What the Picture Sounds Like

Posted on May 22, 2016 by Jason
Sunny and Jason, Nov. 2013 (photo taken by Kristen Moore)

Sunny and Jason, Nov. 2013 (photo taken by Kristen Moore)

This is probably my favorite photo. Like, seriously. I could look at this picture forever. It is such a gift to me. A good friend of ours captured this moment a couple of years ago. We’d asked her to take some family pictures and after posing with the kids for about an hour, we wanted a couple of pictures of just the two of us. I know the exact location where this picture was taken, a little more than a mile from our house.

I can’t remember what I said that made her laugh, but Kristen perfectly captured Sunny’s smile. When you get her to really laugh, Sunny’s eyes get all squinty and she starts to cry and that’s the kind of laugh that is captured in this photo. The only thing that would be better is if the picture came with a soundtrack. After being with her for 20 years, I know exactly what this picture sounds like.

Another aspect I love about this picture is that Sunny is the focal point. She is in perfect clarity in this shot; I’m offset and a bit on the fuzzy side. (Literally. Check out that sweet beard.) And I think, more than anything, that’s why this particular piece of art speaks to me: it captures my perspective. This is the point of view that I most cherish in my life. I know I am the one to see her for who she truly is, to see her with precision and clarity. I’m reminded of this every time I look at this photo.

This afternoon, over lunch, we played a little game with the kids. As a way of celebrating her birthday, I asked the kids a series of true or false questions about their mother’s favorite color (blue), her favorite movie (Beauty and the Beast), her favorite musician (Harry Connick, Jr.). The kids did pretty well; in fact, they answered most questions correctly. But they were most impressed that I knew so much about her. In fact, I would argue that I’m the world’s foremost expert on all things Sunny Shates Bybee (with Sunny Shates Bybee finishing a close second).

Over 20 years, my perspective of Sunny has crystallized to this: she is the best person I know. In this space one year ago, I wrote about her enduring goodness and the past 12 months have done nothing to change my opinion. I have never known anyone who wanted to do the right thing more consistently and more completely than Sunny. To be honest, early on in our relationship, this would sometimes drive me batty. (For those of you who knew me growing up, you’ll recall that there was a time when this wasn’t exactly my strong suit.) But today, I’m simply thankful for her goodness, the force of which has made me a better person in more ways than I can enumerate.

Beneath this smile, there is steely strength and resolve — qualities that have been tested over the past few years. Hers is not the smile of the charmed life free from the burden of sorrow and worry. Rather, it is the smile of one who trusts completely despite evidence to the contrary. It is the joyous expression of one who walks daily with Jesus.

Sunny, today is your birthday. It’s the day we celebrate you and give thanks for your birth. We cherish you for who you are to us: mother, daughter, friend, wife. You’ve been in my life for 20 years, but I honestly cannot remember what my life was like before you. And, for the record, I don’t want to. I only pray for many more years in the picture with you, for time brings clarity and your beauty and goodness grow deeper with each passing moment. I can’t wait to hear what this picture sounds like 20 years from now. I love you and happy birthday.

Posted in Blessings, Family, Sunny | 1 Comment

Love Is Our Mission: When “Go” Means “Stay”

Posted on May 15, 2016 by Jason

I recently began writing a series on the missional nature of the church entitled, “Love is Our Mission.” We noted that God has a mission, a mission that was accomplished through sending Jesus into the world (John 3:16). And we noted that before He leaves, Jesus leaves his disciples with a mission, a mission that is to be accomplished as they, too, are sent into the world (Acts 1:8). As a church, we share in this mission to go and make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28). And the love is the motivation for the mission.

And now we can build on these ideas by looking at a story about Jesus recorded in Mark 5:1-20.

The scene opens as Jesus and the disciples cross the Sea of Galilee and land in the region of the Gerasenes. This is a Gentile region, as evidenced by the fact that they’re raising pigs. As soon as Jesus steps out of the boat, he is approached by a demon-possessed man. This man lives in caves that also function as tombs; essentially, he lives in a graveyard. He is pictured as one who is completely out of control; the power of the demons in him was so strong that even their best chains and ropes couldn’t hold him down. He’s the demonic parallel of Samson; whereas Samson’s strength came from the Spirit of God, this man’s strength comes from the control of demons. He now lives among the tombs, cutting and bruising himself with rocks. He is in a state of total ruin.

He immediately throws himself down before Jesus and cries out, “What do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” And the demon-possessed man begs not to be tormented. There’s a touch of irony here; the demons that have been tormenting this poor man are begging Jesus not to be tormented. It’s as if the demons understand this visitation by Jesus as an assault on their control and power. Even the demonic kingdom knows and understands the power and identity of Jesus.

Jesus asks the demons to identify themselves and they respond by saying, “We are Legion, for we are many.” And Legion begs Jesus not to be cast out of this country. There is a herd of pigs grazing nearby and Legion asks to leave the man and to embody the pigs. And for whatever reason, Jesus obliges this request. These unclean spirits inhabit these 2,000 pigs and they immediately rush down the steep bank and drown in the Sea of Galilee.

Witnessing this, the herdsmen rush off to town to break the news about what has happened. The crowd returns to the scene of the crime to find Jesus sitting with this man. Mark tells us he’s in his right mind and fully clothed, which implies that he hadn’t been clothed when he was possessed by Legion. And the eyewitnesses recount the story once more for the crowd.

