Reflecting the Character of Christ

I just finished teaching a long lesson on Heaven in Sunday School. One of the books I used as reference was Anne Graham Lotz’ book ‘Heaven, My Father’s House.’

She was talking about how in Heaven we will finally be like Jesus. That even with our own unique personalities and characteristics we will reflect the character of Christ.

And she said, “that character starts to get developed here on earth every time we:

Obey Him in the midst of suffering

Trust Him with unanswered prayer

Love Him without seeing Him

Believe in Him even though all evidence seems contrary to His Word

Focus on Him in the darkness of depression and discouragement

And hope in Him to bring us through.

When we choose to be patient instead of frustrated

To love instead of hate

To hold our tongues instead of lash out

To gently instruct instead of harshly correct

To be gracious instead of rude

Kind instead of mean

Unselfish instead of selfish

Tell the truth instead of the easier lie.

And when we:

Submit to the pain

Accept the pressure

Bear the burden

Deny ourselves daily and take up the cross of His will for our lives

When we follow Him not the crowd

And choose to live by His Word, not others’ opinions.

All of this forms Christ’s character in us and that’s how God uses everything for the ultimate good. None of our trials or sufferings are wasted.

Jesus is the Sovereign King of the Universe

Mark 12:9-12 ⁹ “What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰ Haven’t you read this passage of Scripture:

“‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; ¹¹ the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”

¹² Then the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders looked for a way to arrest him because they knew he had spoken the parable against them. But they were afraid of the crowd; so they left him and went away.

Jesus tells them what the vineyard owner (God) will do. Because no one can dethrone God. We didn’t put Him there and we can’t pull Him off. The verse He quotes is from Psalm 118:22-23 ²² The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;  ²³ the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.

Every believer’s foundation is Christ. Religions and people who try to take his place will be judged. Here are just a few verses showing God’s sovereignty:

Job 42:1-2 Then Job replied to the Lord. ² “I know that you can do all things;  no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Psalm 33:11 But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations.

Psalm 103:19 The Lord has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all.

Psalm 115:13 he will bless those who fear the Lord—small and great alike.

Psalm 135:6 The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth,
in the seas and all their depths.

Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

Daniel 4:34-35 ³⁴ At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.
His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. ³⁵ All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing.  He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Sovereign King of the universe.  

God on the Throne

This next section has to do with the difference between “religion” and Christianity. Religion is constantly trying to dethrone God. Think about Catholics who pray to saints and worship the Virgin Mary and bow down to the Pope. Or Mormons who have to ask the Bishop for forgiveness. Christianity is all about Jesus and our relationship with Him and acknowledging what He did for us.

Mark 12:1-8 Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. ² At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. ³ But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴ Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵ He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed. ⁶ “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ⁷ “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸ So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.

Jesus was talking to the chief priests, scribes and church elders here. His parable actually referred to a passage in Isaiah they would have been familiar with:

Isaiah 5:1-2 I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard:  My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. ² He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.

God had given Israel everything and they turned against Him. Now Jesus is telling the church leaders that they are the reason “the wine is bad.” And He also tells them that the vineyard owner (God) sent His own Son and they were going to kill Him. In just 3 days this is exactly what happened!

 Jesus was letting them know He knew about their plot and that they were under condemnation because they had killed the other profits and now planned on killing Christ.

 The church leaders were trying to dethrone God. Instead of doing everything for God’s glory, they did it for their own.

Don't be a Speed Bump!

We are so blessed at Harvest Bible Chapel, Hickory to have a pastor who teaches us the Bible and convicts us to follow God's Word. Today's post is from Pastor Kurt Gebhards' sermon today, continuing in his study from the Gospel of Mark:

Mark 3:1-6 1 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” 4 Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. 5 He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

So far in the Gospel of Mark the Pharisees have attacked Jesus 4 times. This is the
5th. The Holy Spirit uses repetition to teach us a lesson. And this lesson is that the Pharisees were hard hearted, but we are to have soft hearts that can be shaped by His instruction.

The first time they attacked Him they said He was blasphemous. The second time, that He was a friend of sinners. The third time, that He was different from their laws and the fourth, that He was a Sabbath breaker.

This time, He is a renegade healer!

The Pharisees showed their hard hearts by constantly looking at Him with a critical eye. They were always judging Him because of their pride. They were always looking for a reason that they might accuse Him. In fact Jesus rebuked them in Matthew 23 by telling them that they were so focused on the little bits and pieces, but totally missing that God’s work for His people is giving Him their hearts; fully and freely.

The Pharisees wanted to destroy Him. They were so blinded by their self-righteousness they couldn’t see that what they were trying to stop was healing, love, mercy and grace!

There is reason to believe that this might have been a set up. Usually a man with a withered hand, or any physical defect, would have kept away from the synagogue. At the very least he would have hidden his hand. Yet Jesus knew immediately what was wrong with the man.

They hated Him for the question He asked, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?” Of course it’s right to do good and not harm. How could they answer any differently? But the reason they were silent and angry was because while the first half of the question (about doing good or harm on the Sabbath) had to do with healing the man with the withered hand, the second part (about saving a life or killing) had to do with their plotting to kill Him. He knew what they were thinking and He let them know He knew!

