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Get Missional

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 15
Meditation: Romans 15:20-21

“My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else.  I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where it says, ‘Those who have never been told about him will see, and those who have never heard of him will understand.’”

Shift Your Focus… Are you a missions-minded Christian?

I thought I was. I grew up in the church where the occasional missionary would come, and if we were lucky, show slides of his work in Africa, or some other far off place that I’d only heard about in geography lessons at school. Then I grew up and became a pastor, and again, the occasional missionary would come and tell the church of what God was doing somewhere far away, and I would feel good that we were a missions church. I would even give occasionally to support the church’s missions effort around the world. I thought I was a missions-minded Christian.

But that began to change. Periodically, I was sent oversees for short-term missions projects by the various churches I served, and my heart begin to get reshaped by what I saw God doing among people who had never heard the name of Jesus before. The signs, wonders and miracles in the missions context (Paul talks about that in this missions context in Romans 15:19) blew my mind. I had never seen such things in the U.S, and experiencing it abroad, I longed to see the supernatural back home in my church, too. God was shaking and reshaping my heart for missions.

Then a few years ago, God completely dislocated my heart, and gave me a passion for missions, for reaching people who’d never heard the Gospel of Christ. I have a notion now that I have become a missions-minded Christian.

It all happened when I reluctantly got involved in a church-planting project in a remote, unreached region in Africa. I was reluctant because I knew that my involvement would require a lot of my own personal resources, and to be successful, would require significant resources from my church. Figuring our resource pie was stretched, and limited, I secretly feared that the finances we dedicated to this project would flow away from other worthy projects; that we would simply be “robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Then, as I was stressing over this likely outcome, something wonderful happened. God spoke to me. Not in an audible voice or through writing on the wall or some other sensational sort of way (wouldn’t that be cool!). He simply and clearly spoke to me through an undeniable and unmistakable inner impression in my spirit. Addressing my stressing, he simply said, “Ray, if you will take care of the things I care about, then I will take care of the things you care about. I care about a lost world. I care about people who have never heard my name. And I want you to care about them too!”

That was good enough for me. I jumped into this project up to my eye-balls, and true to his word, God turned on a miraculous flow of resources, not only for the church planting project, but for those other projects I had been so concerned about as well. Best of all, our obedience keyed a revival in this region of Africa that was beyond anyone’s wildest expectations. In a region where only a few believers attended a handful of churches before this missions effort, 10 years later nearly thousands of churches have been planted and hundreds of thousands of believers have been added to those churches. And the revival is showing no signs of slowing.

What God has done in Africa through the obedience of that church changed my heart forever, and has given me a growing, if not consuming passion for missions. I still have a passion for my local church (that’s missions, too), but I have an added ambition now: To keep God’s people focused on reaching people who have never heard the name of Jesus Christ.

That was Paul’s ambition, according to Romans 15:20. That is God’s ambition, according to Romans 15:21. I hope that you will open your heart and let God make it your ambition as well. I hope that you will travel with me down the path to becoming a missions-minded Christian. If you will, I will make you the same promise God made me:

“If you will take care of the things God cares about—a lost world, God will take care of the things you care about—your world.”

What a deal! That’s an offer you can’t refuse.

“The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.” ~Henry Martyn

Prayer… God, you so love the world that you went on a missions trip to it, giving your very best to save it by giving your Son to die for it. Love was the root of your mission, and sacrifice was its fruit. I am the beneficiary of such extravagant love and costly sacrifice.  In truth, I am a product of missions.  Today, make me a loving and sacrificial extension of your mission to reach a lost world.

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What Truly Matters

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 14
Meditation: Romans 14:17

“The Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or what we drink, but of living a life of goodness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Shift Your Focus… So much of what Christians get uptight about, particularly as it relates to how others are living out their faith, really doesn’t matter in the larger scheme of how the Kingdom of God is to be fleshed out.  It just doesn’t matter if some believers drink wine or play cards or put a dollar down on the lottery, or go to movies or dance socially, or you name it.  It doesn’t matter if some Christians run around, jump up and down and wave flags when they worship, or go to church on Friday night rather than Sunday morning, or give their offerings online rather than in the plate, or whatever, whatever…

That’s what Paul is really teaching here in Romans 14. Certain of the Roman Christians in Paul’s day were getting uptight with other believers, because they weren’t living out their faith the way these Roman church members were.  In that day, the issue had to do with certain foods that some believers felt was inappropriate to eat.  The big deal about meat was that before it had been purchased, it had likely been sacrificed to an idol prior to its arrival at the market. That was a concern to the non-meat eating believers, because they believed that to now eat that meat was to give tacit worship to idols.

