A Letter to the Teens

As I sit here thinking about each of you and praying to the Father for you, I cannot help but talk to you directly. I know you guys are going through a lot. And I know you're tired of hearing that your "high school drama" isn't real; but I know the pain is real. Broken relationships, loneliness, sadness, anger, jealousy...it's all real and it really hurts. I also know that I am only aware of like 10% of what you are going through. So, if you're still reading this, stick with me. What I have to say to you is important.

I love you guys. It pains me to see you in pain. When there is "drama" in your life, I am hurt. When you are angry and unforgiving and rebellious, I'm not angry. I am sad and burdened deep in my heart. Why? Because I love you. I care about you. I listen to you more than you think. I'm worried about you more than you realize. So let me explain (please stick with me!).

When I hear about your drama, when I see your tears, when I read your posts, I'm crushed because you look like a man dying from dehydration next to a water fountain. What I mean is this: you have "drama" burdens that are heavy, you come to church, hear the Bible, and sit right next to Jesus and tell Him that you don't need Him or want Him around. (Keep reading, it gets better)

I don't come and teach you the Bible because of some religious ritual. I come to you who are thirsty with a big drink of water. You are hurt, so I bring Jesus to you. If you actually trust Him enough to ruin your broken life and your broken heart, He will change things for your joy and for your good.

Why do you like the way you're living? Do you enjoy holding grudges? Do you smile when people who hurt you are hurt? Do you like having BFFs that come and go every few months? Do you like looking back and seeing relationships that burned up and placing scars on your heart? Is that the way to live life?

Please understand that I am writing to you now with tears on my cheeks. I don't even know if what I'm telling you is making any sense. But please, keep coming to our meetings. I will keep handing you a drink of this water. I can't bear seeing you thirsty. I can't bear seeing you in pain when the Healer is standing next to you.

What is far more important than my love and care for you is where I get this love: Jesus. He loves you and cares for you. He sees you lost without direction and hope. The Bible is not mini lessons of rules, but the best direction and hope. I hope to see you Sunday morning at 9:30. I hope to hear your laughter again. I hope to answer your questions some more. I hope to see you walk with Jesus in love and truth, leaving your prison of "drama" behind.

The Father's Loving Discipline

“My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of His reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom He loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.” –Proverbs3:11-12

I had a conversation recently with a kind, older woman. “I don’t go to the doctor,” she explained to me with her finger pointed downward, “I just know he’ll find something wrong with me!”

Our sinful flesh has the natural tendency to cover our shame and hide from God (Genesis3:8). We’re afraid of God, we’re ashamed before His holiness, and we don’t want to be exposed as sinful and experience His painful discipline.

In certain seasons of our life, we want to avoid God and His reproof. We despise it! So, we avoid in-depth Bible study, we avoid church services, we avoid prayer and reading God’s Word. Just like avoiding the doctor, we avoid God. 

God does not cause our sin; He does not move us away from sin to settle for holiness. His discipline is for our joy and our good. The Father delights in His children, you and me! Sin is settling for lesser pleasures. There is no greater pleasure than delighting in God. So, we must have humility to be exposed before God, ready for His discipline. He will shepherd us from the dangers of sin and to enjoy Him.

The Christian life is not a one-time discipline from God, but a lifetime discipline from God. So the proverb says, “do not…be weary of His reproof.” We are commanded to love our God with all our heart, mind, and strength (Matthew 22:37). Out of His delight for you, God is actively disciplining you to hold each thought, desire, and action captive to love Him.

This proverb tells us, “The Lord reproved whom He loves…” This is encouraging. Let those words soak into your heart! God doesn’t discipline us from wrathful disgust of us. We deserve that, but that’s been taken from us! Jesus has taken the punishment we deserve, and we are healed by His wounds (Isaiah 53:5, I Peter2:24).

As the Son in whom God delights, Christ took God’s full punishment for our sin (Matthew3:17). Disciples of Jesus are not disciplined by God to appease Him. In Christ we are already pleasing to God! He disciplines us in His love for us to enjoy Him more! God delights in disciplining us to increase our joy! My beloved flock, desire His discipline that you may move from lesser joys to enjoy God more fully.

Heavenly Father, You are good and kind to us, Your children, to discipline us to enjoy You more. Increase our joy in You through Christ Jesus who bore our punishment of Your terrible wrath and has given us life eternal and pleasures everlasting. Amen.

Let us Not Be Frightened into Stopping the Work

When the Babylonian exiles returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and temple, surrounding kings and generals sent threatening letters to Nehemiah, and Nehemiah writes, “For they wanted to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.’ But now, O God, strengthen my hands” (Nehemiah6:9).

The world is a chaotic place of darkness. If we stare too long and listen too hard at it, we will see the brokenness and hear the painful cries of pleasure without joy; water from a well that never satisfies (John 4:13). From this world comes taunting and distraction. “The church has become irrelevant,” they shout. “Christians are hateful bigots,” they claim. “The church is dying,” they mock while pointing to closed church buildings. The noise from the world can and is causing Christians to stumble and become silent, stopping our commanded work.

Let’s be confident. Not simply in our faith, but Who the object of our faith is. He is mighty; He is mighty to provide and He is mighty to save. Our confidence is not to be founded upon ourselves or upon the work of the church gathered. The source of the confidence of the Christian and the work of the church is to be the might of the Lord.

When the world seeks to frighten the Christian’s work of disciple-making and discipleship, trying desperately to get us to stop the work, let us pray like Nehemiah: “But now, O God, strengthen my hands.” Not by our own will or driven by inner strength, but seeking God to strengthen our hands.

Let us be like Paul, learning to have joyful obedience not dependent upon comfort, but “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). 

