Unbelievers and Gardens

“I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6, NKJV). 

All the theology I’ve read about this verse indicates that it is God Who gives the increase; God draws unbelievers to Himself.  I often have to remind myself of this as I sit with other church leaders in discussions about reaching the community for Christ. 

But what is the motivation of reaching the community?  Perhaps our limited result in reaching others for Christ has been because our motivation has been wrong.  Maybe we’ve put too much pressure on ourselves in thinking that we draw people to God.  For example, I find myself getting easily angry at people for posting critical comments about Christianity on their Facebook page, but who am I to question them?  I don’t know their backgrounds or who has hurt them in the name of Jesus.  And what does that anger accomplish in the first place—nothing but driving a deeper wedge between me and them. 

So instead of trying to figure out some blistering response to their postings, perhaps I should instead pray for wisdom by asking God how to respond, if I need to respond at all.  The Book of James states “if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (1:5).  If I’m getting angry at someone for a comment, then I ought to interpret the anger as a signal that I’m lacking wisdom in that situation; because responding out of anger will only make things worse.  My job is asking God how I can plant or water rather than thinking I need to somehow talk them out of their animosity toward Christianity and convince them to convert. 

I don’t force a garden to grow, but I do water it and cultivate the soil.  How similar is the soil of a garden to the soul of a person?  Both need nurture and encouragement.  We don’t stomp through our garden as it’s beginning to grow, why would we want to stomp through the soul of a person? 

How does this apply to reaching a broader community for Christ?  All I can suggest is leaning deeper into God’s wisdom for planting and watering and then getting out of the way as God gives the increase. 

God's Sovereignty and Faith

Lately I’ve been struggling with concerns over my children.  As a parent, as with most parents, I want the best for my children; but when they suffer from some illness or other malady my heart understandably becomes concerned.  Within this concern are medical practitioner appointments, various treatments, and much prayer.  All this is done with a view toward health being restored—but what happens when health isn’t restored?  Do I shake my fist at God, blaming Him for not accommodating my heartfelt requests?  Do I stop praying or practicing my other spiritual disciplines?  In all honesty, sometimes I am tempted to chuck the whole faith thing when I see my children suffering.

Thankfully, though, I never fully succumb to such an extreme; I do, however, vent my frustration to my wife (thank God she’s an understanding sort).  Even so, I admit that within these circumstances I sometimes struggle with grasping the sovereignty of God. But I think this struggle is natural and to be expected. In fact, I think this struggle is part of our personal journey of deepening our trust in God; in essence, it’s a spiritual workout for our faith muscles. 

Sovereignty “means principal, chief, supreme. It speaks first of position (God is the chief Being in the universe), then of power (God is supreme in power in the universe)” (Charles Ryrie, Basic Theology, p. 48).  If we truly believe that God is sovereign, we’re saying that we believe He is all-powerful, what we would term as “omnipotent.”  Being omnipotent means God could change the situation, but for whatever reason, He doesn’t. 

Now we have another problem, and that is why aren’t the circumstances changing to our desires?  This is where trust comes in with the question of:  Do we believe that God knows what’s best for me and for my children?  Scripture says that He does (see Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:37, and Philippians 4:13).  A.W. Tozer wrote, “God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind…all being and every being” (The Knowledge of the Holy, pp. 62-62). Now our challenge is do we believe this? 

Most of us, if we’re honest, will have to say, “I do believe this, mostly.”   Being this honest with each other and with God opens the door for God, via the Holy Spirit, to bring us along with our doubt and with our faith. 

We see ample examples of this in the Psalms where the writer struggles with doubts but eventually surrenders to God.  Most, if not all of these psalms, can be viewed as prayers, a hurting heart crying out in all the rawness of humanity to an omnipotent God.  And God’s reaction isn’t rejection, it is a loving enveloping as a father with his children after they fall and scrape their knees.  God knows this stuff hurts, but He will still comfort us and our children as we continue in our struggle of deepening our faith.  A major key in all of this is internally confronting our unbelief and confessing it to our Heavenly Father in heartfelt prayer.  It is in this openness that we will begin seeing the fruit of joy and peace being cultivated as we persevere and help others to persevere as well.

Christian Civility and Kindness

I’m going to take a little departure from the theme of my last post and shift my focus to civility—Christian civility.  I “tweeted” on Twitter and on Facebook the question of what is Christian civility and what does it look like.  Unfortunately the response was grossly underwhelming; I had only one substantive response.  The reason could simply be no one saw my post; or, the reason could also be that we just don’t know the answer to that question. 