Another issue had to do with what day they believed was the correct day to gather for worship.  Some thought that Saturday, the Sabbath, was the correct day, while others preferred Sunday worship service.  And as people chose sides over these issues, hard feelings and disharmony was the result in the church.

So Paul says, “look gang, what foods you eat or don’t eat and what day you choose to worship just doesn’t matter in the bigger picture of what the Kingdom of God is all about.  You are free to do what you want so long as your bottom line motivation in life is to bring honor to the Lord.”  Notice these words,

“For we don’t live for ourselves of die for ourselves.  If we live, it is to honor the Lord.  And if we die, it is to honor the Lord.  So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.  (Romans 14:7-8)

That is a great rule of life to live by.  If your motive is to bring honor to the Lord, then nothing else really matters.  Do what you want, eat what you want, drink what you want, worship when you want and in the way you want—as long as your sole purpose is to glorify the Lord.  That’s why Paul went on to remind these believers, “the Kingdom of God is not a matter of meat or drink, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

Now Paul gives a couple of caveats to this principle.  One, if you cause a weaker brother or sister to stumble by deliberately doing certain things that offend their conscience, then you’ve missed the point.  You are not glorifying God.  You are unnecessarily creating disharmony, and harmony in the family of God is a big deal, a very big deal, to the Lord.  And two, if you take advantage of this liberty in Christ to do something that your own conscience tells you not to do, then you have crossed over into sin.  So be careful in the exercise of your Christian freedom.

Here is what really matters in our Christian faith:  Just do everything to honor God, and you will be okay.

“To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.”  ~St. Augustine

Prayer… Lord, thank you for the amazing freedom you have given me to enjoy life.  Since you have blessed me with such a gift—the gift of Christian liberty—I want to dedicate it back to you in the form of a life lived to glorify you, even in the minute details. I want that to be the rule of my life—to glorify you in all things.  May that be the one and only thing that matters.

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Just Love, Then Do What You Want

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 13
Meditation: Romans 13:9-10

“These—and other such commands—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law.”

Shift Your Focus… God’s requirements for us are pretty simple really—just love everybody like we would want to be loved.  That means we would love them when they deserved it, and even when they didn’t.  We would love them when we felt like it, and even when we didn’t.  We would love them not just in word, but we would love them in action.  We would love them like they needed to be loved, like God loves them, like the creatures of a Creator who created them inherently worthy of love.

If we would just do what God created us to do—love—I have a feeling that 99% of the issues we wrestle with, the relationships we struggle over, and the trouble we find ourselves in would be taken care of.  Love—that’s the cure for what ails you!

So where and how are we supposed to live out this life of love?  Paul gives us three relational arenas in Romans 13.  The first area has to do with our relationship to the government—what you might call the civil arena (verses 1-7).

Here Paul says God expects us to respect our government and its leaders—something that we often find hard to do.  We are to observe the laws they establish; view them as God-ordained instruments for order; submit to them not only as an act of civic duty, but as that which is necessary for a clear conscience; pay our taxes; and give them honor and respect.  In fact, over in II Timothy 2:2-3, Paul takes it a step further and says that we are even to pray for our governmental leaders,

“Pray for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.  This is good and pleases God our savior…”

When I think of some of the government administrations and leaders that I’ve endured during my lifetime, what Paul is asking seems like a tall order.  But keep in mind that Paul wrote to the Roman believers about respecting and obeying government under some pretty awful leaders like Emperor Nero and his evil, profane, murderous ilk.  If Paul could see these Roman Emperors as God’s instruments in his life, then I will have no excuse when I stand before God some day for my attitude toward my leaders.

The second area has to do with our relationship with our neighbors—what you might call the social arena (verses 8-10).  Here Paul simply calls for loving actions toward those with whom we are in some kind of daily interaction—the people we live by, work with and sit next to in the pews at church.  We should do nothing that would provoke anything other than a loving response from them back toward us.