When the exiles finished building the wall of Jerusalem, Nehemiah tells us, “all the nations around us were afraid” (Nehemiah 6:16). Let us do Kingdom work, being confident disciple-makers using the power of God in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

O sovereign God, strengthen the hands of your servants to take the light of Jesus Christ into darkness, and grant us peace in Your presence shielded from the noise of this world. May Your Name be glorified in the work of our hands. Amen.

Humble, Patient Listening

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” (James 1:19).

While I was stopped at a red light this week, another car beside me kept easing past the designated white line. He ducked down to read the light of the crossing traffic to time the light change. As soon as the crossing traffic light turned red, he tapped his accelerator. Unfortunately, the oncoming turn lane became green as our light stubbornly remained red. He had to brake well into the intersection. And he looked foolish doing it.

We are not natural listeners. We are quick to speak and quick to judge. When someone has a problem, we talk to fix it. When things aren’t going the way we want, we speak quickly to let others know it. Our hearts explode through our mouths to make certain our preferences and ideas are met. We jump out in front, and often look foolish doing it. But the new creature in Christ is commanded to use the new heart Jesus gave us. 

It takes a great deal of humility to be quick to listen. Before speaking, we are to value the person and listen to their words. We listen to gain understanding, yielding because we desire a genuine relationship with someone else speaking. We listen so we provide a biblical, thoughtful, and loving response. This means our first desire in conversations is to possess a patient humility. Why? Because love is patient (I Corinthians 13:4). Our natural reaction is not humble patience. 

We are not commanded to NOT respond, just to be patient in our response. Proverbs 12:18 says, “There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.” Our temper is to be crushed by a humble, patient love. We have a thoughtful, biblical response to be delivered out of true loving care for others. We possess a tongue to proclaim Jesus in His Word, and His Word pierces (Hebrews 4:12), and His Word heals (Psalm 107:20). In other words, the Bible does the work. Not our sinful hearts which complain when our preferences aren’t met, or rebukes sharply when we don’t get what we want, or refuses to listen because of selfish indifference. We are called to have loving hearts patiently humble to listen, giving a clear, biblical response of God’s grace.

Lord, be gracious to us and give us humble, patient hearts to listen and use our mouths to proclaim the truth of Your glory. Amen.

Do Not Be Surprised at the Fiery Trial

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (I Peter 4:12).

Recent shifts in our culture have many Christians concerned about how we will be treated. However, the Bible tells us that when cultural shifts occur and the church of Jesus Christ is mistreated, this is an opportunity and not a time to panic. The church of Jesus Christ is mighty in seasons of comfort and seasons of discomfort.

The early church went through several generations that experienced fierce, bloody persecution. However, in this time, the global church grew exponentially. When Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4^th Century, the church became comfortable. The church became internally focused. Discipleship waned. The clever, devilish enemies of the church is not discomfort and trial, but comfort and internal focus.

When the culture around us begins to see following Christ as a freakish thing, let us not cower and panic, but seize the opportunity to show what the powerful grace of God in Jesus Christ does to a person. We are here on earth to be on mission to make disciples of Jesus. Don’t be surprised that the world finds Jesus and His Word to be disgusting and wicked in their worldview. 

The very next verse, Peter says to “keep on rejoicing.” Why? “That you may also rejoice and be glad when (Jesus’) glory is revealed.” Rejoice now so you will rejoice in eternity. When the culture shifts, when Caesar issues new decrees, when judges make unjust decisions, God has not lost anything. He is still just as sovereign as yesterday. His return and completion of His eternal Kingdom has not lost any days or any joy. Therefore, we Christians are to keep on rejoicing! Our joy is not lost in trials, and we are not to think that trials and insults are strange things.

Let us remember to rejoice in the Lord always. Not in how agreeable our culture is to the church, not in how comfortable I am; we rejoice in the Lord. Always. Keep on rejoicing. We will rejoice when His glory is revealed. His joy is in us, and our joy will increase and be completed on that day. Rejoice in the Lord.

A Discerning Ear

“The mind of the discerning acquires knowledge,
                and the ear of the wise seeks it” (Proverbs18:15).

I recently joined our church choir. I’m not a trained singer, so I have to listen to the music and other tenors and adjust my voice to match. This does not come naturally to me. The choir practices, helps one another, and seeks guidance from Bill, our music director. 

The same is with discernment. No one is born with the “perfect pitch” of a wise, discerning ear. We don’t cruise into receiving a discerning ear with ease. We need to listen to truth to know truth from lies. We need each other for encouragement and a biblical understanding. We need pastoral guidance in the rightly divided preaching of the Word. We need to gather as a biblical church to mature each other as discerning disciples of Jesus (Hebrews 5:14). 

We need more than a listening ear for truth, however. We need a grace-fueled desire to delight in the truth. Sin and false teaching are attractive to us. That’s what makes them tempting. We need to learn to ask: Is the teaching that speaks to my heart the rightly divided Word of God? Again, this is not natural to any sinner. 

The Proverb above tells us that wise disciples gain an ear to discern with the acquired knowledge of the Bible. Why would we want to learn discernment? First, Jesus said He teaches us truth that our joy may be full (John 15:11). Sin and false teaching may seem attractive, but are short lived and the joy is temporary and incomplete. When Jesus is our joy, our joy is eternal and complete. Second, because the truth sets us free from temptations which persuade us to settle for lesser joys than God. 

We need to trust Jesus with our joy and diligently listen to His truth in the Bible to gain an ear to know good from evil. We do this not in personal study alone; we need to study the Word with each other. So, let us encourage one another toward the full joy in Christ Jesus by teaching the truth in love for one another (Ephesians4:15).