We've Been Set Free!

I had the honor of preaching at Hope Baptist Church in Mankato, MN a few weeks ago. Below is my manuscript.

All of us struggle with being good enough. We wonder if we are smart enough to please our parents or teachers. We wonder if we are being productive enough at work to please our boss. Are we pretty enough to attract a mate? Have I done enough to make my spouse love me? Is our parenting enough to help our children grow up to be good citizens?
Or, to put more of a spiritual framework to it: have I spoken enough about Jesus to qualify as evangelism? Have I read the Bible enough or prayed enough to be connected to God today? Do I sing loud enough or in tune enough for true worship? Do I serve enough at church?
Mostly, we are asking: Am I good enough to please God?
Today I want to tell you that the answer to all of these questions is a resounding NO! You are not enough. And that should be extremely liberating to you.

In fact, even asking these questions reveals that we are all naturally legalists; it is so easy for us to become Pharisees who set up extrabiblical expectations that only end up upsetting us when we or someone else is unable to live up to them. This is the problem Paul was dealing with in Galatia. How does Paul define what is enough to please God?

Open your Bibles, if you have not already, to Galatians 5:1-6 and hear the plea Paul makes for you to free your mind from such impossible expectations.

This has actually been a very difficult sermon to prepare personally. Sometimes when I am studying I am just blown away at how big God is, how beautiful he is, how kind he was to us in Christ. These things get me so excited to simply brag on how amazing God is. But this week was difficult because in studying what Christian freedom looks like, I realized how enslaved I still am, how far I have yet to go. I desperately want that freedom Paul talks about in verse one, but in so many ways I am still a Pharisee at heart.
Let’s pause there for a second. I think that we sometimes feel like the Pharisees are the one group of people in the Bible that it is alright for us to sneer at. They kept people from knowing God. But when we are quick go there we miss that we all share something in common with them that we need help with.
What is a Pharisee? The Pharisees were a division of Jews who were in some ways the really conservative religious people. We know from reading our New Testament that they were strict rule followers. People respected them for how devout they were. But because of this, Jesus saved some of his most severe rebukes for them, which we will see carries over into Paul’s letters. Where did they come from? We can’t trace Pharisaism’s development exactly, but if we follow the Old Testament closely we can see what created the environment for their sect to emerge. And seeing the pattern will reveal that we all have a little Pharisee in us.
Way back near the beginning of our Bibles, in the book of Exodus, God gave the Israelites a bunch of laws that he intended to help them keep so that they would look like a special people and more people would be drawn to God through them. Yet, instead of saying to God, “Please help us, we can’t do it without you,” they said, “We’ve got this. Whatever you command we can do.” The entire Old Testament is the story of them thinking they can do it without God and only when things get really bad do they finally beg God for help. Finally, one day they reject God so thoroughly that God sends another country in to completely destroy their land and take them away as slaves. This is the period known as the exile. For many years Israelites lived in Babylon away from their homes as punishment for their rebellion against God. When they called out to God to rescue them, God did dramatically and returned them to their land. They never wanted that to happen again, so they determined they would never dishonor God in such a way again. Yet, instead of falling on their faces begging God to lead them, they buried their faces in the law and memorized every detail of what God commanded them to do. And from there they made a few extra rules so that they wouldn’t even get close to breaking a law. It would be similar to God saying to us, “Don’t touch that chair” and instead of asking God to give us a heart of joy to obey we build a giant wall around the entire city of Mankato so we never get close to that chair and anyone who gets close to the wall we shame for trying to get to the chair.
This is the mindset that Paul is confronting in Galatians. For four chapters Paul has been telling people that the law wasn’t intended to be a guideline for gaining access to God, it was a mirror in which we were to look and see our need for him. If you seek to impress God or others by the things which you do, you are falling into the same trap that the Pharisees did, not seeing God as worthy to be honored and enjoyed, but simply seeing his law as a tool to protect the one you really love, yourself. The gospel sets us free from trying to hold others to or live up to any standard and sets us free to give ourselves joyfully for the good of others.
Now let’s take a look at what Paul’s answer to this mindset is in chapter 5. Because I want to end on what I think is Paul’s main emphasis, freedom, let’s start at the end of this section. Here we see Paul’s foundation for this freedom. The Christian life is built on faith in Christ. Verse 5 says we await the hope of righteousness by faith. This means that a Christian does not point to what he has done or is doing to prove his goodness. A Christian knows he has no goodness. The way we receive a right standing before God is by faith, meaning that we trust that what Christ did on the cross is perfectly sufficient to satisfy God’s demands on my life. We can put our trust to please God in nothing else. Only faith in Christ counts for pleasing God.
Then , by faith, we can live in a way that accomplishes God’s work. Verse 6 says the only thing that counts is “faith working through love.” When we put all of our hope in Christ to bring us to God, we are able to change our behavior. We become less concerned about how we look to others and more concerned about using what God has given us to give to others. Both our salvation and our daily living is done by faith in Christ.
So Paul, here gives an example of what he is trying to get across to the Galatians. The church is arguing about the topic of circumcision. According to the law of Moses, in order to be a faithful Israelite a man had to be circumcised. After Jesus the Messiah came and opened the doors of the kingdom to non-Jews, many Jews taught that in order to join the church a man still had to be circumcised according to the law of Moses. Paul rejected that saying that only faith in Christ gains us access to God’s assembly, not anything we do. In these verses Paul is saying we have two choices, live freely in the knowledge that Christ accomplished on your behalf everything the law requires, or be enslaved to the law. He is contrasting freedom and slavery.
We will get to the freedom part, I promise, but now I want to find out what it means to be enslaved to the law. We see three errors regarding the law that it is so easy for us to make. First we fall into legalism when we hold others to a standard that God does not expect us to keep. The Jews in Galatia expected the non-Jews to be circumcised before they could join the church. Instead of accepting them by their profession of faith, they made them perform something additional to really prove they were good enough. Paul ran into this problem with the Corinthians too who didn’t want to trust him because he refused to jump through their hoops. He said to them in 1 Cor 10:29 “Why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience?” How many ways do we hold up a bar over people’s heads and frown upon them when they can’t jump over it? We do this with non-Christians all the time. Instead of freely offering them forgiveness in Christ, we look at them with disgust that they are unable to jump over the high bar we are holding.
The second error is similar to the first but from a different perspective. The first was from the Jews holding up the standard, the second error is the Gentiles who submit themselves to the standard. In order to be accepted we sometimes feel like we need to try and earn our way into acceptance. Oftentimes there isn’t even an explicit expectation but we create in our minds the illusion that we need to perform in order to impress others so they will love us in return. We convince ourselves that if we don’t prove ourselves to be lovely enough then we won’t be loved in return. We voluntarily submit ourselves to this bondage of performance instead of living freely in the knowledge that Christ performed perfectly on my behalf. We don’t need to prove that we are lovely enough, we need to live knowing that it is already enough to be loved by Christ.
The third error is the defense of those who already got circumcised. We see this same attitude when somebody is confronted in the error of their ways and they immediately have a list of reasons why they had to do it. This person is quick to explain why it was necessary for him to make this decision or why he deserves praise and acceptance for his decision. This legalistic attitude defeats the purpose of Christ’s work on the cross who purchased acceptance for us. Paul, here in Galatians 5, has strong words of warning for those who are about to submit to this law. He warns them that if they do it they aren’t trusting Christ, they are cutting themselves off from him, falling away from the grace he offers.
Christ is all or nothing. If you feel like you need to do something in addition to the work of Christ, you are saying that his work was not sufficient. “Sure God himself offered himself to pay for all my sins, but he left a few gaps in his plan of salvation that I need to finish off for him.” When you justify yourself based on what you do, you claim more power and authority than God himself.
So what is our alternative. Freedom! Paul tells us in verse 1 that Christ has set us free. He is emphatic about it saying we’ve been set free in order to be free. The question we must ask ourselves now is, “What is freedom?”
I think moving our way back to verse 6 again gives us our answer. We have the negative example of expecting circumcision to prove our worthiness, but Paul ends this section saying that gospel freedom will result in faith working through love. Paul repeats this same point a few verses later. He says in chapter 5 verse 13 “you were called to freedom…Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh” meaning, freedom does not mean you get to do whatever you want to do. He says instead, “through love serve one another.” And he reminds us in verse 14, “the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
So I think that Paul is making a radical point for us:

1. You are not good enough
2. Christ performed perfectly and paid the penalty for sin entirely on behalf of any who put complete trust in him.
3. This frees you to work not for your own acceptance but for others’ benefit.

Gospel freedom is the ability to give yourself completely to another person without any expectation of something in return, without any expectation that they first meet your standards, without any fear of rejection or shame, BECAUSE Christ gave himself as the sufficient payment for everything we failed to do right.
Gospel freedom also means freedom to fail without judgment. If we aren’t judged by your works in the first place, we can make mistakes and not feel like we have lost our hope, lost respect, lost someone’s love. It motivates us to get up and try again or try it differently.

Now let’s take a moment to consider how this law-making, law-keeping mindset still seeks to enslave us. No doubt this is a difficult truth to embrace. We are people who want control. We want to feel loved and appreciated so we create expectations for how other people can make us feel loved. If they don’t follow our expectation we feel loved and we feel like they are to blame. Then we manipulate others by creating a law in our minds that we are able to keep and we expect others to keep the law we made for them in return for us keeping the law we made for ourselves. I’m sure this isn’t making much sense yet, so let me give you a more personal example and then offer a few others to consider for yourselves.
I lived this law-keeping mindset far too much in my own marriage. Because I am so naturally focused on my own well-being it is so easy to try and manipulate my wife for my own benefit. For so many years in my marriage I fell into every Pharisaical trap in my marriage. I held my wife to unrealistic standards and when she wasn’t able to meet them I was sure to look down upon her for being such a failure. I also created my own set of standards which were fairly easy to keep, so that when I did keep them I expected her to reward me for them. This is the bargaining scenario in a relationship: I will help with dinner and the dishes with the expectation that I will receive something in return. Then, when she doesn’t give in return, I condemn her for failing to reward me for my “generosity.” Then I pull away from her and refuse to help any further, justifying that I deserve more respect because I am a hard working provider for the family, and I’m a committed church member, and I give my time and money to charitable causes.
What are some others ways in which we lean towards a law mindset instead of a freedom to love mindset?
Our education system is based completely on achievement. We receive grades to compare one another and to know what extra efforts or incentives should apply to each student. But we quickly transform this assessment tool into an identity marker. We brag about our children being honor roll students. I can easily begin to think I need to be the smartest guy in the class. And as soon as something happens in life to prevent us from getting the grade we think we have, we get angry, we start to blame others for our feelings of disappointment, we convince ourselves that we will lose all future career opportunities because we failed to meet some real or imaginary academic standard. All this anxiety results from a mindset of performance, of trying to be good enough. The gospel frees the student to enjoy learning without any fear that his failure to perform will throw off God’s plans in the world. The gospel frees the student to trust God’s sovereign plan to use whatever good or bad grades he receives to accomplish his purposes in the student’s life.
Another area in life in which many people struggle is their self-image. The culture has a standard of external beauty which it plasters all over for our eyes to consume. This standard of beauty drives deep into our hearts where our legalism awakens and we feel we need to measure up to it. And when our legalist heart meets the cultural standard of beauty it paralyzes us, keeps us from enjoying how God has uniquely made us. It keeps us from being able to give ourselves in love to others because we are so concerned about how we look. But gospel freedom reminds us that we don’t need to meet anyone’s standards. The gospel frees us to enjoy the body we have and to use it to serve others without fearing that we must first conform to someone else’s expectations. Then we have freedom to maintain the best body we can, not so people can approve of our image, but so we are better able to give ourselves more generously to others.
Another place in which I think it is most difficult to stand against this legalism is in our parenting. We know that our kids are far from perfect, but there is so much pressure in my heart to make sure my kids look as close to perfect as possible. The must always be on their best behavior, always be eating enough fruits and veggies, reading enough, avoiding TV, getting outside and playing (bathed first in sunscreen, of course), having enough socializing time with other kids (but not with the wrong kind of kids. They need to get their sports in, their swimming lessons and piano lessons done, raised with a classical education and finish college free of debt. We parents just are not able to handle all of these expectations; and when our kids don’t live up to our expectations each day we get upset with them . Gospel freedom allows us to simply do the best we can with the time and money we have been given and not feel like a failure when we compare ourselves to others. We trust that God has more of an influence over our children’s future than our efforts to micromanage their lives. And think about the pressure this mindset puts on our kids; they begin to believe that Christianity is about performing to a standard than about freedom in forgiveness.
One more, a general way in which we become slaves to expectations is when we fear criticism. We just hate it when we don’t measure up to someone else’s standards. When we are criticized we feel like someone looked us up and down and in their assessment we don’t measure up. If it is true that we aren’t good enough, then why should we be surprised if someone else realizes it too? We have room to grow, to improve, to be more loving so why are we so quick to get defensive and try to justify ourselves? Charles Spurgeon said, “if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, yet be satisfied, for if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no gainer by the correction. If you have your moral portrait painted, and it is ugly, be satisfied; for it only needs a few blacker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth.” The gospel frees us from the anxiety of someone finding out we are broken people. We already know we are broken and we don’t need to fear that someone else figure that out. Gospel freedom allows us to joyfully serve others even in the face of criticism because no matter what anyone says about us, we know that we are still accepted by God in Christ.
These are not examples of a gospel freedom mindset, but toxic relationships of legalism. There are so many ways in which we fall into this mindset, but the gospel frees us from it. I don’t know what it is in your life that triggers your legalistic nature, but if you are human, then there are still ways in which you are plagued by this tendency. Interestingly, Paul says in verse 1 that we need to fight for this freedom. It seems a bit paradoxical to say that we are free but we need to work for it. He is simply saying that our tendency is to fall back into justifying ourselves by measuring ourselves and others by a standard other than the love of Christ. We fight this tendency by standing firm on the truth of the cross and turning from any hint of law-making.
So take the time today to think how the Pharisee in you manifests itself. Ask God to bring you to the end of yourself so that you can be done with the law , so that you can know God’s pleasure with you in Christ, and you can experience the freedom of giving yourself to extraordinary generosity in love toward others.

