Good enough

I have been reading "Spiritual Depression" by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones.  I'm into the 2nd chapter. The first chapter made a first address of the problem by looking at Psalm 43:5 where the writer of the Psalm questions himself: "Why art thou cast down, O my Soul?" The essence of this statement and the application to our lives is 'Do we speak to ourselves? Do we allow ourselves and/or our self talk to say things about ourselves that are not true.  We must first learn to speak to ourselves rather than let ourselves speak to us. We must be handled.

In the 2nd chapter, Lloyd-Jones states that before going further we must first understand that man is a sinner, incapable of saving himself. Jesus completely fulfilled the Law on this earth.  As a sinner, man's sins must be punished. But, as a sinner man has no hope of justifying himself on his own. By Jesus fulfilling the Law he satisfied the Law. Jesus kept the law.  Jesus obeyed it.  And Jesus bore the penalty of it by his death on the cross and then resurrection.

Our response is to see our need. We are to confess our need that we can not save ourselves because we are sinners first. And sinners can't save themselves. If we confess it, God will give us His own Son's righteousness.  God imputes God's righteousness to us when we declare to God that we need it. Then God declares us as righteous. He declares us to be righteous in Him.

This is what it means to be justified by faith.

In his discourse and explanation, Lloyd-Jones makes the comment that men and women often believe they are not good enough. He states that individuals are often not ready to be called a Christian because of a belief that they are not yet good enough.  Lloyd-Jones is stating that people are still ingrained with the belief that before coming to Christ we must be good enough.  This sermon of his was delivered in the early 1960's in London. My guess is that at this time people saw themselves as "not good enough."

In my conversations with people, the overriding sentiment I hear from people now is instead, "I'm good enough."  And by being good enough they already think they have Christ or they think being "good enough" is the means in which they win the After-Life Lottery. I see this as I take people through the 10 commandments and often they respond that they really haven't done anything wrong or if they have they are not unlike anyone else.

It is an interesting dichotomy. 

I think the secret here is the clear presentation of the Gospel to people and the repetitive presentation of the Gospel to people. People need to hear that one sin makes them imperfect and that God can only accept the complete fulfillment of the Law and not just a partial fulfillment. A partial fulfillment would then give rise to boasting. Many churches today and beliefs state that they are the true church and in so doing they put forth the idea that allegiance or alignment to a church renders acceptance by God. But, this is not complete allegiance to Christ. This is partial. "You have to rest exclusively upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect work." Anything else, is partial.

In the words of the hymn:

I dare not trust my sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesu's Name.

Family Picture from Easter 2011

This is outside Heritage Christian Fellowship where my oldest son attends with my brother T and his family. Left to right is Pamela (42), Derek (10), Chris (43), Tyson (15), and Megan (13).

What are you?

Do you ever get this question?

I was at the mall the other day sharing with someone. (A friend and I venture to the mall on Wednesday nights to strike up spiritual conversations with people.) We asked him what church he went to and then he goes, "What are you?" And suddenly I found myself wondering how I was going to answer that question besides the sarcastic "human" response.

25 years ago I would have said, "Christian." But, can I really say "Christian" these days when the LDS church is currently on a drive to align themselves with the label, "Christian." So, if it's not Christian then it seems to be a myriad of titles like

• Follower of Christ
• Disciple of Christ
• Orthodox Christian (though I don't what that means)
• Fundamentalist (yet I remember my college Baylor had a lot of problems with fundamentalists)
• Baptist (this rarely works because now it sounds like I'm siding with a particular religious group)

I guess in our "have it your way" world that's what has become of a single question. I don't care, I'm saying, "Christian."

Promises First

I started reading Joshua today, having just finished Deuteronomy. I'm taking it slow. In the first chapter of Joshua the Lord speaks to Joshua and is passing the baton of leadership onto Joshua as Moses has died. He tells him that he should lead the people to cross the Jordan and possess the land the Lord has given them.

