Final Ponderings of 2013

Here I sit on my first eve of the new year in Brandon Manitoba.  It has been an exciting year with a lot of change.  Not all easy but God has been very good to us.  So I have been pondering a lot.  One thing that has been on my radar lately is how we seem to have lost so many boundaries in our modern culture.  I am certainly not talking about "rules" but rather the boundaries of "respect" for others and the value of Biblical Truth.  I hear a lot lately about the importance of "tolerance" and "unity" though these are not new themes the lack of important principles to guide the discussions seem to be lacking.

For example when I read language from the new Pope about how we need to learn to co-exist with Muslims because they are really peaceful and worship the same god as us, I shake my head and can't believe how lacking in understanding he is about Islam.  I know people who have converted from Islam to Christianity and they will tell me that Islam is not at its core peaceful, it is rooted in fear and power.  The god Islam proclaims is not the same God that the Bible talks about.  Christians are Trinitarian, Jesus is not a teacher or prophet, He is one of the 3 members of the Trinity and as such is God, Islam does not believe this.  Yet in a drive to gather political unity and support the Pope seems to lack Biblical guidance on such things.

Another example is how people responded in the past year to different issues that have risen regarding homosexuality and Christianity.  It may be true that some people have expressed what is Biblical Truth in a way that was hurtful and harsh but what has been lacking is proper respect for others no matter how different they are than you.  I believe we are called to have a basic respect for others.  I have people who I call friends who have identified themselves to me as "gay" or "bi", this should not cause me to treat them any different than the friends that I have that have identified themselves to me as "alcoholic" or "adulterer".  I do not have to agree with people in order to treat them with respect.  I have friends who are Muslim, Catholic, Pentecostal, Baptist, Atheist, etc... I do not have to agree with them to respect them as people.  Walking with others who are different from you with respect actually brings opportunity for us in a caring manner to share our Faith.  

Yet in all of this people who have a special agenda like to call for "tolerance" but not for "respect".  We are told to put aside what we believe because Christianity and Biblical Truth might offend people.  Yet true respect and tolerance would say everyone should believe what they believe and not be offended that someone believes different.  I do not expect people who are not Biblical Christians to believe like me, I expect that they will choose lifestyles and religions etc... that are nothing like my belief.  This is actually what the Bible describes, the lost are lost and do not expect them to act and believe like the found.  People get really offended because the Bible describes them as lost or dead in sin but if you don't believe the Bible then why should it matter to you.  So we have the people of the World describing "tolerance" as the absence of Biblical Christianity.

So if you are like me and desire to live as a Biblical Christian, then I will encourage you to boldly live your belief but do so with respect for others.  The Love we are to show others is to be rooted in the "fruit" of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  So let us seek to embody the fruit that the Spirit of God brings into our life.

Happy New Year - let's walk through 2014 Together.

If you have things you would like  to hear my thoughts about in 2014 just drop me an e-mail and I will see if I can accommodate you.

Pastor Bruce
pastorffbc@mymts.net

Truly Love one another? What does it mean?

34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."  -  John 13:34-35 (ESV)

We receive very direct teaching from Jesus here in John 13.  We are to Love one another like Jesus loved His disciples.  So what does this mean though for us today in practical terms?  How should we now live in this command?

The first thing I want to say is that Jesus had spent 3 years with His disciples.  He had spent his days and nights with them.  He had walked with them and taught them.  He had encouraged them and admonished them.  Jesus lead them and challenged them in their thinking and behavior.  Jesus pointed them toward the Father and His glory.  Jesus served them and sacrificed for them, eventually giving Himself up fully for them in His great sacrifice on the Cross.

If we are to truly love others like Jesus loved His disciples then we must first know Jesus.  If you do not know the source and learn from Him about how to love then you will not get this concept at all.  If we leave it at the simple statement of love one another then we will leave it to the person to decide what it really means.  Jesus instructs us that He is the example for how His followers are to treat "one another" and that how we treat one another is a testimony to His work in our life.

So I guess I am saying that we need to set our minds in a certain direction if we are to be obedient to Jesus instruction here.

1. The first is know Jesus.  Get to know Jesus according to the Bible.  This is first a personal relationship with Jesus as the Lord of your life.  The relationship begins when you repent of your sin and accept forgiveness through His name.  Read and understand who He is and what he did here during His walk on the planet.  See how He treated His followers.
   
2. The next is to embrace the hard changes of our natural attitudes, behaviors and responses, so that we more and more follow Jesus and His ways.  Jesus died and paid the price for your sin not only so that you can be with Him in Heaven eternally but also so that you can live a transformed life here on Earth serving Him.  If you, like me, have certain natural tendencies then you need to fight them and not give in to the lies of this world that tell you that who you are naturally in personality etc... cannot be changed.  Jesus calls us to be like Him, not to be like ourselves.  This is a hard road but it is the calling of the Christian.
   
