Dan's Blog

Open Doors

2011-10-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

'Behold I have set before you an open door.'

Oftentimes in the scriptures, an open door speaks of evangelistic opportunity. An example of this would be 2 Corinthians 2:12 where Paul writes, ‘Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me.’ God had opened doors of opportunity for Paul to share the gospel in Troas.

What about you? Are you walking through the open doors that God has placed before you? Did you even know that God has set doors of opportunity before you? He has! In your neighborhood… At your workplace… God has strategically placed you in order that you might bring the good news of the gospel to those around you. Acts 17:26-27 says that the times and the places where we live are predetermined by God in order that those we meet might seek God and find Him.’ Now how does that happen? That happens through us as we love on people in the name of Jesus! Oftentimes we miss these open doors of opportunity to share because we’re not looking for them. But if we would just pay attention, and begin to pray for opportunities, we would start to see them pop up more regularly. These open doors often come up in the course of regular conversation. A co-worker shares with you about a struggle. A friend asks for advice. Those are opportunities to share!

Another way that the Scriptures employ the metaphor of an open door is to speak of opportunities for ministry. In 1^st Corinthians 16:9 Paul refers to this when he writes, ‘a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.’ As Paul was ministering as he looked around he saw two things, he saw great opportunities for the work of the kingdom and he also saw great opposition coming against that work.

There are opportunities to join the Lord in Kingdom work all around us. If only we would have eyes to see. How do you know if God is opening a door for you to serve in a certain place? 1) Do you have a natural desire for a particular need or ministry. Maybe you love kids… 2) Do you have a growing burden for a particular area of ministry. 3) Has God made you aware of a need. That’s always the way it works. He gifts you in an area, gives you a growing burden for that ministry and a need presents itself. But please understand, wherever God is opening doors of opportunity, Satan comes against that work to oppose it.

One more thing I’ll say about this and then we can move on… God is not only the one who opens doors of opportunity. He is also the one who closes doors. We see an example of this in Acts 16. Paul and Barnabas were doing missionary work in various cities and when they tried to make their way to a certain city to preach the gospel, Acts 16:6 says that they were ‘forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word there.’ They had good intentions. They wanted to bring the gospel to a particular area, but the door was closed. We don’t know for sure how the Spirit forbade them, but what we can be sure of is that the door was closed.

Maybe you had a desire to do something for the Lord, but it didn’t work out. You wanted to go here or do this or start that but it never happened. It could be that God closed that door for a reason. But one thing is for sure, God never closes a door without opening a window. If He closes one door, it’s only because He has something better for you.

God bless,

Daniel Bentley

2011-05-11T09:09:00.000-07:00

'So let no man judge you in food or in drink, or in regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.' {Colossians 2:16-17}

In his book The Republic, Plato tells a story about a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Socrates, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners. That’s essentially the point that Paul is making here.

It’s about Jesus. It’s not about some feast, it’s about understanding that Jesus is the fulfillment of each feast. It’s not about keeping the Sabbath, its about realizing that He is our Sabbath rest. The feasts and dietary laws and even the Sabbath were all pictures or shadows of Him.

The Christian is one who has learned to see the reality to which all shadows point. In Christ, we see the fulfillment of every picture, and the substance of every shadow. And that changes the way you go through life. So think back to the last time you marveled at a beautiful sunset. You know those sunsets that are so beautiful they just take your breath away. There are colors in there that we don’t even have names for. As Christians we don’t just see a beautiful sunset. We see the artisonship of a master painter. When we look up into the heavens on a starlit night. We don’t just see the vast expanse of the heavens. We see the glory of God being displayed because the Psalmist tells us that the heavens what, declare God’s glory right.

And so here’s where we start to get off… We get off when we place more emphasis and weight on the shadow then we do on Christ. So rather then seeing the beauty in creation and letting that propel our hearts to worship the God who created those things, we worship the creation. We take the things that God has made, that were meant to point us to Him, and we elevate those things and begin to worship those things over the creator. And in doing so, we become idolators. And just as an example of this… We’ve got these two dogs and they’re more or less our vacuum cleaners. So I’ll drop some food on the ground from time to time and I’ll call my dog over to lick it up for me. But sometimes the dog won’t see the food so I’ll point to it and say, ‘No, it’s over there.’ And there have been times when my dog will start licking my finger. I’m thinking, what you want is over there. But they just don’t get it. That’s like us. We don’t get it. All these things we enjoy are like fingers pointing us to Jesus. He’s what we want. He is the fulfillment, the substance and the essence of it all.

God Bless,

Daniel

The Life of Faith

2011-03-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

I often hear people say, ‘If all I have to do is believe God… If I'm saved by grace alone, through faith in what Christ has accomplished for me on the cross then what about the way we live? Doesn’t that kind of preaching lead to loose living?’ I don't believe so. Because the Scriptures are going to show us how those who have been saved by grace alone through faith alone always go on to live radically different lives. Because they realize they are not just saved by faith, they live by faith. Genuine faith is always expressed in radical obedience.

Hebrews 11 is this great chapter and its all about these men and women who did extraordinary things and lived extraordinary lives because they lived by faith… ‘Who through faith subdued kingdoms worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of aliens. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword…’ I could go on.

The point is, people who live by grace through faith live radically different lives then the rest of the world. Completely different lives. Why? Because they believe God. They know they don’t need the stuff so many of us try so desperately to hold on to. Because they know God is better and they know God is all satisfying. And so the trinkets and toys this world has offered to them are no longer precious to them because God is precious to them and they want God. And they believe God that He’s enough for them. So their not saying, ‘Well I’ve been saved by grace so I can just live in sin and indulge in the things of this world and live however I want.’ No. That’s not living by grace through faith. People who live like that know so little of grace and so little of faith.

The reason we don’t live radical lives like Hebrews 11 talks about, is because we lack faith. We need to believe God. To believe that he is good and that He is better then all that this world has to offer and that He is worth risking everything for. That He’s worth risking our lives for. Like the Psalmist we should be able to say, 'Because Your loving kindness is better then life, my lips will praise you.' {Psalm 63:3} You see, to many of us serve God because we think He can give us a better life. The Psalmist had it right. His lovingkindness is better then life. When we believe that, it leads us to lead lives of reckless abandon for the sake of the gospel. We need to be delivered from a lie that says, ‘I’ve received grace from God so I can live how I want and indulge in the things of this world.’ That’s not grace and that’s not faith. It misses the whole point. May God give us grace to live by faith!

