Recently I have been pondering how to "move on" from personal mistakes or moral failure. We all make mistakes, failing to measure up to God's or our own standards and expectations, don't we? Words are said, actions taken, responsibilities neglected, promises broken, expectations crushed, and weaknesses exposed. Christians are not immune on this side of eternity from willfully or accidentally acting in ways that dishonor God and hurt others and ourselves.
The Bible is pretty clear about how to bounce back when we willfully or accidentally sin or just plain make mistakes. Here is a brief summary . . .
1. Call a spade a spade: Psalm 32:5 says: "Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity"Acknowledge the mistake or failure for what it is. If sin is involved, (rebellion against God or lack of love and respect toward our neighbors) own it!
2. Confess to God first. Psalm 51:10 says, "Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit with me." Getting right with God opens doors for peace, reconciliation, and power for dealing with the mistake or failure.
3. Ask God for wisdom, insight, conviction, perspective and strength to face the mistake or failure. Psalm 77:2 says, "When I was in distress, I sought the Lord." Also, Matthew 7:7 says, "Ask and it shall be given to you."
4. Seek wise counsel if necessary to discern how to deal with the mistake or failure. Proverbs 15:22 says, "Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed." A trusted friend can give perspective, offer prayer, and provide help with moving forward.
5. Make amends quickly with those you have failed. Matthew 5:25 says "Settle matters quickly with your adversary." An important aspect of bouncing back is taking responsibility for our actions and, as much as it depends on us, seeking to right our wrongs.
6. Remember God's promises: Romans 8:1 says, "No condemnation remains for those who are in Christ Jesus" - Don't get paralyzed by guilt. Remember, that "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret" (2 Corinthians 7:10).
7. Ask God to transform the mistake or failure for good.Romans 8:28 says, "God works all things together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purposes."
8. After steps 1 - 7, Let it go. Psalm 103:12, says, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us." Move on, asking for God's perspective and the power to keep from making the same mistake again.
Our God delights in redeeming mistakes. Will we let him? Oh, and one more thing: When we undergo this process ourselves, it makes it easier to offer forgiveness to others when they sin or make mistakes against us.
Have you ever heard of Joseph? Gideon? Hezekiah? Moses? How about David, Stephen or Esther? What do they have in common? Each faced challenges that seemed unbeatable, overwhelming odds stacked against their ability to live in peace and accomplish God's purposes. And what did they do? They prayed, sought counsel, and walked in faith, putting their trust in the God "with whom all things are possible."
In his book Fresh Faith, Jim Cymbala writes:
"So many times when we get into emergencies and the situation seems hopeless - it's actually a set up. God wants to do something great. He wants to demonstrate His power, so that His Name will be praised in a new and greater way ... [so that] the next generation will hear all about it... Why? Because God wants to publish everywhere through our lives the testimony of His mighty power and salvation."
How about you? Facing any overwhelming challenges or emergencies today? Tempted to give up? Despair? Are you paralyzed with fear or disappointment? You are not alone. The People of God have faced overwhelming obstacles since day one. Here are a couple of ways to ignite the fire of faith in God in the face of overwhelming challenges:
1. Read God's Word. Read the stories of Joseph (Genesis 37), Esther, Daniel and Paul (Acts 9- 28). Read Psalms 25,27, 46, 91, or 103 to name a few. God's Word reminds us the power of God is available today.
2. Don't face challenges alone. As Archbishop Bishop Bob Duncan has said, 'Courage breeds courage.' We need each other to pray, process, and for encouragement and help. Get in a community group. Call a trusted Christian friend, a Christian counselor, talk to a member of staff, or contact the prayer team.
3. Commit your way to the Lord (Psalm 37: 5 - 6) Put faith in action by entrusting specific challenges into His hands and ask for the next "blue blaze" (trail marker) for you to see the way He is leading.
4. Spend time in worship: Worship fixes our hearts and minds on the greatness and power of God and off our own inadequacy to handle specific challenges. Listen to worship music of your choice, thank God for His power and attributes and faithfulness in the past. Pray the Psalms of Praise (145 is a good one).
5. Serve someone else in need. As we seek to serve others, we receive encouragement as we share encouragement and we sense God's power and love flowing through us. God has an amazing way of meeting us when we take our eyes off our selves and serve others.
6. Ask for more of God's Holy Spirit to equip, encourage, heal, teach, provide, give faith, and develop character in you during the times of challenge and discouragement.
7. Memorize 2 Corinthians 4: 17 - 18 "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."Why? Because God uses challenges for greater purposes than we can see in the moment.
As followers of Jesus Christ we can have confidence that the Lord will lead us through the challenges we face. And yet, will we trust Him and follow Him even when we can't see where He is leading? Remember: "Anything is possible for Him who believes."
- Trusting Jesus with you ~ David
As we celebrate the Easter season, I want to encourage you to ponder anew the implications of the gospel for us today. The historical fact is that Jesus, both fully God and fully Man, walked this earth, “lived the life we should have lived, and died the death we should have died” (Keller).