The third has to do with our relationship to God—what you might call the salvation arena (verses 11-14).  Here Paul reminds us that one of the leading motives, if not the only motive, for living a life of love in all the arenas of our life is for the simple reason that Jesus is coming back soon, and we will then have to give an account for how we have behaved in relation to our government and its leaders, our neighbors and our God.  Because of the soon return of Jesus and the revealing of our full and final salvation, we must be continually alert to living in purity and holiness.  In short, we are to “clothe ourselves with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ (verse 14), which is Paul’s way of saying that we ought to live each moment as if it might be the last one before we find ourselves standing before Christ.  Love would demand no less in light of what he did to secure our salvation!

Love!  Do that and you’ll be just fine—in this life and in the one to come.  Just love God with all your heart, and when you do, you cannot help but love everybody else.  Do that and you’ll fulfill all God’s requirements.

One month before his death at age 65, C.S. Lewis wrote in a letter addressed to a child, “If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope you may always do so.”

That’s great advice!

So here’s a thought for you:  If you knew Jesus would come back 24 hours from now, and knowing that love is the ultimate requirement of God’s law, who and how would you love?

Why not love like that anyway—you never know, this might be your last opportunity!

“Love, and do what you want.” ~Augustine

Prayer… Father, thank you for loving me, even when I didn’t deserve it and in spite of the fact that I didn’t love you.  But your love won me over!  Now I ask that you would help me to love everybody else like you loved me.  Make me aware of attitudes that do not reflect your love, and alert to opportunities to express your love in tangible ways to people that cross my path.  Help me today to fulfill your requirements to love!

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Commanded To Think

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 12
Meditation: Romans 12:2

“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God change you into a new person by changing the way you think.”

Shift Your Focus… We have a calling as Christians to right thinking. Right thinking is the key to everything—to godly living, to significance and satisfaction, to relational wholeness, to the abundant life, to spiritual growth, to joy—everything!

Paul writes that we are to let God change us by changing the way we think.  In Philippians 4:8, he describes the kind of thinking that will lead to the changed life:

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

When Paul says to “think about such things”, he intentionally chose the Greek term logizomai, which means to compute, to calculate—to think deliberately, proactively and strategically.  It speaks of an exercise in mental reflection that affects one’s conduct.

Now herein lies an important truth about the human mind:  What we do—our behavior—and what is done to us—our circumstances—do not produce what we think.  Rather, what we think produces our behavior in any given set of circumstances.

Psychiatrist William Glasser, the father of reality therapy, discovered in his study of how the brain works that man isn’t controlled by external factors, but by internal desires. Furthermore, our desires are predetermined by our thinking.  So he concludes that the mind is the command center determining conduct. Therefore the critical issue for man is how he thinks.

Glasser had only discovered what the Bible had already said long ago—that we are the product of our thinking. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks within himself, so he is.” That’s why Proverbs 4:23 also says, “Above all else, guard your heart (the heart in Hebrew thought was the center of thinking) for it is the wellspring of life.”

If you want to improve your experience of life, deliberately and strategically change your thinking.  So when Paul says, “think about,” he doesn’t mean to leave it up to whatever pops into your brain.  He’s saying to intentionally and rigidly allow only certain things into your mind.  He is referring to the spiritual discipline of setting godly virtues and Biblical values as the gatekeeper of your mind.

He’s not suggesting silly mind-games, positive thinking, mere optimism or some type of self-hypnosis, he’s calling us to think deeply, rationally and habitually about the things of God.  He is calling us to think first, think early, think often, think deeply, think always.  Think first, act second, feel third! Then your feelings will be managed by your thinking and your actions will be sound.

God created us with a mind, and he commands us to think.  Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now, let us reason together.” And the primary path for our reasoning is God’s Word. When God gave us his revelation, he didn’t give us a movie…or a series of music videos…not even a book on tape with background organ music.  He gave us the written Word…which by nature calls us and causes us to think.

In his book, “Your Mind Matters, John Stott wrote, “Sin has more dangerous effects on our feeling than our thinking, because our opinions are more easily checked and regulated by revealed truth than are experiences.”  Right thinking is the key to Godly character.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones pointed out that our worry and anxiety is “a failure to think” that God is close and in control, and that he cares about us.  Most people assume worry comes from thinking too much.  But in reality we get anxious for not thinking enough in the right direction.  Right thinking is thinking rightly about God’s purposes, promises, and plans. Right thinking is thinking reasonably about God’s revealed truth. Right thinking is the key to Spirit-controlled emotions.

