For those who are older in faith, teachableness remains a true mark of spiritual maturity. I still read my Bible daily, not necessarily to learn new facts or doctrines. The power of Scripture for me is usually in the reminder. The Spirit of Jesus uses what I read to keep me focused on the journey, by pointing out things I need to give attention to or work on.

As an illustration of this, I awoke this morning, poured my coffee and sat down with my Bible, then read Romans 15:1-3 where Paul writes: “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: ‘The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.’”

Three times, Paul mentions the idea of ‘not pleasing ourselves’, and how we need to overcome this bent of our hearts. And it’s true. When we wake up in the morning, our first thought is generally not, “Gee, what can I do today to bless someone else?” Pleasing ourselves is usually priority one. Getting the coffee cup in my hand. Getting breakfast in my belly. Setting up my day with my list of the things I’m going to do for me. I’m no different than anyone else.

But something happened in me as I mused on God’s Word for ten minutes (it doesn’t necessarily take long for the Bible to begin to work its magic on us if we read it receptively.) How to describe it? I felt a softening of my heart. An easing of the gnarliness I woke with. A rekindling of desire for God and for others. A willingness to look at my day through new eyes. I remembered, “Hey, it’s Valentines’ Day, and I have a wife and daughter to bless, among others that I care for.”

Now I’ve read Romans 15 dozens of times. And there’s nothing new that I learned in reading that one paragraph. I know that my Lord calls me to follow his example in serving others. There was no big epiphany there. But the worldliness and sin inside of me is relentless, and it doesn’t take long for all that ugliness to squeeze back into the driver’s seat of my heart. Then I open the Word of God, and the Spirit of God begins to take what I read, and gently (sometimes gently) whispers his grace and truth over my heart. Hopefully, by the time I’m done, I’ve offered the driver’s seat back over to Jesus.

But none of this would happen if I didn’t take the time to sit down and open up a Bible on my lap.

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit…it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” ~ Hebrews 4:12-13

Happy Valentines Day!

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

Paul is sharing with his readers what motivates him as an apostle and leader. He knows that a day is coming when he will stand before his Lord and give an accounting for his life, and the work of his life. But he’s not the only one who will stand there. He tells the Corinthians in his second letter to them: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good of bad.”(2 Cor.5:10)

But wait! you might say. I thought Jesus took my judgment on the cross, and that I never had to face that moment. That’d I’d just be ushered through the pearly gates, and wouldn’t have to remove my shoes or take out my laptop. That the angels would come and straightaway give me a hot towel, and serve me a drink.

But Paul says “the Day will bring it to light,” what sort of man or woman you were on the earth. It is true – there is something you will not have to face on the day of judgment. If you are a true child of God, a true follower of Jesus Christ, you will not have to face the wrath of God. Jesus bore that away for you. You will not have to hear Jesus say, “Depart from me, I do not know you.” No weeping and gnashing of teeth for you. You are saved by grace, through faith in his blood; not one work you do earns heaven for you. But faith is meant to put you on that journey of moving you from worldliness to Christlikeness. The seed of faith is meant to lead to the fruit of a changed and changing life.

You are going to lock eyes with Jesus, and in that look, your life will be examined for the fruit it has bore. And unless you begin to take more thought to that Day, there’s probably something else you will not hear from Jesus. Oh, he’ll bid you to enter, he’ll embrace you with his love and grace. But I want to see it in his eyes, that my life and the way I lived it, mattered. And that it made him smile. How I want to hear him say those words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” I’m not sure every Christian who crosses the threshold of heaven will hear those words.

“He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” I don’t know of too many Christians who claim those words as their “Life-Verse” if you know what I mean. Before this day ends, take a few minutes to ponder that Day.

Since Christians are people who are on a journey between worldliness and Christlikeness, how do we make progress on this journey? In reading through Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, one idea has become obvious: to overcome worldliness I must be teachable. If you have a child who is acting and thinking childishly, and you want them to begin behaving in a more mature fashion, what do you do? Sorry – medicate them is not the correct answer. Educate them, now we’re talking.

So here are the Corinthians thinking in a worldly fashion about its leaders. In the “world”, the usual order of things is for leaders to pull rank and lord it over those beneath them. Leaders in the world love their power and popularity. It’s all quite ugly, the way the world handles power and leadership. And the Corinthians were looking at influential church leaders from a worldly vantage point.

