Ephesians, Part IV

Over the last several weeks, we’ve been using the book of Ephesians as a way to look at the question. Here is some of what we talked about along those lines in our discussion of Ephesians 4:

• Unity is a major topic in this chapter. Paul stresses how the followers of Jesus all believe the same thing and we are all part of the same body. In fact, in verses 4-6 Paul uses the word “one” 7 times. We are all bound together by the things we have in common in Jesus Christ. Everyone who says that they follow Jesus should have these things in common. We are all on the same team.

• In the middle of this unity, there is a great deal of diversity. In Ephesians 4:11, Paul mentions 5 different types of people with different jobs within the Church – and these are just types of jobs that are designed to help equip followers of Jesus for the work of ministry. In other places in his letters, Paul lists still other jobs and gifts that God has given different people for their work in the Church and in the world. Different people have different interests, skills and abilities, so God gives them different jobs and gifts so that together the body of Christ can be as effective as possible at affecting the world for Jesus.

• Maintaining unity in the midst of diversity can be a difficult thing. It can be very easy to think “that person isn’t as good as me because they don’t have the same gifts and the same job as I do.” Or sometimes it can go the other way – “I’m not as good as that person because they have more gifts and a better job in the church than I do.” Either attitude can lead to rivalry, hurt feelings, and disunity. These kinds of feelings can make it difficult to remember that all followers of Jesus are on the same team and that we should always be working together.

• Paul addresses this potential problem in two ways. First, he urges us to walk “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing one another in love” (4:1). Paul knows that if we are humble, gentle and patient, and if we always have love as the primary way that we deal with others, disunity won’t be a problem. If we can do those things, we won’t be jealous of what we feel like other people have that we don’t, and we won’t be proud or arrogant about what we feel like we have that other people don’t. I really think that these four traits – humility, gentleness, patience, and love – go a long way to maintaining unity. The second thing that Paul does is that he compares the church to a physical body. Our bodies have lots of different parts, and each one has its own function. If any part doesn’t work well, the entire body suffers. And no part can go it alone without the other parts. Paul is saying that the church, which is the body of Christ, works the same way. There are lots of different parts, but they are all necessary. If we don’t all work together, then the entire body suffers. Paul knows that unity is crucial for the church to be as effective as possible in the world.

• If we are going to live like a follower or Jesus, we are going to need to live our lives differently than we did before we decided to follow Jesus. In the second half of this chapter, Paul talks again to the gentiles. In the first half of the book, Paul repeatedly talked about how the gentiles were on equal footing with God as the Jews. God doesn’t see the gentiles as being any different than the Jews. Both have the same access to God. But now, Paul tells the gentiles that, as followers of Jesus, they should no longer live as the gentiles do. Paul says that we need to “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (4:22-24). Paul recognizes that in our lives without Jesus, we conform to the actions and ideas of our culture, but these things don’t line up with the desires of God. Paul lists some of the elements of everyday life, such as sensuality, greed, impurity and falsehood. These are things that we still see in the culture around us today. Paul reminds us that these things don’t match up with who Jesus is or what God wants. Therefore, we need to put these things aside. These are part of the “old self” that we should be putting away. Instead, we should be putting on the “new self,” which includes things like righteousness, holiness, truth, building each other up, giving grace to others, kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiving others. Paul makes it clear that following Jesus should have an impact how we live our lives. The things we do and the way we interact with others should be different because of our relationship with Jesus.

This should give you a good idea of what we talked about concerning Ephesians chapter 4. Look for a discussion of Ephesians chapters 5 and 6 in the next few days.

Ephesians, Part II

As you know, at Quest we have been discussing what our lives will look like if we are truly following Jesus. We’ve started looking at the book of Ephesians with that idea in mind. Last week, we discussed Ephesians chapter 2. Here is some of what we talked about:

• In verses 8-9, Paul tells us that we have been saved by grace through faith, and that this is the gift of God so that no one can boast. There are a number of important ideas here. The first is that we are saved, and we have the ability to have a relationship with God, because of grace. We don’t deserve it. We can’t earn it. In fact, we shouldn’t be able to have it because we proven ourselves unworthy. But in spite of that, God shows us grace and enters into a relationship with that. We are able to receive that grace when we have faith in God. When we act in faith, God gives us his grace.

