Just follow the Recipe!

2 Timothy 3:14-17

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,  and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

             Working in the Church I can see that so many of us can relate to Paul’s description of Timothy.  My son’s first real song he sang was “Jesus Loves Me”.  He liked it so much he would walk up to people and say the “THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO!” They would ask him what the bible told him? I taught him to say, “Obey my mommy and daddy.”  Everyone was amazed at his wisdom.  Most of us in the church probably have similar stories about our kids and/ or can say the same thing about how we were raised.

            As I read this passage I am caught up with the simplicity of God’s plan.  Then I think about the complexity of ministry in the church.  All the things we do to build up and eventually get to the simple truth of learning God’s word, applying it to our lives, and teaching to others.  This week I was watching a youth promotional video, the youth in the video say, “I loved this conference because I could see that Christians can really have fun!”  This is a common way youth events and many other church events are promoted.  But, are all the complexities, the lights, music, and entertainment what it takes to convey God's simple truth?

            The Celebrity Chef, Emeril Lagasse’s catch phrase, “Bam! Kick it up a notch!” was used frequently to explain how he made simple recipes mouthwatering good.  We see this same idea applied just as freely to how we live out our Christian faith and shape our ministries.  Bam! We take God's simple truth wrap it in amazing new ingredients and now we have finally made God fun.  Like God actually needs us to help him rewrite his plan for humanity.  We traded the amazing message that the God, who made the universe, loves us and went to great lengths to win us back… with a flashy plan to make Christianity fun, and filled with counterfeit joy.   We trade cheep fun for the life changing message of Christ.

            I have had tons of “Christian fun” as Youth Pastor, I saw the best concerts, and I love whitewater rafting, it is about my favorite water sport.  But, in reality nothing is better than talking to a High School friend who gave his live to Christ as a teen and the joy of seeing God breathe new life into him.  Or speaking to a former student, who is trying to figure out how he can use his gifts and talents to reach homeless people! He is now teaching me!  We may laugh about the time he shot me in the back with a paintball, but the really joy that surrounds our relationship is result of God’s word thoroughly equipping him for every good work.

            As we look at our upcoming ministries this fall I wonder, what if we just focused on allowing God's word to breathe in us and equip us?  What would God call you to do this year?  Who has God laid on your heart to share his amazing message with?  What truths have you know from Childhood that God want to use to shape your life?
 Just following the Recipe sometime is all the “Bam!” we need!

Escaping the Routine

            Once again this motorcycle related,  but I do have an hour drive both ways to class and I am alone in the car so it gets me thinking. 

            I drive a scooter and it is different from riding a motorcycle.  I know you are thinking that it is geek ride and yeah that is me.  But it is missing two important controls, and has one in a different place.  On a motorcycle there is a clutch on the left side of the handlebars and a shifter by the left foot peg.  The rear brake is located at the right foot peg.  Unlike a car the front and rear brakes work independently, but are both important to use together when you want to stop.  This is especially important in an emergency stop, if you only use the front breaks in this situation, it is very easy to fly over the handle bars and into traffic. 

            My scooter has no clutch and where the clutch on the motorcycle is on the left side of the handle bars I have my rear break.  And I do not have to shift my scooter; it is more like a three speed automatic.   But last night at class,we were working on emergency stopping, which requires using all four of these controls together. 

            In normally driving situations I have no problems using these controls together to move through the driving courses.  But on emergency stops when I had to rely on my instincts to work the controls, I found I kept trying to stop the motorcycle like my scooter.  I even locked up the breaks once; this is very bad for a motorcycle because if you lose traction it is easy to tip over.  As we did this drill I became more and more frustrated and nervous.  I was falling back to my scooter patterns, because when you drive a motorcycle it is fairly common for people to get in your way and I regularly gain real life experience on my scooter.

            So my thoughts…

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —his good, pleasing and perfect will.

            I am a creature of habit and patterns, I have even found myself driving to work on days off, when I am suppose to be going somewhere else.  I get in the car and the autopilot engages and off I go following my routine.   Transformation takes time and remolding, that is the purpose of the motorcycle class you do these frustrating routines over and over again so it to becomes a pattern.

            In the Christian life it is the same thing, many times we want instant change and we can for times change patterns, but then when we are stressed or frustrated we revert to our known way of doing things.   So how do we create new patterns, we follow someone that knows the right pattern.  We watch what and how they do things.  I think this is why Jesus said this,

Luke 9:23-25 (NIV)

 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.  What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?

           The reason patterns are hard to break is because we often hold them dear, they meet felt needs.  Changing patterns means that we have to accept loss, in the case of Christianity it may be loss of instant gratification to gain long term blessing.   But the only way to do this is to focus on His pattern and imitate it in our lives. 

Simple Remodeling?

This month my wife and I started, some home repair our goal was to do some simple much needed remodeling in our home.  Our house is about 50+ years old and there are many original parts that were in need of updating.  First we had 3 exterior doors that had lived out their lives on our home and no longer kept the cold or wind on the outside.  And the walls had all been painted for sale the typical sterile cream and were in need of new paint.

During the process of replacing the exterior doors, we felt that one of our “transition” doors seemed more in the way then useful.  So we took it out along with a 70’s era room divider, which was just a space waster.  So that involved some demolition then simple sheetrock work, taping and mudding.  Then as we replace our exterior doors we notice how poor the adjacent doors now looked so we replace 3 interior doors, and now realize that down the road we will also have to replace the 6 remaining interior doors.  So this simple project has also grown to enclosing a screen porch that is in need of repair. 

As I live out the Christian life the more I realize that God has not called us to a “Simple Remodel.”  I believe that is why it is easy for so many believers to live untransformed lives.  Because once you start making changes it is scary when you realize how each change bring into focus other areas in life that need repair.  It is like adding a new ceiling light to the room and now the empty nail holes that once held pictures are now glaring eye sores.  Or the dings that you never noticed in the trim are now more common then smooth pieces.   Look at Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1-2 (NIV, ©2011)

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

This is a common passage with profound truth.  As we begin to transform our lives we begin to see our lives in this new light of Christ.  It is a lot like my house the more I make small improvement the more my perspective is changed.  I do not often realize how much I have conformed to the world until I have made some steps to improve myself, by conforming instead to Jesus.  The great thing about transforming my life is that unlike my house, my life is not limited by a budget.  It is only limited by my willingness to put my faith to work.  And as my faith is used to transform my life, the more my faith bank account expands.  This happens when we truly begin to understand and be assured of God’s faithfulness too us.  It is like making home improvement with someone else footing the bill. 

So my challenge to myself this week and you if you chose to accept it, is to begin looking for conformity to the world in myself and begin trading them out for conformity to Christ.  I realize that each step is just part of the life long process and ultimately I will continue to find more areas that need changing until the end.   I know that I do not have to trust only in what I think I can accomplish but what God can accomplish in me. So, I embrace this promise and prayer, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.(Philippians 1:3-6)