Slaying the Giant

I had the honor of preaching at Hope Baptist Church in Mankato, MN last weekend. Below is my manuscript.

Sometimes we have heard a story so many times that the story begins to take on a new life. Characters become so familiar to us that we ascribe our own motives and emotions to them. We linger on our favorite parts of the story and often leave out some important details. Characters who were meant to be representations become the heroes or are forgotten completely. One such story I’ve spent a lot of time in lately is the story of David and Goliath.

            My three year old son loves the story of David and Goliath and I fear it is for all the wrong reasons. He likes to act out the battle; however, instead of being the winner of the battle he much prefers to be Goliath. He never pretends to use a sling and a stone, but likes swords and spears and armor. He likes to be the big scary guy that laughs and growls to intimidate others (as much as a 3 year old boy can intimidate anyone). He completely misses the point of the story. But even if he chose to be on the right side of the battle I think he would still miss it.

            The story of David and Goliath is so well-known that the basic storyline is known even among most non-Christians. If you break the story down enough it can sound like many other fables we like to share. We love a story of the little guy overcoming insurmountable odds. It makes for great movies. We like to cheer for the underdog in major sporting events. We root for the good guy who seems to have everything in the world going against him. We want the little guy at school to find freedom from the big bully who mocks him across the playground. And we want the meek and gentle good guy to win the girl. These are all “David and Goliath” stories.

           But I want to suggest that none of them is truly a David and Goliath story. The hero of the tale is not David. The moral of the story isn’t that God will fight for the good guys. The story is meant to highlight God’s power to overcome all that stands in opposition to his plans. Let’s take a look at the narrative in 1 Samuel chapter 17:

READ 1 Samuel 17:1–54

            This story sticks in our minds because the imagery is so vivid that we can very easily see ourselves standing before a 9-foot warrior and trembling in our sneakers. The fear can seem so real because each one of us has experienced or maybe currently faces an obstacle that stands in your way and to even think of moving towards it leaves you fearful. But before going there, let us look at what is happening in this text.

 
          Verses 2 through 7 paint the scene in a large valley with both armies staged on either side preparing for hand-to-hand combat. The circumstances were not pleasant. If you were a soldier in the battle your life could very likely end soon. If you weren’t killed in the battle and the enemy won the battle, you would be taken as a slave away from your family the rest of your life. And opposing the Israelite army was this champion soldier, Goliath of Gath. He towered over every other soldier on the field. He had armor so thick and heavy that no arrow or sword could penetrate it. The body armor itself weighed over 100 pounds. Yet he was so strong that he could move his own weapons without being slowed by it. His spear was likely as long as he was with a head that weighed 15 pounds (think 2 gallons of milk). He was skilled in battle. He feared nothing. He taunted the Israelites knowing that there was no one else who could match his size and military skill.

           And his taunts worked to strike fear into the hearts of Israel. They had no chance against such an enemy. They didn’t have the skill. They didn’t have the weapons. And if they failed, they were either dead or slaves in another country.

            Then, in verse 12, we are introduced to God’s weapon, little shepherd boy, David. I find the transition from verse 11 to 12 intriguing. After Goliath’s taunts all of Israel was dismayed and greatly afraid. And then we see, “Now David was the son of Jesse.” Wait! What?! What is happening on the battle field. Everyone is afraid and now you are going to tell me a cute little story about a shepherd? But this is God’s plan. He is about to respond to Goliath’s taunts with a humble display of his own power.

            This is a good time to pause and consider Goliath’s opposition. Five times we see in chapter 17 a reference to Goliath defying the armies of Israel, both in his own curses and David’s summary of his antagonism. The word “defy” doesn’t simply mean to be opposed or to reject something, but it has a sense of derision to it. Goliath despises Israel and uses his words to express revulsion toward Israel and all of their ways. In a sense he is cursing Israel. This should lead you to think of what God said he would do to those who curse Israel. In Genesis 12:3 God promises Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.” Surely David remembers this promise when he hears the curses of Goliath.

            Even after Abraham, when God was bringing the people into the Promised Land God told them in Deuteronomy 7, ““If you say in your heart, ‘These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?’ you shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, the wonders, the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which the LORD your God brought you out. So will the LORD your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid.” David knows that God promised to defeat Israel’s enemies.

            He knows that God has a plan to use his people to bring redemption to this broken world and nothing will stop God from enacting his plan. There is nothing special about Israel that God must defend them. In fact it is quite the opposite. God says in Deut. 9:4: “Do not say in your heart, after the LORD your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is driving them out before you.” There is nothing better about Israel (or you and I for that matter) that requires God to protect them from their enemies. It is only because he chose to set his love upon them and provide for them. And he has shown himself faithful to that promise over and over again to do that very thing.

            And this is why David charges into battle without fear. Deuteronomy 6 tells parents to teach their children during every waking moment of the day about the promises God has made and the works he has done. As a child of a devout Israelite family, David would know well the works and promises of God. He knows that God promised to protect Israel. He has heard stories past down through the generations how God did protect Israel. And he saw it in his own life when God led him, as verses 34–37 describe, to defeat a lion and a bear to keep his own sheep safe. David did not think that the key to victory was to carefully craft and diligently execute his own plan; he simply trusted in the promises of God.

