No Separation

“The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love, he will exult over you with loud singing as on a day of festival,” (Zephaniah 3:17).  

I spent most of my life believing I was separated from God because of my sins and I had to work to get back into his good graces. I grew up believing God was like my dad, he was ultra strict, quick to punish and someone to fear more than love.

     Scriptures like the one above, or Romans 8:35-39, which speaks of God’s amazing love, baffled me. How could God love me when I was so far removed from him?

     I did not understand incarnation. I did not realize that incarnation refers to God taking on flesh, and not just any flesh, but all carnal flesh. “In carnal flesh,” is how some define incarnation. I did not understand that Jesus came to show us we were not separated – at least on the part of God.

     God never separated himself from man; we turned our back on him. He never stopped loving us; we simply stopped loving him. We determined we didn’t need God and, because of his love for us, he never forced himself on us. We built the gap of separation and then we blamed the gap on him. We believed the lie that God was too holy to be in our presence. We believed the lie that God could not be in the presence of sin. Further, we fell for the lies that we are not good enough, or worthy or loved. This is not the gospel.

     The incarnation tells us the truth about God’s love. “For he so loved the world…” The gospel is not that we can receive Jesus into our lives; the amazing and good news of the gospel is that Jesus has received us into his life. He’s brought us into the relationship he lives and shares with the Father and the Spirit. The gospel – or good news – is that we are in a union with Christ. At the very core of our being is Jesus Christ, in union with us and with the world. The good news is that we are good, we are worthy, we are loved, we are already in Christ and he is in us.

     God became flesh (incarnation) so he could dwell among us (Emmanuel). No separation. That is Good News!  – Rick

Love Much and Love Well

“I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you, will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil 1:6).  

The “good work” Paul was referring to in his letter to the brethren in Philippi, was “partnership in the gospel” (verse 4). They were working together sharing the good news of the gospel. Because of this partnership, Paul told them whenever he thought of them he gave glory and praise to God.

     Reading this passage gives me pause to thank God for the many partnerships I’m involved with. My good marriage is the result of a good partnership – with Cheryl and me working toward the same goals. The ministry we do here in Christ Fellowship Church is the result of many people working together – in partnership – to make an impact in our church family and community. And the mission we are involved in is the direct result of our partnering with other ministry leaders around the globe, and with God in sharing his love with others.

     I’m also blessed to represent CFC in partnership with the denomination’s International team as we work together to share the Gospel around the world. And I’m blessed to work in partnership with our Church Administration team to encourage and support pastors and leadership teams around the region.

     But the best partnership of all – a partnership each and every one of us is a part of – is our partnership with Jesus in his grace, (see verse 7). The free grace that Jesus gives us reminds us that he was and is willing to share of himself with us and make us partners in his glory.

      Because we are partners in his glory – as a result of living in his grace – we know we are never alone in what God has called us to do. He never asks us to reach out to someone he hasn’t already reached out to. He never asks us to partner with someone he hasn’t already partnered with. And he never asks us to love someone he doesn’t already love.

     Paul sums up this partnership this way: “So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well” (1 Phil 1:10, MSG). Like Paul, it is my constant prayer that we partner with each other and with God by loving much and loving well. 

A Growing Family

Last week our future son-in-law, Chris, got down on one knee and asked our daughter to marry him. He had talked to me more than a month before and I told him we would be proud to welcome him to our family. Kayla said “YES!!!” The house is now abuzz with wedding plans. We are excited to add to our family.

     When Cheryl and I got married, her dad immediately welcomed me into his family. In many ways I’m closer to him than I ever was to my own father. Dad Campbell looks at and loves each of his children-in-law as his own children. Cheryl and I plan to follow his example as our children wed.

      Isn’t this what God does? Every child is a precious child of our Papa. Note, I did not say every child born. I mean every child – whether that child ever had the opportunity to take a breath of life or not – is a precious child of God. Remember, he says he knew us before we were born (Jeremiah 1:1). He says he has loved us and chosen us before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4).