• It’s important that God’s grace is a gift rather than something that we can earn. If we could earn God’s grace by doing good things or by checking off everything on some religious list, then it would be about us and what we did. We would essentially be able to say “God wants to have a relationship with me because I’m awesome. I deserve it.” This is what Paul means when he says “so that no one may boast.” Because God’s grace is a gift, and is something that we don’t deserve and haven’t earned, it’s not about us or what we have done. It is about God and what he has done. We can’t say “I have a relationship with God because I’m awesome.” Instead, we have to say “I have a relationship with God because he is awesome.”

• Everyone who follows Jesus Christ is one. God doesn’t divide people based on class or anything else. This is not how it has always been. Before Jesus came, God essentially belonged to the Jews. If a non-Jew wanted to become a believer in God, they essentially had to become culturally Jewish. Even then, they could enter the Temple, but they could only enter the Gentile court. There was a wall that divided the court the Gentiles could use and the one that the Jews could use. There was a reminder written on the wall telling the Gentiles that if they tried to get closer to the center (and therefore symbolically closer to God) they would be killed. To the Jews, Gentiles were second class citizens. But because Jesus came, the division between the Jews and the Gentiles has been removed.

• Because of what Jesus did, people who were once separated from God are now able to come close. This has special meaning for the Gentiles, because they weren’t permitted to come close under any circumstances before. However, this is true and important for all of us. As Paul says, we were dead in our transgressions. Because of our sins, we are separated from God. However, because Jesus died and rose again we are now able to draw near to God. We are no longer strangers or aliens as far as God is concerned. Because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we are citizens of his kingdom and members of his family

• At the end of the chapter, Paul tells us that we have “been joined together” and we are being “built together.” If we are followers of Jesus Christ, then we are part of a single group. Unfortunately, as people we tend to divide ourselves back up. We divide on denominational lines. We divide on racial or ethnic or cultural lines. We divide on class lines. Often, even if we want to be inclusive an welcoming, a person who doesn’t share the dominant background of the people in our church can feel like they don’t really fit in. This is sad. In the eyes of God, the followers of Jesus make up a single group – a single Church. He doesn’t see the divisions that we make among ourselves. Unfortunately, these divisions often make it more difficult for us to work together for the benefit of the kingdom of God. In fact, they can even make us spend so much time fighting among ourselves that we waste time that could be spend on advancing Jesus’ kingdom. Paul reminds us that we need to see all followers of Jesus as one. We are all part of the same community, and we need to be able to work together.

This should give you a good idea of what we talked about concerning Ephesians chapter 2. Next week, we will continue our discussions on the book of Ephesians and look at chapter 3.

What should we do? Part III

At Quest, we have been continuing to discuss the question of what we should be doing if we are really going to be followers of Jesus. We've been using the book of James to help us explore the answer to that question. As we have looked at this question, we have noticed that there really is both an internal and and external response to this question. The internal response to following Jesus is a spiritual response that affects the development of our character and our relationship with God. The external response relates to the world around us and affects our relationship with others and the actions we take in our life. In Part III of our discussion, we looked at James chapter 3. Here is some of what we discussed:

• The first part of the chapter talks a lot about the tongue and what we say. It compares the tongue to the rudder of a ship or the bit in the mouth of a horse. A rudder is small compared to the size of the ship. The bit is small compared to the size of the horse. However, both are used for control and steering. It is rudder that guides the ship to where the captain wants it to go. If you can control the rudder, you can control the ship. However, if the rudder is broken, it becomes impossible to make the ship go where you want it to. Similarly, our tongues can help us get to where we want to go in life.

• We could all think of times when we said things that caused damage to ourselves or our relationships with others. Sometimes, it's because we intentionally decide to say hurtful things. Other times it's because we were just talking, and something came out. In those cases, there was no hurt intended, but hurt certainly happened. Unfortunately, once you say something, you can't un-say it. It's out there. No matter how hard you reach or grab, you can't get it back. When we don't watch what we say, we can hurt people, and when followers of Jesus hurt people, it can drive them away from Jesus.

• So part of our response to following Jesus is going to be controlling what we say externally. This fits in with James' instruction in 1:10 that we should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. If we can consistently do those things, we should be able to watch what we say. However, this is more difficult than you might think. In fact, James tells us that "If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." (James 3:2). This is because, as Jesus said, it is "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:34). As we come closer to Jesus, we should see a change in our character. As our heart changes, what comes out of our mouth should change as well.

