Family, Family Life, and the Future

Some interesting statistics about the family and family life.  These statistics are about a year old, but I don't think many of the numbers have changed for the positive in the past year.

What do these statistics mean for church life in the next year?  Ten years?  Twenty years?


Incredible stuff on an economics blog called Zero Hedge.  These folks are not coming from a "Christian Worldview" but I do not think that James Dobson could have said it better.  Amazing stats that call for real revival.  Only changed hearts can change these trends!

Submitted by Michael Snyder of The Economic Collapse blog,

The family is one of the fundamental building blocks of society.  If you do not have strong families, you are not going to have a strong society.  Unfortunately, the state of the family in America continues to deteriorate.  The marriage rate has fallen to an all-time low, we lead the world in divorce, and about a third of all children live in a home without a father. 

Our young people have been taught that getting married and having a family is not a priority, and many of those that would like to get married and have children are not able to get the kinds of jobs that they need to support a family.  The statistics that you are about to see should absolutely shock you. 

American families have never been this weak, and this is an incredibly troubling sign for the future of our nation.  What will future generations of Americans be like if they do not have stable homes to grow up in?  Will they be even more messed up than we are right now?  That is a frightening thought.  

The following are 27 facts that prove that the family in America is in the worst shape ever...

#1 The marriage rate in the United States has fallen to an all-time low.  Right now it is sitting at a yearly rate of 6.8 marriages per 1000 people.

#2 Today, an all-time low 44.2 percent of Americans in the 25 to 34 year old age bracket are married.

#3 According to the Pew Research Center, only 51 percent of all adults in the United States are currently married.  Back in 1960, 72 percent of all adults in the United States were married.

#4 Back in 1950, 78 percent of all households in the United States contained a married couple.  Today, that number has declined to 48 percent.

#5 100 years ago, 4.52 were living in the average U.S. household, but now the average U.S. household only consists of 2.59 people.

#6 The United States has the highest percentage of one person households on the entire planet.

#7 In the United States today, more than half of all couples "move in together" before they get married.

#8 The divorce rate for couples that live together first is significantly higher than for those that do not.

#9 For women under the age of 30 in the United States, more than half of all babies are being born out of wedlock.

#10 In 1970, the average woman had her first child when she was 21.4 years old.  Now the average woman has her first child when she is25.6 years old.

#11 According to the Centers for Disease Control, there were 69.3 births per 1,000 women in the 15 to 44 year old age bracket in 2007. Now the rate has fallen to 63.2 births per 1,000 women.

#12 The birth rate for American women in the 20 to 24 year old age bracket has fallen to 85.3 births per 1,000 women.  That is a new all-time record low.

#13 The United States has the highest divorce rate in the entire world.

#14 At this point, approximately one out of every three children in the United States lives in a home without a father.

#15 Without a father around, many single mothers in this country are really struggling to survive.  Sadly, approximately 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States are on food stamps.

#16 It is being projected that approximately 50 percent of all U.S. children will be on food stamps at some point before they reach the age of 18.

#17 Today, more than a million public school students in the United States are homeless.  This is the first time that has ever happened in our history.

#18 The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the entire world.  In fact, the United States has a teen pregnancy rate that is more than twice as high as Canada, more than three times as high as France and more than seven times as high as Japan.

#19 In the United States today, approximately 47 percent of all high school students have had sex.

#20 Approximately one out of every four teen girls in the United States has at least one sexually transmitted disease.

#21 According to one survey, 24 percent of all U.S. teens that have at least one sexually transmitted disease say that they still have unprotected sex.

#22 Instead of being raised by parents, an increasing number of children in America are being raised by movies, television and video games.  For example, the average young American will spend 10,000 hours playing video games before the age of 21.

#23 Americans are tied with the British for the highest average number of hours spent watching television each week.

#24 There are more than 3 million reports of child abuse in the United States every single year.

#25 The United States actually has the highest child abuse death rate in the developed world.

#26 Approximately 20 percent of all child sexual abuse victims in the United States are under the age of 8.

#27 It is estimated that one out of every four girls will be sexually abused before they become adults.

