A man begins to become suspicious at work. Coworkers who were previously jovial and friendly seem to be pulling back, and he can't get an appointment to meet with his boss. He wonders what is happening. Over a few days of this, he begins to worry that he did something wrong and that his job may be on the line. Finally, he gets that appointment with his boss. He is told to meet his boss at 2pm in the conference room. At that time, as he makes his way to the room, coworkers won't meet his gaze. He doesn't realize that many of his coworkers are not even there. Overcome with anxiety, he reaches out to open the doors to the conference room. He steps through them...and into a surprise party to celebrate the promotion he is being given!

Our perception is not always our reality.

In Psalm 11, the writer declares that he takes refuge in the LORD. His peace and security are in God. Yet, to those around him, this sounds like a foolish claim. They do not see a successful man. They do not witness a life worth celebrating. Instead, they see a man attacked by his enemies, beaten down, and struggling (2-3).

In their eyes, the writer has nothing to celebrate. He has no perspective or perception from which he should give praise to the LORD.

But the psalmist knows differently. He knows that the immediate circumstances he finds himself in (the problems, the attacks) are not his ultimate reality. Because he trusts in God, he depends on God, and he knows that God rules over his reality, no matter how things appear moment-to-moment (day-to-day, year-to-year, etc.).

"The LORD is in his holy temple; / the LORD is on his heavenly throne. / He observes everyone on earth; / his eyes examine them." (4)

Because of this belief, he trusts God. He believes that God will lead him into the life God is calling him into. He knows that his enemies will be dealt with, and he does not need to waste his anxiety or worry on them.

He knows his reality: "The LORD is righteous, / he loves justice; / the upright will see face." (7) This same reality is ours.

How do you process life events? How do you trust God during difficult times?

Psalm 139 is a beautiful psalm that describes God's presence with us at all times. Acapella set this psalm to music, and it is a song I listened to regularly as a teenager. The psalm describes how God is always with us, how he knows us deeply and intimately, and how it is impossible for us to get away from God! This brings the psalmist to wonder and awe before God.

Despite his awe, the psalmist still knows that a part of him remains hidden from God. Not because God can't find it, but because he struggles to let this part of his experience go, to release it into the mercy of God.

At the very end of the psalm, the psalmist says "Search me, God, and know my heart; / test me and know my anxious thoughts. / See if there is any offensive way in me, / and lead me in the way everlasting." To be made more pure, to be perfected, the psalmist needs to let go of his anxiety.

How does anxiety play a role in your spiritual growth? Do you find yourself hampered by anxiety? Held back? Slowed down? Even beaten down? What forms of anxiety do you give in to the most? Anxiety for your family? Your job? Your money?

For the psalmist, it was current events. After he gives praise to God for God's knowledge of him, he begins to speak about his hatred for his enemies, for those who hate God. He calls on God to slay them!

It is clear from a reading of this entire psalm that these thoughts are disruptive to the psalmist. He cannot be at peace while experiencing these thoughts about others. This is why he calls upon God to search him, to know his heart, and to lead him in the way everlasting. Despite God's intimate knowledge of him, he still needs cleansing and purification from sin that only God can offer.

In our polarized world, where recent Supreme Court decisions have set some Christians on edge, where cultural "enemies" are found under every proverbial rock, where inner darkness abounds, may we follow the lead of the psalmist, trusting God for his knowledge of us but also calling upon him to lead us out of that darkness and into the light of his everlasting salvation.

How or when are you most anxious? How is this a sign that you need to trust God more?

Here is an outline as I work towards Sunday's sermon from Luke 7:1-10. What is "faith"? For some, a way to earn to God's favor.
In college, I thought I had earned a good grade because I knew I was a good student and thought my work was better than most of my classmates. So I thought I'd backdoor my way into a good grade. I got a "C." After discussion with the professor, I had to change my attitude. He wanted me to put in my best effort, to learn, and to do what was right.

Have you had experiences in your life where you thought you had earned something, only to find out it wasn't the case at all? Maybe a job promotion you thought was in the bag? Maybe a job itself? Perhaps you did something nice for your family and expected a certain response but received a cold shoulder instead. Or possibly you feel as though you've earned a certain level of respect at church, but you fail to receive it...and you become bitter.

