Heal our Eyes

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

On July 3, 1863 General Robert E. Lee leading the Confederate army stands alone observing the battlefield that lies before him in the midst of a war, which had already claimed over 600,000 American lives. Lee observes Major General George G. Meade’s Union positions on Cemetery Ridge. The Union troops have the high ground and are well dug in. To Confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet it seems like a mistake to advance, but when that opinion is voiced Lee angrily responds,

If the enemy is there, we must attack him.

Approximately 12,500 Confederate soldiers in nine infantry brigades advanced over open fields for three-quarters of a mile under heavy Union artillery and rifle fire. Although some Confederates were able to breach the low stone wall that shielded many of the Union defenders, they could not maintain their hold and were repulsed with over 50% casualties, a decisive defeat and an avoidable mistake from which the Southern war effort never fully recovered militarily or psychologically. We now know this battle as “Pickett’s Charge” on day 3 of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Robert E. Lee had a goal, and was so overwhelmed with his vision of how to accomplish that goal that he fell victim to tunnel vision.

Merriam- Webster defines tunnel vision as:

: A condition in which you can see things that are straight ahead of you but not to the side

: A tendency to think only about one thing and to ignore everything else

: Constriction of the visual field resulting in loss of peripheral vision

: Extreme narrowness of viewpoint

: Single-minded concentration on one objective

Tunnel vision often occurs in shooting situations. You cannot hear or see anything other than the threat before you. In fact, many firearms instructors train officers to deal with involuntary tunnel vision by breaking contact with a target after eliminating the threat and scanning their surroundings to reengage their senses for other threats.

In what ways is our perspective of our circumstances in this life skewed by tunnel vision or lack of clear vision?

How often in life do we look back on a situation and have one of those moments where everything becomes clearer? The “battle fog” of the moment has lifted and for the first time we can see all the different angles and perspectives of whatever it was we were facing at the time? What things would we do differently? What things would we say differently or communicate more effectively? How would things be different if our perspective of this life, our reality, wasn’t so narrow?

If only we had the eyes of God… the perspective of the Almighty.

In scripture we find a story about a man who needed sight. John 9:1-11 tells us that story. It says,

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”

So… what is this story about? Obviously, it is about a blind man being healed and given sight. But what if I told you that the story about the blind man is the story of our own spiritual growth? What if we are really the blind man and it is just our spiritual eyes that need to be opened and healed? In fact, we are blind and we desperately need God’s guidance. We need God to lead us.

In the story when asked how his eyes had been opened the blind man referred to Jesus simply as “a man.”

So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “Themancalled Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.”

At first I missed that! We know that Jesus never changes in the story, but the man’s perspective of him does. We see that as the story continues in John 9:35-41,

Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?” Jesus said to him, “You have seen him, and it is he who is speaking to you.” He said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him. Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.

At first Jesus was just a man to the blind individual, then when his spiritual eyes were opened up he began to see Jesus as a prophet who had given him a life-changing experience. Through this journey Jesus became his Lord… the Messiah.

But… we shouldn’t be quick to ignore the other “party” in this story. We can also be the Pharisees in this story. As the blind man gains physical sight, the Pharisees, or “religious”, lose spiritual sight. The Pharisees can represent the part of us that doesn’t accept or trust the perspective of Jesus. It is our seemingly wiser, arrogant, intellectual, indoctrinated with tradition, religious side that insists that our spiritual development must fit into our rules and our timetable.

Let’s determine now that we won’t dismiss what we don’t control or try to rationalize away God’s will. Let’s allow Jesus to change our perspective and heal our sight.

Matthew 6:22 says,

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.

Next week we will discuss some areas in which Jesus can change our sight and heal our spiritual vision. I will leave you with the famous words of John Newton.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.

The Power of Words

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

While walking across the graduation stage in December of 2013 to receive my undergraduate degree in Communications and English I knew that I had been called to ministry and that I would be beginning a Master’s degree at the nearby seminary in the following Spring. What I did not then see is how closely my undergraduate “secular” degrees and my ministerial vocation would align. As a minister and writer, I spend much of my time thinking about words.

Words are often something that we all take for granted. We can communicate with ease with the people around us because of words and known language. But think about it… words are not simply sounds caused by air passing through our larynx. In a medical sense words can be narrowed down to a group of muscles operating together in unity to create sounds that we interpret meaning from… but we as living beings understand words to have real power. Nelson Mandela, who was imprisoned for almost 3 decades because of his beliefs and activism, knew the power of words. He is often quoted today, but that was not always the case. While in prison his words could not be quoted for fear of punishment. After his release he said,

It is never my custom to use words lightly. If 27 years in prison have done anything to us, it was to use the silence of solitude to make us understand how precious words are, and how real speech is in its impact on the way people live and die.

Nelson Mandela understood the power of words. Words don’t carry power by accident; in fact, God spoke the world into being by the power of His words. Hebrews 11:3 says,

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Words were the instruments by which God created all things, and creation was established by God’s words! How awesome is that? But if more proof is needed to establish the weight of spoken word I would add that with faith filled words Jesus calmed the raging sea, with faith filled words Jesus raised the widow’s son, and with faith filled words Jesus called Lazarus from the tomb. The Bible has a lot to say about words that we as Christians need to know and understand.

Words do more than convey information. The power of our words can actually destroy one’s spirit, stir up hatred and violence, sow disunity among the brethren, and annihilate one’s witness before others. In fact, King Solomon, author of most of the Old Testament book of Proverbs and one whom many assume to be the wisest man to have ever lived, wrote many times about the power of words. In Proverbs 18:21 he said,

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Out of all the things God created we, as humans, are the only ones who have received the gift of words. We can use them as a gift or a curse… but nonetheless, the power to use words is a unique and powerful gift from God.

How often do we hear statements like, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me” or “I’m rubber and you are glue, your words bounce off me and stick to you”? As a kid these might be nifty comebacks for the playground bully… but as we grow older we become more and more aware of how false these statements really are.

To be blatantly honest the things people say to me often stick to me. This is in direct contradiction of what I used to say to mean name callers! Words stick to my heart and soul, sometimes in uncomfortably painful ways. Being a Believer can be difficult in an age where everyone has the right and the willingness to express themselves… sometimes even at the expense of others. Being a minister can be difficult in an age where everyone believes their opinion is fact and that it is beneficial to express… even at the expense of disunity or demoralizing their Pastor.

The fact is… words have the potential to produce positive or negative consequences. They have the power to give life through encouragement and honesty or to crush and kill through lies, gossip, and demoralization. How can we be assured of producing good words that have a positive outcome?

So…what should we ask ourselves about our words before we open our mouths? Let’s think together.

  • Are these words helpful?

This question is the best starting point. To be clear, helpful words are not always comfortable or easy to say words. Some of the most helpful words I have ever received in my life have been some of the hardest words I ever could have imagined hearing at the time.

Proverbs 27:17 says,

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

Sometimes forces have to collide in order for growth to occur. Iron hitting iron is not always a great sound… but in the end there is a sharpening that occurs. There are times when we can help another person by kindly exhorting or even rebuking them. The difference between helpful and non-helpful words though is that even when we are rebuking someone we are doing it for his or her good and not because of any other factor or motivation.

