Christian devotions: Heavenly Rejoicing - Luke 15:10

Luke 15:10 Jesus concluded: “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Every day, I do something wrong. I say the wrong thing or forget to do the right thing. I break a promise that I made or neglect an obligation I meant to fulfill. I break one of God’s commandments or I deliberately go against Christ’s Word. In short, I am a habitual sinner who needs to repent every single day.

When I’m made aware of my mistakes, I get defensive at first. I don’t want to claim the sin as my own or take the blame for what is wrong. I’m just like a quarterback that I watched recently on television who threw a terrible ball which his receiver could not catch. As he ran off the field, he looked to his coach and I lip-read his words: “It wasn’t me,” he said. He didn’t want to take ownership of his mistake and, unfortunately, his attitude permeated across the entire team. Needless to say, they lost the game.

After initially being defensive, I later realize that I’ve made a mistake and seek forgiveness for what I’ve done wrong. This process is called repentance in the Bible and it involves letting go of my pride by humbly asking for God’s pardon. So long as I recognize that my sinful behavior, misdeed, or mistake is wrong, I can repent. If ever I believe that my sinful behavior is acceptable, then even God cannot help me and His grace can never be applied to my life.

That’s why there is a lot of rejoicing in Heaven when a sinner truly repents and returns to God. The free will choice to do as we please can either be a blessing or a curse. When we choose to repent, we are restored to God and Heaven rejoices; that’s also when the beauty of God’s grace can positively change our lives forever.

Questions for personal reflection

When have I ever truly repented before God? Is there something that I am still reluctant to confess to Him?

Prayer:            Lord Jesus, we were created to worship God and enjoy Him forever. Sometimes we worship our lifestyles and idolize our choices. Keep us from harming our souls and prevent us from following spiritual paths that lead to dead ends. Help us to see the need to repent and release us from our unconfessed sins. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

John Stuart is the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to Traqair@aol.com.

Today’s image is John’s latest Fall drawing called “Autumn Delight” and features the Glade Creek Mill in the Babcock National Park of West Virginia. If you would like to view a larger version, please click on the following link: http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8182/7993843085_4173874080_b.jpg

Daily Devotions: Arguing against God - Job 23 v 4

Job 23:4          I would state my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.

I feel sorry for the whole Christian Church right now. We seem to be stumbling over our own feet and are constantly struggling with issues of homosexuality, poverty, and abortion. There doesn’t seem to be any clear consensus about what we should believe, and no matter what biblical verses or principles are used to prop up one side of a theological debate, the other side trumps it with a different interpretation. We are so tainted with this urge to state and enforce our views upon the Church that we have lost the capacity to convince the world that what we believe in is the truth. In our desperate need to make everyone feel accepted and for us to be liked, we’ve thrown out Christ with the waters of baptism and allowed the waters of chaos to overwhelm us.

I personally feel as though I’ve taken the wrong path and allowed myself to justify my beliefs. I’ve confused and fused my culture with my Christianity. I’ve stuck my head in the sand instead of drawing a line in the sand. Instead of letting the scriptures be my guide, I’ve relied upon my conscience. Instead of following the words of Christ, I’ve followed the maddening crowd. I’ve permitted modernism to mangle my relationship with Christ and have let post-modernists diminish my preaching. I feel like a prodigal pastor and a theological prostitute. I need to repent, refocus, and return to the Kingly Christ of the Scriptures and not the jolly Jesus that society has created.

In the Old Testament, Job fiercely expressed his right to contend with God and be acquitted through the power of his arguments. In the New Testament, Christ freely sacrificed Himself because we cannot contend with God and be acquitted. We may be able to defend our thoughts and justify our beliefs to other people, but we cannot do the same with God. Only Christ can advocate on our behalf. And only He can do this for us if we repent of our pride, our arrogant mistakes, and false misconceptions.

Prayer:                        Lord Jesus, we foolishly believe that our society has it all right and that Your words are outdated, outmoded, and outflanked. You clearly laid out the godly ways to live our lives, but we sinfully pick and choose whatever is convenient for us. Pardon our arrogance and stupidity for believing that our generation is right and that all previous Christian generations were totally wrong. Redirect our paths and reclaim our churches as Your own. In Your Heavenly Name, we pray. Amen.

John Stuart is currently the pastor of Erin Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. If you would like to comment on today’s message, please send him an email to pastor@erinpresbyterian.org.

Alleviating AIDS

For the Church to be effectively involved in AIDS ministries in our communities, Christians have to begin the journey of healing by showing contrition for past and present condemnations of those in the margins of society.

Ephesians 2:4,5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.

Tonight, I will be preaching at a special service to commemorate World AIDS Day in our town. People from different churches across the city will gather together to share their sympathy for those victims and families of this terrible disease. There will be no judgment or criticism of lifestyle choices; instead Christians will come together to show remorse for past intolerances and seek forgiveness of those we once castigated.

