Fear begat Worship, which begat Confession…

Confession is a far under utilized practice in the church today.  Aside from Catholics who confess regularly, very little confession ever goes on amongst Christians.  Typically, when a person finally arrives at the point at which they are willing to confess their sins one to another (James 5:16), their sins have already been found out and what the individual is doing is validating all the rampant gossip surrounding whatever recent incident that needed confessing.  The problem with this is that it is not confession, nor is it all that constructive.  Confession is for the sake of healing and growth.  As is evident in the passage concerning confession found in James 5 as well as Isaiah 6.  

Please Read:

Isaiah 6: 5-7

James 5: 13-16

When we have contact with the Lord through worship, as well as the regular going-on of our gathering together, confession is a natural step.  If we were to use this element of our Christian lives more regularly, there would be far less timidity concerning our own need for confession. 

However, the most important step to making the act of confession valuable to the growth of the believer is that it must be met with an attitude of redemption instead of condemnation. Redemption is the immediate response from the Almighty when Isaiah confesses his sin, and is the immediately following the act of confession in James’ letter.  We must begin to be a people of reconciliation, and redemption if we are to ever achieve the example set before us by Jesus Christ.   

For it is He who has reconciled us to good work and to eternity, and though he did not sin, we have laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. 

Let us take great care to show confessors compassion rather than heaping upon them guilt and shame. 

Fear of the LORD is the Root of Worship

Please read Isaiah 6:1-5

This passage describes a tremendous scene that depicts worship of the Most High God in its most primal stage.  The seraphim of verse 2 exist for no reason but to give glory to the LORD and do this without the veil of sin but remain fearful of the awesome power of the Almighty! We see this in their demonstration of the unnecessary veil, as well as in the words they use to describe the King of Kings who sits on the throne!

Each of these beings covers their face, and feet with a set of wings.  Though they are without sin, they are overcome by a fear of the LORD that requires that they cover themselves in order to keep from offending their King.

They cover their feet, I believe, because even without sin, their existence is an affront to the Holiness of the LORD of Hosts.  The difference between the Creator and His creation is infinite.  There is no way to quantify the difference between God and everything else, except to say that there is God…and everything else.  

This statement helps to expose the reason why these seraphim also cover their face.  Not that their face makes a mockery of God, but that the act of viewing God proposes the idea of equality.  Even without sin, these seraphim, who exist to worship the Father, are yet unworthy to look upon His face.  

After seeing this glorious display of worship, we are able to view Isaiah’s actions in a far more informed light.

Isaiah’s immediate reaction to the scene is to admit the truth about what should happen to him.  He indicates that the proper actions concerning him being able to see the throne room is fear.  He fears the Holiness of God, the Power of God, and the Sovereignty of God.  Isaiah knows that because of his sin, he should be destroyed because he entered the presence of the Lord of Hosts.  Isaiah does the only thing that his fear will allow him to do; he bows, and waits on the word of the Lord.

Fear of the LORD culminates into the physical and spiritual posture of worship…

Ministry in Concert with Ministry

Speaking with a group of friends about the effects of attempting to balance the work of one area of the church with another, we discovered another analogy to describe the proper proportion and transfer of emphasis from one are of ministry to another throughout the church year.  

Rather than looking at ministry as a balancing act where pastors, staff, and lay leaders perpetuate a stunning display of spinning plates atop tiny poles, the church should be more like an actively monitored concert of sea-saw movements focused upon the overall development of people in the church.  Instead of trying to perpetuate every possible activity that the church can think of throughout the calendar year, try and assume programs that will influence the stages of life and growth.  Let musical specials give way to children’s events and mission trips lead into senior adult ministries.  See the church’s ministries as a flowing river of life for each to enjoy and participate rather than a tepid pool of muddy water that, if we were to stand inside too long, might consume us like quicksand!

If your area of ministry is tired, take a break.

If your area of ministry is long overdue, schedule an event or two.

Make time for each season of ministry in your church, and know that each season has a definite beginning along with a definite end.  

Remember, there’s always next year...

Begging the Spirit to Bless!

I spoke to a local pastor yesterday who made a statement to me that, at the moment, seemed to be an authentic stance on doctrinal philosophy, but the more I ponder what he said, the more I am in awe as to the weight that only a few words can have.