Ephesians 4:29 puts this into context when it says,

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Our words are meant for building others up… nothing more and nothing less. But, often we use words carelessly, without considering their impact. We complain, we mouth off, we criticize, or we gossip. I think we talk sometimes simply because we’re afraid of being overlooked or we overvalue our opinion. But if our words aren’t going to be helpful, it’s best just to remain quiet. I believe it is important to remember that our words aren’t just for sharpening others… but sometimes we are meant to be another person’s support system or motivation to continue fighting the good fight until the end.

  • Are these words true?

Have you ever met someone who struggled with the truth? Maybe they are the type of person who likes to have the best story and they don’t care to bend the truth to get there… maybe they are the type of person who enjoys being the center of attention even if it means twisting or bending the truth to get there. Some of these people I have encountered seem so accustomed to lying that I’m not sure they even know what the truth is anymore. People who don’t want to face reality can sometimes convince themselves to believe things that they really know are not true. They have bent the truth so much that they believe their version of the truth to be accurate!

Some deception isn’t as cut and dry as a straight up untruth though… some think they are innocent as long as they say what is technically true, even though they intend to mislead others to believe what is not true. It is absolutely possible to tell things that are technically true, yet leave out pertinent facts or otherwise speak in a way that we lead others to believe untruths.

Most of us have lied before, perhaps because we’re trying to cover up for a poor decision we made, avoid confrontation, or to get something we want. I have found that almost every lie can boil down to this simple truth…

We lie because value our own interests rather than valuing the interests of others.

Philippians 2:4 says,

Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Let’s examine our words and find them to be true. God never lies, and never has, so neither should we. We must stay in line with the truth even when it hurts, even when it means we won’t get our way, and even when it means we are wrong.

1 Corinthians 3:18 says,

Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.

  • Are these words timed correctly?

Proverbs 15:23 has been a passage that always has intrigued me. It says,

To make an apt answer is a joy to a man, and a word in season, how good it is!

How can a “word” be in season? I’ve come to understand that it is possible to say the right thing at the wrong time. For example, Sunday mornings are hectic for most ministers. It is what we have prepared all week for! For myself, on Sundays I am typically at church before the sun comes up and I am usually the last to leave after leading multiple services. Ministering pulls a lot out of me on Sundays! Sunday afternoon is typically not the ideal time to provide suggestions to me about what has taken place that morning. I’m too tired, drained, and sensitive; the timing isn’t right, even when the suggestions are helpful.

Sometimes we are better off evaluating our “truths” to make sure they are true and allowing them to sit until they are in “season” to be received.

  • Are these words kind and gracious?

The truth is meant to “set us free.” Jesus says this to His disciples in John 8: 32,

You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

The truth is meant to be a liberator, but yet we all know people, maybe even ourselves, who have used it as a weapon to beat people up and to tie them down. The truth can at times be uncomfortable and hard to hear and say… but it should always be used in love. Ephesians 4:15-16 says,

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

The truth isn’t for our personal gain… but rather for the edifying of the Body and the building up of the Kingdom. I always try to ask myself, “How would I want somebody to tell me what I’m about to say? Is the way I’m about to say this consistent with the way I am called to live and interact with others? Speaking the truth is only half of what we are called to do… we must do so in love for the full effect.

We should allow our speech to be “seasoned with salt,” full of grace and kindness and love like we read about in Colossians 4:6 where it says,

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Psalm 19:14 says,

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

Why Serve? pt. 2

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

For the past 2 weeks we have been talking about Christian service and why as Believers we should be serving in our local church.

For some reason the idea of Christian service has flown out the window in our “cultured” view of church. The question, “What can I do to serve the church?” has suddenly turned into, “What is the church doing to serve me?”

In most churches, there are many people who just show up on Sunday morning.  They are busy during the week and truly have no interest in serving at the church.  Showing up on Sunday is enough time and energy for them. They feel as if they have done their part and checked church off the list of things to do.

Have you been there? Maybe, you didn’t think those exact thoughts but you were right there in the boat with them? Many of us have been.

Some of us even now sit in church recognizing skills that we have and how they could serve the church well. But, instead we act like the church is there to serve us on Sundays and stay out of our lives the rest of the week.

So… what has to change?

Like I mentioned in both of the previous blog posts, I believe that we first have to realize that God has blessed each of us with gifts and talents and that we are should be using them for His glory.

1 Peter 4:10 says,

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.

We were given gifts not for our own benefit, but rather to serve Christ. God always make time for us, so why it is so hard for us to make to the serve Him and His people. Christ came to serve yet we sometimes say we don’t have the time use the gifts He gave us to serve Him. As Christians, we should strive to be more like Christ, and in doing so we must serve.

Mark 10:45 says,

For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Catch this, our salvation isn’t the finish line… instead it is the sound of the starting pistol. 

Ephesians 2:8-10 says,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We have been saved and created in Christ Jesus FOR good works. We have been created and redeemed by the work of Jesus so that we can use our gifts and work for His glory and the expansion of His kingdom! In fact James 2:26 puts it this way,

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Let’s not allow ourselves to believe the lie that we have been saved to be served. Let’s serve and see what a difference it makes. Below are some more thoughts as to why we should be serving the local church.

(If you haven’t read the first two parts of this series be sure to go back and read those!)

  • The Commission is great and the Laborers are few.

We all know what the Great Commission says. What I find interesting is that Jesus didn’t just tell us to do it… instead Jesus commissioned us and then demonstrated the action Himself time and again in His personal ministry here on earth.

Until we relate everything we do to the gospel and our salvation we will be missing out on a big part of the reason why we’re even here on this planet. You’ll notice that we don’t get saved and immediately vanish up to Heaven.

We get saved for a task! Our salvation verifies our purpose!

If we are to carry out the Great Commission then we must by using our gifts in service to the Lord. We must serve! If 10% of the people in our churches do 90% of the work then we have reason to be concerned about the way we as Believers are living and what we are teaching both by words and actions. I personally believe those percentages to be true… and because of that I urge all of us to strive to be the 10%. If you aren’t serving… then you are the 90%. Shame on you.

If you don’t want to serve then do so anyways! Our serving isn’t for our own self-fulfillment. Serve for the benefit of the Body. The harvest is great and ready to be collected… but the laborers are few.

  • Children tend to emulate what they see, not what they hear.

“Do it for the children” used to be a fairly popular quote or thing to say. In all actuality it is a good saying! We know that kids are always watching and they emulate what they see. Most people have funny stories from their childhood of them doing or saying something that they weren’t taught to do or say… most of the time it isn’t a positive thing either!

How does that happen?

In my opinion that happens because the best teaching doesn’t come by being taught, instead it comes by being caught. You can tell a child what to do a thousand times until you are blue in the face… but sometimes they have to see someone doing it to truly comprehend. My Dad has always been someone who could “fix” things or solve problems… sometimes as a kid he would ask me to do a task and I truly could not understand what it was that he wanted me to do or how to do it, but I always loved when he would show me how. It was by example that I learned!

