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Christ-unlikeness

Read: Matthew 21

“But what do you think about this? A man with two sons told the older boy, ‘Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.’ The son answered, ‘No, I won’t go,’ but later he changed his mind and went anyway. Then the father told the other son, ‘You go,’ and he said, ‘Yes, sir, I will.’ But he didn’t go. Which of the two obeyed his father?” (Matthew 21:28-30, NLT)

Jesus was talking to priests and elders about submitting to the work of God, but they were resisting, while unlikely tax collectors and prostitutes were embracing it.  The Jewish leaders were unwilling to open their hearts to God, and they were jealous of Jesus—the miracles he was performing, the crowds he was garnering, the authority with which he was preaching—so much so, that a few days later, they would have him crucified.

Jesus knew all of this, so to expose their hardness of heart and yet one more time, give them a chance to respond to the work of God, he told them a parable about two sons—one who was a problem at breakfast but a delight at dinner, and one who was compliant at breakfast but absent at supper.

Then Jesus makes a very clear application in verse 31. He asked which of the two sons did the will of his Father: The one who looked the right way and said the right things, but never really changed, or the one who seemed to be so way off track but at the end of the day responded to the Father’s will?

What Jesus was saying to the priest and leaders, and to you and me by extension, was that what matters is where you are when suppertime comes.  You see, this parable isn’t about your intentions at breakfast, it’s about your actions at dinner. This is a supper story, not a breakfast parable.  Jesus is talking about the invitation to enter God’s vineyard, which is a metaphorical way of talking about responding to the will of the Father. And the will of the Father is for people to be conformed to the image of Christ. That’s the work of God in the world today:  Transforming your heart and mine into the likeness of Jesus.

What about you—are you a breakfast boy or are you a suppertime son?  If you were to honestly apply this to your own life, are you saying “yes” to the vineyard—the work of God in your life—but never really following through on it?  Or are you, even if you have so very far to go in the process of transformation, submitting your life to the Lord’s vineyard?  In what ways are you looking more like Christ and in what areas do you still need to get into God’s vineyard?

Where are you unlike Christ?  That’s where the work of the vineyard is. Most of us have areas that need to be brought into the vineyard:  Our temper, our tongue, our thought life, our attitude…pieces of our lives that still don’t look like Jesus. We’ve set around the breakfast table and said, “you know, I better get into the vineyard in that area,” but we never really seem to make it there.

Jesus is inviting us to get into the vineyard, no matter what stage we’re at in the game, so that when suppertime comes, you and I will have submitted to what the Father wanted to do in our lives. There is a sense of urgency to this story; dinner is just about ready! So push back from the breakfast table and get into the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in those areas where you don’t look like Jesus.

“The process of being conformed to the image of Christ, doing the will of the father, takes place primarily at the point of our unlikeness to Christ’s image.” ~Robert Mulholland

What If God Took Over?

Changing to the image of Christ usually involves physical practices called spiritual disciplines—things we must do consistently over time that allows us to take on the character of Christ.  If the Holy Spirit is prompting you to say yes to God’s vineyard today, what does that mean?  What action do you need to take?  What spiritual practices do you need to begin? Write down that spiritual discipline you need to engage, share it with a friend, and get into the vineyard. Don’t be one who says, “I will go” but never gets there.

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The Whole Enchilada

Read: Matthew 20
Jesus said, “So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”  (Matthew 20:16, NLT)

On its face, the Parable of the Vineyard in Matthew 20:1-16 has to be one of the most unfair stories in the Bible. Come on—people who come to work just before quitting time and get paid the same as those who’ve put in a full day! You’ve got to be kidding!  Since Jesus told parables to illustrate the Kingdom of God, how in the world does this story represent the Father’s righteous rule?

