Grace Accomplished and Applied

In a fortnight, Granada Church begins a new cycle of community groups that tracks with our Sunday worship messages.  The title of the new series is Character Counts: Putting on the Character of Christ.  During our nine week study we will consider the seven deadly sins and also the beatitudes of Jesus as a means of developing Christian character.  Even now I wonder what came over me to brave such a journey together.  Rather than apologize, let me explain.  I love the gospel because it’s true and probably because I need it so much.  We have been pleased to see the modern church refocus her attention on grace. We have rightly challenged teaching that said: God does some of the work of salvation but we have to do the rest.  We know better.  Jesus does it all.

However, our focus on grace has had unintended consequences.  We have rediscovered the giving of grace, that God receives the least, the lost, the littlest and the losers (which pretty much describes me). But, we have not explored and enjoyed the extent of this grace.  We’ve been captured and enthralled by one glint of light shining from one facet of the gem.  In a sense, we’ve sold grace short.  We believed that Jesus came and died so that we could be ourselves and live authentically.  We’ve believed that nothing should diminish my true wonderful self, and Jesus came and opens the way for me to live my life, and to the fullest.

The problem with this is that God promises and plans far more. God intends with grace not only to bring us to himself, but also to conform us to the image of Jesus.  He intends to make us like Jesus.  Being a Christian isn’t really about self-actualization or self-fulfillment.  It is about Jesus and his kingdom coming to you.  It is about making a completely new you.  ”If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…” captures it pretty well.

Now if this is true, how is this going to happen? It doesn’t wait until your death as some teach.  It takes place here and now through this applied grace of Jesus. This is what we will be looking at in the weeks ahead.  How is it applied? How can we we experience and live this grace promised and supplied in the gospel? This is what we will explore together over the coming weeks.

Next post: Why the Seven Deadly Sins?

Pray!

Do you pray?   I don’t know about you, but over the years my prayer life has come in waves.  There have been times when I have been a passionate pray-er. During those moments, my prayer life has been steady and rich.  My heart has been hot and my passion for God deep.  These times are often followed by a season when my prayers seem as dry as dust.  I feel spiritually anemic and must force myself to pray. I pray little and feel guilty for not praying more.  I tell people I am praying for them when I need to be asking them to pray for me.  It is in these times of struggling prayer, times when I find no joy in praying, that I remember prayer is a discipline.  In the same way that conversation and the sharing of our lives together sustains my relationship with my wife Sandy, prayer nourishes and sustains my relationship with God.  Some evenings I return home so exhausted I feel I have nothing left.  But, Sandy pursues me and invites me to open my life up and share it with her. In so doing, our relationship grows.

In the same way, God comes to me when my heart grows cold and he fans the fire.  He pursues me through the experiences of my day, and the needs that are thrust upon me. Sometimes it requires the shock of desperate need or the awareness of beauty to feed the fire.  It is God moving through my feelings of urgency to drive me to my knees.  He is calling me to share my life with him.  Of course, he knows it all, but relating is communicating.  That’s what he wants, why I was created, and the key to prayer.  I see Jesus sharing this with the Father and I want it too!

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Luke 5

One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. Luke 6:12

What does your cycle of prayer look like?  Where are you at this moment?  Please pray for me.

Toe-to-Toe

How do you pray?  What do your prayers sound like?  Are you polite?  Soft spoken? Reserved?  Our worship study of the life of Abraham forced that question upon us. Why?  God invites to Abraham to talk with him about his plan to go down to Sodom and see if things are as bad as he has heard.

Then the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.” Genesis 18

God speaks these words in such a way that makes it clear he wants Abraham to overhear.  We do the same thing when we speak loud enough to be overheard by someone we want to draw into conversation.  What sort of relationship must God have with Abraham if God will not make a major move without talking it through with him?  Why would God consult Abraham?  God plans to reveal his character to Abraham in a shocking way.  God wants Abraham to challenge him based on His character.  God wants Abraham to argue his side.  Abraham does not disappoint God.

Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Genesis 18

Abraham prays boldly: “Lord, this is not you.  You are the righteous judge. This is not your way.”  Abraham uses stronger words than this.  The Hebrew word is: “profane.”  He says, “Lord, this is wrong.  Do not do this thing.”  Who dares go toe-to-toe with God?  Who dares to challenge God and call him to account?  Who can do this and live?  No sooner has Abraham spoken these words than he realizes this himself.

Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes…” Genesis 18

But, God never corrects him.  God never gives the slightest indication that he is offended in any way by Abraham’s bold challenge.  What follows is the longest recorded prayer in the book of Genesis, the substance of which is Abraham’s pleading for Sodom.  Though Lot, Abraham’s nephew lives there, Abraham takes up a far greater cause than the safety of his family. He pleads for the city.  He asks God to spare the city for the sake of the righteous.

I read this and I am ashamed of my prayers.  How often am I the pleading priest calling upon God to show his mercy?  How often have I pressed God to consider his character or his promises? How often have I taken up the cause of my city or even my children with such bold prayer?  Philip Yancey brings up just this point in his book on prayer.  He cites the boldness of Sojourner Truth who went toe-to-toe with God when she could not pay her bills and when her son was sick and close to death.

Oh, God you know how much I am distressed, for I have told you again and again. Now, God, help me get my son. If you were in trouble as I am, and I could help you as you can help me, think I wouldn’t do it?  Yes, God, you know I would do it.

Why did Sojourner do this?  She knew and walked with God.  When questioned about her bold prayers, she said: “Let others say what they will of he efficacy of prayer, I believe in it and I shall pray.  Thank God! Yes, I shall always pray.” God heard her and answered her prayer

Might it be that God is honored when we come to him with such boldness? Might it be that God wants us to go toe-to-toe with him that we might better learn his ways? Might it be that he has called us to be priests pleading with him for our family and our world?  What do your prayers sound like?

Ruthless

Okay, I haven’t blogged in a while.  Little to say.  A few weeks ago we launched a new Granada message series entitled “Ruthless Trust,” a study from the life of Abraham.  I stole the title from a Brennan Manning book I read some years back.  Over the years many people who are not Jesus-followers have asked me what Christianity is all about.  I feel that the best single word to define it is: “trust.”  Yes, we talk of grace, and it is all of grace.  But, the word trust captures the  essence of the no-holds-barred kind-of faith Jesus calls for.  Think for a moment of Abraham.  God seemed to be pushing him to his limits at every turn.  I’ll give you and your wife a baby, but let’s wait until it’s impossible and everyone (including you) has given up hope. Let’s make it laughable.  Get it?  How’s it going to happen?  You’re going to have to trust me.   Abraham, you need to leave home and go to the place I will give you.  No doubt this will expose you to danger and isolation.  But, you’re going to have to trust me.  No sooner does Abraham arrive in the “land of promise” and a famine threatens to destroy everything.  He can’t stay there.  He must head to Egypt for safety.

If I didn’t know better, I would think that the God we worship is the divine prankster drawing us to places he knows will test our mettle.  We see this repeatedly in Jesus.  He seemed determined to get his disciples out into boats on the water at times that would frighten any seasoned sailor.  Not just once did Jesus do this.  It seemed to be a repeated strategy used to bring the disciples to brink of their trust.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  God proved faithful in each moment.  But in the process, he tested their patience, scared them half to death, or left them befuddled by his actions.

We should take comfort in all this because this resembles our experience with God.  Might it be that God does just these things because these are the moments when we can get closest to him?  When we come to know him?  When we can see and enjoy his presence?

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you; in God whose word I praise, in God I put my trust, fearing nothing; what can men do to me? Psalm 56:3-4

Gerald May has said:

I know that God is loving and that God’s loving is trustworthy.  I know this directly, through the experience of my life.  There have been plenty of times of doubt, especially when I used to believe that trusting God’s goodness meant I would not be hurt,  But having been hurt quite a bit, I know God’s goodness goes deeper than both pleasure and pain–it embraces them both.

