Risk Is Right: Better To Lose Your Life Than Waste It

Every once in a while I like to let people know what I'm reading.  If you are ever around when I am teaching, you'll probably have already heard about this book as I (like most pastors and preachers) often infuse what God is teaching me into my preaching and teaching.

Risk Is Right (click the title to purchase this on Amazon or you can get it free at www.desiringgod.org) is a short book - only 51 pages - that challenges the reader to live a risk-filled life for God.  Notice here that I didn't say a foolish life for the sake of risk or for an adrenaline rush.  Risking for God is very different than risking to impress self, others, or risking for a "high".

Piper challenges the reader to look at a variety of biblical models of risk like Esther, Paul, and Joab.
These characters saw that safety was not always the best option and that trusting in God for good things, for God-honoring things is right.

One of my favorite points of the books is that life is inherently risk-filled.  I love this notion because it presses us to think differently about risk.  The question is less about IF we risk and more so FOR WHOM will we risk.  Life is going to have risk, so let's at least make our risk worth something.

A deeper thought that arises out of this book and some of my own reflecting afterward is this: for the Christian all risk for God is worthy because in the end, we are guaranteed Heaven.  If we risk and fail, so we fail.  If we risk and are embarrassed, so be it.  But in the worst of all options we risk and lose our lives for Christ.  And the result?  We are eternity with Christ forever.  And so those doing things like planting churches in places like Turkey and Afghanistan - are they fools for Christ?  Perhaps, but then they are in the company of the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 4:10).

Risk is right if the goal is to honor and find joy in Christ.
This is a short and challenging read.  I recommend it.

- tC

Believing In Jesus Doesn't Make You A Christian

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Over the next few blog posts, we are going to talk about things that don't make a person a Christian.

To some people these will be painfully obvious.  To others - I'm sad to say - there will be a sense of, "Yeah, that's true...glad I'm not one of 'those people' who think that" when in reality that person is exactly who I am speaking about.  But there will also be - I hope - people who read the posts and think deeply.  I have faith that the Holy Spirit can work even through the blogosphere and lovingly challenge people to think about if they are truly in a relationship with Jesus.

So why make these kinds of posts?
Because the Bible tells us to examine ourselves.

Here are two quick examples. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says it in a pretty straight-forward way: "Examine yourself to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves."  Paul wanted people to think and know if they were truly Christian.  Here's another one and perhaps the scariest passage in all the Bible.  In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus tells us that there will be people who thought, on the basis of the religious things they did (like prophesying, casting out demons, and performing miracles) that they were in.  But to some of these people Jesus will say, "Depart from Me.  I never knew you."  It goes without saying - no one wants to be on that side of the conversation with Jesus.

Testing ourselves.  Examining ourselves to see if we are truly followers of Christ is a good and vital thing to do.  Now let's get to the title of this blog.

Believing in Jesus does not make you a Christian.  It might be ONE of the signs that you are a Christian, but belief in Jesus alone doesn't make a person - to use the biblical language - "born again" (John 3).  And how do I know this?  James 2:19  tells it to us clearly when he says this:

You believe that there is one God?  Good.

Even the demons believe that - and shudder.  

So believing in God doesn't mean you are a Christian.
And I love the way James describes the response of the demons - they shudder.  It's as if he is saying, "At least they respond and act out in SOME WAY.  At least they SHOW that their belief in God makes some difference in how they live - even if it's shuddering at their future destruction." 

And we know this to be true just by looking at the stats from Barna (click HERE for some of their research).  Even though atheism has risen significantly in the past few decades, still the vast majority of people in America say they believe in God.

But self-identification doesn't equal 'therefore it is true.'

As much as people might want to press at the notion of truth to mold it into whatever seems right to the individual, me simply stating something about how I view myself doesn't make it true.  I can tell you until I am blue in the face that I am an astronaut, but I am not, no matter how much I say it.
So saying I believe in God doesn't make me a Christian just like saying I'm an astronaut means my life story is the basis for the movie Interstellar.  

Photo by siraphat - FreeDigitalPhotos.net

"But Tim" some might protest "It's one thing to say, 'I believe in God' and it's totally different when I a person says he believes in Jesus."  I agree that it MAY be different, but it doesn't mean that person is a Christian.  Consider what Jesus says in Luke 9:59-62.  Jesus gives two examples of people who don't just SAY they believe but they are even willing to GO with Him, to truly follow Him...just after they take care of a few things.  I mean come on, Jesus - they just have to tie up a few loose ends - they MUST be a great picture of what it means to believe in You and follow You.

Jesus response is plain:  You must be all in.  Our belief in Him must change how we live.  If I say I believe in Him but it doesn't change me, then I believe in the concept of Him, but I don't trust Him to lead me as my Great Shepherd.  I can believe that a bridge can hold my car, but if I am unwilling to drive across it my belief is not impacting my actions, and so one can fairly ask me, "Do you really even believe that the bridge will work?"

What does saving faith look like?
That's coming down the line.
If you believe in Jesus you MAY be a Christian.  But maybe not.
For now let's be clear - believing in Jesus doesn't make you a Christian.  

-tC

Dealing With Trials: Eternity Changes Everything

(Photo by antibodyphoto - FreeDigitalPhotos.net)

If you look into Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, you will see his assertion (which makes sense) that people have needs, and as you move up his pyramid of needs, the 'needs' start moving toward 'wants'.   The most basic needs are physiological - food, shelter, clothing, heat, etc.  Makes sense, right?  If I can't feed myself I'm likely to die, and therefore thinking a deeper issues of self-esteem and self-actualization don't really matter until my more basic needs are met.

Let's translate this to the place where I live - in the United States of America, in the seacoast of New Hampshire.  In my current location, the most basic needs are just assumed.  The vast majority of people in my area don't spent a lot of time thinking about if they will have food, clothing, and shelter tonight (yes some do - but proportionally very few).  How does this connect to dealing with trials? Well unfortunately, having our core needs met often makes eternity and Heaven fade from our minds.  And yet if we are able to gain an eternal perspective, all of our trials will change.

Consider the words of the Apostle Paul when he says, "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" (2 Corinthians 4:17).  This coming from the man who was beaten, stoned, left for dead, shipwrecked and more.  But his perspective is this - today's trials and tomorrow's trials are a blip on the radar compared to what Heaven has for me.  It doesn't make the pain go away, but it does frame all of the trials through which we suffer.

I have a book in my office library called Whatever Happened To Heaven?  The title says it all - we, as American Christians, by-and-large have lost a solid and continual grasp on eternity.  We tend to want our daily trials to go away, but we often fail to think beyond the 'oh good - that trial is over' to the fact that 'trials just remind me that I have an inheritance in eternity with Christ waiting for me'
(1 Peter 1:4).

If I have faith in Christ and am redeemed by Him, all trials are momentary.  Even if I were to suffer all my life, it is still momentary compared to eternity.  Theologian R.C. Sproul once stated it this way - If I receive forgiveness of my sins and eternal life in Christ, and then for the rest of my earthly life I suffer terribly, I still make out like a bandit.

Trials become a totally different experience when they are re-framed in light of eternity.

- tC