Moving

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Feeding the Dog

I heard a great quote the other night in, of all places, a commercial for a new TV show.  The show, from what I've gathered, is about some hot-shot new cop with something to prove (stop me if you've heard that plot line before), who needs and receives a little guidance and mentoring from another veteran cop.  So in the promo, we hear the cop say this to the new guy:

"Inside every man, there's two dogs fighting: one's good, one's evil.  You know who wins?  The one you feed the most."

This caught my attention because it's something I believe to be true in my own life, and of anyone that knows Christ.  In fact, it reminded me of a passage in Romans where Paul describes the struggle going on inside of us between good and evil.  He says this in Romans 7:22-23:

"I love God’s law with all my heart.  But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me."

Paul describes a tension here that we all feel: we are being pulled in two opposite directions by our old sinful flesh and the new Spirit within us.   He addresses this very phenomenon again in Galatians 5:17 when he says this:

"The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. "

Let me say this with all honesty: I really hope that tension resonates with you.  That may sound crazy on my part, because it sounds like a terrible way to live, being pulled at by opposing forces.  But it's actually an encouraging thing if we will take the right perspective: that the very fact that we are struggling is evidence that God's Spirit is in us, is alive and well, and is working to sanctify us.  It's a great example of God using what seems bad to show us His good.

But back to the quote...what about feeding those dogs?  Well, I believe the quote is right: we've got to feed the right dog, the right power at work within us.  If we feed the evil dog, he'll be the one manifesting himself in our lives.  If we feed the good one, the one led by the Spirit, we'll see spiritual fruit (see Galatians 5:16-26).  In many ways, it's really that simple....feed the good dog good food, and starve the other one to death.

Before we go further, we've first got to understand that without Christ, there is no "good dog" in us.  We are utterly sinful and rebellious people, who have committed treason against our Holy Creator.  Our rebellion, our sin, resulted in our spiritual death, a death that leads to life apart from God on Earth and an eternity separated from Him in Hell.  And there is nothing that we could do to pay the debt resulting from sin.  So God, in his great love and mercy, did it for us.  He sent His only Son to pay the penalty for our sin upon the cross, where "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God".  We couldn't save ourselves, so God did it for us.  Through His grace, He gives us the blessing of abundant life with Him now and eternity with Him in the future.  And if we will repentantly believe that, turning to Christ, trusting in His finished work on the cross, surrendering to His Lordship, we will be forgiven, made new, and the Holy Spirit will live in us.  This is the Gospel we believe, the only reason that there ever comes to be any "good dog" in us at all.  Without that, none of this matters.

So, with that in mind, we come to the question: If I am a believer,  how do I feed the good dog?  Well, it's nothing groundbreaking, but it requires an incredible amount of discipline.  It's necessary to feed the dog ourselves, but it's also essential that we have others we trust to feed it as well.  We've got to know God's Word.  We've got to know how to apply it.  And we've got to actually go out and do it.  We've got to pray.  Always pray.  We've got to abide in Christ, just being with Him, in His presence. We have to confess sin and we have to repent.  We've got to serve.  We've got to love.  We have to disciple others.  And we have to make sure we are in a community of believers where the good dog can feed and be fed this spiritually healthy food that is essential for it's growth and vitality.

And, of course, we've got to starve the bad dog, by denying the food that satisfies the sinful nature.  Hate.  Lust.  Jealousy.  Dissension.  Idolatry.  Self.  These are what the evil dog desires.  We have to deny that dog what it wants, those things it will never stop trying to get.  But the helpful and encouraging thing is that the more time we spend feeding the good dog, the less time we have to feed the bad one.

The tension between the good and bad is here to stay, as long as you are on this Earth.  But if we will feed this new good work inside us, following the Spirit's leading, and nailing the passions and desires of the sinful nature to the Cross, the "good dog" will consistently win out.  So make the commitment today to feed that good dog.  Stop giving him the table scraps.  Stop letting him root around in the garbage can.  Don't just tell him to "go on  in the kitchen and getcha somethin' to eat" (Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation, anyone?).  Be intentional: make that dog a proper, healthy meal.  And do it every day. He'll be thankful you did.