“We can’t do anything without the presence of the Holy Ghost. We BEG the Lord to bless us with the Spirit’s power!”

When speaking of his church, this pastor stated that there was no program or person who was capable of producing “anything worth anything” for anyone without the power of the Holy Spirit. I was amazed and impressed with the dedication to the theme of the Spirit that this pastor used throughout the conversation that we had. There was a simple and clear desperation interwoven throughout our conversation. We each wanted the same thing from ministry; we each longed for the Lord to use us to bring Him glory. Longing is the beginning, begging is the process, but humility is the posture.

I began to ponder the word that this new brother of mine used to describe his church’s prayer process. Begging! I had to ask how long it had been since I longed for something so desperately, and seen the Lord as so powerful that I Humbled myself before the Almighty and BEGGED of Him the blessing that only He can offer?

1 Chronicles 7:14

¹⁴if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Beg the Lord!

Conformed to the Worship of a Lesser God

Worship is a word that has been hijacked and associated with Christian corporate meetings. While this definition may be true at times, the word Worship has a far more broad definition.

Worship is defined as a verb in this way, “to feel an adoring reverence or regard for (any person or thing). “

If this is true, the idea that God is the only one who is capable of receiving worship falls incredibly short of reality. ‘Any person or thing’ indicates that what we may have hoped to reserve for the Almighty, may indeed be divulged to any object, regardless of its deity.

What would cause us to worship something, or someone other than the One True God?

There are some of us, if not all of us, who have been taught from the nursery that there are objects, people, days, and programs that are worthy of our adoration. Things like church buildings, pastors, Sunday school, denominations, etc. have each been exalted as places and elements of Christianity that are worthy of our adoration and worship. The problem is that we have robbed God of worship and offered it to these cheap replacements.

We have been molded and conformed into people who love religion over relationship, and our own building over the building up of the saints. We have been taught to love the statues and graven images of our religion instead of becoming a bond-servant to the one who saved us. We must, as the scriptures say, be transformed by the renewing of our mind, to replace worship offered to idols with authentic worship of the one who deserves our praise!

Conformed to the pattern of this world may not be the vile and disgusting activities that we see around us by those who do not believe, it may simply be the belief that something we have created is more worthy of worship than the one who created us.

May the spirit wash over you and may you see with new eyes, that which only He is able to show you!

Conformed vs. Transformed

While teaching at a youth camp recently, I was asked the question, “When do we experience the transformation that the Bible talks about?” Of course this is in reference to the passage found in Romans 12:2

² Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Though this passage is short it is full of theology and doctrine relevant to our ministry as Followers of the Way.

We are asked to do two distinct things in this passage. The first is to stop actively conforming ourselves to the pattern of this world, while the second is that we must be transformed.

Stop Actively Conforming to the Pattern of this world:

I have hear a lot of sermons about what this might mean and it seems to always center around the way the world is selfish and seeks to hoard everything for themselves. “Look out for number one” is a saying that personifies this attitude that infects the world around us. As we begin to adopt this mantra for ourselves, we force our bodies into the mold that the world has established. When we do this, we are unrecognizable as Christians. The Lord said that we would be recognized as disciples of Jesus Christ when we love one another. Such an act of selflessness can only come from above, and will immediately distinguish us as different that the pattern that the world has set for us.

Be Transformed:

This is a different statement because it asks us to do something that we are unable to do. This is the result of the understanding that Paul had in the transformational power of the Holy Spirit over the natural world. He experienced this in a more pronounced way than most. His life was changed in a way that was impossible for him to accomplish. Only through the power of the Spirit was he able to ‘Be Transformed’ from Saul to Paul. The statement Be Transformed is something that requires us to relinquish control and allow the Spirit to take authority.

Both of these commands take time; time to recognize our fault, time to know our weakness, time to wait on the Lord, time to see the transformation that He has brought forth in us.

May the Lord be the element of change in your life, and may the desires of your heart be for transformation and eternity.

Slaves to Our Master

Romans 6:17-23

¹⁷But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, ¹⁸and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹ But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. ²²But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is relevant to our discussion of the Checklist, to understand the basic form of service to our master. The text above indicates that there is a unique distinction between those who have been bought by the blood of the Son and those who have not yet chosen to receive that gift. The scriptures indicate that those who are not yet believers are ‘slaves to sin’ while those who have been transformed are ‘slaves to righteousness.’ Make no mistake, the complexities of this passage are enormous and for me to attempt to export all possible relevance from this scripture would be an expression of foolishness. However, the basic foundation of desire is laid before us through this text.