• In the second half of the chapter, James talks about wisdom. He reminds us that the wisdom from heaven is pure, peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere. (James 3:17). When we are truly following Jesus, we should see these characteristics showing up in our lives. These should be replacing the wisdom of the world, which is based in bitter envy and selfish ambition. (v. 13-16) This envy and selfish ambition lead to disorder and every evil practice.

• As we truly follow after Jesus, we should see our character change. As our character changes, we should see the things that we say and the things that we do start to change, because those things spring from our character.

That should give you a good feel for our conversation about James 3. Next time, we'll take a look at James chapter 4.

Interfering with the mission

I came across an interesting article by pastor and author Dan Kimball. His church is currently in a sermon series about what a disciple of Jesus should look like. This week, they focused on describing the mission and what a missional disciple should look like. He made this interesting observation:

The more I am studying and being aware of the "church" at large I realize how easy it is to put tradition, personal preferences, style, and denominations over mission. I am not talking about historic, orthodox theology or doctrines over mission as they actually determine the need for mission. I am talking about the passion to do whatever it takes provided it does not compromise Scripture for the sake of the gospel of Jesus impacting people's lives. Personal preference or tradition, or denominations are not bad in themselves at all and have richness and beauty to them. But if they get in the way of mission, they then no longer are beautiful or rich, they can even be death.

I think that it is worth remembering that just because we always do things the same way at our churches, or our personal preferences about how to do things, are not necessarily the only way to do things. In fact, it's even possible that they are not the right way. If our preferences, or if the way our churches always do things get in the way of the mission -- which is to reach the world for Jesus -- then they stop being a beautiful or helpful thing. Instead, they become part of the problem.

It starts small

Last week at Quest, we continued our discussion of the Kingdom of God, especially the parables from Matthew 13 that Jesus begins with the phrase "the Kingdom of Heaven is like..." This time we looked at two similar parables that Jesus told together. He compares the Kingdom of Heave to a mustard seed (Matt. 13:31-32) and to yeast (Matt. 13:33). These are similar parables, but the differences between the two help us to see some slightly different aspects of the Kingdom. Here is some of what we discussed about these parables:

• Both a mustard seed and yeast are very small. Mustard seeds were the smallest plant seeds known to First Century farmers. Similarly, you only need a few grains of yeast in order to make a large loaf of bread rise. So both of these start small but create something or have an impact this is much, much larger.

• The impact of the Kingdom of Heaven should be visible to others. While a mustard seed is the smallest garden seed, it creates a plant that can grow to be 10 feet tall. If you think of a garden being planted behind a house, you would be able to see the tops of the mustard plant from in front of the house. There would be no hiding that it was being grown. The Kingdom of Heaven should have that kind of impact in our lives. If we have a relationship with Jesus, the effects of the Kingdom should be apparent in our lives. Even if we wanted to try to hide it in the "back yard" of our lives, it should be visible to everyone.

• The Kingdom of Heaven should be useful and beneficial to others. Jesus tells us that once the mustard plant has grown, the birds of the air come and perch in its branches. (Matt. 13:32). Outsiders, who have no direct connection with the Kingdom of Heaven, can receive a benefit from it. And this impact should extend beyond simply other people who are themselves connected to the Kingdom of Heaven. It is interesting to note that Ezekiel uses the phrase "birds of the air" to refer to Gentiles, who would be people who did not know God. Therefore, when the Kingdom of Heaven is working is us, and when we are operating within it, it should have a positive impact on people who do not yet know God.

• Once the Kingdom of Heaven starts its work, you can't stop it. Once you plant the seed, it is going to grow. Short of cutting the plant down, there is nothing that the gardener can do to keep the plant from growing, or to make sure that it only grows 3 feet high. This idea is even more evident in the Parable of the Yeast. Once a person starts mixing yeast into dough, the process can't be stopped. That person can't remove the yeast. They can't contain it to only one part of the bread. The yeast works its way into the entire loaf. Similarly, the Kingdom of Heaven should work its way into all parts of our lives.

That should give you a feel for our discussion of the Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast. next week, we will continue to move through Matthew 13 by looking at the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl.

