Why do we do what we do?

Why do we do what we do?  I suspect you can all relate to that question.  I can.  Sometimes, after saying something hurtful to my wife or acting in a prideful or selfish way, I look back and wonder – why in the world did I say or do that?  What motivated me to act or speak that way?

The fact is, we are always motivated by something.  Motivations are the energies that propel and drive the decision we make.  They are the essential substance of our character.  Even people who don’t look like they are motivated – like the young man you know who cannot be bothered to get out of bed and get a job – is highly motivated.  That young man is just motivated to do what he can to stay where he is so he does not have to change.  On the other hand, positive change happens in our life when we are captivated and energized by the right motivation.

So where do our behaviors come from?  What determines our motivation?  In his book, Making Spiritual Progress:  Building your Life with Faith, Hope and Love, author Allen Ratta takes some time to explain what he calls the behavioral supply chain in our life.  This supply chain is explained in five principles that apply to all of us.

Principle #1:  Our behaviors are pre-determined by our character.  Our character, our inner nature, sets the direction of our actions.  Jesus understood this, as he explains in Matthew 7:17-18:  “So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.”  (ESV)  According to Jesus, the quality of our behavior – good or bad – is consistent with the nature of our character – good or bad.  We cannot permanently change our behavior apart from a transformation of our character.

Principle #2:  Our character is pre-determined by our motivations.  Our motivations are the shaping forces behind our character.  Ratta argues that faith, hope and love are the 3 positive motivational forces that should direct our life.  Of course, the opposite it also true – when our life is empty of faith, hope and love, it is reflected in our motivations and thus our character and our behavior.

Principle #3:  Our motivations are pre-determined by our master.  Who or what rules your life?  That person or thing will determine the nature of your motivations.  Our motivations are ruled by whatever or whoever is sovereign in our life.  If it is God, then our motivations will reflect things that honor God.  If it is something or someone else, we will be motivated to pursue the will and direction of that master.

Principle #4:  Our master is pre-determined by our heart.  We must get to the heart level to manage our motives.  The Bible understands the importance of the heart.  “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”  (Prov. 4:23, ESV)  “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt. 6:21, ESV)  We must guard our hearts, and examine what our heart holds as its treasure.  What does our heart value most of all?  What captivates our hearts?  What energizes our hearts?  The answer to those questions will determine who the real master of our lives is.

Up to this point, perhaps this discussion has been rather depressing for many of us.  I have used the word “pre-determined” an awful lot.  It would seem that we are rather powerless in this whole thing.  How can we change when everything is determined ahead of time?  Thankfully, those thoughts bring us to our last principle.

Principle #5:  Our heart is liberated by the Holy Spirit.  Every Christian has been given the gracious gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  And while we cannot change our hearts, the Spirit can.  As Ratta aptly points out, “Personal growth requires that we put ourselves in a place of awareness where we are capable of hearing and responding to the movement of the Spirit.” (p. 26)  The work of the Spirit is to fill our lives with positive motivations, motivations that line up with the character and will of God.  By His Spirit, God seeks to fill us with faith, hope and love, three things that can transform our heart and make us effective for Him.

Our behavior is determined by our character.  Our character is determined by our motivations.  Our motivations grow to serve our master.  Our heart determines which master we follow.  But thanks be to God, God’s Spirit liberates our hearts to serve God!

Book Review - Killing Jesus

A few years back, I was watching a video clip of a discussion between atheist Bill Maher and TV host Bill O’Reilly.  Maher was busy rehashing the same old arguments atheists have used for years to attack faith.  O’Reilly, a Catholic, was trying to counter Maher, but after a few minutes it was obvious that O’Reilly did not know enough about the Bible or have enough faith in what the Bible said to mount any kind of response.  Frankly, it was all kind of embarrassing.  I came to the conclusion that O’Reilly might do well enough asking the tough political questions, but when it came to theology, he should punt the ball to someone else.

After reading Bill O’Reilly’s latest effort in his “Killing” series (Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy), Killing Jesus, my opinion of Mr. O’Reilly’s ability to handle issues of faith has not changed.  I read both his Lincoln and his Kennedy books last year and enjoyed them for what they are – light historical reads that get a lot of things right and are able to draw the reader in with a good, compelling story. 

Killing Jesus is similar.  O’Reilly and is co-author Martin Dugard, do a fairly good job presenting Jesus’ story, together with the history behind it.  They understand Roman times and many aspects of both Roman and Jewish culture.  They give the reader a picture of the decadence of the Roman Emperors, although with a bit too much detail in some places.  I don’t really need images of Roman depravity floating around in my mind.  In my opinion, the book’s major failing falls in the area of how the authors view the Bible.