We often apply this way of earning something to our spiritual lives. Although we acknowledge that we believe we are saved by grace, we do things, or talk about things, in such a way that we belie that we still think we *earn* our salvation: attendance at sanctioned meetings becomes a driving force, more important than what somebody does on their own, away from the building, an external thing becoming a measurement of something that can only be known internally and inwardly; when things go wrong in our lives, we look back at what we failed to do religiously, whether neglecting our Bible reading or not praying enough, or whatever, as a possible reason for why that happened; we don't receive from God the life we think we've earned and we feel guilt over it, that somehow it is our fault we have not received, perhaps because we didn't pray for the right thing, or in the right words, or that we didn't pray *enough*. And we feel guilt.

But we are bound to feel guilt in our spiritual lives until we allow faith to take over, and the love of God through Christ to fill our lives, so that we live for him with a full expression of faith. Guilt is a reminder that we have not fully understood and applied the gospel, that we can approach God and have relationship with him only through Jesus, not through our efforts. We do not earn our way toward God's favor.

For the centurion, faith was a recognition of Jesus' authority that affected how he lived his life.
This is not only a contemporary problem, however. In Luke 7, we see a similar situation: a centurion lives in Capernaum. A centurion was a Roman military official, meaning he was a Gentile, not a Jew. And he had a problem: a servant whom he highly valued was sick and at the point of death. What would he do about? It happened that he heard about Jesus, so he sent some Jewish leaders to Jesus. And not just any Jewish leader, but elders of the Jews, those who should have known the ways of God

So the Jewish elders approach Jesus to enlist his help for the centurion's servant. But they take a different approach. Rather than simply ask, they create a case for the centurion about why he *deserves* for Jesus to "do this for him," why he is "worthy" of it--he loves our nation; he built our synagogue.

And therein we find the problem of trying to be "worthy enough" to earn help from God. It just doesn't work, because God doesn't work that way. He works through Jesus, and to do otherwise opens us to frustration and guilt. Instead of building a synagogue and being a friend to the Jews, we score perfect attendance at worship services and Bible studies; we gain points by clocking in pages with our Bible reading; we pray, asking for things, sure that we have the faith to carry us through; we serve others hoping, or even thinking, that we earn reciprocity from God. When in reality, all God wants from us is a faith that acknowledges the lordship of Jesus and his authority and places our lives under his leadership as we follow him

So Jesus heads to see the centurion. But on the way, an envoy arrives, sent by the centurion with a startling word: the centurion, who was declared "worthy" by others proclaims to Jesus his utter *unworthiness* before Jesus. And yet he declares his faith--he knows how it works, he knows how the game is played. He knows that he has the authority to tell one person "Go" and he goes, and to tell another "Stay," and he stays. And if he has such authority, then he knows that the authority of the Lord Jesus is even that much more

So he asks Jesus to simply say the word, and his servant will be healed. He comes to Jesus with faith, not a merit badge; he has loyalty to Jesus, not a membership card in God's rewards program; he has worth, not of his own, but his worthiness is through his faith, in his abandoning of his own self-worth to find it in Jesus

Rather than "crowding around" Jesus, we need faith in Jesus in order to follow him.
In contrast to the centurion are the crowds. These people were "following" Jesus, but they did not have the faith required to truly follow Jesus. So Jesus turns to the crowd and presents the centurion to them as an example of faith. But he does it in a way that reminds them, once again, that you cannot gain godliness or the gospel through merit or by trying to earn anything!

The key is that Jesus said he has not found such faith in Israel. But wasn't the centurion "in" Israel, geographically? So what did Jesus mean? Well, he meant that among the Israelites he has not found this kind of faith; it took an "outsider," a Gentile, to demonstrate the kind of faith Jesus was looking for. This is a simple reminder: your status, your work, your effort, your merits, cannot *earn* you the favor from God you seek! It is only by faith!

So how do we cultivate this kind of faith? We have to change the way we think about faith, from trying to please God to realizing that we do please God through Jesus; recognize Jesus' authority and power; and submit ourselves to him. The centurion did not need his own power or worthiness; he subjected himself to Jesus and subverted his own power. Will you let go of your pride and ego and submit to Jesus in faith? And if you do, will you then follow him?

This is a manuscript towards my Sunday sermon (for May 5, 2013)

Acts 16:9-15: Every Home a Church

Conversion to the gospel results in lifestyle of discipleship. Fight for your faith by embracing lifestyle discipleship over decision-oriented faith.