I don’t think it would be false of me to say that most parents who bring their kids to church in hopes of their children finding Jesus for themselves and one day serving the Lord. In my own area of ministry I have noticed an interesting trend… the parents who serve often have children who serve. The parents that don’t often have children that don’t. This goes along perfectly with what we just discussed.

How can we expect our children to do something that the aren’t being shown?

In fact, if our kids aren’t serving we should evaluate our own level of service… maybe they are just following our example.

What are our children learning about positive, heart-motivated ministry by watching us? Do you want children that want to serve the Lord?

Then show them what it looks like.

  • I will forge long-lasting and valuable friendships.

One of the major benefits of working for the Lord is the genuine friendships that are forged through serving alongside others. Those to whom we feel the closest in life are typically those with whom we work. One time I was taking a family ministry class and the professor said that he had a groundbreaking idea as to how to start a healthy men’s ministry and that it was as simple as giving them a task to do. At first I thought he was trying to be humorous until I recognized the truth in that statement. The close connection we have with our coworkers often surpasses even that which we share with our own neighbors. We unite around a task, a goal, or a purpose. Service often goes beyond barriers that cannot be crossed in conversation alone.

Romans 16 is a odd chapter that many skip over in Paul’s writings. In Romans 16 we see Paul address others who were serving in ministry alongside him or for the same purpose. He calls them each by name and provides encouragement and direction. Why is that even included for us to read today? I think part of the reason is so we can observe the interconnection and relationship strengthening that comes along with serving the Lord. Paul genuinely dresses and cares for those whom serve alongside him for the Lord.

Ministry partners are the best lifetime friends and great sources of encouragement.

Do you need better friends? Then find a ministry to get involved in within your church.

  • Our service shows our love for the Bride.

Love for Christ is accompanied by love for His Bride. Our church family is just that… it is our spiritual family.Imagine having the task of cooking dinner and your spouse and kids are waiting to eat. Could you ever look at them and say, “I don’t feel like cooking tonight so you are just going to have to go hungry”?

I doubt it. We serve those whom we love… even if sometimes it is an inconvenience. Love for the church means a heart that desires to give. The Bible speaks strongly about the church being our family, even more than our flesh and blood families. Sunday is not a chance to take a break from family—it’s a chance to serve our true family.

When you’re part of a body that loves and serves and gives, a beautiful bond forms. You see people serving in the background, and you praise God for them. You see the joy of service in others, and you want to follow suit. You see a need, and you long to meet it. Serving in our local church is not meant to meet our needs for self-fulfillment or self-worth; it’s about the joy found through self-denial.

Christ loved the Bride enough to die… what are you willing to sacrifice? 

Your time is a good place to start.

Mother Teresa said,

Prayer in action is love, and love in action is service. Try to give unconditionally whatever a person needs in the moment. The point is to do something, however small, and show you care through your actions by giving your time … We are all God’s children so it is important to share His gifts. Do not worry about why problems exist in the world – just respond to people’s needs … We feel what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean, but that ocean would be less without that drop.

Why Serve? pt. 1

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

Last week we began our series on service within the local congregation. We established a few over-arching reasons why we should be serving… the most important being that Jesus served while He was here on earth.

serve

Our world defines success or “greatness” in terms of tangible things like possessions, position, and power. In other words… if you have power over others, you’ve arrived. The art of service has been lost and has been mistakenly attributed to weakness, insecurity, inability, or poverty. In our me-first culture, acting like a servant is not a popular concept.

Jesus, however, measured a man’s greatness in terms of service, not status. In Mark 10:43 He says,

Whoever wants to be great must become a servant.

Unlike the world we live in, God determines our greatness by how many people we serve, not how many people serve us. Oswald Chambers, one of my favorite theologians, once said this,

Have you ever realized that you can give things to God that are of value to Him? Or are you just sitting around daydreaming about the greatness of His redemption, while neglecting all the things you could be doing for Him? I’m not referring to works which could be regarded as divine and miraculous, but ordinary, simple human things – things which would be evidence to God that you are totally surrendered to Him.

The following list will provide some practical reasons for serving. In no particular exhaustive order, here are some reasons why we should be involving ourselves in ministry:

  • Glorifying God by serving in my local church ministry is the purpose of my salvation.

Ephesians 2:10 says,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We are quick to emphasize that salvation is not by works…. as we should be! In fact we can clarify that by backing up a couple verses to Ephesians 2:8-9 where it says,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

But sometimes in our emphasis of that fact we fail to communicate and fully grasp that we have been saved so that we may do good works! We haven’t been saved by our works… we have been saved so that we can work! We haven’t been saved so that we may sit on our hands and be served.

We as believers are quick to be “watchdogs” and hesitant to be servants. 

Since I have been young I have liked pirates and nautical things. Back in the day of pirates, and on most ships today, there is a dedicated officer position to be on “watch” or look out over the sea to discover and report potential problems to the Captain. But… the sole role of this person isn’t just to “watch” the sea. In fact, if they just watch the sea they are only doing half of their job and it can be perilous for everyone on board. The other part of this officer’s duty is to act upon what they have observed!

In the same way, we as Christians must act.

James 2:14- 26 is sobering when it says,

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

We have faith so that we may serve.

God has placed us in our individual local churches in order that we might be edified, and so that we might be able to work for and serve Him. To remain sedentary is to neglect God’s very purpose for our salvation. By serving, we behave like Jesus and glorify Him.

  • I have been gifted and called to serve.

Several Bible passages help us to understand the concept of spiritual gifts. Romans 12:4-5 is one of those passages. It says,

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.

Throughout the Bible we learn about how God has given us each the privilege of a gift.  These gifts aren’t meant for collecting dust! A Christmas present might look all pretty and nice when dressed up with wrapping paper… but the true life of that gift begins after it has been unwrapped.

Our gifts are meant to serve God. Peter addresses this in 1 Peter 4:10-11 where it says,

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

Peter makes it clear that we have received our gifts from God for two purposes— to serve others and to bring praise to God. Serving isn’t about us receiving attention or glory; it is for directing all glory to Him.

Don’t allow your life as a Believer to remain in the “wrapped” stage. Like a child opens presents on Christmas, we too are to utilize, or unwrap, our gifts because of the coming of Christ Jesus.

  • Ministry service will demonstrate the reality of my faith.

Above, we saw in James that our faith isn’t just demonstrated by what we know or say… but rather it is demonstrated by what we do and how we act.

Romans 12:1-2 says,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Our faith should transform us and make us stick out! But… we know that a faith without works is dead (as we found in James), so I would say that our works should also make us stick out as a believer. People should know what we believe by what we do.

We have all seen someone who can talk the talk, but fails to walk the walk. The other day I was at an outdoor basketball court and a guy showed up wearing all the gear. You can probably imagine what he looked like before I even have to describe him to you. His socks matched his short and jersey combo. He had on the sweatbands and the newest NBA All-Star high-tops, but the one thing he didn’t have was the game to back up the look. I actually got embarrassed for him at one point. But… how similar is our faith to that guy’s game? Do we say all the right things? Look the right way? Go to the right places? The point I am trying to make is that we might fool some people from a distance, but once we are forced to step out on the court our actions, or lack thereof, will reveal us for what we really are.

