Pastor Mike’s Blog

Last week I talked about salvation.  It’s on my mind lately as a result of pondering discipleship.

In the 1500s, St. Ignatius of Loyola wrote:

“Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to experience salvation.”

Notice the phrasing: to experience salvation.  Too often, it seems that we think of salvation as something we have; yet, Ignatius suggests that salvation is something we should experience.

The New Testament tells us that we should be transformed  beings (Rom 12:2; 2Cor 3:18; Phil 3:20-21) in Christ.  We are to be full of the joy of Christ (Jn 15:11).  We should experience our salvation.  Christ is our Savior, but much more.  If we follow him, he becomes our life.

St. Ignatius has more to say and we will look at it next time…

Pastor Mike

A couple of days ago I was engaged in a conversation with someone regarding eternal salvation.  You know the debate: Once Saved, Always Saved vs. It Is Possible To Lose One’s Salvation.

Now, I am familiar with both sides of the debate.  Each side draws heavily on scripture to support their case. 

Lately it has struck me that these are the wrong questions.  For those who believe in eternal salvation, perhaps it is a little like the Jews claiming salvation in Jesus’ day because of their lineage to Abraham (Lk 3:8).  For those claiming it is possible to lose one’s salvation, well, that strikes me as the Pharisees  getting very legalistic over who qualifies as righteous (Mt 23:13).  In both cases, I wonder whether our motive for asking is too often based on our wishing to self-righteously judge another.

Take an example.  If one were to be an observer of King David’s life for only a brief period, say, only during his affair with Bathsheba (2Sam 11), how would we judge his salvation?  Would we claim for him once saved always saved or would we say he lost his salvation?

God judges the heart (1Sam 16:7).  Shouldn’t we first keep our eyes of our heart on Jesus alone?  Sure, it’s important to obey his commands; he tells us so (Jn 15:10).  However, if we focus on the commands rather than Jesus, two things happen: we are distracted from seeing Jesus, which is a goal of Satan; and don’t we become a little guilty of substituting the Law for righteopusness rather than God as the Old Testament Jews did?

It is critical for us to keep our heart’s eyes on Jesus…to forget what is behind and to press forward for the goal that lies ahead: the upward call of Jesus (Phil 3:13-14).

Mike

Funny how this tolerance thing works, isn’t it.  Those espousing tolerance today want to redefine the word to mean whole-hearted endorsement of a view in conflict with our own rather than what it has always meant: allowing for beliefs that differ from our own without assenting to the belief itself.

When a Christian says that some belief is wrong (even without trying to outlaw it), we are called intolerant.  Yet, aren’t those who outlawed smoking in bars and restaurants intolerant?  How about those of us who want to put killers behind bars; aren’t we just a bit intolerant of murderers?

 Next time someone accuses you of being intolerant, simply ask them if it is wrong to be intolerant.  They will say yes.  You can gently point out that they are exhibiting the same behavior–intolerance of your beliefs–as they are accusing you of.  We each have a grid of right and wrong through which we see the world and make judgments.

Sadly, tolerance has come to mean “I get to do whatever I want to do and if you disagree, you are intolerant.”  It is used as a club rather than a discussion starter.  And, Christians have been guilty of using our beliefs as a club, too.  Jesus got mad at the religious establishment who should have known better.  He exhibited only compassion–bold in truth AND abounding in grace–to those who were blind to God’s reality.
When we are hated, remember that Jesus told us we would be (Jn 15:18-21).  We shouldn’t get mad at those hating us; rather we should look upon them as Jesus did and exhibit the same compassion for them that Jesus did.  This is seeing the world through the eyes of Christ.

Pastor Mike

Okay, some of you may remember Huey Lewis and the News–my apologies to them.

 Did you see today’s headline?

5 KILLED IN A HIGHWAY PILE-UP; 2 IN HEAVEN, 3 IN HELL

Would our perception of our commission (Mt 28:18-20) as Christians change if we were constantly reminded of the eternal perspective, if we constantly saw the world through the eyes of Christ?