But in the kingdom of God, this is not the way leadership works. Jesus said, rather than lording it over others, a leader in his kingdom serves others. In the world, people fight to get noticed, and rush to get to the front of the line. But Jesus said, when you go to a party, sit down at the least seat around the table. And when you host a party, don’t invite the people who will make you look good, but invite those who can’t pay you back. Humble yourself, and then you will be exalted. So how do we learn to adopt these attitudes? We have to be taught it first. Which is what Paul is doing in writing the Corinthians a letter. He is instructing them in the art of Christlikeness.

Are you connecting some dots on why sermons are such a central part of our worship services, and why we tirelessly promote our Sunday School, and clamor about being in your youth groups, and LIFE groups, and learning how to read your Bibles daily? If we’re going to move closer to Christlikeness, then submitting to teaching is critical.

For those who are young in faith, teachableness is essential because you are still steeped in worldly thinking, and you must learn the doctrines and behavior of life in God’s kingdom.

For those who are older in faith, teachableness remains a true mark of spiritual maturity. I still read my Bible daily, not necessarily to learn new facts or doctrines (though it’s amazing how many times I gain new insights from revisiting a passage I’ve already read dozens of times before.) The power of Scripture for me is usually in the reminder. The Spirit of Jesus uses what I read to keep me focused on the journey, by pointing out things I need to give attention to or work on.

Some of our most deeply rooted sins and our foulest rebellion is not brought to the surface by God until much further down the road of our Christian journey. We think when we are young in faith that our chief sins to overcome are swearing, or losing our temper or looking at erotic images. But those sins just hang out on the surface. Wait till the Lord starts peeling back the layers of your heart. You ain’t seen anything yet. (Remember the “Alien” movies? You never were quite done with the monster were you?)

And we’re never quite done with the monster of our sin nature. So we must remain teachable, until that moment when we see Jesus face to face. Only then will our journey be completed (1 John 3:2).

Some questions to consider today: 1. Am I teachable? 2. What Bible book or spiritual topic am I studying in Scripture at present? (Every believer should have a ready answer when asked that question.) 3. What areas in my life is the Spirit of God working on at present? (e.g. my temper, my pride, my finances, my X-box, my depression, my…) 4. Am I sharing my journey by regular participation in a LIFE group? (Get a LIFE…Group!)

2 Cor.3:17 – “And we who…reflect the Lord’s glory are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Jesus’ death on the cross not only provides forgiveness for our sins, but the power to overcome our sins. The Bible calls the forgiveness “justification”. It’s a radical declaration by God that he no longer views us as rebels deserving judgment but as sons and daughters who belong to him. The Bible calls the overcoming of sin “sanctification”. This is a lifelong journey –  that will not be completed until the moment we see Jesus face-to-face – a journey in which we are so led by his Spirit, fed by His Word, and wed to His church that we begin to act like, and think like Jesus.

There are two great errors that many Christians make when it comes to ‘sanctification’. There are Christians who deny the journey altogether. They think that because they said some ‘sinner’s prayer’ ages ago that they are ‘in’. Never mind that their life hasn’t change one stitch since then, and they’re just as worldly and sinful as they were before. A good case can be made that such people are not even saved to begin with. People banking on a prayer they made who then never attempt to back up that prayer with a changing life are deceiving themselves. Faith alone saves us, but it’s a faith that is shown by a repentant heart that yearns to be made new. The reality of one’s justification is proven by the desire for sanctification.

There is a second error some Christians make. It’s believing that the journey of sanctification is quick and painless. All they need to do is let Jesus in, start talking the lingo and acting spiritual – read my Bible and go to church – and voila! I’m changed. If my heart is bleeding with all sorts of wounds from my past, I don’t have to face those hurts, because Jesus will magically take them away. If I never learned how to love others well, or grew up selfish, or fearful or addicted or controlling – Jesus will make it all go away with a wave of his hand. But the truth is, this transformation that Jesus would bring does not occur overnight, and it is very painful. Jesus said it’s like having to take up a cross every single day and dying to yourself.

To be changed requires brutal honesty, digging up the roots of my sin, facing my past (and God’s Word is the scalpel in the Spirit’s hand to perform this surgery), then one by one bringing the individual hurts that Jesus reveals to me to the Cross. I must name the ‘demons’ in my life, then confess my sins and hurts to God (and others also), and then allow Jesus to teach me how to live differently through his Word and through the godly people in the church.