He took our sin in his body and suffered death on our behalf so that we would never have to face the eternal consequences of our traitorous rebellion against God.
For “He [Jesus] who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor. 5: 21). And then He rose bodily from the grave! Jesus beat death, is alive forever and can be known and experienced by His Holy Spirit every day by those who put their trust in Him.
As I've been reflecting on this season, I’ve been struck that Jesus’ Gethsemane prayer to be “saved from the hour of death” went unanswered. The man who committed no sin of unbelief asked God to move a mountain and the Father answered, “No!”. Yet Jesus accepted the "no." Then "with joy" endured the cross, scorned its shame and sat down at the right hand of God" (Heb. 12:3)
Jesus knows what it is like to hear the Father’s “No” and trust and obey anyway. And yet the Father’s “No” was in actuality for us the ultimate “Yes!” Can I thank God for His divine “No” even when I can’t see immediate reasons or results? Am I willing to wait for God to vindicate Himself and His “No”?
Have you heard a “No” from God recently to a prayer offered in faith? The gospel reminds us that God can be trusted to accomplish His will even when He gives us a “No.” Lord, increase our faith, and keep us open to the surprising miracles that often come with your “No”!
Rejoicing with you that God’s Hardest “No” was our Biggest “Yes”, ~ David
I have been spending time reading about what makes a great marriage lately. Not only am I doing “ pre-marriage mentoring” for 4 couples at the moment, but it seems I am running into more and more people who share with me challenges they are facing in their marriages. Kristin and I continue to have to be diligent about prioritizing our own marriage amidst seeking to raise 4 kids, lead a growing church, teach honors physics, and manage all the other areas of our lives. As I constantly have been taught and continue to learn, great marriages take WORK. But as David Wilcox says, “It’s good work if you can get it.” Here are some great resources I would recommend to any couple seeking to invest in their marriage, perhaps get out of a marriage rut, learn to communicate better, or ignite romance and joy. I would also recommend daily prayer (alone and together) and perhaps a good marriage counselor to help understand how to navigate specific marriage challenges. I also learned from John and Susan Yates the value of attending a Family Life Weekend every couple of years. Conference information can be found at www.familylife.com . Great Marriage Resources: The Meaning of Marriage Tim and Kathy Keller Real Marriage Mark and Grace Driscoll Love and Respect Dr. Emerson Eggerichs B ooks on Intimacy, Sex, and Romance Sheet Music Dr. Kevin Leman Under the Sheets Dr. Kevin Leman Sex and the Soul of a Woman – Paula Rhinehart
Epiphany is the season we celebrate the good news that God’s invitation into His family is for all people, Jews and Gentiles alike. Just as Israel was called by God to Be His people because of His grace (Ezekiel 16) and to share that grace with the world (Isaiah 60), so Gentiles have now been invited to become sons and daughters of God by grace through faith and to share His grace with the world.
The faith of God’s people in the Old Testament culminates in God’s gracious provision of His Son Jesus Christ as the perfect Passover lamb sacrificed for the sins of the world. By faith in his life, death and Resurrection, Jesus offers to anyone reconciliation with God and a place at God’s family table as an unconditionally loved son or daughter.
This is amazing news! Grace – for everyone – available now – free of charge with daily and eternal benefits!
Can you see why Epiphany is actually quite a controversial season for a pluralistic society such as ours? What do you mean God offers everyone regardless of moral record or ethnic background the same opportunity to receive grace and enter His family (Acts 2: 39)? What do you mean receiving grace by faith is the only way to stand before a holy God “without blemish and free from accusation” (Colossians 1:22)?
I want to invite you to church over the next 7 weeks as we explore the power of the gospel for the whole world. During the sermon we will be looking at the book of Acts and Paul’s remarkable church planting run in religiously diverse city after city. I am praying it will be an exciting Epiphany series as we look afresh at the power of the gospel to change the whole world one individual at a time.
One of the reasons this is the “most wonderful time for the year” for me is that we get to participate in all our favorite “family traditions.” Highlights of the past and present Drake traditions include:
- A fondue Christmas Eve dinner before attending a late church service.
- Leaving cookies (elves), carrots (reindeer), and Jack Daniels (to keep Santa warm on cold
Winter nights my dad always said) in front of the fireplace.
- Never being allowed downstairs before 7am.
- Reading the Christmas story from Luke 2 then opening stockings, having a long breakfast with
sticky buns before finally!! opening presents.
- Growing up we had a wonderful Christmas dinner mid afternoon and always went to the
movies Christmas night.
As a Christian who worships the Lord in the Anglican tradition, I have grown to appreciate “traditions”: ways of worshiping Jesus that are familiar, authentic, and meaningful. Our liturgy, in all its Anglican varieties, offers a familiar context to worship each week filled with good theology, scripture, and invitations to engage the Lord in confession, prayer, and praise. As we begin to understand and know the reason for these weekly and yearly “traditions” that make up our worship, we begin to understand and know the Lord better.