3. Understand that Jesus entire relationship and all that He did with His followers, He did showing proper Love toward them.  When Jesus corrected them it was out of Love.  When Jesus challenged them and their thinking it was out of Love.  Truly loving one another like Jesus is not just about warm fuzzy encouragement.  Sure encouragement is nice and needed it is not the fullness of Jesus Love for them.  We must be prepared to become transparent and honest with our fellow believers, not to judge them harshly but so that we may truly walk together in our Faith.  We must be prepared to correct and challenge people in what they believe, we need to do it in a proper way and use the Bible to show the Truth but we must not feel that somehow these things bring division.  Division is already here and all around us just look at a family that is not honest and full of Truth, they are common to see, spouses fear what their counterpart will think of them if they were really transparent and open, parents and children seeking to fit the right mold instead of embracing true relationships.  Unity is found in real relationships, loving Christ centered, Biblical relationships, which must be whole and balanced.
4. The Love Jesus gave to His followers was conditionally unconditional.  What I mean by that is that Jesus treated His followers with this Love because they were "His Followers".  So Jesus unconditionally loves His followers the condition of being a part of that Love is that you become one of His followers.  So we learn from this that we are to love one another Like our Lord loves us.  We are to love other followers of Jesus selflessly and fully.  The world would tell you that some people need to earn the right to be loved by you because they have hurt you, they have let you down.  Jesus followers are imperfect and lacking in their ability to perfectly show love to Jesus.  We are flawed, it is no excuse for our bad behavior but we recognize we do not love our Lord like He loves us, yet it is this command we are given.  So while we see in ourselves a lack of proper love for Jesus and thank Him for loving us anyway, which is good for us to know.  Yet, we tend to think it horrible that other believers do not show us proper love all the time.  We get offended and defensive because someone else hurt us, yet we miss the opportunity to forgive and show grace, like Jesus shows us.  
5. We need to put away our excuses.  There is no excuse for our bad behavior toward other believers.  There is no excuse for the behavior of others either.  Almost all our mis-treatment and hurt of other believers is sin.  We are to see our sin condition and not only ask God to forgive us, but also the brothers and sisters we have hurt we need to seek to repair those relationships.  We need to seek to change our behavior, the natural person is not a good thing, it is where we have inherited our sin condition and as such it is founded on selfishness and pride.  We must understand that the lie in our culture of "that is who I am" is no excuse for our sin.  
6. See the Truth.  When you feel hurt by another believer, look at what has happened and prayerfully consider what the Truth of the matter is.  Consider if there is an element of the message you received that you need to accept.  We understand that even in the middle of a difficult conflict, there will most likely be some Truth we must embrace for us to grow.  The other person acting in a way that would seem to deny this charge to love one another needs to be overlooked to a degree because we who are conscious of this instruction must seek to follow it even in difficulty.
7. Deal with sin.  Deal with your sin.  First, before you seek to persecute someone for their poor behavior, do business with God on your sin, on your attitudes and behaviors.  Yes we still need to confront others in their sin, it is also and instruction we are to follow from the Bible.  But we need to be careful on how we do this.  The reason we need to check ourselves first is because we need to walk with humility as we approach others with correction.  If we instead approach them with a sense of self righteous pride then we will find ourselves contributing to the sin of the situation with our own.  We will become gasoline on the fire if we approach a fellow believer without a humble heart.  Our desire should be not to "correct" the other person so that they think or act like us, but rather we are to bring them to a Biblical restore point where we find ourselves re-focused on our Lord Jesus and find the unity He gives us.  
8. Cast off the things that would divide.  This is not about core Biblical teaching, but rather about the things which are not Biblical but may cause friction and irritation in the relationships.  Think of it this way, if you have Biblical grounds for what you see in someone else, then talk to them about the teaching you find in the Bible.  If your issue with someone else is not rooted in a Biblical Truth, then you may still need to talk about it, but you need to consider first if this is something that you need to cast off instead.  If I am upset, bothered or hurt because of a behavior or decision in your life that has no Biblical reason to be considered as sin then it should send off a flare inside me that maybe my expectation has more to do with what pleases me than what pleases God.  I had someone once very upset with me about my teaching on men and women and leadership in the Church.  They felt my views presented women as "second class" and they were noticeably upset about it.  After hearing from them for a bit, what I was being told was that my belief and the presentation of it was hurting the body and that I needed to change my view so that the body would be healthier and so that I would not be promoting bigotry.  I had to respond to this, but I could tell the person was hurting and upset.  I responded with a few passages of the Bible that talk directly about gender roles in leadership in the Church and calmly stated that no matter what view I hold that I hope that we use the Bible as the source for our beliefs and behaviors.  I had to explain that the instruction God gives us is for us to receive and act upon even if it does not "fit" our current cultures beliefs.  I explained that over the years my wife, whom I respect greatly as a student of the Word, has re-enforced to me the importance of the Biblical teaching on these matters.  We need to embrace what the Bible says, not add to it our own extras and not take away from it because it is easier for us.  This person needed to look at the Word of God and not our culture for how things should be, then seek to follow it and seek the assistance of fellow believers to walk with you in following God's Word.

This topic could go on and on because there is so much teaching in the Bible about how we are to treat each other.  I know that I have much growing yet to do in this area.  I am convinced that it is essential to a healthy faith life, that we learn and grow in how we love one another in the way Jesus taught us through the Bible.  I urge us all to grow in maturity of faith through the embracing of Biblical teaching, so that as we encounter other believers we may walk with greater grace and love for them because we understand more and more the Grace and Love we have received from God.

Let us walk together to be more and more the people God designed us to be.

Pastor Bruce