Parable of the Sower

Recently at Quest, we started looking at the idea of the kingdom of God and discussing what that encompasses and what it means for the way we live our lives. Over the next several weeks, we are going to look at Matthew 13, because in that chapter Jesus tells six different stories that begin with the phrase “The kingdom of heaven is like.” Before we turned to those stories, however, we took at look at the Parable of the Sower that begins the chapter. Since Jesus uses this story to introduce his parables about the kingdom of heaven, we felt like this was a good place to start. Here is some of what we discussed:

· This is one of the few parables where Jesus gives an explanation. After telling the story to the crowd, Jesus turns to his disciples and provides an explanation. He compares the four types of soils to the different ways that people respond when they encounter the message about the kingdom of God. Some people don’t get it. Some people initially like it, but when things get tough, or people give them a hard time, they give it up. Some people initially receive it, but then the distractions of the world choke it out and take its place. Others receive it and create a harvest that is greater than the seed they received. Part of the reason why Jesus puts this parable here, before his stories about the kingdom of heaven, is because these are the four ways in which people are going to respond to parables he is about to tell.

· There is one major element in this story that Jesus does not explain – the farmer. Clearly Jesus is the farmer in that chapter. He is going to be telling people about the kingdom of heaven, so he is the one who is about to be scattering the seed. However, Jesus is not the only person who is the farmer. Any time that we are spreading the kingdom of heaven, whether by words or by actions, we become the farmer. When we live out the kingdom, or when we tell people about the difference that Jesus has made in our lives, we start spreading seeds. In that case, we are the farmer and the people who hear us or see us are the different kinds of soils.

· One thing that is not directly discussed in the story, but is probably assumed by Jesus’ audience, is that the farmer would have done some work to prepare the field. A farmer doesn’t just scatter seed in random places. Instead, there is a lot of work that is done before the planting begins. Similarly, there is likely work for us to do to prepare the fields where we scatter seeds.

· The farmer’s job is to scatter the seed, not to make the seeds grow. The farmer doesn’t know exactly where each seed is going to land or exactly what kind of ground it is going to find. Once the farmer releases the seed, it becomes God’s job to make the seed grow. When we are the farmer, it is important that we don’t prejudge what kind of soil a person is. It is our job to scatter the seed by living out what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ, both in words and in actions. Once we do that, it is God who makes that seed grow in someone else’s life.

· When Jesus tells the parable of the farmer, he is speaking to a large crowd of people. The image is that they are sitting on a hill side (1st Century stadium seating!) while Jesus is sitting on a boat with his disciples. He tells the parable to the crowd, using his public speaking voice. However, the explanation is given only to the disciples, who were probably in the boat with him, or else would have been right on shore. So this explanation was given in his conversation voice. I think one of the reasons why Jesus speaks in parables is to encourage people to get closer to him. The closer someone is to the boat, the more likely they will hear the explanation. When we don’t fully understand something, like many people must have felt listening to Jesus’ parables, we can have one of two reactions. Either we can walk away, or else we can go talk to the person and ask questions so we understand better. Jesus doesn’t just want to give people information. If that’s what he wanted to do, he wouldn’t speak in parables. Instead, he wants them to initiate a relationship with him. By speaking in parables, he encourages people to come to him and ask questions and find out more about him.

Those are the highlights of our discussion of the Parable of the Sower. Next week we will turn to the parables describing the kingdom of heaven that Jesus begins to tell later in Matthew 11. I hope everyone is well. As always, if there is anything I can do for you, don’t hesitate to let me know.

Forgiveness and Repentance

Recently at Quest, we continued our discussion about forgiveness. This time we look at the story of John the Baptist from Matthew 3:1-12 and Luke 3:1-18. This is the story where John is baptizing people before Jesus begins his ministry. He is telling people to repent and be baptized. While this is going on, many of the Pharisees come out to see him from Jerusalem, and John doesn’t have very kind words to say to them. In this story, we see the idea of repentance added to the forgiveness picture. Here is some of what we talked about along those lines:

· We started with a discussion about what repentance means. Repent and repentance are words that used to be commonly used, but now basically only are used within the context of church. The words mean to turn away from. They have a meaning similar to retreat, but where retreat implies (particularly in a military sense) that someone had to or was forced to go back, repenting is voluntary. The idea is one of intentionally turning your back on something and going the other way.

· If we repent from a sin or something we do wrong, the idea is that we realize that it is wrong and we don’t want to do it again. We turn the other way. This idea goes hand in hand with forgiveness, particularly when we are asking for forgiveness. If we ask for forgiveness, we should be wanting to turn away from what we did wrong and not do it again. If we can’t do that, we have to ask whether or not we are really sorry for what we have done.