Daniel

Holding All Things Together

2011-03-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

Colossians 1:17 says that 'in Him all things are held together.'

By Him all things are held together. By Him all things consist. You see, here’s how this plays out in my life. I’ve found that when Jesus gets pushed off the throne in my heart and other things become more important than Him, my life seems to unravel. It begins to spin out of control. Do you know what I mean? I get short tempered. I find myself being dominated by my flesh. I become irritable. There’s a reason for that. The scriptures say that in Him all things hold together. So when I get away from Him or neglect my time with Him, things just start to unravel. But the opposite of that is also true. When I’m in the word and Jesus has the place of priority and preeminence that He ought to have in my life, it doesn’t really matter what’s going on around me, I can be at peace. My whole world could be falling apart at the seems, but if Jesus is center in my life, then it doesn’t matter. He holds me together.

I’ve seen it happen over and over again. I’ve observed Christians going through the hardest trials. I mean really difficult stuff. And in the midst of those trying times, I’ve seen the Lord sustain them and hold them together. That’s not to say that they don’t struggle or experience pain, but in the midst of that pain, their life doesn’t come apart at the seams. The Scriptures say, ‘He will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Him.’

One more thought on this verse … How does He hold all things together? Hebrews 1:3 says, ‘He upholds all things by the word of His power.’ It’s His word that upholds us. When you’re overwhelmed. When you feel like you’re about to unravel. When life seems to be falling apart, it’s God’s word that comes to you and upholds you. His promises are brought to bear on your life and on your circumstances. This is why it’s so important that we memorize scripture. Because it’s through His word that He upholds all things.

--Daniel

Freedom in Christ

2011-02-11T09:25:00.000-08:00

In Galatians 5:1 Paul writes, 'For freedom Christ has set us free.'

Now, that’s a concept that we as Americans are familiar with right. Freedom is this powerful idea that has come to define American culture and values. We sing about freedom. We talk about freedom. We fight for freedom. America has been billed as ‘the land of the free and home of the brave.’ And might I just say at this point that I thank God for the freedoms that we enjoy as Americans. I think we take some of our freedoms for granted. We are free to worship God. That’s not the case in many parts of the world. So I’m especially grateful to the men and women who serve our country and risk their lives to protect the many freedoms that we enjoy.

So in one sense we’re a free people, but there is another sense in which a person is never truly free until they surrender their life to Jesus Christ. I mean, we believe that we are a free people, born into a free society and that we can do whatever we want. But the Bible paints a different picture. It says that we’re not free, but that we are all born into slavery. It says that we’re enslaved to sin and death. Jesus said, ‘Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin.’ Anyone who’s ever tried to stop sinning understands this. We can’t. We’re all born with a sinful nature and we’re slaves to that sinful nature until Christ sets us free. It’s like our whole social structure has been built to help us deal with sin. That’s why we have counselors and attorneys and cops… But no matter how many systems we develop and programs we create and social structures we put in place, none of it works. We are slaves to sin.

Likewise, the bible says that we are all slaves to death. As one person said it, ‘The statistics on death are rather impressive. One out of ever one persons who are born die.’ I don’t care how much you go to the gym or if you eat your vitamins and veggies and make sure to wear sun-block and avoid everything that’s bad. One day, you will die. That’s why Jesus came. He came in the likeness of sinful flesh and redeemed us so that now we don’t have to die, we can live forever with God. And we don’t have to be enslaved to sin, we can walk in freedom and newness of life. Jesus said, ‘If the Son sets you free, then you are free indeed.’

I know a lot of people who think of Christianity as this thing that strips you of your freedoms. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have been set free from the bondage of earthly passions and pursuits. We are free to love God, and serve Him and worship Him and walk with Him. This is true freedom. Walk in it. Fight for it. Stand in it.

God bless,

Daniel Bentley

WALKING IN THE SPIRIT

2010-09-17T11:20:00.001-07:00

In Galatians 5, Paul writes that if we 'walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.' · If your walking step by step day by day in the Spirit, you’re not going to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So how do we do that? How do we walk in the Spirit? I think that Jesus is our example in this area, as He is in every area… Jesus did life in the power of the Spirit. I think we forget that sometimes. The scriptures tell us that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit. They tell us that after He was baptized the Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. He was filled with the Spirit. In His first sermon, Jesus said, ‘The Spirit of the Lord has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor…’ His miracles were performed through the power of the Spirit. His preaching was done in the power of the Spirit. He cast out demons through the power of the Spirit. At one point we are told that He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. So He overcame temptation through the power of the Spirit. Everything Jesus did while on earth as a man, He did in the power of the Holy Spirit. So that’s what it looks like to walk in the Spirit. And then one of the last things Jesus says to His disciples is, ‘You will receive power when the Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses.’ And so you look at the book of Acts which gives us a record of the early church and you find the Holy Spirit everywhere.

So here’s what that means for us. Walking in the Spirit is about cultivating a heart that is sensitive to the Spirit’s leading. It’s about cultivating ears that are tuned to the Spirit’s voice. It’s about cultivating eyes that are open to the Spirit’s working in your life. You see, when your walking in the Spirit, you’ll find that you’re being led. He leads us to people who need a friend to talk to. He leads us to scriptures that impart wisdom to us and that are applicable to situations that we are going to face in that day. He leads us into situations where God’s love can flow through us. That’s what it means to walk in the Spirit. And as you do that, you’ll find yourself defeating your enemy, the flesh…

God bless

Daniel

INVITATION

2010-08-19T11:21:00.000-07:00

Jesus shows up on the scene and He is this Rabbi who teaches like nobody’s ever taught before. He has power over disease and over the wind and the waves. And He’s getting ready to launch His public ministry so the first thing He does is He gathers a group of men and begins to disciple them.