            From here we know the end of the story. Picking up in verse 41where David meets his opponent we see Goliath mocking David, but David isn’t concerned about protecting his own image. One of the five times that we see the word “defy” in this chapter is when David proclaims in verse 45, “You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.” Goliath didn’t simply defy Israel when he taunted them, he defied God himself.

            This world is God’s. He created it. All of the beauty we see was made to reflect his beauty. People were made to display his love toward one another. People rejected that, yet God is working out his plan through the people of Israel to restore creation to its original splendor. God had chosen Israel not because they were great, but because that is how he thought it best to restore creation by his great power. To defy the instrument of his plan is to defy God himself. David, knowing that nothing can derail God’s purposes, was simply aligning himself with God’s plan in opposing Goliath. He proclaims with confidence in verse 46:

"This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD’s, and he will give you into our hand."

            David knows that “the battle is the LORD’s.” Nobody can stand against God, not even the greatest warrior on earth. He simply steps with confidence into God’s victorious plan. Whatever enemy that stands before him that opposes the will of God stands no chance against the power of God.

            So, what does this mean to us in this room? Is the story of David and Goliath telling you simply to face your fears and God will bring down any giant standing before you? I don’t think so. There are four things I want us to consider when we think of this story.

1)         God is in control, he has a plan, and nothing will thwart his plan.

2)         Man’s greatest enemy is sin and death.

3)         God has defeated this enemy on the cross.

4)         Man can only be on one side or the other? Which side of the battle do you align yourself with?

              So First, it is important to know that this story is primarily about God. It is a minor scene in the great narrative of God redeeming people from the effects of the fall. God originally made this world perfect. Adam and Eve lived in the garden and walked with God in perfect harmony. Life was good. But the first people decided to pursue happiness without God, flipping the world upside-down, bringing all kinds of pain and suffering with it. We see these effects everywhere and we repeat the same mistakes. We cannot blame Adam and Eve when we put other things above God ourselves. We choose our own path every day. We put ourselves on the throne of authority over our own lives. And because we are too small, too limited, we do not have the capability to run our lives as well as God can. But from the beginning God had a plan to restore things to the way he intended them. The Bible is the unfolding of God’s plan throughout history.

            He promised Adam and Eve that one day one of their children would be used to crush the enemy and bring restoration (Gen. 3:15). God revealed more of the plan to Abraham that one of his children would be used to bless people from every nation (Gen 12:3; 18:18; 22:18). On Mount Sinai God described to Moses what this redeemer would be like and the type of life that he would purchase for his people. Through king David God paints a faint picture of the type of king this redeemer would be over our lives. Every book of the Bible describes human and satanic attempts to derail God’s plan, but every time we see how God is still in control to bring his plan to completion.

            The story of David and Goliath is another one of these stories. Goliath dares to stand in the path of God as David says in verse 45 “whom you have defied,” and the story shows that no matter how big the enemy or no matter how small the weapon of battle, God will accomplish his purposes.

              Second, we see in this story that sin is the real enemy. Goliath wasn’t simply being mean to the Israelites; he was defying God himself. Goliath never said, “I curse your God.” But David, knew that his defiance was against God. That is the essence of sin, opposing God. When David himself committed great sin in 2 Samuel 11 by stealing a man’s wife and having her husband killed, he wrote Psalm 51 calling out in repentance to God proclaiming that his sin was primarily against God. Our greatest enemy is not the bully on the playground, the difficult boss at the office, or the financial problems we may be experiencing. Our biggest problem is our own sin, our own lack of trust that God’s ways are the best ways, our lack of enthusiasm for God’s glory.

              No matter what we fear we can know that God can overcome that fear. Essentially, fear is lack of trust in God. When we fear something we elevate its power above God and the thing itself becomes God. We act in response to what we fear. Against Goliath, David feared only God and therefore went head on into battle.

             To put it simply, it is a picture of our redeemer overcoming our ultimate enemy; on the cross Jesus severed the head of sin and death winning the victory on our behalf. Goliath represents sin and its ultimate end. Sin stands towering before us leaving us no way out. If we try to overcome sin in our own power it will eventually destroy us, if not killing us then it will enslave us.

              There are some sins that lead to death. Some sins will quite literally create illnesses in the mind or body that will destroy us. Think of all of the diseases and decay that result from an abuse of sex or drugs. Other sins, however, are more subtle. We lie to cover up our weaknesses and continue to lie to keep them hidden. We proudly boast in our goodness to keep other people from seeing our faults. These types of sins tempt us with happiness and pleasure, but as the pleasures wear off they require more commitment to avoid their immediate consequences. Eventually we are addicted to the sins and we can’t imagine life without them, we begin to believe they are necessary for survival, and we define who we are by them. It is a deep pit that we can’t climb out of because most of the time we don’t even realize we are in it.

             Third, it may not be obvious at first, but the point of the David and Goliath story is to point you to Jesus as the means to that victory. All it takes is a small instrument like David in the hands of a powerful God to bring down a giant sin. At the time of Christ there was nothing glorious about a cross. It was an instrument of torture for the worst of criminals. What an offense it would be for the Savior to be killed on a cross! What a joke it would have been for a dirty shepherd boy to be the instrument of Israel’s salvation against its greatest enemy. But God uses the foolish things in the world to shame the wise and the powerful. On the cross Jesus defeated the power of sin and death, dropping it to its knees and cutting off its head.

            Even the place where Jesus was crucified may have a more explicit connection to David and Goliath than we think. The place was named “Golgotha” or the place of the skull. Nobody has been able to find any historical documentation on how that place got that name. Some might speculate that it was because so many had been executed there. My Old Testament professor wondered if it wasn’t a reference to David and Goliath. David not only drops the giant Goliath to the ground, but he cuts off his head in verse 51 and carries the head to Jerusalem as a trophy of God’s victory over their enemy. Perhaps Golgotha is short for Goliath of Gath. This would suggest that David’s defeat of Goliath was simply a foreshadow of God’s greater victory over sin to come when Jesus died on the cross.

           And finally, however, this victory over our giant enemy, sin, doesn’t apply to everyone. At the great battle against the Philistines there were many who were destroyed along with Goliath. Even the king of Israel, Saul, did not submit himself to the authority of God and eventually lost his position and even his life. Those who will be saved will be those who, like David, align themselves with the will of God, those who submit to Christ’s authority, those who fear God more than man. The New Testament terms for this are “repentance” and “faith.”

