The Great Holiday Sin: Loving Those Who Love You

Submitted by Todd Murphy

The holiday season is family time.  In our highly mobile society, we often get time off to fly "home" to see the relatives, etc.  I think this is one of the great opportunities of the Christmas holiday in our society.  In spite of all the marketing, hustle, and materialism, there is still a deep sense of appreciation for the family embedded within it.  At this time of year we often take time to acknowledge and show appreciation for our wives, kids, parents, friends, and others.

However good this is, there is an inherent temptation for sin within it.  It is the sin of partiality and self-centered love.  The holiday season often becomes that time of year where in our rush to do our shopping and get our "list" checked we are often a bit ruder to the people we don't know so we can be a bit nicer to the people we do know.  In our impatience to get and serve the people we immediately value, we are often impatient and devaluing of the people we do not know--like the girl behind the counter, the people in the parking lot, or just anyone who is taking up our precious time.  But look at Jesus' words here in Matthew 5:43-48, You have heard that it was said, 'You should love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.  For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  You therefore must be perfect as you heavenly Father is perfect.  

These words say a lot.  They represent the radically different social and spiritual ethic of Jesus.  For all of us, we have a default posture to side with and protect those whom we know rather than the principles of justice and equality.  But for Jesus, true friendship and godliness is a posture that seeks the best for every person one meets.  Look at verse 46 in particular.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Basically he is asking, if you only love those whom it benefits you to love, what eternal reward do you have coming?  Another way to state this is that if you live with partiality in your relationships, God will condemn you in the judgement day.

I think we can all remember a case back in high school or college where a close friend of ours was in conflict with someone else and we sided with our friend for no other reason than we were their friend.  In fact, we knew they were wrong in the situation but we found ways to rationalize it in our mind.  That is what is called partiality and ultimately injustice.  It is when we put relational capital over actual truth and equity.

This partiality in our relationships is what I call "the great holiday sin."  It is when we are so consumed with showing appreciation of our friends and family that we act impatient, or plain unjust to the people we do not know well.  But let's take this a step further.  After reading this you may this week encounter a person doing exactly this to you in a store, parking lot, etc.  The tendency is to judge them and say, "Oh there is an example of what Todd was talking about."  But the Gospel is more radical than that.  The act of judging that impatient or perhaps cruel person who is being rude to us is the same sin.  Remember Jesus' words above call us to love our enemies.  What he is saying is that we are not called to merely be kind, patient, and loving to those who treat us well, but those who mistreat us.  That means that when someone this Christmas season hurrying to get homes gives you the turtle dove we call "the bird," acting without partiality is to not merely turn the other cheek, but to bless them, pray for them, and if possible, apologize for being in their way.  Thrust me, that will take a lot more spiritual discipline than doling out what you think they deserve.  Jesus' words are pretty radical: But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.  Let's live as sons of our Father in heaven this season.

Ora et Labora

Submitted by Larry Doornbos

There is a saying that floats around the Christian community that deals with work and prayer.  The saying is "When we work, we work; when we pray, God works."  I've been thinking about this statement the last couple of weeks for a number of reasons including the hit that North American churches often take for not being prayerful enough or as someone somewhere said, "It's amazing what American churches can get done without prayer" (this was not said positively).

So is it true that when we work, we work, but when we pray God works?  As far as I can tell this statement is based on faulty theology and faulty piety.  The idea that when we work, we work completely misses the truth of the scriptures that when we work it is God who is at work through us.  Jesus makes it clear in John 15: 1-5, I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  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.  You are already clean because of the work I have spoken to you.  Remain in me and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  

Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, and Ephesians 4 when he speaks of our being given gifts by the Spirit to carry out the work of God in the world.  Romans 10: 11-15 speaks of the powerful way that God works through people when it insists, As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame."  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord is the Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on Him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."  How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?  And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?  And how can the hear without someone preaching to them?  And how can they preach unless they are sent?  As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"  God works through us to bring His message to the world, to renew communities in ways that reflect His coming kingdom, and so much more.