In this story, a landowner goes to the marketplace to hire temps at the beginning of the work day—a 12-hour day that began at 6:00 AM—and contracts with the most suitable looking workers: a day’s work for a day’s wage—one denarius. Then, still needing help, he goes back at 9:00 AM, again at noon and at 3:00 PM to get more workers.  Each additional time, however, there is no contract; he just says he’ll pay them whatever is right. Finally, at the 11th hour—at 5:00 PM—he goes back and sees a few more workers hanging around. Now you’ve got to ask why haven’t they been hired yet…and how come they’re still here? Waiting to get hired with one hour left in the day is kind of like showing up at a Pumpkin Patch the day after Halloween looking for work. Obviously, these guys are not your Stanford MBA types; they’re not the most employable people at the temp service. But help is needed, so they’re hired.

Then the owner blows them all away at the end of the workday by paying all the workers the same: One denarius—a full day’s wage!  Imagine the surprise of the 11th hour workers when they realize they’ve just been paid the same as the all-day guys. I can imagine one of them saying, “We didn’t really deserve this. Let’s get out of here before the payroll people realize their mistake and ask for the money back.” And the all-day workers—man, are they mad at the ridiculous generosity of the owner!

So what is Jesus getting at in this parable?  To begin with, understand that this is not a story about how corporations should draft compensation policy, so don’t get hung up over that. As a general rule, people who work 12 hours should get paid more than people who work 1 hour.  Operate your HR department like this landowner and you’ll soon be out of business.

What Jesus is doing here is picturing the kingdom for us:  Undeserving, unlikely desperate people trusting in the generosity of God to include them in his vineyard. The vineyard is a metaphor about coming into God’s kingdom, through Jesus.  Who gets to be in God’s kingdom? Everyone—anyone who accepts Jesus’ offer, that’s who! And all kinds of sinful people are taking Jesus up on this offer:  Prostitutes, tax collectors and even Gentiles.  They’re coming in at the 11th hour and still getting the whole denarius.

But the pious Jews who’ve been in the vineyard all day long aren’t happy about this.  They can’t grasp this thing called grace that Jesus is revealing; it’s nothing less than scandalous to them.

Now here is one of the things I’d like for you to consider in this story: You are an 11th hour person—me, too—but the longer we’re in the kingdom, the more we become like the all-day people.  Every time someone new comes into the vineyard, they become the 11th hour worker and we move back down the line to 9th hour workers, to noon people, to the nine o’clock crowd, until finally, we are sitting with the all-day folks. And the real danger we face is taking on the attitude of these all-day workers.

As we move along in our walk with Jesus, we are either moving into what we might call performance-based Christianity, or we’re moving toward grace-based faith. Performance-based people believe they deserve a full day’s pay based what they do. They act as if God is getting a good deal in getting them; that he couldn’t run his vineyard without them.  But grace-based believers understand they did nothing except to show up and accept God’s offer.  Their entire relationship with God is based on trust in his ridiculous generosity and gracious character.

Don’t slide into an all-day spirit.  Rather—perhaps you should do this on a regular basis—simply recount the gracious goodness of God that invited you into his vineyard when you did nothing to deserve it at all.  Take a moment to absorb what Philip Yancey wrote so insightfully about this in his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace:

“Many Christians who study this parable identify with the employees who put in a full day’s work rather than with the add-ons at the end of the day.  We like to think of ourselves as responsible workers, and the employer’s strange behavior baffles us as it did the original hearers. But we risk missing the story’s point: that God dispenses gifts, not wages.  None of us gets paid according to merit like these early workers, none of us, for none of us comes close to satisfying God’s requirement for a perfect life.  If paid on the basis of merit, we would all end up in hell.”

Good point—none of us gets paid according to merit. And aren’t you glad for that?  If we did, we would all—all-day and 11th hour workers alike—end up in a Christ-less eternity.

Listen, friend, you received the whole grace enchilada when you didn’t even deserve a nibble of the beans and rice.  So be grateful—be very grateful! And don’t ever stop!

What If God Took Over?