             To repent means to turn away from your previous desires, your previous patterns of life. It means to reject everything about your own plan for your life, to despise who you are apart from Christ. When you are repenting you are looking at the giant of sin that stands before you and saying with desperate plea, “I can’t do this! I am weak. I am tired. I have nothing to give in this battle.”

And by faith, then, we put our trust in the power of God to slay the giant. Faith is trust in his promises to redeem his people. It is believing his plan to restore everything and wipe away sin and death. Faith is placing all our hope on Jesus’ death on the cross as a sufficient payment for our sins and in his resurrection as the promise that one day sin will be completely removed from our world.

              If you have not yet repented and put your faith in Christ, see the message of David and Goliath as a warning that God will defeat all those who oppose him. He will one day cast sin and death and all who cling to their sin into eternal darkness. But on the cross he provides a way out. All who believe in him will be spared from that fate. Whatever addiction or fear towers over you that you cannot seem to defeat, God is able to slay that giant and willing to do so on behalf of those who trust in him through Christ.

              But the gospel message isn’t just how we get saved, it is the truth by which believers live. The giants don’t all instantly go away once we choose to step onto God’s side of the battle. God doesn’t simply fight the battles for us making life easier for us. We need to face every sin that confronts us and attack it with the truth that Christ conquered it on the cross.

The story of David and Goliath doesn’t teach us to buck up, devise a plan, and resolve to defeat the giant with our own determination. Our strategy is to confess our weakness to God and move forward in trust that he has given us the power of his Holy Spirit and the fellowship of his church to overcome any temptation. And the battle keeps on going until the day we leave this world. David faced many struggles after he defeated the giant. He fell into great sin, but he repented of it with great weeping and mourning and called out to God to give him the joy of salvation from the giant of sin which was far bigger than Goliath.

           The first of Martin Luther’s 95 theses said that when Jesus commanded us to repent, he meant that our lives would be marked with continual repentance. So I leave you today with a great call to arms in your soul. There is a battle going on with sin. John Owen said, “Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” Engage the battle, not by creating clever tricks or plans by which you can avoid sin or pretend it is not a threat. Face it with the power of the cross. Repent! Call out to God to be merciful to you and by the blood of Christ give you the power to overcome sin. And put all your faith in the one who slayed the giant Goliath and crushed sin’s skull at Golgotha.

What are Repentance and Faith?

I am taking a personal evangelism class this week and we have to write a one page summary on a topic to share each day in class. I'll post each this week as I finish them. Below is a brief summary answering the question: What are Repentance and Faith? or What is our response to this news?

            There is a side of the gospel message that is often left out. We love to hear that “Jesus died on the cross for our sins.” It makes us feel safe. So many hear that line thinking that they have their ticket to paradise which they will keep in their back pocket for the day they need it. But few are those who see the gospel defining every moment of their lives.

Repent is a common word in the New Testament yet it is a word that is quite unpopular today. Simply, it describes a change of mind, a change of attitude toward something. When Jesus and his apostles command us to repent they aren’t suggesting we now think nice things about Jesus, believing that he is now our buddy. It implies that the way we are living right now is offensive to God and we need to immediately stop and search desperately for a new way of life. Repentance isn’t just the moment one asks for forgiveness in order to get into heaven; the life of a Christian is one of continual repentance. Martin Luther proclaimed, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, "Repent,” he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” To profess to be a follower of Jesus is to always be denying yourself, not defending yourself. Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” A life of repentance is marked with continual processes of questioning our own desires and asking God to replace them with his own.

Not only must we turn away from ourselves, we need to turn toward something with power to overcome our problems. We use the words faith and belief in strange ways. They are words that are supposed to indicate our relationship with something, and attitude toward something. But we often use them as objects themselves. We say that faith will help me through a problem. Or we vaguely say that we have belief that things will work out. But the Bible uses them differently. They are essentially the same word and they are the opposite side of the repentance coin. When we turn away from ourselves (repent) we must turn toward Jesus (believe). We must have faith in something. And our faith is worthless if it isn’t in something of greatest value. Only Jesus can satisfy the wrath of God toward us in our sins. We cannot simply say that God is forgiving and he will forgive me, somehow convincing ourselves that we are okay with God. The payment for sin must be satisfied. God would not be good if he just let us go free. Our only hope for mercy is to throw ourselves desperately at the blood-stained feet of Jesus and put all of our hope in his payment for our sin.

Repentance and faith are complementary actions. They define the entire life of a believer. We make every decision, we express every attitude, we establish our very identities through the actions of repentance from our former self and faith in Christ’s past work on the cross and his renewing work inside of us. Repentance and faith are the outworking of Christ’s work within us. He changes us from the inside, out day-by-day turning us away from our old desires and revealing to us greater joy in following his.

Who is Jesus?

I am taking a personal evangelism class this week and we have to write a one page summary on a topic to share each day in class. I'll post each this week as I finish them. Below is a brief summary answering the question: Who is Jesus? or What is our hope for restoration?

            The history of the world hinges on a unique man who lived 2,000 years ago. Some say he was simply a wise teacher with good things to say about generous living. Others believe he was merely a prophet with an important message about God. The Bible, however, says this man, Jesus, is infinitely more.

From the beginning of time people anticipated someone who would restore what Adam and Eve had lost in the garden. God promised that a particular offspring of the woman would crush the deceiver and restore peace with God. God promised Abraham that through his descendants would arise a man who would become a blessing to all the peoples of the earth. God called to himself a ragtag group of people to be his representatives on earth as he worked to restore humanity and he promised to them a king who would rule with kindness, justice, and mercy. The Jews expected a priest who would go before God for them to seek reconciliation with God when they went astray. They longed for a prophet who would bring words of life from God to guide them to a new creation life. How all of these expectations could be met in one person was a mystery.

Then, after hundreds of years of silence from God, in a small village in Israel, not among the important and mighty but among the meek and lowly, a little baby boy was born in a stable. He was born to a woman who had never been with a man. The broken human nature that each person received from the union of their father and mother passed by this boy in his unique conception. He wasn’t born of two people like all other people, he was specially conceived by God’s Holy Spirit; he was God’s Son, God himself in the flesh.

His earthly parents named him Jesus (meaning God saves) because he will save his people from their sins. He lived a perfectly obedient life, never once straying from the will of God. He spoke the words of life from God like a prophet. He interceded before God on behalf of his people as a priest. He brought his kingdom of peace, justice, kindness, and mercy to dwell within his people. Everywhere he brought his kingly authority people were changed; blind people received sight, paralyzed people could walk, hungry people ate plentifully. The promised redeemer had arrived!