A.W. Tozer wrote in his book, Knowledge of the Holy, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” Right thinking is the key to your experience of God.

Thinking rightly is the catalyst for a great life.  So watch your input; it becomes thought. Watch your thoughts; they become attitudes. Watch your attitudes; they become actions.  Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Now go think rightly.  It’s the key to everything!

“Let the mind of the Master become the master of your mind.”

Prayer… Father, today I will choose to think about you.  I will think about things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, excellent and praiseworthy.  I will think rightly.  I will let the mind of the Master be the master of my mind.  Now I pray that you will transform my character by changing the way I think, and make me an offering that is holy, pleasing and acceptable to you.

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Is The God I Need The God I Want?

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 11
Meditation: Romans 11:22

“Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God”

Shift Your Focus… American culture isn’t too thrilled with this verse!  We don’t want a God who is stern; we want a God who is only kind—all the time.  We want a God who is more like an easygoing grandfather than a strong father. We want nurture, not discipline. We prefer love without truth if the truth is going to hurt.  We want a God who makes us feel good and who will guarantee our comfort and success.

This kinder, gentler theology has even invaded the church. A lot of people now go to church not to be engaged by truth, but to get a certain feeling—the warm fuzzies.  That’s why a lot of people evaluate their church experience or even choose their church based on if it will make them feel good.

I suppose what we really want is a God created in our image!

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to follow a God like that.  I want a God who will give me a dose of tough love when I need it.  I want a God who knows what is right for me, because I certainly don’t always know what is right for me.  I want a God who is my loving Father, which means that he will sometimes discipline me out of love.  I want a God who is more committed to my holiness than my happiness, because I will never truly be happy, not in this life or the life to come, until I get the holiness thing right.

The writer of Hebrews talked about this when he wrote,

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:7-11)

That’s the God I want, and I need.  I want a God who is kind when I need kindness, and stern when I need sternness.

A God who will give me both is a God who really loves me!

“If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth…”  ~C.S. Lewis

Prayer: Dear Lord, though it is not always pleasant, let your rod and your staff guide me.  Do what you must to bring me back when I wander.  Do whatever it takes to keep me from evil.  Do whatever it takes to conform me to the image of your dear Son.  Do what it takes to make me holy, even though my flesh cries out to be happy.  Lord, do whatever you see fit to present me holy and without fault on that great day when I stand in your presence.  And dear Father, thank you for loving me this way.

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Preach It!

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 10
Meditation: Romans 10:14-15

“How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!’”

Shift Your Focus… Okay, this may sound a little self-serving since I am one, but I just want to echo what Paul is saying: Up with preachers! The Christian message requires them! The building of faith requires them! The evangelization of the world requires them!

You go, preacher!

Did you notice that the Gospel formula, if you will, goes something like this: Salvation requires belief; belief requires the communicated Word; the communicated Word requires a preacher; and the preacher requires a divine call. Therefore, in the Christian equation, preaching must be kept preeminent! It is the God-ordained tool for building faith:

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

We live in a culture where far too many churches have downplayed the preaching of the Word. People don’t like to be preached at, so preaching is reduced to “sharing”, and messages are more like motivational pep talks and self-improvement sessions. In truth, what passes as a message in many of those gatherings is nothing more than a “longhorn” sermon—a point here, a point there, and a lot of bull in between.

Not only is the sermon reduced to a lesser role, but in the place of preaching, music and drama has taken the preeminence. Now don’t get me wrong—I love good music, and I believe that churches ought to have the best fine arts approach to worship and evangelism possible. Too many churches turn off spiritual seekers because the song selection is out-of-date, the style belongs in the dark ages, the skill of the musicians would be better served as an implement of torture in the hands of CIA agents at Gitmo, and the old adage that “no drama is better than bad drama” has definitely been ignored. There needs to be a commitment to excellence befitting the King of Kings in regards to the worship arts of a church. And I thank God that I belong to a fellowship with that kind of commitment.

But the preaching of the Word must never lose it’s primacy in the ministry of the local church. Churches must be committed to it, and must demand the same kind of skill that I’ve just suggested of the church’s fine arts. Why? Because preaching is the primary vehicle for the development of disciples and for the formation of faith necessary for spiritual seekers to find Christ. The Word of God must be taught clearly, thoroughly, accurately, interestingly, relevantly, passionately and consistently, or the church has failed in its mission.