The Lord gives the People these promises:
- I will be with you
- I will not fail you
- I will not forsake you

And then he tells them their response:
- Be strong and courageous
- Be careful to do according to the Law
- Don't let the law depart from your mouth
- Do not tremble
- Do not be dismayed

Get this: The promise comes before the response. What I don't see is something we must do in order to receive a blessing.

This is significant because as we walk in life we are often trained by the notion that if you want something then you need to first do something good.

As students in school we are given good grades after doing good work. As employees, we receive our pay after we have performed our jobs. In sports, the trophies are given to those who perform at the highest level. So life is training us to first perform and then you will see your reward.

But, not so with God. He gives a reward first and then in response to His gift we obey Him. The command is for protection and not a condition for a prize.

So, how does a person access this reward? Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

To get the gift, we must receive it. We must renounce the way we have been taught by the world. Instead of doing good things and making sure our good outweighs our bad in order to get a reward, we must instead say, "not my will, not my way, but your way O God. I will trust you."

The Turning

Last day of 2008. I appreciate the new year for it is a chance to revisit priorities and determine what matters most and what will matter most this coming year. And yet where to start in this re-evaluation and re-determined approach to life is a challenge.

We were in Grand Junction for Christmas (Dec. 24th - Dec. 29th). It was a great time together. Great fellowship. Great food. It's always nice to retreat from life and reaffirm those things that matter most. I'm very grateful for in-laws that open their home and don't mind taking care of us all. And let us just take it easy to re-energize our lives.

December 28th we went to Redlands Community Church there in Grand Junction. This is my wife's parents church. I always enjoy going because the worship is intimate (Piano, 2 guitars, Drums) and three singers. The song selection is familiar to me and yet I can tell it is somewhat new to those attending, at least a few of the songs. It's familiar often because I'm up on the latest tunes. I always love singing new songs (Psalm 40). The size is quaint. Just enough for the regular attender to still meet new people and yet not so big that you feel like you could get lost. The pastor--Joe Gross--is very conversational in his delivery as he exposits the Word (verse by verse).

On Sunday, he spoke from Hebrews 5:11-14. A familiar passage and yet one, I'm guessing, I hadn't read in several years. He didn't read the text, though he covered every line and word. The giest of the message was, "Are you still an infant in your faith or have you moved onto meat of God's teaching and words?" That's the high level look at the text. Along the way, he mentioned some interesting thoughts, one was whether or not we find ourselves living on milk still. He made the remark that milk is a pre-digested food which he meant to say that many disciples are still in the mode of milk-learning or learning from another (i.e. sitting and listening to someone else's quiet time observations from their study of the Bible, like in a sunday school lesson or a sermon). Thus, the challenge is how many of us are actually involved in bible reading on our own and experiencing God through the reading of His word? Or are we conditioned now to just listen to the reading of the word?

Since September 15th, I've started a Bible reading plan. Initially, I followed the rote read the Bible in a year plan. However, recently, as I've started through I Samuel I've started seeing that my reading has become a ritual versus a quest for engaging with My savior and understanding His Words. So, I've started taking notes and in that process, I'm currently way behind on the yearly plan. And yet I sense my understanding of it has expanded.

This moves me to my second observation which is found in verse 14. My favorite verse over the past several years has been I Timothy 4:7-8, "Train yourself for Godliness. For physical training has some value, but godliness has value for all things." Verse 14 of Hebrews 5 has the same sentiment, "But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." Once again, the reminder is Read the Book.

As I turn the year, my prayer is that the new year will include time training myself in God's word so that I can more clearly distinguish good and evil. There are so many choices available for how I spend my time. In addition, as I train myself, I want to train my family. And yet my confidence in carrying this out is not real high. Changing myself is easier that affecting change in others.

No money...no really

I'm a little behind on my news. Its what I get for not watching the news nor do I read the paper. But, I do get some emails about various news articles. I'm just behind.

