Living out the Gospel in America?

My heart has been unsettled recently with the way international missions are described within the American church: “I want to go on an adventure.” “I want to leave America and do something radical.” “I want to live out the gospel.”

Jesus calls His followers to deny themselves, take up their cross daily and follow Him. This calling is not simply for the foreign missionary—it is for every man and woman washed in the blood of the Lamb. It is for every American believer living in America.

The United States has something many countries do not: freedom. We are not entitled to freedom—we have been entrusted freedom.

Luke 12:48 says: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”

Are we as followers of Christ being faithful stewards of our freedom? Are we using our freedom to radically live out the gospel? I would be a hypocrite to say I am…

May we, by grace, seek to carry our cross and follow Christ here and now. May we live radically in the freedom He has entrusted to us. May we bring the gospel to the hurting and broken in our midst.

Guarding One's Heart?

I believe the phrase “guarding your heart” is misused.

Proverbs 4:23 says: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

Biblical guarding is guarding from contamination/anything that could taint one’s heart. I do not believe it is referring to the outward expression of love, but rather to what enters one’s heart.

Why do we need to guard our hearts? “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Our hearts are DECEITFUL, which is why we need to bury God’s TRUTH in our hearts: “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).

When people refer to guarding their hearts, they often refer to guarding the outward expression of love (as opposed to guarding what enters the heart). I see immense wisdom in keeping things sacred. As followers of Christ we are called to love, and so what separates a friendship from a marriage? Intimacy. And intimacy is not merely physical—it is also spiritual and emotional. That established, true friendship involves HONESTY and TRUST. True friendship is two people SHARING life. True friendship is VULNERABLE.

Believers often live in bondage to legalism. Their actions are determined by rules. Boundaries are good if they are established through prayer and the guidance of the Word/Holy Spirit. Boundaries formed by man, however, are stifling and legalistic: “Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence” (Colossians 2:20-25).

And so, what does it mean to guard your heart? Bury God’s truth in your heart and guard your heart against contamination.

When you protect what enters your heart, you ultimately protect what leaves your heart. Your heart is the WELLSPRING OF LIFE. It is foolish to believe we merely need to guard what leaves our hearts! We need heart TRANSFORMATION. This broken world needs more love, not less.

And so, may we seek Christ. May He redeem our hearts for His glory, and may we love FULLY and FREELY.

Magnifying the Gospel through Love

I have been contemplating the way I love (or rather fail to love).

My love is conditional and imperfect. I love those who love me back, and I do good to those who do good to me. My love makes much of myself, rather than Christ.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells his disciples how to love: “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked” (Luke 6:26-36).

When we love like Christ—when we die to ourselves and love unconditionally—we magnify the gospel. Why? Agape, or unconditional, love is the very essence of the gospel: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

We must not attempt to love unconditionally in our own strength. Rather, we need pursue the Lord, for He alone can bear fruit. Agape love is a natural consequence—not precursor—of an intimate and growing relationship with Christ. Let us thus seek Christ and trust Him to perfect our imperfect love for His glory!



The Author and Perfecter

I am a thinker. I love finding depth in life. I love analyzing things.

My capacity for thinking can at times be more of a hindrance than a blessing. Why? When I dwell upon and analyze my shortcomings and failures, I fail to see the only One who can mend my life and bring healing.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2).

The implications of these verses are significant: Throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Next, run with perseverance the race marked out for us and fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

Notice that these verses do not call us to dwell on our sin and failures. Rather, they call us to abandon our sin at the foot of the cross and look upward, on the Healer. Jesus Christ is the only One who can mend our broken lives. He is the only One who can put the pieces back together. He is the only One who can bring freedom and redemption.

The Wasted Life

"If Christ is not made much of in our lives, they are wasted. We exist to make him appear in the world as what he really is—magnificent. If our life and death do not show the worth and wonder of Jesus, they are wasted." -John Piper

We waste our lives when we live for our glory rather than the glory of Christ. We waste our lives when we store up treasures on earth and live for the fleeting pleasures of this life. We waste our lives when we do not love others by pointing them to the cross. We waste our lives when we do not carry our cross and follow the Lord, regardless of the cost.

The wasted life is really the wasted day. If we are not to waste our lives, we must not waste our days. Living for Christ's glory and His Kingdom does not start after graduation, after we have a family or at some other distant point in the future. Living for Christ's glory starts now. It starts today. If we are not to waste our lives, we must not waste our days.

"Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." -Luke 9:23

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Matthew 6:34

When Ministry Becomes a Joyless Burden

I love the story of the Samaritan woman who encounters Jesus at the well. She encounters the living Christ and the experience is so radical that she immediately goes back to her town to tell others about Jesus. Ultimately, her testimony prompts others to believe: "Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony...So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers" (John 4:39,40-41).

I believe the story of the Samaritan woman holds several implications for the body of Christ:

First, the Samaritan woman shares the message of Christ not out of duty but joy. Where is our joy? Where is my joy? Ministry so often becomes a burden. It becomes a joyless task. Why? We are no longer pursuing Jesus. Yes that is blunt, but I believe it is truth.

When we ardently seek after Jesus Christ we inevitably encounter His surpassing greatness and supreme goodness. Jesus is the true treasure, and all is rubbish compared to Him! We simply cannot keep Jesus to ourselves after experiencing Him and His love.

Second, the Samaritan woman meets Jesus and through her testimony of Christ many more become believers. She does not share an abstract and intangible Jesus. Rather she shares a Jesus she personally knows. She shares a Jesus who is living and active in her life. Her testimony holds merit because she speaks of something she actually has experienced.

And so, may we seek Jesus! May we abide in Him and His love. May we keep our eyes ever fixed on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter.

Redemption

Stories of redemption stir my heart. Stories of human frailty encountering the life-giving grace of Jesus Christ. Stories of captives being set free. Stories of Jesus taking something broken and making it beautiful.

I think my heart awakens to such stories because they illuminate deeper realities and truths...

We have an inner awareness that things are not how they should be. We realize things are broken. We realize we are broken. And yet we tirelessly attempt to create the semblance of perfection. We wear masks. We pretend to have it all together. Perfection, however, is but a façade. No one is perfect—not one.

We are imperfect and broken because this world is fallen: Adam and Eve were created in the image and likeness of God. They were made holy and righteous, as God is holy and righteous. When Adam and Eve chose to sin, however, their perfect nature was cancelled, and all born of Adam and Eve inherit a contagion to sin.

We are thus created in the image of God. We were created to be holy, as He is holy, and yet because of the Fall, we are prone to sin. This is the tension we feel. The longing to be perfect because we bear the image of a perfect God, and yet the paining realization we are incapable of living out His image.

In enters the Gospel. God sent His one and only Son, Jesus Christ, to be a sin offering. Jesus came to set the captives free. He came to redeem sinners. He came to make all things new. He came to reverse the effects of the Fall and to restore creation to its original order.

And yet we live between the times. Jesus died and was resurrected. We are waiting for His second coming. We are waiting for the new earth where sin will have no place—where there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain.

Thus, until His return we will feel the tension between the old and the new order. The Kingdom is here, but not yet. Because of the Spirit, we are continually renewed into the likeness of Christ. We are continually being made holy and whole--and yet we live in a world marred by sin. We are freed from the control of sin, but we have not yet been freed from its presence.

“The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."

Romans 8:19-25

Let us wait patiently in hope. Let us wait in expectation for His return, and as we wait let us love extravagantly.