The Pharisees reacted the wrong way. When the Word of God exposes our heart, we must step in to it in humbleness. Proverbs 12:1 says, “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid."

We need to receive the wisdom of the rebuke!

This passage also teaches us more about Jesus. That He is merciful and felt grief. Jesus could have healed this man on another day. But, in His mercy He healed him right then. His mercy cost him. Just as His mercy for our salvation cost Him His life on the cross! We worship a God who is merciful to the point of personal cost!

But the funny thing is. He didn’t break the Pharisee’s Sabbath law because He didn’t lift anything and He didn’t work! He merely said to the man, “Stretch out your hand” and when the man did his hand was restored! Just by Christ’s thought! That is His power!

But they hated Him all the more for it. When you are hard hearted, nothing satisfies. Our lesson as the church is: we must be merciful! We must be focused on Christ and His purposes. Individually we must ask ourselves, “Who can I bless? Who can I minister to? Who can I bring God’s kindness and His grace to?”

We also need to ask ourselves if we are helping others find God or are we speed bumps in their journey. The Pharisees were speed bumps! Jesus hated hypocrites. If we say we are for God, but don’t live like it, we are hypocrites. Serving with a bad attitude is hypocritical. Gossip, slander and dismissiveness all impede people from coming to Christ. We need to lay down our lives in humility, so that others are drawn to Christ.

Christians, if you take the name of Christ, are you acting like Him?

Don’t be a speed bump!

Story of the Candy Cane

The candy cane can be used as an object lesson by which to share the true meaning of Christmas.

Give a candy cane to each child. Ask him or her to describe it to you. After the children share their observations, tell them how each candy cane tells about Jesus Christ.

The white stripe indicates that Jesus was pure and holy; He was without sin. Scripture: Hebrews 4:15: "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin."

The white is also a picture of how God cleans us from our sin, making us white as snow. Scripture: Isaiah 1:18: "Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool."

The red stripe is a picture of the blood Jesus shed for each of us; the red stripes depict the stripes on His back as He was beaten Scripture: Isaiah 53:5: "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

The hardness of the candy represents that Jesus is our "Rock." If we build our lives upon Him, they will be secure. Scripture: Luke 6:38: "He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built."

The candy cane is shaped like a shepherd's staff; the Bible calls Jesus our Good Shepherd who watches over us and cares for us; we are called the sheep of His pasture. Scripture: John 10:11: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

If you turn the candy cane upside down though, it makes a "J" for Jesus! Scripture: Matthew 1:21: "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

Jesus Christ Did It All

My husband thought he would save me time by using the electric trimmer on our hedge. I usually trim it by hand because the electric one chews up the leaves and they turn brown. But, I'm having a 4th of July party this Saturday and am way behind so I let him do it and hoped for the best!

I almost cried the next day when I looked at it. It was far more "chewed up" then I had ever seen it. I hauled out my small clippers and so far have spent 11 hours trying to make it look better!

While I was working I thought of all the other times I had hired someone to do something for me, or things John or my daughter had done. I couldn't think of one that I didn't have to go back and neaten up, fix up or pick up!

It was a depressing thought. But, it made me remember that Jesus did something for me. And it was perfect. And it was enough. And I don't have to add a thing to it!

Colossians 2:11-12

Colossians 2:11-12 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

Circumcision and baptism. These are mentioned a lot in the book of Galatians. Jewish males were circumcised as a sign of the Jewish covenant with God. There were 2 schools of thought the Jews had about this: there were the people who felt that good or bad, as long as he was an Israelite and circumcised, he was right with the Lord.
And there were the more scholarly thinkers, the great spiritual leaders and prophets who insisted that circumcision was only the outward mark of a man who was inwardly dedicated to God. What was really cut off in the circumcision was anything outside the will of God.

Paul says, any priest can cut a man’s body, but only Jesus Christ can bring about spiritual circumcision. And he says this happens now at baptism. Remember, back then, adults were baptized; they made a conscious and willing decision to dedicate their lives to God. In a Jewish baptism all the man’s body had to touch water and in Paul’s day, baptism of new Christians was total immersion. The idea was as the waters closed over a man’s head, he died. As he rose from the cleansing water, he rose to new life. His old life was dead and gone.

Baptism parallels the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. My application Bible says that remembering, “that our old sinful life is dead and buried with Christ gives a powerful motive to resist sin.” Not wanting the desires of our past to come back to power again, we can consciously choose to treat our desires as if they are dead. Many people think of Christian baptism as the counterpart and replacement of Jewish circumcision. The outward sign of our inward belief.

Colossians 1:24-29

Colossians 1:24-29 Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.

Christ died for His church.

Anyone who is working to further the church’s purpose - to grow the church - shares in Christ’s work. And that work usually involves suffering and pain and sacrifice. But Paul ways this is a privilege and honor.