Fake Christianity or dead faith may temporarily move people, but upon close inspection will do nothing to impact their behavior or their life.

The transforming power of Jesus Christ is on display in the lives of those who have traded selfishness for selflessness. Who have sought the towel instead of the position. Our actions and service will validate our faith in front of others.

To avoid writing a novel this week we will leave the conversation there and pick it up in next week’s blog. Let me encourage you to evaluate the level at which you are involved in serving the Lord at your local church.

Rick Warren says,

Faithful servants never retire. You can retire from your career, but you will never retire from serving God.

Do You want the Position or the Towel?

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

Martin Luther King Jr. once said,

Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

This past Sunday I had to make the dreaded and sad announcement that we have ministries within the church that are in desperate need of volunteers in order to remain operational. Due to that… I am dedicating the next 3 weeks of blogging to tackle the subject of service within the local congregation.

There is a saying that says in every church 10% of the people do 90% of the work. I believe that is the case most of the time.

I haven’t fooled myself for a second in thinking that we are the only church around with this issue. In fact, I believe that the church as a whole is in this boat together. We have many routes for Christian servanthood, but very few people willing to take those routes. The idea of serving others has been put off in our minds as something that other people are called to do.

Think about it… we have all heard an announcement asking for volunteers at some point in our lives. If you are like me you immediately put it off thinking that the announcement was meant for someone else, or that it was someone else’s responsibility to meet that need. What I have now come to realize is that those announcements are for ME. In fact, those announcements are for my benefit!

John 12:26 establishes that through my service I am in fact drawing near to Christ and I will be honored. That scripture says,

If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

Now obviously we aren’t serving to be honored… but rather to be obedient and to follow Jesus!

Matthew 20:25-28 says,

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

It is sad that in our church today we have many “celebrities” or spotlight hogs wanting a position or attention, but very few servants. We have many aspiring leaders and many who want to “exercise authority” over others, but few who want to take the towel and basin and wash feet. Jesus came not to be served… but to serve!

In Philippians 2:3-8 Paul reminds us what is to be like Christ. That passage says,

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Personal responsibility is at the heart of the problem with service. If every individual within the church would determine to stop pointing to someone else and simply embrace the call to serve, then the church would more easily be all that God intended. Personal responsibility is quickly becoming a negative concept within our culture. We want to evaluate someone else… we want to pass the blame or change the topic.

I personally believe that the reason that servanthood is so difficult for a believer is that it begins with dying to self. Scripture emphasizes that “dying to self” is a believer’s responsibility.

Luke 9:23-24 says,

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

In John 13 we see Jesus exemplify the heart and action of a true servant. He provides for us a flesh and bone example of what we are called to do! Hours before His arrest and crucifixion Jesus humbles Himself in service to His disciples.

John 13:1-4 says,

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist.

To put this action in context we must understand that in those days they did not have paved roads or cars… instead they had dirt roads and mules. They also didn’t have fuel emissions to do with… instead they had other “vehicle” issues and emissions to worry about. The disciples would have wondered in with sweaty feet that had been in open sandals all day as they walked about. Dirty roads and open sandals make for nasty feet! Typically in a household a servant would have the responsibility of washing off a visitors feet as they entered the house… Jesus became that servant.

I find it funny that in a room full of followers of Christ nobody offered to wash the feet of the Son of God! But… we shun our responsibility just the same.

We file in and out of the Lord’s house expecting to be fed… but we bring nothing to the table.

Now don’t get me wrong! We have nothing of value to offer Christ; we do nothing to save ourselves. But, we are called to serve.

Mark 9:33-35 takes us to the real root issue. It says,

Then they came to Capernaum. After Jesus was inside the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. After he sat down, he called the twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

At the Last Supper, no disciple volunteered to wash feet. The room was filled with men of God that were more willing to fight for a throne or position and not willing to fight for a towel.

Luke 22:27 says,

For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.

So… what do you want? A position or a towel?

If we, as believers in Christ, are serious about placing Christ at the head as the Lord of our lives, our commitment to Him will be readily demonstrated by an eagerness to obey His word. In His word we are told to serve.

Romans 12:11 says,

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.

Galatians 5:13 says,

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

Romans 12:1 says,

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

1 Peter 4:10 says,

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.

We must stop basing our decisions to serve others on what we think, how we “feel,” or how convenient it is for us, and, instead start basing our decisions for serving on obedience to Scripture and following the example of Christ.

In fact, Our service is a demonstration of our devotion, love, and faith.

John 14:15 says,

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

James 2:26 says,

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

So… I’ll leave you with this thought.

Don’t sit the bench and allow others to “play the game” and be involved in service to the Lord. Lace up your shoes and get out there… it may be more rewarding than you think.

A wise man by the name of C.G. Jung once said,

You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.

Get out there and do it. Show the world what you believe.

Colossians 3:17,

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Gospel Centered Worship

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

When many people think of worship their mind immediately goes to the singing or music portion of a church service before the preaching, some may think of hymnals while others think of electric guitars and lights. While these things can take part in our “worship” they are not in and of themselves all of our worship or all that we do or intend to do.

Bob Kauflin has said that,

Singing and preaching aren’t incompatible or opposed to each other in any way.  Both are meant to exalt the glory of Christ in our hearts, minds, and wills. Then the whole meeting is worship; the whole meeting should be filled with God’s Word. And the whole meeting should be characterized by the Spirit’s presence.

Therefore, worship shapes thinking. We need to allow the Word of God to call, inform, and shape how our churches worship and how we lead. The songs we sing stay with us and the structures convey messages about what we believe and how we worship and encounter God. The songs and ideas displayed in our services get stuck in our heads. They resonate in our hearts. They implant their messages deep within us and instruct us just as much as the sermons we hear.

In his book Christ-Centered Worship Bryan Chapell says that,

Structures tell stories.

We have seen this displayed throughout history through many types of structures Chapell explains,

Luther preached ‘the priesthood of believers,’ and his structures conveyed the same message. The placement of the pulpit silently explained that the preacher was not more holy than the people. He ministered among them because all were fulfilling holy callings as they served God in the occupations for which He had gifted them.

Chapell writes,

In every age, including our own, those who build churches have been forced to consider how their understanding of the gospel gets communicated by the structures in which it is presented.

So… we don’t create worship; we don’t manufacture services. Rather, we respond to a person. Effective worship is never a result of our efforts.

Below we will explore some avenues to Gospel Centered Worship. Let’s think together.

  • Liturgy

“Liturgy” refers to the structures of a church’s worship service. Many people might think of liturgy only in terms of the traditional structures found in Catholic or Anglican churches, but all churches that gather together to worship have a liturgy– even if it’s a very simple liturgy. In his book Chapell explains that,

The biblical word for all that’s included in our worship is ‘liturgy’ and it simply describes the public way a church honors God in its times of gathered praise, prayer, instruction, and commitment.

Therefore, whether we realize it or not, our worship patterns always communicate something. This gives us reason to examine what exactly is being communicated and we as worship leaders must be very intentional and very careful to communicate the Gospel correctly and clearly through our liturgies. We must remember when creating liturgies that,

Christian worship is always a response to truth, the truth as revealed in Jesus Christ.

