18 Quotes on Vocation

The doctrine of vocation is one of my favorite doctrines and one that I would suggest is often overlooked when it comes to significant theological concepts.  While justification was certainly the central rallying point of the reformation, the doctrine of vocation was one that came with it.  While justification referred to the vertical relationship between man and God, vocation referred to man’s relationship with the world around him.

Because I love the doctrine of vocation, I am often reading and writing about it and have over time acquired a list of quotes that I think are significant to consider when talking about God’s calling.

18 Quotes on Vocation

1. “The maid who sweeps here kitchen is doing the will of God just as much as the monk who prays – not because she may sing a Christian hymn as she sweeps but because God loves clean floors.  The Christian shoemaker does his Christian duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.” - attributed to Martin Luther

2. "To pour beer for the glory of God is pretty simple: offer a smile and be friendly to whoever saunters up to the bar, give suggestions for a good draught, and when you pour tilt the glass at 45°, make sure the beer isn’t pouring too deep in the glass, bring the pint upright for the final pour and make sure the head isn’t more than an inch-deep. If you overflow, wipe the sides down and flash a smile as you slide the drink across to the customer. Say, “Cheers.” Take a swig of your own brew. Repeat." - Ken Chitwood

3.“The church’s approach to intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours and to come to church on Sundays.  What the church should be telling him is this:  That the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.” - Dorothy L Sayers

4. "What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels…God with all his angels and creatures is smiling - not because the father (or mother) is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith.” - Martin Luther

5. “A woman told me about getting involved in a Bible study that demanded strict commitment to the study of God’s Word.  ‘You should make the Bible your number one priority,’ she was told.  That meant getting up early and the very first thing in the morning doing Bible reading and having a quiet time with the Lord.  She did this, but to her consternation every morning as she would start to read her Bible, the baby would wake up.  She found herself resenting the interruption.  Here she was, trying to spend time with God, and the baby would start fussing, demanding to be fed and distracting her attention away from spiritual things.  After a while, though, she came to understand the doctrine of vocation.  Taking care of her baby was what God, at that moment, was calling her to do.  Being a mother and loving and serving her child was her vocation, her divine calling from the Lord.  She could read the Bible later.  She did not have to feel guilty that she was neglecting spiritual things; taking care of her baby is a spiritual thing!” - Gene Veith, God at Work

6. “God doesn’t need our good works, but our neighbor does.” - Gustaf Wingren

7. “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” — Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC

8. “Everyone will be forgotten, nothing we do will make any difference, and all good endeavours, even the best, will come to naught.  Unless there is God. If the God of the Bible exists, and there is a True Reality beneath and behind this one, and this life is not the only life, then every good endeavour, even the simplest ones, pursued in response to God's calling, can matter forever.”  - Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor

9. "When we reduce the notion of “calling” to work inside the church, we fail to equip our people to apply their Christian faith to everything they do, everywhere they are." -Tullian Tchividjian

10. "If you find yourself in a work by which you accomplish something good for God, or the holy, or yourself, but not for your neighbor alone, then you should know that that work is not a good work. For each one ought to live, speak, act, hear, suffer, and die in love and service for another, even for one's enemies, a husband for his wife and children, a wife for her husband, children for their parents, servants for their masters, masters for their servants, rulers for their subjects and subjects for their rulers, so that one's hand, mouth, eye, foot, heart and desire is for others; these are Christian works, good in nature." - Martin Luther, Adventspostille 1522

11. "God himself will milk the cows through him whose vocation that is." - Martin Luther

12. "When I go into a restaurant, the waitress who brings me my meal, the cook in the back who prepared it, the delivery men, the wholesalers, the workers in the food-processing factories, the butchers, the farmers, the ranchers, and everyone else in the economic food chain are all being used by God to “give me this day my daily bread.”" - Gene Veith

13. "All our work in the field, in the garden, in the city, in the home, in struggle, in government-to what does it all amount before God except child's play, by means of which God is pleased to give his gifts in the field, at home, and everywhere? These are the masks of our Lord God, behind which he wants to be hidden and to do all things." - Martin Luther

14. "In the long term I think being a preacher, missionary, or leading a Bible study group in many ways is easier. There is a certain spiritual glamour in doing it, and what we should be doing each day is easier to discern more black and white, not so gray. It is often hard to get Christians to see that God is willing not just to use men and women in ministry, but in law, in medicine, in business, in the arts. This is the great shortfall today.” - Dick Lucas

15. "You have worth apart from your work and that frees you to work for all that it is worth." - Matt Popovits

16. "Work is not primarily a thing one does to live but the thing one lives to do. It is, or it should be, the full expression of the worker’s faculties, the thing in which he finds spiritual, mental and bodily satisfaction, and the medium in which he offers himself to God."—Dorothy Sayers

17. "The book of Genesis  leaves us with a striking truth-work was part of paradise." - Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavor

18. "God is busy about his work in the midst of your work whether you realize it or not.  The laundry, the spreadsheets, the phone calls, and the cups of coffee are all deeply spiritual because God is at work in the world. He is serving your family, your coworkers, and your community through the work you do.  God is at work providing “daily bread” through the work that you do, no matter what that work is.” - my guest post at Liberate.org

Do you have any other favorites on the topic of vocation?  What are they?