The Center

I hope it’s not a fad. A wave of new books about Jesus seems to be hitting the shore of Christendom.  Here are three of the many titles:  Jesus Manifesto by Sweet and Viola, Jesus the Fool by Michael Frost, and ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church by Hirsch and Frost. Let’s hope that authors are not riding out the economy by cashing in on the popularity of Jesus.  It’s true:  The Pope and even Deepak Chopra have published books recently about Jesus.  Of course, Jesus is a compelling figure.  Even his critics have to admit his extraordinary influence.  From Jesus Christ Superstar to The Passion of he Christ, people remain fascinated by Jesus.  Arguably, there is no one who has had a greater impact on human history. H.G. Wells remarked,

I am a historian, I am not a believer,but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history.  Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.

For this reason we need to know about and talk about Jesus. This isn’t the only reason.  What Christianity teaches is that Christ is the center of all things. (Dietrich Bonhoeffer titled his book correctly:  Christ the Center.) It teaches that all things have their meaning in and through Jesus.  The goal of the discussion of Jesus is not simply information.  It is transformation.   As Sweet and Viola explain:

Our plea is that you will bring the Lord Jesus Christ back into view, making Him the lighthouse of your life and giving Him His rightful place of centrality, supremacy,and sovereignty.  We implore you: Make Christ the center.  Make Him the circumference.  And fill in the difference with Him as well.

All I can say is, “It’s about time.”

Life Together

Granada is midway through an experiment in Christian community.  We began Easter Sunday with an eight-week cycle of community groups in neighborhoods all across central Miami-Dade County.  Our goal has been to see our Granada church family experience Christ in their midst through the presence of other Christians and to see new relationships form and flourish.

Bonhoeffer

My views of Christian community are the product of growing up in the church and an early reading of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book Life Together.   I am one of those people in ministry who does not hate church.  Yes, the church I grew up in had problems, but the institutional church never captured my heart.  People did.  I was surrounded by a trans-generation Christian support group.  The church for me wasn’t meetings or committees.  It was the people. Because of this, I never felt let down by the church.  Of course, people were bound to disappoint.  But, I disappointed others as well.  The people God swept into my life through the church nurtured and served me and helped me become what I am today.  The problem is that many of us have been involved in church without getting close to people, without really becoming part of the community.

In the first chapter of Bonhoeffer’s book, he warns us against having what he calls a wish-dream.  That is, he warns us of the danger of loving our ideal of what the church should be more than we love individuals.  He says:

He who loves his dream [his ideal of what the church should be] more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the later, even though his personal intentions be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial…. God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious.  The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself.  He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brothers and God accordingly.

Now Bonhoeffer is not discouraging us from desiring a greater sense of community.  We should long for this.  He is saying, God does not command us to love an idea of what the church is to be. God calls us to love the actual people, the community itself.  How can we know if we are putting our ideal before the people?  Do we refuse fellowship because we feel we are better than others?  Do we find ourselves constantly criticizing others or the church as a whole?  This may indicate that you love your own ideal of the church more than the people.  At times when I have struggled with this I can see that my thoughts gave me an excuse for not sharing the life of the community.  They were part of a self-protective strategy I was using to remain safe and not risk being vulnerable or hurt by others.  The problem was that I was missing the wonder of being in community with other Christians.  Bonhoeffer learned all about this.  As a young pastor, the Germans imprisoned him and cut him off from Christian fellowship.  Amidst the deprivations of prison, Bonhoeffer longed for community with other believers.  He was never released from prison. But, he left us his call to take community seriously and to share our life together.

What Do Men Do When they Go on Retreat?