And something interesting happens next. V17, Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. Quite literally, this is the lay of the land: the demons don’t want to leave and the people don’t want Jesus to stay.

Once again, Jesus obliges; He leaves. But not before this:

V18-20, As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

Our formerly demon-possessed friend naturally wants to follow Jesus. Wouldn’t you? If Jesus had liberated you from such torment, wouldn’t you want to follow after Jesus? I understand this man’s desire to leave behind the tombs, the broken shackles, the stories people told of his former Legion-possessed lifestyle. After experiencing the transformative power of Jesus, it’s only natural for this man to seek to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth.

But as he tries to get in the boat with the other disciples, Jesus stops him. Jesus won’t let him get in the boat. Why?

Jesus has a mission for this new follower. Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you. Jesus sends our friend “home.” He sends him to his own people. He sends him to live among the people who know his story, sent to live a transformed life among those who knew his former life lived under the dominion of Satan. This new life is a declaration of God’s dynamic power to save, a power that is greater than the forces of evil and darkness.

For this man, his mission is to stay. He is supposed to “go” by staying right here.

If our friend were to follow Jesus to another region, he would be cut off from the people with the greatest context for seeing the transformation he experienced at the hand of Jesus. But in the Gerasenes? In the Decapolis (the surrounding 10-city region)? In this region, his daily life (wearing clothes! NOT living among the tombs!) was a daily reminder of the transformative power of Jesus.

We don’t know exactly how all of this works, but this region remains under demonic control to a certain degree after Jesus leaves. Just think about the impact of this episode: 2,000 pigs stampeding kamikaze-style over a cliff into the Sea of Galilee. Just think of the economic hit that would be to some of the people of this region. Think about what this did to the cost of pork throughout the territory. The economic implications alone of this episode are significant. And who would these people blame? Jesus! That’s why they asked him to leave. Some have suggested that the demons destroyed the pigs in order to prejudice the owners against Jesus – and I think that’s precisely what happened.

But all of this only raises the stakes for our formerly demon-possessed friend. This man was told to stay right where he was, the place where his story would have the greatest power and potential for the Kingdom of God.

And by virtue of being in our New Testament, this is a word for the church.

Our God is a missionary God – He acted on mission by sending His Son into the world to seek and save and serve and sacrifice. And the missionary God calls together a missionary people – as followers of Jesus, we have been given a mission to make disciples of all nations.

Some receive that special call to “go” – some feel God calling them and leading them to journey to a strange land to tell others of the Good News about Jesus. We love and respect and support those who receive this kind of call. Just a few weeks ago, I spent some time talking with a good friend of mine who followed the call of God by moving his family to Honduras to serve God on the mission field. We love these stories of God’s Kingdom call.

Others participate in “short term missions” – we go to Baja Mexico or Scotland or Cuba or Belize and we’ll spend a week working with the church there. I’ve personally been formed by these kinds of trips and I love that my children are already asking when they can be a part of their first mission trip.

But we are making a mistake when we assume that the only way we are to be faithful to the missional call of God is by boarding an airplane and flying to another part of the world.

  • It’s true that sometimes “go” means “go live in Honduras” or “go on a weeklong mission trip to Mexico.”
  • But according to Mark 5, “go” also means, “stay here and tell people how much the Lord has done for you.” Whether you board an airplane to go overseas or not, this is the missional call the Lord has for us all.

This is why Jesus won’t let our friend in the boat: When God does something in you, He also desires to do the same thing through you. Jesus healed this man by casting out these demonic forces; but He sends this man straight back into the heart of this demon-filled region to tell others what the Lord has done in him. The mission of Jesus is to use this man to bring freedom and healing to others through the power of his testimony. And the final line of v20 implies that people heard the message: And all the people were amazed.

This man is called to be a display, a demonstration of transformation. He’s the embodiment of what we sing: I once was lost, but now I’m found / Was blind, but now I see. Our friend functions as a missionary in this place, an area where he already knows the language, the customs, and the people. It’s the place where his story has the greatest power. As I mentioned in a recent post, Jesus doesn’t leave this man with an evangelistic strategy. This man IS the evangelistic strategy. In a land that is still under the control of demonic powers (at least to some degree), our friend here lives an alternative story, a declaration of the lordship of Jesus Christ.

The parallels for us are rich. What has God done in you? Has God set you free from the bondage of sin? Has he liberated you, brought you out of the kingdom of darkness and given you new life in the Kingdom of His Son? If so, then God seeks to do the same thing through you. He seeks to use you to accomplish His mission, His purposes. When you tell others what the Lord has done in you and for you, God works to do the same thing through you.

We are a display people; like our formerly demon-possessed brother, we are a demonstration of God’s transformative power. We are the same song in the world: I once was lost, but now I’m found / Was blind, but now I see. We are called to be missionaries here in this place, living and breathing embodiments of God’s dynamic power to heal and restore.

I don’t think we’ve properly understood the power of our own stories. But when we make the story of Jesus our story — by identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus in the waters of baptism — our stories immediately are infused with missional power.

You may not be able to board an airplane and spend a week working in Mexico. It might not be God’s will for you to move to a foreign country and pour yourself out on that mission field. But each one of us is called to live as a display of God’s power to redeem and to tell others what the Lord has done for us.