Addiction: Leaving The Vomit Behind

Have you ever wondered what causes a dog to return to its own vomit?  It’s quite disturbing.  What in the world would make any creature return to the very thing that moments early made them sick to their stomach. In Proverbs 26:11 it says, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.”

As humans, we often act just like the dogs, returning to the very things that make us sick.  And this isn’t just reserved for a few of us who deal with addiction.  We all deal with addiction.  If we are honest, we will all find sins that we habitually return to that over time seem to own us.

Today, I’m excited to announce the launch of a new eBook.  I’ve spent the past couple months editing, designing, and putting together: Addiction: Leave Your Vomit Behind so I could give it away on the blog for free.  This is the second eBook I’ve made, the first one has nearly hit the 1,000 download mark!

Update: This eBook is no longer available for free but can be found on Amazon for the low price of $2.99. 

Here’s what some readers have been saying about the book so far:

"Love this book on a topic that we don't know enough about in the Church today. The subject matter connects through Scripture and effectiveness. This would be a great help to any ministry."-Paul Spurlin, AdventuresInMinistry.com

"This concise, powerful book pounds home the fact that addicts of all kinds are imprisoned as slaves with our only hope being a Divine Rescuer. An incredible, practical treatise on how true freedom can be found!" - Nobel Macaden

"This book is a powerful example for the follower of Christ, that addiction does not have the last word. There is freedom and hope to be had at the foot of the Cross. Where there was addiction, guilt, and shame, there is now worship of God, love, and forgiveness. This is a must-read for every single follower of Christ." - Ben Marshall, Director of Youth and College at Calvary Baptist Church, Holland, MI

How to get your copy

Addiction: Leave Your Vomit Behind is available on Kindle version of the book available if you prefer that format for only $2.99.

Earning the Right to Be Heard

“Preach the Gospel; use words if necessary.”  - attributed to St. Francis of Assissi

This well-intentioned phrase gets used all the time. And it’s not exactly accurate.  Because how else do you preach the Gospel?  Words are always necessary.  You can speak the words.  You can write the words.  You can sign the words.  You can film the words. But words are always necessary in the preaching of the Gospel.

But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” - Romans 10:14-15

You have an incredible calling as a Christian - to bring the good news to all people.  Bring the Good News to your homes, your neighborhoods, your communities, your schools, and your workplaces.  As a Christian it is your job to bring the Gospel to those who need to hear the message of the Gospel. Your job is to be a missionary translating the Gospel into the language of the people in your worlds.

But what do you do when no one’s listening? 

Preach the Gospel.  Use words.  But you don’t want to be that lone guy on a  street corner shouting and hoping people “turn or burn.”  You don’t want to be a jerk that is seen as another “one of those Christians” who are hateful and don’t care about me.

We assume that if we can just get the idea across, then it will be up to the person to respond, whether we do it correctly or not. Maybe we also think that in order to get God’s approving glance, it’s our duty to share “truth,” even if our modus operandi is “Obnoxious for Jesus . . . and loving it.” - Hugh Halter, the Tangible Kingdom

We are called to preach the Gospel, and this always requires words.  But in order to preach the Gospel, we also have to earn the right to be heard.

How do we earn the right to be heard?

Earning the right to be heard might seem complicated, but it’s really not complicated.  Jesus sums up the entire Law in the commands to “Love God” and “Love others.”  In loving others, we are earning the right to be heard.  As we love our neighbors - whether that be in our own homes, our schools, or our neighborhoods - we are making relational connections that provide opportunities to share the Gospel.

Can the Gospel be shared and effective apart from relationship?  Absolutely!  But this isn’t the primary way we should be operating if we are trying to live as missionaries in our cities.  Missionaries get to know their city by being present in the city and loving those in the city, not by flying in and dropping off some tracts.

Be present.

Richard Ford said, “When people realize they’re being listened to, they tell you things.”  This is something that only happens in the context of relationships.  When we are present in people’s lives and listen to their stories, we also start to learn about them.  We learn their passions, their fears, their pains, their suffering, and their joy.

When Lazarus dies, we see this in Jesus.  He weeps.  He sits their with the family and cries.  His presence communicates something.  He actually cares.

“There is also a time to simply become part of the very fabric of a community and to engage in the humanity of it all. Furthermore, the idea of presence highlights the role of relationships in mission. If relationship is the key means in the transfer of the gospel, then it simply means we are going to have to be directly present to the people in our circle...one of the profound implications of our presence as representatives of Jesus is that Jesus actually likes to hang out with the people we hang out with. They get the implied message that God actually likes them.” - Alan Hirsch, Forgotten Ways

Do you like the people you want to reach?  Because if you want to reach them with the Gospel, you need to be present in their lives.

