Category: Exploring Church Ministry Blog

God Rejoices Over You

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
God is love, and he loves and rejoices over you.  There is a reason why so many people in this cruel and calloused world are unloving and unkind:  they lack knowing that God loves them.  If we do not believe or know that God infinitely loves us, then our words and our actions will reflect more of hate than love.  God really truly does love you and me.  This is crucial.  Do not forget this.  Believe it.  Live it.  Enjoy it.  Know it.  Tell it to yourselves until you are thoroughly bathed in it because it is more wonderful than any 70’s sappy love song could ever describe it.
 
            There is a verse tucked away in the small book of Solomon’s Song of Songs.  It is an ode to love.  The verse, Song of Solomon 7:10 says, “I am my Beloved’s, and his desire is for me.”  Far too often we think of God’s love in some abstract, distant, detached way.  But the truth is that we belong to God and his desire is for you and me.  God has an intense and overpowering longing for you.  I encourage you to pray that verse every day this week, multiple times in the day.  Let the deep desire of God for you shape and form your thoughts so that fear is replaced with faith; loneliness with enjoyment; the fickle nature of others with satisfaction; praying as duty with praying because I want to be with the God who loves me so much.
 
            Oh, how we need a vision of God singing over us with joy!  Yes, God loves you that much!  Grab a hold of this verse:  Zephaniah 3:17 – “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”  Even the most unlovely of people are made lovely through God’s persistent and pursuing love for them.  You are being seen every single day by the infinite gaze and eternal compassion of God, who watches our every step with delight.
 
            Christianity does not “happen” simply by knowing some belief statements about him; rather, Christianity “happens” when individuals experience the white hot burning love of God in Jesus Christ.  Jesus came not only for those who skip church and only occasionally read their Bibles, but also came for the hard-hearted prick, the immoral adulterer, the strung-out addict, the terrorist, the murderer, and for all those caught up in bad choices and failed relationships.  “I have not come to call the self-righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13).  “Go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19).  “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). “Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34-35).  All of Christ’s words and actions are because of God’s intense desire to love the world, and to love it through his church.
 
            God’s love is never based on our performance, or how good we look to others; it is never conditioned by our moods.  The love of God only looks longingly at you and me with the potential of what we can become in Christ and cares for us as we are.  It is a world-altering revolutionary thought that God loves me as I am and not as I should be.  “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
 
            Despite the inroads of atheism in our Western world, the vast majority of people still believe that God exists.  Conversely, however, the majority of people do not believe that God really loves them.  We are in a crisis of love.  People need to know the God who is Love.  Christianity never begins with what we do for God to make ourselves lovely for him.  No! Christianity always starts with what God has done for us, the great and wonderful love that exists for us in Christ Jesus.
 
            “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (Titus 3:4).  All the wrong turns in the past, the mistakes and the moral lapses, everything that is ugly or painful all melts in the light of God’s acceptance and love for us.
 

 

            If the consuming passion of church ministry and followers of Christ is not showing God’s love, then we have lost both our mission and our first love of Jesus.  Perhaps we must let time evaporate as we bow at the foot of the cross and experientially know the great love of God in Christ for us and for the world.

A Short Primer on Christianity

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
           It perhaps goes without saying, but, nevertheless, really does need to be said explicitly:  Christianity is and revolves around the person of Jesus Christ.  Anything less is not Christianity.  Christ is the second person of the Trinity, the triune God, with the Father and the Spirit – three persons, one God.  God the Father determined that in all things Christ would have preeminence (Colossians 1:18).  Therefore, the equal and full realities of Christ’s humanity and deity are of central importance.
 
            Christ’s humanity should not be suppressed, ignored, or diminished in order to protect his deity.  Christ’s deity must never be marginalized in order to bring his humanity to the fore.  Both the deity and humanity of Jesus must be carefully maintained at all times.  To do less is not Christianity.
 
            Only through this God-Man, Jesus, could redemption from an empty sinful way of life be accomplished for us.  This union of humanity and deity in Jesus alone is able to secure a new and fresh relationship with God, and do away with alienation, hate, death, and eternal torment.
 