The question of civility is now in the headlines due to inappropriate responses to a tragic shooting in Arizona.  In fact, the New York Times ran this headline on January 12, 2011:  “Obama Calls for a New Era of Civility in U.S. Politics.”  Regardless of our political affiliation, I’m sure we can all agree that American political rhetoric is vitriolic at its most typical and downright hostile at its extremes.  We seem to accept this as the norm and slough it off as just political banter and blather.

But does this banter and blather belie a deeper and darker truth about our culture, that our communication in general is becoming more vitriolic?  This question leads to a larger question:  Does culture follow politics or does politics follow culture?  I think it’s the latter, that’s why politicians are doing what they can to get our attention; and it seems that the only communication we pay attention to is either flashy and shallow or hostile and accusative.  Such an environment has no room for civility or politeness.  This is the environment that Christ-followers are trying to be heard in as well. 

What’s more, we see so-called pastors calling to picket funerals or burn religious texts from other religions.  We also see and hear a lot of judgmental comments about lifestyles.  While I am well aware that sin is sin, does Christian civility call for us to pound people over the head about their sin?  If we are to extol the virtues of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ, wouldn’t we instead focus on more positive messages such as salvation?  Have we not read Romans 2:3-4:  “So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?” 

This passage isn’t calling for a blind eye toward sin, but it is inviting us to realize that we are all sinners in need of a loving Savior Who forgives and then works on delivering us from our sins.

So while there is no hard and fast answer to what Christian civility is, we now know that it entails in part, kindness. So if we are about to communicate in a way that is not kind, then we can be pretty sure it won’t meet the test of Christian civility.

Setting Our Minds on Things Above

I had the opportunity to teach at church over a week ago, and I endeavored to teach on the topic of setting our minds on things above from Colossians 3:1-2. During my studies I discovered that there are two stages to doing this.  Stage one is read in verse one where it says “set your sights on the realities of heaven” in the NLT and the NIV reads “set your hearts on things above.” 

Verse two says “let heaven fill your thoughts” and “set your minds on things above” in the NLT and NIV respectively. 

While at first reading it may appear that God is having the Apostle Paul write the same thing twice; that is in fact, not the case.  God is deliberately informing us through Paul there are two stages to establishing an eternal mind-set.

In verse one, the word “set” means in the Greek “to strive or pursue after with serious intention.”  What we are to intentionally strive or pursue after is setting our aim, our driving goal, our life’s mission, our heart, or our will, on things above, on the “realities of Heaven.”  Stated another way, our over-arching life motivation ought to be driven by the those things that are where Christ sits at God’s right hand; and where is Christ is sitting?  In Heaven in all of His eternal glory.  So stage one is first setting Heaven and the things of Heaven as our primary aim.

The next question is what are the things of Heaven?  These things are explained for us in verses 12-17.  Some examples from these verses include compassion, peace, doing all we do for the Lord, and, of course, love. 

Stage two is setting our thoughts on things above. In the Greek this means “to fix our thoughts on the things of Christ.” In other words, we are to bathe all of our thinking in those things which are Christ’s.  Instead of asking ourselves, “What would Jesus do?” We are to instead ask ourselves, “What would Jesus be thinking” right now in this situation? The reason for this is thoughts precede our actions; we first think, then we do.  Therefore, if our thinking is biblical, then our actions, our behaviors, our manner of living, will also be biblical.   

So stage one is setting our aim on things above.  Our aim, our over-arching drive, then sets the framework under which everything else in our life is housed; thus setting up the framework for stage two:  our thinking. 

Here’s another way of stating these two stages.  If our primary aim is to become rich, or to get a bigger house, or to get that promotion, all of our subsequent thoughts and actions will be motivated, either consciously or subconsciously, by this aim.  Equally, if our aim is heavenly realities and all Heaven entails, then, obviously, our subsequent thoughts and actions will follow after this eternal perspective.   

Other scripture references begin to make more sense to us as we begin to understand this two-stage framework for our thinking, then.  References such as leading every thought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5) or thinking on things that are good (Philippians 4:8) now make more sense as we understand more clearly the two-stage process of thinking. 

The arena of competition is often between the ears in our thinking.  It is in our thinking that we believe the things of God or we don’t we don’t believe them.  If are deceived and think less than heavenly realities, we find ourselves being defeated in the very things God is calling us to be victorious in. But as we continue deepening our understanding of our identity in Christ and the truth of God’s word, we can then set our aim and our thinking more fully on the things of Heaven and begin to experience the blessing and the victory God is calling us to. 

More on this concept later…stay tuned.