Love.

If you are being present in the lives of people you want to hear the Gospel, it’s also important that we love, period. This is often difficult because when we have in mind the goal of “preaching the Gospel,” this also becomes the focus of our relationships.  But in order to earn the right to be heard, we must love without an agenda.  We should absolutely have a desire to share the Gospel in this relationship; that’s important and will naturally flow out of our love for that person.

But it must also be considered, will I still be friends with this person if they don’t get "saved"?

John writes, “Love one another as I have loved you.”

When Christ loves, he loves with no strings attached.  It’s not I’ll love you if you come to this bible study.  It’s not I’ll love you if you agree with this statement.  It’s not I’ll love you if you agree with my political views.  It’s I love you, period.  And then that love is demonstrated in suffering and death.

And John calls us to love like Jesus loved.  This means we love even if they never come to church with us.  This means we love even if they continually bash the church and our beliefs.  This means we love even if everything in you thinks they don’t deserve it.

And what does this look like.  I believe someone once wrote, "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”

Two Kinds of Righteousness

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Faith or good works?

In order to really answer the question, you have to consider what you are asking.  Are you asking which is necessary?  In that case, the answer is both.

Are you asking which is necessary in order to be considered right with God?  In that case, the answer is faith.  You are made righteous solely by faith in the finished work of Christ.

But what if you are considering what makes you right with your neighbor?

Are you righteous in the eyes of your neighbor based on your faith in Jesus?  Or does righteousness in your relationships with others depend on the work that you do?  In your relationships with friends, family, and coworkers, righteousness might be considered as something that depends on our work.

Throughout the scriptures we can see a distinction in two kinds of righteousness.  There is a righteousness that comes solely from the work of Christ.  It describes our standing before God.  And there is a righteousness that comes in our relationship with our neighbor.

The righteousness we have before God is completely passive.  It’s not our doing, it’s all God.  And the righteousness we have before our neighbor is active.  It relies on our own work.

"This is our theology, by which we teach a precise distinction between these two kinds of righteousness, the active and the passive.” - Martin Luther, Lectures on Galatians

And teacher of mine said it this way:

"What is meant by two kinds of human righteousness?…One dimension involves our life with God, especially in the matters of death and salvation. The other dimension involves our life with God's creatures and our activity in this world.In the former we receive righteousness before God through faithon account of Christ. In the latter, we achieve righteousness in the eyes of the world by works when we carry out our God-given responsibilities.” - Charles Arand, Lutheran Quarterly

Passive Righteousness.

When it comes to the righteousness we have before God, it rests solely on the work of Christ.  Jesus declared, “It is finished.” Martin Luther described us as “beggars.”  We are completely passive in our relationship with God, powerless to do what only God can do.

Passive righteousness is the vertical relationship between God and man.  God does the work.  The only contribution that man brings into this equation is sin.  This is a righteousness that is alien; it is completely outside of ourselves.

This alien righteousness, instilled in us without our works by grace alone—while the Father, to be sure, inwardly draws us to Christ—is set opposite original sin, likewise alien, which we acquire without our works by birth alone.  Christ daily drives out the old Adam more and more in accordance with the extent to which faith and knowledge of Christ grow.  - Martin Luther

This is why Romans describes man by saying, “No one is righteous - not even one.”

Before God, no man by his own actions is made righteous.  This is why Wingren described Luther’s words when he said, “God doesn’t need our good works.”  Because our righteousness in the vertical realm does not come from anything we do, but only from God’s action toward man.

Active Righteousness.

When it was said that God doesn’t need our good works, he continued by saying, "but our neighbor does."

In our horizontal relationships, our righteousness is not passive, it is active.  We not only have relationship with our creator (passive), but we also have relationships with our neighbors.  In our relationships with the world around us, God calls us to be active serving the world around us.

Active righteousness is what we do in our communities, our neighborhoods, our families, and our jobs.  Active righteousness is where we fulfill our God-given vocations.

The passive righteousness we have freely through faith; active righteousness requires that we serve those around us in the places that God places us.

Why this distinction matters?

A proper understanding of these two kinds of righteousness is important because we must not confuse the two.

If we confuse the two and think that active righteousness establishes our relationship with God, we will trust in ourselves for salvation.  Instead of relying solely on God in the vertical relationship, we will find ourselves relying on our own ability to follow the commandments or serve our neighbors.

If we confuse the two and think that passive righteousness carries over from our vertical relationship into our horizontal relationships, we will end up ignoring the needs of our neighbors.  When we ignore active righteousness, we ignore our callings to our family, to our communities, and in our careers.

Instead we must see these two kind of righteousness clearly.  In our relationship with God, we are recipients.  We, like beggars, receive the gifts that only God can give.  And in relationship with the world, we actively seek to do good and serve our neighbors.  And these two kinds of righteousness, while distinct, are also deeply connected.

Our passive righteousness inspires our active righteousness.  Because we are free from having to earn our salvation, we are also free to do good for our neighbors.  This is why Martin Luther said, “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.”  Good works will follow.  The righteousness that comes passively through faith always flows out into an active righteousness that loves the neighbor.