Although both Dugard and O’Reilly are Roman Catholic, it is obvious they do not have as high a view of Scripture as I do.  In some cases their handling of the biblical record is sloppy, in other cases is it just wrong.  Let me give you just a few examples.  Early in the book, when discussing the gospels in a footnote, the authors explain the John, an eyewitness, wrote the final and definitive work on Jesus’ life (pg. 22).  In John 11, the apostle John records the story of the raising of Lazarus.  O’Reilly and Dugard handle the story of Lazarus as a hearsay story about Jesus.  At one point in a footnote, they call the story a legend. (pg. 199)  It seems they themselves are skeptical about the story.  At a couple places in the book, they say they seek to separate truth from myth and have seemed to conclude the Lazarus story is myth.  Yet they accept without question the content of a conversation that happens immediately after the raising of Lazarus in John 11.  Why is one part of the chapter “legend” and the other historical fact?  Why is one part of John reliable and another part not reliable?

On page 192, the authors tell the story of the cursing of the fig tree. (Matt. 21, Mark 11)  The way they write the story is sloppy.  They make Jesus sound like a spoiled little kid caught in a fit of pique, yet they do not even try to explain why Jesus cursed the tree.  (The fig tree gave every outward appearance of being a fruitful tree, but it was not.)  Why give a strong impression of Jesus – that he was wrongfully annoyed, perhaps sinful in that – without explaining the real background of the story?

My last example is found on page 212.  It is the day of Jesus’ arrest.  The authors suggest that Jesus was feeling the stress of going to the cross, which was true. (see Luke 22:39-44)  But they suggest that Jesus was having trouble focusing on his final message to the disciples and that the looming cross was causing him to panic.  In trying to “humanize” Jesus, I think they go too far.  Does Luke 22:47-53 give us a picture of a man who is panicking?  Rather, this is a man who is resolute in his willingness to do the Father’s will.  When you read John 14-16, do you get the impression that Jesus is struggling to formulate his last message to his disciples?  I don’t.  It is obvious Jesus seeks to comfort his followers and give them powerful instructions for the future.

All of these things are minor issues really, but there are a lot of them.  I did not notice any major errors in the book, but it seems as me as if the authors have stumbled in their efforts to divide the myths of Jesus from the truth of Jesus.  At times they handle the Scripture inconsistently, sloppily and even downright wrong.

Killing Jesus is not a bad book.  O’Reilly and Dugard present a compelling story in a readable way.  They get a lot of things right.  They present the history and culture of Jesus day in a way that is accessible and interesting.  But please read it with your critical thinking caps on.  It is not a gospel presentation – for example they give the resurrection very little attention.  Rather it is an attempt by two authors, whose view of Scripture may be different than yours, to present the story of Jesus Christ.  It is worth the read, but a better read would be the gospels themselves.  

Can a Pastor be Faithful AND Successful?

I have heard it many times.  In fact, much to my embarrassment, I have even said it.  The statement goes something like this:  “Not every pastor will be successful.  Sometimes we are called just to be faithful where God has placed us.”  A statement like this assumes that there is a dichotomy between a successful pastor and a faithful pastor, and that being faithful is at times the antithesis of being successful.

There is great comfort to thinking this way.  For most of my time in the pastorate, I pastored small (under 75 people) churches.  Both those churches were located in small towns (250 and 600 people respectively).  Many years there would be little positive change in the number of people attending the church.  A pastor in rural ministry realizes that their church is not likely to turn into a mega-church any time in the near future.  As a result, we begin to condition ourselves to think that success is not what we were called into the pastorate for.  Rather, we think, it is much more important to be faithful than to be successful as a pastor.

In some cases, thinking this way causes us to be become lazy in our responsibilities.  When we do not anticipate success, we spend less time in the word of God and less time in prayer.  We slap together a lesson rather than prayerfully seeking God for insight, guidance and understanding.  Sometimes we even take a measure of pride in our faithfulness, and in some twisted way, look down our noses at more successful pastors, thinking to ourselves, “they might be successful, but we are the faithful ones.”  We assume, in some cases, that they are successful because they have compromised the message of the cross, and in our false humility, we assume that we are not successful because we have held firm to the message of the cross.