Why do so many leave the church? Especially young people?
- crisis hits, people bail
- young people leaving in droves--some because of hypocrisy they see; others without explanation
- churches struggle with stagnation, there appears to be no life--churches have become museums obsessed with the past and not looking ahead to the future
- when these troublesome times hit, we become concerned with numbers and budgets, things we can look at objectively, things we think we can solve objectively
- why do these things happen?

Perhaps one reason is that we focus too much, or even exclusively, on the decision-point of faith, and we neglect the "weightier" matters of how the gospel converts us and calls us to a whole-life transformation.

For example, we see the pattern of salvation in Acts. In Acts 2, Peter preaches, many "obey the gospel." The same happens with the Samaritans and the eunuch in Acts 8 (with Philip). It happens again with Cornelius in Acts 10. This becomes the pattern for Paul's ministry in his journeys. He most often began by entering a city, seeking out a synagogue, and preaching. As a result, many would obey the gospel, believe and be baptized. Thus, we draw a conclusion that faith is about a decision-point. Conversion is not seen as a process, but as a moment of turning from wrong to right. Rightly, we argue that baptism is instantaneous--when one realizes their sin before God they ought to turn to him and be washed from sin in baptism. But this pattern can lead to abruptness, where we often believe that he preaches an isolated sermon, leading to a decision point, where people respond. Further teaching then takes on the role of strengthening doctrinal understanding about the church while largely ignoring ethical issues about how we should live. We point to some of the big sins, the taboo ones that every Christian should "know" to avoid, but we don't address how ongoing conversion and transformation happens. As a result, many are never fully converted. They live a life hoping that their sins will be forgiven while never growing into the fullness of discipleship in Christ.

Maybe the problem is that we haven't really been converted. Maybe the problem is the gospel has not led to the conversions of our lives.

Back in the 1980s, John MacArthur wrote a book called The Gospel According to Jesus. In this book he detailed a doctrinal argument that was making the rounds among conservative churches. The argument was known as "The Lordship Controversy" and it sought to define the question of salvation of faith through grace. Because, in these churches, the acknowledgment that a person had been saved was that they had received Jesus as Lord and Savior, the question arose about what this meant. In an effort to protect the doctrine of salvation by grace, the idea made headway that this reception was not a gift, and that to acknowledge Jesus as Lord was merely to acknowledge his position over you. Works that would result from a transformed life could not be trusted as evidence of salvation because we cannot earn our salvation. So the pendulum swung too far in one direction. In an effort to uphold doctrine, and to protect salvation by grace, works were overlooked and the Lordship of Jesus over our lives, and discipleship was underemphasized.

We find these same issues in our tradition, though not the same questions. We have followed Paul's paradigm to a "T", but almost to a fault. Though we emphasize a "sixth step of salvation" (faithfulness to the end), we realize from our history that this step was added much later as a necessary corrective to an earlier oversight.

Our efforts to distinguish ourselves from others have left us with an anemic faith. Churches have struggled to have anything left to give younger generations. These folks, many of whom are our own children and grandchildren, are not looking for entertainment, as we often criticize them for, but for authenticity in faith. They recognize that faith is more, MUCH more, than simply making a decision, trying to live morally as culture defines it, and attending worship services and Bible studies. And when they do not see the Spirit of Jesus alive in the church, they look elsewhere. Beyond seeing Jesus as Savior alone, they see him as both Savior...AND Lord.

Which takes us back to the Bible. An emphasis only on Paul's evangelistic approach misses the bigger pattern. The real pattern is seen when we combine the pattern of apostolic preaching and Paul's missionary preaching with the pattern of the reception of the gospel in the life of the hearers.
- in Acts 2, the preaching led to baptism, which led to follow as seen in the devotion to ongoing teaching, breaking of bread, prayer, and house to house fellowship. There was conversion beyond the point of decision.
- in Acts 8 and 10, we see special cases where salvation is given to non-Jews, first to Samaritans and "God-fearers" (who were converts to Judaism), then to the Gentiles themselves. But in Acts 8, we see the Jerusalem leadership sending Peter and John to the Samaritans for follow up teaching (8:25). In Acts 10:48, we see Peter staying on for several days, likely to include follow up teaching as the Gentiles needed to learn how to integrate the gospel with their lives. There was conversion beyond the point of decision.
- we see this clearly laid out in Paul's example in Acts 16. Here, Paul follows his usual pattern of going to a city and looking first for Jews. He typically begins in a synagogue, but in Philippi, there evidently was not one. So they look for a place of prayer, which is possibly like a non-commissioned synagogue, where women met because there were not enough men to commission a synagogue. Here, Paul meets with several women. He speaks with them, which we should understand to mean he preaches the gospel to them. Lydia They are converted. And there is conversion beyond a point-of-decision. There is conversion beyond there initial response. There is ongoing, lifestyle discipleship as a result of their conversion.