· When we come to God, repentance is more than just turning away from our specific sins. It involves changing our very way of living life. We can see this in the Luke version of the story, where the tax collectors and soldiers (among other) ask John how they should live now that they have changed their lives. John gives them ideas on how to change things. For example, he tells tax collectors to not collect any money they don’t have to, and he tells soldiers to not extort money or give false testimony. So developing a relationship with God, and the repentance that comes with that, leads us to live our lives differently than we did before.

· The Pharisees who came out from Jerusalem appear to have no interest in repentance or changing their lives. They don’t come across as being willing to do anything different, and John calls them out on it. This is important because the Pharisees would have been seen in society as the people who had their act together spiritually. However, what John is saying that that, no matter what their background and no matter how much they appear to be religious, everyone should respond to God and his message by displaying repentance in their lives.

We also used this story to wrap up our discussions about forgiveness and to bridge to the next topic. John tells his listeners to repent because the kingdom of God is near. Over the next several weeks we are going to take a look at what the kingdom of God is and what that idea means for our lives.

Being saved from our sins

I've started reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the book, and I really like it. I'll blog more completely about it once I'm done, but there was something I read just as my train was pulling into the station this morning that really struck me.

He said, "Lukewarm people don't really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin." (Chan, Francis. Crazy Love. (Colorado Springs, Colo.: David C. Cook), p. 68.)

This got me thinking about the difference between being saved from our sins and being saved from the penalty of our sins. The American Evangelical church often puts the emphasis on Jesus' work in taking on himself the penalty for the sins of everyone. It is clear from the Bible that Jesus did this, and that if we have faith in Jesus we no longer have to pay the penalty for our sins.

I think that the problem comes when we begin to think that the penalty is the only thing the Bible means when it says that Jesus will "save his people from their sins." There is so much more to it than that. Being saved from the penalty of sin is certainly a part, but only a part. It also implies that we will be saved from committing the sins in the first place. It means that we will be saved from the consequences in the next world, but it also means that we will be saved from the consequences of our sins in this world.

Too often, followers of Christ focus almost exclusively on getting to heaven and how wonderful it will be once we get there. When we do that, it becomes easy to forget that we should be having an impact on the world we are living in, here and now. If we are truly following Jesus, we should try to do everything we can to erase the affects of sin in the world we are currently living in, not just in the next one.

Loving God and Loving Others

At Quest, we have spent the first part of this year looking at what God intends for the relationship between God and man to look like. To do that, we’ve looked at a bunch of stories from the Genesis and Exodus. We started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and discussed what God’s Plan A was before sin entered the picture. Then, once sin did enter the picture, we looked at what we can learn from the relationships between God and people like Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and Moses.

Now we’re turning to the New Testament and changing our focus a little bit. In Mark 12:28, a teacher of the law came to Jesus and, impressed by an answer to a previous question, asked Jesus which commandment was the most important. Jesus responded by saying “‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31). The teacher of the law agreed, then added that these two commandments are “more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:33). Jesus then responds by noticing that the man answered wisely and by saying “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” (Mark 12:34).

This last exchange is very interesting. Jesus is saying that these two commandments – loving God and loving others – are more important than anything else. They are more important than all of the rituals that are part of our worship, and they are more important than all of the rules and structures that we set up. Not that those things are unimportant, but they are less important than the commands to love God and love others.

Over the next couple of months, we are going to focus on these two commandments and see what we can learn from them. In one sense, they are very simple. We are instructed to love God and love others. In spite of the fact that they appear simple, they are very important. In fact, in another place where Jesus answered this question, he added that “all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:40). In other words, everything that God commands relates to one of these two items. They are all designed to get us to display love to God and to others.

At the same time, these can be very difficult. What exactly do these commands mean? In English, the word “love” can have a lot of different meanings. So what exactly does “love” mean in this context? How do I show love to God? How do I show love to my neighbor? Who is my neighbor? These are some of the issues we’re going to look at over the coming weeks.

While this has a different focus than our discussions about the relationship between God and people, the topics are clearly related. If we have a relationship with God, then these are the two primary commandments that we should be following. If we are following God, people should see us loving God and loving others. So these topics are going to help us see how we should live out the relationship with God that we have been talking about for the last several months.