However, in a confusing twist of events the people turned on him. He threatened the authority of the rulers and religious leaders. He didn’t fit the mold of what the people though the redeemer should be. So they condemned him to die like a criminal. They mocked his claim to be king by putting a crown of thorns on his head and a purple robe around his shoulders. The Romans killed him by hanging him on a cross to starve, to suffocate, to bleed. When he died, his friends took him off the cross and laid him in a tomb, hearts aching and confused about how the redeemer could die.

But God knew what he was doing. This was all part of his plan. The redeemer had to die; he wasn’t coming to redeem an earthly kingdom, but to make it possible to bring rebellious people into his heavenly kingdom. The curse that every person bore since the beginning of creation, the punishment that every person deserved for turning against God Jesus took upon himself on the cross bearing the wrath of God on behalf of his own people. Right before he died he cried out, “It is finished!” proclaiming that his mission was complete; the debt that people owed to God was satisfied.

Even though he died horribly on that cross and he lay lifeless in the tomb, death could not hold God. After three days Jesus rose from the grave showing himself to hundreds of people so that nobody in Israel could deny it. He crushed death under his heal. He stood victorious over the curse, over death, over sin. He became the hope of resurrection for all his people. After spending many days with his disciples he ascended into heaven and sent his Holy Spirit to live within all who put their trust in him. Dwelling within his people he helps them live the same victorious life over sin and temptation, and he gives them hope for the day when all creation will be restored.

Be a Parent, For it is God Who Will Change Their Hearts

Everyone is an expert parent...until they have kids. We all have ideas in mind on how we would do things in certain parenting situations, either based on how our own parents did or did not raise us. Some people, like me, spend a ton of time reading and asking questions from experienced parents in order to be as prepared as possible for the arrival of the little sanctifiers.

With six years of parenting down (and now three kids with more on the way) I am thankful that God gave me so many resources ahead of time. It has prepared us for inevitable challenges and been a grace to create some sense of order in our home. It doesn't guarantee that our kids will always be well-behaved and especially doesn't guarantee their salvation, but it gave us something to aim for, something to evaluate ourselves, not so much our kids.

Early on in our parenting as we were establishing our family's routines and traditions with our children's early obedience and ultimate salvation in view, we had so many people who felt like they wanted to throw cold water on our fire to be godly parents. I believe their motives were honestly good, but it was discouraging. So many people wanted to remind us that our kids salvation didn't depend upon us so they would say, "You can't guarantee they'll believe in Jesus. Your kids will have to give an account to God on their own. You could be the best parents in the world and they still might reject your faith."

Yes, that is true. But it always bothered me. Did God not intend the family structure to have influence on the children in the home? What is the point of God's wisdom for the home if we are just supposed to resign to the fact that 80% of our children will turn away from Christ? It seemed to me that the exception to godly parenting was losing your children, not the rule. But something so different is playing out in our churches.

Most people fall into one of two ditches; we either set up a bunch of rules and boundaries thinking we will create obedient children through our own effort (even though they are biblical rules) or we resign to the fact that we don't have control over our children's hearts anyway and don't apply any biblical principles. Both produce children who don't know true grace. But we don't have a category for walking the narrow path in between. We usually just say that we need to balance the two.

I've never been a fan of the balance argument. It sounds to me like compromise; sometimes we need to give a little on grace and emphasize the law and others we need to stand firm on our boundaries and forget grace. Isn't there a place where both justice and mercy express themselves?

Oh right. The cross! In redeeming us, God doesn't relax his justice to set us free from our sin. That would be corrupt (Prov 17:15). Our salvation is a mystery in which God creates Christ's righteousness in us so that we are no longer guilty sinners and Jesus takes our sin upon himself so God can justly punish our sin (2 Cor 5:21).

How, then, does this apply to parenting?

I think the process of progressive sanctification parallels our parenting. Salvation isn't complete the day we are converted. God continues to actually make us righteous through a process we call progressive sanctification.

Writing to the Philippians, Paul commands something strange for the sanctification of a believer: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Phil 2:12-13). Sanctification is a process by which we pursue faithfulness and through that God shows that he is working in us. Paul is serious when he commands believers to remain diligent and faithful, but then he says also that God is working our sanctification in us. It is the mystery of God's sovereignty and our responsibility.

A parent's role should be getting clearer. We do not seek a balance between our role as parents and God's role as the shaper of a child's heart. It is both. Work out your parenting with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in your kids.

We work because God is working in us. We parent because God is parenting through us. It is not an either/or dichotomy. Godly parenting is 100% diligence on the parents' part and 100% trust that God is working in us to produce salvation in our children.

An example of this is the response of the Israelites who just returned from exile to rebuild the city of Jerusalem to their opponents who sought to disrupt their rebuilding project. In Nehemiah 4, Sanballat mocked the Israelites and threatened to prevent them from finishing their work. Israel's response was a perfect example of diligent work trusting in the sovereignty of God. "And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night" (Neh 4:9). They trusted God to protect them as they set people around the city to protect them. Faithfulness is neither praying to God to work and doing nothing nor is it doing the work without praying to God.

And so goes parenting. We work to teach our kids about God and his work in the world through the word. We work to discipline them when they are disobedient. We train them with wisdom in godly living. We have high expectations for the person they are to become and we aren't surprised when their sin (or our own) trips them up along the way. And we do all this with complete hope, not in the effectiveness of our parenting, but in the power of God to use it for the good of our children.

I Believe in the Holy Spirit

With small children in tow it is difficult for me to pay close enough attention to every Sunday sermon that I can recall significant themes from the message. Pastor Jason preached a couple months ago on something I don’t even remember, but one line stuck in my mind, “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”  He gave a couple of examples in which this statement applied, but I immediately went to circumstances in my own life in which I wasn’t acting as though the Holy Spirit had the ability to overcome the obstacles I feel are insurmountable.

As I think through some circumstances in my life that simply seem impossible to resolve I have begun to preach to myself, "I believe in the Holy Spirit." It has become my anthem this year and I pray that it becomes part of my life. I should never say to myself, "That cannot happen. It is too difficult." Or I cannot see a single person as beyond the hope of the gospel thinking, "He will never be able to see it," or "She could never comprehend such difficult things." God made us all to revel in his glory. He made us all for relationships with him and with each other. Who am I to say any person or situation is beyond the power of God. It is by his Holy Spirit that he transforms lives and works incredible faith into his people.