Some other great resources on this topic:

• Lutheran Quarterly Article by Charles Arand
• Just and Sinner: What are the two kinds of righteousness? 
• Concordia Theology: FAQ on Luther’s Two Kinds of Righteousness

When Should You Leave a Church?

People leave churches for all kinds of reasons.  Some of the reasons are good and other times…not so good.  Sometimes the reasoning stems from a disagreement in doctrine, other times it stems from a ministry philosophy, and others it simply comes from a preference of style.

As Americans, we are likely shaped by our consumerism when it comes to the way we approach churches.  Our culture has certainly shaped the language that I despise when people look for a new church home,  "Church shopping."

Imagine the early church talking about “church shopping.”

And I’ll be the first to admit that things like musical style, preaching style, the design of the facilities, and ministry strategy all matter to me.  But none of these things are the main things.  The musical style, the preaching style, and ministry strategy all must be servants to right teaching and right living.

"Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.” - 1 Timothy 4:16

Life and doctrine.

This is what matters most.  For us personally and for us corporately, we must guard our right teaching and our living.  While all that within us might want to have a church that sings cool songs and have entertaining sermons (which aren’t bad), these desires should be servant to the desire for our churches to have right teaching and right living.

Orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

And so style certainly matters, but it should be shaped by right teaching.  There is teaching that simply desires to say what itching ears what to hear and there is teaching that wants to speak ancient truth in a language that people can understand.  Both might be engaging when listening to a preacher, but only one comes from an understanding of what matters most.

When you should absolutely leave your church...

Wrong Teaching.

If your church teaches the scriptures wrong, that's a great reason to leave.  There are lots of churches that are growing in size but also compromise what they teach when it comes to the Word of God.  The church that does not teach the Bible is emasculated.  It may find strategies for growth numerically, but the people will dwindle spiritually.

Does this mean you will perfectly agree with the way every single thing is said?  Probably not.

But when you question the teachings, ask questions of the leaders.  Our churches do not need congregants who blindly follow what their pastor teaches.  Instead we need congregants who ask, “Well, what does the Bible say about that?”

Congregnants like the Bereans: "Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. (Acts 17:11)"

If you go to a church that is not teaching what the Bible teaches, leave.

Wrong Living.

This one can be a bit harder to find.  And that’s not because it happens less often, but it is more difficult to discern because churches are filled with sinful, hypocritical people who do not live the way God calls us to.

Right teaching should always lead to right living.

Orthodoxy and orthopraxy are linked to one another.  And so if you encounter a congregation who doesn’t take seriously following Jesus, that’s a good reason to leave.  If you are at a congregation that teaches rightly the Bible, but in practice doesn’t follow the teaching, something has gone wrong.

When the church as a whole fails at living out what they believe, you have to ask, “Do they really believe what they say they believe?”

If you are considering leaving because of a failure in “Right Living,” I highly suggest that this be done carefully, respectfully, and filled with conversations.  Because our churches are filled with sinful people, it must also be considered that a congregation is repentant of their failures and seeking to correct where they have gone wrong.

What other reasons might you find to leave a church? Do they fit within these categories? 

Photo Credit: Kate

The Vocation of Motherhood

Motherhood.  Being a mom is perhaps one of the most difficult, thankless, overlooked, and exhausting callings that God has created.  And it is also one of the most important callings that there is.  When I walk in the door after a busy day of work, I am able to leave my work behind and my kids are excited to play and have fun with daddy.  My wife on the other hand, when she has a difficult day at home as a mom, she’s still got to be a mom.  And while daddy walks in the door for fun times, mommy just spent hours trying to get a meal ready, discipline a two-year-old, and straighten up the house.  Have I mentioned that being a mom is difficult?

I’ve heard it said that as a parent the days often feel long and the years feel short.  And moms often feel this very closely.  A day drags on waiting for some relief from keeping the kids from killing each other.  The day drags on waiting for the weather to change so the kids can finally go outside and play.  But then the tension comes as your baby is going off to school and you wonder, where did the time go?

Dear Moms...

Those little things that you do.  Playing legos.  Cutting the sandwich into triangles.  Checking on your kids for the tenth time.  The extra bed-time story and cuddles.  The counseling after a bad day at school.  Running out to pick up flowers to prevent your kid from being embarrassed without them on their first date.  And of course the little things that are not so glamorous.  The changing the diapers.  The time-outs.  The loading the kids up in the car for a family trip to the grocery store.

These little things are sacred.

In the midst of the long and difficult days, these things don’t feel like they are sacred but they are.  Because God is at work as you do the work of mothering.

God is loving your children, caring for them, protecting them, growing them, and watching over them as you do the work of being a mom.  God is at work in the life of your child through the work you do as mom.  That’s a sacred calling.  And as a Christian we are free to do the work of mothering the best we can, not because God needs us to be good mothers in order to earn anything.  But simply because our kids need the best mothers.

