Give it All

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6

In any given week I find myself traveling throughout much of Stark County and even up to Akron. During these drives I often pass by the local churches and read their signs. There are the standard “Jesus Saves”, then there are the inspirational, and some are even comical, but the one I crossed this week was subtly upsetting.

The sign I read this week read: “Make Jesus part of your 2012”. At first this does not seem like much of an issue. Right? But when you evaluate it further you will find that there is one word that is actually quite disturbing. That word is “part”. See I believe that this is the whole problem with the faith; we all just want Jesus to be a part.

Jesus did not come to Earth and save us from our sins just so He can be a part of our lives. Instead as believers, young and old, Christ is to be our whole life. Remember, in the scripture above, He has begun a good work in you and plans to see it into completion.

God is not some novelty that we pick up on Sunday, or if we are really religious on Wednesday as well. He is meant to be part of our life all the time. When Paul walked the Earth he did not put Jesus down when it was convenient, instead he picked up the cross that much more when it wasn’t. This is how Paul allowed Christ to complete a good work in him.

As we begin this year we each need to look at ourselves and find how we are going allow Christ to have all of us, so that we may have more of Him. They say that you can have too much of a good thing, well they are wrong. You cannot have too much Christ and I challenge you to try.

So in conclusion all I can say is press on for more. Don’t give up with where you are now, for you can always have more. We have yet to come to that time of completion and therefore there is always more to come. Don’t just give Jesus part of 2012, but give Jesus all of 2012.

Garment of Salvation

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness”
Isaiah 61:10

Over the past few years as I have grown in my ministry and relationship with Christ there have been many questions that I have wrestled with. Often times these questions will sprout from curiosity in how my brothers and sisters in Christ relate to the world. Not so much as to what they abstain from, but how they testify and exhort the Word of God.

Anyone who has heard me preach will know that I firmly believe in “Salvation, not Condemnation.” The thought in this phrase is that all to often we attempt to judge or even clean a person up before we share the true glory of Christ. Over the years this has done nothing to advance the Kingdom. Instead it has made the faith into bigotry full of judgment, something Christ Himself taught against.

People often quote John 3:16, yet neglect to read the very next verse where it states that Jesus did not come to condemn but to save. It is true that there is a day of judgment, but that day has not yet come and WE are NOT the judge or even the jury. We have been told to do two things, love God and love others. How is our judgment accomplishing either of those tasks?

In reference to the quoted scripture at the top of this scrawling I want us to take note of the order of things. Isaiah reports that we are first clothed in garments of salvation and then covered in a robe of righteousness. This order is essential for us to understand.

We must first be saved before we can be righteous. Without salvation we cannot even begin to understand righteousness. A well-respected friend once said that the dictionary has very little to say about righteousness, and that is because man has very little to say about righteousness. (Terry, it would appear I listen to you as well). This statement could not be anymore true. The people of the world are incapable of being on or understanding the righteous path because righteousness does not reside in man, but in God.

In summary, what I am leading to is the old idea of “cleaning a person up” or attempting to get them to live a “right life” before they know Christ is fully illogical. Let us first get them to meet our Savior and then let Him wash them. After all did He not wash the feet of His disciples? Is He not willing to cleanse us as well? Let us today reflect on how we share our faith in hope of improving not only others, but ourselves.