Leaving a Legacy

I’ve just finished reading C. J. Mahaney’s book, Humility: True Greatness, which I would heartily recommend to anyone. I was especially smitten with the final chapter, which pertains to leaving A Legacy of Greatness. As I don’t have children yet (but will very soon, Lord willing), I pray this is of even more benefit to you.

He begins by making this statement: “As I understand it, parenting is about preparation. Preparation for our children’s future and preparation for the fast-approaching final day of judgment.” Wow! Never have I envisioned parenting in such grand and cosmic terms! But, it’s true, isn’t it?! He goes on: “Do your ambitions for your son or daughter include a certain vocation or a certain level of education? Graduation from a certain college? Professional or athletic or artistic recognition? If so, let me ask this: Are any of these ambitions in line with true greatness as defined in Scripture?”

He cites Mark 9:35 as the definition of true greatness, which says “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all,” (emphasis mine) and Mark 10:43 (“whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant”). This, of course, was the example Jesus set, as we’ve just been reminded by this past Sunday’s sermon (John 13:1-20). Will this, then, be the bar by which we judge our children’s greatness? Mahaney puts it this way: “Are you more interested in temporal recognition for your child than you are in his eternal reward?”

As he does with other chapters, Mahaney then outlines some practical ways of implementing these truths. “First and foremost, parents are to be an example of greatness for their children,” modeling humble servanthood. Second, we must define true greatness for our children, in light of Christ’s example. We must also learn to teach our children to discern and admire true greatness. A great way to do this is to “not celebrate anything more than you celebrate godly character in your children.” He says that he commends his son for academic achievement or an athletic award, but they break out into real celebration when there’s a demonstration of humility, servanthood, or godly character.”

Instead of admiring sports figures or celebrities, Mahaney suggests (and I agree) that “the local church is filled with truly great people.” Every week, there are those who are “faithfully serving others for God’s glory.” He cites you, as parents, as well, as you all have served “unselfishly and continuously.” His final suggestion is this: teach your children to serve. “Your family’s higher purpose, even ultimate purpose, is to serve the local church.”

Junk Mail Evangelism

I often hear from Christians that they just are too introverted to share the gospel. In their minds they have a fear of knocking on doors or standing on a street corner preaching the gospel to the masses and think, “I can’t do that so I can’t do evangelism.” There are so many easy ways for us in this country to get the good news out that we have no legitimate reason to be disobedient.

I hope to be able to provide here many fun and simple ways to get the gospel out so we can all be faithful evangelists. Keep checking back here for more and let us know if you tried any or if you came up with one of your own.

If you own a mailbox, you no doubt receive more mail that you throw away than mail that is important. As frustrating as it can be, some of this unsolicited mail can be used for evangelism. If you hate that you have to fill your garbage can (which you pay to empty) so quickly with all of that junk mail you could do this.

Or you could eat the cost trash removal and take advantage of the free postage to get the gospel out. A couple months ago we purchased a bunch of gospel tracts and spent a day giving them out around town. We still have many tracts left over and if you think silently handing a piece of paper to someone is still to scary, junk mail evangelism provides the easiest evangelism opportunity for the shyest person of all.

From now on, instead of throwing away all of that junk mail, keep that postage-paid return envelope, put a couple of tracts in there and send it on back. It’s not that often that people give you such and easy opportunity to get the gospel into their hands.

What a great chance this is to get your children excited about the sharing the gospel too. Get excited about junk mail and get a collection of postage-paid envelopes awaiting their gospel proclaiming destiny. Next time you are at church, stop into the office and pick up your own collection of tracts and get stuffing envelopes.

A Gospel that atTracts

My yard and I are in a grand battle of the ages. It's me vs. the weeds, and it's to the death (preferably theirs)! And, like any other Christian person, I started wondering how that related to my walk with Christ. So, here goes:

In sharing the Gospel, we must first sow the seed. We will never reap a harvest if we don't first sow the seed of the Gospel. It's a very simple truth, but we all so often fall into the routine of expecting that, if we do the right programs, if we're nice enough, etc., that people will be attracted to the Gospel. They can only be attracted to that which we clearly and verbally demonstrate to them.