Megaphones and Gardening

In my previous post, we talked a little about the fact that if you are living out the Gospel in your day-to-day life, you are going to experience opposition.  It can come in many forms, in varying intensity, and will arise both internally and externally.  But rest assured, it will come.  It's easy for even those with the strongest faith to come to terms with this truth.  But that's because we are looking at it through human eyes, through broken lenses.  When we take a different perspective, we see purpose behind our persecution.  And I believe, as we move through to the end of chapter 1 in Philippians, we see that Paul is attempting to help the church at Philippi to embrace this new perspective on the resistance they are facing, a perspective that will put purpose behind their suffering.

In Philippians 1:12-14, Paul says this:

"And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News.  For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear."

Here we see Paul emphasizing the first of the functions of persecution in our lives: it serves as a megaphone for God to speak into the lives of others.  And here we see that how we respond to persecution speaks to 2 groups of people: those who aren't Christians, and those who are.  Let's look at how each group is affected specifically:

1) For the Non-Christian: Keeping true to our faith during persecution shows to the non-believer that we truly believe what we claim.  When we suffer for Christ, the power of Christ in us is made known to others.  And as a result, people are drawn to Christ.  In short, through our suffering we allow Christ to minister to others, in a powerful and life-changing way....even if we don't understand it!

2) For the Believer-Simply put, staying the course of faith during times of opposition sets an encouraging example to other believers.  Boldness is contagious.  When others see the Spirit of God working in us like that, they are encouraged, because they know that they have that same Spirit within them.  This is part Christian leadership: building others up through radical faith.

So if we maintain this perspective, and we begin to see how persecution is about God speaking to others through us, it will radically change our outlook on the struggles we face, and it will cause us to step up our own walk with the Lord in hope that He will speak through us.  And peoples lives will be changed.  Everybody wins.

But I believe that Paul wants us to see a second  function that persecution serves in our lives: it reveals a lot about the spiritual condition of our heart.  Move to 1:20-24:

"For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better. But if I live, I can do more fruitful work for Christ. So I really don’t know which is better. I’m torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me. But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live."

I see 3 areas of our heart that are revealed during times of persecution:

1) The Foundation of Our Confidence (v.20)- Our confidence comes from what or who we are rooted in.  And if Christ is not our foundation, then we can have no confidence that we will stand in times of persecution.  Jesus says it like this in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:3-6):

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died." 

Without the proper foundation, the plants couldn't take the oppressive heat.  Without being rooted in Christ and His Gospel, we will meet the same fate in the face of persecution.

2) The Object of Our Focus (v.21)- Our focus in this life determines the path that we take.  Paul's focus was on one thing: Christ.  As he says it, "living means living for Christ".  And as a result, the path he took was fulfilling the Great Commission and making disciples.  But as we know, it's so easy to get distracted from the mission.  If we return to the Parable of the Sower, we see in v.7 that Jesus addresses this too:

"Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants."

The world is a distracting place.  Like weeds choke out plants, the lures of the world choke out our faith, and keep us from the mission of God.  We can't stop the weeds from growing, but we can cut them back to keep them from distracting us.  Trials are a great barometer for measuring where our focus is.  We've got to keep our focus on Christ if we want to persevere.

3) The Priorities of Our Life (v.22-23)-Paul was genuinely concerned about others, to the point that he was torn between wanting to be with Christ and ending his suffering, and continuing to suffer so that the Gospel would be preached and the church would continue to grow in numbers and in faith.  His priorities during hard times showed the condition of his heart: he truly cared about others well-being more than himself.  He loved others sacrificially.  Our priorities must be the same in that they look past our own selves.  And opposition in our lives prove just where our priorities lie.

I know this is a lot to take in, and it can seem overwhelming.  It is to me.  But let me say this: be convicted, but not discouraged.  Let's return to the end of the Parable of the Sower and see why it is that I say this:

"Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!"

