A Lifestyle of Peace

Saturday, December 15, 2018

A Lifelong Journey of Christian Lifestyle

One of the most important things about the Christian life is that we understand it's a lifelong journey. It starts the moment we receive salvation through Jesus Christ, but it doesn't end there. That is just the beginning. The hard part comes after we get saved, and we begin to live the Christian lifestyle.

That is where many believers fall short, and end up drifting away from the message of truth! Don't let that be you. Recognize that you will have to fight for your Christian faith, and fight hard for it each day. Jesus never said it would be easy, but He did promise to be with us through the struggles.

One of the best things you can do is to order your life by developing a detailed schedule for each week. Make sure you're attending church services locally at least once a week. Why? This helps you stay connected to the gospel message, and receive spiritual energy for each week ahead. That's why God commands his people to come together for fellowship.

Secondly, make sure you are attending a weekly Bible study or small group. The bear minimum for a Christian believer is weekly services and weekly Bible study. You may see some church members who don't regularly attend Bible study and only occasionally attend Sunday meetings. Don't imitate their practices! Find the people in your church who really deeply desire to live out the Christian faith, and gather together with them. Use each other to encourage each other toward deeper practices like lectio divina, deep prayer, fasting, confession of sins to one another, evangelism in the community, and discipleship groups.

Develop your Christian life into a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly lifestyle of obedient faith. Determine in your mind that you're in it for the long haul. Set up a weekly pattern of prayer, Bible reading, small groups, volunteer work, and worship. And get ready for the ride of your life. God is going to take you places you can hardly imagine!

Here are seven practices for genuine Christians to truly live out their faith. These are various practices that are basic tasks for Christians. Many do few if any of these, once again don't follow the example of those who are half in and half out. Instead find the godly and mimic their activities. Let's look at the basics for Christian lifestyle practices...

1. Evangelize to the lost - this means to share the gospel, your testimony, and encouragement with others throughout the week. Find ways to make it happen! The souls of lost humanity hang in the balance.

2. Read your Bible daily - The Bible is our daily bread, we need the words of God to strengthen us in this broken world. Set aside time each day to read a chapter or several, and study them carefully.

3. Pray everyday - prayer is oxygen to the Christian. Learn techniques to pray effectively and develop a pattern of practice. As you mature, add in weekly times of fasting.

4. Tithe properly & give regular offerings - Tithing as a general principle is that you give 10% of your income back to God. 10% is the minimum, but the New Testament standard is to give all, so begin to give more as you are led by God to do so. Give where you are fed, give to your church. Also give offerings as you feel led, for other ministries and for world missions.

5. Keep the sabbath rest - We are no longer under the Old Testament law of Moses. But the sabbath rest is still an important teaching from God. We should be taking one day a week to rest, seek God, and abstain from work.

6. Care for the needs of the poor - There are various ways to care for the poor. Food pantries, soup kitchens, visiting shut-ins, giving out clothing, visiting those in jail, homeless shelters, and giving out water to those on the streets. These are express commands in scripture from Matthew 25:31-46.

7. Serve in various ways in church ministry - Serving in the church is an effective way to minister to those of the body of Christ. Don't be part of the dreaded "80-20 rule" which says "20% of the people do 80% of the work." Don't be a martyr either, but please do serve. Ask to speak to your pastor or a lay-leader one on one and ask about how to get involved or how to start a new ministry.

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Tuesday, December 11, 2018

Ten Reasons Why You Should Give to the Salvation Army this Christmas Season

The views in this article do not necessarily represent the positions or opinions of the Salvation Army, it's partners or affiliates. The statements made belong solely to those making them.

The Salvation Army is a great organization to support during the Christmas! Full disclosure, I work for the Salvation Army and have for the past four years. But I'm very careful about where I donate my money. It's always wise to consider carefully which organizations you give your money to. Here are ten reasons why I think you should support the Salvation Army this Christmas season!

1. The Salvation Army has a proven track record going back over one hundred and fifty years. In fact the famed economist Peter Drucker said, "The Salvation Army is the most effective organization in the USA." And he also said, "The Salvation Army's goal is to turn society's rejects alcoholics, criminals, derelicts into citizens." In fact the co-founder of McDonalds Joan Kroc so trusted the efforts and effective results of the Salvation Army that she donated 1.9 billion dollars to the Salvation Army to build community facilities today known as "Kroc Centers" across the USA.

2. 82 cents of every dollar donated goes directly to help those in need through feeding programs, housing, rent assistance, clothing, homeless shelters, and rehabilitation programs among dozens of other programs.

3. The Salvation Army is a biblical Christian organization with a mission statement indicating, "the mission of the Salvation Army is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in his name without discrimination." The SA is not just focused on material needs, but spiritual needs as well!

4. Disaster services is a key service of the Salvation Army, where volunteers and officers will serve those directly affected by disasters, severe weather, and other concerns through giving out food, providing housing, and spiritual counseling. If it's on your heart to support those affected by disasters, please give this season!