Quit trying to control how others come to God, or worship, or serve or grow in their faith. Just release them to God’s grace, because his grace will do a much better job conforming them to his image than your griping.  Memorize Acts 15:19,

“Don’t make it difficult for those who are turning to God.”

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What’s In It For Me?

Read: Matthew 19

Then Peter said to him, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?” (Matthew 19:27, NLT)

Most of us think about it, few of us ever express it.  I am talking about rewards. For some reason, in the church world we think it is somehow unspiritual to bring up the idea of recognition and compensation in this life and the one to come for the things we’ve done in service for our Lord.  It seems, well, unseemly.  It’s poor form.  It reveals ulterior, perhaps even dark motives to dare talk about what we might get out of the following Jesus deal.

But the thing is, we are actually being more “spiritual” than Jesus when we suppress what is simply a God-given impulse to expect to be rewarded for doing what is good and right.  Of course, doing things only for what I might get out of it rather than a motive of love and gratitude for what has been undeservedly done for me is never a good thing.  With that said, let’s just acknowledge once and for all that Jesus talked openly and frequently about the benefits and blessings that would come our way for doing the right thing.

When Peter asked, in essence, “Hey Jesus, we’ve done quite a bit for you.  So what’s in it for us?”, Jesus didn’t rebuke him.  There were other times Peter’s speak-before-you-think outbursts drew the Master’s ire, but not this time. Instead, Jesus gave him an immediate answer:

“Yes, you have followed me. In the re-creation of the world, when the Son of Man will rule gloriously, you who have followed me will also rule, starting with the twelve tribes of Israel. And not only you, but anyone who sacrifices home, family, fields—whatever—because of me will get it all back a hundred times over, not to mention the considerable bonus of eternal life. This is the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first.” (Matthew 19:28-30, MSG)

Rewards are part and parcel of the Kingdom Life.  So don’t be afraid to think about them once in a while—or a lot.  Believe me, what you might think God has in store for your faithful service to him is far less than you could ever imagine.  God has some big plans for you!

Now there are just a couple of caveats to keep in mind as you dream:  First, the rewards Jesus talked about were rarely ever expressed in terms of material things.  And that should be no surprise.  Material things are temporal, so don’t spend too much time dreaming about stuff that will only end up in a garage sale, or in the junk heap or in the dustbin of history.  Second, remember that the greatest reward comes to those who are not seeking it.  If you are seeking it, chances are you think you deserve it, that you can earn it.  That is sort of the accountant’s approach to Christianity—checking off your debits and credits.  But the greatest reward comes to those whose efforts are simply to pay back the un-repayable and insurmountable debt of love they owe to a gracious and merciful Redeemer.

Of course, that brings up the paradox of Christian reward: Jesus talked about it enough that we ought to have the freedom to talk about it too, but those who are in love are always in debt, and the idea of reward rarely, if ever, enters their minds.

“If men and women all their lives have sought to walk with God, if they have sought to obey their Lord, if goodness has been their quest through all their days, then throughout their lives they have been growing closer and closer to God, until in the end they pass into God’s nearer presence, without fear and with radiant joy—that is the greatest reward of all.” ~William Barclay

What If God Took Over?

Offer this prayer: “Dear God, simply knowing you is the greatest reward I could ever hope for. Thank you for the privilege of being brought close to you and held in your arms as a treasured child.  Thank you for the blood of your Son Jesus Christ who made it all possible. I will forever be grateful. Anything beyond that is simply icing on the cake!”

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Be A Big Baby!

Read: Matthew 18

The disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”  (Matthew 18:1-4, NLT)

At some point in our developing years, most of us heard the parental admonition, “quit acting like a child.” We were sometimes derisively chided, “you’re being a big baby!” We were told to “grow up and act our age!” The Bible even gets in on the act, telling us to put away childish things (I Corinthians 13:11), to stop thinking like children (I Corinthians 14:20), to grow out of the instability of our emotional/spiritual infancy (Ephesians 4:14).