But is all this true?  Is there truly a dichotomy between successful and faithful?  Can a called man, faithful to the gospel, be certain of success in the pastorate?  That last question was the question posed to me as I attended the Rocky Mountain Bible Mission’s Shepherd’s Conference last week.  The main speaker, Art Azurdia from Trinity Church, Portland, OR and Western Seminary, spoke on this very thing.  His main text was John 15:16 which says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.’ (ESV)

There are a lot of things in that verse – the idea of sovereign appointment and the centrality of prayer – but I want to highlight one particular thing that hit me.  Here it is:  Jesus appoints people for ministry and then sends them out with an expectation of success.  We are appointed to go and bear fruit, fruit that abides or lasts.  We are ordained to fruitfulness.  The path of a pastor may be hard at times, but it is not futile.  It is not meant to be empty of success.  The question I need to ask myself is this:  do I expect something to happen when I preach?  Do I expect the gospel message to transform the lives and hearts of those listening to me?  Jesus says I should.  We don’t always know when or how success will happen, or what fruit will look like, but Jesus does say that those appointed to ministry should be both faithful AND successful.

Of course, in order for that to happen, we need to passionately believe what we preach.  The passion comes out of our own encounter with the transforming truths of the Word of God.  As Welsh preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, “If there is no passion, you are not a preacher.”  With God at work in our hearts, we will preach with a passion born out of spiritual desperation – a personal desperation in our own hearts and a desperation for the hearts of our beloved flock.

So the question I need to ask myself as I prepare a message, plan a Bible Study, lead a Sunday School class, or sit down with AWANA kids is this:  do I expect something to happen when I help someone encounter God’s Word?  I should, because God, through His gospel, is in the transformation business.  He has called me to go and bear fruit that lasts.  He has called me to His ministry, and He has called me, in His power, to be both faithful and successful.

Saved by Works

Every believer is saved by works.  Did you know that?  Right now, some of you are wondering what happened to me.  Others of you are contemplating finding a new church to attend.  Still others are getting out their Bibles to counter my assertion.  But before you do that, let me finish.  Every believer is saved by works – just not their own works.

In my devotions I have been slowly making my way through the book of Romans.  The other day I was struck again by the importance of something.  When we think about salvation, we think about the cross, and the resurrection, and rightly so.  But one part of salvation we do not think about enough is the perfect righteousness of Christ.  Jesus’ perfect life plays an important part in our salvation.

Romans 5:19 says, “For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.” (ESV)  This verse is talking about two individuals.  In the context of this passage – Romans 5:12-21 – we learn the first man is Adam.  In Adam’s disobedience, the many were made sinners.  Adam’s sin had consequences for the whole human race – in Adam all people are born guilty, born under the condemnation and the reign of sin.  Of course, Adam’s sin is just one of our problems – we confirm the true impact of Adam’s sin with our own personal sinful choices.

Thankfully the truth of the matter does not end there.  Romans 5:19 speaks of a second man – in the context this is Jesus Christ.  Like Adam, Jesus’ life had far ranging consequences for people.  Just as Adam’s sin brought the condemnation of sin, Jesus’ obedience brought righteousness to many. 

Jesus obeyed by fulfilling the law of God perfectly, something no other human could ever do.  Every single moment of every day of his life was spent in obedience to the law of God.  Every day Jesus earned and fulfilled righteousness.  And the most amazing thing is – Jesus did it for us.

I love how author Elyse Fitzpatrick puts it in her book Found in Him:

What was he [Jesus] doing while he played in the dirt as a toddler?  While he labored in the carpenter’s shop as an apprentice?  When he helped with dinner as a twenty-something?  He was being perfected so that he could find you and make you one with him.  He loved God and those around him for your sake, in your place.  Everything that you’ve left undone, he did for you.  Every sin you’ve committed, he joyfully shunned out of love for you.  Day after day for thirty years his one desire was to please his Father and live perfectly in your place so that he could bring you to glory. (Found in Him, p. 60-61)

Think about that.  Jesus’ perfect obedience fulfilled the law.  He did for us what we could never do for ourselves.  And so, when he died on the cross, he died in a state of perfect righteousness. When God draws us to Him and saves us, he declares us righteous, legally justifying us in His sight.  When he does that, the basis for his decision is not theological myth.  He is not making things up.  His verdict is based on a righteousness that actually exists – the righteousness of Jesus Christ applied to our lives.  God takes Jesus’ perfect righteousness – his works – and applies them to our account through faith.  We are saved by works.  Praise the Lord, they are not our insufficient and flawed works, but the perfect, righteous and totally sufficient works of Jesus Christ!

