Monthly Archives: March 2012

You might think from the title that today’s blog would discuss diet and exercise.  Many of you know my history as a coach and fitness trainer; but as much as I still stress sound nutrition and appropriate exercise, my focus today is quite different. I want to examine the heart and the role it plays in healthy living for the disciple of Christ.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.  (1 Corinthians 13:13)

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, He took his audience to a place called love: love for God and love for others (Mark 12:28-31).  The sign of healthy living for the Christian is not rooted in diet and exercise.  The apostle Paul acknowledged that “Bodily training is of some value,” but, as the passage above explains, vibrant Christian living is rooted in love, and that love must start within our family of faith.

Without true Christians loving one another, Christ says the world cannot be expected to listen, even when we give proper answers.  Let us be careful, indeed, to spend a lifetime studying to give honest answers.  For years the orthodox, evangelical church has done this very poorly.  So it is well to spend time learning to answer the questions of men who are about us.  But after we have done our best to communicate to a lost world, still we must never forget that the final apologetic which Jesus gives is the observable love of true Christians for true Christians.  — Francis Schaffer, The Great Evangelical Disaster 

What Schaeffer called “the final apologetic” seems more like the forgotten or “absent” apologetic in the church today.  Sometimes we seem to believe it is more important to be right than to be loving.  At other times we act as if it is more valuable to get our way than to lay our lives down for others.  We fuss about the music . . . we fight about which ministry gets highlighted . . . we hyperventilate about the person standing up in front of us raising his or her hands in worship.  This is unhealthy living for members of the Body of Christ, and it gives the watching world ample excuse to stop looking, quit listening, and walk away.

We make God attractive to the watching world when we demonstrate the selfless love of Christ—a love that is not only unconditional, but sacrificial.  It was the pattern of our Prince to love sacrificially, regardless of the cost or circumstance.  He received those who were outcasts from society.  He talked with those who were shunned by society.  He traveled with those who were the low-class of society.  His love was observable and offered to a fallen, broken, and hurting world as the final apologetic.

What would those who know you best say about your observable love?  How attractive do you make your God?  Are you reflecting the love of Christ to those you come in contact with—starting with your family of faith?  Make no mistake; we are diseased to the degree that we fail to love, regardless of cost or circumstance.  Your level of healthy living will always be in direct proportion to the level of love you have for God and all others.

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

If you took a moment to reflect on all that you have been asking God for in your times of prayer and meditation, what would that list look like?  Now . . . if you were restricted to ask only one thing of God, what would that one thing be?

One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.  (Psalm 27:2)

It’s one thing to make your “one thing” to dwell in the house of the Lord when the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the clouds are fleecy.  It’s another thing altogether for David to have asked this in the middle of the storm he was facing.  Under attack, David didn’t ask for victory or vindication, rescue or retribution.  No, David asked for the one thing he was created for, the one thing we were all created for: to be in the house of the Lord and to gaze upon His unparalleled and unprecedented beauty, majesty, and glory.  This is the divine design of every image bearer of God.

So . . . what is your one thing today?  What one thing will bring you the happiness, satisfaction, or contentment you crave?

• In your singleness, is your “one thing” marriage?
• In your marriage, is your “one thing” the thing your spouse needs to change?
• In your parenting, is your “one thing” successful children?
• In your profession, is your “one thing” advancement?
• In your social circle, is your “one thing” approval?
• In your self-image, is your “one thing” the body you had at 20?
• In your religion, is your “one thing” what you are doing . . . or what Jesus has done?

The list could go on and on.  How easy it is to take Jesus off the throne of our lives and put something or someone infinitely smaller than Him on it!  Sure, the promise of that “one thing”—if we were only to get it—is powerful, but in the end, it is never able to deliver.  Divided affections lead to distraction, disappointment, and ultimately defeat for the child of God.  It is only the grace of the Gospel that can cause our every affection to be rooted in one affection, and His name is Jesus Christ.  And make no mistake; if Jesus is not your one thing, Jesus is not your Lord.  Your functional lord is whatever your one thing happens to be at the time. And anything smaller than Jesus shrinks the size of your life down to the size of your life, a size far too small for the committed Christian!

In the heart of every believer there is a war raging for control of our lives as the “one thing” we desire more than any other thing.  In the middle of a season of great struggle David cried out for one thing—and that one thing was God.  Whether we are in the middle of raging storm winds or a season of great success, may the grace of the Gospel empower us to do just that.

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!

Have you ever thought about the difficulty of remaining faithful in fullness?  Many of us are far more likely to remain steadfast in the storms of life than in our successes.  How easy it is, while riding the crest of the wave of success, to forget who sent the wave and placed us safely on top of it!  Charles Spurgeon profoundly underscored this truth:

The Christian far oftener disgraces his profession in prosperity than in adversity.  It is a dangerous thing to be prosperous.  The crucible of adversity is a less severe trial to the Christian than the fining-pot of prosperity.  Oh, what leanness of soul and neglect of spiritual things have been brought on through the very mercies and bounties of God!

How sad to be doing well in life and forget the Well from which we have been given the privilege to drink!  But this is not for you . . . and the apostle Paul provides some great insight for us all.

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  (Philippians 4:12)

How instructive to read about the life of Paul, who knew how to be just as faithful in fullness as he was in emptiness.  Most of us have a tendency to believe it easy to walk by faith when we are walking in fullness.  But this is not necessarily true!  God is well aware of the sinful proclivity of our hearts and warned the people of Israel:

When the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)

Fullness often makes us forgetful.  We forget the Giver of the gift.  We forget the grace of the gift.  We forget the goal of the gift.  Spurgeon said, “Satisfied with earth, we are content to do without heaven.”  God in His grace gives us good gifts for the goal of blessing others and advancing the cause of His kingdom, not to relax our focus and forget our Redeemer. 

Paul knew how to be faithful “in any and every circumstance” because he never lost sight of the reason for his fullness.  He knew that what he had he had been given was because of God’s grace, not his own goodness.  He never forgot that the more he had, the more he was in debt to the One who had given it to him.  So, with a heart filled with gratitude, Paul progressed further up and further into his calling, regardless of the circumstance he found himself in . . . even to the point of being faithful in his fullness. 

This is the Gospel.  This is grace for your race.  NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!