            Jesus Christ is the ultimate prophet.  He has revealed to us the will of God for our salvation.  Christ is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).  Jesus has promised that the truth will set us free (John 8:32; 1 John 5:9-13).  Freedom involves knowledge, honesty, and decisions of faith, hope, and love whereby the truth is applied in one’s life.
 
            Jesus Christ is the ultimate priest.  He is the once-for-all offering as a sacrifice to atone for our sinfulness, to reconcile us to God, and now continually makes intercession for us (Romans 5:8-10; Hebrews 4:14, 5:6, 7:23-27, 9:11-12; 1 John 2:1).  As our representative, and the pioneer of our salvation, Jesus has blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3; 2 Peter 1:3).
 
            Jesus Christ is the universal King.  He is the rightful Ruler of all things (Matthew 21:5; John 18:36-37; Ephesians 1:20-23; Philippians 2:9-11; Revelation 1:5).  Jesus possesses all authority in heaven and on earth, and is Supreme over the Church.  He is able to make all things work together for good in life of his people (Romans 8:28-29).
 
            The church, therefore, is to do everything by completely wrapping herself around the person and work of Jesus Christ.  We are to continually unbend ourselves to conformity with prevailing cultural mores, and, instead, be thoroughly transformed through the complete renovation of our minds (Romans 12:1-2).  Our true spiritual act of worship in the church is to exalt the name of Jesus, praise Christ’s holy name, and enamor ourselves with his incredible grace, mercy, and peace.
 
            What this means, then, is that Christianity is not about being a particular nationality or ethnicity; is not merely a belief system; and, is not only an assent to certain facts and knowledge.  Rather, Christianity is a living relationship with Jesus, our Savior, Lord, Teacher, and Healer.  Christ scandalously died through an instrument of torture, the cross, which has become for us, ironically, our badge of honor and identity.  In short, since Jesus lived, died, and rose from death, we, too, as Christians, die to ourselves and live into a new life secured for us by Christ.  Through faith in this very unique God-Man, we are saved.
 

 

            This makes the church the Community of the Redeemed, a special people who are different than all other people because our lives are totally centered round Jesus.  Anything less is neither church, nor Christianity.  Christians are people secure in their identity, bold in their witness of Jesus, and concerned to serve the world in the words and ways of Christ, through the power of God’s Holy Spirit.  May it be so.

Cultural Christianity

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            It is usually a dubious action to place adjectives in front of the noun “Christianity.”  The actual word can stand alone quite well on its own without any modifiers in place.  But sometimes it might be appropriate to do so, for no other reason than to point out the oxymoronic nature of some of Christianity’s adherents.  “Cultural Christianity” ends up being something like “Grape Nuts” which, in reality, is neither grapes nor nuts.
 
            Which gets us to the heart of the issue:  cultural Christianity is not really Christianity at all, and isn’t even distinctively Christian in its actual culture.  Okay, some of you are getting impatient and want me to say it plainly.  So here it is:  just because someone shows up as a church attender doesn’t make them a Christian, any more than standing in a garage makes a person a car.  A nice person isn’t necessarily a Christian just because he/she is pleasant to be around.  An atheist isn’t necessarily unethical or immoral just because he/she is an atheist. 
 
            One of the parables of Jesus that was a complete head-scratcher for his disciples was the one about the sower who went out to sow seed.  They just did not get what the heck Christ was saying because the disciples were too steeped in a cultural understanding of their religious practice and belief.  So, Jesus made the meaning of the parable of the sower scattering seed a bit more understandable for them: 
 
“The seed is the word of God.  Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.  Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root.  They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.  The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature.  But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering, produce a crop” (Luke 8:11-15).
 
All four scenarios of the seed involve hearing the word of God.  But, here is the scandal that brought Jesus some derision:  only the seed that retained what it heard and produced a crop is real true genuine authentic belief.  This is not a parable from Jesus about differing levels of maturity among Christians.  Nope, this is declaration from Jesus that out of the four who heard, only one proved to be the real deal.  To put it another way:  three out of the four people were cultural Christians, which really meant they were not Christians at all.  They looked and acted like Christians enough to slide by as identified believers for a while, but the message never really took; it didn’t stick.
 