And, you have to know the Gospel before you can throw, or sow, the Gospel, right? So, stay in the Word; commit it to memory; allow it to inform your witness. And, know something about your soil, too, which would be the person with which you're sharing. Find a point of common interest with even a total stranger, even something as simple as the weather, or the insanely high gas prices. And, if you know the person, there's all the more context from which to share.

Now, if someone has gone before you and sown the Gospel into someone's life, then you may have the opportunity to hoe that Gospel, nurturing it and stirring it deeper into the person's life. You may even be graced with the privilege of bringing that person to the Lord. Either way, both "the sower and the reaper may be glad together" (John 4:36-37). Never discount the role of the sower, as they are afforded equal honor to that of the reaper (compliments of Dr. Roy Fish).

We must be mindful, however, of the role that merits no honor whatsoever, which is the role of the mower. These are those of us, and we've all done it at some point(s), who in some way have ruined our witness and disgraced the glorious name of Christ. We may have spoken wrongfully, or with mal intent. Perhaps we grew impatient or hostile or angry. Whatever it is, we must be careful never to mow down the seeds that have been planted for the Gospel.

That brings us finally to growing. Let us not make the mistake of thinking that evangelism and discipleship are two mutually exclusive things. No, we must constantly be reminded as Christians of the Gospel, and the change it has wrought in our life, as we are so prone to otherwise give in to sin. The Spirit is at work in both the unbeliever and the believer to woo them to repentance and application. We must work, then, to make disciples, be disciples, and grow disciples.

I pray this is an encouragement to you all. May God commend our efforts, unto His glory alone.

Humble Righteousness

I was reminded this morning that we are only as useful as we are both humble and righteous, and the grand irony of it all is that they are to be as our right hand is to our left, with one not knowing what the other is doing (Matthew 6:3). If pride replaces my humility, I am no longer righteous. If sin displaces my righteousness, I need be humbled yet again. And, so we have yet another presumed paradox (http://ebcrochester.blogspot.com/2008/05/paradox.html) in our Christian faith that requires the constant check and balance of the Lord's admonition, through His word, His people, His orchestration of circumstances, etc.

May we ever be mindful of the grand necessity of both our groveling humility before God and each other, and our imputed righteousness secured by Christ's blood. Only then can we be of maximum impact for the Kingdom, doing that which He requires in both a humbling and pristinely righteous manner.

Stewardship

This morning, at the glorious hour of 3:30, the good Lord saw fit to stir me from my sleep (that, and I had to go the restroom), and my mind was awhirl with ideas for worship. Taking a moment to jot those down, and a further moment to partake of some strawberry shortcake and a quick round of Solitaire, I laid back down (it's now about 4:15). It was at this moment, for reasons I still can't be sure of, that the Lord impressed upon me thoughts of giving, for some reason.

Maybe it was the shortcake talking, but I wonder, too, if it had something to do with my previous study of Scripture. I had been looking at the opening chapters of Acts in preparation for Prayer Meeting (which was a delight, by the way; thank you all!), and I casually observed Acts 2:42-47, which speaks of the believers holding everything in common. We don't often look at this passage in the light of giving of our tithes and offerings, but it obviously held some serious import (see Acts 5 regarding Ananias and Sapphira).

Now, I know this seems an awkward exhortation coming from one who receives his income through a portion of those gifts, but, let's be honest here; I'm not in it for the money. My true concern, truly, is the ministry of our church, which is to make disciples. Nothing more, certainly nothing less. As we sat on the lawn last night as a praying body of believers, I was overcome with the visibility of that witness, and I was excited to imagine what visible ministry we might have in our community as it is enabled by our faithful giving.

The Old Testament adage is to give 10%; the New, to give 'til it hurts (as Christ did). I'm under the personal conviction that we should tithe on our gross, because my Lord is Christ, not Uncle Sam, and I want Him to get the first fruits. Nevertheless, just imagine if our body of 130-odd folk were to give faithfully even just 10%. In our affluent community of doctors and techies and such, would that not more than meet our budget, and exceed it, unto His glory?

Barna's research shows that, as best we can tell, there are 101 million born-again Christians among a U.S. population of 301 million. Imagine if your witness, and that enabled by our corporate body at large, were able to bridge that gap. In the Midwest, 45% of the population claims to be born-again. If that is true, and we as a mere 130 folk were to be faithful to give to the ministry our all (our tithes and offerings, our time, our witness), then we would reach the estimated 96,975 persons in our city with the Gospel very easily. In fact, if we each did our part to share the Gospel in some capacity with just one person each week, we will have spoken to every person in Rochester! And, certainly we can do better than that to compensate for the population growth!