"What then does Christian faith say to this? It opens its eyes, looks upon all these insignificant, distasteful, and despised duties in the Spirit, and is aware that they are all adorned with divine approval as with the costliest gold and jewels…God with all his angels and creatures is smiling - not because the father (or mother) is washing diapers, but because he is doing so in Christian faith.” - Martin Luther - [LW 45:39-40]

And let’s be clear.  You can be a faithful, Christian mother even when you are struggling to give yourself to the spiritual things. Don’t get me wrong, these things are good things - giving ourselves to reading, memorizing, and studying God’s Word is always valuable.  But in the midst of the long, difficult days that are filled with endless battles, the struggle can make the Christian mother feel unspiritual as she doesn’t do the “spiritual” things that she longs to do.

One author wrote the following:

“A woman told me about getting involved in a Bible study that demanded strict commitment to the study of God’s Word.  ‘You should make the Bible your number one priority,’ she was told.  That meant getting up early and the very first thing in the morning doing Bible reading and having a quiet time with the Lord.  She did this, but to her consternation every morning as she would start to read her Bible, the baby would wake up.  She found herself resenting the interruption.  Here she was, trying to spend time with God, and the baby would start fussing, demanding to be fed and distracting her attention away from spiritual things.  After a while, though, she came to understand the doctrine of vocation.  Taking care of her baby was what God, at that moment, was calling her to do.  Being a mother and loving and serving her child was her vocation, her divine calling from the Lord.  She could read the Bible later.  She did not have to feel guilty that she was neglecting spiritual things; taking care of her baby is a spiritual thing!” - Gene Veith, God at Work

All of work is sacred.  And for mothers that means all those little things - the things you love and the things you dread - are sacred.  Motherhood is a holy calling.  Parents are the primary influences and disciple-makers for their children and mothers get the opportunity to do this day in and day out as they love, care for, and spend time with their kids.

What Do Lutherans Believe About Baptism?

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This past weekend I had the incredible privilege of baptizing my daughter.  Because of the baptism, the subject has been fresh in my mind.  In fact, one of the cool moments last week I got to experience was taking my son down to the worship center to watch a video of his baptism and let him touch the water in the baptismal font.

But what’s so special about this thing called baptism?

Why baptize my daughter?

Why baptize anyone?

What do Lutherans really believe about baptism?

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God’s work, not ours.

An important thing to understand about baptism is whose work this is.  If you see baptism as your work, this is going to be a difficult area for you.  When you see baptism as your own work or your own commitment of faith, it is about what you do for God.  When this happens you automatically are going to see baptism as requiring a certain age, a certain profession of faith, or some kind of decision.

But when you see baptism as God’s work, this becomes all about what God promises to do for us.

It’s about receiving God’s gifts.

Our whole Christian faith is about receiving gifts from God and has nothing to do with the work that we do for God. Baptism reflects this faith.  It’s not about what we do for God; it’s about what he does for us.

Where did your faith come from?

When did you become a Christian?  Maybe you can remember a specific moment or a conversation.  When was faith created in your life?

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 they hear without someone preaching to them? - Romans 10:14

If you became a Christian in your teens at a conference, let’s consider what happened in those moments.  Somebody spoke from a platform about the message of the Gospel.  Or maybe you had a conversation with a friend or pastor.   When that words of the Gospel were spoken, God did something in your heart and from that time on you were a follower of Jesus.

Whose work was that?

It was God’s of course.  God created faith in you.  God gave you his gifts.  You may have responded to him, but you get no credit in what you received.

God worked through the sound waves of a preacher to create faith in you.  Or perhaps he worked through ink and paper as you read the words in your Bible.  Or he worked through your friend.  However it looked for you, God worked through his Word to create faith.  This is how God works.

Baptism works this same way.

The Reformers often referred to baptism is visible Word.

"It has been well said by Augustine that a Sacrament is a visible Word, because the rite is received by the eyes and is, as it were, a picture of the Word, illustrating the same thing as the Word. The result of both is the same." - Apology of the Augsburg Confession article XIII

It’s not magic water; it’s God’s Word at work in the waters of baptism.

And just like when you hear the Word or read the Word, God is at work in it.  Forgiveness is given.  Not because you did anything, but because God worked in the ways He said he would.

And so we believe baptism works like all of our faith works.

“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” - Acts 2:38

Baptism is for the forgiveness of sins?

If this is man’s work, that statement would be heresy.  But if baptism is indeed God’s work, baptism is for the forgiveness of sins.  How?  Because baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, just like a sermon is for the forgiveness of sins, reading the Bible is for the forgiveness of sins, or God's Word spoken through a family member is for the forgiveness of sins.

We always receive the gift of grace through faith.  And faith is given by the Holy Spirit through his Word.

Titus 3:5 says, "He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

How does baptism save?  The same way that we are saved in the hearing or reading of Scriptures.  The Holy Spirit gives us faith in the work of Christ.

