April 28, 2014

"Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord."  Hebrews 12:14

"Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord."  Hebrews 12:14 (Amplified)

Holiness is hard!

Look at the two main verbs in this verse "strive" and "pursue". Those are extra effort type words. They require energy and determination - and desire.

What is holiness and why is it so hard?

Well, the "what it is" is "why it is" so hard.

Holiness is consecrating yourself to God, as the Amplified renders it. Consecrate means that I set myself apart from my selfish desires, my selfish ambitions, my sinful past and give myself completely to God for the purpose of being made holy by Him. You or I cannot make ourselves holy, we can only repent of our sins and renounce sin to give ourselves unreservedly to God so He can make us holy by the cleansing of His blood and the indwelling of His Spirit.

Holiness refers to the condition of your heart in relationship to God. Holy people love God with all their heart and all of their mind. Holiness allows the Holy Spirit to take up residence in your heart empowering you to overcome temptation and sin.

Holiness purifies your motives so that whatever you do is fueled by love (for God and for others). Holiness is being able to fulfill the Great Commandment by loving God and loving others as yourself.

In this verse holiness is equated with peace. You cannot be holy with God while you live in turmoil with others.

So, holiness is difficult because it requires being reconciled on two levels of relationship - holy with God and at peace with men. That doesn't happen automatically. It doesn't happen accidentally. You have to "strive" against your selfish nature and you must "pursue" God's nature.

But holiness is necessary and required of those who desire to see God - Who also happens to be holy.

Holiness really matters! Does it matter to you?

April 27, 2014

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."   Hebrews 11:6

Did you ever have someone in your life who was hard to please? No matter how hard you tried or what you did you found you could never please them? That is pretty miserable isn't it?

God doesn't want you miserable and He is not hard to please. In fact, He makes it clear what it takes to please Him. When you come to Him believing that "He is" or "He exists" He is pleased.

When you think about it, why would you come to someone who doesn't exist or whose existence you doubt? What is the point in that?

God does, indeed, exist! He always has! He always will. There will never be a time He doesn't exist. He exists at all times in all places with all power and forever!

God can be fully present here in Fredericksburg, VA and be fully present with you at the same time!

In fact, when God identified Himself to Moses He named Himself as "I am". Or, you could also say "I exist".

So, when you come to God and you believe that He exists as the "I am" - the fully present, fully powerful, and fully perfectly personal eternal Being - He is perfectly pleased!

Are you fully persuaded that "He is" when you seek Him? If so, He is fully pleased!

April 26, 2014

".......because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him."  Hebrews 11:6

The old saying claims, "You do for love what you wouldn't do for money."

That is proven every Sunday in every church nursery when faithful volunteer workers change stinky diapers of infants who are not theirs. Yep, that's love!

When someone volunteers to sit in a nursery filled with stinky bawling babies, what are they looking for? Why do they do that? It isn't fun or pleasant. It doesn't do much for them.

Motive matters and when you are a nursery worker you are not doing it for the reward you are probably doing it for the relationships.

This verse states that "God is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him".

Are you seeking God for a reward or are you seeking Him for a relationship? Is your faith based upon what you hope to get from Him or are you seeking  to know Him?

Hebrews 11 is the Christian Heroes Hall of Fame (or Hall of Faith). What made these men and women exemplary was not just what they did, but what motivated them to do it.

Noah labored every day for over 100 years building something he had never built before to prepare for something he had never seen before! Why was he doing that? What reward was he seeking? He didn't get paid by the hour nor was he on salary. He not only had to pound the nails into the boards and seal then with pitch - he had to make the nails, he had to cut down the trees and draw the tar out of the trees. There were no Lowes or Home Depots in that day.

Noah wasn't in it for the reward. I believe he was in it for the relationship with God.

You could go through this list of great people and ask, "Were they after a reward or were they wanting a relationship?" I believe the answer would be the same, they wanted to please God through their obedience. And they did! They altered history! They changed the world! They changed lives!

In the end they discovered an amazing truth - God IS their reward! They found that what Who He is far exceeds anything we could ever receive from Him.

Are you seeking God for what you can get from Him? Are you after the reward more than you're after the relationship? God can't reward self-seeking. You run the risk of missing both the reward and the relationship - which, in fact, IS the reward!

April 25, 2014

"Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:46-47

Faith becomes contagious like a virus or flu bug, through casual contact. When it comes out of quarantine and connects with other believers or makes contact with unbelieving people regularly and intentionally, it can infect many!

Healthy contagious churches have growing people and they have generous people but the also have genuine people.

What is a genuine person?

In terms of our analogy it would mean someone who has a real case of the disease.

How can you be contagious and infect others unless you are infected yourself?

Perhaps the key word in this verse is "sincere". This word has roots in two Greek words "sine" and "cera" which when translated literally mean "without wax". Here's the story behind it:

In the ancient days unscrupulous potters would use wax to seal up the cracks that were created in their kiln. Rather than throwing out their defective pottery they filled the cracks with wax and painted over them making them look first quality. But of course, the unsuspecting buyer who purchased one soon discovered the flaw and knew he had been deceived.

Not only did this reflect poorly on the crooked potter but also on the honest ones. So, in an attempt to distinguish themselves from dishonest pottery merchants the legit ones began displaying signs declaring - "our pottery is sine cera" - without wax!