This Christmas, as we celebrate family traditions, may the gift of celebrating the yearly remembrance of our Lord’s entrance into human history fill us with anticipation, excitement, wonder and joy as we worship the One from whom all our Christmas and weekly worship traditions find their true meaning.
As we enter the stretch run of Advent, I want to encourage you to take time amidst the busy season to rest in the knowledge that God is near. He is not silent. He speaks. He knows and cares and loves. He is active and faithful, forgiving and sovereign . . . always working for our best interests. He redeems every mistake, every disappointment, every loss, every sin, and every act of injustice in His perfect timing. The incarnation shouts to us that despite what we may feel or see around us, God is more concerned about us than we could have ever hoped or imagined. He has not left us to ourselves; nor will He ever forsake us.
So, this Advent if you are burdened by guilt, weariness, disappointment, failure, the loss of a job or a loved one, receive the good news: Christ has come. He is near. He is Emmanuel, God with us. And He offers Himself to us. As Malachi reminds us, He comes “as the sun of righteousness with healing in His wings.” (Malachi 4: 2) For those humble enough to receive Him, He redeems the past, is enough for the present, and promises to lead us into the future until we see Him face to face.
My experience is that many self identified agnostics or atheists regard followers of Christ as those who espouse religious rules but never live up to them, hold political convictions that place personal piety above people’s real needs, and are judgmental and intolerant of anyone who is not like them. For this reason, John Fischer wrote a critique of Christian culture. In his ironic self critique, Real Christians Don’t Ask Why, he states: “Don’t tell [non Christians] you are a Christian too soon. They may actually like you. And then when you tell them you are a follower of Christ, they will have to reevaluate their whole view of Christianity.” A sad but perhaps honest commentary on the perceived reputation and influence of followers of Christ in our culture. At the same time, the Bible is pretty clear about what will happen to those who honestly follow Him. Followers (disciples, learners) of Jesus Christ will - Know a love, joy , and peace far above anything this world can provide – Galatians 5:22 - Have a supernatural power to love, not just tolerate, those who hate them – Luke 6:27 - Will be patient, kind, forgiving, bearing with one another – Romans 12: 9-13 - Will have a joy and peace that enables them to endure anything with grace – John 15:11 - Like their master, will serve, not judge or alienate, those who have rejected God – Matthew 20:28 - Will seek the blessing and prosperity of the city in which they dwell – Jeremiah 29:7 - Will be instruments of peace and reconciliation in a broken world – 2 Corinthians 5:18 - Will have a purpose in life that they would not otherwise have – Ephesians 2:10 So why is the world’s impression of “disciples” of Jesus so different from what Jesus says His disciples will look like?
I have been trying to learn more about what it means to be a disciple, to make disciples and to be a part of a church that has discipleship as a part of its DNA. In his book, Real-Life Discipleship, Jim Putman, a pastor and church leader, defines a disciple from Jesus’ words to Peter in Matthew 4:19 like this: “Come follow me” – A disciple is someone who has decided to follow Jesus “And I will make you” – A disciple is someone who is being transformed by Jesus “Fishers of men” – A disciple is someone who is committed to Jesus’ mission. He goes on to say that this reflects conversion of the mind (Deciding to follow Christ), conversion of the heart (allowing God to transform our character) and conversion of the hands (Willingly serving and working to build the Kingdom of God in all its fullness and joy). He sums up his definition of discipleship like this: “Jesus redeems us for a purpose, not just to give us a ‘get out of jail free’ card. Through faith and the power of His Spirit, Jesus desires for His followers to be disciples, to follow Him daily in practical life, to become like Him in His character, and to joyfully participate in the building the Kingdom and investing in people for eternity.” What do you think? Do you agree with Jim’s definition? Is there a difference between a believer in Jesus and a disciple of Jesus?
If you have spent time reading leadership books of any stripes in the last 15 years, you will know that words like “culture”, “360 degree feedback”, “team”, “vision”, “clear objectives and goals” and “mentoring” are hot concepts leaders have been challenged to use to grow their organizations. While my own leadership capacity has improved reading about these concepts from Christian and non Christian leaders like Andy Stanley, Jim Collins, Bill Hybels, J. Oswald Sanders, John Maxell, and Robert Clinton to name a few, I have also recently been challenged by a gifted pastor about a lost leadership value in the church: discipleship.
His case is that many Christian leaders are neglecting the meaning, intent, and purpose of discipleship in their churches. The word disciple comes from a Greek word meaning “pupil”, or “learner”. Jesus clearly equipped and expected his disciples to make learners who make learners (Matthew 28: 18 – 20). Do Christians see themselves as disciples and are they actively discipling others? If so, what does it look like? If not, why?
In a conversation with another Anglican leader this week, I asked him how many Bishops and senior Rectors in the Anglican Church he thought are actively making disciples amidst all their other responsibilities. In other words, are the leaders of our movement modeling, talking about, and equipping Anglicans to be disciples and to disciple others? He didn’t know. I don’t either, other than knowing I am not sure I understand the concept well much less practice it.
So what does discipleship look like and how can we start to practice it more and more in the church, starting with us leaders?
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