Grace and Growth

Lost and Found

We don’t think much about lostness. But it is a big idea in the Bible. When you are lost, you don’t even know where you are, or where you want to go, and so you don’t know the way. You are just lost. And when you are lost, you don’t know what life is for and so you don’t fit in and you just bump off life hard.

There are lost people today. We forget that sometimes.

Foolishness and carelessness and willfulness are all ways we can get lost, but there is another way someone gets lost in this chapter. By your goodness!

 
But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

Luke 15:29

 
Jesus wants us to get this straight. He wants to mess with how you see the world until you see the world like he sees the world, until we love who he loves. He wants to reset the DNA of his church. Jesus loves lost people. That was his reputation. The Pharisees tagged him for it again and again, and he wore it proudly.

 
The Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and people say, ‘Look at him! He eats too much and drinks too much wine, and he is a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’   Matt 11:19

Look at this series or other St Stephens messages

Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve

When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers- the moon and the stars you have set in place- what are mortals that you should think of us, mere humans that you should care for us? Psa 8:3-4 (NLT)

Who are we, anyway?  Everywhere in Narnia, there seems to be an answer.  You find a hint in the children’s rhymes… another hint in the awe and surprise of the beavers and fauns when they meet a Son of Adam and a Daughter of Eve...  and another in the fears of the Witch when she sleighs past Edmund and grinds to a fast stop: “What are you?” she asks.  Well, he is human... and she is not happy with the answer. 

The reason is that everywhere in Aslan’s world creatures know humans are destined to rule.  The four thrones at Cair Paravel, empty for centuries, were meant for two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve.  When they ascended to those thrones, the reign of the White Witch would end.

“When Adam’s flesh and Adam’s bone Sits at Cair Paravel in throne The evil time will be over and done…”

This is the same answer that you find in the pages of the Bible.  Men and women are meant to have dominion over the earth…

For you made us only a little lower than God, and you crowned us with glory and honor. You put us in charge of everything you made, giving us authority over all things- Ps 8:5-6 (NLT)

This is why we instinctively want to be in charge and control and shape our world.  It is why you want to hold on to the TV remote.  It is why you don’t want to ride in the passenger seat... 

Life with Christ is about learning how to share his rule over God’s creation.  Those partnerships are all over the place in our lives.  Your family is one of those gardens.  Your church is one.  Your job is another.  So is your body.  So is the city you live in.  Places you manage and rule in a partnership with Christ. 

Do you hear the voice of Aslan…?

“Bear it well, Sons of Adam!  Bear it well, Daughters of Eve!”

 

Aslan on the Move

The Witch knows that Aslan is giving himself in Edmund’s place to fulfill the demands of the Deep Magic.  As she raises her terrible stone knife over him she cries out her victory, “Fool…”

The Deep Magic in Narnia is Lewis’ imaginary picture of the Moral Law.  In Narnia it is not the kind of magic that can be manipulated by incantations or spells or ceremony.  It is so deep that it is written into the foundations of the universe itself, an essential part of the way things are.  That is true of the Moral Law.  It is not some optional add-on to the way things are.  It is the essential nature of a universe that is fundamentally relational.  That is why Jesus declares the law will outlast even the visible cosmos.

That is why when Lewis imagined the land of Narnia, betrayal meant death.  It is the same law that is written into the real world.

“When you eat of it you will surely die.” Gen 2:17 (NIV)

It is a statement of fact.  It is always true. Sin destroys our lifeline to the sinless God.  Like the flower pulled from the earth, like the vine cut off from the branch, we wither and die. That is the way it is in a universe that is entirely dependent upon the living and holy God.  Betrayal means someone must die.  And to save Edmund, Aslan offers himself.  The Deep Magic must be appeased.  

God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God. 2 Cor 5:21 (The Message)

Will Heaven Be Like Earth?

He must remain in heaven until the time for the final restoration of all things, as God promised long ago through his prophets. Acts 3:21 (NLT)

How much of this present cosmos will be present in eternity?  How much continuity will there be between our present world and the world to come?  I wonder.

Under the influence of Dallas Willard (Divine Conspiracy ch 10, etc), I have begun to rethink my eschatology this year, wondering if I had been too inattentive to the teaching of Acts 3 and Romans 8, and too presupposing a “radical discontinuity” between the current created order and the Kingdom of God.  I had long thought that this cosmos will be entirely destroyed before the creation of a new cosmos.