Unfortunately, this is a problem that is not going to be fixed overnight.  Getting the "right politicians" into office will not solve our problems and neither will spending a bunch of money.

The change that we need is a change of the heart.  We need to change how we treat one another and we need to get our priorities straight.

Our families are really messed up, and this is hurting our kids the most.  There is no way that this country is going to have any hope for a bright future unless our families start getting stronger.

Or could it be possible that I am overreacting?

What do you think?

Are we "salty" to the lost?

"Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored?
It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile.
It is thrown away.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear. ...

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.
And the Pharisees and the scribes grumbled,
saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them."

Luke 14: 34-15:2

I love how the gospel writers put their narratives together.  Each of the authors took the same material and information, and they crafted it for different audiences.  We often forget that the gospels were not read with their chapter divisions.  Those were added much later.  Instead, the narrative of Jesus' life and ministry read like an action packed play.

In Luke 15, Jesus declares the heart of God for the lost.  With the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sons, Jesus declares God great concern and pursuing love for the lost.

What is often missed is how he concludes what we read as Luke 14.  "Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall it be restored?"

What is he talking about?  In the context, this small section is told by Luke between Jesus' teaching on the cost of being a disciple and the reality that the "sinners" of the day loved him (found him "salty') and the religious teachers grumbled at this fact.  

Matthew uses this teaching of Jesus concerning salt in a different way, and it is found in a different place.  Does this show an error?  No, I don't think so.  I am sure Jesus used this phrase often in its ministry.  It has many applications.

I believe it is clear that Luke is using the salt reference here to illustrate 

the reality of disciples being the preserving influence to the sinners 

that God is passionately pursuing.  

Jesus is the perfect example of a follower of God.  He pursues and is attractive to sinners.  Unfortunately, this also means the religious folks sometimes do not understand him!

One of the greatest contractions in the universe is how "religious" folks often make poor witnesses to God's grace, but the scandalous and the sinners are great witnesses.

Why is this true?  Why is this particularly troubling?  Because the goal of most church life is to make people "religious."  Good church folks are often marked by their faithful religious observance.

Yet, here is the rub.  I have often shared in these pages and in classes I teach on outreach that

90% of churches say they wish to grow, 

but 90% of these churches are not really willing to follow through to grow.  

Taking this a step further, 

I would suggest that 90% of believers claim they want 

to reach out to friends, neighbors, and co-workers, 

but about 90% of them rarely follow through.  

Why is this the case?

Excuses abound.  I have offered many of them myself.  Yet, I wonder aloud today "If the salt has lost its saltiness."

Personally and corporately if we are not seeing not-yet-believers being transformed by the gospel, we should pray that God will allow us to experience the joy of new birth as God transforms not-yet-believers into gospel followers.  We should confess and repent if we really do not have a heart for such work.  We should ask for God's heart for the lost.

The miracle working God of the bible will answer these prayers.  His desire is for the salt (us) to be salt.

Piper on Emotional Blackmail in the Church

Not feeling loved and not being loved are not the same.  Jesus loved all people well.  And many did not like the way he loved them.  Was David's zeal for the Lord imbalanced because his wife Michal despised him for it?  Was Job's devotion to the Lord inordinate because his wife urged him to curse God and die?  Would Gomer be a reliable witness to Hosea's devotion? ...

I have seen so much emotional blackmail in my ministry I am jealous to raise a warning against it.  Emotional blackmail happens when a person equates his or her emotional pain with another person's failure to love.  They aren't the same.  A person may love well and the beloved still feel hurt, and use the hurt to blackmail the lover into admitting guilt he or she does not have.

Emotional blackmail says, "If I feel hurt by you, you are guilty."  There is no defense.  The hurt person has become God.  His emotion has become judge and jury.  Truth does not matter.  All that matters is the sovereign suffering of the aggrieved.  It is above question.  This emotional device is a great evil.  I have seen it often in my three decades of ministry and I am eager to defend people who are being wrongly indicted by it.

John Piper, Gospel Coalition- Piper on Emotional Blackmail in the Church, March 23, 2015.

Wow.  This post from John Piper found on the Gospel Coalition website is more than profound.  It is so true.

