love that loves to the degree that love is requited. No—God’s love is an unconditional, sacrificial, proactive love that seeks out unworthy objects. It is a holy and righteous love; it is a tough love; it is an unchanging love. It is this love that is the essence of God’s being. It is the energy of what God does. It is the outcome of where God has been and where he now is. God is love—not just love the noun, but love the verb.

And when you have truly embraced God’s love, it then goes on display in you. It can’t help it. Like God, you love with no thought of love in return; you go out of your way to love; you love in response to hurtful and hateful actions; you suffer but patiently love anyway. When everyone else has given up, you stubbornly continue to love. When that kind of love in action is displayed in you, it is obvious that God’s unconditional love has transformed you.

And when it comes to your love for God, love is…love does. It obeys. It does what he says. Not to earn more of his love, but to express love in response to what you can never earn. That is the condition of true love: it loves unconditionally.

Take the Next Step : Express your love for God by loving someone else today—surprise them with love. Do it generously and in a way they cannot repay, perhaps even doing it anonymously to ensure they can’t. And love in a way that leaves a definite imprint that God has been there.