Let me suggest that we seek to structure worship services in such a way that the Gospel is communicated through the very structure of our service and order. This isn’t a revolutionary idea, In fact, I would say that this has been the case throughout the history of the church. Chapell says,

Because they understood the importance of our worship, early church fathers designed an architecture for worship that is still reflected in churches today. As early as the second century, records indicate that the church divided its worship into major segments: the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Upper Room… By moving from Proclamation to Communion in the order of worship, churches through the ages retell the story that those who truly hear God’s Word will share his love.

Chapell claims that our goal should not be to replicate historical liturgies but to,

Learn how the church has used worship to fulfill gospel purposes through the ages so that we can intelligently design worship services that will fulfill gospel purposes today.

Worship is a holistic practice. The promise of the new covenant is that Jesus is the true and better temple, the true and better mount to stand upon. The regulations of time and place have been fulfilled in Christ. The law has been fulfilled through the work of Christ. This means we are a continually worshipping people, in heart, soul, and mind. The way the church has adopted the use of the word worship is a difficult reality we are faced with. When our people say they enjoyed the worship, I understand they mean the singing, and Scripture reading, and time of confession. At the same time, when we walk with a robust view of what congregational worship is, everything falls rightly into its place. The singing of songs is not elevated to a level it is not meant for, and the Scripture readings are not demeaned as a necessary obligation. When we look at a liturgy from beginning to end as the people of God gathered to engage with Him and rehearse the Gospel, an unbroken chain is formed.

  • Balance

Every element of a worship gathering is an important tool in the hand of God. At the center of the church gathered is the one element absolutely necessary: the Word of God laid open in the midst of His people. The Gospel should not just “inform” our worship design, implementation, and leadership… it should consume it, and all that we do in worship, whether corporately or individually, should be focused and centered on the Word of God and the Gospel story.

Chapell conceives of the corporate worship service as,

Nothing more, nothing less, than a re-presentation of the gospel in the presence of God and His people for His glory and their good.

This definition has a strong vertical dimension of God’s story being re-presented in God’s presence for His own glory, but Chapell also believes the inward and outward elements should have bearing on the Sunday service. He argues that concern for God’s people to understand His glory and grace should lead us to design worship that ministers to the “necessities and capacities” of God’s people.

While church leaders have a responsibility to preserve the necessary elements of the Gospel story, these Gospel truths will not lead to worship or transformation into the image of Christ if people cannot understand them. Discerning the balance between the necessities and capacities of worshippers (the balance between sensitivity and compromise) is sometimes a difficult task, but one with which we must wrestle.

I personally advocate for a strong partnership between the vertical dimension of our worship (us and God) and a horizontal dimension (us together) in the worship service that reflects the Gospel story of God’s love to one another through sharing our praise, praying for one another, corporately confessing sin, encouraging one another in song, tithing, receiving instruction together, demonstrating concern for the lost, and communing together.

Our worship should not ignore the needs of the members of the body… yet at the same time worship choices cannot ignore the needs of those God has yet to gather into the body of Christ. A few weeks back we discussed whether our worship can be evangelistic. If you disagree with my stance on that topic then the rest of this paragraph isn’t for you… Christ-Centered Worship advocates a liturgical model that builds upon Scripture as well as church history, taking into account the upward, inward, and outward priorities of church. Done properly our worship can create and encounter, a union, and a message to be shared.

Our worship and theology should come together to engage in God’s mission. The relationship should be one of harmony and consistency. If God’s mission for us is to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light as it says in 1 Peter 2:9, and to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe everything he commanded us as it says in Matthew 28:19-20, we must be those worship leaders who worship the Lord personally and corporately, who study the Word of God and hide it in our hearts and who are constantly reminded of his mission, making every effort to proclaim His gospel. The Gospel should infect every aspect of our lives and then we might stand a chance of leading with Gospel centrality. Right theology leads us to rightful doxology, and both propel the mission of God within our churches and out into the world. As John Piper rightly says,

Worship is the fuel and goal of missions.

Our worship must be rightfully centered on the glory of God, because only then are the desires and needs of man informed and met. As we exalt Christ and glorify God, we are professing things that are true to those in our gatherings who are separated from God by sin. The aim of the mission of God is that all the peoples of the earth would glorify God. God’s mission in the world is accomplished when He is the praise of every tribe, and tongue, and nation.

  • The Journey

In practice Gospel centered worship can be difficult to do properly. In this journey what I have come to realize is that the Gospel shouldn’t just be a few key words in a song, but it should inhabit and inform my entire structure, design, and leading of corporate worship. I believe Kauflin says it best in his book “Worship Matters” when he says that,

Singing God’s Word can include more than reciting specific verses in song. If the Word of Christ is going to ‘dwell in [us] richly’ (Colossians 3:16), we need songs that explain, clarify, and expound on what God’s word says. We need songs that have substantive, theologically rich, biblically faithful lyrics. A consistent diet of shallow, subjective worship songs tends to produce shallow, subjective Christians.

The songs we sing matter.  When we stand before our church to lead in worship the songs we choose must be Biblically faithful. We must strive to make our songs and structure theologically forming and informing. They must be Gospel-centered. In the end it isn’t solely the melodies of the songs or the musicality within the transitions that are of utmost importance, but it is the lyrics we choose to worship with and the message we convey through our overall structure. The content by which we choose to both inform and shape our worship. In Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, we see the Gospel as the issue of “first importance”. 1 Corinthians 15:3,4 says,

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

As we lead worship, there is a great responsibility for us to place the Gospel at its rightful place in our church service – at the blazing center of everything.

Wherever in the church Biblical authority has been lost, Christ has been displaced, the gospel has been distorted, or faith has been perverted, it has always been for one reason: our interests have displaced God’s and we are doing His work in our way. The loss of God’s centrality in the life of today’s church is far too common. It is this loss that allows us to transform worship into entertainment, gospel preaching into marketing, believing into technique, being good into feeling good about ourselves, and faithfulness into being successful. As a result, God, Christ and the Bible have come to mean too little to us and rest too inconsequentially upon us.

Worship matters and it must be anchored entirely on God’s truth. Worship should be anchored on the entire truth about God, which He has revealed about himself within His Word. Our worship is a matter of infinite importance. If the truth of God and the Gospel is not at the center of our worship services then we are not truly worshiping the God of the bible but a “god” of our own imagination or creation. An incomplete foundation to our worship leads to an incomplete understanding of all that God is.

It is a matter of eternal consequence when people get worship wrong, as a result they do not worship God acceptably however well meaning they may be.

God does not exist to satisfy human ambitions, or our own private spiritual interests. We must focus on God in our worship, rather than the satisfaction of our personal needs. God is sovereign in worship; we are not. Our concern must be for God’s kingdom, not our own empires, popularity or success.

We should work to know the Gospel… to memorize its foundations and contours. We should allow our thoughts, our prayers, our affections, and our songs to be informed by the glories of the gospel. Constance Cherry has said that,

Our understanding of Christian worship starts with our understanding of God.