Faithfulness in circumstances we don't understand

At Quest, we are continuing our series about the relationship between God and people, and what God intends for that relationship to look like. This week we explored the story of Joseph. It’s a long story, and to really get a feel for what we can learn from it, we looked at 4 chapters – Genesis 37 and 39-41.

This is a story that covers at least years and probably decades. Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers. He works his way to being in charge of Potiphar’s household. But then Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses him of trying to rape her, and he is thrown into prison. Joseph then works his way to being made responsible for everything in the prison. While he is there, Pharaoh throws his cupbearer and baker into prison. They have dreams that Joseph, by the power of God, is able to interpret. These interpretations come true, but cupbearer doesn’t remember Joseph, so he remains in jail. After two more years, Pharaoh has dreams, and the cupbearer finally remembers Joseph. Joseph, again through the power of God, is able to interpret Pharoah’s dreams as a warning that there are going to be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of extreme famine. Because God made the meanings of the dreams known through Joseph, Pharoah puts Joseph in charge of the land of Egypt, making Joseph the second most powerful person in the country. There is a lot going on in this story. Here is some of what we talked about:

· Joseph’s faithfulness is incredible. His brothers throw him in a cistern and talk about killing him before deciding to only sell him into slavery. He responds by working so hard for his new master that the man puts him in charge of the entire household. His master’s wife falsely accuses him of rape and has him thrown into jail. Joseph responds by working so hard with the prison warden that he was made responsible over everything that happened in the jail. He interprets the dreams of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker, only to be forgotten for two years. Yet after all of this, he still has enough of a relationship with God to seek and receive God’s interpretations of Pharaoh’s dreams. It would have been very easy for Joseph to give up on God and even give up on life. Joseph spent his life doing the right things, only to be punished for them. Many people would ask what kind of God would let him continue to suffer that way. In spite of all of that, Joseph continued to do what was right and continued to have a relationship with God.

· In Mark 12:28, Jesus is asked what the most important commandment is. Jesus answers by saying to love God with all heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. We see Joseph live out these commands, particularly in his interactions with Potiphar’s wife (Genesis 39:8-20). When Joseph is approached by Potiphar’s wife, he turns her down by saying that Potiphar has withheld nothing from him except her. He asks how he could do such a wicked thing and sin against God. This response demonstrates both of Jesus’ most important commandments. Clearly Joseph recognizes that it would be a sin to sleep with Potiphar’s wife. He refuses to commit the sin, showing his love for God. But the fact that it would be a sin against God isn’t the only reason he doesn’t do it. His explanation also shows that Joseph cares about Potiphar. To take advantage of Potiphar in that way would be wicked and would permanently damage his relationship with Potiphar. Joseph isn’t going to do that. He puts his concern for Potiphar ahead of his concern for his own wellbeing. This is a great demonstration of loving your neighbor as yourself.

· Sometimes it takes a very long time to understand why God allows things to happen the way that they do. Romans 8:28 tells us that “we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purposes.” There are lots of times in life that we face circumstances that are not good, and that we can’t see how they could possibly work for good. Joseph was sold into slavery, then falsely accused and thrown into prison. He faced years of trials and troubles when he didn’t really do anything wrong. God clearly had a plan, and needed Joseph to be in that position so that he could be used to help Pharaoh and be in a position to provide for Jacob’s family. By the end of the story we can see how God was working through the whole thing. But I bet it didn’t feel that way to Joseph while he was living it. He must have spent years wondering why these things were happening to him. We can see the same thing operating in our lives. Sometimes it takes a very long time to see how God is going to use struggles and troubles in our lives to “work for the good of those who love him.” Like Joseph, it is important for us to remember to continue to be faithful, because God will be faithful. We may not see how, but God will work. Just like Joseph never guessed that God would his situation to make him the second most powerful person in Egypt, we have no idea how God is going to use the situations that we live through.

Those are the highlights of our discussion about Joseph from the time he was sold into slavery until he became the second most important person in Egypt. Next week we will talk about his encounters with his brothers and the rest of his family.