And that faith is not dependent on age or intellectual capabilities.  This is why as Lutherans we also baptize all ages.  We baptize adults.  We baptize teenagers.  We baptize babies.  When the Scriptures speak of making disciples of “all nations,” we believe this includes everyone, regardless of their stage of life.  And because all people are sinful, all need to be baptized.

In baptism, we receive all the gifts that only Jesus can give.

So what do I believe happened in my daughter’s baptism?

I believe that Emmy is a child of God not because of her work, but because of God’s work.  I believe that God has been at work through his Word as I read her the scriptures from the time she was born.  And I believe that he was at work through his Word at her baptism.  And I believe that God will continue to work and grow her faith through his Word as I teach her the Scriptures as she grows older.

Because this is what was promised, God’s Word will always do its work.

This really just scratches the surface of baptism and we could talk about a lot more.  What questions do you have about this subject?  

The Promise of the Gospel

How would you describe the Gospel?  The definition of the Gospel is “Good News.”   And it is absolutely the best news in the world.  But the message of the Gospel goes far beyond news as we typically think of it.  When we often think of news, it is about an event that happened and is over.  We talk about it today, but it happened yesterday.

But the Gospel isn’t just a past event, the Gospel is something that continues to be active.

The Gospel, which is the Good News of the death and resurrection of Jesus, is a promise.  In the Gospel, we are promised the the blood of Jesus has paid the price for our sins.  We have been promised that our sins are forgiven, that we are made sons and daughters, and that the enemy has been defeated.  The Gospel is a promise that shapes all of the Christian life; this promise is not only news that looks back at history but also shapes the present and the future.

Promises are personal.

Have you ever had someone break a promise to you?  It hurts.  Broken promises hurt so badly because promises are personal.  When a promise is made, the person making the promise is declaring that they can be trusted and the person doing the trusting is putting their confidence in the person they have a relationship with.

Promises are always personal.

This is why broken promises hurt so much, because trust is broken in the relationship.  And this is why people actually trust other people who make promises, because the promise is personal.

Why do you think a wedding is such a meaningful event?  Because two people who love each other deeply and have an incredible relationship want to publicly make a promise to each other.  They want their relationship to also have a promise.  The promise is connected to the relationship.  Without the relationship, we wouldn’t have seen the promise.  And without the promise, the relationship would likely be affected to.

God is a God of promises.  And his promises are connected to his relationship with us.  The Gospel promise is always a relational promise.  His promise to us calls us to put our faith, trust, and confidence in him.  And this promise that he makes to us is not disconnected from any relationship, in fact it is both evidence of his relationship with us and it encourages the growth of the relationship that he has established with us.

Promises are future oriented.

Our faith in Jesus not only looks back at history, but it looks forward.  The message of the Gospel is not simply calling us to believe that an event happened in history, but to have faith that this historical event has implications both in the present and in the future.

We see this in the words of Jesus when he promises, “And surely I will be with you always.”  It’s not just about what happened.  It’s about what will happen.

Jesus could have very easily told countless stories of the faithfulness of God throughout history.  He could have recounted the ways that God was faithful to Israel as they rebelled against God.  He could have recounted the ways that God was faithful to Israel in their rescue from Egypt.  He could have recounted how God had been faithful throughout all of human history.  But Jesus didn’t simply look back at history, he also looks forward.

The promise of the Gospel is not simply a historical event, but it is a present reality.  The death and resurrection absolutely happened in history, but death and resurrection also happens daily in the life of the Christian.

Promises seek faith.

The whole purpose behind a promise is to elicit faith.

In a wedding when a bride and groom make promises in their vows to each other, the goal is that this couple has faith in their new spouse.  The promise seeks faith.  As the husband speaks to his wife his promise to hear, he is seeking to make her confident that he will truly love her all the days of her life.  And the same is true as the wife speaks to her husband, she is seeking to make sure he trusts that she will love and respect them no matter what.

The promise of the Gospel creates faith.  It evokes faith in us as we hear the promise.  The promise is spoken and faith is created; faith, which trusts that the God who makes this promise is who he says He is.

(HT: Professor Arand)

Religion of Feelings

Feelings win in our culture. We do things because of the way it makes us feel.  We buy things because of how it makes us feel, and we even believe things simply because of how it makes us feel.  We live in a world that wants unicorns and happiness and rainbows.  We want the warm, fuzzy feelings.  We want everything to make us feel good on the inside.  We want everybody to get trophies. We want nobody to lose.

As a culture, we worship at the altar of our own feelings.

Feelings shape so much of how we live our lives.  When we go to buy a cup of coffee, we buy overpriced coffee because of  the experience.  We like the interaction with the employees.  We like how the coffee shop feels.  We like that they put cute little smiley faces on the cup.  And so, we buy the cup of coffee not just because of the taste, but because of the whole experience.

And using our feelings isn’t a bad thing.

When I go to Disney World with my family, the reason I love it is because of the experience that Disney creates.  Because when I’m in Disney with my family everything feels magical.  My interactions with the employees - from the janitor, to the characters, to the bus boys - are all magical.

