Sin—Saddening and Maddening
We just began a new teaching series at New
Hope Community. It is called “The Story of Us.” Last week was the first Sunday,
and we were talking about “Chapter 1: Creation.” Creation was a fun topic. We
looked at the enormity of this universe that God made. We glanced at the
intricacy of the universe—the fact that God paid attention to the smallest detail in
what he made. And we looked that the role of humanity in God’s creation as
his vice-rulers and co-creators. Good stuff!
This week I have been preparing for the second message, which is on “Crisis.” (It's amazing how quickly humanity moved from "Creation" to "Crisis," isn't it?) This message is all about sin entering the world and its effects. The result of preparing for this message is that I have been thinking more about sin this week than I might during a typical week. As I have considered God’s good creation and then the sin in the world, it has amazed me how very pervasive the effects of sin are. Truly Adam and Eve’s disobedience has affected the whole created order.
I think sin affects us on at least three levels. First, there are the intra-personal effects of sin. Part of the curse in Genesis 3 was that we would return to the dust from which we were formed ("dust to dust"). In other words, after we fully mature, our bodies become weaker and weaker until we die, and we are always vulnerable to disease, injury, and death. Indeed, I have been reminded this week just how very fragile our physical lives are. Disease, sickness, death, and decay are all results of sin that affect us very personally.
Another dimension of sin’s effects is inter-personal.
It comes as no surprise that sin affects the way we relate to other people.
This was also part of the curse in Genesis 3. When the Lord God said that the
woman’s desire would be for her husband and that he would rule over her, he was
saying that their relationship would change dramatically for the worse because
of their sin. I have been very burdened lately reading and hearing about
slavery around the world. Yesterday, I spoke on the phone with a gentleman in
Uganda named David Kamanzi. He and his wife, Esther, have been ministering to six
young girls (ages 12-15) who are in forced prostitution. (Accompanying this
post
is a photo of some of these girls along with their children (Yes, they have
children…and AIDS, too.). I am putting this photo here because it makes them real people to me.) How is it that one human being can commit a crime so
monstruous against another human being? But then I wonder how it is that I can
stand by and do so little to stop atrocities like this between people. The effects of sin between one person and another can hardly be overstated.
Finally, sin affects the natural order,
and there are droughts and earthquakes and other “natural disasters.” These
things were not a part of God’s perfect creation. In the beginning, people took
care of the world, and the world took care of them. No longer is this true. Now
people disregard the world and the world is a very dangerous place. I was
reminded of this again this week as I heard at a meeting on Tuesday just how
very dire the situation in Haiti is. A gentleman at the meeting I was at spoke
about how he was supposed to go to Haiti on the 20th of this month, but his trip
was canceled because of how bad things are there. No doubt you’ve seen scores
of photos of the devastation, and this, too, was caused by sin’s effects on the
creation.
As I have reflected on sin, I have become
deeply sad…and mad! Some aspects of sin’s effects just make me ANGRY. Why
should people suffer as these girls in Uganda suffer at the hands of another
human being? Other aspects make me sad, like when I hear about someone with a
serious illness. Then it hit me. I think that God feels the same way about sin.
I think it makes him very sad and also very mad (more sad and more mad than it makes me for sure). We’re like rebel teenagers
shaking our fists at a loving God who wants so badly to bless us and to have us return
home to him through his Son, Jesus. And this thought about God makes me realize that
there is no such thing as a small sin—“little” white lies make God sad and mad,
too. And even my “little” sins contribute to making this world such a mess.
My Life Makes Sense (And That's a Bad Thing)
I am reading a book by Francis Chan calledCrazy Love. Francis is talking abouthow the life of a Christ-follower should be marked by a passionate love forJesus, not simply following therules and saying and believing the right things. One line that I read todayalmost leaped off the page. Francis writes that “something is wrong when ourlives make sense to unbelievers.”