Posted in Faith, Kingdom Values, Love First, Missiology, Scripture | Leave a comment

Love Is Our Mission: Pulpit and Paradigm

Posted on May 12, 2016 by Jason

John Howard Yoder once wrote that the mission of God is to create a people who are both “pulpit and paradigm” of a new humanity. What does that mean?

It means God’s mission is to create a people who both preach and practice love. That’s the identity of the church.

When it comes to preaching love, we should be the people who speak precisely and profusely about love.

There are plenty of imprecise ways of understanding love in our culture today. But the people of God should speak with great clarity when it comes to the idea of love. We’ve been given an understanding of love that is rooted in the cross, in the sacrificial giving of self that Jesus demonstrated for us and toward us. We should be the ones to challenge society’s flimsy and fleeting understandings of love.

The followers of Jesus should be talking about love more than anyone. Admittedly, we have some pretty good source material. After all, we’ve been given 1 Corinthians 13, Romans 8, John 3:16, 1 John 4. The story of a God who loves like no other…that’s our story! So we should be talking about love more than anyone else! Love should be our favorite topic of conversation!

So preaching love is essential. But our mission isn’t simply to “talk a good game.” God’s mission is to create a people who both preach and practice love. When we do these in tandem – when love is preached and practiced concurrently – we are living “missionally.” We are living “on mission” for God. And there is tremendous power in this kind of lifestyle.

John Wesley once said:

“Do all the good you can.

By all the means you can.

In all the ways you can.

In all the places you can.

At all the times you can.

To all the people you can.

As long as you ever can.”

This is what it means to live missionally. Every opportunity and resource is understood redemptively. This is what it means to practice love.

Our culture has shifted dramatically in a very short amount of time. Scholars speak of our culture as being postmodern and post-Christian. This is simply a way of saying that there was a time when one could assume that the majority of people held a Judeo-Christian worldview, but that time has passed. The most recent research indicates that over 50 million Americans self-identify as atheist, agnostic, or no particular religious conviction. And that number is growing.

If we are to reach this generation with the Gospel, some would say we must be careful not to offend. Some would say we must be careful not to make the Gospel too demanding, lest we turn people away. In the words of one scholar, tolerance is “the executive virtue of our time.” So in order to preach the Gospel in today’s culture, we need to operate with a similar spirit of tolerance as faith is increasingly privatized. Or so goes the argument.

I believe this line of thinking is quite commonplace today. And, to be fair, the New Testament does teach us to make the teaching about God our Savior attractive (Titus 2:10). But we need to emphasize here that tolerance is not our mission. Love is our mission. And we should be careful that we don’t confuse the two.

For God so tolerated the world? No, that’s not Gospel.

Tolerance is the cardinal virtue of our day. But we are called to be a subversive people. We don’t live by the world’s standards or values. We live by the standards and values of the Kingdom of God. And the most subversive thing we can do to undermine the value system of the world is to love and to do all that love requires. The world can find “tolerance” at every turn today, in the form of muted acquiescence and the pervasive fear of being labeled “intolerant.” But I ask you: where else, other than the church, will the world find the kind of sacrificial, serving, missional love that Jesus calls us to embody?

I love my children; I don’t “tolerate” them. Because I love them, I won’t tolerate their actions and behaviors. I’ll engage with them; I’ll seek to correct them.

We do not conform to public doctrine. Christian love is eccentric — literally, living “off center” or “outside the center” of the prevailing culture. Living from the margins. Increasingly we find ourselves operating from the margins of our culture. But this is simply a new opportunity for us to show the world what real love looks like.

I am strengthened by this quote from Alan Hirsch: “The church, when true to its real calling…is by far and away the most potent force for transformational change the world has ever seen.” Hirsch speaks of the latent missional potencies of the church, noting that the church was God’s vessel for changing the world in the first few centuries AD.

AD 100 – estimated that there are as few as 25,000 Christians

AD 300 – estimated that there were as many as 20,000,000 Christians

How did this happen? How did the early church grow from a small movement to become the most significant religious force in the Roman Empire in two centuries?

As you form an answer, keep these things in mind:

  • Christianity was an illegal religion throughout this period. At best, Christians were tolerated; at worst, they were severely persecuted.
  • They didn’t have church buildings as we know them. Archaeologists have discovered chapels dating from this period, but it seems these were exceptions to the rule, and they tended to be small converted houses.
  • They didn’t have the complete set of NT Scriptures yet. There’s plenty of evidence that the earliest Christians had access to some universally accepted texts (Gospels, some of Paul’s writings), but the canon as we know it wasn’t formally ratified until later.
  • They weren’t formally institutionalized. They had no paid ministers, no seminaries, no seeker-sensitive services, no youth group lock-ins, no Vacation Bible School, no Christian colleges, no lectureships, etc.
  • Joining wasn’t easy. By the late second century, aspiring converts had to go through a significant period of instruction and discipling before they were deemed ready.

So, again: how did it happen?

It happened because the earliest Christians were people of love. Their love – for God and for others – was radical and it was real.

Radical means “to the root.” Our spiritual ancestors were possessed by love for God and love for others that got down deep in the tissue, in the marrow. It impacted everything about the way they lived and moved and acted in their communities.

Persecution drove the early church to discover their true faith. When you’re willing to die for what you believe, it’s safe to say you’re a real believer. And such love for God is a powerful witness to an unbelieving world.

Which prompts an important question for today’s church:

Do you believe that today’s church possesses the same potency, the same transformative potential as the early church?