            At this point we could become cynical and pessimistic about the current Christian climate in the West.  If only three out of four people are really Christians, then what hope is there?  Am I in or out?  Are you questioning others’ salvation?  Instead, we need to look at this from a different angle.  If three out of four times the seed doesn’t take root and grow into genuine belief, then we keep scattering the seed!  A person who hears but doesn’t actually believe doesn’t mean that it is a one-and-done situation.  In fact, the average person needs to hear the gospel of grace proclaimed anywhere from five to twenty-five times from several different people before the word of God sticks, they take root in the true soil of belief, and end up growing up into mature faith.
 
            The real aim of Christ’s parable was to not only unmask the cultural religion that was rampant, but to encourage the disciples to scatter the seed, to keep proclaiming the word of God over and over and over again in all kinds of places, all over the world.  They were not to give up because the continual proclamation of good news will eventually result in a massive harvest.
 

 

            So, be patient.  Keep embodying the message of Christ.  Continue speaking of Jesus everywhere to everyone.  Persevere in praying for those within and without the church who need the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.  Do not give up.

How Our View of God Influences Us

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Exploring Church Ministry BlogLeave a comment
 
 
            There are many people today who have given up on Christianity.  For all the reasons given (and they are many), the one I encounter most often is the person who comes to the point of believing that Christianity just does not work.  I will say at the outset that I approach Christianity with two major presuppositions:  I believe the Christian life works; and, I believe our view of God largely determines whether Christianity works, or not. I don’t think anyone sets out attempting to live the Christian life in order to fail at it.  No, we fully expect for it to work.  So, then, if we are to live a successful Christian life, we need to keep a few things in mind.
 
One of Satan’s primary objectives is to destroy the believer’s understanding of God (Genesis 3:1-10).
 
A chief way of doing this is through using influential factors from our past.  We can trace much of our contemporary beliefs, values, and actions to the past actors of parents, church, good/bad experiences, place of upbringing, siblings, peer groups, teachers, and friends.  Our earthly relationships in life are often transferred to our relationship with God.  For example, if one’s father was demanding and perfectionistic, it is possible that the person might transfer those same attributes to God. 
 
Sometimes a Christian’s view of God is more like a policeman always watching for us to break the rules; an old man who is aloof and largely uninterested; or, a fickle Being who can never be pleased.
 
But this isn’t how God describes himself in Holy Scripture.  God is the Sovereign Creator, Lord, and Redeemer.  He is our heavenly Father who is absolute in holiness, truth, and love.  Within God himself there is complete self-existence, unity, harmony, love, enjoyment, immensity, and infinite integrity (Psalm 147:5; Malachi 3:6; Deuteronomy 6:4).  When God deals with his creatures he is always observant, powerful, and present (Psalm 39:7-12; Jeremiah 32:17, 27).  What is more, God continually acts with veracity, faithfulness, mercy, goodness, justice and righteousness (1 Corinthians 1:9, 10:13; Psalm 36: 7, 10; Jeremiah 31:3; Hosea 14:9).  God always acts this way because he is love and truth.
 
Who God is determines how he reveals himself in his law and his will (Leviticus 11:44, 19:1-2; 1 Peter 1:16).
 
This is why Jesus is described as “The Word of God” in John 1:1.  In his revelation, God has made himself known to us.  Therefore, the appropriate response to such a God of truth and love is worship (recognizing His sovereign greatness); praise (recognizing His absolute perfection); and, obedience (recognizing His infinite love).  When we gain a view of God as always having our best interests at mind; showing steadfast love to us even when no one else does; redeeming and healing us from past trauma; giving purpose and meaning to us; providing everything we need for life and godliness in the awful muck of this world; then, it is not a stretch to offer worship, praise, and obedience to such a God because our view of him is one of adoration.
 

 

            Church ministry thrives when individual believers have a view of God which is consistent with his infinite grace, love, mercy, and truth.  When there are cracks in the foundation of understanding the basic nature and attributes of God, then the house cannot stand.  This is more than checking off a list of appropriate beliefs in God; it is giving ourselves fully and irrevocably to God because he is the One who loves us perfectly and completely.  One of the prayers that God delights to answer is:  “God, show me your glory, love, and truth.”  Don’t give up quite yet.  Let God reveal His attributes to you and your church as you seek Him with all your hearts.