Something is wrong when my life makessense to the people of this world. If that’s true then I think something iswrong with my life because so much of it (maybe even all of it) makes perfectsense to my unbelieving neighbors. I live with my healthy, beautiful family ina three-bedroom home in a suburban community with plenty of food in thecabinets, two cars in the driveway, a dog, a fenced-in yard, clean drinkingwater, and so much more. When it’s cold outside, I turn on the heat. When it’shot outside, I turn on the air conditioner. Thanks to my friend, Larry Pahl, Ieven have a waterfall in my backyard! In short, I have a pretty comfortablelife. Nothing particularly wrong with that in and of itself, but it does makeme wonder what about my life doesn’t make sense to unbelievers. What radicalthing am I doing with my life—what mountain am I climbing—that makes them lookat me and say, “Huh?”? Consider Noah. He definitely got this kind of reactionwhen he started building a big boat in his backyard and
telling people theyneeded to repent because it was going to rain…a lot! His neighbors were nodoubt like, “Huh? We don’t get this guy!” How about Abraham? I’m sure his neighbors thought it was just marvelous that he was about to offer his son onan altar. In fact, as Francis points out, the lives of so many heroes of thefaith simply do not make sense to the world. Die for Jesus? That just doesn’tmake sense. Give everything away. That definitely doesn’t make sense. Cry overinjustice and stand up for people who cannot repay you? Why would you do that?
Is there a passion in me that burns sowhite hot with love for the Lord that I do crazy things—nonsensical things? Iwant there to be. I want to love God so much that my non-believing neighborsthink, “Matt has lost it!” I wonder what ark I am supposed to be building thatwill make my neighbors think I’m nuts. The trouble is that I want to be aradical follower of Jesus, but at the same time I want to be comfortable. MayGod help me to love him more so that my life no longer makes sense to thosearound me—that it may be poured out for God as the woman poured expensiveperfume on the feet of Jesus.
The Beach Party
Jesus and me to arrive. My eyes strained and my heart beat excitedly within me. I couldn’t wait to reach the party. Jesus grinned at my enthusiasm, and I wondered in that moment if perhaps this meant that he was calling me to my true home, my heavenly home.
But then something caught my eye from the periphery. I looked to my left. Along the beachfront were hundreds of shacks, dirty and broken, without electricity or running water. Peering through uncovered windows stared snot-nosed children. On the front steps sat sullen-looking fathers desperately clinging to almost empty bottles. Stressed mothers swept dirt floors and chickens ran among their feet. The celebration further down the beach was hidden from their view. They could not see past where they were. Jesus and I stood looking at them. I looked again at the party in the distance. I looked back at Jesus and he smiled gently. My hand still in his, we began to walk toward the closest shack. To my dismay, I realized that I had to walk through all the beach trash to reach them. Broken glass cut into my feet and I clung tightly to Jesus' hand. Feet bleeding, we approached the first unhappy home. They stared at me.
I held my free hand out to them and said, “Hi, my name is Chelsea and I want to introduce you to my best friend. He saved my life and he wants to save yours.”
In the dirty sand, surrounded by dirty faces and clucking chickens, Jesus and I were invited to sit. We simply hung out and chatted about everyday life, the seasons, and poultry prices. Ultimately, we discussed the open invitation they also had to the beach party toward which Jesus and I were traveling. Sometimes the pain of my feet was distracting, but I could still see the party in the distance, and I knew they were still waiting for us.
Back through the broken glass and the trash we walked toward the ocean, pressing on to the celebration in the distance. Again the waves hit my feet, but this time the sea salt filled my open cuts and the burning was intense. I continued to hold tightly to Jesus' hand and was reassured by the steady pressure of his grip. Almost against my will (such was my yearning to reach the beach party), more faces to my left caught my eye. More dirty precious baby faces. More staring eyes. Here I was walking along with Jesus and they had no idea who he was.
Again and again Jesus and I would cut through the beach trash. I couldn't get over how amazing it was to simply introduce Jesus to people. It was worth the pain of my bleeding feet and worth the delay of reaching the party. The entire way to the party, Jesus and I made trips from the ocean tide to the beach shacks clustered at the beach edge. The party always seemed the same distance away no matter how far we journeyed, so I was surprised when suddenly I could distinguish figures on the party’s edge.
Standing with Jesus, my breath caught in my chest. Angels waiting closest to us could not contain their enthusiasm any more. They came rushing, dancing, bouncing toward us and began to hug and kiss us and pat us on the back, all the while exclaiming, “We are so glad you are here. We have been waiting for you. You have no idea how eagerly we have watched for your arrival.” They took my hands and pulled me into the circle of people. The group was large but felt somehow intimate, strange and yet somehow familiar.