Conversion beyond the point of decision sounds obvious. But have we experienced this? Let's note one thing about Lydia's conversion--it was a work of the Lord. And Lydia's conversion was defined by a changed lifestyle. Far from seeing Jesus only as a Savior who took her sins away, she recognized that she was entering into a new kingdom, with a new Lord, the Lord Jesus, and that her life would be forever changed as a result. No more would meeting quietly with the women at the riverside suffice for her religion, but her relationship with Christ required more drastic transformation. She invited the apostles to stay with her, to use her house as a base of operations for their work, which they did for some time.

Note this: Rather than simply "go to church," Lydia became the church. Now, I don't say this to discourage us from showing up here, but rather to encourage us to seek to grow daily in our faith. Previously to her conversion, Lydia no doubt had an active faith, but it was based around observance of the law and in particular the worship requirements of the synagogue. But after her conversion, her faith was more active, it grew, because she saw herself as a part of God's kingdom, a part of God's mission, to redeem and save the world through his people. The gospel changed her life and she experienced a whole life conversion as a result. She began to live a lifestyle of discipleship that went beyond a decision-point faith.

And this is seen in two different ways: the conversion of her household, and her commitment to hospitality. Lydia was either single or had an unbelieving husband. But the context of the passage indicates she was likely a wealthy woman, and as the leader of her household, she had property enough to invite Paul and Silas to stay in her household, to allow it to become a beachhead for ministry and mission. Her household was probably also a place of business, and as such would have had servants, and their families and even children. And it was through Lydia that the entire household found faith. Part of Lydia's whole life conversion through the gospel to discipleship as a follower of her Lord was to take responsibility for the faith of her household.

One of the more troubling aspects of religious culture today is the idea of "church shopping," where folks will attend churches that "meet their needs" and once a church supposedly no longer does so, they begin looking around for a new one. Folks, let's draw a line in the sand and grow up on this one. No church will ever be perfect, and the church is not responsible to single-handedly raise your children, or mine, in the faith, or to serve you the programs, lessons, and activities that you want. Instead, biblically, the church is to nurture the faith of each one, to minister to one another in love and grace, to do the gospel follow up that we read about earlier in Acts where disciples went house to house and listened to the follow up teaching of the apostles. But if you are not here, you are not able to be nurtured...or to nurture.

And the faith that is needed begins in the household. How often do you talk about your faith in your own home? How often is the gospel mentioned or taught? Is the Bible opened and read from regularly, or is it a relic, relegated to the shelf until Sunday, if someone remembers to grab it on the way out the door? Is prayer a part of family unity, or is it an add-on so that God will sanctify a meal? Is worship with the church seen as a regular and normal part of your family life together, or is it something that you get to if everyone wakes up in time and feels like it?

I don't say any of this to chastise anyone or make anyone feel bad. I raise questions to help us think through the idea of gospel conversion. If we understand our baptisms, that we have died to an old life and been raised into a new life, that we have left behind an old kingdom and entered into a new kingdom, then what could be more important than serving and loving our own families into gospel growth?

We can start small. For parents, share a Bible story or passage at the dinner table before prayer. Pray with the children before bedtime. Read the Bible together in the evenings. Find a church member you can get to know better and begin to spend time with that member or family as a family. For married couples without kids in the home, you can do the same--except perhaps add to it this: find a younger couple you can help mentor in the faith. For children in the home, witness about your growing faith to your parents and siblings by being the example God calls you to be through the gospel. For those who have not-yet-Christian spouses, or not-yet-Christian members of your family, be diligent in both prayer for your family members and in your example to them. Pray fervently and expectantly for the conversion. Let God lead through prayer to draw your family closer to him. But most of all, let the gospel convert your whole life. Let your home function as a small church, nurturing one another in gospel growth.

The second aspect of gospel conversion we see in Lydia's life is the opening of her home to hospitality. Hospitality is a gift to others, because we truly open ourselves and make ourselves available, and even vulnerable, to have others in, to feed them, to care for them, and to serve them spiritually while they are among us. Hospitality to others reminds us of the hospitality that God showed to us through Jesus in salvation, and of the hospitality that Jesus reminds us to have as a sign that we know him as Lord (in Matthew 25).

