The Cart and the Horse of Personal Holiness

One of the most common Christians struggles is the knowledge that believers stand before God already forgiven and holy even though our actions do not always reflect that reality. This causes a real tug-of-war within our hearts as we try to live the way that we know we should.

1 Peter 1:16 contains the very convicting command "to be holy because God is holy." How can that be? Isn't that some sort of works-based salvation?

I don't think so, at least not if we understand the proper order of salvation (the horse) and Christian living (the cart). Jerry Bridges explains it like this "God wants us to walk in obedience -- not victory. Obedience is oriented toward God; victory is oriented toward self."

Anyone who studies mathematics will tell you that it matters how you lay out the equation. For Christian living the equation should look something like this. First God loved us. Therefore He made a way to save us from our sins. Next we accept His gracious offer for forgiveness. This causes us to love God. Our love for God results in a desire to obey God. This is very different from legalism which teaches people to obey God to make God love us.

Practically speaking, the more we love God the more we will want to obey God. The more we obey God the more we will be holy like God.

- Aaron

Change is Hard, Change is Good

Over the last two years there have been a lot of changes in my life. First there were all the things that you don't learn in seminary about being a pastor. Then there were the many things that have changed at Franconia Baptist Church. Finally there was the really important changes, the deep down Holy Spirit changes that have been transforming my spiritual life.

One thing that I can tell you from personal experience is that most people do not like change. I can certainly understand and even appreciate that. Changes makes us uncomfortable. It challenges our sense of security.

That makes it doubly hard when I tell people that change is both inevitable and required from the Christian life. The Bible tells us that we are not to "be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." (Romans 12:2)

These words alert us that for the transformed Christian life, change is coming. This is a different kind of change though. It comes from the power of the Gospel administered by the Holy Spirit and it is something that we should want very much. So even though change is hard, Gospel-driven heart change is very good.

Please pray that the Bults will quickly find the right place to live and will get settled in. I believe that God is going to do great things through them!

This morning it's chilly in Puebla, Mexico. My good friend Kevin and I walked around the streets this morning looking for coffee and talking about God.

Worshipping Christ in Mexico

Where are our priorities?

I was browsing through various web pages looking at the news when I came across this opinion piece on the NY Times homepage. The title of the op-ed was "Congregations Gone Wild" (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/opinion/08macdonald.html?_r=1&hp). The NY Times does not give a whole lot of attention to matters of the church so my curiosity was piqued. I chose to ignore the provocative inference in the title and see what the writer was talking about.

The first sentence is "THE American clergy is suffering from burnout, several new studies show." Now I was really interested!

The article goes on to talk about the challenges of reaching an America that is more and more skeptical toward faith. That sounds about right. What's more, Pastor's are apparently burning out trying to keep up with the latest fads in communications and technology in order to entertain their congregations. That also sounds about right.

We need to get back to the basics. Our churches need to be focused on glorifying God and discipling believers. The key is God honoring and Bible focused. There's nothing wrong with doing things with excellence, but the packaging is far less important than the content.

Free to Serve

Late last week my Blackberry failed for the 4th time. Since I had several hours of "free" time while waiting for my phone to get fixed I decided to walk into the used bookstore. I was thrilled to find a $5.00 copy of the 700 page autobiography of Billy Graham's life and ministry called "Just as I am".

I'll confess that I haven't finished the book yet, but have thoroughly enjoyed everything so far. One of the things that I've noticed in reading the book is the relative freedom that Graham feels to serve the Lord as he is given opportunity. At the same time there doesn't seem to be any question that Graham is following God's call for his life.

There is an interconnected relationship between doing what you love and doing what God has made you to do.

Sometimes I see people become so anxious about making the right choice that opportunities for ministry pass them by. If you move outside the will of God He will work to move you back, otherwise enjoy the freedom to serve God by doing what you love to do.

- Aaron