Category — Spiritual Discipline

One of the reasons I believe the Jesus Movement stopped moving is that we didn’t love one another well.

We divided over theology, spiritual gifts, politics, and the just plain “I don’t like him or her” sins most believers are all too familiar with.

Sometimes our excuse for divisiveness is, “I just can’t get along with that kind of Christian!”

Really?

Peter would disagree. In his first letter he says that when we obeyed the truth of the Gospel by believing in Jesus our hearts were purified (1 Peter 1:22). He uses the perfect tense when he speaks of this purification of our souls. The perfect tense means that the work was completed the moment we believed.

His application?

Our souls were purified so that we could “love one another fervently with a pure heart.”

The next time you begin to think you can’t love that “extra grace required” Christian in your world, picture Peter standing next to you and saying, “Yes you can! God made it possible the moment you believed in His Son!”

There are a few places Judy and I go to that inspire, comfort, encourage, and heal our souls when life is hard. This is one of our favorites: Cannon Beach, Oregon.

We’ve walked that beach during some of life’s darkest days. Hand in hand we’ve cried, rejoiced, begged God for relief as we processed my diagnosis with this chronic disease, some of our children’s worst challenges and hurts, our son’s two tours in the war zone, and the many, many tests and trials of ministry.

The breathtaking landscape of that beautiful place helps in ways that I can’t really explain.

In the same way, the Apostle Peter begins his first letter with a breathtaking landscape to inspire, encourage, comfort, and heal the hearts of his readers.

First Peter is a hard book full of hard words written to Christians going through hard times.

His first paragraph takes believers to a place with a breathtaking view—a scenic theological landscape. It’s a place of hope, the first hope that came to our heart when we received God’s love by believing in Jesus—a hope of deliverance, hope for the future, hope of heaven and all we will share with God in eternity.

The hope of our so great salvation.

I don’t know what’s hard about your life today. But I do know that if you let Jesus take you by the hand and lead you to the spectacular view of what He did for you, it will comfort your heart.

Open your Bible to 1 Peter 1:3-12, and imagine Jesus saying, “There it is. Take it all in. It’s all for you. I did this just for you. On your worst day, this is still true of you. I love you. I may not fix what hurts in your life right now, but even if I don’t, all of this is yours. My Father is preserving it in heaven for you right now.”

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3).

Get in Step!

Every soldier remembers that command. It looked so easy in the movies you saw as a kid. Files of soldiers marching along side by side, stride for stride.

Left, right.

Left, right.

Really it takes weeks of practice to learn how to walk in step with a lot of other human beings.

Unless…

But for the serious Christian, the man or woman who wants to follow Christ as His devoted disciple, being in step with the Lord Jesus means being out of step with just about everyone else.

If you’re following Jesus, you’re out of step with this pagan world.

If you’re following Jesus, you’re also out of step with most other Christians.

Pagans are all about the things you know aren’t important.

But so are most Christians.

Stay in Step

If your devotion to Jesus means that you’re feeling out of step with just about everyone else in your world, that’s a good thing.

When you’re staying in step with Jesus, you’re out of step with this wicked world and the irrelevant religiosity that most Christians settle for.

We’re studying a book right now at Church of the Open Door written specifically to those sold-out Christians who know they don’t fit in with just about everyone else, those who feel their status as aliens in a hostile world most acutely.

First Peter—you should read it. Or join our study online through our podcasts.

It will assure you that not fitting in with everyone who is out of step with the Lord Jesus is a good thing.

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those scattered as aliens…may grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure” (1 Peter 1:1-2).

Gary Larson’s classic Far Side cartoon of the gifted young knucklehead trying to push through a door marked “Pull” is how I picture the theologians telling people they need to be more committed, more repentant, more…you fill in the blanks, to earn God’s love so that they can receive eternal life.

I was just reading a book written by one of these theological “geniuses.” Explaining his view of the so-called “lukewarm Christian” in Revelation 3, he claims to believe 100% in grace while maintaining that there  will not be any lukewarm Christians in heaven. He just thinks they should have some “fruit.”

Apart from the obvious possibility that this is a warning to churches rather than individual Christians, I wonder about his definition of “lukewarm.”

I bet I know.

Just a few degrees cooler than the “heat” of  his own personal commitment to the Lord Jesus.

I bet I know his definition of convincing fruit: About the same amount he has.

If it weren’t so tragic, it would be as funny as Larsen’s Far Side scene.

The tragedy of it all is that while he’s convinced himself that his lukewarmness is just above the lukewarmness the grace of God covers, thousands of sincere Christians are compelled to keep pushing through a door grace already pulled open the day they believed in Christ.

In one of his books, Stu Weber states:

1. He is sure of the truths He understands in the Bible.
2. He is sure of the lessons God has taught him through failure.

I remember the day I read that statement. I remember underlining it, journaling it, meditating on it, and remarking, “That is so true!”

My next thought was a sad one: Most churches are places where failures are shamed, spun, and hidden.

What a tragedy to the next generation!

In trying to impress the white sepulchered religious bullies, we’re withholding the critical insights that would protect those who are watching.

It’s time those of us who view ourselves as mature Christians prove it by telling the truth about ourselves, including, or maybe especially, our failures.

If you don’t think that’s wise or biblical, read the stories of the heroes of the Bible. Then ask yourself, “What did I learn from their life?” I bet you that some of the most critical insights were from the honest and open account of their failures and weaknesses. And how the Lord redeemed it all to actually use them anyway.