Yet here Jesus tells us that the people who are the greatest in his Father’s kingdom are those who become like little children.  Obviously, we’ve heard that before, and I’m sure most of us think we get what Jesus is saying, but have we really stopped to think about those child-like qualities exhibited in the faith, character and life of a believer that cause Father God to sit up and take notice?  It would be easy to simply pass by this familiar passage without giving it much thought, but let’s take a moment before we move on to consider what it is about little kids that not only makes them, but anyone who embodies those very characteristics, so precious to God.

First, Jesus mentions repentance:  “Unless you turn from your sins and become like little children you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.” It is typical of children to recognize their own “childishness”, and along with that recognition is an innate sense that change is desperately needed, correction is helpful (though not always appreciated), and a new course is required if maturity is to take place. The starting point in the Kingdom is acknowledgment of our sinfulness, sorrow for our offensiveness to a holy God, and our willingness to change the whole orientation of our life by walking in a way that is pleasing to the One who created us to glorify him by our very existence. Jesus declares that this attitude of repentance—not just the act, but an attitude of repentance—is both a child-like quality and a necessary condition for entrance into the Kingdom Life as well as growth in it.

Second, Jesus speaks about humility: “Anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Many helpful definitions of humility have been offered, but the kind of humility a child naturally exhibits is simply one that recognizes its utter dependence on the parent for day-by-say sustenance, guidance and protection—for life itself.  Jesus says that those who know their utter helplessness and their total moment-by-moment dependence on the Father are on their way to greatness in his eyes.

Third, Jesus talks about trust: “If you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.” (Matthew 18:6)  Perhaps the most endearing quality of a child is a fully devoted trust in their parent. So precious is a child’s trust to God that he reserves his worst punishment for adults who damage it in children.  And so precious to God is the trust of his spiritual children that Jesus died to make it possible.  Eternal life is the gift God gives to his children; complete trust is the gift God’s children give back to him.

Do you desire to be great in God’s eyes?  I do.  If you do, then join me today by nurturing a repentant spirit, cultivating authentic humility, and by wrapping up your trust and giving it as a gift to the Father who gave you your very life. According to Jesus, his Father will think it’s great.  He’ll think you’re great, too!

“Childlike trust that is the defining spirit of authentic discipleship.” ~Brennan Manning

What If God Took Over?

Repentance, humility and trust—we much more easily and naturally exhibit these as children. As adults, the current of sin causes us to drift further from them as authentic expressions of who we are before God. The good news is, since these very things are so precious to God, he is ready and willing to help you reclaim them in your life.  All you need to do is ask.  That’s a good start!

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Weekend Meditation: You Don’t Need No Stinking Proof!

Read: Matthew 16-17

One day the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus, demanding that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority. He replied, “…Only an evil, adulterous generation would demand a miraculous sign…” (Matthew 16:1 & 4, NLT)

A sign?  They want another sign?  You’ve got to be kidding!

Keep in mind that Jesus had just delivered the demonized daughter of a Syro-Phoenicean woman (Matthew 16:21-28, NLT).  He had just healed scores of people—“the crippled were made well, the lame were walking, and the blind could see again”—in Galilee (Matthew 15:29-31, NLT).  Then to top it off, he had just fed 4,000 men (not including women and children) with seven loaves of bread and a few fish—with seven doggy bags for his disciples afterward (Matthew 15:32-39, NLT).

Now the Pharisees and Sadducees had the gall to ask Jesus to show them a miracle!  As we used to say when I was a kid (for which I was usually reprimanded by my very prim and proper mother), “what did they want, egg in their beer?” What else could Jesus do, raise someone from the dead before their very eyes? (Oh yeah, he’d already done that!)  Come on, did they expect him to die and come back to life again to prove his divine authority? (Oops, guess he did that, too!)

The point is, Jesus has already done plenty to prove himself to anyone who is half interested in who he is.  The Father has done more than enough to authenticate that Jesus is indeed the Son of God—and as such, is worthy to be accepted as Savior and obediently followed as Lord.  The verifiable claim of the Word of God and the clarion witness of the Holy Spirit in our inner being both shout loud and clear that Jesus is Messiah, Son of God, Savior of the world and Lord of the universe!