I do. If God used the church’s love once to transform the world, He can do it again. In fact, the world the earliest Christians operated in was far less “Christian” than our world today.

The church doesn’t need an evangelistic strategy. The church is the evangelistic strategy. The most evangelistic thing we can do is to be the church: follow Jesus, love God, and love others. When we do this, we are His pulpit and paradigm. Evangelism takes place naturally.

Because love is our mission.

Posted in Church, Culture, Devotional, Faith, Gospel, Kingdom Values, Love First, Love God, Love Others, Missiology | Leave a comment

Love Is Our Mission: Textual Underpinnings

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Jason

Some of the most familiar passages in our Bibles tell the story of our Missionary God.

John 3:16, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Many of us have heard these words for decades: God sends Jesus into the world on a mission. And that mission was prompted by God’s love for the world. Love was His motivation for the mission; love is what compelled God to send Jesus into the world in the first place. Even more, the mission is a demonstration of God’s love. 1 John 3:16, This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. As we’ve said for weeks now, God can’t love us anymore than when He offered up His own Son on our account.

So we are to understand the mission of Jesus as a mission of love. Jesus clarifies the nature of His mission in Luke 19:10, The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost. Lost people? Well, yes. But there’s something else that was lost: connection with God, communion with God. This is what Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden before the Fall, before sin entered into the world. And Jesus seeks to save and redeem and restore that which was lost – our connection to God.

John 13 says that Jesus showed the disciples the full extent of his love (13:1) by washing their feet and dying on the cross. The love of Jesus is a sacrificial, serving kind of love. The love of Jesus is a love that seeks and saves, serves and sacrifices.

Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus left his disciples with a mission. And this mission is recorded in two places in the NT:

Matthew 28:18-20, Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

We refer to this passage as “The Great Commission.” Jesus is commissioning His disciples to participate in His mission. Even though the work of His atoning death and victorious resurrection are complete, Jesus drafts His followers to continue the work of making disciples. The church continues the mission of Jesus to seek and save, to serve and sacrifice. We call others to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit. And we call others to live faithfully to the teachings of Jesus as we seek to be faithful ourselves.

This mission is also recorded in the book of Acts.

Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

This passage serves as an outline of the book of Acts. Jesus calls His followers to bear witness first in Jerusalem and then in Judea and Samaria, culminating in a witness that reaches the ends of the earth.

Recap:

  • Because of His love, our Missionary God sends His Son into the world.
  • Jesus says He came to seek and save that which was lost and He accomplishes this through sacrificial service on the cross.
  • And before He left, Jesus calls His followers to participate in His ongoing mission.

So the mission of the church today is to make disciples, to seek and save that which is lost by living sacrificially as Christ’s servants. But our motivation for this is key. We are to do this out of love.

At this point, we would do well to remember our calling as Christians: we seek to follow Jesus, love God, and love others. As people who follow Jesus, we’re striving to be faithful to the two most important commands He left us: love God and love our neighbors.

Or, to put it another way, love is our mission.

Posted in Culture, Love First, Love God, Love Others, Missiology, Scripture, Theology | Leave a comment

Love First: Compelled

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Jason
Scottgroup

Robert Falcon Scott Expedition Team at the South Pole, 1912

On October 25, 2013, British explorer Ben Saunders and his fellow adventurer Tarka L’Herpiniere set out to retrace one of the most ambitious and dangerous polar expeditions of all time. In 1912, British explorer Robert Falcon Scott attempted to journey 1,800 miles on foot from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back. Scott’s entire team ultimately died due to exhaustion, freezing temps, starvation. It was Saunders’ dream to replicate this journey on foot, a journey that would ultimately take four months in extreme conditions.

Saunders is no stranger to polar exploration. In 2004, he became the youngest person ever to ski solo to the North Pole. But for over 100 years, no one dared retrace the steps of Scott’s failed journey. And for good reason: the expedition amounts to walking 69 marathons back-to-back-to-back with all your gear loaded on your back in one of the most inhospitable terrains on the planet!

If you’re interested in hearing more about Saunders’ journey, you can Google his name; I came across his story by listening to a TED Talk he gave in 2014. (Spoiler alert: he survived and his expedition is the longest human-powered polar journey in history.) But what I want to point out is what Saunders’ says happened when he and Tarka reached the halfway point of their journey.

89After 60 days of grueling labor, walking 900 miles through blizzard conditions with, at times, near zero visibility and blinding snow, Saunders and Tarka finally reached the South Pole. Now, there’s not much there at the Pole: there’s an airstrip, a permanent scientific base camp that’s staffed year round, and there’s the pole. When they arrived, Ben and Tarka took a few pictures, used the satellite phone to call home, and then…they turned around and skied back along the same path they used for their arrival. I recently heard an interview Saunders gave and the interviewer pressed him, saying, “Why not stay at the South Pole for a couple of days? Weren’t you hungry? Didn’t you want to at least get a hot shower?” And Saunders replied by saying, “Just to get to the South Pole required such single-minded devotion. To go inside the base camp would just be way too distracting. We needed to get back to the coast.”

Getting to the pole was never the mission.

The mission was to get to the pole and back.