So the invitation of Jesus over and over and over again in the New Testament is to come and ‘follow me.’ ‘Come live as I lived.” Literally, “Come walk with me.” So He’s walking along the shores of the sea of Galille and He sees Peter and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea and He calls them to be His disciples and the invitation is, ‘follow me.’ And it says, they left their nets and they ‘followed him.’ Then he calls James and John to be His disiples and again it says that they left their boats and they ‘followed Him.’ So the call into discipleship always begins with this invitation to ‘follow Him.’

And here's the thing... When Jesus called them to follow Him, He wasn’t just inviting them to follow his teachings, He was inviting them into a brand new way of doing life. This much is made clear by the fact that when He called them to ‘follow Him’ they literally got up left their nets and physically began to follow Him. You see, back in the days that Jesus walked the earth, those wishing to study with a certain rabbi would follow not only that rabbi's teachings as closely as possible, but they would also physically follow him. The idea was that you would follow so closely, in order to not miss a word, that you would be covered in the dust from the road that your rabbi's sandals kicked up as he walked. So, there is this ancient blessing that is still used today among Rabbis and disciples, and the blessing is ‘May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi.’ What that means is may you follow so closely behind him that as he walks and kicks-up dust, it gets all on you.

So to be a disciple wasn’t just about adhering to a set of doctrines or following a bunch of teachings, it was a way of doing life. In fact, when you go back and look at the first, Christians, they weren’t called Christians at all. They were called ‘followers of the way.’ In the book of Acts, which gives us a record of the first 30 years or so of church history, Luke uses the term Christians only once to refer to followers of Jesus and the rest of the time he uses this term, ‘followers of the way.’ And so from the very beginning, to be a Christian was all about a way of life. It was all about following the One who said, ‘I am the Way, the truth and the life.’ {John 14:6}

God bless,

Daniel Bentley

Amazing Grace

2010-08-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

What’s grace? What does it look like? How does it work? Perhaps the best way to understand grace is to set it beside justice and mercy. Justice, is getting what you deserve. If I break the law, and then go to jail for my crime, justice has been served. Now mercy, has been defined as not giving someone what they deserve. I deserve punishment, but when you extend mercy to me, your absolving me of that debt. Your saying, I’m not going to give you what you deserve. Now grace, is something altogether different. Grace is doing good to someone who deserves the opposite.

Let me give you an example. We’re all familiar with Victor Hugo’s book, Les Miserables. In that book there is a wonderful picture of grace. You know the story. The main character, Jean Valjean is a laborer working to support his sister and her seven children. After a long dry spell with no available work, he breaks a window to steal a loaf of bread for them and is caught and sentenced to five years of hard labor at the notorious prison of Toulon. Through misbehavior and escape attempts, Jean Valjean ends up serving 19 years, and Hugo describes his gradual emotional decent as all hope and love are quenched in the crucible of prison life.

One night, Valjean is sleeping on a stone bench on the street, when a woman suggests that he ask for lodging at a nearby house, which she does not mention is the modest home of the Bishop of the town. The Bishop takes Valjean in, feeds him and gives him a bed. And while Jean Valjean is deeply grateful, he’s also pretty hardened at this point, and in the middle of the night, he gets up, steals the Bishop’s silver utensils, and flees. The next day, he is picked up randomly and discovered to have the silver on him. The soldiers bring him back to the Bishop, but rather than pressing charges against Jean Valjean, the Bishop tells the soldiers that he had given the silver to the convict as a gift. And then he also gives Jean Valjean two heavy silver candlesticks.

And then he says, “Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I am taking it away from black thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I am giving it to God.” That’s grace! That’s what God has done for us.

And here’s the thing about grace. Grace is always expensive to the giver. Shocking to the observer and traumatic to the receiver. First, it’s expensive to the giver. You see, in order to extend grace to us, it cost God everything. Our salvation was not cheap. It’s been said, Salvation may be free, but it wasn’t cheap. It cost God His life. So we can’t ever say that sins not a big deal. Or that it doesn’t really matter. We can’t trivialize it in that way. Because our sin cost Jesus His life. Peter puts it this way, ‘We weren’t redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold. But with the precious blood of the lamb.’ So grace is expensive to the giver.

Secondly, grace is always shocking to the observer. This is what its talking about back in verse seven. When the angels see us and they see how wicked and sinful we are and then they see God pour out His grace on us, it blows their minds. We should be blasted. But God loves us!

Thirdly, grace is always traumatic to the receiver. Think of Valjean. That one act of undeserved kindness changed his life and shaped the rest of his story. Surely all of us are familiar with the story of John Newton. John Newton was the captain of a slave trading vessel in the 1700’s. Of course, he went on to repent of his sins and became a driving force in the fight against slavery. It was he wrote the words to this beloved Hymn.

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)

That sav’d a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

Truly this song is so beloved because it captures the essence of what it means to be saved by grace. Written by a man who understood the depth and depravity of the human condition. This song is our story.

God bless,

Daniel Bentley

Stories

2010-06-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

I love a good story. And the thing about the bible is, it's filled with them. Noah's ark, David and Goliath, Daniel and the lions den... the list goes on and on. Don't you just love that about the Bible. That it's filled with stories. I know I do. God could have just left us with a stack of rules to keep. He could have left us with a list of instructions on how to do life in the form of a manual. But He didn't. In the Scriptures, you've got all these different genres of literature. You've got history, and law and poetry and prophecy... But by far and away, the most prominent form of literature in the Bible is narrative. Think about that. Of all the ways GOd could have communicated to us, He chose to do so primarily, through telling stories. The gospels are told in this way. And it was a favorite form of communicating for Jesus in His own teaching. So one of the really great things about the Bible is that it's filled with all of these wonderful stories.

But here's the thing. They're not just stories. These aren't fairy tales. They're true! Peter writes in his second epistle, 'For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and his coming again. We have seen his majestic splendor with our own eyes.' {2 Peter 1:16} And what's more, in 1st Corinthians Paul tells us that 'All these events happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us, who live at the time when this age is drawing to a close.' {1 Corinthians 10:11}

So the next time you open your bible, find your way into the story and allow the Spirit of God to shape you through the living word.