Lessons from Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac

At Quest the recently, we continued looking the pictures we can get of what God intends for the relationship between God and people to look like. This time, we looked at Genesis 22, where Abraham is asked to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to God. Here is some of what we talked about learning from that story:

· God wants to be the top priority in our lives. There are times that he will test us to determine if other things are more important to us than God is. Isaac was the son that God had promised Abraham, and it is obvious that Isaac was the most important thing on earth in Abraham’s life. God put Abraham in a position to have to choose between God and Isaac. We can see the same thing in the story of the Rich Young Ruler from Matthew 19:16-30. In that case, Jesus asked the man to choose between God and money, but in this case he couldn’t leave behind his money. I think that God will continue to test his followers to see if God is more important to us than anything else, including things like family, relationships and money.

· We God tells us to do something, we should go. Abraham didn’t wait around, or try to convince God to change his mind. God told him to go, so Abraham packed up that night and left in the morning.

· God wants us to have faith in him. Abraham knew that God had promised that Isaac was going to be his heir and that it would be Isaac’s line would be the one that God would bless. Yet here is God telling Abraham to go kill his son. Even though Abraham didn’t understand why God was telling him to do this, he still had faith and trust in God. In fact, Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us that Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead.

· If we have faith, God will provide for us. When Abraham raised the knife to sacrifice Isaac, God stopped him and provided a ram for the sacrifice instead. Abraham knew that Isaac was the child promised by God, and he had faith that God would find a way for that to still happen, even though he didn’t see it. God responded by providing a way.

· We can also see a parallel between this story about Abraham and Isaac and with what God will do with Jesus. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son for the sake of God. Similarly, in the New Testament, we see that God is willing to sacrifice his son Jesus for the sake of people. In both cases, the willingness to sacrifice demonstrates the depth of the love that is intended to exist between God and people.

Book Review - The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne

I just finished reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. I had the opportunity to hear Shane speak at last November's National Youth Workers' Convention. It was very, very interesting. You can read my thoughts it in the second half of this blog entry.

It's hard to sum up Shane Claiborne in just a sentence or two. He spent the several years of his college career at Eastern University, where his mentor was Tony Campolo. After his junior year in college, he spend the summer working with Mother Teresa in India. After returning from India, he interned for a year at Willow Creek Community Church, while he finished up school at Wheaton College. After graduation, he started an intentional community in one of the roughest neighborhoods of Philadelphia, where he and a number of others try to live out what it means to be a follower of Christ.

The book has some elements of autobiography, some elements discussion about how people who claim to follow Christ should live out that claim, and some elements of a call to action to followers of Christ to take up the cause of the poor and disenfranchised around the world.

Shane talks about how Jesus was a radical. Jesus preached a message that was at odds with what both society and the religious leaders of the day said was important. Jesus called people to live a kind of life that was radically different than what everyone else was trying to live. It was a call to live a life of radical grace and radical love -- a life where you loved your enemies, you turned the other cheek when you were struck, you forgave people who did nothing to seek forgiveness, and you sacrificially helped those in need. It was a message and a way of living that was opposed to the powers that existed, and led to persecution of Jesus and those who followed him.

Shane also speaks against the merger of God, Country and Capitalism that he believes has occurred in American Christianity. He points out how the actions of a Superpower are often inconsistent with the values that Jesus taught. Similarly, global capitalism (as it is operated) can exploit the poor and disenfranchised, and it doesn't match up with the economic system that can be seen in the early church. Shane uses this discussion to ask us to take a look at how we live our day-to-day lives and to see if it matches up with the way that Jesus lived his life.

The Irresistible Revolution raises some very good issues. It asks us to look at whether or not we are really living as a follower of Jesus and are doing the things that Jesus did. It is appropriate to point out that the church hasn't always done a very good job of taking care of the poor and disenfranchised, whether they were already a part of the church or not.

While I believe that Shane raises a number of good issues, I don't agree with everything that he has to say. My biggest disagreement with him is probably this: I think he overemphasizes serving with and among the poor. There were times when reading the book that I felt like he was arguing that the focus of Christ followers should be entirely on the poor and the disenfranchised. I can't agree with him to that extent. When Jesus commanded me to love my neighbor as myself, he didn't put any socio-economic qualifier on that. Certainly the person living in poverty in the inner city of Chicago qualifies as my neighbor under Jesus' definition. But so does the professional making several hundred thousand dollars a year who lives in my neighborhood. I need to demonstrate the love of Jesus to both of them.

While I don't agree with everything that Shane Claiborne has to say, The Irresistible Revolution is worth reading. It certainly make you think about what it means to really live out a faith in Jesus Christ.