Feelings are important and a gift that God has given us.  Just like God has given us our mind and our ability to reason, he has also given us our emotions.  But while our emotions are incredibly important, especially in our faith, they should not be trusted above everything.

We often believe that if it feels right, it must be right.  And if it doesn’t, it must not be right.

While our feelings and experiences are very important, when trusted above God himself, they can become very dangerous.

And we might like to believe that people don’t trust their emotions primarily, but we can see it in the way people talk about their lives.  People in their marriages will say, “My marriage just doesn’t feel right, so maybe it’s not right anymore.”  Or in talking about their church, “Church just doesn’t feel the way it once felt. Maybe it’s time to just give up.”

Our feelings are a good thing.  We should embrace our feelings.  We should celebrate our feelings.  We should share those feelings.  We should be open about those feelings, but we should not trust those feelings above everything.

And so, if you come to church, and you have a certain experience – if you have certain emotions, you should embrace those.  You should celebrate those.  But you should not trust those.

Because if there hits a season where you don’t feel the way you once felt, where you don’t have the same emotions stirring up, that doesn’t mean that God isn’t working the way he did before, it just means you’re not feeling it the same way.

When you’re marriage is going well, when things are firing on all cylinders, when you’re growing in love and joy, you’re communicating well, and you’re working through issues well - celebrate those feelings.  Embrace those feelings.  Share those feelings with the people around you.

But when you hit a season where it doesn’t feel that way, what are you gonna trust?

When you hit a season where your marriage feels like it’s more work than joy, when it feels like you should maybe get out, you shouldn’t trust our feelings. Instead, you should trust the objective Word that says, “Although you don’t like your spouse, you need to love your spouse the way Christ loved the Church.”

What happens, when we trust our experiences over something objective, is we believe our feelings and stop trusting in the objective Word of God. As soon as we begin to rely on our emotions and experiences, we have entered into the realm of the mystic.  Instead we should embrace our emotions and experiences, but also call them what they are.  They are good things, but that are not a higher authority that God and what God has plainly revealed to us.

Happy Easter

He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?  - Hosea 13:14

It is finished

It is finished.

Completed.

Satisfied.

Done.

Over.

Paid in full.

Copycats

 

Whenever I start vacuuming, my son gets his toy vacuum to help me clean.  When I’m on my computer, he gets on my lap and wants to watch youtube.  He knows where all his apps on the iPad are; I’m not sure who he learned that from… I love basketball and football; he also loves basketball and football.  I sit down and play at the piano, he wants to be on the bench next to me playing the piano.

My son wants to be like me and I love it.

And at the same time am a bit terrified by it.

When Elijah acts like me or dresses like me or when people see my daughter and comment, “She looks just like her dad,” I’m proud.  Because as a dad, I want my kids to look like me.

Is this perhaps what God wants when he calls us to imitate him?  Does God want his kids to look like their heavenly Father?

"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” - Ephesians 5:1-2

"Be imitators of God, as beloved children.”  Isn’t that what kids do?  They are imitators.  They copy.  And that is what God calls us to do, copy the Father.   A “beloved children” we should do what any kid does and copy our Father.  And I can’t help but think that God looks down proud when he sees his children copying him.

And how do we copy the Father?  We look to Christ and copy him.

Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”  Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? - John 14:8-9

Start Copying

As we copy Christ, we are like children copying their heavenly Father.  And in copying Christ, we doing what God calls us to do as followers of Jesus.  This is what disciples do.  Disciples follow closely behind their rabbi and learn to talk like he talks, ask the questions he asks, love the people he loved, and teach the way he taught.  And so if we are disciples of Jesus, we follow closely behind Jesus learning to copy Jesus.

As disciples we copy Jesus.  As children we copy Jesus.

And this isn’t because copying changes our relationship with him; it doesn’t.  This is the scandalous nature of grace; it isn’t contingent on our behavior.  God has called us his children by the death and resurrection of Jesus, through faith.  And so we are his children regardless of how well we copy Jesus.

But as any dad desires for his children, the heavenly father desires that his children would copy him.

God wants us to walk in love as he walked in love.  God wants us to speak the Gospel to those around us as Christ preached the Gospel to those around him.  God wants us to love the unlovable, to forgive, to make disciples, and to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind.

The Apostle Paul mentions this same thing when he says to his church, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”

Paul plays the role of an earthly spiritual father as he pastors the church in Corinth.  And he says, “As your spiritual father, copy me as I copy Christ.”  And so Paul loves like Christ loved and he calls his church to do the same.  And so we copy.  We copy Christ as we see him in the scriptures and we love as he has first loved us.

Who are you copying?  Who is copying you? 

God Makes Pizza

pizza.jpg

When you order a pizza, who is providing your family dinner?  Is it you?  Or is it God?  Or is it the people actually making the pizza?