Richard Baxter, the Puritan preacher once remarked, “I preach as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.” Your preacher must be fully aware that when he or she preaches, eternity literally hangs in the balance. I would recommend that you copy that down on a 5 x 7 card and tape it to the pulpit in full view so that when your pastor steps behind “the sacred desk”, he or she is reminded of their role and senses your supportive expectation that they are carrying out the central activity of the gathered community of faith: the preaching of the Word of God!

Oh, one more thing. Your preacher may be the one assigned to declare God’s truth to your congregation from the pulpit, but you, too, have been called to preach the Good News. You are a preacher, and the world you find yourself in is your parish.

So preach away—both with your life and your words.

“All originality and no plagiarism makes for dull preaching!” ~Charles Spurgeon

Prayer… Dear Lord, I want to thank you for every Bible-teaching preacher that I have ever heard in my life. Bless them for their faithfulness and reward them with the knowledge that their sacrifice of blood, sweat and tears in preparing and delivering their sermons is paying off in the lives of their listeners, including me. And Lord, I would pray that you would enable me to be a faithful preacher, whether behind a pulpit or in the parish of my world. Inspire me to preach to dying men and women as if I might never have the opportunity to preach again. Remind me that someone’s eternity hinges on my words. Therefore, may the meditation of my heart and the words of my mouth be pleasing unto you. Amen.

 

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This Is What It Means To Be A Christian

5×5×5 Bible Plan

Read: Romans 9
Meditation: Romans 9:5

“Christ is over all, the eternally blessed God.”

Shift Your Focus… A few years ago I came across yet another survey about the spirituality of American “christians.”  (I use the small “c” deliberately.) The survey, conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, revealed that 57 percent of evangelical church attendees said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life.  The article went on to suggest that this can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don’t know fundamental teachings of their own faiths.” (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25334489/)

I would suggest the latter.  In America, our national documents guarantee us the right to believe what we want—but they don’t guarantee that what we believe will be right.

Go ahead and say you are a Christian who believes that there are many ways to salvation and eternal life, but be intellectually honest enough to understand that your opinion is neither what the Bible teaches nor what Jesus claimed about himself.  You are not even close.

A lot of people may say they follow Jesus Christ, but they are not following the way Jesus called them to follow:  “If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily.”  Likewise, he said, “if you love me, you will do what I say.”  Furthermore, he made the astounding claim in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Sounds pretty intolerant and narrow, I would say!  Clearly, from Jesus’ own teaching and from the teaching of Scripture, only those who have fully surrendered their lives to his Lordship are truly Christians.

A great majority of those who say they follow Jesus are simply misled.  Their “christianity” is perhaps a cultural one and not a spiritual Christianity.  Some believe themselves to be “christian” by virtue of being born in America, or having been raised by parents who took them to a Christian church twice a year—Christmas and Easter.  But going to church or being born to a Christian family or growing up in a “christian” culture doesn’t make you a Christian any more than stepping onto a golf course makes you Tiger Woods.

A great majority of this 57% might even be sincere.  But sincerity is not an indicator of truth.  There are a lot a sincere people in the world, but they are sincerely wrong.

Being a Christian means to recognize that Jesus himself claimed to be God.  Not just a god, or one of God’s offspring; not just a good moral teacher or an influential spiritual director.  No, Jesus is, was, and forevermore shall be God.  In fact, that’s what got him crucified—his claim to Godship.  We are to recognize, accept and surrender to him as God.

That’s what it means to be Christian.

Since he is God, therefore, he has every right to rule over our lives as Lord.  We are to obey what he says, do what he commands, serve his purposes through our lives, extend his renown throughout the world, and love him with our whole hearts.

That’s what it means to be Christian.

And he is to receive praise from our lips and from our lives.  Everything we think, say and do is to bring glory and honor to him.  Our whole existence, our everyday, walking around lives, are to be an offering of praise that brings eternal glory to Jesus Christ.

That’s what it means to be Christian.

That’s the kind of Christian I want to be!

“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” ~C.T. Studd

Prayer… Jesus, I recognize, accept and surrender to you as my Lord and Savior—and my God!