But what if the cosmos to come has significant continuity with the created order as we now glimpse it - in all its extraordinary grandeur?  What if passages like 2 Peter 3 refer to a redemptive cleansing and transformation of the current cosmos, but not its entire destruction?  I have taken a Hubble photo of the interstellar star fields and put it as wallpaper on my computer - labeling it, “My Father’s House”! It fires my imagination! “Could well be”, I think - and I wonder!

I worry that something else drives our theology of “radical discontinuity”. I have become wary of teaching that locates the Kingdom entirely in some other place and time yet to come. Surely that is less than faithful to the Kingdom teaching of Jesus who so clearly proclaimed the present availibility of Kingdom life to everyone who longed for it - even while looking forward to a future fullfillment. Seems evident to me that the ‘radical discontinuity’ theology is driven IN PART by an aversion to radical discipleship. We all know the pervasive and tragic truth of this in contemporary evangelical life. ‘Real life is somewhere else - not here’, we think. So we wait for a Kingdom yet to come, and somehow find cause to go on living our lives within our own resources, not those of the Kingdom among us.

But eternal life has already begun. And the Kingdom is even now in our midst. What we do here and now is training for what we will do there and then in the renewed cosmos. The continuity is impressive, inspiring, and massively hopeful, even while we wait for the great renewal sure to come.

Making Resolutions for a Lifetime

I’ve been thinking about some New Year’s resolutions I could make this year…  But failure is more common than success. Why?

Change is hard because of your… auto pilot!  You know what an auto pilot is…  It is that system in an airplane or a boat or a car that you can set to go a certain speed or a certain direction. 

If you're in a boat and the auto pilot is set for East, you can force it to go West by putting an oar in the water and forcibly pushing it.  But after a while you get tired, and you let go of the oar - and back to the east it goes!

We are a lot like that.  You try to change your life by forcibly turning in another direction. You make a resolution. By willpower, you force yourself.   But the whole time you're under tension, because by willpower you're trying to go the opposite way that you're naturally inclined to go. Pretty soon you get tired and you let go of the oar and it automatically turns back.   I go off the diet, start smoking again, bitterness floods back, acting the way I've always done. If you want to change, you've got to change your auto pilot.

How do you do things like this?

“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.” Luke 6:43

Jesus says you have to change the tree.  No apple tree makes a resolution to have cherries this year!  You have to have a new tree!  If your resolution is to be more forgiving, you have to become a person for whom forgiveness is a natural expression of your heart.  If your resolution is to become more generous, you have to become a person who loves to be generous and does it naturally and easily - the good tree that bears good fruit. 

How does he do that in you?  Here’s the secret:  change the inside, and the outside will follow…

 

Read the whole message

Look at other St Stephens messages

Another Kingdom Dream

Becca had a dream earlier this year. 

One of those sharp, 'pay attention to this' dreams, one of those 'there must be more' dreams.  She dreamed she was in the garden courtyard here outside St Stephens - our girls were little, dressed for church, and running around near her - I was inside the sanctuary - and a strong wind started blowing out of dark clouds, a wild wind from black storm clouds sweeping in off a sea. 

The wind was sweeping everything.  Sweeping it clean.  Blowing all the dead leaves and broken branches away.  Blowing hard.

Then on the wind came a white veil, long, swirling, coming down from above, dazzling against the dark clouds and wrapping all around the church, it was a bridal veil… 

Then suddenly out of the storm clouds a shaft of brilliant white light descended unexpectedly to the ground right at her feet.  And she knew if she stepped into that light she was stepping into eternity, stepping into joy.  It took her breath away. 

She made a collage of it.  It hangs on our dining room wall (see picture above).  We have thought about it often.  Especially in these days of growing persecution.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. Jn 15:2 (NIV)

Living Life with God

The central theme of the Bible from beginning to end is how God takes the initiative to satisfy our deepest longings with himself.  With his own presence.  With a love-relationship with him. 