The second greatest source of theological teaching in the local church comes from the songs that it sings. While theology is taught, more often it is often caught… through song. In the end, we do not want to create worship services that simply make Christians want to return to our worship services again; instead you want to create worship services that make Christians long to be with Christ and live out the Gospel.

John MacArthur says,

Worship is not an addendum to life, it is at life’s core. You see, the people who worship God acceptably enter into eternal life, but the people who do not worship God acceptably enter into eternal death. Worship, then, becomes the core. Time and eternity are determined by the nature of a person’s worship.

As we pursue this journey into Christ-Centered or Gospel-Shaped worship together I will leave us with this thought,

Worship is an invitation and not our invention.

God and Evil

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

Todays blog may be a little different from many that I have posted…

This week as I was studying I began to ponder a question that many of us “church-goers” may get a lot from our friends or acquaintances that maybe do not yet believe.

“If God is so good then why does He allow so much evil?”

We have all heard it! It may not be worded exactly like that… but the sentiment is still the same. Let’s face it… the question is difficult. We may back away from it immediately… or we might stumble through an answer that has large gaping holes in it. But… how many of us have actually taken the time to think about it in depth? Probably not many of us.

Let’s face it, theology is a very practical and necessary discipline. Theology is absolutely necessary if we want to begin to know what we believe and why. There are many questions that we will wonder, or that will be raised, that are impossible to answer or understand without proper theology. Unfortunately, in the end we may not understand or know everything, but God’s sovereignty makes up for our lacking. One of these very difficult questions is: If God is all-good and omnipotent, then why is there evil in the world? As humans we perceive hurt, fallenness, and evil all around us and the first thing that comes to our mind is the normal questioning of why. We as believers have been taught about a perfect, “good” God and from that frame of reference we have faith even in the presence of “evil” and hurt, for non-believers it isn’t that easy. Let’s seek to find and understand the Biblical and theological viewpoints and implications to this question and work through, or think about some answers ourselves.

In his article “Why is There Evil and Suffering?” Michael Horner says,

It is always feasible that God could have a good reason for permitting evil; a reason of  which we are not aware. And as long as this is logically possible, there is no contradiction between the existence of an all good, all powerful God and the existence of evil. Just because we may not be able to figure out what that reason is does not mean it does not exist.

  • God is Perfect.

To approach our answer we first must understand that God is perfect. Deuteronomy 32:3-4 says,

For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is He.

If we hold Scripture to be true then we can affirm that God and His ways are perfect and above ours as Isaiah 55:8-9 says,

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

The lack of affirmation or belief in the truth and inherency of Scripture is part of the reason for misunderstanding and confusion on the ways of God and the existence of evil in this fallen world. No matter the circumstances God is still perfect and His ways are good, true, and above ours. Scripture says it!

God sets the standard for good.

Some Christian views would state that you cannot understand evil without first understanding good. You cannot have a gauge for evil unless you first have a standard for good. Therefore you need to understand that there is need for a standard for good, which is God. Former atheist C.S. Lewis wrote in his book “Mere Christianity” that,

My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of ‘just’ and ‘unjust’?…What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?…Of course I could have given up my idea of justice by saying it was nothing but a private idea of my own. But if I did that, then my argument against God collapsed too–for the argument depended on saying that the world was really unjust, not simply that it did not happen to please my private fancies… consequently atheism turns out to be too simple.

So, we need to understand that angels and man were first created perfect, in the image of God- without evil. Genesis 1:27 provides evidence for this statement when it says,

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

The Bible records for us that pride became the reason for Lucifer’s downfall. His only reason for rebelling was that he wanted to be like God. Isaiah 14:12-14 shows us this when it says,

How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’

The Bible also says that he dragged a large portion of the angelic army with him, and is responsible for corrupting Man. Sin entered man in the Garden when Adam and Eve disobeyed the Lord at the enticing of Satan disguised as a serpent. We know this as the fall and it is described in Genesis 3.

Verses 22-24 of Genesis 3 describe the reaction of the Lord to man’s disobedience and sin. Those verses say,

Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever’— therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Any disobedience to God is sin, therefore on that day Adam ate of the fruit, God put him out of the Garden, because he cannot dwell in sin. Or rather sin cannot dwell with God, because not only is God perfect… but He sets the standard for perfection!

So… where does evil originate? Where does it come from?

Scripture clearly portrays for is that evil exists because man is fallen. We are naturally and unavoidably born into sin with evil desires in our hearts from the disobedience of Adam and the deceit and treachery of Satan. I personally find C. H. Spurgeon’s Sermon #1387 entitled “God’s Thoughts and Ways Far Above Ours” very helpful when detailing man’s fallenness in light of God’s perfectness and grace, hear the words of the great pastor and theologian:

God’s ways are ways of love and tenderness. He is very loving and full of compassion. But our ways are not so—we are often very harsh to one another and we do not return a filial love to God. I mean not unless His Grace meets with us. And even then we fall far short of walking in the love of God as He walks in love toward us. God’s ways are ways of truth—He never lies, He has never been unfaithful to us or untrue to His promises. But we, on the other hand, have proved false to Him many times. “You have dealt very treacherously,” said the Prophet of old, and the charge lies against us to this day. We have been traitors to God, but He has been fidelity, itself, to us!

Our good resolves have dissolved in air. Our promises have been broken. Our vows have all been forgotten. God is all truth and faithfulness to us and we are all mistrust and doubt and treachery towards Him! Were it not for His Divine Grace we would have even fallen into apostasy—and been like the son of perdition who betrayed his Lord! God’s ways are ways of forgiveness and peace. He does not desire the death of the sinner. He is very patient, He suffers long, He bears continually with our provocations. He is desirous that men should acquaint themselves with Him and be at peace. His ways are ways of reconciliation, ways of forgiveness, ways of love and kindness! But you can see, can’t you, that the ways of the natural man are perverse? By nature we do not desire to be at amity with God.

  • What are the purposes of Evil?

From the onset that subtitle may make many of you uncomfortable. You may be saying, “You mean to tell me that evil serves a purpose!” To that I would say… yes.

For me I believe, and think Scriptures provide evidence, that God uses evil, suffering, and pain for several purposes. God is all powerful and easily could have made a world with no evil in it. However, that would have made God out to be a puppet-master controlling a world full of puppets. If we believe that God is sovereign and that everything works to His will including salvation then evil and sin may exist in order to glorify Christ and to lead us into consciously accepting His will, purpose, and salvation. When the world fell in Genesis at the hands of Satan, Adam, and Eve we know that everything changed, for all creation yearns and groans for it’s Creator.

Without the existence of evil in this fallen world it would be impossible for people to love God or anyone else. Everything points to Christ and works to honor, glorify, and magnify His name and work. Norman Geisler says in his article “If God Exists, Why Is There Evil?” that,

Love is possible only for free moral creatures; forced love is a contradiction. So, in order for the world to be morally good, it must be morally free. And free creatures are capable of free choices that bring disease, disaster and death. This is the world in which we live.