I am a type A personality. I organize everything in my mind before putting it onto paper or into action. I plan everything out before making decisions. I need to see a clear path to success before taking any action. This does not lend itself well to trusting God because I tend to lean on my own ability to understand. But God is using seminary to break down this trust in myself and give me opportunities to test my conviction that "I believe in the Holy Spirit."

God has blessed me with a gift to understand things and make comprehensive connections quickly. So far this has been a great blessing to my family during seminary because it helps me accomplish more in the limited amount of time we have available for studying. However, my Hebrew class has been somewhat frustrating to me; not because I haven't been able to understand Hebrew, but because it is not organized in the way my mind finds useful. It has been a struggle to do the heavy lifting for the class without seeing the value in the way it is presented. But two people challenged my prideful assumptions. Andy Naselli made a comment to me at a picnic that learning Hebrew is a "worship of dependence." While we may not see the value of it in the midst of it, we do the hard work trusting that the Holy Spirit will help us endure and at some future date it will begin to transform into more of a worship of praise experience. It was a reminder that I can't fit everything into my mind's compartments, but I need to "believe in the Holy Spirit" to honor God through it.

Similarly, during class with John Piper, as I was marveling at what a privilege it was to learn from such a great mind he confessed that it is such a struggle for him to write. He slows down so much and puts so much thought into every word because he wants every word to be fruitful. If John Piper struggles that much to produce something of value for the church, what hope do I have? Why should I continue? My ability to quickly comprehend complex truths is nothing to boast in when I don't use it in a way that depends on God to help me do the heavy lifting and produce something of value. I need to remind myself that "I believe in the Holy Spirit" to dig deep into his word to come away changed and prepared for ministry, not simply adding more knowledge to my mental library.

So where has this conviction led our family today? As our youngest daughter continues through our second year of life we have decided that we are ready to add another child to our family. We chose to once again pursue a child through adoption, but wondered what the best option for our family is. Adoptions take a lot of time and cost a lot of money, neither of which we have much of. How are we going to pay for it when our checking account has been shrinking to pay for school? How are we going to find time to travel to pick up a child when we have very small windows of time in between school and work? As we considered our options we realized that we started to go down the path that seemed to make more sense to our concrete-sequential minds; the cheapest and most time controlled options were our preference. But God was having none of that. He wanted to remind us that "We believe in the Holy Spirit."

Through circumstances that I will share more of over the coming months God has given us a passion for children at an orphanage in Uganda. We know people in Uganda and have met others who have adopted from there. We are convinced that this is where God would have us, even though it is going to cost money that God will have to provide and it needs to be timed in only a way one who is in control of all time can arrange. But we are done trying to force God to work according to our own plan. We are ready to see the God do what seems impossible. We are convinced of this: "We believe in the Holy Spirit."

Rain fell, Floods came, and Winds Blew and Beat on That House

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” (Matthew 7:24-27, ESV)

Well, here we are in the Twin Cities.  I started my new job in Minneapolis at the end of July in order to get the transition started sooner than later to avoid piling it all up at once.  We finally got an offer on our house so we decided after a couple weeks of being apart that we should move the family up as well on the first weekend of August.  This would give the family some time to establish a routine before school started.  It seemed like a good plan.

Did I say I had a good plan?  Those never seem to work out.

We planned to do all of our moving in one day.  Molly had spent a couple of weeks packing and labeling the boxes to make it easier for our moving help to get our things where they belonged.  We ordered a large U-Haul truck and had a big group of people ready to help us fill it up.  After catching our breaths, we planned to drive and hour and a half to the Cities and meet another crew awaiting us to help unload.  We certainly wouldn't get settled into the home in one day, but we hoped to have all the boxes where they belonged and get the furniture set up by evening.  It was such a good plan.

Just to be sure, I contacted our landlord to make sure everything would be ready for us.  We were told it would be ready except for a bathroom remodel being done.  "We can handle that" we thought.  We wanted to be together and we could put up with some bathroom work since we were going to end up with a nicer bathroom.

So we set about our way to have our plans more than slightly modified.

Molly had a dream the night before our move that during the move we were going to lose all of our things.  She was a bit worried that something bad was going to happen, but I assured her that we'd done a lot to prepare for this and everything would work out just fine.  I told her that I had a dream that we moved in and the place was completely remodeled and was the most gorgeous place we'd ever lived in (I didn't really expect that.  It was just to say how silly dreams can be).

The day started off with the U-Haul guy telling us they didn't have the size of truck we ordered so they would upgrade us for free to the largest truck he had; six feet longer than what I calculated was necessary.  "Oh well" I thought.  "We'll just have some extra space."

It turns out that God was taking care of us in my ignorance, because that truck was extremely efficiently organized and we still didn't have enough room for all of our things.  It was a bit embarassing how much stuff we had accumulated in only 6 years in that house.  But we were appreciative to all the help we had for their hard work.  We were still right on time and ready to head up to our new home.

The drive went well; nothing was damaged on the trip so I knew Molly's dream was wrong.  We pulled up to our new home, called our move-in help and took a deep breath to prepare for just a couple more hours of hard work before getting some good rest.

And "the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that [family]."

Walking up to the front door, my heart sank, my eyes welled up in tears, and I feared for my family.  The front yard was full of furniture from the previous tenants.  The entire house was under construction and didn't look like it would be ready for many days.  There was construction equipment in every single room; tools, materials, waste, and a crew for multiple projects; not just a bathroom.  Every sort of uncleanness decorated the house from the previous tenants' failure to learn the use of a vacuum or a wash cloth; dirt all over the floors, mouse droppings in every corner, stains all over the carpets, moldy food filling the refrigerator and cabinets, and a couple years of grease covering the kitchen counters, floors, and stove.  Because of the mess, there seemed to be quite the attraction for small rodents to the home.

I had walked in before Molly and the kids could make it up to the door.  My mind swirled with all of the assurances I made to her that it would be alright and the doubts we'd had about leaving our comfortable small-town home behind to move to the big city and live on very little.  I felt like I was punched in the gut and laughed at for being such a failure of a provider for my family.

We briefly looked around the house and determined that it would be impossible for the family to move in for a while.  And then I looked at our moving truck out front staring me in the face as I wondered what to do with everything we owned.  I quickly determined to get the family out of there, so I sent my wife and the kids away to her sister's house until I could straighten it all out; not having a clue how many days that might take.

If we hadn't already made a committment to some other friends we would have backed out of this living arrangement and found a new place to live.  I talked to the landlord who didn't seem to understand why I was so upset.  He told his maintenance folks to remodel the bathroom and get the house clean for our arrival.  He put me in contact with the project manager to work something out temporarily.