Bible Reading for the Week

I know at least a few of you are going to be joining me in reading the Bible all the way through during 2008. There is a widget in the left column that will give you the reading for each day. But in case you want to see the entire week at time, with the option of printing it out, here are the readings for each day this week.

Tuesday - Genesis 1:1-2:17, Matthew 1:1-25, Psalm 1:1-6
Wednesday - Genesis 2:18-4:16, Matthew 2:1-18, Psalm 2:1-12
Thursday - Genesis 4:17 - 6:22 , Matthew 2:19-3:17 , Psalm 3:1 -8
Friday - Genesis 7:1-9:17, Matthew 4:1-22, Proverbs 1:1-7
Saturday - Genesis 9:18-11:9, Matthew 4:23-5:20, Psalm 4:1-8
Sunday - Genesis 11:10-13:18, Matthew 5:21-42, Psalm 5:1-12
Monday - Genesis 14:1-16:16, Matthew 5:43-6:24, Psalm 6:1-10

Best sermon illustration ever

I stumbled across this article this morning. A pastor in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, which is about 20 miles from Cleveland, was preaching about the Parable of the Talents. In the parable, the master, who was leaving on a trip, gave his servants money based on their abilities. Two of the servants were rewarded for going out and using their money to gain more money for the master. The third servant was punished for simply burying his money so that none of it would be lost. One of the principles of the story is that we should use the gifts that God gives us for his benefit.

The pastor in Ohio wanted his congregation to live out the parable. So he borrowed $40,000 from some anonymous donors. At the end of the sermon, he gave each adult $50 and each child $10, and told them to go out and use the money to earn more money. In 7 weeks, they would collect the money, and everything about the initial $40,000 would go to missions. If people were uncomfortable with this, they had the option of simply returning the money (with no punishment, like third servant in the parable).

It made people think long and hard about their talents, and what they could do. But people came up with extremely creative ideas. They ranged from a pilot who rented air time and sold rides to people to teenagers who pooled their money and made fleece baby blankets, to a 9-year-old who made origami and sold the pieces from a stand on his street.

At the end of the 7 weeks, the church collected the money. The congregation had raised $38,195 above the original loan. And money is still coming in, because some people extended their projects in order to finish them, and others are still receiving orders for the ideas they came up with. But the church will tell you that it's not just about the money. This project made people really think about and understand what their talents and interests are and how they can use them for God.

Too often the Bible is nothing more than just words on a page. It is one thing to intellectually understand the principles that a story in the Bible teaches. But the real power of the Bible comes when we actually put those things into practice. Doing that makes a positive change in our world for God.

Three principles

Recently, I was reading in Ezra. In Ezra chapter 7, Ezra arrives in Jerusalem to help with the rebuilding of the Temple and re-starting the worship of God there. Verse 6 describes Ezra as "a scholar well-practiced in the Revelation of Moses that God of Israel had given." It was Ezra 7:10 that really struck me. It says that "Ezra had committed himself to studying the Revelation of God, to living it, and to teaching Israel to live its truth and ways."

To me, this is a perfect statement of what followers of Christ should be doing. We should be studying the Revelation of God, which is the Bible. The more we study it, the more we will really understand who God is and what his will is. It is one of the primary ways that God talks to us, and we need to hear what he has to say if we want to build a relationship with him.

But it isn't enough to just study the Revelation of God. Like Ezra, we need to be committed to living it. Too often, what we learn about God becomes head knowledge, but it doesn't go further than that. We don't always put what we have learned into practice in our lives and in the world. Ezra was committed, not just to knowing the scriptures, but to living them out in everyday life. We need to do the same.

It doesn't end there. We need to do more than just study the Bible and put it into practice. We need to teach others to do the same. This fits exactly with the Great Commission of Matthew 28:19, which tells us to "go and make disciples of all nations," or as the Message version puts it, "Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life." Too often, we leave it to others, especially the "professionals," to train disciples. But that's not the way it's supposed to be. If we are followers of Christ, then it is our job to train people this way of life. Sometimes we do that by example, sometimes we do it with words. But we should always be teaching people how to follow Jesus.

We are rapidly approaching the beginning of a new year, which is a great time to start new things in life. I encourage you to commit to following the pattern of Ezra in the new year. Study the Bible. Put those teaching into practice in your everyday life. And teach others to do the same.