Tuesday, November 30, 2010

At Just the Right Time...

When the right time came, God sent his Son.
Galatians 4:4a (Living Bible)
Jesus came at the right time, God’s time, for the Jewish people. For centuries they had been told by prophets to watch for the special one, the Savior/Messiah from God. Each day they prayed for him to come, and some of them tried to get themselves and the Jewish nation ready for him. The Pharisees thought that if they obeyed the law of the Old Testament thoroughly enough God would send the Messiah. The time Jesus was born was a time of great expectation. Because the Jews had languished for centuries under the control of the Persians, the Greeks, and then the Romans, their desperation grew; every year they were even more sure the time was right. The stage was set in the Jewish community for the entrance of God’s Son. At just the right time, God sent His Son.

Jesus also came at the right time, God’s time, for all the rest of mankind. The Jews tended to think the Messiah would be theirs exclusively, but the Old Testament taught that he would also be a light to all the world. This was never easy for Jews to understand, not even for Jesus’ first disciples. They realized that Jesus came for the whole world only after the resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, the time of Jesus’ birth has long been recognized as a pivotal time in world history. Some of the historians and observers of the day spoke of a general feeling of expectation in the entire Roman world. The Bible even gives evidence of this. The wise men were not Jews, but they must have been looking for something great to happen as they studied the stars and discovered the star that led them to Bethlehem. The Roman world was looking for something to believe in. At just the right time, God sent His Son.

Jesus came at the right time, God’s time for me. I was only twelve years old when God, using two friends just a couple of years older than me, brought Jesus into my life. Of course I knew about him before that, but that’s when he came to live in my heart. It was just the right time for me. I was trying to figure out who I was and what my life would be like. My future could have gone a lot of ways and many of them not very good. At just the right time, God sent His Son.

Jesus is still coming at the right time, God’s time, for people today. There are people around us who God has been preparing for the coming of His Son to their lives. Look around. A lot of people have been shaken lately by the economy and the terror situation. The divorce rate indicates to me that a lot of people are starved for love. People are lonely, and just plain scared of dying. God wants to use us to reach them the same way he used my two friends to reach me. Even though we are by no means perfect, God wants to use us. We are his hands and feet. We are what people see of his heart. He has chosen us to be the way he loves the world. At a literally crucial (the root of “crucial” is cross) time for them as at the crossroads of their lives, they can choose a life with meaning or a meaningless existence. They can choose life or death.

This is the right time for us to share what we know about Jesus. This is a time when people are finding that other things they have trusted in are not trustworthy. Many people feel that their world has been turned upside down. This is a time when they need God’s Son to be born in their hearts. At just the right time, God sent His Son.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Growing Up or Getting Old

Christ-followers are to spend their lives growing up to be like Jesus. Check out Ephesians 4:11-13, if you don’t think so. We are to become mature. For me, that means I need to grow into my gray hair. What does it mean to become mature? How can I tell if I am getting there? First, let’s tackle that by looking at what maturity isn’t.

Maturity Is Not:
 Age – adding years makes you old, not mature
 Appearance – as lovely as gray hair is, it does not mean that you are mature
 Achievement – neither making money, nor being famous make you mature. Watch any program on the E television network, and find out.
 Academics – maturity does not come automatically with diplomas and degrees

Maturity is determined by attitude and approach to life. Maturity has to do with how you are when other people aren’t paying attention, in the moments when, and in the places where, no one else sees. What others think of you is recognition. What God and you think of you is your character.
So how can I tell if I am growing into my gray hair? How do I measure my maturity? Our measuring stick is the Word of God, and the book of James gives us five ways to measure maturity.

Five Measures of Maturity (from the Book of James)
I. A mature person is positive under pressure
"Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance and perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4
How do you handle problems? Do you persevere through them and learn from them?

II. A mature person is sensitive to others.
"If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, `Love your neighbor as yourself' you are doing right." James 2:8
Mature people are empathetic, they help those in need, and they are not snobs (see James 2:1-6).

III. A mature person has mastered his mouth.
"We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check." James 3:2
The self-control that indicates maturity begins with tongue control (See James 3-11). Mature people praise and encourage others. They use their speech to build up, not tear down.

IV. A mature person is a peacemaker, not a troublemaker.
“Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you--who are you to judge your neighbor?” James 4:11-12

Truly mature people refrain from gossip and judging. They know how destructive such talk can be and they refrain from it.

V. A mature person is patient and prayerful.
"Be patient then, brothers, until the Lord's coming ... As you know, we consider blessed those who persevere." James 5:7, 11

Patience is a mark of maturity and is learned only by waiting. (Annoying, but true.) A mature Christian has learned that waiting is often part of the answer to his prayer.

So how are you doing with these marks of maturity? Are you maturing or just getting old? Are you ripening or rotting on the vine? It’s up to you, because you get to choose your attitude. Make the choice to grow up and become more and more like our big brother, Jesus.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Who is Served and Who Serves in the Church?

To put this in business terms, the church has both internal and external customers. (Customers are people the church needs to serve.). The external customers are the people who are not actively involved in the church. They include (1) so-called “fringe people”, former members, relatives of members and friends of members who attend from time to time and would call on church in a time of personal crisis; (2) seekers, people in the community who are actively searching for something the church can provide, ie. the message of forgiveness and new life, or a caring fellowship of believers; and (3) folks who have no current interest in the church and do not yet know that the message of the church is for them.

The church’s internal customers are its members. They need the resources and training to be able to deepen their personal relationships with Jesus and to determine and execute the ministry God has for them to do. All members of the church should be active growing Christians who minister to the church and community in some way. It is important for the church to provide the members with opportunities to develop deep, rich relationships with each other.

The internal customers of the church are also the workers. Their work is voluntary. The problem that many church members have is that they act like the church exists to please them. Though the church, unlike businesses, is financed not by external customers, but by the generous contributions of its own workers, the purpose is to make new disciples. If the church is to accomplish its purpose, it must be focused on bringing more and more people to know Jesus, and serve all its customers—those who are members, workers, and givers, and those who are fringe, inactive, and not yet interested. If the mission of the church is carried out, external customers become internal customers, and become part of the workforce and income base of the church. Actually, this is a way of saying the church seeks to make more and more people part of the family, so they can share in the work and support it with love and fellowship. As they grow and become grounded in the Lord and the church they should take on more responsibility for the mission of reaching others.

All this is to say that church planning must take into account both the needs of the members (internal customers) and the needs of the community (external customers). Sometimes, this is problematic for churches. If all the church is concerned about is its current membership, it easily becomes a little island of Christianity in the sea of the world. However, Christ commanded the church to reach out to those who don’t know Him. So, it must stay relevant to the predominant culture without watering down the message Christ gave it to proclaim. The task is not only to celebrate the fact that her members are going to heaven because of what Jesus did for them on the cross, but also to take as many other people with them as they can. The church has to work hard to show the world that what it proclaims is important, life changing, and a better way for those in the world. The architecture, the maintenance of the building, the style of worship, especially the music and the sermons must be attractive to non-members. The church must be ever mindful that the impression it makes on people may well be the only impression those people have of Christ.