Author: Craig

The Tenacity of Faith

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6I said, “Let me remember my song in the night;

let me meditate in my heart.”

Then my spirit made a diligent search:

7“Will the Lord spurn forever,

and never again be favorable?

8Has his steadfast love forever ceased?

Are his promises at an end for all time?

9 Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”

Selah
Psalm 77:1-9

 

When we hear these words we need to pause.

 

“Selah”

 

We  join in the psalmist’s search.

 

We remember God’s goodness towards us.

 

Because if we are not now,

 

someday we may find ourselves in the dark,

 

awake and wondering,

 

“Has God forgotten me?”

 

As a follower of Jesus our worship,

 

our declaration of His immense worth,

 

is not based on how good today is,

 

but on how good God is, always.

 

My memory in the difficult days

 

can move me forward to Him in hope

 

as I recollect the stories of His faithfulness

 

from the “good days.”

 

Scripture, the search, and coming to Jesus.

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“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.”  John 5:39-40

“There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me, But if you do no believe his writings, how will you believe my words? John 5:45-47

 

Jesus is clear.

The Scriptures, hear Old Testament, testifies about Him.

Moses wrote of Jesus.

Life, eternal life, is to be found in Jesus.

People studying the Scripture have put their faith in it rather than in the One of whom it speaks.

People studying the Scripture have put their faith in its divinely inspired authors rather than in the One who inspired its writers.

The Scripture is a sign, pointing us to Jesus.

 

Perhaps having a relationship with Jesus Christ is more trouble than having a relationship with text. Make no mistake, I cherish the Word of God. I love how God has seen fit to reveal Jesus, our life, throughout its pages. My search though, is to meet the One revealed in the pages of Scripture and to come to Him for life.

 

Free Range Disciples

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“So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:36

 

When we are running in our lives full-tilt we might not see our slavery.

 

When life is going well we might to sense our slavery.

 

When we are at the top of the pile we cannot see our slavery.

 

“So Jesus said to who had believed in him…”

 

Notice, Jesus said this to the very people who had attached themselves

 

to him.

 

31So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slaveto sin. 35The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. 38I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”

 

John 8:31-38

 

Sometimes we must have our attachments in this world shaken,

 

so that we will hear the Word of Jesus

 

and be free

 

to abide

 

in Him.

 

Here’s a prayer, Christ has Set Me Free, by Rend Collective:

You are not dispensable.

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12For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 14For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

21The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
I Corinthians 12:12-14, 21-27

 

You are not dispensable. Jesus poured out His life at the cross that you might be joined with Him in His body, the Church. He does see you, the individual. He has declared His love to you and brought you into His body. You have joined Him in mission. You are not “throw-away” material.

 

We enter into our part to play, our contribution, through the same means that Christ Jesus did, through service. As we serve with our eyes open to Him, God will lead us into the good work created in advance for us (Ephesians 2:10).

 

There is an oft maligned context for our service too, the church. In the context of the church’s life (hear relationships to each other), testimony, worship and work we each have a contribution to make. And we are indispensable. The blessings that God would pour out on others through the church exponentially increased as each member, no matter how “great” or “small,” mature in Him, realize their need for the other, and serve.

 

You are not dispensable. Sometimes we might be tempted into thinking, “Oh the Church doesn’t really need me.” That would be a misappropriation of the idea that “we are not indispensable.” Today we can enter into what God is doing in the world by consciously serving with His church scattered across our communities and cities.

You are not indispensable.

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16And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” 18This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.  19So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.    John 5:16-19

 

In University I got sick- mono! I remember feeling really terrible about it because of how I was letting people down. My campus minister, Ron Little, tried to give me some perspective but it wasn’t working. So he said, “Craig, go home, put your thumb in a bucket of water and if it leaves a hole in the water, come back and tell me.” Humbling. Yet even then, it took me a while to comprehend what Ron was telling me!

 

Sometimes we can have an over-blown sense of just how much everybody else needs us. We believe we are indispensable. Its a problem for leaders because it cuts two ways: this attitude will ruin us and it will ruin the people we serve. Its the death of humility. Its the death of delegation and genuine empowerment.

 

Jesus is extraordinarily necessary for our salvation. And yet, he maintained humility, and the capacity to empower others. He knew who He was because He knew His Heavenly Father. And of His Heavenly Father, Jesus says, “He is always working!” and “I’m only doing what I see my Heavenly Father doing.”

 

For mission and for life its essential for us to remember: before you and I showed up on the scene God was working. If we begin to believe that its all up to us and that we are God’s answer for humanity’s brokenness, our mission can become our idol. We will  become a distraction with our sense of heroics, pointing people to us rather than to Jesus. We will become disappointed, angry, and bitter.  Jesus is familiar with the our problem, but it was not His problem. Jesus only saw His work through the lens of His Heavenly Father.

 

The remedy for our overblown sense of requirement is to look again to Jesus and tell  Him, “I’m available today to be a part of what you are doing.”