God bless

Daniel Bentley

The Long Road Home

2010-03-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

What is repentance? I think it’s a word that has gotten a bad reputation over the years because of the way it’s been used in a lot of church’s. We’re used to hearing the word in a context like, ‘You’d better repent or you’re going to burn!!!’ Biblical repentance is something that’s altogether different. It’s even beautiful. And the reason I say it’s beautiful and something that we should all be quick to run to is because it opens the door to grace. I like what C.S. Lewis had to say about repentance. He said repentance is not something God arbitrarily demands of us; he described ‘It simply as a description of what going back is like.’

Perhaps the best illustration of what it means to repent is found in Jesus famous story of the prodigal son. In that story, the son takes his father’s inheritance and squanders the entire thing on parties and prostitutes. Before long, his money runs out and his friends desert him. He eventually finds work feeding swine. (Not the ideal job for any Jewish boy) And he actually gets to the point where he becomes so hungry, that he wants to fill his belly with the slop the pigs are eating. It was at this point, that the gospels tell us that ‘he came to himself.’ He decided to return to his fathers house and beg for mercy. As he headed for home, while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and began to run towards him and embraced him and put a ring on his finger, and shoes on his feet, and commanded that the fatted calf should be slaughtered.

And the picture of the boy coming to himself and returning home is the best illustration of what it means to repent. Repentance is the flight home that leads to joyful celebration. It opens the way to a future, to a relationship restored. As one author put it, God awakes guilt for my own benefit. God seeks not to crush me but to liberate me, and liberation requires a defenseless spirit like the one we see illustrated in the story of the prodigal son, or like the one we see pictured in Jonah.

But before that door to grace can be opened we’ve got to admit our need. And that’s a hard thing for us to do. It doesn’t take long to learn how to ‘look the part ’ in a church setting. In fact, it’s been my experience that church is one of the easiest places to hide. And what can end up happening if we’re not careful is we can all start to look really pretty on the outside, and yet have all this secret sin going on in our hearts. And the problem with that is in doing that, we become the very people that Jesus had such a difficult time with in the gospels. In the end, I know of only two alternatives to hypocrisy: perfection or honesty. Perfection is not a viable option. Being honest before God about who I really am is the only path that will ultimately lead to life and freedom.

--Daniel

The Shared Life

2010-02-10T09:25:00.000-08:00

There is this repeated phrase that occurs no less then 6 times in the first chapter of Genesis 1. Of course, Genesis 1 is this great poetic song of creation in which God is seen moving and creating and forming and fashioning everything that is. And what we discover is that God is the author of all the beauty, and all the majesty and all the glory that can be seen in creation. And so the bible says that He created all of it and He saw that it was good. And so 6 times we find those words repeated in Genesis 1. It was good. It was good. It was good. But then in Genesis 2:18 God creates man, and for the first time we find these words uttered from the mouth of God, ‘It is not good that man should be alone…’

Now, here’s what’s interesting about that statement. When God says this, He is making this statement before the fall of man. That doesn’t happen for another chapter. So what that means is at this point, there is still no sin, no disobedience, nothing to hinder the relationship between God and man. Adam was living in a state of perfect intimacy with God. Every day they would walk together in the cool of the day. Adam is perfectly known and loved by an omniscient Creator and yet the word that God uses to describe Adam is ‘alone’.

I wonder how many of us would use that same word to describe our own existences. Most of us live lives in which we’re almost continually surrounded by other people. We drive on crowded freeways and wait in long lines at Starbucks before we get to our jobs where we work around dozens of people and yet many of us, if we were being truly honest with ourselves would admit that there are times when we just feel alone in the deepest recesses of our soul. It was Thoreau who said, ‘Most men lead lives of quiet desperation, and they go to the grave with the song still in them.’ Is that not the case?

And so the Bible says that we were never meant to do life on our own. Not only were we created to live in fellowship with God. We have also been created to do life with one another. And the reason for that is because we have been created in God’s image and after His likeness and God Himself dwells within community. Yeah… God is a community within Himself made up of Father Son and Spirit. And His desire is that we would become participants in that community.

But walking in deep meaningful relationships with other believers is something that is easier said than done. And the reason I think so many of us fail to walk in authentic community with other believers is that it requires us to be honest and open with other people about our struggles and about the things that are really tripping us up in our walks. And that’s a scary thing to do.

Here’s what sin does. It causes us to hide our true selves because of fear and shame. Think back to the Garden of Eden. Prior to the fall, Adam and Eve lived in community with one another in this beautiful paradise and you know what the Scriptures tell us about them? It says in Genesis 2:25 that ‘they were both naked and they were not ashamed.’

What does that mean? They were naked and they weren’t ashamed. What is God trying to tell us? I think that what’s being said is, they had nothing to hide from one another. They had absolutely no secrets that they were keeping from one another. And this is the first picture God gives to us of what it means to walk in community. Walking in genuine community means exposing who we really are .

But then what happens after the fall? What is the first thing that Adam and Eve do? They realize that they’re naked and they hide by sowing fig leaves together. They hide their identity from each other and then they hide from God. Which, by the way, I always thought was kind of funny. As if God was looking around saying, ‘Where is that little rascal? I can’t find him anywhere.’ God knew where Adam was. You can’t hide from God. But that’s what sin does. It makes us want to hide from each other and from God.

And the only way to defeat sin is by walking in the light with one another and before God. It’s going to be a continual battle. And it’s going to require that we walk in deep meaningful relationships with other Christians. It’s a fight. This isn’t natural. If it was so natural, why is the Bible filled with, “Don’t forsake it...Don’t forsake it...Don’t forsake it...Get with one another...Confess your sins...Walk deeply with one another... And so in our pursuit of God, we must find that 'band of brothers' or sisters that we can run with, and battle with, and pray with, and cry with, and laugh with and grow with. Your growth in Christ depends on it.

-Daniel

WAKING UP

2010-01-26T12:30:00.000-08:00

Jacob was a man on the run. He was running from his brother, who had vowed to kill him. He was anxious, frustrated and afraid. He had no thoughts of God in his mind that night as he pulled up a rock for a pillow and went to sleep. Little did he know that God had designs on his life, and that He was about to invade his dreams. In his dream he saw a ladder that reached from the earth to heaven. He saw the angels ascending and descending, and he saw God standing in the heavens above the ladder. He thought he had stumbled upon the very house of God and so he said, ‘Surely, the LORD is in this place and I did not know it.’