If we are going to stand in the face of opposition, then we need to really evaluate whether or not we are "good soil".  If you've ever planted a garden, you know that good soil doesn't have anything in it that keeps the plant from taking root.  Rocky soil is not good soil because the roots have nowhere to go.  Translate this to what Jesus is saying here: if you want to be good soil, you've got to get rid of the rocks.  Get rid of the things that keep the roots of the Gospel from going deep inside your being and taking hold of you.  That's a convicting statement, but I believe that this is what the Lordship of Jesus is all about: we can't hold anything back.

But on the flip side, remember Philippians 1:6...it's God who will complete the work in us.  He is the one who grows the seed into a plant with deep roots, and is the one who produces the fruit.  If this is happening in our lives, God assures us that no amount of persecution will bring us down.

So that's the takeaway today.  Let God speak to other through the persecution you experience, but also use those times for spiritual self-examination, to make sure that you are growing and not fading away.  Look to Christ, ask for His help in being good soil, and trust Him to grow you into what He wants you to be.  And remember, as Paul says in 1:6, He is faithful to finish the process.  Let that encourage you today.

 

Resistance

We talked a little about this my last post, but I think it bears repeating: things don't get easier when you follow Christ.  Jesus warned his disciples of this.  He told them they would be hated for their beliefs.  He told them they would suffer.  He even told them that some of them would even die for the sake of the Gospel.  These things sound like a foreign concept to most of us in the American church....we don't deal with the risk of death for practicing our faith on a daily basis, like many did in the early church, and some do even today in other countries.  But the reality is we still face resistance to our faith, both internal and external.  And if you've felt the call of Jesus and have begun to follow Him, I'm sure you know the resistance I'm talking about.

Paul knew about it.  He knew the churches he had started would feel it too.  So one of his goals as an apostle was to encourage those churches who were dealing with opposition to the faith.  That's what we see in Philippians, where Paul encourages the church at Philippi by letting them know that He understands the struggle they are fighting, because he himself is fighting it (he actually wrote the letter while being imprisoned for preaching the gospel).  He wants them to know they are not alone in what they are facing.

But it's interesting how Paul begins this letter to his fellow believers.  He doesn't say things like "I wish you didn't have to deal with this" or "I don't know why all this is happening to you".  Instead, he makes a bold claim, one that points the eyes of the church to what it's only focus should be: Christ.  He says in v.6

"And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns."

Paul understood that there was a reason that there was so much persecution directed toward the Philippians : because God was at work among them.  So Paul makes sure to point that out to them.  He wants them to know that no matter the circumstance, God, who called them to salvation, who justified them, will also sanctify them in this life and glorify them in the next.  It's a message of hope not only to the church at Phillipi, but to us as well: we will persevere because it is Christ who is working in us.

Now that doesn't mean we just sit back and do nothing.  Instead, we are compelled and called to act.  Paul identifies 3 areas where we should be growing, even thriving, during both times of peace and times of trouble.  He says we are to grow in love, knowledge, and understanding.  And when we grow this way, Christ will begin to reproduce the kind of character in us that He desires: a "righteous character" that can only come from Him, and one that will bring much praise and glory to God.  That's His goal for us, in good times and bad.  And the crazy thing is, it's often during the times of trial that we experience the most growth.  We see this voiced in various places throughout Scripture, including James, where in chapter 1 v.3-4 he says

 "For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing."

We can take this word from Paul and be encouraged today.  The opposition you deal with, whether it is externally from other people or circumstances, or internally from the discouraging lies of the Devil and the resistance of the flesh, will be overcome, because the One who has overcome the world is in you.  He has been down the road of persecution before, and he finished the work that God had planned for Him.  And now He wants to finish the work He started in you.  So in the midst of your doubt, fear, anger, depression, hopelessness, and pain, look to Him.  Ask Him to help you grow in love, knowledge, and understanding, even in the darkest of times.  Look to Him, and He will not turn you away.  Look to Him every day, not just when things get tough.  Trust that He will help you persevere to the end.  He will not fail you...rejoice and take hold of that today.