     This should be comforting news to anyone who has miscarried or aborted a child. In the case of abortion, God does not hold those decisions against us; all sin has been forgiven in Christ. I really wish more Christians would focus a bit more on God’s love and less on judgment when it comes to abortion. We may all be pro-life, but we are also pro children of God realizing all of us make all kinds of choices that hurt others and God loves us in spite of ourselves.

     This Sunday is called Christ the King Sunday. It’s a reminder to us that Christ is not the king of this world, he is the King of Kings and his kingdom is a growing kingdom, welcoming all who want to come in just as we are. His kingdom includes all of God’s children – I emphasize ALL!

     Just as Cheryl and I are excited to add Chris to our family, God is thrilled to add all to his family. We can’t force Chris to love us (though he already does) – just as God never forces anyone to love him. But he welcomes all as the loving Papa of a growing family. – Rick

Books, Books, and More Books

This week I went through my many bookcases and packed up seven boxes of books I don’t need or no longer want. I donated the books to a church in Batesville who is having a book sale with the proceeds going to a shelter for abused women and children.

I love to read, but I have to admit that many of the books I donated have not been read. I’ve accumulated them over the years from conferences or from friends or from distributors who wanted me to preview their book.

I still have a couple hundred books – again, some of which I’ve not yet read. My problem is there are too many new books being published on subjects I’m interested in, so it seems I’m always behind. On top of that, there are books I just “have to read” recommended by friends and coworkers. Some times I relate to what King Solomon said, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.”

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I get so caught up in books and studying and learning, that I forget to simply spend time with God. And that’s what Solomon was pointing out. He started by saying, “Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth”… and he reminds us to pay attention to the words of our One Shepherd – Jesus.

Books are wonderful, and we should read – a lot. But we should never let reading get in the way of our relationship. God doesn’t want us just to read about him; he wants us to spend time with him, to talk with him, to enjoy being in his presence, to enjoy his creation and his love.

Reading that helps us see, understand or spend time with God is good, but it never replaces the relationship.

Every library is filled with books, books, and more books, but nothing beats simply sitting in God’s presence and enjoying him. – Rick

A Bit of Respect

 

Teaching a Little Respect

For years the children of the neighborhood have used our back yard as a shortcut to school. It didn’t bother us too much; our only rule was they had to walk their bikes through the yard. And we tried to keep them from walking through the garden, but that didn’t always work.

     But then my grandmother decided to move to Ohio and we knew we had to make a change. The children walk right past her bedroom window and with my grandmother’s anxiety issues, we knew that was not a good idea. So we had our backyard fenced in. 

     I actually felt badly that I was taking the short-cut away from the children, so I explained the change to as many children and parents as I could. The parents understood and the children simply adapted and walked through the neighbor’s yard.  This week, though, the neighbor got his yard fenced in. With no more access through backyards, the children have to walk three more blocks to school and have to go up a hill and then down a hill.

     Again, I started to feel badly for them, but then started to think about my childhood. Not only did I walk more than a mile to school each day, sometimes it was through more than a foot of snow, uphill both ways, with shoes that were too small. (Ok, I exaggerated about the uphill both ways and the shoes.)  But you get the point.

     Are we going overboard in making things easier for children? And have we slacked off in teaching children to respect the property of others? Many fences in our neighborhood have gone up because children don’t think twice about walking through people’s yards and gardens.

     I believe one of the responsibilities we have as adults is to teach the younger generation about respecting others and respecting the property of others. Teaching respect early leads to them understanding what it means to respect God. And one of the most effective ways to teach is through modeling. May God help me set a good example.  – Rick