To deny the long and difficult road of sanctification leads to hypocrisy and the wearing of masks – something which many Christians become very proficient at. “How are you brother?” “Couldn’t be better, glory to God! And you?” “Life’s just one blessing after another, praise Jesus!” But Jesus isn’t a coat of varnish to put over the rickety building of your soul. He wants to tear down the building to the studs and rebuild it from the inside out. The joy and freedom Jesus promises his followers can be had no other way.

We sometimes think to ourselves, “Man, wouldn’t it be great to go back and time and be a part of the 1^st-century church? They really had their act together.” And then lo and behold, we learn that no, they were just as flawed as we are, and they struggled with the same sort of problems that twist us up in knots today. Exhibit A is the congregation in Corinth.

Why is this? we think to ourselves. I thought the church was supposed to be somehow different, and better. Well, it’s because churches are made up of people who are each on the journey between worldliness and Christlikeness. A real church is different, unlike any other organization within a society. And to say it is ‘just as messed up’ as everything else isn’t accurate. Messed up, sure. Because it’s made up of messed up people. But here’s what should be different about us. We messed up people in the church have committed ourselves to a journey of growth and change. We’ve met a person named Jesus Christ, who we believe is God come to earth, and this God saw how messed up we were, and how much we were hurting each other because of it, so he came to earth and died for us so that we could be forgiven of our mess, and now this God-man named Jesus has come into our lives through his Spirit with the promise that from here on out, if we would follow him and do what he said, he would help us to live new lives – lives that would look like, in time, his own life. But to get to this point where we stop hurting others and start loving them instead requires a journey. The change doesn’t happen overnight. Yes, we’re given the Spirit of Christ, but his Spirit doesn’t override our spirits. We need to learn how to walk with his Spirit. Yes, we’re given the mind of Christ, but he doesn’t give us a lobotomy and take out our minds. We need to learn to think differently than we did before.

There’s a learning curve in Christianity. We begin, spiritually speaking as infants, and then must grow up. We are “saved” (there’s part of this that is a done deal.) But we are also “being saved”. When you come to Christ your sins are forgiven, you become a child of God, you are an heir with Christ, you are assured of eternity with him. Never doubt it. But then there is a part of this that is a work in progress. These sins that we are forgiven of, we now need to unlearn, and let go of. We begin worldly, living as though God isn’t there – and move toward Christlikeness, where God comes first, and Jesus’ love gets poured into us. Paul put it this way in his second letter to the Corinthians. 2 Cor.3:17 – “And we who…reflect the Lord’s glory are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

Are you experiencing the ‘journey’ part of faith? Can you look back to areas in your life which Jesus has transformed or healed? And what areas of life is he working on in you today? (If you can’t name any, then you’ve either stopped growing, or are in denial.) Take off you masks and stop pretending that you have it all together. Joy and freedom await those believers who can say yes to the mess.

“Do not love the world or anything in the world,” warns the apostle John in 1 John 2:15. He could have been thinking of Jesus’ words about the world which John recorded in his gospel (John 15:18-19): “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first…You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world.” James gave this thought a slightly different twist. “Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God” (James 4:4).  Paul’s friend Demas abandoned Paul“because he loved the world.” (2 Tim.4:10). With so much at stake for our spiritual lives, it’s essential that we are clear on what ‘worldliness’ is.

We’ve already ruled out the idea that worldliness is doing “earthly” things. Things like going to movies, enjoying a nice dinner, falling in love, etc. The Bible is clear that the good things of earth are blessings from God, and are to be enjoyed in gratitude to Him (1 Timothy 4:4). Demas’ problem wasn’t that he liked ice cream, or enjoyed an occasional round of golf. What was it?

How about if we phrase it like this: Worldliness is living as though this world is the most important thing – or the only thing – in life.  Paul told the Corinthians that whatever they do, they should do it for the glory of God (1 Cor.10:31). How about if we phrase it like this: Worldliness is any thought, any behavior, any attitude that conflicts with or diminishes God’s glory.

As Christians, we believe that reality extends beyond this world; it transcends what we can actually see, hear and touch. There is another reality, another realm or kingdom, beyond this one. Furthermore, we believe that this other reality or kingdom is greater than the world which we see. Jesus made it clear that to live this life well, we must seek God’s kingdom first (Matt.6:33). The moment we start living as though this world trumps the other world, guess what? We’ve become worldly. We are now hating God. We are now diminishing His glory.