At some point with Jesus, we need to stop demanding proof for faith and start proving our faith—whether or not we have signs, wonders and miracles to, yet again, excite our trust that Jesus is who he said he is.

Miracles are nice—but our faith doesn’t depend on them for stability.  You’ve got all the proof you need!  So why don’t you prove your faith in Jesus by giving him your trust today!

Have a great weekend!

Pastor Ray

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Why Jesus Is So Annoying

Read: Matthew 15

Then the disciples came to him and asked, “Do you realize you offended the Pharisees by what you just said?” Jesus replied, “Every plant not planted by my heavenly Father will be uprooted, so ignore them. They are blind guides leading the blind, and if one blind person guides another, they will both fall into a ditch.” (Matthew 15:12-14, NLT)

On a fairly regular basis, Jesus got under people’s skin. In fact, he flat out annoyed them—and it didn’t bother him in the least.  He didn’t come to earth to win a popularity contest, he came to get in the way of people’s headlong plunge into hell.  That meant he had to tell them the truth—even if it ruffled their feathers.  By the way, he is still doing that today, and chances are, he’s fixing to ruffle your feathers, too (if he hasn’t already)!

So why is Jesus so annoying?  How come he doesn’t always play nice?  What is it that makes him so willing to irritate sinners and saints—especially saints—alike? I’ve already given the answer, but let me restate it once again:

Jesus is more committed to your holiness than he is concerned about your happiness!

You see, it is holiness that will get you into heaven and keep you out of hell. Now that’s not just my opinion, that’s a direct quote from the Word of God.  Hebrews 12:14 (NLT) very clearly says, “work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.”

That’s why Jesus is so willing to get up in your grill and tell it like it is.  He wants you to be holy, just as he is holy.  That’s why he says things that are uncomfortable, that will make you squirm, that are frankly, offensive…things like,

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you.” (John 6:53, NLT)

“You will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God.” (Luke 13:3, NLT)

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6, NLT)

“Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.” (Matthew 7:21, NLT)

“All who love me will do what I say…Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me.” (John 14:23-24, NLT)

And on and on the list of Jesus’ annoying sayings goes. Now of course, Jesus is not annoying for annoyance sake.  He says things that make us uncomfortable because he loves us, and wants us to partake of his holiness.  In fact, in the greatest act of love imaginable, he died on the cross so that you and I could enter through his sacrifice into the very holiness that will put us and keep us in right standing with a holy God.  That is called imputed holiness—which Jesus offers as a free gift, received only and completely by grace through faith.

What a deal—Jesus paid the full price for my holiness, and all I have to do is turn to him in full repentance of my sins, full acceptance of his death and resurrection, full surrender to his Lordship over my life, and I am declared holy.  Moreover, I am then declared legally holy because I now stand before God in the holiness of Jesus Christ.

Now there is one more thing: Hebrews 12:14 said we are to “work at living a holy life”.  Since Jesus has graciously done so very much to make us holy, we ought to gladly and thankfully make every effort (this is not about earning, mind you, you can’t earn what you’ve already been freely given) to live a life of complete and utter holiness before God.

Before you groan about this “holiness” thing—truthfully, it’s not such a bad or burdensome deal.  All you really need to do, in light of what has already been done for you, is to gratefully love God will all our heart, mind, and body.  Then once you’ve done that, just do as you like.

But just remember, to keep you loving God as he deserves, expect Jesus to annoy you along the way!

“How little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one meets the real thing…it is irresistible.” ~C.S. Lewis

What If God Took Over?

Augustine said, “love God and do what you want.” Are there things you are doing that betray your love for God?  Why not take a step today to jettison those behaviors or thought patterns from your life?  Start with repentance, then ask for God’s help, and think about confessing your faults to a trusted brother or sister so that you can become accountable for growth in holiness in those particular areas.