There are plenty of ways you could characterize Saunders’ journey: ambitious, risky, arrogant, courageous, foolish. But no matter what you think of his expedition, you have to admire the single-minded devotion to the mission. This is what compelled Saunders to even attempt such a journey in the first place. He was greatly compelled by his mission. And nothing could dissuade him from that mission. It’s this single-minded devotion that compelled him to shun the comforts that were made available to him at the halfway point of his journey.

For the love of Christ compels us… — 2 Cor. 5.14

Paul affirms the compelling impetus of the love of Christ. We are right to think of this love as the animating force of all Christian activity and thought. It is this love which compels us greatly, drawing us into the mission of our missionary God.

One important distinction here: the idea in this verse is not that we are compelled or motivated by our love for Christ. Rather, the grammar here points to Christ’s love for us as the compelling factor. The word “compel” means that Christ’s love has “pressed in” on our hearts, left an imprint on our hearts. The NRSV says that Christ’s love urges us on. Another good translation would be, “lays claim to us.” The love of Christ has laid claim to our hearts. As Paul reminds us elsewhere, we have been bought with a price (1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23). God has bought us and laid claim to us in Christ Jesus.

The result of this purchase is not merely the removal of our sin. This exchange has implications for the way we live. According to Paul, once we encounter this love, we become a new creation. We are reconciled to God and we are given a ministry: the ministry of reconciliation. A reconciling people will always seek to bring people together, to broker peace in the midst of broken relationships. To be compelled by the love of Christ is to be a part of God’s restoration movement. Sometimes we refer to The Restoration Movement in the past tense, a religious awakening during the pioneer era of our country’s history. But this ministry of ours is present-day. The ministry of reconciliation is yours; it’s mine. Followers of Jesus are God’s restoration movement in the world, seeking to lead others to be reconciled to God. The ministry of Jesus becomes our ministry.

Paul gives added nuance to this when he says that we are Christ’s ambassadors. We’re his emissaries, his representatives in the world. Think about that for a minute: God has loved us through the reconciling work of Jesus; therefore, we are compelled to love others by preaching and practicing reconciliation as well. Jesus gave himself up for the sake of others rather than seeking self-preservation. And we are to be His ambassadors, His representatives. That means our lives are to be shaped by the pattern of the cross. I love William Edwin Orchard’s great line: “It may take a crucified church to bring a crucified Christ before the eyes of the world.” That is what it means to live as Christ’s ambassadors. We have become participants in the mission of God.

In short, we are to live lives determined by the Gospel, the Good News of God’s love. This is what compels us.

So LOVE FIRST as a word about reconciliation and restoration. It’s a word of new creation. And it’s a word about our ministry, our participation in the work of reconciliation compelled by the love of Jesus.

Posted in 2 Corinthians 5, Church, Devotional, Faith, Gospel, Love First, Love of Christ, Scripture | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Excellent Play

Posted on April 25, 2016 by Jason

One of the parents on our baseball team shot this video of our game action on Saturday. A routine 4-3-2 double play. And that’s my boy playing first!

Posted in Baseball, Family, Kids, Sports, Video | Leave a comment

Fearless Love

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Jason

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[a] love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. — 1 John 4:7-21

The Apostle John teaches that the love of God is not some abstract concept. To know God is to experience His love expressed in Christ – a rugged commitment God makes to His people bound by the blood of Jesus. John focuses on a love that has divine origins, the love that originates with a God who IS love, a God who sent His son into the world as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10).

Once we have encountered this divine love, the followers of Jesus reciprocate it by living sacrificially. There is an “ought” associated with this kind of love, because God’s love makes certain claims upon us. So if we’ve been loved, we ought to love in return. We are called to preach and live the message of the cross in our own lives. The life-giving love we’ve experienced in Christ is too wonderful to keep to ourselves. This is what John says in v11: Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

In these verses, John speaks of a “mature” love. In some translations, the word is rendered “perfect” or “complete.” The NLT reads, his love is brought to full completion in us. But the idea is the same. God desires for us a mature love.

John speaks of this mature kind of love in three places in his letter:

  1. 1 John 2:5, But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. The completeness of God’s love is expressed in obedience to His Word. To love God is to obey Him. Mature love is obedient love.
  2. 1 John 4:12, but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. The completeness of God’s love is expressed when we love one another, when God lives in us through love. Mature love is a one-another kind of love.
  3. 1 John 4:17-18, This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: in this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. God’s love completes its work when we live without fear and when we are like Jesus in the world. Mature love is fearless love.

When our love is mature like this, John says that in this world we are like Jesus. John is not saying that Christians are omnipotent or omniscient or morally perfect. We know better than that. He’s saying that because God lives in us, we embody God’s love for the world. We are not gods, but we are God’s. Just as God’s love was made incarnate in Christ, so too is God’s love is made incarnate in us and through us.

Again, this is mature Christian love: a love that is obedient to the Word of God; a love expressed one to another; and love that looks like Jesus, free of fear.

How mature is your love for God?

Where do you need to continue to mature in God’s love?

One of the fundamental aspects of this teaching is that love has work to do in us. Where does love need to work in you?

Is it in obedience? It’s one thing to love God for fear of eternal damnation. That’s all well and good. Both Peter and Paul affirm in the NT that Jesus is the judge of the living and the dead. It’s something else entirely to subject yourself to the lordship of Jesus and to live in obedience to Him. But this is an essential relationship w/ Jesus. Many people want a Savior; far fewer want a Lord. But these titles aren’t optional with Jesus. It’s all or nothing. Perhaps love has some work to do in you with regard to your obedience to Jesus. In some senses, we’re all here, aren’t we? As we said a few weeks ago, LOVE FIRST is a strong word about the importance of obedience; I hope we’ll think about the areas of our lives we need to surrender to the lordship of Jesus. Is love’s work in you to produce greater obedience to Jesus as the one and only Lord of your life?