Families and friends of deceased AIDS sufferers will be in attendance. Some AIDS patients will also be there, possibly giving testimonies about what they have endured. It will be a sacred time to remember that we are all human and frail, in need of support and love, looking for God’s favor and compassion. In God’s eyes, we are all the same, and by His grace, we can all be saved.

I hope and pray that after the service hearts and minds will be changed, prejudices will be diminished and self-righteousness will be vanquished. A lot of the sorrow and pain that has been experienced by the AIDS sufferers’ community has been borne out of the criticism, indignation, and condemnation of the Christian Church. No one set out to get AIDS and the God that I serve didn’t punish people with it. If anything, it was an opportunity to show compassion and embrace those on the margins of society. We failed miserably as a faith, so we have a lot of contrition, repentance, and healing to experience before we will be trusted by the diverse sector of our community.

So let’s use this time to examine our own prejudices, inhumanity, and intolerances that we all have. Let’s place them before the Lord and ask His forgiveness. Only then can we begin the hard work of healing the world.

Prayer: O Lord, we have transgressed in Your sight and created divisions in the world. Instead of showing compassion to those on the margins, we showed contempt. Instead of asking what would You do to help, we condemned others to hell. Forgive us for failing to be Christian. Help us now to heal and be healed. In Your Holy Name, we humbly pray. Amen.

Tertullian revisited; Chapter 3 - Heretics Makes Themselves Unwelcome in the Church

Chapter 3: Heretics make themselves unwelcome in the Church

False assurance and a smug attitude bedevil the heretic. He is so enchanted by his own twisted logic that he loses the ability to doubt his feelings, turning his faith into a fierce fanaticism that seeks to devour the weak and make more converts to his side.

The Church must ask itself: how does this happen? How could faithful people be so beguiled by their own thoughts that they give up on Christ and set aside Gospel values? What has caused them to fail God?

The shame of the Church is this: that those who once espoused a faithful life are now inclined to berate Christ’s followers and subvert the Gospel. The heretic now has his own agenda to destroy the Church from within, looking to corrupt the body of Christ with a disloyal, agitated, and unloving heart.

The Bible is full of fallen servants, whose desires overcome their devotion to God. They are plagued with envy, guilt, and pride. In order to be restored to God’s community, they need to seek mercy and grace, forgiveness and pardon.

The heretic cannot bring himself to do this. His false integrity and uncompromising pride makes him withhold his contrition and repentance, leading him into the path of perdition.

Only Christ persevered through life to overcome doubt and temptation, selfishness and sin. Christ’s followers, however, cannot claim the same. Christians from all sacred stations and in all walks of life fall from grace. In doing so, does this invalidate the Gospel? Does their hypocrisy diminish Christ’s authority?

Is faith proven only by our avoidance of sin? Is our grasp of God important to others who want to believe in Him? Have we wrested away God’s sovereignty by our inability to remain true at all times? Are we in danger of losing the Faith by losing our faith? Those who complete the journey of life are true Christians. Those who are still on the path to glory are called pilgrims.

We look for evidence of faith on the outside of a man. We judge his faith by his deeds, not his motives. We are blind to the inward struggle that people of faith often experience. We can only see what we want to see, but God sees further still. All hearts are disclosed to His gaze. All thoughts are known by Him alone.

God knows those who are His and He embraces those who belong to Him, even if they have fallen from grace. God loves the sinner without embracing the sin. And the faithful fallen one seeks His clemency and benevolence, favor and restoration.

Not so the heretic. He remains pure in his own eyes and does not seek the Lord’s favor. He makes his own restitution and belittles those who acknowledge their weaknesses. The heretic wallows in his own thoughts and bathes his soul in his own understanding.

Even amongst Christ’s own company, of those who walked and talked with Him, were some who chose to go another way. His message was too hard to endure; His demands were too high to achieve. They chose to make their own religion and follow an easier way. But not all of Christ’s disciples chose this. Some remained with Him until His arrest. The way was hard, but they kept their hope in the Lord.

In every generation, they are those who start on the Lord’s company, but end up taking their own sides. No church, no community of faith, no congregation of the faithful is without its critics or heretics. Even in the Lord’s solemn and sacred company of apostles was one who would choose to betray Him.

We are naïve if we believe that the Church is perfect and free from heresy. The sad thing to note is this: the Church is the breeding ground for heresy. It strikes from within and causes trouble amongst the faithful. Shepherds of the sheep must always be vigilant and look for leaders of the wolf pack.

In the end, heretics choose schism over sanctification, and division instead of devotion. They are not forced out of the church; they separate themselves from the body of Christ. They enforce their own anathema.