What Jacob failed to realize, is that God had already been working in and around his life prior to this experience. The problem was, he just didn’t have eyes to see. I read somewhere that The beginning of knowing about God is learning how to pay attention, learning to be fully present where you are, and waking up. We realize, like Jacob, that we have been asleep. We do not see what is happening all around us. For most of us, most of the time, the lights are on but nobody’s home.

The Psalmist said, ‘Where can I go God, that you aren’t there? If I go to heaven, your there. If I make my bed in hell. You’re there. If I sail on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. And if this is true, that God is in all places at all times and He’s working in and around our lives always, then we should be able to see evidences of his work in every circumstance of our lives. Jesus walked in this reality. And so Jesus is walking down the road and he doesn’t just see a farmer scattering seed, but he sees a kingdom parable and the seed becomes a type of the word of God. He sees a woman searching for a coin and He turns to His disciples and says, that’s like the Kingdom of God. And He sees the lilies of the field and the birds in the air and in everything, He is able to discern the movement and handiwork and the voice of God.

And when we get this, what happens is the divide between the secular and the sacred gets smashed. But when our lives are so fractured and fragmented because we’re not living in the present, then we miss what God is doing all around us. The trick is to pay attention to what is going on around you long enough to behold the miracle without falling asleep. There is another world, right here within this one, whenever we pay attention. As author David Geotz writes, 'Even in suburbia all moments are infused with the Sacred. You don’t have to hole up in a monastery to experience the fullness of God. Your cul-de-sac and subdivision are as good a place as any.' And like Jacob, you’ll fid yourself saying, ‘Surely the Lord was in this place and I didn’t know it.’

--Daniel

Clarity

2010-01-14T09:55:00.000-08:00

Over the years, I’ve talked with a lot of people who have said in one way or another, ‘I’m supposed to be happy. I’ve got everything that this world says a person needs to be happy. And yet I still feel like I’m missing something.’

As one author put it, ‘We learn through all of life there runs a ground note of cosmic disappointment.’ Haven’t you found that to be true? Everything falls apart. Most of the time it seems like the life we’ve always dreamed of, the one where we’re completely content and happy, always lies just beyond the horizon. It’s always just beyond our grasp. Just out of reach. Perhaps nobody has ever made this point better then C.S. Lewis who in his book Mere Christianity wrote, ‘Most people, if they have really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise…

Each of us knows this to be true. We all realize that we haven’t attained. That we’re not there. That there’s something missing. And so we look to different things to make up for that. And the inescapable conclusion from this endless search we’re all on is that nothing can scratch that itch in our souls.

The truth is, in the absence of God, we will inevitably look to other things to give us hope, meaning and fulfillment in life. Some look for these things in success or power, others look for them in beauty or being accepted. Still others find their sense of worth in their children or in the way they are viewed. Basically, whatever we look to to give us a sense of meaning value and worth, is our god. In his book Counterfeit Gods, Timothy Keller speaks to this point when he writes, ‘Every human being must live for something. Something must capture our imaginations, our heart’s most fundamental allegiance and hope. But the bible tells us, without the intervention of the Holy Spirit, that object will never be God himself.’ And the point is, God always attacks the idols that we erect in our hearts. He will not share space in our hearts with rivals.

And the whole process of growing and maturing into the fullness of Christ is all about giving God access to our hearts. That's the key. The principal thing that God is after is our hearts and only in yielding and surrendering our hearts to Him will we be truly satisfied.

--Daniel

The Story of Life

2009-12-15T08:58:00.000-08:00

All of human history is a stage. And on that stage a story is being told. I think we tend to think of the bible as being a collection of stories about different people from which we derive principals and morals. And I guess, on some level that’s true, the bible does have a lot to say about a lot of different things. But at it’s core, it is telling just one story. It is the story of God, and His passionate pursuit to restore all that was lost in the garden of Eden. This is the grand narrative that has been unraveling ever since time began. And this drama of redemption isn’t just one of many storylines that you’ll find in the bible. It is the story. And the sooner we get that, the better off we’ll all be.

Now, this whole concept of life being like a story or a movie or a play is something that I think we can all track with. It’s something that I think even appeals to us. We like to think of life as a grand stage upon which the story of our lives is being played out. But the part that we struggle with is the part about the movie being about somebody else. That part bothers us. You see, in the movie of life, we like to think of ourselves as the main characters. We like to think of ourselves as the stars of the show. We like to think that we are at the center, and that the rest of the world just kind of spins around us. I guess it makes sense right. We’re the only people who show up in every scene of the movie of our life. Others come in and play bit parts or minor roles. But we are the stars in the show about us. But here’s the problem with living life like that. It doesn’t work. The more we try to put ourselves at the center of life’s purpose the less fulfilled we become.

So here's my thought. What if we took ourselves out of the spotlight, if only for a moment, in order that we might see the beauty, and wonder, and splendor of this great story that God is writing. If we could do that, I think we'd have to start thinking in a whole different way. It would cause us to ask a whole new set of questions about life and God. Like, we'd start thinking in terms of, what is my role in this grand story that is unfolding and how can I fit my life into that role? And here’s why this is so important. Only as we begin to live life from this vantage point will we find ourselves being fulfilled. Only then will we be able to enjoy life. Because that’s the way God has scripted it.

--Daniel

Seasons of Life

2009-11-18T14:21:00.000-08:00

The holiday season is officially upon us. It won't be long before we're all knee deep in wrapping paper and Christmas ornaments. As the popular Christmas song says, 'It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.'

But for many, the holiday season is far from wonderful. Many of us have loved ones that are serving our Country overseas. For those who have lost a loved one in the past year, the pain of that loss is accentuated during the holiday season. The truth is, for a lot of people, the Holidays are a real struggle.

One of my favorite stories in the bible is in John 12. That chapter tells the story of one woman’s extravagant love for Jesus. In this familiar passage, Mary takes some very expensive perfume, and anoints Jesus with it, and then begins to wipe His feet with her hair.