In the book, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, C.S. Lewis writes:

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.”

Do we see each other, the saved and the lost, through the eyes of Christ?  Each of us are the crown jewels of God’s creation.  Do we love each other, the saved and the lost, as Jesus loved us?  Jesus died so that we might all have eternal life, if we only follow him.

If we do not feel Jesus’ love toward others, pray that God will reveal to you his love for you.  Only out of that will true love for our neighbor flow.

Pastor Mike

Today in Simi Valley, CA, a man kills two people at a tire shop, then kills himself.  Over the weekend, a man walks into a party and kills 5, critically wounds one, and is himself killed.

We are now in the week when the Nobel Foundation awards its annual prizes in Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Economics, and Peace. 

What do the horror stories have to do with Nobel prizes.  These killings are occurring at a pace that has numbed us to the horror.  With each story, experts look for the reason to explain the tragedy.  Mother Teresa (of Calcutta) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1979.  Her words, during her acceptance speech should speak to us today:

“I feel the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a direct war, a direct killing, direct murder by the mother herself.  Many people are very, very concerned with Children in India, with the children in Africa where quite a number of people die, maybe of malnutrition, of hunger, and so on, but millions are dying deliberately by the will of the mother.  and this is the greatest destroyer of peace today.  Because if a mother can kill her own child, what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me?”

To this we have added euthanasia (in Oregon). 

Is it any wonder that if we will not value the life of members of our own family that we do not value the lives of others?  The only surprise in these acts of murder that I mentioned above and other, similar acts is that we are surprised by them at all.

We are a suburban church.  We think of ourselves as removed from settings of poverty; we have to go into inner Denver or to Africa to minister to the poor.  After all, we are surrounded by affluence–ministry to the rich man (Mk 10:17-27).  Yet, do we not see the poverty all around us, the spiritual poverty?  We live among the spiritually poorest people on earth; those desperately seeking find love, significance, security, community, acceptance, etc. in all the wrong places.  Only Christ can fill us and heal us.

We have a fertile mission field outside our doors (and maybe within our own homes).  Let’s stop thinking, just for a moment, of those suffering from material poverty in the inner cities or in the Third World and see the spiritual poverty all around us.   We have the answer for a lost community; 4Cs is a “light that shines before men.”

We serve a God who is love.  He is ready and willing to forgive us if we have been party to an abortion, to euthanasia, or to any other sin brought about by keeping our back to him.  All Jesus asks is that we turn from our self-centeredness and become Christ-centered–to follow him as a life-long apprentice.  This is the great Good News of the gospels.

As followers, we have to seek after Christ, watch for where God is working, and join him.  We must seek after Christ with all we are–becoming ardent followers–and through him be the salt and light he has told us we are to the world (Mt 5:13-14).  Go into every situation throughout the day looking for what God has for you; looking for why he has brought you there.  The harvest is plenty…are you his worker? (Mt 9:37-38)

I continue to think of discipleship.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, comedian Bill Maher wants to kill religion.  According to Maher, he wants to kill religion because, since he doesn’t know what happens to a person after death, then no one can know.  Therefore, no one religion can be right so we should all stop talking about religion, all are simply ridiculous.

Why can we make a claim to know?  Jesus.  He was a historical figure whose life, death, and resurrection is historiclly well attested.  Now certainly we do not have every answer to every question.  As Christians, we can’t even agree on exactly how Jesus will return, or the exact nature of our existence after death and before our bodily resurrection, or on the nature of the redeemed creation.  But we can agree, because of Jesus, that he will return and creation will be redeemed.  Recall what Dave said last Sunday when talking of the Great Commission (Mt 28:18-20), we operate from the authority of Jesus.

So now a question for you.  As Christians, we should be telling people that Jesus will transform their lives.  If an unbeliever said to you, “I hear what you are saying, now tell me how Jesus has transformed your life,” how would you answer?  How has Jesus transformed your life?