In relationships between husbands and wives.  In relationships within families.  In work relationships.  In churches and how they deal with each other.

Our age is marked by the right to claim victim status for anything we feel is against us.  We claim malice of others against us.  At the very least, we knowingly inform people they are ignorant of how offensive they are.

What if our relationships were about coming to an understanding 

instead of moving immediately to placing blame and assuming guilt of the other?  

What if we assumed that there would be disagreements in life 

but that we should not take these disagreements personally?

It was not long ago these two traits were the mark of emotionally healthy individuals.  What if they still are the mark of emotionally healthy individuals?

Farewell Dee Yukon

"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."

Psalm 116:15

On Monday, Dee Yukon, the wife of my friend Matt Yukon who died two months ago, died after a 3 1/2 year battle with cancer.  She leaves behind two children, Lincoln age 3, and Angelina age 8.

M.E. and I were talking how Matt's death made us so sad.  This death makes us angry.  It just seems so unjust!  How could this be allowed to happen?  Why?  Why?  Why?

All I can say is that there is so much in life I don't understand.  So many questions.  So many events that have puzzled me.  The deaths of Matt and Dee adds to the list.  They are high on the list.

Dee was one of the most giving people I have ever met.  She would literally give you the shirt off her back if you needed it.  She loved people well.  She laughed often.  She was a great support and wife for Matt.  To know Dee was to know an authentic life of love.

Her greatest hope in life was to have children.  For years it looked like she would not be able on her own.  Thankfully, her and Matt adopted Angelina four or five years ago.  They sure loved that little girl.  Then, against all hope, at the age of 42/43, she finally became pregnant with Lincoln.  The Yukons were so overjoyed.  Their vision for having a larger family was coming true.

That was when the bad news started to pile up.  In the second trimester of the pregnancy, Dee discovered a lump.  It ends up that the pregnancy hormones had helped grow a malignant and aggressive breast cancer.  Matt and Dee decided to do what they could for treatment, but to carry Lincoln to birth.  I know they never, ever regretted that decision.

Dee handled her cancer with such grace.  As she aged, she handled more and more with grace.  I really noticed her spiritual growth over the twenty years I knew her.  I am sure that the stress of Matt's cancer and then death helped increase the potency of her cancer.  

All I know, is that we will miss her.  Please pray for her children.  Please pray for her family and friends, many of whom have the same reaction that we do.  

This side of heaven, there are often no good answers to why.

Dee lived a good life by any measure.  I end with a poem that was true of Dee.

“Success”
Inaccurately attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

This is a great poem, but I would suggest one more line.  

Success is 

To enjoy and know God in life and in death.

I rejoice and Matt and Dee have run their race, and they are enjoying their Lord together today.  

Balancing our Heart and Mind

"The first step in forming a Christian worldview is to overcome this sharp divide between "heart" and "brain."  We have to reject the division of life into a sacred realm, limited to things like worship and personal morality, over against a secular realm that includes science, politics, economics, and the rest of the public arena.  This dichotomy in our own minds is the greatest barrier to liberating the power of the gospel across the whole of culture today."  

Nancy Pearsey, Total Truth, 20.

Have you ever met a Christian who puts down "book learning" as unimportant and prideful?  I have met plenty.  These folks cloak their ignorance in religious pride.  The result is far from attractive.

Have you ever met a Christian who thinks that unsophisticated people are the greatest problem in the world?  These folks look down on the "little old ladies" of our churches who don't know as much, think as much, or appreciate "truth" as much as they do.  Again, an unattractive form of spirituality.

Both of these rather large groups within the Christian community do great harm to the cause of Christ.  In holding to either the importance of "heart knowledge" or "head knowledge" they have somehow missed the boat of true Christian living.

How?

I think it is primarily because we have not learned how to develop a authentic Christian mind.  We have not been taught even the basics of how to understand and live in this world.

