What are Your Questions?

This morning in connection class the fact that we have been created as creatures of choice came up in relation to our reactions to the desires of the flesh.

I would like to talk about questions in an effort to highlight the possibilities given us as creatures of choice.

We ask questions all the time without realizing it.  This morning I bet you woke and asked questions like

What is the weather like?  Hot?  Cold?  Rainy?  Windy?

What should I wear?  Slacks?  Jeans?  Black?  Blue?

Where do I get these cloths?  Dresser?  Closet?  Dryer?  Floor?

You probably didn't even realize you were asking those questions but you are in fact wearing your answers to those questions.

We live much of our lives this way and I feel that our lack of thought process in our choices often comes at a very high price.

While there are times that reaction based decisions are necessary  (fire, weather event).  Most reaction based decisions lead us to a judger (judgemental) mindset which will no doubt end up negative.  We as humans are in general bent toward that mindset.  I propose we change that.

Einstein said that great answers come from great questions.  To get great questions we need to get control of the questions we are asking.  The map above is a cheesy diagram to help us use our observer self to look at the questions we ask ourselves. 

To serve or not to serve? That is not the question!

One should be asked certain questions about any ministry that they are part of.

1. What is the primary purpose of the ministry or any ministry for that matter?

2. What are my primary responsibilities in the ministry?

3. Do I have my own lifes ministry and what are my responsibilities in/to it?

These are where I would start but of course we cannot end there.  There are far too many to list in a blog so I will focus on these 3 as I feel they must be answered before effective ministry will likely take place.  I say likely so as to not limit God in any way, He is an All Mighty God and after all and He does perform miracles.

Let me explain why I feel this way.  (Note:  The answers I provide here are surely not the only answers but I do feel they are sound.  I also reserve the right to be wrong.  I will admit it if I am and correct any inaccuracies.   I am only human.)

1. What is the primary purpose of the ministry or any ministry for that matter?

We represent the Body of Christ.  If you claim to be Christian, then you are to be held to a standard.  Lets look to scripture to see what that means in reguards to this question.

Ephesians 4:11‭-‬12 ESV
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

There is a lot here but I am in a search for an answer to the question and we do see that here.

to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

Saints are to be in ministry and ministry is for building up the body of Christ.  So the question becomes.   How do we build up the body of Christ?

Matthew 28:18‭-‬20 ESV
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Building the body of Christ is sharing the Gospel with everyone baptizing those who believe and teaching all that we have been commanded by Christ.   That's the rudimentary answer.   There is much more but this is the starting point and it needs to be the primary purpose of any ministry.

Moving on.

2. What are my primary responsibilities in the ministry?

This question is a little tougher as it involves the individual.   I am astonished at how we fail here.  We seem to have a mentality that to serve is enough.  I challenge the amount of service.   Each ministry in general has different physical needs that they address.  For example the pastoral ministry works toward building up Body through Biblical enlightenment and challenge, driving the physical quest for true knowledge from the Bible.   They also counsel the grieving in various circumstances and much more.   A food ministry has an inventory to maintain and passes out food to those in need.  These services are needed, of that there is no doubt.  But if these services become the primary goal of the individuals in a ministry, the individuals have their priorities seriously out of wack.  If supplying food or counseling are the only things we do, we are aiming way to low.

Colossians 1:24 ESV
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,

When I first read this I thought, WHAT COULD BE POSSIBLY LACKING IN THE AFFLICTIONS OF CHRIST?  But as I read and studied I began to see what Paul is saying.  The one thing lacking is Christ's presentation of the Gospel in person.  Paul is filling that roll by presenting it for Christ to everyone.   The Matthew 28 passage from above coupled with this gives us our Individual primary responsibility and it is the same as the ministries primary responsibility.