Last weekend about 25 Granada men attended the “Gospel Man” conference at Willow Creek Church in Orlando.  Mo Leverett of Desire Street ministry in New Orleans provided the music, and the speakers were Scotty Smith of Christ Community Church, Franklin, TN, and Nate Larkin of the Samson Society.  So what do men talk about during a weekend together?  Both speakers shared the story of their discovery of grace.  Actually, we heard about how God searched them out and found them.  Scotty used the book of Jonah and his flight from God and grace as a window through which to show us how he had “clung to worthless idols and forfeited the grace that could have been his.”  The unexpected loss of his mother in a car wreck when he was eleven and his unresolved grief opened up a gash of self-protection that pressed him to protect his heart from pain no matter what it cost.  It wasn’t until a series of events led to a breakdown at age 50 that the healing from his childhood loss began to come. Scotty explained that as a pastor he’d been preaching grace for decades as he needed gospel restoration himself.

Scotty Smith's book in grace.

Scotty reflected the need men have to heal from their wounds and see the gospel worked out in their relationships.  His story showed that unresolved grief and anger do not go away on their own.  They produce strategies of self-protection that hinder relationships and block the full flow of grace.

Nate Larkin of the Samson Society shared with us the story of his plunge into sexual addiction.  He retold the stories of David and Samson showing us why Samson failed and David succeeded in the end.  David had friends.  His life was filled with a cast of supportive people while Samson lived and worked alone.  Nate’s story is shocking to say the least.  While in seminary to become a pastor, he had an encounter with sex on a field trip to see how illicit sex in its many forms was hurting people.  Nate became fascinated with it and soon was drawn into the shadows of pornography.  He explained how after he became a pastor he saw a prostitute on the way to church to preach. The fracture was deep for Nate and bandaids and promises couldn’t save him.  It was in a support group with friends who would hold him accountable and hold him up that Nate was finally able to apply grace and walk away from the shame.  [Read Nate's Samson and the Pirate Monks for the full story.]

Nate Larkin of the Samson Society

Nate gave hope for men in recovery and challenged us to get into community together. Nate explained how the Samson Society emerged from his experience.  What is the Samson society?  It is a organic group of men who have covenanted together for mutual support, confidentiality and accountability.   Imagine how different Samson’s life might have been if he had not attempted to be the “loner hero.”  The truth is that true heroes are never loners.  We need other men in our lives to be healthy.

Our Granada Men have the challenge of taking the wisdom of Scotty and Nate and applying their life lessons in community.  This past year a number of Granada Men launched men’s fraternity.  They invited the men of Granada to go a gospel journey together, to acknowledge and begin to heal their wounds, and to develop the kind of community that will enable them to experience authentic manhood.  If you would like to get involved in this movement, hunt down Marcos Ruiz.

“Through many dangers, toils and snares…we have already come. T’was Grace that brought us safe thus far… and Grace will lead us home”

What You Do After

What am I here for?  That’s a question many Christians find themselves asking.  Think about it. Many people when they came to Christ were led to believe that our time here on earth is really a waiting game.  We’re all waiting to die and go to heaven.  That’s when God’s plan really comes together.  That’s what being a Christian is about.  Sure we were told that we needed to share this gospel with other people so that the whole world could know Jesus.  But, that is pretty much the extent of what God has in store for us until we reach heaven.

Now I can understand where this perspective came from.  The church has tried to focus on grace, and well it should.  That means we need to remind people that our place with God and our future with God comes from His favor given freely to us through Christ.  It is not the result of anything we give to God.  It’s a free gift, scripture tells us clearly.  As the church has rightly turned our focus away from our efforts for salvation, there’s been an unintended consequence.  We’ve missed the point that while grace brings us to God (and keeps us secure), God intends on transforming our character right here on earth.  He’s not waiting till heaven to start that project. It is important what we do.  This isn’t a new teaching. The Bible is filled with statements about this.  Here are a few…

Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. Romans 6:19

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Philippians 2:12-13

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer 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. Romans 12:1-2

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:22-24

What’s clear is that God has a plan for you after you come to faith. His plan is for right here and right now.  His purpose is to renew you, to conform you to Christ. How does this happen?  Through character transformation and through engaging you in his project to redeem the creation.  But, is that the way we see it?  I’ve begun to read N. T. Wright’s new book entitled After You Believe.  He’s written on this topic as a corrective to the currents sweeping the western church.  (I do not agree with N. T. Wright on everything he has written.  But, I have found his challenge to the church in this volume very helpful.)  What’s most important is that we know scripture and understand God’s plan for his people.  We need to know what we are here for.  Do you?