To have a contagious faith you must be "sincere" - the real deal - not trying to hide your faults but committing those flaws to God. Genuine believers are not perfect in their performance but perfect in their desires and motives.

Like the early Christians, genuine believers don't just claim to love worship - they worshiped - "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts".

How can you claim to be a genuine Christian and then be haphazard with worship?

Like the early Christians, genuine Christians don't just claim to love fellowship - they were involved daily in fellowship - "They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts".

How can you claim to be a genuine Christian and be careless in your fellowship with your church?

Like the first Christians, genuine Christians don't just claim to witness - they were involved with witnessing to their faith daily - "praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."

How can you claim to be a genuine Christian and not be clear or consistent with your witness?

Contagious Christians are genuine in their worship, genuine in their fellowship and genuine in their witness. When that happens God's Spirit is unleashed to call unbelievers to faith!

Genuine faith lowers the level of resistance non-believers so they can "catch" the contagious faith of sincere believers!

April 24, 2014

"All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need."  Acts 2:44-45

I remember when I got it just like I get the flu, I caught it from someone else. I'll bet you did, too!

To what am I referring?

Faith! Contagious faith, that is!

When I read the second chapter of Acts I see contagious faith on display!

So, as one who would love to see the Church come out of quarantine and start and epidemic of Christianity I asked myself, "What causes a church to become contagious?"

I was able to recognize three traits of a contagious church:

1) Growing people

2) Generous people

3) Genuine people

In my previous post I talked about growing people. Today's verses focus on the second trait of contagious churches - generous people.

That begs the question, "What does it mean to be generous?" Does it mean giving to everything every time a need presents itself? Does it mean giving a large amount to a few needs?

In keeping with the big idea of this message, generosity is defined in terms of what can spread the most "germs" of faith? How can I give in a way that breaks down people's resistance to the faith and makes them more susceptible to "catching" our faith? Where can I get the most spiritual impact from my gift?

Another important concept in these verses is the idea of "getting by with less in order to give more". True generosity is not just giving more because you have more, it about needing less to be able to give more. It is about taking more risks in giving because we have each other's backs. 

Some look at the phrase "having everything in common" and see socialism or communism. I look at it an see Christian love. I see responsible stewards being frugal so they can care for their own needs and be able to care for others within the fellowship. That is being generous!

Caring for one another by living on less to give more, fosters a level of love and Christian community that catches the attention of unbelievers and draws them toward the faith.

Furthermore, when needs are cared for within the church that fellowship is prepared to respond to outreach opportunities when they arise. When that happens contagious churches are willing to do what it takes to reach out even if it means selling off some possessions to do it!

Growing people are generous people and growing generous people make a church contagious!

April 23, 3014

"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.  Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:42-47

Nearly a year after I had returned from a mission trip to Africa I received a phone call from someone at the Center for Disease Control , Atlanta. As soon as the caller identified herself  and where she was calling from she had my full attention!

She proceeded to explain that it had been discovered that someone on the flight back to the USA from Africa had tested positive for tuberculosis so everyone listed on that flight manifest was strongly urged to get screened for TB.

Fortunately, I had not contracted that very dangerous and contagious disease and I hope no one else did either!

But that got me thinking about how one person can infect several hundreds of other people just by being in close proximity with them. 

The members of the Church in Acts 2 were like that! They infected everyone around their city with their contagious faith!

That raises the question, "How did they get contagious enough to infect others?"

Verse 42 gives some insights - "They devoted themselves......."

The original language renders it "they continually gave themselves"  to four important functions of a contagious church:

1) devoted (continually and earnestly) learning and study of the Word

2) devoted (continually and earnestly) fellowship with believers

3) devoted (continually and earnestly) sharing of the sacraments

4) devoted (continually and earnestly) prayer

You may accurately say they remained contagious by staying infected with a good case of the "faith" disease.

What about you?

Are you truly devoted to your faith?

Are you continual and earnest in your study of God's Word?

Are you continual and earnest in finding fellowship with other believers? 

Are you continual and earnest toward the sacrament of Communion?

Are you continual and earnest in your prayers?

Are you "contagious" enough to "infect" someone else with your faith?

April 22, 2014

"Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"  John 11:25-26

This is quite a claim made by Jesus! Very confident and quite comforting!

If you will live and believe in Jesus, and if you allow Him to live in you by faith, you will never die!

However, there ARE several things that WILL die when you die and I feel compelled to point those out.

When you die, suffering dies. The moment you slip away from your earthly body and into eternity with Jesus - your suffering is over! Forever!

When you die, sorrow dies. At your last breath in this life, you are done with sorrow! Once your spirit enters into the presence of God there will be only joy! Sadness has no place in Heaven! You will shed no more tears. You will know no more heartbreak!

When you die, sin dies. If you die in Christ and enter into His paradise you will enter a safe, secure, sin-free environment. Not only will you be free from sin but you will not have to deal with temptation either!

So, you see, death is final - final for the things that are not worthy of God or right for eternity!

As we bring the Easter Holiday to a close I just wanted to remind you of a few reasons why it is the pivotal event in all of human history! You will never die, but all the things that make your life difficult or painful will die!

He's alive! You will live! Your heart-ache and hardships won't! Your crises and crosses will become crowns!