It’s interesting to me that every time that Mary is mentioned in the Bible she can be found sitting at the feet of Jesus. In every season of her life, she would make her way to the feet of Jesus. In seasons of busyness and stress {Luke 10}, in seasons of grief and loss, {John 11} and in seasons of joy and rejoicing {John 12} Mary is found at the feet of Jesus.

What a wonderful encouragement that is to all of us. No matter what season of life we may find ourselves in, whether it be a season of busyness and work, or a season of grief and sorrow, or a season of joy and thanksgiving, we ought to follow Mary’s lead, and make our way to the feet of Jesus.

God Bless,

--Daniel

Wrestling with God in Prayer

2009-11-04T09:06:00.000-08:00

'For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Ephesians 3:14

If you’ll look at this prayer, here’s one of the things you’ll discover. When Paul prays and asks God to dwell in their hearts. He’s asking for something that he’s already said is a reality. And when Paul prays that they would be filled with the fullness of God. Again he’s praying for something that he’s already told them is true. So all of these things Paul is praying for are things that he’s already told them are true. So why pray for them at all?

You see, Paul understood something that’s crucial. And that is this, information alone doesn’t lead to transformed living. Here’s what I mean by that. Paul could sit there and tell them all kinds of wonderful things about God and about what He’s done for us and about salvation and grace and all these things but unless the Spirit of God moves in those peoples hearts and takes that information and breathes life into it, then it will just sit there in there heads. They might be well informed. They might have perfect theology. But it will do nothing to transform their lives. That’s why Paul stops where he does, after he’s just shared the most amazing truths about the person and work of God, to pray that the Spirit of God might take that message and massage it into the hearts of the Ephesian church. Because Paul knows that information without divine revelation never leads to transformed living. But when all of this information about God is combined with divine revelation from God’s Spirit, then watch out. That’s where transformation occurs.

So we need to be careful. Otherwise we’ll end up becoming like the guys who write Valentines Day cards for Hallmark for a living. They say all these wonderfully romantic and sappy things. But they don’t really mean any of it. It’s a job. But God has called us to be more then that. God is not a crossword puzzle. God is not a math problem. Christianity is not Jeapordy. It's not about knowing all the answers and filling in all the correct bubbles. It’s about experience, and life, and relationship and pain and joy and tears.

That’s why I love the Psalms so much. Their basically a stack of prayers, most of them written by David. And in so many of them, David’s calling out to God to show up, to be real. To act, to listen, to save, to heal, to touch, to work, to shape, to speak. That’s what God wants for us. He wants a relationship. That’s why David was called a man after God’s own heart. Because he was constantly pursuing God’s heart, chasing it down, seeking it. That’s what prayer is all about.

Homesickness

2009-09-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

'That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth--in Him.' {Ephesians 1:10}

In this verse we are given the purpose of God's eternal plan that has been working itself out in history. It’s all to this end, the consummation of all things in Him. This is the event that all creation is waiting for and longing for.

It's the reason for that lack of peace. The reason we can never seem to arrive or get there. The reason why we never really feel satisfied, is because at the deepest level, we remember the Garden of Eden. So there is this understanding within each of us that we we’re made to live in relationship with God. But that was fractured in the garden with the fall and so now we think we want this or we think we want that, and then we get it, and it doesn’t satisfy us or bring us peace. And the reason for that is, because ‘God has placed eternity in our hearts’ and at the deepest level, we’re desperately trying to recover what was lost in the garden. As the twentieth century philosopher Martin Heidenger said that all human beings are characterized by a kind of homesickness. We’re all in a sense, alienated and feel as though we’re not really home in this world. We find that our deepest desires are all at variance with this world.

And so those times, when we see beauty, or get caught up in a song and just get lost in it, or those times when we’re standing outside in the mountains watching the sun set and it’s so beautiful it takes your breath away. What that is is God calling out to you. Those are faint reminders of what God intended. As C.S. Lewis said in his essay titled, the Weight of Glory, ‘These beautiful things are not the thing itself (not what we’re really desiring) they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.’

And so every beautiful sunset, and every longing of the heart is communicating to us that God loves us and wants to restore us to that place of wholeness and home. I was reminded of this the other day as I sat on my front porch watching the sun set. It was one of those amazing Colorado afternoons that we get here where the clouds had rolled in in just such a way that the shafts of light we’re breaking through the clouds and creating these columns of light. It was so beautiful it just took your breath away. And then I was reminded of what Augustine said, ‘If these are the pleasures afforded to sinful men, what does God have in store for those whose hearts are his?’

These moments are like the previews of the coming attraction which is when God comes back and establishes His kingdom on earth. And in that day, all things will be gathered together in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth.

The Heart of the Matter

2009-09-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

God wants your heart. Over and over and over again the scriptures place the emphasis on the inner life. In the Bible, there are more than 800 direct references to the heart. There are more then 300 direct references to the soul. And there are more then 100 direct references to the mind. Beyond this, there are countles allusions to the soul, countless allusions to the mind, countless illusions to the heart. God is constantly addressing the issue of the heart. I think we need to stop and ask ourselves why? Why would God hammer home and speak to this particular issue so frequently.

In the Proverbs we read, ‘Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.’ {Proverbs 4:23} In other words, just as a river flows from its source and waters an entire village and feeds the crops and sustains life in that village. That’s like your heart. It is the fountain-head from which all of life flows. And that’s why, for God the essential aspect of our life is the heart. The first commandment is love the Lord your God with all of your heart… because it all flows from there.

And I think that’s part of what makes this thing so difficult for a lot of us. Jesus wants our hearts. And He ruthlessly and aggressively pursues our hearts until they are His. But that's not necessarily what we always want. Giving God access to our hearts can get messy. It can get ugly. We don't really want God digging around at the core issues of our lives. So we'd rather just pretend like everything is ok, even when it's not.

The problem with this is over and over again God attacks right action that doesn’t have a right heart to it. Jesus said, ‘This people draws near to me with their lips but their hearts are far from me. And in vain they worship Me.’ {Matthew 15:8-9a} What that means is, you can do all the right things, but if your hearts are in the wrong place, it doesn’t please God. God wants our hearts. If our hearts aren’t engaged, then our worship and our work for God are in vain. True worship engages the heart. Dutiful worship is a contradiction in terms.