Maybe love’s work in you has more to do with a greater capacity to love your neighbor. Is there someone in your life who is difficult to love? Do you struggle with feelings of resentment and bitterness toward them, perhaps even feelings of hate? Are these feelings crowding out the love you know you should have for them? John has some tough words in this letter, but they’re words many of us need to hear. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen, (1 John 4:20). It’s not enough for those who know God to preach love. Those who know God must practice love. John says that when we love one another, God lives in us. So it is our call to know the God who is love and to make God’s love known.

Recall the words to the old devotional song: “They’ll know we are Christians by our love…” Does someone in your life need to know your love?

Maybe the work love has to do in you has more to do with fear. I’ve come to believe that fear is the great opponent to love. Fear is Satan’s pesticide to keep the fruit of the Spirit from growing in us. And the fear machine is alive and well in our culture today. The North American media machine preys upon our fears. In fact, you could make the argument that fear is the primary export of the news outlets these days. The left fears the right and the right fears the left in our culture of demonization politics. My point isn’t to tell you which side is right or wrong, only to point out that this kind of fear mongering inevitably impacts the church today. Too often, we choose to play by the same rules in our churches. We’ll demonize somebody who happens to take a position on an issue that differs from our own. Even though the issue might not be a matter of eternal consequence, you’d never know it by the way we skewer each other.

And what’s lost in the transaction? Apart from human decency and civility, we lose sight of the command to love one another by giving those fears a foothold. Rather than love driving out fear, our fears drive out love.

The Word says there is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. Most scholars agree that John is primarily speaking about believers having confidence to face the Day of Judgment. John knows the invasive nature of fear. Fear of the future (judgment) calls to mind our fears from the past (sin, shame, guilt) and produces fear in the present (robbing us of peace, joy, etc.).

During my college years, I spent my summers working at various churches as a youth intern. One of my fellow interns was a young man who wanted to be a  preacher. I taught a lesson to the teens about heaven and I commented about how much we should look forward to being in God’s presence for eternity. Afterward, my fellow intern approached me and very gently told me that he didn’t think I ought to talk about heaven. He said, “I don’t know where I’ll spend eternity. I hope I’ll go to heaven. But I don’t know.” While I understood his desire to leave judgment to the Lord, my heart also hurt for him. And I’ve met many Christians like him over the years, believers who place a lot of “faith” in their sinfulness (which they readily admit) but not enough faith in the One who promises to cleanse us from our sin. We sing Blessed Assurance all the time; if we don’t believe it, we don’t need to sing it.

Brothers and sisters, I don’t believe God wants us to be prideful or arrogant about our salvation. But neither does He want us to live in fear. The mature love that John speaks of drives out fear. God’s declaration of love at the cross was a public affair. God has loved you completely in Christ. He has held nothing back.

Eusebius lived in the 4th century; known as the “Father of Church History.” He records the following story about the Apostle John, not a biblical story with chapter and verse, but one passed down in the early church. Eusebius says, “Listen to a tale, which is not a mere tale but a narrative concerning John the Apostle, which has been handed down and treasured up in memory.”

According to this tradition, John comes to a small town to preach the Gospel and he takes particular concern for the spiritual welfare of one young man, a recent convert. Before he leaves town, John says to one of the local church leaders, “This one I commit to you in all earnestness in the presence of the Church and with Christ as witness.” John leaves town to continue preaching.

Years later, John returns to the church and asks the church leader about the young man. The church leader begins to cry and says of the young man, “He is dead, dead to God.” He explains that the young man has left the faith, fallen in with a group of thieves and that he currently lives in the mountains with this gang of robbers.

According to Eusebius, John tears his cloak as a sign of mourning and says, “Get me a horse.” And John sets off immediately for the robber’s outpost. As he approaches, he is taken prisoner by the gang’s lookouts. John doesn’t resist capture but only demands to meet with their leaders.

The young man is standing nearby fully armed when they bring John before the leaders. When he recognizes the Apostle, the young man turns “in shame to flee.” Though John is quite old when this story supposedly took place, Eusebius says the Apostle “forgets his age, pursues him with all his might.”

And John calls out to the young man, “Why do you flee from me, an old man unarmed? Fear not, you still have the hope of life.” And John says, “If need be, I will willingly endure death as the Lord suffered death for us. For you I will give up my life. Stand, believe; Christ has sent me.”

The young man throws his weapons down and begins to weep bitterly. As John embraces him, the young man confesses his sins. And as Eusebius poetically puts it, the young man is baptized a second time, this time w/ his tears. And John did not leave him until this young man was restored to the church, “furnishing a great example of true repentance and a great proof of regeneration, a trophy of a visible resurrection.”

It was the fearless love of an Apostle patterned after the fearless love of the Savior that made all the difference in this young man’s life.

Is there someone in your life in need of this kind of fearless love?

I can’t tell you for sure that this story is true. But I know this: this story parallels the One True Story of a God whose very essence is love. This God pursues us with a relentless and fearless love, a love He demonstrated once and for all at the cross. And He calls us to know His love and to make His love known.