The first basic Truth we should know is that all things were created good.  If we look honestly, the ringing cry of Genesis 1 is God's declaration that what He made is good.  Over and over again, God creates and declares it good.  The final summation of the chapter concludes, "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." (vs. 31)  

What does this mean?  All things were created with an inherent goodness.  This includes humanity that is created in the image of God (vs. 26).  Not just individually but also corporately since male and female together reflect the full image of God.  This means that human interaction and culture was created to be good and to reflect the character of the God who created it.

As a result, we should not neglect nor ignore learning and education.  We should appreciate cultural sophistication and expressions.  To do so, we ignore the good God who created us and the world around us.

The second basic Truth we should know is that all things were infected and effected by the fall.  Genesis 3 details how Adam and Eve turned away from listening to God to listen to their own desires.  At the prompting of the Evil One, they ate of the so called knowledge of the good and evil.  The result is alienation from God (3:10), alienation from others (3:12), alienation from self (3:13), and alienation from all creation (3:16-19).  

These various forms of alienation from the way we were created cause us great pain.  In fact, they are the cause of most of the pain in our world today.  As believers we should affirm this truth.  In love we should declare that the more we move away from our created good the more pain, suffering, and alienation we experience and feel.

We also should affirm the opposite.  The closer we are to our created good, the more harmony, peace, and joy we will experience.  The irony is this is true no matter what.  Even if a person is not a believer, they may walk closer to their created good than others.  As a result, they have more harmony, peace and joy.

In other words, Pearsey is truly onto something in the above quotation.  Believers in Christ should be life affirming people who know how to balance their life of faith with a life in their culture.  We should affirm what is good in our culture and acknowledge what is unhealthy.  We should engage in debate and discussion so we can be informed.

We also should acknowledge that because of sin, all of us need a heart transformation by grace.  Such a transformation propels us to trust in Jesus more and more.  It does not lead to religious pride, but profound trust and rest in God's grace.

May this weekend be marked by a heart open to learning something new from an unexpected source.  May our heart also be marked by a deep-seated trust in God's grace.

Enduring our Present Suffering

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing 

with the glory that will be revealed in us." 

Romans 8:18

I sure wish I always felt like the above statement is true.  In my heart pain during suffering, it is hard to see past my current situation, feelings, pain, or loss to see the coming glory.

Yet, when I do get a glimpse of God's presence, I get a taste of future glory.  Such a taste not only helps me endure, but gives hope.

The problem for me is that a fresh dose of suffering and pain often obscures my vision and taste of God.

Anyway one else have this trouble?

Here is what I have learned about suffering.  In the midst of suffering, I don't even learn that much.  All I can do is endure and search after God's grace.  It takes time and reflection to learn, and in the midst of intense suffering I often lack the strength for reflection.  To claim anything else would be false.

So what does this mean for us?  In the midst of broken relationships that cause so much pain, in the midst of the death or impending death of those we love, in the midst of our bad decisions, how should we deal with suffering?

First, admit to God, yourself, and others that we are suffering.  This is only being honest, and God wants us to be honest with ourselves and others.  Understand that we live in a fallen world marked by suffering.  All of creation "groans as in the pains of child birth" and is subject to "frustration" by the effects of sin.  

We must begin by calling sin, sin.  Sin is much more than our willful actions.  It is missing the mark for the way things should be.  In yourself, in others, and in events confess what has missed the mark of perfection.  Confess what is not according to its created good.  Cry out to God about the pain of separation.   Ask Him to restore and redeem what the consequences of sin have brought about.  We were not created to suffer through separation like death, but God can relate as He and Jesus were separated on the cross as Jesus suffered to do away with sin and death.

Second, remember the gospel.  We have a taste of redemption, adoption, and freedom now in Christ.  One day, He will set all things aright, and we will know in full a restored relationship with God, others, ourselves, and creation.  If you have not believed, repent and accept His love.  Then, hope in the ultimate reality that you belong to Christ.  This life is fleeting.  Eternity is forever.  Pray for grace to "wait patiently" for our final hope.

Third, pray.  This is how the gospel gets applied to our life.  Take time to be before God and ask the Spirit to lead you to pray for what is really needed (8:26-27).  Pray for healing of your soul.  Pray for restoration of broken relationship.  Pray in confession of your sin and the sins of others.  Whatever the cause of the suffering, take time to pray about it.  We were made to live a life of faith.  Prayer is the avenue into an active faith.