“Oh, Chelsea,” one of the angels exclaimed, “we are just so excited you are here! We have your seat of honor saved and prepared for you.” I began to recognize people at the party as I was led deeper into the circle. The joy was so much that I began to weep. I heard myself saying, “I wasn't expecting this. I had no idea it would look like this. No idea it would be this wonderful.” Tears continued to drip down my face unheeded in my joy and awe.
Then someone gently took me to the edge of the party and pointed out where I had come from. “Look at who you brought with you, Chelsea. Look at who comes behind you.” I watched in complete amazement as people began to walk away from the broken clusters of beach shacks toward the healing of the salt water. They began to walk toward us. They could not distinguish any figures, but they knew, just as I had known, that we were waiting for them.
Blessed So That I Can Bless the World
On January 1, I started a new Bible
reading plan. Actually, it’s an old plan that I have done several times, but I
had stopped doing it last year. In any case, I have been reading in Genesis about
Abraham. It’s cool how you can read God’s Word many times and continue to see
new things in it. It is a rich treasure trove for us as Christ-followers.
What I have been thinking about is how God
called Abram, changed his name to Abraham, and blessed him abundantly. He gave
him (for the most part) peace with his neighbors, a beautiful and loving wife,
two sons (including Isaac, the child of promise), and great wealth. And all this doesn’t even take into
account that Abraham 
had an amazing relationship with God who came to visit him
in the form of a human being to personally speak with him. Abraham was
blessed—very blessed, in fact.
But God didn’t bless Abraham just for
Abraham’s own sake. He blessed him so that he could be a blessing to the world.
Check out these words from Genesis 22 (God speaking to Abraham): “I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the
stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take
possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all
nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me" (17-18
TNIV).
God is promising Abraham that all nations
on earth will be blessed through Abraham’s offspring. Since I was a kid, I was
told that this referred to Jesus. Being a Jew, Jesus was Abraham’s descendent,
and clearly Jesus died for the sins of the world (1 John 2:2). Obviously, the
world was blessed beyond all measure by the coming of Jesus to forgive us our
sins, to make us right with God, and to give us spiritual life. I do not want
to diminish the importance of this in any way, but what I have been thinking
about is simply the idea that we, like Abraham, are very blessed, and so we
must be a blessing to the world.
If you know Jesus as your Savior, you have
spiritual riches beyond belief. So many of you reading this (and me for sure!)
are blessed with wonderful families and fulfilling jobs. In our nation, we have
abundant financial blessings (Even when we feel poor, we have so much more than
the rest of the world!). Why would God give us all these blessings? Clearly, he
loves us outrageously. When I look at my own self, I don’t know why such an
awesome, holy God would love me, but he does. But I think that, like Abraham,
God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to all nations. We are blessed so
that we can bless the world.
So, I am asking myself this question:
Since I have been so blessed, how can I be a blessing to the world? First, I
can point all people to Jesus who is the source of all true blessing, but then
I can fight injustice and oppression. I can lead toward freedom and wholeness.
I can give generously until it actually costs me something (i.e., it changes my
lifestyle). I can choose to personally know people who are orphans and widows,
people who used to live on the street, or be held as slaves. I can pray with
Jesus “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” What
is God’s will? He wills that none should perish but all come to life—real
life—through Jesus. So, I can lift Jesus high and share his love and Word with
everyone I can. He wills that people be free, so I can fight injustice,
slavery, and oppression wherever I see it in the world. He wills that starving
children with no clean water be cared for, loved, fed, and given clean water.
He wills that we overcome evil with good, hatred with love, and greed with
great sacrifice.