For God is love.

Posted in 1 John 4, Devotional, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Kingdom Values, Love First, Love God, Love Others, Ministry, No Fear, Obedience, Scripture, Theology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Scandal of Foolish Love

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Jason

For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. — 1 Cor. 1:17

With these words, Paul gets at the heart of the Gospel’s power. Paul states that Jesus sent him to preach, not with words of eloquence and human wisdom, which according to Paul would deplete the cross of its power. The Gospel’s power (literally, dunamis) is demonstrated in the cross.

But the cross poses some serious problems. Many scholars agree that “the cross” is Paul’s shorthand for the Gospel. It is his way of summarizing the “matters of first importance” he talks about in 1 Cor. 15: the death and resurrection of Jesus. In 1 Cor. 1, Paul affirms that the message of the cross is considered nothing more than foolishness in the eyes of many. The Greek word for “foolishness” is moria, from which we get our English word “moronic.” Paul is using strong language here. To some, the Christian message is simply moronic.

But to those who believe, the cross is both the wisdom and the power of God.

Some questions emerge as we read this text. What is human wisdom? I don’t believe Paul is disparaging the pursuit of knowledge. In fact, Jesus teaches that part of loving God completely means loving Him with our whole minds (Mark 12:30). Rather, it seems that Paul is speaking against what we would call “worldly wisdom.” And what is worldly wisdom? Among other things, we could define worldly wisdom as the pursuit of happiness, the accumulation of possessions, and the lust for status and success. Perhaps you’ve seen the bumper sticker that reads, “He who dies with the most toys wins.” According to worldly wisdom, to live well is to pursue such a lifestyle. If so, then anything resembling failure and unhappiness would be considered “foolish.”

Why does Paul speak so negatively about worldly wisdom? I think it’s because in the name of human wisdom, Jesus was condemned to death. Jesus disturbed the established order. He questioned the social hierarchies of His day. He was politically dangerous to the Jewish religious leaders. Remember, “human wisdom” found him deserving of death.

Where can we find true wisdom? Paul’s answer is startling: the cross.

By extolling the cross as the source of true power, Paul offers a prophetic word against the prevailing culture of our day. In no uncertain terms, Paul says that the message of the cross is either foolishness or the power of God. These words leave no room for middle ground. Paul’s contrast presents two different ways of understanding life, the world, etc. Paul argues that the cross has now become the criterion, the benchmark, for understanding reality. The “foolishness of the cross” redefines the entire world for us.

To put it another way: the cross has become our story. We all live out of a particular story. Following his conversion after Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, Paul’s story became the story of the cross. He’ll say as much in 1 Cor. 2:2, For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. For Paul, the cross has become normative; it is the lens through which he understands everything. And the same is true for us.

The message of the cross produces a cruciform life, a cross-shaped life.

  • A cruciform life rejects worldly wisdom in favor of God’s wisdom.
  • A cruciform life rejects the unabashed selfishness the world preaches in favor of the second mile-service Jesus preaches.
  • A cruciform life rejects “He who dies with the most toys wins” in favor of “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Paul’s summarizes the entirety of the Christian worldview with his teaching on “the cross.”

Paul goes on to say in v22-24, Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

The word for “stumbling block” is skandalon, from which we get our English word “scandal.” The Gospel message is scandalous, shocking. Nothing could be more unlikely than this: redemption comes through the humiliating crucifixion of a Jewish rabbi 2,000 years ago.

But it seems that the cross has lost some of its scandal these days. We see it as a positive religious symbol, as decoration, as jewelry. But it was not always like this. The Romans used crucifixion to make an example of those who disturbed the Roman peace. It was a public display of Roman law and order. Roman citizens who committed crimes were not crucified. This punishment was reserved for revolutionaries, insurrectionists, the worst criminals, and people without status, like slaves. To speak of the cross was to speak a word of torture, shame, degradation, weakness, and failure.

And the cross is precisely the instrument God chooses to bring about our redemption. The story of the cross makes the preposterous claim that God came to earth and took the form of a lowly human. It tells the story of a poor Galilean born in a manger, raised in a nowhere town. More than that, the cross claims that the Eternal God subjected himself to the most humiliating and excruciating kind of death. And His motivation for all of this is love.

No matter how you try, the scandalous message of the cross cannot be watered down or domesticated. The cross tells of the scandal of foolish love. The cross challenges all rival value systems. We live in a world in which success is as important as it has ever been and we tend to measure success with basically the same metrics as the Corinthians: by power, by grades, by promotions, by recognition, by possessions. We measure success by the number of friends we have, the number of followers we accumulate, the number of likes our posts garner. And all of this “worldly wisdom” regarding success is seductive.

  • It can land you in a powerful but soul-draining job.
  • It tempts us to ignore real human encounters as we continue to climb the ladder of success.
  • Worst of all, it can lead us to think that God’s ways really are foolish.

And it has always been this way. In the 1940s, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “In a world where success is the measure and justification of all things, the figure of him who was sentenced and crucified remains a stranger.” Such an image was strange in the 1st century, the 20th century, and even today.

But hear these words again: God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is lowly and despised so that no one may boast. This is the message of the cross: foolishness to the world but the power of God to those being saved.

According to worldly wisdom, it makes no sense that salvation comes through the death of a convicted felon in the Middle East.

Just as it makes no sense to give up what I have so another can get ahead.