Book Review: The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler

I suspect that if you are reading this blog, written by a pastor of a Bible-believing church, you are probably familiar with the gospel.  The gospel, of course, is the good news of Jesus Christ – his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, and his return some day.  The gospel is the story of what God has graciously done for us in Christ in response to our rebellion against Him.

A common temptation is for Christians to shunt the gospel into a “past tense” status in our lives.  We look back at that moment in time when we came to the recognition that we had placed our trust in the good news of Jesus Christ.  And while it is true that faith has a beginning in our lives, the work of the gospel is not merely in the past.  Rather, the work of the gospel in us is a reality now and will continue on throughout eternity.

 

In light of that, it is good idea to remind ourselves of the truths of the gospel and how those truths can change our lives completely.  That is the purpose of Matt Chandler’s book The Explicit Gospel.  In a world where far too many things are explicit – language, sexual content, violence – Chandler does a good job of reminding us of the raw truths of the gospel and how those truths should provide direction for our lives.

The Explicit Gospel is divided into three main sections.  The first two deal with “The Gospel on the Ground” and “The Gospel in the Air.”  “The Gospel on the Ground” unpacks the personal truths of the gospel.   It reminds us who God is, who we are as sinners, who Christ is, what He has done, and how we should respond to these truths.  It is personal invitation to allow the truths of the gospel to penetrate our lives.

The section entitled “The Gospel in the Air” deals with the truths of the gospel on a cosmic level.  Chandler takes the same gospel, flies up into orbit around the earth, and looks at it from the perspective of creation, fall, reconciliation and consummation.  He shows how the gospel fits in with the great plan of God to restore the world to its once perfect condition.

Both these perspectives are necessary, because there are dangers in holding too closely to one perspective or the other.  In the last section of the book, the author takes a look at the implications of grounding our lives and teaching in one perspective only.  For example, if our gospel stays exclusively on the ground, we face the danger of being blind to the big picture purpose of God and we are tempted to make faith a self-centered exercise.  If our gospel stays exclusively in the air, other dangers lurk.  We can fall prey to removing Christ from our gospel or making culture, rather than the Scripture, the arbiter of truth.  As in so many things in life, the challenge it so balance both aspects of the gospel.

The author ends the book with a wonderful chapter on the dangers of Christian moralism.  If we are not careful, it is easy for forsake the truths of the cross for a moralism that focuses on doing good without a true, heart-centered work of grace in our lives.  This chapter alone is almost worth the price of the book.

I found this book to be a great reminder that in my thinking, my preaching and my teaching, I need to have an eye on both of these facets of the gospel truth.  It is indeed personal as much as it is cosmic.  The gospel gets down to the ground level in our lives; it also displays the wonders of God’s purpose.  We need both perspectives in order to a full understanding of the wondrous grace God has poured out into our lives in Christ Jesus.

Book Review – Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor by D. A. Carson

I have always enjoyed a good biography.  In the past few years, I have read biographies of a great variety of people from a great variety of walks of life.  There is one thing in common with all those biographies – biographies generally get written about famous people.  Authors write biographies about generals and kings and financial giants.  They tend not to write biographies about people you and I have never heard about.

That is where the book Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor comes in.  This book is about Tom Carson, a man I had never heard of.  I am familiar with his son, the Bible scholar D. A. Carson, and have been blessed by what he has written over the years.  In Memoirs, Dr. Carson sets out to chronicle his father’s life of ministry in the Canadian province of Quebec.  Using a collection of personal reflections, excerpts from his father’s journals and remembrances from family and friends, Dr. Carson presents a portrait of a man who was far from ordinary.

Tom Carson, although not French Canadian by birth, spent his life as a shepherd in Quebec, Canada.  In order to familiarize the reader with the culture Tom Carson ministered in, his son begins the book with a sketch of the history and culture of French Canada.  Even though I grew up in Canada and was born in the largest French Canadian enclave west of Ontario (St. Boniface, MB), I was surprised by what I learned.  Tom Carson began ministry at a time and in a place where the Roman Catholic Church had complete control of most aspects of life in Quebec.  Converts were few, churches were small, harassment and opposition was common, and ministry was hard.  On top of it all, Tom Carson had to learn the language and the distinct culture of Quebec in order to be effective in reaching the people of Quebec.  In many ways, today we would describe what Tom Carson did as the work of a missionary, rather than the work of a pastor.