To Moses God said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest”   (Exo. 33:14)

To Jacob God said, “I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go”   (Gen. 28:15)

To Joshua God said, “As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you”   (Josh. 1:5)

To Israel God said, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you”   (Isa. 43:2)

King David knew this settled everything and prayed to God:  “I will fear no evil; for You are with me...”    (Psalm 23.4)

Those people were first in a long line of men and women who have discovered that the secret to life is living in the presence of God.  They discovered that you and I are made for more than ourselves.  Much more.  You and I are made for God himself.

Jesus entered this world to fulfill that promise. Isaiah wrote it hundreds of years earlier and the angel whispered it again to Joseph in a dream.. “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”-which means, “God with us.”   (Matt 1:23)

Read the whole message

Look at other St Stephens messages

Let’s Go Camping Together

Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” Exo 33:15-16 (NIV)

I wonder if you know that God is pleased with you?  That God actually takes pleasure in his children?  Most of you think that God is mad at you, or disappointed with you.  You have grown up in a critical home or you have lots of sarcasm all around you - it gets into you, and you can’t believe that God could be pleased with you.  I want to tell you, if you have given your life to Christ and been forgiven by him, God is very pleased with you.  This Father loves his kids, and loves to be with his kids…

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (NIV)

The presence of God in the Tabernacle proved to be a sign on the road that pointed to something greater.  An appetizer that came before the full course. A promise that would in the end be fulfilled. 

When John wrote (John 1.14) that the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, the word he used for ‘made his dwelling’ is literally ‘tabernacled’ among us.  He was thinking of Exodus 40… saying that since the coming of Jesus the Immanuel life, life with God is open - no longer just for a special family, but for any family; no longer just for a special nation, but now for anybody, any family, any nation…  It is wide open, because Immanuel has now come in the flesh.

Read the whole message

Look at other St Stephens messages

Up The Mountain

When the people heard the thunder and the loud blast of the horn, and when they saw the lightning and the smoke billowing from the mountain, they stood at a distance, trembling with fear.  And they said to Moses, “You tell us what God says, and we will listen. But don’t let God speak directly to us. If he does, we will die!”  “Don’t be afraid,” Moses said, “for God has come in this way to show you his awesome power…”

Exo 20:18-20 (NLT) What I want to look at even more closely today is the way God’s speaking, God’s word brings the Immanuel life. 

Let me say something strange to you.  The universe operates by speaking.  You say, ‘What!”  But it is true.  It seems strange because you think of the universe as complex physical matter that operates by what we call physical laws.  We have learned that view of the world since we were children.  But it is really inadequate to explain live.  The bible pictures the universe much more honestly when it describes material nature as the creation of a God who made it by speaking, and who sustains it by speaking, and upholds it by speaking.  “In the beginning, God said, ‘Let there be light’ And there was light.” 

God made the universe by his word and upholds it by his word.  This is true because God’s word comes from his mind and his heart.  So his voice, his speaking, his words carry his authority and his character and his will.  That’s why Jesus said his words were ‘spirit and life’.  His words are a creative force. 

Every time God speaks in scripture, there are extraordinary results.  God gives a word, and the cosmos springs to life, the stars are hung in their orbits, the earth is formed, the animals gather their breath.  When God speaks the earth shakes.  His words are a creative force. 

Read the whole message

Look at other St Stephens messages

A Special Family

God opens a beachhead for his invasion.  He chooses a special man and a special family. 

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. Gen 12:1-2 (NIV)

God calls Abraham and his family, he blesses them, and builds them up.  Through a family comes a nation.  Through a nation comes a savior.  Through the savior comes salvation to the whole world.

When God started his work of salvation, he started with a family.  Since that day, the family is a special means that God uses to bless the world.  In the family, children meet God and get to know God and are blessed by God.  Through your family, many of your neighbors will hear of God and meet God and be blessed by God.  The family is special to God; it is a great power in his Kingdom.

You may say, “If you knew my home you wouldn’t say that.”  But I want to tell you, Abraham’s home was no special place.  It was distressingly normal.  Abraham had to deal with doubt and impatience in his own heart. He repeatedly tried to force God’s hand.  He had to deal with deceit and manipulation, and betrayal among his children and grandchildren.  Abraham didn’t come from any "super holy special" home.  But here’s what happened: he had been called by God and he answered that call. 

Read the whole message

Look at other St Stephens messages