Truth is Our Reality

A few weeks ago I wrote about the power of affirmation as I shared an experience of being affirmed by several young adults. Affirmation is speaking life into a person, or as Jesus would likely put it, speaking truth into a person.  For example, in John 8 when the woman was caught in adultery and brought before Jesus, he spoke the most powerfully affirming words she could hear, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and stop doing things that hurt you, you almost got yourself killed.” (Yes, I paraphrased a bit.) Imagine the power of the words, “Neither do I condemn you.” Jesus spoke truth – he did not come to condemn, but to save and to give life.
       Later, in that same chapter of John, Jesus was talking to a group of Jews about who he was – the son of the Father. Then he said, “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.” (The Message) I love this translation because I believe it really hits what Jesus was trying to say.
       What did Jesus tell us that we can live out? The truth that we are already INcluded in him. He is the 2^nd Adam who took all of humanity upon himself and became sin for us. He has redeemed us. He has reconciled us to the Father. Through Jesus we are forgiven. Through Jesus we have salvation. We are the new creation spoken of in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. In Colossians 2 Paul emphasizes that Jesus is our reality, we have been filled up in him. We’ve been raised with Christ and are already in the presence of the Father. This is the truth we live in. This is the truth that changes the way we think about God and the way we think about ourselves. This truth is our new reality. This is the truth that sets us free.
       The problem is, we forget this truth and we try to live in another reality. We look in the mirror and see the old man and start to believe that’s who we are. We see sin in our lives and believe we’ve got to start over and somehow convince God that we are improving. We think we’ve let God down and we’ve disappointed him, therefore he is disappointed in us. We know our thoughts and our words and our actions aren’t good enough to be considered holy and righteous so we look at holiness and righteousness as something to acquire, something to pursue and we miss out on the reality that we already have both holiness and righteousness because of Jesus and because of the love of our Father who is more committed to us than we can ever be to him.
       We forget our reality when we look around at the problems in the world and start to worry. We see the economy crumbling and we get scared about our future and we wonder if God is removing his blessings from our lives. We do this because we’ve taken our eyes off the promises of God’s faithfulness and our trust that he has things in control as part of his plan and our belief that Jesus is an exact representation of his Papa/Father. If he is good, the Father is good.
       Experiencing the truth is living in the assurance of God’s commitment to us. It is knowing God is our Papa/Father which means we are his children. It is knowing that our Papa/Father loves us intimately and will never let go of us. It is knowing we are secure in our relationship with him and nothing will change his love for us. The truth sets us free because we know who we are in him.
       The beauty of the gospel is that the truth also sets others free. God has invited us to participate with him in sharing this truth with others. Freedom comes when they know their Papa/Father and they know they are already forgiven, redeemed, reconciled, loved and INcluded.

Love - Our Real Purpose

What is the purpose of the church? My answer to this question has changed a number of times in my journey with Jesus. I'd rather not go over some of the answers I have given in the past, some were OK, some were just ridiculous. The answer, I believe, starts with acknowledging the church is the body of Christ.
     If the church is the body of Christ, the church should reflect Christ. So who is Jesus Christ? He is first and foremost the Son of the Father. Who, then is the Father? He is God. Further understanding points out that God is Father, Son and Spirit. So if the church is the body of Christ, who is part of the Triune God, it stands to reason the church should reflect God.
     Who, or what, then is God? God is love.
     Would you not agree that if the church is the body of Jesus, who is part of the Triune God, who is love, the church should be known for it's love? This is exactly what Jesus said, "Then they will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Love for whom? For one another - in the body first, and also outside the body. 
     Paul said to do good to all, especially to the household of faith.
     This makes sense. If we want to reflect who God is, and God is Papa/Father, Son and Spirit God who are in a love relationship with love that is overflowing, should the church not reflect this love relationship that is overflowing? It reminds me of what we read in Acts 3 about the early church. They devoted themselves to that relationship of love - fellowshipping, sharing meals, praying together, selling their stuff so they could share with those less fortunate. And their love for each other showed others that they were true disciples, and others wanted to be part of this community that was known for their love for each other. And God added to their number daily.
     Wow! 
     Why has it taken me so long to see that the main purpose of the church is to reflect the love of the Father, Son and Spirit? When a church community is filled with love that overflows, that overflowing becomes a blessing to the community outside the church doors who want to be part of something so alive, and vibrant, and exciting, and fulfilling, and encouraging. God starts to move in their hearts as they begin to see the value of relationship and the value of being a disciple of Christ. And then the church grows - because God adds to the number daily.
     May we reflect God's love amongst ourselves so powerfully that it brings glory to God and shines as a beacon of hope to the world. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.