This is a good article. Governors Against State Bailouts

A couple of noteworthy lines:

Take for example the proposed Big Three auto-maker bailout. We think it's very telling that each of the three CEO's flew on their own private jets to Washington to ask for a taxpayer handout. No amount of taxpayer largess could fix a business culture so fundamentally flawed.

To an unprecedented degree, government is currently picking winners and losers in the private marketplace, and throwing good money after bad. A prudent investor takes money from low-yield investments and puts them in those that yield better returns. Recent government intervention is doing the opposite -- taking capital generated from productive activities and throwing it at enterprises that in many cases need to reorganize their business model.

Borrowing money to "solve" a problem created by too much debt seems odd.

That last one is just a good principle to live by.

Looking out

Since it is called "we are family" I thought I'd post one of our latest family pics. This is on top of Sandia Mountains in August. You can see Albuquerque there in the background. Note: We had been walking in the rain up on top of the mountain for over a mile so you can understand why someone's hair might not be as full as it normally is.

Science

We started going to a new church about 18 months ago and I've been waiting to see where God would have me serve. A couple of months ago, a need came up in the Youth Sunday school hour to help out with 7th grade boys. I thought this would be a good time to get involved. We have 12 boys in our class. Me and another gentleman tag team in working with these boys for about 25 minutes per week.

Its been a crazy transition as these boys are quite unruly. There is a mix of educational backgrounds: about 1/3rd are home schooled, 1/3rd go to Christian schools, and 1/3rd go to public schools. For the most part, behaviorally, I don't see any difference between the home schooled, Christian school, and public school kids. Many of the kids have been church-ified most of their life, so they know most answers to the questions. But, my challenge with them and with anyone is to go beyond the text and doctrine and get into application. They all struggle seeing the big picture, so I understand it is going to be a process of re-training them (I Timothy 4:7-8).

Prior to getting to our time, they have gone to a worship time lasting about 10 minutes with all the other youth and then had a short devotional by the middle school pastor which last about 20 minutes. They get to us thinking it should last about 15-20 minutes.

However, our sessions have been lasting 25-30 minutes. Now, I'm sure those reading this are thinking, "Wow, that is awesome. You must be getting into some great conversations with them."

Well actually, to be honest, at this point in the training process, I'm just trying to see them get through the basic information I have to present. And that info comprises about 5 minutes of talking. The problem is that I spend another 30 minutes with them because most of the time is spent on crowd control.

I've gotten all of them Bibles. The first class I think 2 had a Bible. So, we now have everyone with a Bible and we read several verses and passages in class. We go over ground rules of "Only one person speaks at a time" and disruptive kids sit on the outer edge of our big room. Naturally, they see isolation as a reward and completely ignore the 1 person at a time speaking, so it continues to be a challenge to selectively discipline.

This past week we were talking about the surrendering your life; that you can't truly live until you surrender. The mid school pastor did a nice presentation. I then asked them in our small group time, what was the one key word that was said in the large group presentation? It starts with an "S."

One of the boys said, "Science?"

I tell you, I busted up laughing at that and had trouble getting serious after that. Another kid said "Solomon." I was trying to get them to say "Surrender."

There was another boy who in the middle of me talking, interrupts and says, "Is it time to leave?" I said, "Let me give you a clue. At the end is a prayer, when you hear me talk about 'closing in prayer,' then you can be ready to leave." Just amazing to me these kids. I know they can be a good. They are just not trained to be good in this setting, I believe.

Overall, though, it is a fun time with them. There are 2 or 3 that are totally uninterested and are constantly searching for ways to distract themselves or the class. At the end of October, we are having a "disciple now" weekend where I will spend a whole weekend with them at someone's house teaching them.

I hope we can have some individual time. I can't help but think that many of them are partly uninterested because they don't have a relationship with Jesus. And so are just being sent "through the motions." So, I guess they are representative of the church as a whole.

Good times.

Marching on.