How might we be hospitable? Through the mentoring I've already described, but also through other means. Having people over, for sure, but not only that: feeding them and caring for them might mean going *to* them in their time of need. It might mean hosting Bible teachers in your home. It may mean caring for orphans by becoming foster parents. It may mean going to serve orphans in Haiti. Hospitality is not only opening your house, though certainly it includes that. Hospitality is opening the house of your heart, to let the love of God flow through. This only happens when you have received whole life conversion through the gospel because of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Church, fight for your faith by embracing lifestyle discipleship over point-of-decision faith. A point-of-decision faith never grows beyond what was initially there. It keeps you trapped in a cycle of feeling smug and arrogant while never growing. It holds onto the past and blames others when things are not achieved. It is fearful. Instead, let your life be converted completely by the gospel of the Lord Jesus. Become a disciple in your entire life. 
The most dangerous thing in our churches today is not the fight over marriage equality, it is not the threat of atheism, and it is not the supposed rise of the Islamic faith. The biggest threat in our churches is a so-called faith that only claims forgiveness while living a life that has nothing to do with Jesus the Lord. The biggest threat in our churches are people with a dead faith who masquerade as Christians while living as though they are the Lord. Jesus is King, not you. Not me. We may win a cultural battle or lose one, but these things will come and go. But God is eternal. Our faith is forever.

Don't be on the outside looking in. Over and over we see in Acts the same process--preaching followed by conversion. But don't neglect the follow up! Because in the follow up we see that the pattern we need to fold in is our own: hearing, believing, baptism, and gospel growth. Let every home where there are Christians become a church. Let those small churches grow and develop in their faith. Let them become places of hospitality. Let the work of God move outwardly into our neighborhoods, schools, and places of work. Let God's mission to redeem the world happen through. Let a lifestyle of discipleship, gospel growth, and hospitality spring forth, in the Lord Jesus' name.

Telling God's Story: A Parents' Guide to Teaching the Bible, Peter Enns (Olive Branch Books, 2010).

This is an outstanding book. At only 99 pages, it can be a quick read, but it is packed with solid and useful information. Enns wrote this book as a guide for parents who desire to teach their children the Bible. He presents a threefold approach: in the early elementary years, focus on the story, life, and mission of Jesus; in the middle school years, focus on the "hook and hangers" of the Bible, specifically, the "pegs" of the larger story that they will be able to "hang" later knowledge upon; and in the high school years, begin to flesh out the Bible in more detail.

Enns suggests this progressive approach against other approaches because it focuses on the main "person" of the Bible--Jesus Christ--and on God's redemptive story, rather than our own theories or concepts of what we want the Bible to be about. For example, he encourages us not to teach the Bible simply as "stories" or as character studies, because these are often reduced to moralistic life lessons having nothing to do with the redemptive backstory; nor should we teach it (to children) book-by-book, because this approach often requires more maturity and a longer attention span than children have; nor should we teach it defensively, as in the current "creationism vs. evolution" arguments.

Instead, we should see the Bible not as a book of rules or a manual for morals but as a complex and fascinating story with a beginning, middle, and end. Our role as parents is to slowly work through this material with our children, linking the different parts of the story together over time. The Bible does not address modern issues the way we would like it to, so we must remember that it is the story of God's deliverance of his people and it presents a vision of what it means to live in that context. We acquire wisdom for living as we understand The Story in deeper ways.

Enns concludes with a five chapter discussion of this overarching Story which is very useful and informative.

This is a book for all parents, regardless of how old your children are. Although Enns discusses a teaching program for children as young as elementary age, I can easily see that parents can pick up in the first stage and go from there. There is nothing missed by starting to teach a high schooler more in depth about Jesus. The program can either be compressed or modified as older children have questions.

I can also see value in this approach for church-based classes, even for adults. Beginning with Jesus, and his centrality to God's story, and then branching out into biblical narrative, and then into biblical theology, a teacher could present a congregation with a very rich understanding of the Bible.

I highly recommend this book for any believer.

The prophet Daniel showed a tremendous commitment to God, even when it was illegal for him to do so. He challenges us to a greater commitment to God in our own lives.

Are you a part-time or a full-time Christian? The answer is what you eliminate--or don't eliminate--from your life.