Now some may argue that we go off in our own power to do these things, while in prayer we rely on the power of God to do things.  It is true we can go off trying to do things in our own power, but Jesus tells us that these things will not bear fruit.  Our fruit comes from our connection with God.  In another sense we could say something similar about prayer.  Our prayers can be just as insincere and focused on accomplishing our goals rather than God's goals as when we try to get things done on our own.

There is also in the "when we work, we work; when we pray, God works" idea a faulty piety.  It holds that a truly pious person prays, while the less pious person just works.  But nowhere that I can think of do we find that prayer is held up as a more spiritual position and action than working for the kingdom.  Indeed, when one reflects on the life of a pious person a picture of work is often at the forefront.  From the "Noble Woman" of Proverbs 31 to the call to Do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God to Paul's words in 1 Timothy 2:9-10, ...likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what  is proper for women who profess godliness--with good works...we find that a pious person works.

Certainly prayer and piety go together, prayer and godliness go together, but more importantly prayer and work go together.  The Latin phrase has it right, "Ora et Labora," pray and work.  The two are a package and through them God does His work in the world.  To lift prayer (or work) above the other truncates God's desire for a full-orbed life.

How Then Should We Pray?

Submitted by Rod Hugen

Many years ago when my two sons were young, I received a huge Christmas bonus --far more than I deserved --  and decided to take the boys to the toy store and let them get their heart's desire.  We sat in the car in front of the store and I explained to them that they could have anything they wanted no matter how expensive it was.  All they needed to do was point at it and I would buy it for them.  They looked pretty skeptical but were excited at the prospect.  We walked into the store and began to look around.  They would point at "action figures - each old separately" and other inexpensive items and look at me quizzically.  I would tell them they could have something far better than that if they wanted.  I expected them to want me to buy the most expensive bicycle or some hugely expensive electronic game, but in the end they settled for things only slightly more expensive than what I would have normally purchased for them.  I was horribly dissapointed that my kids didn't dare take advantage of my generosity.  I was thinking about that as Andy, Moses, and I were talking about our charge to keep prayer before this group.  The question is: Do I dare to ask God for the seemingly impossible?

At the Village we have a prayer practice that I have come to love.  We pray like this at our elder meetings and our monthly leadership meetings as well as inviting the entire congregation to do so at our quarterly "drumming circles" (probably better known to others as a congregational meeting).  It has been a powerful way for our community to pray.

First, we take fifteen minutes in which we ask our Father for anything we dare to ask and in which we also spend time acknowledging Him as our Dad.  We treat Him the way our kids treated us when they were little and believed we could do anything they asked.  We try not to limit our expectations of what God can or will do; we simply ask for our heart's desire.  I want Kelsea to get out of her wheelchair and walk despite the fact that she is paralyzed from the waist down.  I want my little sister who suffers from cerebral palsy to be healed.  I want hundreds of new churches to be planted in Tucson and I want them all to succeed in huge ways.  I want Tucson to be a God fearing city.  We ask for things like that.  We tell God that He is rich,  powerful, and wonderful and He can do it if it pleases Him to do it.  A lot of times we find ourselves trying to decide what God might be able to do for us.  We point at action figures, "each sold separately," and wonder if God is big enough to give us that.  When we catch ourselves doing that we stop and confess our doubt and then ask for what we really want.  We ask with the full knowledge that He might say no, but we try not to assume what things He will say no to since we don't really know.  It is difficult to ask for your heat's desire because you don't want to be disappointed.  It takes a lot of courage to speak out our longings.

After we have spent time asking our Dad for our longings we spend fifteen minutes asking Jesus to lead us in God's mission in this world.  We treat Jesus as our Big Brother.  Our Big Brother is always smarter than us and he knows all kinds of things we don't know.  We know that Jesus is the perfect Big Brother and that he is in charge of the mission and we ask him what he would like us to do to help advance the mission.  I ask him what he would like me to do or say to Enid, my wonderful Jewish widowed next door neighbor.  I ask him if he wants me to eat at a different restaurant or find a new barber.  I ask him to give me opportunities to share the good news of what he has done with co-workers and friends.  I don't presume to know what he has in mind so I just bring as many of my acquaintances, friends, and family members as I can think of before him and ask him what he'd like me to do with them or say to them and that I know that he knows best what to do.  I ask him to teach me what I need to know to be more like him.