Man was created “free.” We are all free moral agents governed by our wills. God can however us our wills for His purposes, but God did not create any evil. We must each bear responsibility for what we ourselves do. God is not responsible for our “evils,” however God has already paid the price by sending His son Jesus to die on the cross as payment in full. The final sacrifice. The Holy Lamb slain on our behalf. Ultimately God can use our evil for His glory, and isn’t that what this life is all about?

It may seem radical to say that evil can bring God glory, but that is exactly it… we don’t have to understand the ways or purposes of Christ. An even more Biblical but radical truth is that God is more interested in our holiness than in our happiness, and He is more interested in our character than in our earthly comfort. His ways are above ours and mysterious to man, but perfect nonetheless. In “The Problem of Pain,” C.S. Lewis writes,

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

We know that God is not the author of evil. Genesis speaks to this in 1:31 when it says that on the final day of creation, God declared, “It is very good” and it was very good. It was at the work of Satan, and the rebellion of Adam and Eve against God in disobedience that introduced evil and sin. At that moment Adam and Eve died spiritually and God had to act accordingly; Ephesians 2:1-10 says:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

From reading Scripture I would say that sin, pain, evil, suffering, and death exist because of man for God’s glory in the work of salvation for us. Romans 5:12 says,

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.

Solomon knew of the fallen condition of man when he said in Ecclesiastes 7:29,

See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

When we comprehend God’s sacrifice and love for us, it puts the problem of evil in an entirely different perspective. We see clearly that the true problem of evil is the problem of our evil… our nature… our problem. Evil is not a problem with God… but rather it is a problem with man.

Filled with sin and guilt before God, the question we face is not how God can justify himself to us for the existence of evil, but how we can be justified before him in spite of our evil. And it is through Christ’s payment for our evil by his death on the cross that we can be justified before God. Through him we have forgiveness. It is quite possible that God uses the suffering to do good.

God is in control in spite of evil. He promises that he causes all things to work together for good to those who love God in Romans 8:28. We shouldn’t fret over evil or the things we don’t know or comprehend. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 proclaims,

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

Controversial religious writer James Hervey wrote,

God is good when He gives supremely good, nor less when He denies. Even crosses from His gracious hands are blessings in disguise.

The Bible says in Romans 5:3-4 that,

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

We see laced throughout nature, history, and Scripture that both God and evil exist. God is everything we have described Him to be. Evil exists now… but not forever. Suffering is the result of human sin. The current world is not in the state that God created it; and because of that, all are vulnerable to the effects of sin in the world. Why does one person suffer and another does not? Why do catastrophes happen to some and not to others? It is because sin is in the world. But there will come a day when the Lord will return and cleanse this world of all sin and all suffering.

Ultimately, God promises victory over sin, suffering, death, and evil. Those who genuinely choose to accept and receive his forgiveness will rise from the dead with a transformed, immortal, imperishable body to be with him forever. Revelation 21:4 says,

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

Evil exists because of man for God’s glory. Evil is momentary and restricted to this life and this world. God is all powerful and good and desires to rid his followers from evil and will when it is time according to His plan.

So… God is not anything less than what Scripture makes Him out to be because of the problem of evil, rather God himself is the solution to that evil. All things are meant to bring Him the ultimate glory!

Do NOT Compromise on the Truth

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

We live in an age of compromise.

The world has somehow slipped in and changed our definition of truth and our distinction between wrong and right. Suddenly wrong is now right and right is now wrong and wildly unaccepted and politically charged/ incorrect.

Think about it… politicians will do or say anything to secure votes and rise to power.

I’ll say it again. We live in an age of compromise.

The distinction between the sexes is broken down. The importance of authority at all levels is broken down. The sanctity of marriage is broken down. I could keep on going but I will digress.

In this day and age and mangled culture one question has become harder and harder to answer: What is Truth?

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines truth as:

  1. the quality or state of being true
  2. a true or accepted statement
  3. the body of real events or facts
  4. agreement with fact or reality

What is true to us as Christians and what does that truth mean to us?

For us as Christians it is of absolute importance, especially in our current cultured state, that we know the truth of what we believe. The truth provides for us answers and insight as to how we can better live for and serve Christ daily. So… where do we learn about this truth?

  1. The first and most important is the Bible. In order to learn the truth behind what you believe you have to read the only perfect and truthful book. The Word of God.
  2. From prayer and the seeking of God.
  3. From Christian leaders and mentors who believe in the errorless Word of God and who love it with all of their hearts.

After we have begun learning and memorizing this truth what can it do for us? Let’s think together below.

  • The Truth can set us Free.

In John 8 Jesus is teaching and preaching on the Mount of Olives and in the temple for the people as well as the Scribes and Pharisees.

John 8:31-36 says,

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Jesus thought that truth was very important. He said we must know the truth, because it can make us free.

Free from what?

These verses show us that He was talking about freedom from sin. Being a slave to sin is the ultimate bondage, and the freedom that Jesus offers is a spiritual freedom from the bondage of sin.

Verse 35 is interesting where Jesus continues with an analogy,

The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.

The people Jesus was addressing would have understood Jesus to mean that they were not members of God’s family as long as they were slaves to sin. Only Believers would be freed from their bondage and brought into the family of God.

In fact, Jesus establishes this in John 14:6 where He says,

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

So knowing Jesus is knowing the truth… and we know that knowing the truth will set one free from sin, free from condemnation, and free from death. Romans 6:22 says,

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

But if truth is necessary to free us from sin, then how can we please and serve God if we believe error instead of truth?

  • The Truth is what we build upon.

Where else in the Bible do we see “truth” spoken of and applied to us as believers?

Ephesians 6:10-18 says,

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put          on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

The KJV puts Ephesians 6:14 this way,

Stand therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, and having on the                      breastplate of righteousness.

It says to have “your loins girded about with truth.” We see a word there that we may not hear everyday. Girded.

Merriam- Webster defines the word gird or girded in this way:

  1. to encircle or bind with a flexible band (as a belt)
  2. to make fast (as a sword by a belt or clothing with a cord)
  3. to surround
  4.  to provide, equip
  5. to prepare (oneself) for action

Back in the times of Jesus, Roman soldiers would “gird” their waists with a belt. This belt served many purposes. Their uniforms would include a helmet, shield, sword, short sword/ dagger, a breastplate, what we would consider a dress or skirt in today’s times, and a pair of boots. A soldier going into battle/ long march, or at alert position would take the bottom of their skirt and tuck it into their waistline and belt. If their waist was not girded with a belt a soldier was vulnerable because they couldn’t move as fast and their feet would become entangled in the bottom of their skirt.

The belt that “girded” the soldiers waist was what held the rest of the system together. Without it the soldier would be lucky to move and fight efficiently. This idea is similar to a police officer or soldier on today’s times. They have tons of gear and quite a bit of weight to pack around. If anybody reading this has ever carried just a holster and a gun before they will understand the importance of a good rigid belt to support the system.

The belt is their foundation. The truth is our belt. The truth is our foundation.

  • The Truth can help us to Fight.