A City Movement

How does a gospel movement move beyond one neighborhood or one church and sweep through an entire city?  That was the question of a recent conference I attended here in Miami called City to City. City to City is a network made up of major leaders of churches in large North American cities (those with more than 1 million inhabitants).  This gathering was attended by leaders from California to Mexico, and from Canada to New York.  Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Church in Manhattan, was the keynote speaker for the conference.  Tim was here in Miami to encourage leaders to pray and work toward starting a gospel movement in their city.  What is a gospel movement?  Chuck Colson, who started Prison Fellowship Ministry, explains what happens when people in prison begin to turn to Christ.  As people begin to follow Jesus, their behaviors begin to change.  As the number of Christians in a prison increases soon the whole tone and tenor of the prison is transformed.  There is a tipping point in this process when there are enough Jesus-followers in a particular prison that the nature of the prison is changed deeply and extensively.  It happens when more than 10% of the prison population becomes involved in ministry, serving others and sharing what they have received.  Something of an explosion takes place.  It becomes a movement.

What does it take for this to happen in a city?  According to Keller, there must first be an effective way for communicating and embodying the gospel tailored to the specific city.  At the same time, there must also be a number of church planting movements taking place across denominations.  Finally, there are other systems or networks that support the growing synergy.  They include:

• Kingdom-centered prayer.  United prayer movements in the city.
• Specialty evangelistic ministries thrive (such as high school or college campus ministries).
• Justice and mercy ministries.  (Christians begin to ask, “How can I make the city a better place to live?”)
• Faith and work initiatives emerge.  (Christians begin to gather based on calling.  They ask for example, “What does it mean to be a Christian lawyer in our city?”)
• Artists.  Christian artists begin to resource each other and support each other.  We begin to see an renewal of the arts in our city.
• Education and family support institutions emerge such as counseling centers and schools.
• Leadership development.  As system emerges to identify and train new leaders.
• Over lapping leaders who begin to share a passion and love for the city.

Now Keller also suggests that as these systems develop there is a tipping point for the city, a time with the city becomes deeply effected by the gospel.  How might our church partner with other churches and ministries in Miami for such a gospel movement right here?  How could you best be part of this movement as God raises up leaders for the future?

Breaking Through to Community

As we sat down for our community group, one of the couples made a difficult admission.  The rubber tires on their car had begun to separate making it dangerous for them to drive. It was a surprise that they shared this bit of information because, well, we just don’t admit our needs.  We certainly don’t reveal them in public.  But something had happened in our community group after we’d been meeting together for a few months.  People became honest.  We learned about kids not doing well in school. Parents shared their anguish about their son who was experimenting with marijuana, and yes, the family in financial trouble began to open up.  Our group had begun to break through to true community.

The way it works is this: As new groups begin there is false community.  People all look and sound good.  There is no evidence of deep needs or wounds.  People are polite but not real.  This is not true community.  When people are guarded and afraid of coming out of hiding, it is hard to love each other and support each other.  But when people begin to trust and share their lives with each other, then God does amazing things among them.  The night the couple shared about their financial struggles with our group, two other couples pitched in to buy them new tires.  Our prayers also changed.  They gained a new honesty and intensity that we’d never experienced before.  The result was a depth of relationships that we all agreed we needed and personal and spiritual growth we never anticipated.

This is one reason why I am such an advocate of community groups.  Yes, Jesus commanded us to come together in community.  That should be reason enough.  I think our group experienced at least part of the reason Jesus asked us to do this.

²Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6

Granada is starting 19 new community groups beginning the week of Easter.  Our hope is that more and more of our church will benefit from Life Together.