The thing that struck me most about this short book was the profound portrait of faithfulness found in Tom Carson.  He was faithful in so many ways.  He was faithful to his Lord.  Throughout his life, Tom Carson kept journals, and from those journals the reader receives a portrait of a man who never stopped seeking God.  Even when times were tough and discouragement was there, he looked faithfully to God.  Tom Carson was faithful to the gospel.  He never wavered from teaching the truth of the Scriptures and the good news of salvation, even in the face of opposition from the Roman Catholic church and influence from various cults.  Tom Carson was faithful to his family.  Although life was busy, he fought for time with his family.  When the scourge of Alzheimer’s disease reached into his wife’s life, he faithfully cared for her at home until he could no longer physically do it.  After that, he was faithfully present at her side until the Lord called her home.

What stood out to me as a pastor was Tom Carson’s faithfulness as a shepherd.  He was faithful to the flock God had called him to.  He was faithful in small churches in difficult places.  He was faithful in teaching the word and visiting the sick and struggling.  He was faithful in doing the work God set before him – reaching into the lives of French Canadians with the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

His son titled the book, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor.  If only every pastor in North America was ordinary as his dad was ordinary.  We need more “ordinary” pastors like Tom Carson – men who are faithful to their Lord, His Word, their family and their flock.  All too often spiritual leadership is about building our kingdom or making a name for ourselves or pursuing our satisfaction.  But God is not interested in any of that – he calls us to be faithful servants.

Tom Carson was not perfect – his son shares both his triumphs and his struggles.  He was also not ordinary.  He may have ministered primarily in little churches in out of the way places far from the halls of power or prestige, but he did not live an ordinary life.  Lord, help me to be an ordinary pastor in the mold of Tom Carson, faithful in all things till the end, for your glory.  Amen.

Book Review: Found in Him by Elyse Fitzpatrick

According to scholars, the phrases “in Christ”, “with Christ”, “in Him” and other similar phrases are used over 200 times in the New Testament.  In other words, as we read our Bibles, we come across these phrases all the time.  But if you are like me, you have spent years reading these phrases but very little time stopping and thinking what these phrases mean.  Over the past few weeks, in the midst of preaching a series of sermons on our unity in Christ, that is what I have had the privilege of doing.  I have been able to spend some time marinating my soul in what is means for me to be “in Christ.”

One of the resources that has been a blessing to me has been Elyse Fitzpatrick’s book, Found in Him:  The Joy of the Incarnation and Our Union with Christ.  I will admit, I began reading this book as a “work-related” exercise to prepare for a series of sermons.  What I ended up with was a book that challenged me to deeply re-evaluate what it means for me to be found “in Christ.”

Fitzpatrick’s book is wonderfully centered on Jesus.  If you are looking for a self-help book focused on your struggles, this is not it.  Rather, the focus of the book is intentionally on Jesus in order to help us see who Jesus is and what He has done.  The book reminds us of who we are in Jesus.  And in focusing on Jesus, his life, his sacrifice and his victory, Fitzpatrick reminds us how those things are meant to encourage and empower us in our daily struggles. If you believe that Jesus has an answer to the struggles in your life, than Found In Him will help you see how the work of Jesus speaks to those struggles.

The book is broken down into two main sections.  The first six chapters focus on the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  Starting with Jesus’ pre-existence and moving into his birth, his life, his death and his resurrection victory, Fitzpatrick brings home to the reader how Jesus’ work on earth impacts them.  My favorite part was then she focused on Jesus’ life and discussed how Jesus spent every minute of every hour of every day focused on satisfying the demands of the Jewish law so he could present himself to God as a sinless, perfect sacrifice for our sakes.  This quote hit home for me: “Everything that you’ve left undone, He did for you.  Every sin you’ve committed, he joyfully shunned out of love for you.” (p. 61)

The second part of the book is centered on our union with Christ.  What kind of relationship do Christians have with Jesus right now?  What does it mean that Jesus is our representative, our brother in the eternal family of God, and our husband?  The last one is especially difficult for us guys.  Jesus as our husband?  We are okay with that idea on a corporate level – we agree that church is the bride of Christ.  But on an individual level, the idea kind of wierds us out a bit.  But Fitzpatrick does a great job explaining it, laying out the biblical basis and then reminding us that this “marriage” is about unity and us being in submission to Christ, who is the head of the church.  I’ll admit, while I read that section, I was a bit uncomfortable.  But any discomfort I felt was my problem – Scripture is clear that believers are found in a forever marriage relationship with their husband, Jesus Christ.

Found in Him is a relatively easy read, but there is much to digest.  Let the biblical truths Elyse Fitzpatrick lays out saturate your soul.  Let what Jesus did for our sake nourish your spirit.  Let the meaning of our union with Christ penetrate your life.  After reading this book, may you never read the phrase “in Christ” the same way again.