This is no small matter. Jesus made it clear that the beliefs and values of those who think this world is the most important thing are a million miles away from the beliefs and values of those who seek God’s kingdom first. “What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight,” he said (Luke 16:15). The world views leadership and power differently that Jesus does. The world says it’s about putting yourself forward, crushing those ahead of you, and pulling rank over those beneath you. Jesus says it’s about being a servant, and putting others first, particularly the weakest ones. The world views money differently than Jesus does. Jesus and the world clash over sex and marriage, how to get heaven, how to treat your enemies, what to think of misfortune and death, and a thousand other things. You just cannot serve the world and God simultaneously. It’s impossible. You must choose one or the other. Demas couldn’t handle the tension and buckled. He chose the world’s pleasure and security and approval over God’s.

How about you today? Which has the strongest grip on your heart: the temporary world you can see, or the eternal kingdom you cannot see? It’s no small question. As was once said to Indiana Jones: choose wisely.

If you’re new to Grace Baptist (you’ve been coming for a year or less), you are invited to hang out after church for a pizza luncheon, from 12:15-1:00pm. We want to get to know you a little better, and share with you what’s on our hearts for the future of Grace. We’ll meet in our Fellowship Hall.

“Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly – mere infants in Christ.” (1 Cor.3:1). This was Paul’s assessment of the Corinthian church when he heard they were fighting over which apostle was greater than the others. It’s important as followers of Christ that we are clear on what it means to be ‘worldly’.

I’ve heard things like the following said over the years: “You need to take some of your TV time – which is so worldly – and pray instead, because that’s spiritual behavior.”  “If you see James Taylor in concert, that’s worldly. If you go see Chris Tomlin, now that’s spiritual.”  “Going to church – that’s spiritual. Having a Super Bowl party after church – that’s worldly.” I was told in college by the church I was attending that pursuing a journalism degree was a worldly pursuit. And if I dared skip a church meeting to focus on my studies (and we were having church meetings all the time) well then I wasn’t being spiritual. Because to be spiritual is to do spiritual things (i.e. religious stuff), and to be worldly is to do things that are earthy, physical, fleshly.

But this can’t be what worldliness is. Paul would later write to his friend Timothy, “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.” (1 Timothy 4:4) “Everything God created”. Think of what that includes:  food, music, romance, sports, gardening, education, rebuilding engines, carpentry, writing, astronomy, fitness, you name it – Paul says we ought to thank God for such things and enjoy them. Later on in 1 Corinthians, Paul will say to the Corinthians, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” ‘Whatever you do.’ So worldliness cannot mean doing worldly things (non-religious) as opposed to spiritual things (religious). What is it then? I think a clue for what it means to be worldly is found in this last verse. “Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” Mull this sentence over today, and see if you can come up with a working definition for what ‘worldliness’ is.

Now get back to whatever worldly thing you were doing before you read this spiritual devotional.

The more I have thought through the cross of Jesus Christ over the years, the more I have come to marvel at how absolutely astounding it is. It speaks the truth to us on so many levels.

The cross tells us the truth about human depravity. The cross shows me my true nature – that I am sinful, selfish beyond repair, deserving of judgment and in need of redemption. Many would protest this point. “Oh, but human beings are basically good.” That humans are capable of goodness – of course! We are created in the image of God. But to say that human beings are basically or essentially good is a delusion. Take away the police for one week, and we’d become the “Lord of the Flies” in a heartbeat. A moment of honest reflection while looking in the mirror and you know what is in you.

Secondly, the cross tells us the truth about human inability. If God must come to earth and do this for me, then I cannot save myself. If there is the possibility of redemption for me, then it’s not in me to find it. It must come to me from outside of myself. Someone else must open the door for me.

Thirdly, the cross tells us the truth about the full extent of our trouble. If this is the remedy – a man dying a brutal death on a splintered Roman cross – then I’m not in just a little bit of trouble. I don’t need just a little spit and polish and I’ll be set right again. No, ifthis is the remedy, then my true condition must be one of utter desperation, utter lostness.

Fourth, and this might seem counter-intuitive to the first three points we’ve made but it’s not. The cross tells us how valuable a human being is to God and how much he must love us. If God would go this far to save me, suffer all of this to rescue me, than how must I must be worth to him.

Don’t get side-tracked by the barbarism of the cross – the point of our salvation is that Christ the Messiah had to die. His perfect life exchanged for my rebellious life. It’s the only way I could be given forgiveness and freedom. Take time today to “survey the wondrous cross.”