Treason

There's a prevalent lie that has seeped into many Christian communities today that says when you become a believer in Christ, the Devil, in large part, leaves you alone, or that all he does is try to tempt you into various sins that might trip you up from time to time.  He would try to convince you that since's he lost you,  he moves on to another poor lost soul he can try to keep away from faith in Christ, because there's nothing he can do to get you back.  And, like all of his lies, there is a bit of truth to it.  There is nothing he can do to pry us from the hand of God, to lose our salvation, to steal the Holy Spirit from us.  But to think that that is a valid reason that he would leave us alone is a very dangerous way to think.  But I would argue that many of us, whether we know it or not, tend to think this way in some form or fashion.  And it will ruin us if we don't change.

It's not that we've been teaching this in churches.  I think it's more of a function of us not taking Satan as seriously as Jesus took him.  It's assuming that we are "safe"; we are out of harms way, on our way to heaven, with nothing that can stop us.  Why would Satan bother fooling with us?  Aren't there others he wants to keep away from Jesus that need attention?  It's a false sense of security that can lead to derailment. So why does it happen so often?

I believe a big part of the problem stems from what we are told when we become of believer.  We rejoice in the fact that are sins are forgiven, we are made into a new creation, and our eternity is secure in Christ.  And rightly so, for this is the heart of salvation.  It's why we worship Him with our very lives.  But where we often falter is when the church fails to convey the message that when we come to faith in Christ, when we follow him, we are also signing up for something else: war.  War with the Devil and his minions.  War against our very sinful flesh.  In fact, the Bible says it (paraphrased) like this: we once were enemies of God, slaves to Satan.  But he rescued us, bringing us into the light, equipping us to do good works for Him, giving us the ability resist sin & the evil one.  What does that sound like to you?  It sounds like we defected: we no longer serve the dark, but serve the light.  We are guilty of treason in the eyes of Satan.  But more than that, we are traitors who are trying to get more and more people to come to our side of the line.  And that, friends, is why he will never leave us alone.  He can't afford to.  He doesn't have to make lost people "more lost".  He just has to stop saved people from finding the lost and pointing them to Christ.  And that's what I want us to try and grasp today.

The moment you declare your allegiance to Christ, you'd better strap up, cause that's when the real struggle begins.  The Devil will not rest until he has defeated you, and not just with the occasional sinful thought or action, but with fear, discouragement, doubt, depression, anxiety, anger, bitterness, and resentment.  He is the prowling lion, searching for someone else to destroy, and we have to treat him as such.  We would be extremely foolish not to.

But there is hope, and that's the real point of this post.  We are equipped to overcome, because Jesus has overcome, and He is in us.  But we have to actually put that equipment to use if we want to experience that victory in this life.  The soldier who runs into battle with no way of defending himself doesn't last very long.  Worse, the Christian who runs into battle without being able to defend himself can be ruined just as quickly.

The answer, then, to the problem is obvious: be prepared.  It's a process, and it takes discipline, much like a soldier must train himself for combat. But here's how you do it:

-Ephesians 6 is your armor.  Put it on.  Every day.

-Know God's Word.  Let it transform your thinking.

-Spend time with the Lord in prayer, letting Him prepare you.  Commit to that and and let the power of God work in and through you.  

-Read some books by other Christians who have been there.  You don't have to figure it all out by yourself.

-Get connected with other believers.  You don't have to do it all alone.  In fact, you were never meant to.

-Man the watchtower.  Be on the lookout for lies that would trip you up, that would steer you from the truth of God's Word.

It's not a matter of if, but when you will need this armor.  This is why discipleship is essential in church today; we've got to talk about these things, because the Devil will undoubtedly bring the fight to you.  If you aren't ready, you will lose.  But if you are prepared, he will not defeat you, because of He who lives in you. Don't buy into the lie: take this as seriously as Jesus did (see Matthew 16:21-23).  Trust in Christ's power for victory today and every day, hour by hour, moment by moment.  He won't let you down.