Jesus equates hate with murder;

1 John 3:15 ESV
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

Why would he do this?  Because if you truly hate someone, in general one thing that you won't do is talk to them.  If you do not share the Gospel with them or at very least ensure that the Gospel is communicated verbaly to them, you are in effect condemning them to hell.  The fact is that you cannot guarantee that someone else will share the Gospel with them and you do not know that they have heard it or heard it enough. You are committing murder in its truest sense, allowing for separation from God.  Of coarse they have the option of telling you that they have heard it or they don't wish too and you are to respect that.  Maybe try again later if they haven't told you not to.  Pray for them alot.  Perhaps you are saying that you do not hate them.  You have the cure to death!  I challenge that with the question;  wouldn't you want someone to share the cure for death with you?  It would seem reasonably hateful to not share that cure, to me anyway.  Perhaps hate equates murder seems harsh.   But I ask you, how harsh is it when put in comparison to the fate of those who have not heard the Gospel?

I fully believe this applies to any Gospel sharing opportunity.  That should make us think.  I know I'm guilty I just can't measure how guilty.

Moving on.

3. Do I have my own life ministry and what are my responsibilities in/to it?

At the very least all Christians have a Gospel sharing ministry as evidenced in the afore mentioned Matthew 28 vs. I believe however that there is more for each of us.

ROM 12:4‭-‬8 ESV
For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.

When I read verses like these I can't help but believe that we all have a ministry and that our responsibilities to it need to be weighed as we consider working in any ministry.  If you are a Christian and you don't have a life ministry,  I suggest prayer and a very thorough search of both the scriptures and who you are in Christ.

One last thing.

I have heard it said in regards to ministries that perhaps sharing the Gospel is a job for the paid staff.

I agree!

Revelation 5:9‭-‬10 ESV
And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,  and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

If you are a Christian, you have been ransomed from sin to God.  Your sin debt has been paid.   In my mind that makes all Christians paid staff.  Problem solved!  Welcome aboard!  The benefits here are heavenly!

Wisdom Fleeting, Wisdom Found!

Genesis 3:6 ESV
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

I like superhero movies.   I like the fantasy behind them.  I guess its kind of a release of the inner kid in me, but whatever it is I like them.  The one out of all of the latest ones I like best is Avengers.  I like the fact that despite legend they downplay Thor and Loki's alleged godship.  I like the fact that there is a reference to God.  Captain America tells Natasha Romanoff "Theres only 1 God ma'am and I'm pretty sure he doesn't dress like that."  Referring to the way Thor is dressed.   Then later the Hulk grabs Loki by the ankle and slams him violently back and forth leaving him helpless in a crumpled pile on the floor after Loki claims he is a god.  As he walks out the Hulk says his only line in the movie "puney god".   Awesome playdown.  But the thing in this movie I want to talk about is actually a speech made by Loki here it is, he has just commanded a crowd of people to kneel before him and made the ground shake to demonstrate his power:

Loki: Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.

While Loki is lieing to force people to follow him he does the one thing all adept liers do to make thier lies believable.   He adds some truth to it.

While I do not agree with Loki that it is our natural state or that we crave subjugation.   I do agree that what we see as a bright lure of freedom often diminishes our life's joy in a mad scramble for power, and identity.

Isn't that what happened at the garden in Genesis 3.  She saw that the tree was to be desired to make one wise.  She thought that eating the fruit would make her wise.  In reality all it did was give her knowledge of good and evil.   Exactly what God created it to do. She desired wisdom and got knowledge.   Knowledge is not wisdom, wisdom has knowledge in it, but knowledge alone does not make one wise.  Just for the record, man in large still isn't wise.  If we believe God is who He says He is then this verse explains how to obtain wisdom:

Psalms 37:30‭-‬31 ESV
The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.  The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.

You must be righteous.  The only way to become righteous is to accept Christ. Are there people outside of Christ that are wise?  That's the big question.  From what I've seen over the last nearly 50 years that I have been acquiring knowledge of my environment I have seen many things that look wise, but to my experience any symbolence of wisdom outside of faith in Christ is fleeting.   You see, it is the faith in Christ that is the wisdom.  To believe in the one who has all wisdom and will answer your call is the strongest source of wisdom.  Simple once you think about it.  Isn't it?  I believe God has kept it simple because man has proven over and over again that he can't handle complicated.