The primary indication is that the Natural Man (the way we were before we accept Jesus as Lord) is spiritually chained to sin and the expression of rebellion from God, while the Redeemed Man (subsequent to the inheritance of eternal life) is compelled to conduct himself in accordance with the will of the Father. Slaves being the operative word, the text leads one to conclude that a master imbeds the decisions made by those of either party. For the one, there is the uncontrollable desire to sin, while the other there is an engrained desire to bless the Master with all that is done by the Slave.

Slaves to a master obey that master, while free men and women are able to choose their activity. However, this passage also indicates that we are now slaves to Righteousness…How are free and slaves at the same time? Also, is it possible that we have made Righteousness our new god, instead of the one who freed us?

Immediately I begin asking a question, “Being that those who are without the Way, the Truth, and the Life, are slaves to sin, why is it that we attempt to force them in to righteous living?”

If we are to be honest, we (modern Christianity) have attempted to confront the unbeliever’s lifestyle with this moral Checklist of normative behavior. Moral Deism is a term that I first heard from Matt Chandler, Pastor of The Village Church in the Dallas area. This term is used by Chandler to describe the very situation that I am discussing now; that the church has used the Checklist as their new Master and have traded relationship with Jesus Christ with a devotion to a moral checklist. I borrow this term to help to reveal the nature of what we are doing through this checklist.

Moral Deism is, in its root form, the worship of a code of moral rules. We understand from the text above that the worship of our master is the activity to which we are enslaved. If we are actively involved in the mastery, as well as proclamation of this code of morals, we are engaging in the worship of that code. This checklist, whether used to reform sinners or guide church members, robs God of the worship that only He is worthy to receive and prevents individuals from knowing the freedom of the gospel.

Not only is the formation of our checklist worthless to give us life, it is idolatry.

The Election

The Checklist predominates a majority of what we do in the church, especially who we allow to be our leadership, or even attenders of our churches. I know this because I have often been asked why some people are allowed to go to church even though they ‘look like that.’

Individuals wearing ‘improper’ clothing are shunned by long time members of a church, individuals with tattoos and body piercings are asked to leave a service, girls who become pregnant outside of marriage are not offered showers, or children whose parents aren’t married being told to leave Wednesday night activities; each of these have actually happened in churches where I served. Hearts broken, lives crushed, and opportunities for the gospel message squandered, all in the pursuit of a church that ‘looks right.’

I have seen deacons, elders, lay leaders, and even pastors elected to positions of authority purely based on the fact that they fulfill enough of the Checklist to get by in spite of neglecting the gospel ministry altogether.

Attendance

Being Well Spoken

Giving of Money

Being Well Known

Legacies

Dressing Well

Keeping it Like it Was

Being Nice to Everybody

Saying the Right Things

Loving Hymns

Being Old

Etc.

Each of these has become the standards to which we aspire, and when we reach these, we are then eligible to take hold of any power that remains unclaimed.

After a recent discussion about the lackadaisical attitude presented by a group of Deacons at my church, I asked why Deacons that haven’t attended our church for years, nor have displayed themselves worthy of the title were allowed to remain as members of that group. The candid response that followed nearly left me speechless, “Because he’s never been divorced.”

Wow!

We have begun electing people to positions of authority based on a man-made standard, to pursue a man-made agenda, by way of a man-made system of church government, in hopes of erecting a man-made alter to ourselves; an idol of indescribable earthly wealth; whose foundation is the bones of those who do not live up to the standard. Yet, with all its glory, is nothing but a whitewashed tomb, filled with death and decay.

I do not say these things to be cruel. I only say them so that we may start at the same place. A place where the man-made agenda is set aside for that of the Master. A place where all have sinned and fallen short of His standard, and where our greatest achievements are but filthy rags in His sight. A place where, if we are willing, we might sit at the table of the Almighty King…crippled…yet called sons and daughters of the Most High God!