Ok, so what should those of us who aren’t there and aren’t experiencing that in their hearts do? I mean, I’m talking to those of us who are here and would say, my hearts just not there. My heart’s dead. Or maybe, you used to have this sweet real intimate connection with God but lately your heart has just become cold. What can you do?

Here's what Jesus had to say to a church that had lost that love and feeling... 'Remember from where you have fallen from, repent, and do again the first works.' His advice to the church in Ephasis was, go back to what it was like in the beginning. And repent of your sin, and then just fall in love with Jesus all over again.

--Daniel

Our Father

2009-08-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He said, ‘Pray after this manner, Our Father who is in heaven…’ {Matthew 6:9} This is huge. This is foundational. God is your Father. That’s how you and I are supposed to relate to Him. As a loving Father.

Let me try to unpack this for you a little bit to show you how revolutionary it was for Jesus to teach His disciples to relate to God in this way. In ancient Israel, the name of God was never spoken. In fact, God’s name was so revered and so honored and was considered so Holy that when the Scribes of the day who were transcribing the bible for us would come to the name of God, they would take a ceremonial bath, then they would grab a new quill and use new ink, and then as they would write out the name of God they would only write the consonants which are YHVH. That’s why to this day, we don’t know the correct pronunciation of the name of God. Some say it’s Yehway and others say is Jehova. I mean, that’s a lot of baths. The name LORD shows up 7,970 times in the Bible. But I think that helps give us a sense for how much these people respected and revered the name of the Lord. Now with that understanding, take what Jesus says and place it within that context and you can begin to get a sense for how radical what Jesus was saying was. He was saying, God is your Father. He’s not distant, He’s close. He’s not impersonal, He’s personal. He’s not unloving, He’s loving.

And I love this because its something that each of us can relate to. We all have families. All of us have a dad. Some of them were really amazing. I thank God for my dad. But some of us had dads that weren’t so amazing. And I think that that’s one of the reasons a lot of people struggle to relate to God because they had a really crummy father growing up. He was never around. He was abusive. He was emotionally checked out. And so, what a lot of people do is they take their earthly Father and judge their heavenly father by their earthly dad. And so a lot of people have this really warped view of God. If that’s you, I would encourage you to go to the Bible and instead of judging God by your earthly father, judge your earthly father by your heavenly Father. He’s a loving Dad. He cares. He listens. He engages. He heals. That’s who God is. He’s Father.

Now let me just address the dads out there for a minute. What a wonderful privilege and opportunity we have to lead our families and mirror for them the love of their heavenly Father. Please don't neglect that responsibility. Your families need you. It's time for the men in our churches to start acting like men. Far to many churches are filled with boys who suffer from Peter Pan syndrome and refuse to grow up. God has called us as men to lead, love, protect, and serve our families and lead them to the feet of our heavenly Father.

--Daniel

THE SERVANT KING

2009-08-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

Our society loves stories about people who rise from obscurity to achieve greatness. We all love a good, from rags to riches tale. Countless movies in Hollywood have been made using some variation of that theme. There’s a movie that came out recently called the Soloist. It’s about this Julliard student who ends up dropping out of school and he ends up homeless and then this News reporter finds him living out on the streets and its about his re-emergence. We love that kind of thing.

Now here’s what’s incredible about the gospel. The gospel isn’t a from rags to riches tale. It’s a, from riches to rags tale. Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, ‘For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.’ {2^nd Corinthians 8:9}

He who sat enthroned in the glories of heaven, surrounded by throngs of angels who worshipped at His feet and lived to accomplish His will, ‘made Himself of no reputation and took upon Himself the form of a servant.’ This is perhaps, the most incomprehensible truth in the entire bible. God became a man! As Paul writes in 1^st Timothy, ‘And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.’ [1^st Timothy 3:16]

But He didn’t stop there! ‘He took upon Himself the form of a servant coming in the likeness of men.’ Not only did He become a man, even more, He took upon Himself the form of a servant. The creator of all that exists, came to this earth as a servant! I mean, just think about that statement for a moment or two.

Then, on the night before He was to be crucified, Jesus stooped down even further by getting on His hands and knees and washing the disciples feet! Think of that! Jesus washed the disciples dirty, stinky feet! In Middle Eastern countries, it was the slaves who washed the feet of guests; but Christ took the place of a slave. He makes this clear to His disciples: if their Lord and Teacher has washed their feet, then they should wash one another’s feet, that is, serve each other in humility. This must have been a striking rebuke to the Twelve, for just that evening they had been debating who was to be the greatest!

Now let’s take all of that and personalize it. How can we take Christ’s example and follow it? I mean, should we start washing one another’s feet? No. I don’t think so. But I do know that as husbands, we are called to wash our wives in the water of the word. Guys, when’s the last time you encouraged your wife, or served her in any way? Maybe for you this means, tomorrow evening, after dinner, you get up and instead of slipping into a coma on the couch, you clear the table and do the dishes. Maybe it means, instead of complaining about something you don’t like about the church, you get involved and start helping. Maybe it means you volunteer to lead a home group… or bring dinner to someone who you know is sick… or maybe it means you see someone stacking chairs and you help them… I don't know exactly what this looks like for you. But the big idea is this. Jesus came to this earth as the servant king, and it is our privilege to get to serve Him by serving those He puts in front of us.

-Daniel

A Burden for Souls

2009-07-17T22:23:00.000-07:00

As I was walking through downtown Denver the other day the Lord began to burden my heart for this city. I saw people of every race, from every culture and class busily making their way to wherever it is they were going. It got me thinking...

In the 17th chapter of Acts, we find the Apostle Paul visiting the ancient city of Athens for the first time. Like any tourist, I’m sure he was ready to be very impressed by what he saw in this incredibly famous and historical city. But the more he saw of the city, the more he found himself becoming depressed by what he saw all around him.