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Water-Walking Faith

Read: Matthew 14

“So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus.” (Matthew 14:29, NLT)

No matter where you go in the Bible, you’ll find that memorable stories of faith always involved risky steps of daring obedience. So it is in this story where Peter leaves the other disciples sitting in the relative safety and comfort of their boat, takes a few steps of faith on the water in the middle of a storm, and walks out to meet Jesus, becoming the first person—and only human being that I know of—to literally walk on the water. Peter, a mere mortal, just a common Galilean fisherman, joined Jesus in a very elite club of which there were only two members: The Water Walker Club.

Now this is more than just another one of those incredible Bible stories we read as kids about the superheroes of the faith. This is a story meant to inspire water walking faith in common, ordinary, garden-variety believers. And within this particular story are several important lessons that Peter’s adventure can teach other mere mortals like you and me that we will need to keep in mind when we finally get up the courage to step out of our boat of comfort to take those bold and daring steps of faith to obey God:

First, the wind won’t stop blowing just because you take a step of faith. In fact, the storm may pick up a little. The truth is, faith needs a storm to be faith, or it is not faith. But the great thing about storms is that although Jesus doesn’t promise to keep you from them, he does promise to be with you in them. And in fact, it is the very resistance of the wind in those storms that provides the lift needed for faith to soar. So take that step of faith into the storm and watch what happens.

Second, when you take your step of faith into the raging storm, you will need to remember the one command that God most often gives his people: “Fear not!” Did you know that there are 366 “fear not’s” in the Bible? That is one for every day of the year (including an extra one of leap year). I don’t think that number is by mistake—I think God knew that you and I would need to be reminded every single day not to give into fear. Every single day, including today, God is reminding you to choose faith instead, because fear and faith cannot coexist in those who would be water walkers.

Three, when the storm is raging, your assignment is simply to keep our eyes on Jesus—and just keep walking toward him. “Don’t give up” is another repeated command in the Bible. To join Peter in the water walker club, you will have to make the determination to stay focused on the One who is the Master over the storm—because it is Jesus alone who will see us through.

Is there an area of faith where you are being tempted to give up because you have come into some unexpected and impossible circumstances? That is the perfect condition, my friend, to exercise water walking faith. So don’t give into fear and keep your focus on Jesus, because yet another heroic faith story is about to be written!

In the 1950’s, the name Florence Chadwick was synonymous with championship swimming. She was the first woman to swim the English Channel–both ways. In fact, she did it three times, each time going against the tide.

But one of her distance swims was not so successful. She failed to reach her goal, all because she lost sight of it. Florence had set out on July 4, 1952 to swim the 21 miles from Santa Catalina Island to the California mainland. But on this particular morning, the 34-year-old found the water to be numbingly cold, and the fog was so thick she could hardly see the boats in her envoy, which were along side her to scare away the sharks.

As the hours ticked off, she swam on. Fatigue was never a serious problem…it was the bone-chilling coldness of the icy waters that threatened her. Finally, more than fifteen hours after she started, numbed by the cold, Florence asked to be taken out of the water, unable to go on.

Her mother, in a boat beside her, urged her to go on, as did her trainer. They both knew that the mainland had to be close, very close. Yet Florence quit. She got into the boat and fell short of her goal. The boat traveled just a short distance until the coastline could be seen. Florence had stopped only a half-mile short of the finish. Upon realizing how close she had come, she dejectedly cried, “If I could have seen the shore I would have made it.”

If you are going to be a faith walker…or a water walker…

…Get ready for the storm

…Choose faith over fear

…Keep your eyes on Jesus

…And above all, never give up!

“Let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessings if we don’t get discouraged and give up.” ~Galatians 6:9 (Living Bible)

What If God Took Over? Pray this prayer today: “Lord, bless me with water-walking faith. Enlarge my capacity to trust you, even in the storms. And let me be used.