Law of Hate

So much of what is proclaimed as “Christian Values” are little more deep-seated hate wrapped up in new, shiny package. We attempt to justify our hate of some people, people groups, lifestyles, religions, and even denominations by declaring that we are fighting against the enemy of God. We assume that because they do not look or act like us, we have the right to destroy them in order that God be praised exclusively. The problem with such a view of the world is that it is NO WHERE IN THE BIBLE. Jesus came that we might have life.

Have we forgotten that scripture say in Romans 5:8;
‘but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us,’

or do we just believe that such a statement was only made about people who look, talk, and act like we do?

I am sickened by the idea that churches today have traded the gospel of redemption for one of bigotry and hate, believing that the Lord is pleased when they shun a Muslim in the grocery store, gossip about their drunken neighbor, publicly chastise the non-believer for their lifestyle, or reject an invitation to a program at another church because their music is too ________________???

If we take part in that type of lifestyle, we are attempting to control the blood of the Sacrificial Lamb who was slain for all who would believe. We are attempting to place judgment where Jesus offered life. We are attempting to shut up the floodgates of Heaven that the Lord has opened, all the while slapping the hand of the Father and scolding him for loving these who are, in our eyes, unlovable.

But if we would just read the scriptures with new eyes…with eyes that are open to the truth, we would find that the Holy Spirit has delivered us from the poison of Hate. He has offered us the freedom of the redemption in the EXACT same way that he offered it to those around us…even those who are at this moment, enemies of the one who died to save them.

⁶For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Romans 5:6-11

May the Lord move upon you, and may he press upon you the grace and mercy that only he can give; and if you do not know the nature of the deliverance he offers I pray that you would come to know Him today.

Illegal Substitution

At any moment, worship can be given to something or someone that is not deserving of that affection. The only one who is deserving of our worship is the One who gives us life, and who has created all that exists. Such an individual must be made the focus of our worship and adoration, and must be the pinnacle of what we hope for.

Legalism is the most complex system of idolatry of which I am aware because the deceiver has crafted this process to be similar in many ways to authentic relationship with Jesus. The primary differentiation is the fact that Legalism worships the Law and the observation of that Law, whereas Christianity exists to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ and the freedom that can only come from the blood that only He could have shed. The remission of sin is only possible with the shedding of blood. Therefore, even the most complete observation of the Law falls critically short of the supreme goal of salvation. Without the shedding of blood, there can be no Salvation.

The Law has evolved throughout history and has taken many forms of deception; none more cancerous than the attempt to combine Christianity with the observation of the law from which Jesus saved us. The differing tenants of each create opposition to one another, as well as force followers down starkly differing paths. Far more important than the observation of the Law is the fulfillment of the Law.

Matthew 5:17-20

¹⁷ "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

There is a distinct difference between abolishing the law and fulfilling it. The substance of what remains is reverence rather than worship. There was a distinct purpose for the law in the beginning, and that was to illustrate to the fullest extent the need for our Savior who is Jesus Christ. Without such an illustration, it is impossible to truly capture the depravity of our own existence. However, if we attempt to worship the law subsequent to that awesome sacrifice, we rob Jesus of the finality of His death, and replace our inheritance of freedom with the chains of slavery.

It is irrelevant to whom or what we are enslaved, Christ did not die to offer us death, but to deliver us into life. Giving worship and adoration to anything short of Jesus will ensure that we will fall incredibly short of the life that possibly awaits us.

Introduction

Checklist Jesus is my second major project. It is the fundamental gathering of the lessons that I have attempted to teach my students and churches over the majority of my ministry.

Our discipleship is the pursuit of the Nature of the Son Jesus Christ, as well as the purification of ourselves through the blood of His sacrifice through the washing of the church with the Word; it is the preparation of each one of us to meet the groom, and to be joined to him without fault, but with great joy!

There is not a Christian that I know that did not spend a majority of their formative years in the church with the oppressive idea that they must perform a laundry list of activities in order to be a “good Christian.” I say oppressive because the nature of the Law is oppressive. The law is the system of our religious organization that requires and restricts the movement, life, and worship of the believer. So much of church, and/or the activity of its members falls under one of two umbrella; Religion or Relationship.

Religion being the pursuit of perfection by our own merit, and Relationship being the only available response after we realize the awesome nature of the one who came to save us, and who gave himself for us that we might have life.

May you be blessed, and may the Kingdom grow as we walk together on this journey.