After we spend fifteen minutes talking to Jesus as our Big Brother, we spend fifteen minutes where we are very quiet.  We begin by asking the Spirit to come to us and to speak to us and to let us know Dad's heart.  and our Brother's desires.  We grab our Bibles, pen and paper or iPads, and take notes on whatever we "hear."  We listen carefully for what we think God might be saying to us.  We take notes and look up Scripture passages that come to mind and remain as silent as possible.  God might bring a verse, a picture, or a phrase to our minds.  Whatever it is we write it down, even if it doesn't make sense to us in the moment.  We assume the Spirit is speaking to God on our behalf and that the Spirit will also speak to us.  Our job is to listen as best we can.

The final fifteen minutes we share with each other what we think we have heard.  We read our "lists" to each other.  It always amazes me the themes that arise during this time.  When our community was struggling with sharing the gospel with friends, five of our twelve leaders all wrote down Luke 12:11-12, When you are brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say. (NIV)  Others had written down phrases like, "Don't be afraid," or "Speak boldly."  It was a beautiful reminder to our community leaders to trust God for the right words at the right time.  It touched some of our sinful demand to have circumstances be "just right" before we share the gospel.  Regularly praying like this has been informational for me and for our community.

With an hour gone, we scatter with the full knowledge that God is our Dad who can do anything, Jesus is our Brother who will lead us in the mission, and that the Spirit has and will speak to us as we follow along.

Farm Systems

Submitted by Randy Rowland

I am writing from Nashville, TN as I offer this thought.  Bob Logan, a seminal thinker in church planting, is in front of me speaking.  He has just finished making the case about what to focus on in our church planting networks.  I was pleasantly surprised that he said our number one focus ought to be FARM SYSTEMS.  The lack we have for the Harvest is not a money shortage, it's a leadership shortage.  We can recruit leaders from all over at high cost and high risk.  On the other hand, we can develop leaders from within our missional contests at low risk, low cost, and high reward because we have seen these leaders in action and in context.  Are we working hard in our Clusters and Churches to develop leadership in a magnetic farm system that produces major league professionals beginning with conversion or a vocational "aha!" moment into local involvement, further ministry preparation or credentialing toward being a missional point leader?  If we are indeed serious about a Reformed Multiplication Movement being ignited by the Spirit within the CRCNA, we would be well served to consider starting solid farm teams for local leadership development to go along with out historically strong systems of seminary graduates from afar as the only source of leadership.

Prayer

Submitted by Andy Sytsma


Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  As we celebrate God's many good gifts to us, I'm thankful to Him for each of you and out time in Denver recently.  It was good to be together and sense the Spirit's leading to ignite a missional movement in the CRC and beyond.


Rod, Moses, and I connected recently to talk about how to promote prayer, both individually and together in our clusters.  Here's one tool that Rod made us aware of.  The talk is by J. Edwin Orr called "The Role of Prayer in Spiritual Awakening."  This talk was given over 30 years ago but is still relevant for today.  He traces the history of revival in America and other places and reminds us of Jonathan Edwards' plea for "concerted and united prayer."


He starts out his talk with a quote by A. T. Pierson that says, "There has never been a spiritual awakening in any county or locality that did not begin in united prayer."  Do you believe this?  What are you doing to play your part in united prayer?  For myself, I've been praying individually for God to move and am praying this every day.  But the praying together piece is still an area I need to grow in.  Next week, we're officially launching the Houston Cluster and we'll be starting with a foundation of prayer.  Pray for us and we'll pray for you!


Rod, Moses, and I are committed to keep this burden of prayer in front of us.  Let's keep this sense of urgency strong!  In the mean time, encourage each other with stories and testimonies of His grace.  Happy Thanksgiving again, and may God richly bless you and give you an extra measure of His grace and peace.

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