Romans 3:23‭-‬26 ESV
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

The ironic piece of this is that Adam and Eve were more wise before the fall than after.  There is knowledge in wisdom but not necessarily all knowledge.  They were wiser without that knowledge hence God said don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

When Eve ate that Apple she was saying, the knowledge you didn't give me is the knowledge I want. I want to decide what good and evil is for myself.  Your decisions aren't good enough for me, I want the freedom to decide away from you.  I want the power, I want that identity.

Loki finished his speech with this:
You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.

He's right.

Genesis 1 tells us that we were created by God. 

Genesis 1:26 ESV
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Colossians 1 says this about Jesus:

COL 1:16 ESV
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Ephesians says:

Ephesians 1:9‭-‬10 ESV
making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Romans says this:

Romans 14:11 ESV
for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”

While we have dominion we were made to be ruled.  The difference is that our ruler is the One True God.  We will bow or kneel before King Jesus.  

I'm starting now.  How about you?

It should be noted that I can't watch the movie again because God's word tells me to flee sexual immortality and this movie is laced with it.  But that is another blog entirely.  

Rightfully Broken!

2 Timothy 1:15‭-‬18 ESV
You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me earnestly and found me— may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day!—and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesus.

As we spoke of forsakenness this morning in our Connections class and the similar words that Paul uses that Christ spoke from the cross.   My mind took me to the above verse.

Let's look at that.  I know that those who know me are saying "No, no, no, we don't want to go where your mind took you".  Trust me I get that.  I was scared at first too.  Then after some study my fears were realized.

Hang on, its an ugly ride!

Paul in 2Tim 1 is writing to encourage Timothy extolling him to pursue his ministry with zeal and passion even through suffering using his own (Paul's) account to demonstrate Christ's loving faithfulness in suffering by contrasting the actions of Christians who were not being Christ like and a Christian who was being Christ like.

Please read 2Tim 1:1-14 to get everything before the contrast.  I want to discuss the contrast here.

Paul is writing from prison and as you see in vs. 15 Paul paints a picture of Christians who have deserted him, and a little further into the verses we see its because he was in prison. But then he paints a picture of a real Christian and there is a big difference.   My first fear is that many of us, most even, fall into the first category Paul paints.   I think that if Paul where here today the conversation from vs. 15 to 18 might go something like this.

Timmy everyone ditched me.  They are gone, nowhere to be found.  Even Phy and Herm, I was closer to them than the others but they ran too.  Just because they saw I had gotten thrown in jail.  But then it happened!  Onesi to the rescue.  Wow God really built one there. He came to Rome, the same Rome that put me in jail for being a Christian.   He went from jail to jail looking to minister to me.  Talking to the jailers saying is Paul in there I'm a Christian like him and I've come to minister to him. Oh and have you heard the Good News Mr. Jailer.  He wasn't afraid of my chains or the possibility of his.  You've seen him in action at Ephesus.  Praise be to God for him.

Now I know the story in 2Tim 1:15-18 doesn't embellish quite like that.  But when I read it, that's how I feel.  Right or wrong that's how I feel.

As tears stream down my face I am driven to the same question you have heard from me before.

What would it be like if?:

We ran to those down and out with our hands open wide and our mouths full of the Good News.

We stood up in aid of those persecuted for Christ even if the cost is suffering.   Saying hello Mr. Chinese or Iranian jailer I'm looking for pastor _______ , I'm a Christian and I have come to minister to him.  Oh and by the way.  Have you heard the Good News?

We ran to the world with more than an idea that "I will just live my faith in front of them and hope that they get it".  That's a cop out!  Living it leads to speaking it.  They have to hear it. (Romans 10:14)

I say all this out of my own conviction.   I am chief of sinners on this one.  Lord forgive me for my unChristianness.  I believe wholeheartedly that there is a reason that you can't find that word (unChristianness) in the dictionary.  Sadly it isn't because it's unreal or unnecessary.   It's because we don't want to admit that it is needed.  I am living proof of its need.

I know not everyone is called to missions or martyrdom.   But are we doing all that we are called to do?  I can't say that I am.

Rightfully broken.
Colby