Martin Luther described the way that God works in this world as the “mask of God.”  He taught that God is actually hidden in the world doing things like providing our “daily bread” in the ordinary work of chefs, police officers, moms, and dads.  I wrote a bit about this on an awesome site called ChristHoldFast:

In order for me to eat pizza with my family that evening, I had to place a phone call to the restaurant. Thanks to the designers, marketers, manufacturers, and sales people at Apple I had a phone that could do the job. In order to get the appropriate phone number I googled the local pizza place. The search led to a website, which required a web designer...

To feed my family, God worked through web designers, employees at the pizza parlor, a small-business owner, police officers, car manufacturers, and so on.  Each and every person doing their work was an important piece of my family having dinner that evening.  You could even say that those hundreds of people were unknowingly serving my family, providing our daily bread. God was blessing me through others.

Check out the site for the full article.

Life is Hard

In the words of the classic television show, Boy Meets World, “Life is hard; get a helmet.”

It doesn’t take long to realize that life is hard. If you live long enough, you will face suffering. Whether it is death, sickness, betrayal, divorce, or something else, it’s bound to happen.  And it sucks.  When we are faced with suffering, we are faced with two choices: we are either run away from the suffering or we lean into it.

The most natural response that we all tend to prefer would be to run away.  We try to minimize, control, or get over the pain.  But the problem we face in our suffering is not that we need to figure out how to get over the pain, it is that we need to learn to see Christ in the midst of the pain.  The natural response to pain and suffering is to run.  And so we look for a series of tips on how to cope or try to find ways to just, “have more faith” in hopes that God will remove our suffering or we even try to figure out the reason behind our suffering as though we might find some hidden will of God that will make our pain stop being painful.

But when we look at the Scriptures and we encounter pain and suffering, what do we see Jesus do?

He weeps.

His friend Lazarus dies, and he starts crying.

Jesus doesn’t begin consoling friends and family with a sermon and encouraging them that “It was their time” or “God has a reason for everything.”  He doesn’t begin to explain that there was some bigger picture going on.  No, he’s honest.  He cries.  He cries because it sucks.  His friend died.  And his friend’s family is upset.

And Jesus does the same in the midst of our suffering.

He weeps with us at the graveside.  He cries with us as we sign the papers.  He sits alongside of you as you mourn the broken heart.  And he stands next to you as you hear the bad news.  This is why it is so significant when Jesus says, “And surely I will be with you always.”

Because he is with us always.

In the joys and the pains.  At the celebrations and the funerals.  At the births and the deaths.  In the good and the bad.

Being with us doesn’t remove the suffering.  But it gives us hope in the midst of it.  Hope that even in the midst of the pain and with a lack of answers you are not alone.  Hope that God is with you in the most difficult moments of life.

Life is hard.  But remember, you’re not in this alone.

Religion of Thinking

We live in a day and age that has more access to information than ever before.  Yet our problems don’t seem to be lessening. In fact, at times it might even seems that our problems are even worse now than before.  Lack of information is not the problem.

Information is not transformation.

And being a Christian is not about our intellectual ascent to knowing the right things.  Being a Christian is not simply about knowing that an event happened in history, but it’s knowing that event in history is also present reality.  It’s knowing that the death and resurrection of Jesus not only happened, but death and resurrection happens daily.  You die to your sins and are brought to life in Christ because we have faith in the death and resurrection that happened.

But sometimes it’s easy to let our minds get the best of us.  We think, “That couldn’t be possible.”  Or “Is that really true?”  Maybe even, “Well the scriptures didn’t say that…”  We often let our minds get the best of us.  We trust our own thinking and reasoning; sometimes even putting our hope in our own thinking over anything else.

The Whore Named Reason

Martin Luther said, “Reason is the devil’s greatest whore.”

Our minds are a good thing, but let’s be clear about what serves what.

In quoting Deuteronomy, Jesus teaches love God with all your heart, soul, and mind.  But the temptation comes in when we begin to elevate our thinking beyond the point it should elevated to.  The temptation is to trust our own thinking and reasoning over what God has revealed to us.

Our minds are a gift, but they are not to be the place we put our trust.

In the dialogue leading up to the story of the Good Samaritan, we witness an expert letting his mind get the best of him:

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”   He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.  "You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”  But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” - Luke 10:25-29

The expert in the law, when he realizes that he does not do what he’s supposed to do, he tries to justify himself.  He says, “Well, neighbor doesn’t really mean neighbor.”

This is the temptation for us, that we try to justify ourselves.  We use our thinking, and we play mental gymnastics to try to say, “Well, this doesn’t meant this,” or, “The Bible really says this,” or, “God really wants me to do this,” or, “God’s telling me to do this.”  We trust in our mind and not what God has said.

Our minds seek self-justification.  Our minds want to make us feel right about what we do. And the problem with relying on  self-justification is that although it might make you feel better, it won’t make you better.  Although you can play tricks with the words, that does not remove your guilt.

Knowledge is not our problem.

The problem is we need transformation.  We need the Gospel to do it’s work on us.  To give us a need heart.  To change the inward bend of our heart.  To redirect our faith from our own minds to the person and work of Christ.