What did Paul see? He saw a city that was completely given over to the worship of idols. Another historian visited Athens and wrote a 6 volume set on their religious beliefs. But Paul summed it all up in just four words: ‘wholly given to idolatry.’ The idea behind these words is that Paul saw a community that was literally swamped by idols. It was indeed a very religious place. One historian named Pasolineus passed through Athens and remarked, ‘There are almost more gods in this city then people.’ That was almost true. There were more then thirty thousand gods in the city of Athens at this time. The Greeks had deified just about everything they could think of. They had deified the forces of nature, they had deified the various emotions of man, they had deified various concepts. They even erected an altar to the 'unknown god' just to cover their bases.

So Paul saw the beauty of Athens, having the best that Greek sculptors and architects could offer. But Paul hadn’t come to Athens as a sight-seer but rather as a soul-winner. Consequently, when he arrived his heart was broken to see the city immersed in a cultural paganism of idolatry.

It has been well said, 'When a bricklayer visits a city, he sees the bricks. When a street cleaner visits a city, he sees the streets. When a policeman visits a city, he sees the criminals. When an architect visits a city, he sees the buildings. When an environmentalist visits a city, he sees the pollution. And when a man of the Gospel visits a city, he sees the souls of the people.' That's what he saw. It doesn't say that he went into Athens and was wowed by the marble and the gold. It says he was provoked by the idols.

That brings me to my point. Before you or I will be able to successfully reach our generation, we must first come to the realization that like Paul in Athens, you and I live in the midst of a culture that is 'wholly given over to idolatry.' We may not call it that, but that's what it is. Granted, we would probably never bow down in front of an idol made of gold or silver or stone. We're much to sophisticated for that. Our idols come with 4 wheel drive. Their 52 inches and High definition. The idols of our day are materialism and greed and position and power and sex. The truth is, whatever is ultimate in your life is an idol.

My point is this, only after we have dealt with the idols in our own hearts and have become burdened by the gross idolatry we see all around us will we be able to effectively reach out to our culture. Another way of putting that would be to say that we will not be able to effectively witness to our culture until we have wept for it. Alexander Macklaren put it this way, ‘Show me the depth of a Christian mans compassion and I will show you the measure of his fruitfulness.’

Like Paul in Athens, may God give us hearts that are stirred by what we see. May He give us an unrelenting, unwavering, passionate burden for the souls of men and women! Amen.

Daniel

The Tomorrow Trap

2009-06-16T14:37:00.000-07:00

How many of you are procrastinators by nature? Most of us are. That’s why the malls are always packed on Christmas eve. We wait until the last possible minute to do our shopping. That’s also why most people wait until the last possible minute before they file their taxes. We’re all a bunch of procrastinators. For a lot of us it’s like, the only things we don’t procrastinate on are the things we can avoid all together.

You see where I’m going with this. Tomorrow is a trap. How many times have you told yourself something like, ‘Oh, I’m going to start on that diet… tomorrow.’ Or, ‘I’m going to get right on that project… tomorrow.’ Or, ‘I’m going to call them… tomorrow.’ Or I’m going to change this or that about myself…tomorrow’ But tomorrow never comes does it? Of course one of the areas where most people struggle with procrastination is in the area of their spiritual life.

While procrastinating in any area of life is probably not a good idea, procrastinating in your spiritual life can be flat out dangerous. Felix serves as the classic example of a guy who refused to make a decision one way or the other regarding Christ. We find his story in the last part of Acts 24. He kept putting the decision off and putting it off until eventually, it became too late. As far as we know, his chance passed.

‘Procrastination is the thief of time,’ wrote Edward Young. Perhaps he was thinking about the English proverb, ‘One of these days is none of these days.’ Procrastination is also the thief of souls. The most convenient season for a lost sinner to be saved is right now. ‘Behold now is the day of salvation.’ {2^nd Cor. 6:2}

After listening to an impassioned defense of the gospel, Felix responded by saying, 'I’ll call for you when I have a more convenient season.’ That is perhaps Satan’s greatest and most effective lie. Many people who have every intention of coming to Christ, just never get around to it because they’re waiting for a more convenient season. The claims of Jesus are never going to be convenient for us; if we insist on waiting for a convenient time, we will wait forever. There’s never a convenient time to repent. That’s why the Bible always says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.’ {Hebrews 3}

The prophet Joel described life as a valley of decision, ‘Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.’ {Joel 3:14} Many of you find yourselves in just such a place today. What has the Lord been putting on your heart? Has He been calling you to repent of some sin? Or make some change in your life? Or perhaps He's been calling you back to Himself. May we all choose Jesus!

Daniel-

On Mission With Jesus

2009-04-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

When you hear the word 'missions' what comes to mind? For those of us who've grown up in the church, the word 'mission' conjures up images in our minds of missionaries from our church who have left their comfortable lives and homes in the States to go serve God in some far off country. For others of us, we associate the word 'missions' with a specific department in the church that focuses on evangelism (usually abroad). While I would agree that evangelism in foreign countries is a good thing, great even, I would also contend that by defining missions solely in this way, we have failed to see that God has called each of us to the mission field.

So what does 'missional living' look like? Simply put, it looks a lot like Jesus. Jesus left the glories of heaven to come to this earth on a rescue mission. In an unparalleled act of humility that defies comprehension, God became a man. {Philippians 2:5-11} And as a man, Jesus showed us what it looks like to be on mission in this world. In Luke's gospel, Jesus summed up His mission with these words, 'For the Son of Man has come to seek and save the lost.' {Luke 19:10} Then, after securing our salvation by dying in our place on the cross and rising from the dead for our salvation He said, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' {Matthew 28:18-19} The word 'authority' denotes right and might. Jesus is saying, all the right and all the might in the universe are mine. So here's what He's saying, go in My name, by My strength, and for My glory.

In sending out the disciples, He was inviting them (and us) to join Him on this mission. You don't have to cross the Atlantic to be on mission with Christ. For some of us, it might entail that, but for most of us, it means being willing to cross the street and talk to our neighbor about the Lord. To be on mission with Jesus means that we are to join Him in reaching out to the hurting, and lost and broken in love with the gospel. To put it another way, to live out our faith missionally is to see our world through His eyes. As we begin to do this, we'll begin to see the mission field not as a distant land in a far away place, or as a special department in our church, but as an opportunity to join God in calling the lost into the Kingdom.

Daniel