5. The Salvation Army assists over 25 million people each year in the United States. There are thousands of corps facilities around the USA serving those in need and preaching the gospel.

6. One of the great ministries of the Salvation Army is prison ministry, and the hope of helping those who are lost in crime, addiction and sin is a great hope indeed when considering where to give during Christmas season.

7. Children's After School activities are one of the cornerstones of Salvation Army corps facilities across the USA. The SA serves children through daily after school programs, character building activities, band classes, singing companies, vacation bible school, and other ministries as well.

8. When I began working for the Salvation Army and saw the thousands of kid's toys that they distribute during Christmas, I realized that being in the SA is kind of like being a mini Santa Claus! Children ought to have gifts to open on Christmas, SA makes that possible.

9. I think the single most exciting and dynamic ministry of the Salvation Army are the Adult Rehabilitation Centers. These facilities house those attempting to break free from drug and alcohol addiction. I've worked in this ministry personally, and I've seen how these men and women are hungry for hope and change, and the word of God, and how Jesus Christ saves them from addiction. It's amazing!

10. The Salvation Army preaches the gospel to many in our society who might otherwise never hear the gospel. One of the chief goals at the founding the SA in London was to reach those unreached by other churches. This continues to be an important goal of the Salvation Army, to preach the gospel of Jesus to those who might otherwise never walk into a church.

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Saturday, December 8, 2018

Encouragement for Church Leaders

1 Peter 5:1-4 ESV “So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.”

We are all witnesses of the sufferings of Christ. We’ve studied his life, and how he lived and suffered for each of us.

Since we identify with Christ’s sufferings, we are also partakers of those sufferings. We suffer for Christ. And so we also have access to the glory that is going to be revealed.

Christ charges each of us, to shepherd the flock of God. Pour your heart and soul into the work of the ministry. Don’t do it because you have to, or because God is making you, or you feel obligated. But simply serve willingly.

Don’t serve for any earthly gain, not for status, or for power or money, but eagerly serve for Christ, to the glory of Christ, humbly, because you love Jesus.

It says 'do not be domineering over those in your charge.' But instead be an example to them.

Why should we do this? Because, as shepherds, we know the chief shepherd will appear, and he will judge us impartially for how we’ve conducted those placed in our care, during our time on Earth. We will be held accountable.

It amazes me and fills me with holy awe that God would entrust such a vital task to people like you and me. But God seems to choose the least likely people to press forward his plan for humanity.

One of the most thought provoking and evocative scriptures for me is from James 3:1 and it says: “Not many of you should become teachers my fellow believers because you know we who teach will be judged more strictly."

This scripture fills me foreboding, and well it should. We’ve got a general judgment, and then there's the judgment God will render on teachers and leaders of the church, which will actually be a more strict judgment. There will be more guidelines and rules and higher standards that we were suppose to meet. I'd be worried that I wouldn't make the cut in the first one, much less the second!

But God is faithful. He makes the impossible, possible. If we respond in obedience and prayer through this life, He will ensure we make it home safely.

My concluding thought to all of us, is that we tremble at this thought, and so conduct our business before God that we are found to be without reproach, and working impartially to bless God’s people.

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Wednesday, December 5, 2018

The Philosophy of the End Times: Immortality, Resurrection, Heaven, and Hell

Today we’re going to be talking about the philosophy of the end times, what we call in theology, “eschatology.” The movement I'm part of, the Salvation Army, defines our view of eschatology in this way:

“We believe in the immortality of the soul; in the resurrection of the body; in the general judgment at the end of the world; in the eternal happiness of the righteous; and in the endless punishment of the wicked.”

We’ll break down this theological statement and examine it part by part in light of scripture, to try and understand how God goes about completing the victory of Christ Jesus, how he judges the world, how he rewards those who are righteous, and how he punishes those who choose wickedness.

First of all, we look at the beginning of this statement which says “we believe in the immortality of the soul…”

Ecclesiastes 12:7 (ESV) says, “…the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”

So we know from the scriptures that God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into him life, and while our present body is doomed to die because of the fall, our soul, our spirit, will return to God after we die (Genesis 3:19). In short, we are more than a body. We each have a soul. And that soul is eternal (Handbook of Doctrine, 2013, p. 225).

Next it says, “we believe in the resurrection of the body.” It’s important to remember that in the next life we won’t be vapid spirits, like a mist floating around in the clouds. We Christians believe that we will be given new bodies in the next life.

Philippians 3:21 says that we will have new bodies, transformed to be like Christ’s glorified body. When Jesus resurrected from the dead, was he a ghost or a mist or wisp of cloud in the air? No, Jesus was physical. He ate with his disciples after his resurrection (Luke 24:35-48). We as Christian salvationists do believe in the resurrection of the body, and we want to avoid over-symbolizing our future eternal life as a sort of non-physical life, with harps floating in the clouds. We will not be “disembodied spirits” but whole persons in Christ (Handbook of Doctrine, 2013, p. 226). God’s design for the restoration of Eden is much more than a pop cultural picture of eternity.