Ephesians 6:10-17 says,

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The belt we use to “gird ourselves” that we spoke of above was not only was used to tuck in the lower portion of a soldiers uniform, but it was also used to hold the sword at a ready draw position and to hold the shield during times when it wasn’t needed. So if a soldier was to lose their belt it would make the use of the sword (of the spirit) and shield (of faith) harder as well. So if we lose truth other parts of our walk with Christ become harder, and we become more and more vulnerable to the ways of the world and to the attacks of the devil.

In Matthew 7:15 Jesus warns against these attacks and the perversion of truth by saying,

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Colossians 2:8 says,

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

No one wants to learn that they have been misled by a false teacher, but Jesus warned us to be weary of this very thing. Why would He warn us if there were no danger? 1 John 4:1 says we should examine religious teachings closely because “many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

1 John 4:1 says,

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

This basically telling us as Christians to not be quick to accept everything we hear without looking into the subject ourselves. This is why knowledge and memorization of the Word is key. We MUST know the TRUTH.

If you don’t know the Word how are you supposed to know if someone is being truthful or simply misleading you?

Often today one teacher will teach one thing and then another will teach just the opposite. How can both be right? How can we know which is telling the truth and which is speaking error? God gave us the Bible exactly for this reason. Like the people of Berea being taught by Paul we should follow teaching with examination of the scripture to see if the things you are being taught are true. Acts 17:11 says that the people of Berea being taught by the apostle Paul and Silas searched the scriptures daily to learn if we are being taught the truth.

Acts 17:11 says,

Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Remain alert and hold onto the truth of God. Keep your waist “girded” with truth in order to remove your vulnerabilities from the devil, and be bold in sharing the truth with others so that they may not be vulnerable to the ways of the devil.

To please God, we must know and hold onto the truth, and that truth is found in God’s word.

2 Timothy 3:16 says,

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

Can Our Music be Evangelistic?

Posted on by Tanner Royalty

I was reading an article recently that was attacking the idea that our music in church can be evangelistic in nature pretty harshly. On that article I found a comment that I enjoyed from an ECLA pastor. It read,

Jesus made it very clear in the great commission what the church is to be about. Go everywhere and make disciples, baptize and teach. Throughout his ministry Jesus was constantly battling with any religious custom or “tradition” that kept people away from God. He physically touched the ritually impure, broke the sacred Sabbath laws, threw over the Temple sanctioned system of money changing, ate with sinners and tax collectors, just to name a few. The church always exists first for those who haven’t found it yet. When the church loses this mission focus it risks becoming what our bishop has called “a country club with a religious flavor”.

The bishop also recently shared some troubling statistics about youth and young adults in the Lutheran Church (which is presumably similar to other mainline denominations). “If we are satisfied with losing 92% of our youth, then let’s not change anything,” the bishop told the synod council. Citing research that found that 84% of Lutherans between confirmation and age 24 do not attend church, and that half of the rest attend non-Lutheran churches, the bishop told the council, “the absence of young people between the ages of 18 and 35 is the single largest challenge facing the Lutheran church in this region.”

Hundreds and hundreds of mainline churches close in the U.S. every year. Many of them are right in the heart of growing communities. Most of the long established congregations in our fast growing county are in decline. Who will be the church leaders twenty and thirty years from now? What are we willing to compromise in order to attract unchurched people so they can experience the church’s relevance in their lives?

What a great response! The line that rattled me to my core was: The church always exists first for those who haven’t found it yet. Have we lost sight of that? I know there are times that I have. Sometimes we approach church with our expectations, our preference, our baggage, our wants, our needs, and our desires… and we forget our purpose.

We know that we live in a culture of change and with shifting ideas and relevance. We also know that music has always been at the center of such shifts, and often brought controversy within the church. It seems as if there is nothing that rallies a congregation to grab their pitchforks and torches like a change in the music they are accustomed to. This goes for both young and old generations! In fact, every generation tends to dislike the music of the next generation and the generation before them.

We have all heard it said, “The music we play in church ultimately isn’t for us.” In fact, our worship isn’t limited to a genre or style at all!

So, if we acknowledge that to be true then why are we holding so dearly onto our preferences at the expense of missing an opportunity for evangelism, kingdom-building, and multi-generational “churching?”

Ed Stetzer has said,

In our generation, formality and traditionalism is shifting out of general church practice. According to research from a few years ago, churches were moving to contemporary (verses traditional) at an 11-1 ratio.

I personally don’t find this shocking at all. With the rise of multi-site churches and mega-churches it seems as if many other churches have followed the trend of cultural relevance that seems to be getting unchurched people through the doors of churches that never would have entered previous to the musical and stylistic changes. I would bet that we will continue to see that trend grow and that eventually most churches are going to make the transition to feel more contemporary rather than traditional.

Along those lines our Pastor has used the example of a minister standing before his congregation and asking the simple question, “How many of you would do anything to get your child in church and keep them there as they age?” Every hand in the church shot up without hesitation. Then the minister turns the question around and asks, “then why do we hold our musical preferences so dear at the expense of them walking out the door?”

I believe that the contemporary church has done a great job of recognizing shifts and patterns in culture. They have stylistically engaged culture in relatable forms. They have reconnected with those disconnected from the “traditional” church culture. With this change unbelievers aren’t required to navigate or appreciate an unfamiliar musical style before they grasp the words that they are singing. Think about it! We have all experienced a moment where we are so taken back by trying to understand the melodies and presentation of a song that we have missed the content entirely. That is exactly what we don’t want to happen for a first time church visitor! We want them to catch the words and be comfortable with the presentation in hopes of moving any distractions away from them hearing the Gospel proclaimed.

Many would argue for a lack of theological depth in contemporary music in comparison to other styles or presentations. I for one don’t believe modern worship (necessarily) “dumbs down” the music, but makes it makes it more accessible to those unfamiliar with church, church music, and maybe with God. Many people that are new to church are only used to what they have heard in the secular world. Beginning to walk in faith is hard enough without having to learn a new style of music in order to worship God. As long as the theology is rich and the words are pointed directly at Christ then I don’t see an issue with us teaching them in a way they can understand.

Now, having said all of that many would believe that I am just trying to usher in a contemporary style and point fingers at those who have yet to move in that direction. That isn’t it at all! All of this being said is “context” and “culture” sensitive. My hope is that we aren’t changing just for the sake of change… but instead we are changing because of the needs of our people and the particular context we are currently in. A 5-piece rock band may not fit a rural congregation but a banjo or organ may! Hymns may work for a primarily older (in age) church, whereas they may not engage a college town congregation. Ultimately, styles matter less than worship and depth.

The writer of the original post stated,

Getting butts in the seats is not evangelism. It’s not discipleship.

I actually agree with that statement… but it is certainly a start! A song or style alone can’t be it. So, can our church music be evangelistic?

You’ll have to answer that for yourself. I am going to approach it from my context and say yes. The greatest tool for evangelism is not a song. It is a broken person in need of a Savior recognizing their need for Christ through an avenue that we as a church provide to them through the guidance of the Spirit. But… an avenue for that recognition can certainly be in lyrical content. Content that an individual doesn’t need a deep and extensive theological background to decipher.

So… what is your context? In that realization you may find your answer.

What is the Purpose of Singing in Christian Worship

Posted on by Tanner Royalty