It makes no sense to love those who have hurt me.

It makes no sense to turn the other cheek when someone strikes me.

It makes no sense to go the second mile when all that is required is one.

It makes no sense to offer forgiveness in the way Jesus teaches, to forgive seven times seventy.

God’s ways indeed sound foolish when we’ve been well versed in the ways of worldly wisdom.

As we participate in the mission of God, we should remember that our message is scandalous. But this message, considered “foolish” by so many, reveals the power and wisdom of God to us.

I agree with William Edwin Orchard, a British author who wrote these words nearly 100 years ago, “It may take a crucified church to bring a crucified Christ before the eyes of the world.” May our lives bear witness to the power and the wisdom of God that we have encountered in the cross of Christ.

Posted in Devotional, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Kingdom Values, Love First, Love God, Love Others, Quotes, Scripture, Theology | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Things I Want to Remember: Vol. 31

Posted on April 24, 2016 by Jason

Yesterday Joshua hit his first over-the-fence home run.

In a real game.

To give his team the lead in the final inning.

And it was awesome.

Field of Miracles, Cullman AL – April 23, 2016

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2016 MB Predictions

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Jason

Each year I take a stab at making some prognostications for the upcoming MLB season. Here are some back-of-the-napkin predictions for the 2016 season.

AL East

I really don’t know what to make of this division. The Jays and O’s lineups are two of the best in the game. The Orioles legitimately have 8 guys that could hit 20+ homers. If they could just develop / acquire a bona fide ace to compliment their collection of #3 starters, they might make a run. With Darren O’Day and Zack Britton closing things out and Buck Showalter at the helm, I give the O’s a puncher’s chance to win this division. (And it doesn’t hurt that they’re currently undefeated.)

I don’t like the makeup of either the Red Sox or the Yankees. If I had to pick a dark horse here, it’d be the Rays. As usual, their pitching has a chance to be special. And they’re loaded with power arms in the high minors.

AL Central

Everyone is high on the Indians pitching staff and rightfully so. But their offense is nothing to write home about, even less so with Michael Brantley on the shelf. But the most complete team in the division is still Kansas City. Although the starters are league average, the bullpen, defense, and plate discipline makes this an elite team.

Detroit made a couple of splashy moves (as they always seem to do), but I don’t think it’ll be enough for them to contend. A dark horse here is Chicago. I like some of the under the radar moves they pulled off (Mat Latos, Austin Jackson) and they have the best pitcher in the American League in Chris Sale.

AL West

If Texas can stay competitive through the first half, they have a chance to work Yu Darvish back into the mix for a playoff push. Paired with Cole Hamels, the Rangers could be poised to make a deep run in October. But they need to address their bullpen situation. Odds are pretty good that they go out and add a Jason Grilli-type reliever to help solidify the end game.

The Mariners also made some moves that I really like. The new look outfield covers a lot of ground and they have a nice stable of starting pitchers. Much like Texas, this team needs some bullpen help. In what promises to be a tight race, consistent relief arms will make a tremendous difference.

NL East

This we know: the Braves and Phillies are bad. That leaves the Mets, Marlins, and Nats. Everyone likes the Mets starters and I’d take any one of them in a heartbeat. But young pitchers often regress and if any one of these young guns underwhelms, this division will tighten up quickly.

The Nationals are no slouches on the mound, by the way. Scherzer, Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, and Joe Ross can match the New York hurlers. And lets not forget reigning MVP Bryce Harper. I like the Nationals to win this division, although I expect the Mets to take one of the wild card spots.

NL Central

Everybody is picking the Cubs here. And I mean, EVERYBODY. That’s fine. Let’s see how the Cubs deal with the added pressure of being a preseason darling. You know who everyone is sleeping on right now? The only 100-win team in the majors last season. I know the Cardinals lost out on Jason Heyward and David Price this offseason. I know the Jhonny Peralta injury further depletes what is at times an anemic offensive attack. But the bullpen is one of the best in the league. The rotation loses Jon Lackey (to the Cubs) and Lance Lynn (to TJS) but adds back Adam Wainwright and Mike Leake. And the emergence of youngsters Randall Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty gives the Cards added youth and athleticism. I still like the Cardinals to compete in this division and I’m taking them to win it yet again.

In fact, I’ll take Pittsburgh over Chicago for the second wild card in the NL. The Pirates are a great ball team. If they weren’t in the same division as the Cardinals, I’d really be rooting for them.

NL West

This isn’t just another even-numbered-year thing: the Giants are one of the best teams in the National League. I love the additions of Cueto and Shark to the rotation. Denard Span in center pushes Angel Pagan to left; with another full year from Hunter Pence, and further development by Brandon Belt, you’re looking at a possible pennant winner.

But the Dodgers will try to stay afloat in the hopes that they’re within striking distance when they finally get healthy. I don’t see it happening, but it’ll be a fun summer out west.

World Series prediction

This is such a fruitless exercise, since so much can change between now and then (and October is increasingly about who gets hot at the right time). But for kicks, I’m going to take San Francisco and Kansas City to square off in a rematch of the 2014 Series. And I’ll take the Giants to win it all again.

AL MVP: Mike Trout

NL MVP: Paul Goldschmidt

AL Cy Young: Chris Sale

NL Cy Young: Madison Bumgarner

AL ROY: Byron Buxton

NL ROY: Corey Seager

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