Next our truth statement says, “We believe in the general judgment at the end of the world.” Theologians of the past were not as politically and religiously correct as we are today. They weren’t overly concerned with not hurting people’s feelings or sugar-coating the “justice” side of God’s character. They just put it out there. And we know from the scriptures, that there will come a day when the righteous and the wicked will stand before God, and give an account for how they lived (Romans 14:12-13).

2 Corinthians 5:10 (ESV) says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

Theologians often refer to this event as the “great white throne judgment” which comes from Revelation 20:11-15. We should always be careful as Christians, how we are living. We want to be quick to love, and we want to avoid condemnation of others, and we want to make sure we’re loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And we want to make sure we’re being faithful stewards of our time and resources. And we also want to make sure we’re quickly repenting of sins as they come up in our lives. Why? Because we know there will come a day when we will stand before God and give an account of our lives (Handbook of Doctrine, 2013, p. 226-227). Thankfully we have Jesus Christ who is our advocate before the Father, and who has washed away our sins (1 John 2:1, Hebrews 10:10-12).

For those who are vindicated on the day of judgment, we believe “in the eternal happiness of the righteous.” And for those who are condemned on that day we believe “in the endless punishment of the wicked.” Let’s unpack these two last statements.

Jesus has gone to prepare a place for those who love and obey Him (John 14:2-3). Indeed, the book of Revelation speaks of a new heavens and new Earth, in which God has remade the universe, and has remade the Earth to be a perfect place of peace, similar to the original garden of Eden (Revelation 21). And in this new reality, on this new Earth, the book of Revelation describes the eternal city of God called “The New Jerusalem.”

In fact, the book of Revelation gets quite specific about this city, indicating the dimensions of this city, similar to how Noah was given the exact dimensions for the ark (Genesis 6:15, Revelation 21:16-17).

Revelation 21:16-17 (NIV) says, “The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. The angel measured the wall using human measurement, and it was 144 cubits thick.”

12,000 stadia is about 1,400 miles long, and tall. So we see a city, some think it’s a giant pyramid in shape, others would say it’s a giant cube. But the point is it’s real, it’s a concrete reality. We want to avoid over-spiritualizing these images, as if we can’t really know what they mean. Revelation is showing us that we won’t merely be vapors in the clouds with harps, but we will be citizens of an eternal city of God.

Yet we also know that there is a place reserved by God for those who have rejected him and lived lives of sin and wickedness (Handbook of Doctrine, 2013, p. 227-228). The scriptures refer to this place by many names, some of them include: Sheol, Hades, outer darkness, and hell (Psalm 16:10, Luke 16:23).

Hell is rarely mentioned in the pulpits of our modern age, and I do want to state it clearly that hell is a real place. It exists, and the scriptures talk about it, so we should be aware of it. Jesus mentioned it several times, and in fact stated that if a part of us causes us to sin, we ought to be so diligent as to cut it off, to avoid the fires of hell (Matthew 5:30).

Now will hell be a place of literal fire and burning? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps it will be more like a great, empty, cold darkness. We don’t really know. But scripture gives us many images of hell as darkness, gnashing of teeth, conscious torment, being eaten by worms, and burning/fire (Matthew 10:28, Revelation 21:8, Mark 9:48).

There are two primary views within evangelicalism regarding hell, one is our view which is conscious eternal torment and the other view is called “annihilationism” (Peterson, 2014). Annihilationism is the idea that the souls of the wicked are destroyed at the judgment, not sent to a place of torment (Boyd & Eddy, 2009). But we in the Salvation Army hold to the view of conscious eternal torment. Both views would be considered within the larger family of evangelicalism, but our movement specifically holds to the eternal torment view (Boyd & Eddy, 2009). The point of all this is, we don’t want to go to hell, and we don’t want our neighbors to go there. That’s why evangelism is so important, and that’s why Jesus told us to “go” in the great commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

In conclusion, we believe that our souls are immortal, our physical bodies will be resurrected, that all will be judged, and that the righteous will go to eternal life, and the wicked will go to eternal punishment.

References

Bible Gateway. (n.d.). Retrieved October 10, 2018, from https://www.biblegateway.com/

Boyd, G. A., & Eddy, P. R. (2009). Across the spectrum: Understanding issues in evangelical theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic.

Peterson, R. (2014, February 1). Annihilation or Eternal Punishment? Retrieved October 30, 2018, from https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/annihilation-or-eternal-punishment/

The Salvation Army handbook of doctrine. (2013). London: Salvation Books.

Walton, John H. (EDT)/ Keener, Craig S. (EDT). (2016). Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible: New International Version, Bringing to Life the Ancient World of Scripture. Harpercollins Christian Pub.

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