Like Abraham, we as the Church are called
to be a holy nation. We are set apart by God to both be blessed and to be a
blessing. Would you join me in asking God how we might become more of a
blessing to a hurting, pain-filled world? I’m tired of the status quo, and I
want to believe that God can use his Church to truly bless this world and to
see Jesus’ prayer for God’s kingdom to come to be answered.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Prayer
any other time in history, I believe it is important for Christians to stand for justice and to stand in the tradition of Dr. King, which to me means to overcome evil with good, to love our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute us. Here is the text of my prayer this morning: Lord God of heaven and earth, we come before you this morning to thank you for the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior. As this day reminds us, it has been a mighty long road toward equality and fairness for all people, and we confess that we still have a long way to go. There is still darkness in our hearts, injustice in our land, and bondage in this world.
We ask that you would change our hearts—that you would remove every shred of racism and classism and sexism that resides there. When we look at our fellow human beings, let us see them as you see them. Let us see them for who they are and who they might become in you, not based on the color of their skin, the language that they
speak, their nation of origin, their gender, their money or their lack thereof. May we never see others in any way that for one moment allows us to consider ourselves superior to any other. Change our hearts. Make us new. Set us free. Fill us with love for our neighbors.
Change not only our hearts, but change our nation as well. We have been blessed to see many, many things change since Dr.King’s day. We have seen unjust laws struck down. We have seen children of many backgrounds attending the same schools. We have seen people begin to learn to get along with those who are different, and we have even seen a man of color elected to the highest office in our land. Lord, please bless and lead our President and this great nation. Let us move forward more fully toward liberty and justice for all. May we be a haven of fairness and opportunity, and may we shine brightly in this world.
Since Dr. King’s day, our world has grown smaller through satellites, internet, and cell phone. People, money, and images zoom around this globe in virtually no time at all. Dr. King once said that “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” We do not want to hide our heads in the sand and plead ignorant. Lord, this morning there are more people held in the bonds of slavery than at any time in history. Set them free! We have seen images of the devastation in Haiti last week, but every week there are hundreds of thousands of children sold for the cost of one dinner out, and we have remained silent. Forgive us. Let those of us gathered in this room rise up with Dr. King to fight injustice and inequality in this world, in this nation, and especially in our own hearts. On this day, allow our hearts to be moved to take action for your kingdom in our homes and community. We ask for your presence and your blessing here this morning. We thank you for each one gathered here. Amen.
My Identity in Christ
My Identity in Christ
I have a new relationship:
- I’m a child of God (1 John 3:1-2).
- I am Jesus’ friend (John 15:15).
- I am born of God (1 John 4:7).
- I have been adopted & chosen by God (Romans 8:15 & 1 Thessalonians 1:4)
- I am an heir of God—a joint heir with Christ (Romans 8:17 & Galatians 4:7)
- I am blessed with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3).
- I am a child of promise (Romans 9:8 & Galatians 3:14).
- I have been given great promises by God (2 Peter 1:4).
- I have been redeemed and forgiven (Ephesians 1:6-8).
- I have been justified (Romans 5:1).
- I have eternal life (John 5:24).
- I died with Christ to the power of sin (Romans 6:1-6).
- I am free from condemnation (Romans 8:1).
- I have received the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:12).
- I have been given the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).
- I am a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
- I am God’s masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10).
- Be the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13).
- The light of the world (Matthew 5:14).
- Bear fruit (John 15:16).
- Do the works of Jesus (John 14:12).
- Serve as a minister of a New Covenant (2 Corinthians 3:6).
- Be a minister of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
- Be an ambassador of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:20).
- A witness to the Good News of Jesus (Acts 1:8).
I am part of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27).
I have direct access to God (Ephesians 2:18).
I am a saint and a citizen of the Kingdom of God (Ephesians 1:1 & Ephesians 2:19).
New Hope's 2010 Budget (Video, Part 1)
New Hope's 2010 Budget (Video, Part 2)
Happy Holidays! Bah Humbug!
Random Reflections on Riches
eye. The envelope was from Uganda. I opened it up to find letters, drawings, and photos from some orphans at the "Joy of [a] Child" Home in Mbarara, Uganda. Recently, people at New Hope put together some money to send to Uganda to purchase some basic items for these children. We provided things like toothbrushes and towels, a dining room table and chairs, and a water tank. Various individuals in the congregation "purchased" 16 different items. As I read the thank you letters from the children there, I was deeply moved. After reading one letter in particular (image below), I was reminded of Jesus' words in Luke 16:9. He said, "I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings" (TNIV).