So, will this make it all better?  Instantly.  No.  In a week?  Probably not.

Here are some tough questions, what if there is no magic pill that will make everything better?  What if we live in a fallen and messed up world?  What if there is some pain that will mark us for the rest of our life?

How can we deal with this disappointment, injustice, and pain?

The beauty of Jesus and the Word of God is a promise that there will be judgment, healing, and setting of all things right.  It might not happen in this world, but it will be made right in final judgment.

We worship a God that knows our pain, 

keeps our tears in a bottle, 

and loves us so much that He will send comfort now 

and give ultimate comfort later.

So, if you are going through pain and suffering now, keep on going.  Endure.  Seek God's face.  Ask for His grace.  Remember His love.  Trust that He will one day set all things right.

The Spirit's work through Church Planting

"The worst thing that every happened to this church was other church plants."

I remember hearing this sentence uttered by a staff member at a church.  I could not believe it.  How could one believe this to be true?

Well, their church had decreased in attendance and vitality.  It was not as strong as it used to be.  It was showing signs of plateau and decline.  This staff member assumed that the reason was that so many people from the church had left to plant other churches.  A little investigation proved this idea to be untrue.  It ended up that in the past ten years, only one family, from a church that had averaged over 300 in attendance, had left to help "plant a church."

The truth is that Church Planting is the best and most effective way to advance the Kingdom of God.  It renews established churches.  It reaches new people.  It unleashes a whole new group of people for leadership and ministry.

I propose that the Spirit of God is on the move.  The Spirit is propelling believers out of their personal preference, their comfort zones, and their quest for personal piety above all else.  He is calling us to die to self so that we might live for others.  

How?  

Through church planting.  These new churches breathe new life into the body of Christ.  They provide new ideas.  They also are powerfully effective at reaching new, unchurched people.  As Tim Keller states,

“Numerous new churches are the only way to really expand the number of Christians in a city. New churches reach the non-churched far more effectively than longer-existing churches. Dozens of studies confirm that the average new church gains most of its new members from the ranks of people who are not attending any worshipping body, while churches over 10-15 years of age gain 80-90% of new members by transfer from other congregations. This means that the average new congregation will bring new people into the life of the Body of Christ at 6-8 times the rate of an older congregation of the same size. …

Planting lots of new churches is one of the best ways to renew existing churches. New churches bring new ideas to the whole Body. It is the new churches that have freedom to be innovative and they become the ‘Research and Development’ department for the whole Body in the city. …

We firmly believe that the vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for reaching a city. Nothing else–not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, mega-churches, consulting, nor church renewal processes–will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This is an eyebrow raising statement. But to those who have done any study of the subject, it is not even controversial.”

Tim Keller, “Being the Church in our Culture”

So, what do you think?  Is this true?  What does this mean for churches that are 10, 15, 20, 50, and 100 years old?  What does this mean for you?

Nice versus Needy

"A good Christian is always nice."

I can not tell you how often this was expressed in my growing up years by those in my church, youth group, and family.  It did not take long to see that there was some disagreement as to what "nice" means, but there was agreement that Christian people should be nice.

One of the most shocking revelations of my life occurred when I began to read the teachings of Jesus.  I discovered that no where did he command believers to be nice.  Loving, yes.  Nice, not so much.

In fact, I discovered that the goal of my life and the goal of the church was something very different than being a nice person.  The goal was to believe in Jesus as our only hope and then proclaim to all who will hear that Jesus is our only hope.

This does not mean that we are not to be good and honest folks.  Faith in Jesus is not a license to walk in the flesh, the boastful pride of life, and self-serving ways.

But faith in Jesus also doesn't mean that now we have it all together, unlike those unbelievers out there.  There is nothing more antithetical to the Christian faith than such religious pride.  Our faith doesn't make us better than others.  It makes us more aware of our sin and thus our need for God's grace found in Jesus.

In other words,

"A good Christian knows how much they need Jesus, 

and they are growing in their trust in his forgiveness, 

love, and ability to change their heart toward righteousness."