The news that was kept secret until then was that the gospel (salvation through Christ) was not just for the Jews, but for all men everywhere. Paul’s job was to take Christ to “every man.” If it wasn’t for Paul, Christianity might have been just a sort of new Judaism.

Peter, James and John were pretty much only teaching the former Jews. We can apply this passage to our lives by thinking about how we are going to spread His message.

Galatians 2: 18-21

Galatians 2: 18-21“If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

We were infected by sin because of Adam and Eve. This made us unable to keep God’s laws. There is no way we are good enough. Paul tried the law. He told us all about it in the book of Philippians. And he did a better job then most following the law. But, even Paul, strong, spiritual Paul, realized his own helplessness. He could never do for himself what Christ did for all of us.

Martin Luther was the same. He wrote, “If anyone could be saved by monkery, it is I.” He was known for being extremely hard on himself: discipline, penance, self-denial and even self-torture. Until one day he heard a voice from heaven say to him, “The just shall live by faith.”

What Paul and Martin Luther found was, I think, why the book of Galatians is called the Christian’s declaration of freedom. They could dump this incredibly heavy burden and just accept God’s mercy. They were finally free!

It changed Paul so much that the only way he could describe it, was to say he had been crucified with Christ. The man he used to be was dead and now the living power within him was nothing less than Christ Himself.

Paul took God at His Word.

We need to do that. We need to quit thinking, “yea, but”.

“Yea, but God couldn’t possibly love me as much as other people, I’m so much worse!”

“Yea, but once those other people found Christ they just moved forward with lightening speed and sometimes I only take a step or two a day – and worse – half the time those steps are backwards!”

“Yea, but, I don’t think I feel like I’m suppose to.”

You know, CS Lewis wrote, “You don’t really have to feel anything. You just have to believe it.”

Paul’s last sentence, “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.” – is very important. Any time we say you have to do this or that, we are trying to add to what Christ did – and that diminishes it!

If you think you can earn God’s favor, you aren’t trusting in Christ’s work. He died for the forgiveness of our sins so that we may have eternal life with God. Period!



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More thoughts on suffering

Every loss we suffer is a death of something. And every time we suffer loss, we encounter an opportunity for the loss to bring gain for Jesus’ sake by allowing His life to be revealed in us. (He suffered loss and betrayal and temptations to be an example to us.)

Christ gives us the invitation to rise to a new life – a more compassionate life, a wiser life, a more productive life and yes – even a better life.

Is God so sufficient to me that I don’t even need to complain or seek pity or sympathy from others?

Psalm 50:15 – Trust me in your times of trouble and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.

Nicodemus: Out of the Dark, Into the Light

The Gospel of John tells the story of Nicodemus, a Pharisee, who comes to Jesus by night seeking answers to his questions. When Nicodemus says to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.” Jesus doesn’t answer this statement, but immediately tells Nicodemus how to find salvation. Jesus looks beyond our words straight into our hearts.

When He told Nicodemus that he must be born again, He of course didn’t mean a physical birth. He meant a God given fresh start. By water (a cleansing and forgiveness) and the Spirit (the power to live a Christ filled life.)

Nicodemus was an older man and like us probably had many regrets. How many times have we tried to “start fresh?” At least every New Year’s Eve when we write up our lists of resolutions. Some of us daily as we try again and again, but the Bible tells us that the meaning of our life and the power of our life is Christ. Only He can bring us into a relation with God that makes us whole.

Nicodemus may have come in darkness, but he came to the light. Jesus is the answer to all our questions. He is the one who gives us new life.

Christian Maturity

As we grow in God’s word and put it into practice, our capacity to understand it will grow. The writer of Hebrews says in 5:44 “But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their facilities trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.” We must learn discernment. We must train our minds to distinguish the correct use of scripture from wrong. Christianity can’t be learned in a day. It takes time to teach and effort to learn.

Most of the book of Hebrews is a call to Christian maturity, which means making Christ the beginning and end of our faith and to center our lives on Him. Chapter 6 of Hebrews tells us to go beyond the elementary doctrines of Christ; repentance, being saved by faith, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.

It’s like children going through school. They learn the very basic things in kindergarten and first grade, but then move on, building on that knowledge. The 2nd and 3rd grade teachers don’t just reteach what they’ve already learned over and over again. If they did, no one would ever get out of grade school!

Christianity and our faith is a process. We need to be constantly growing, a little bit at a time and daily – like the manna in the desert. As we become more mature in our faith we need to think things out more for ourselves. We should eventually be able to answer the question, “What would Jesus do?”

As we mature we should reflect Christ more and more to others. We should get rid of old faults and put on new virtues. Sometimes we will go through dry spells and we’ll fail to mature. We’ll lose our enthusiasm, the sermons will bore us, service will seem a burden, but we need to keep doing the routines of a Christian life. And the joy will return.

The author of Hebrews considers our lives to be a journey to Christ. And it is the end of life that makes the process of life all important. A journey will often take us through deserts, along refreshing streams and up to the top of mountains. The Bible encourages us to hold firm and to finish the race. In other words – keep moving! God will complete His work in us. He will mature us.

Forgive us for living shallow in deep times.