The move-in crew arrived as I sat on the front steps in complete shock.  Not knowing what to do.  Should I stay in a hotel room?  Put the truck in storage for a week?  I couldn't afford that.  Plus, we needed things that were in the truck.  It's hard to take care of three small children without their clothes, diapers, beds, soaps, etc.

I decided to head into the house and clear some space in a few of the rooms that had the least amount of work to be done.  We would ignore the work Molly did organizing and labeling every box and shove everything into these few rooms.  We'll let the crew finish their work and be back next weekend to try moving in again.  So for the next three hours, my newest best friends and I hauled in and stacked everything we owned into the mess; spending every moment at the edge of sobbing uncontrollably.

As we unloaded the truck into the front yard and into the house, people would walk by or drive up eyeballing our items and asking if they could take them.  I couldn't understand why so many people were circling our things like vultures.  My heart sank as I feared that I moved us into a neighborhood where people would be waiting for the opportunity to take whatever we took our eyes off of.  Molly's dream was coming true; we really were going to lose everything.

We finally finished unloading the truck.  I was so tired (as I planned to be at the end of the day), but there would be no rest as I had hoped.  I contacted the crew manager and pleaded with him to leave my things alone and actually protect them for my family.  "Please lock every door and close every shade to keep those vultures away from everything I own."  

His response sent me into despair, "We don't have a key.  We've just been leaving the back door unlocked to get in every day to work."

I left the house and all that I owned in that house pleading with him to figure out a way to lock the door.  My friends offered to take me in for the night.  We took the truck back to the store, I climbed into his care, and sobbed.  On the drive to somewhere restful, my new friends sat in silence for a while and then offered to take this 30 minute drive to pray for peace in the midst of chaos, for wisdom to know what to do next, for faith to trust that God will use this for good, and to avoid bitterness resulting from seeming injustice.

This was not  how it was supposed to go.  Why am I moving my family here?  What am I putting them through?  What is God's purpose in all of this?

These questions will take a while to get answered.

I managed to get to my family and stay with my sister-in-law for the week.  We talked to our landlord who was very apologetic about the entire thing.  There was some serious miscommunication which resulted in the entire event.  He offered to do everything possible to remedy the situation and to even go beyond that to make our new home a much better place to stay for the next few years.

For some reason, God decided to let Satan pour out some tribulation on our family that day.  Two weeks later, we still do not have the house to where we had hoped it would be that Saturday evening.  There is a lot of work to be done to get our things organized and set up.  But we are moving in and making it our home.

We were so blessed to make some good friends through that trial; people we will continue to see regularly who were an incredible encouragement.  One of them encouraged me saying, "Satan knows the good that is going to come from the people who live in this house and will try to prevent it from happening."  It encouraged me to be reminded that God is going to use us to do some special things.  You know you are doing some great work of God when you run into opposition once in a while.

Another new friend told me, "God must really love you guys, because He seems to give the hardest tests to those He loves most."  When God has big responsibilities planned for someone, He tends to put them through a lot to rid them of their idols and focus their hearts more on Him.

When we get through this season, I look forward to the joys He has in store for my family; the good work that He has prepared for us to do.

Backwards Planning

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

9 pFor as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

- Isaiah 55:8

One of the most difficult things to get through my head is that God has a different plan than I do.  Even when we think we are striving to do His will, it often works out differently than we would have imagined.  It gets more difficult when you are certain you have been called to a specific task, career, or ministry and it doesn't come together like you think it should.

I know we have been called to this major life change to ministry training in Minneapolis.  The way our lives have been orchestrated and the lessons we have learned through those experiences has prepared us just for this time.  With the opening of doors and confirmation from trusted friends, we are certain this is the path.  Yet the steps down that path have been far different than expected.  We knew we had major things to accomplish and assumed there was a logical order: sell house, have baby, find new home, get a part-time job.

We couldn't get a new home without knowing what we were going to get out of our current home.  I figured I'd get a part-time job at some place close to where I lived.  I thought it would be easier to move out of our house before our baby arrived.  God had a different plan; almost exactly opposite of what I thought was necessary.

This entire summer actually reminds me of a book that God providentially brought to me during this transition time which helps me better understand this lesson.  Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales, wrote a very easy-to-read autobiography of his journey toward and ultimately away from the award-winning animation empire he created.  He had what he felt was a godly vision and calling, and putting his nose to the grindstone sought to change the world for God.  After it all came crashing down (too late for him, but wonderfully humbling and rewarding), he realized that he never sought God's wisdom and direction in how he might use his talents.  Phil decided on a path that he thought would best honor God and ignored all voices who may have tried to give wise input. His lesson learned too late was that we don't have the freedom to simply plan our own path and vision without abundant and consistent seeking after God's wisdom and righteousness; even if we think we have a godly vision.

This has been a great part of my learning process in this transition period.  I thought I had a plan that made sense which would create an incredible story that I could tell all my friends about how spectacularly God would provide.  I had a vision and a plan in which God would receive the most glory - and I would receive the most prosperity.

HA!  You'd think I would learn this lesson that God isn't impressed with my plans. He's got even better plans for my sanctification and His glory.

The direction hasn't changed, but the steps to get there certainly has: have baby - stay in comfortable house all summer while baby settles into her routine, announce resignation from work - get multiple high-paying job offers, get turned down for housing loans - stumble upon a last minute opening to live with another seminary family and save some money.  Final steps: sell home and move!

God seems to always set before us a decision between what we are comfortable with and what might be a rewarding risk. What most people don't see is that there is huge risk with comfortable; we risk not growing.  When things go easy, when we are prosperous, when we are safe and comfortable, we have no urgency to always lean on God.  We've been learning to seek wisdom in the decision process and have begun to more and more choose the uncomfortable, risky option because we've seen in the end how God blesses us with more joy and faithfulness through it.

The latest decision which makes our families think we're crazy is that we have chosen to move into an old, large house with another seminary family.  We've always been comfortable living the suburban life in a newer home on a quarter acre lot with nice grass, air-conditioning, and separate living space away from people who annoy us.  Now we are moving into a home with people we barely know (not blindly, mind you, we have been doing our homework), to share living space and be vulnerable to one another in our weaknesses; trusting that God will use our different personalities to mold each of us to be more like Christ and use each of our talents to support and encourage one another for the next few years.

It is certainly a risk to our own comfortable lifestyle.  But when did Jesus ever promise us a life of comfort and ease?  I see the opposite in the New Testament; in the face of difficulty resulting from faithful choices, the church works as a family, sharing resources in order to encourage one another for even more faithful endeavors.