As a result, we don't need to pretend that we are always nice people who have it all together.  We don't want to sit in judgment of others for the sins that could so easily mark our lives.  When we struggle, and we all will, we can confess our sins and our needs to God and others.  As we confess our need for Jesus, we will find His mercy afresh and anew, and as a result we will grow in holiness through heart transformation.  

What an inversion of the message and vision of Christian living that I grew up hearing.  What an inversion of the religious message that often resonates within my heart.  

What do you think?

Practical Implications of Justification by Faith

"Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, 
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  
Through him we have also obtained access by faith 
into this grace in which we stand, 
and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God."

Romans 5: 1-2

What are the practical implications of justification by faith?

The answers to this question should be front and center for every believer.  The apostle Paul dedicated entire letters to this theme.  The Protestant Reformation engaged in a religious dialogue to free people to understand this important concept.  Every revival of the Church is marked by a return to this idea.

Yet, 99% of today's believers have no idea how to answer this question.  I know, I was among this 99% even after finishing seminary.  I still often live like I don't know it.  I find I constantly struggle to justify myself instead of resting in the justifying righteousness merited and then given by Jesus to those who believe.

So, what are the practical implications of justification by faith?

The heart of our faith is a concept called passive righteousness.  It is a righteousness we receive by faith.  It was earned by Jesus and we have absolutely nothing to do with earning it.   

As Luther states, receiving passive righteous found in justification 

is like the ground soaking up the rain.  

The ground brings nothing and does nothing, 

but it receives the rain that falls upon it.  

In the same way, our soul is dry, thirsty ground 

that merely receives the rain of the Spirit that falls by grace.

So what does this mean?

Not only is Luther's illustration vivid, but it is also helpful.  Every time we try to make ourselves look better in the eyes of others by shading the truth or attempting to justify our actions, every time we get angry when we are disrespected, every time we make excuses to prove others are at fault for our failings, we are forgetting that God's grace is abundant to us.  We are attempting to establish our own rightness or righteousness.  

This struggle is really bondage.  It traps us.  It offers false hope.  It always disappoints.  It always demands more of us than we have.

Justification by faith, when properly understood and lived undercuts all of these traps.  It sets us free from the cycle of death that most of us live daily.

In other words, the practical implication of justification by faith is freedom.  

When properly understood and lived, freedom brings joy.

All of us struggle to find and live in our own righteousness.  We do anything we can to maintain our reputation.  We do what we can to prove that we are in the right.  

Justification by faith allows us to confess our failings and our shortcomings.  It allows us to be honest.  It propels us to trust in Jesus alone for our righteousness.

It is also so easy to forget.  Trusting in Christ's justification cuts across the grain of what comes so naturally to us.

In other words, all of us need to preach the gospel of unmerited grace found in Christ to ourselves daily.  This is a message for all.  It levels the ground between believer and unbeliever.  It also points to the common cure- the Lord Jesus Christ.  We need Him.  

Lord have mercy upon us and help us to believe.  We believe Lord, help our unbelief.

Needed: Justification by Faith

Viewed from one perspective, the Protestant Reformation was an effort to remake every sector of the church according to biblical direction.  In another sense, however, the spiritual heart of the Reformation was more simply an effort to rebuild the understanding of the Christian life, incorporating Luther's insight on justification.  The full success of this venture has been repeatedly thwarted by the ease with which sinful people can twist the essential truth of Luther's insight.

On the one hand, justification by faith can be transformed into the wholly unbiblical teaching of justification without sanctification, which Bonhoeffer has called "cheap grace."

On the other hand, Puritan and Pietist efforts to guard against this abuse often led to an admixture of ascetic legalism in the realm of spiritual discipline.  An unbalanced stress on auxiliary methods of assurance- testing one's life by the inspection of works and searching for the internal witness of the Spirit- obscured Luther's teaching on assurance of salvation through naked reliance on the work of Christ.

Later the shift toward rationalism in parts of the church began to obscure the holiness of God and the depth of sin, introducing a moralism which found no use at all for the doctrine of justification.