May we learn from the admonition of Acts 4, to hold all things loosely, sharing all we have, whether it be our financial resources, our various areas of ministry, etc. This church is not ours; this ministry is not ours. He has graciously gifted us with this task. May we be faithful to hold all things in common, and pool our resources for the only thing that matters: sharing and living the Gospel. All else will fade away, save His glory alone! May we invest in that!

Real Worship

Worship is Life. We as Christians can so often confuse worship for that which we do corporately as a Body each Sunday, and that, of course, is true, but only in part. Long before church buildings were erected, or Worship Pastors were employed, followers of Christ were worshiping Him, and doing so with their lives. So, how exactly do we do that?
Well, we “live a life worthy of the calling” (Ephesians 4:1), that “God may count us worthy” of it, “fulfilling our every good purpose and every act prompted by our faith” (2 Thess. 1:11). Now, of course, this faith is not of ourselves; no, it is the gift of God. But, our “every good purpose and act” is God’s workmanship, “prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:8-10).
Remember, God has given us “everything we need for life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3, emphasis mine). So, a life of worship is that one which is lived in the knowledge of Him. And, how do we gain that knowledge? Well, some of it is gained on Sunday. That is true. But, I firmly believe we grow all the more in our personal walks with Him; in the quiet of the morning, in our prayer time during our commute to work, in the godly witness of our families. In so doing, Sunday becomes but a culmination of celebration, as God’s people truly fellowship over all that He has done, and led us to do, in the week preceding.
And, for those of us who fear to share our faith, consider 2 Corinthians 2:14, which says: “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.” It is a beautiful portrayal of a life of worship lending itself ever so naturally to the spreading of the Word. May we do likewise, knowing that, with but one life to live, we must need expend it on His glory alone, that we’ll not have wasted one minute, but have been found indeed to be both good and faithful.

Paradox?

Oftentimes, in our Christian lives, we speak of the numerous paradoxes we find in the Bible, and rightly so. There is the apparent conflict between God's sovereignty and man's freedom to choose; there is the admonition that the last shall be first, he who loses his life will find it, etc. It only occurred to me today, however, that these, and all others like them, are paradoxes only insomuch as they have happened after the Fall.

Think about it. If things were as God had originally intended them, would any of these things puzzle us as they do? It is the most natural thing for a fully holy and righteous person to put others before himself, and the like. As Adam walked in the cool of the day, I doubt that he grappled with his freedom of choice and God's sovereignty. Anything less would have simply been unnatural. How far we have fallen! The grace that needs reform us is indeed magnanimous, and should garner our uninhibited praise!

Meditating upon Psalm 68 this morning, I am overrun with the thought that the passages portraying the wicked and unregenerate characterize me better than those which speak of the righteous. How can this be?! Have I so neglected the practice and presence of God, that I tremble at my God's tremendous strength more out of fear than awe? Praise God that forgiveness is found in Him, that His mercies are ever new; nevertheless, who am I to so besmirch His name and trample underfoot His blood that I presume to continue in my sin without so much as a furtive glance towards the grand sacrifice that has made me His own?

I remember reading, and have been reminded yet again, that, when one finds themselves in the midst of sin, they are best advised to think upon the cross, and the bloodied, mangled body of He who is there for my sake. Sadly, it seems that, too often, I am already so smitten with my trespass that I can think of nothing else. Sin is that way, isn't it? It entangles, and ensnares. It is no wonder that even desire alone gives birth to sin, and sin, ironically enough, gives life to death. Saddening.

I am convinced that the less focus I lend towards my circumstances, and my presumed "rights," and the more onus I put on the wholly undeserved right I have now as a child of God, and a coheir with Christ, I will, less and less, find myself in the throes of sin. I perceive that the more desirous He is to me, and the more satiated I am with His presence, the less I will desire deathly, wicked things. I know that it's no grand revelation, but in my fallenness, I need constant reminder.

Thank you, Father, for the reminder. Through your Word, through your pricking. May the Spirit ever have His way with my conscience, and may I never grow so calloused and hard to His wooing that I shoo Him away for good. "Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me." (Psalm 51:11)