These three aberrations from the biblical teaching on justification- cheap grace, legalism, and moralism- still dominate the church today.

Richard Lovelace, Dynamics of the Spiritual Life, 100.

Wow, what an insightful paragraph.  I encourage you to read it again slowly.  Think about what you see and experience from believers and the church.  Think about the issues and problems that you know about.  Think about our lack of witness to the grace and power of God.  Why has the Spirit been short-circuited in our lives and the life of our churches?

The Protestant Reformation needs to continue.  We don't need a reformation of manners.  We need a new heart, new Spirit, new start.

Today is a good day to begin.  It is a Monday.  Let's start the week by praying for five minutes for revival.  Pray for yourself, your family, your friends, and your church.  Pray that somehow, someway, the reality of justification by faith would sink deep within.

May this week be a turning point.

Declaring our Faith

"With my mouth I will give thanks to the Lord;

I will praise him in the midst of the throng.

For he stands at the right hand of the needy one."

Ps. 109: 30-31

I have now been a believer in Jesus for about 27 years.  Man does time fly by quickly.  I have heard and seen much as I have walked with Jesus and worked with God's people.  One thing has remained consistent throughout these years.  Many, many believers are scared to death to witness about Jesus to their friends, family, and colleagues.

If I have heard it once, I have heard it a 1000 times,

"I do not feel comfortable telling people about my faith.  

I prefer to let my life witness for me."

Have you ever heard this excuse/reasoning?  Have you ever given it?  I am sure that all of us have at some point.  It has been making the rounds in Christian circles since the time of Jesus.  Let's take a fresh look at this common and at least tacitly accepted thought.

On the face of it, I completely agree.  If our life does not match our witness, then we are by definition a hypocrite.  Our life should be a witness.

Yet, to what are we witnessing?  

Let's look at two common assumptions about ourselves.  My life should reflect good Christian morality.  My life should reflect my relationship with Christ.

While I think these two statements should equate, I do not think they mean the same thing.  I believe that by making them the same, we have made witnessing about Jesus something to which almost no believer feels comfortable.

Why?

What about when I wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and I snap at my family, my co-worker, or myself?  What about the awful muttering that I do under my breath?  What about my struggles with my "hidden hangups and sins"?  How can I witness to truth when my life is not really right?

I believe almost all of us feel these tensions.  We know we do not have it all together.  We have so many struggles.  Witnessing must be for people who have their life together better than we do.  We think that when we get it together, we can witness.

Friends, this is not the way God designed it.

There is another problem with this living good morality equals witnessing of Jesus's saving grace.

What if I do live a life marked by good Christian morality?  (However I define it)  My guess is that my co-workers, family, and friends will think that I am a great guy.  They will think that I really have it all together.  They will think that I am dependable, solid, loving, ... you fill in the blank to what you think you should witness to.

Here's the rub.  Where is Jesus to these people to which I am witnessing?  They like me, but why would I assume they will make the connection that Jesus is the one who made me this way?  If I am honest, which I rarely am, I am witnessing more to my morality, my uprightness, my way of life.  

I also will have to labor hard to maintain my reputation.  I know my secrets.  I know my struggles with living my faith.  I think even if I think this is true, I am still in the same place as the rest of us hypocrites.  Lord have mercy.

What can be done about this?  To what should we witness?

How about cutting through the hypocrisy of witnessing to and through my great (or not so great) morality?

Instead, we undercut the charge of hypocrisy 

by confessing and telling how much we need Jesus 

and how much grace He gives us daily.  

What would happen if I merely confessed this truth?

Something wonderful happens when we bring up the name of Jesus.  When we confess our need for Him and how He is our only hope, the Holy Spirit shows up to confirm what we are saying.  I have also found that when I confess my weakness, people listen to me because they have the same issues and problems. Somehow the Holy Spirit works through the confession of Jesus as our only hope to bring Him all the glory.

In other words, without mentioning Jesus we are not really witnessing about Jesus.  I know that sounds harsh, but it is the truth.

May we repent of our fear and doubt.  May we repent of our self-righteousness and good deeds.  May we humbly declare that Jesus is our only hope and that in Him we find grace and mercy every day.