Keeping the Old New

 

“Endurance is a key indicator of spiritual fitness.” Alistair Begg

Did you ever have a song that you loved when it first came out but then it was so overplayed, you changed the radio station when it came on? How about one of those commercials that was hilarious the first time you saw it but when it was played over and over, it drove you crazy? Maybe there was a new car style that was so unique and different at first, but then it seemed like everyone was buying one, so it just became “another car”?
  Many things are wonderful when they’re new – new paint, new hairstyle, new recipe, new restaurant, new friend – but soon they’re no longer…new.
  Marriage as God designed it is probably one of the best examples of this. When you’re first married, everything is new. It’s exciting! It’s thrilling. It’s the Honeymoon. Yet sooner or later—the newness wears off. Maybe the spark that started the relationship or the fire that was burning in the early years of marriage, begins to fizzle.
  The Bible compares the Christian life to a marriage. Like a marriage, becoming a Christian is a commitment. It requires repentance, submission, and transformation. Repentance involves confessing our sins and turning from them. Submission means accepting that we can’t save ourselves and totally need Jesus as our Savior. Transformation happens as we allow God’s Spirit to change us from the inside out.
  When you become a Christian, everything is new. It’s hard to describe the ecstasy of surrendering your life to Jesus, of having the guilt lifted off of your heart. You have a new purpose, plan, and desires. As Billy Graham said, “Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion – it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ.”
  Many things happen at the moment of salvation but two are very noticeable and significant. You have a new friend dwelling inside you – the Holy Spirit. Just as you could not save yourself, you can’t live the Christian life on your own. The Holy Spirit is your 24/7 companion, the source of spiritual power, and the One who cultivates spiritual growth in your life. His transformative power will continue throughout your lifetime as you strive towards loving Jesus more, loving others more and becoming more like Jesus. Literally, when you become a Christian, everything becomes new. It’s a life-changing decision that sets you on a path toward abundant life now and eternal life with Christ in heaven in the future.
  But then you got a new enemy that you never had before. Before you were on Satan’s side, part of his doomed crew. Now you’re part of God’s forever family. As Satan hates God, he now hates you. You’re his enemy!
  You became a Christian when you trusted God and His Word. One of Satan’s greatest attacks is to cause you to doubt and to stop trusting God. Sorrow, pain, loss, and injustice are part of life. Often, they take on a new intensity for a Christian as Satan heats up his assaults. He’ll whisper in your heart that “if God really loved you, He wouldn’t let you go through this.” It sometimes seems the most diabolical individuals have lives of ease. The author of Psalm 73 experienced that and began to doubt God but turned back to God in the end.
  Temptation is one of Satan’s main weapons. It takes many different forms that fit with our soft spots. With some he’ll tempt with sins of the flesh like immorality, pleasure-seeking, or destructive habits. If those don’t work, he’ll tempt with sins of the heart like evil thoughts, wrong motives, anger, pride, jealousy, or bitterness. Or he’ll attack us spiritually by seeking to fill us with doubts, convincing us that God doesn’t care, filling us with fear, anxiety, or despair. One of his greatest attacks is very subtle – he just keeps us busy, so busy that we’re distracted from the real world. Temporal things become huge; the eternal becomes increasingly insignificant.
  When Satan attacks you, it’s his ploy to turn you away from God. To win over him you must combat his lies with the truth of God’s Word, with prayer, and the help of other believers. The Bible says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
  How do you keep your Christian life fresh? It’s the same thing that you do to keep a marriage fresh – you keep dating! Any couple having marital problems will share that a core issue is a lack of communication. 
  If you do not regularly read your Bible, your Christian life will stagnate. If something is important to us, it’s a priority. Make Bible reading a part of your daily routine. It helps you be consistent and grow in your faith. Find a time and place where you can read a Bible passage without distractions.
  If you do not regularly find time for prayer, your Christian life will stagnate. When we read our Bibles, God speaks to us. But it’s to be a two-way conversation. Through prayer we communicate with God, seek His guidance and wisdom. It strengthens our relationship with Him, helps us understand His will for our lives, empowering us to live a more Christ-centered life. Plan a time for daily prayer and make it a consistent habit.
  Regularly attend church services and get involved with your church family. Technology is a blessing and a curse. Watching a worship service isn’t the same as being there. It’s a substitute for real relationships.
  I haven’t been with my son, Aaron, who’s in Taiwan for six years though we talk via the Internet. It’s not the same and limits our relationship.
  To keep your Christian life fresh, you must physically connect with fellow believers and build meaningful relationships by participating in worship together regularly. As with a healthy family, it’s vital to both serve and be served. It’s hard for that to happen without presence. Serving helps us grow and lets others have a godly impact on us. Being part of a community of believers provides a sense of belonging. It helps hold each of us accountable in our faith. It can include checking in on each other, praying for each other, and encouraging each other in spiritual growth.
  Your faith will stagnate unless you share it. The most miserable Christians are those who don’t share their faith. God saved us and enlisted each one of us to be His missionary where He’s placed us. It is easy to get focused on social activities or the church building or even more Bible study but neglect sharing the gospel.
  There’s nothing more exciting for a whole family than a new baby. There’s nothing more exciting for a church family than seeing individuals come to Christ. When you meet Jesus, it’s natural to want to introduce others to Him. It’s weird to not to share what He’s done for you. Telling the good news of the gospel is as simple as sharing what you’ve personally experienced and inviting someone else to consider Him.
   So, if your walk with Christ has grown cold, turn to Him and let His Spirit set you on fire again. Then, live for something that eternally matters!

Can we help you spiritually? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address. 

No Lone Ranger Christians

“Some Christians try to go to heaven alone, in solitude. But believers are not compared to bears or lions or other animals that wander alone. Those who belong to Christ are sheep in this respect, that they love to get together. Sheep go in flocks, and so do God’s people.”   Charles Spurgeon

If you boiled down the Christian life to one word what would it word be? At the risk of being too simplistic, I believe the word would be relationships. When Jesus was asked the most important commandment, He talked first about our relationship with God and then with others. He pointedly indicated one’s relationship with others must be a close second to our relationship with God. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets’” (Matt. 22:35-40). Relationships are at the heart of Christian living.

  As a human being, community is in your design. We were created by God to live in vital relationships with each other. To understand why community is so vital, we must understand that we’re made in the image of God—and exactly what sort of God in whose image we were made.

  In Genesis we learn that humans are made in the image of the triune God. This means that, as humans, we’re made in the image of a God who is a “We,” not a “Me.” You’ll notice in Genesis that God says, “let US make man in our image.” God’s three-ness has huge implications for what it means to be human. Since we’re made in the image of the God who exists in community, we’re a being who has community hard-wired into our DNA. We’re designed for community. When we ignore relationships, we cut against the grain of our very humanity. We can’t isolate ourselves without becoming deeply broken and lonely.

  God told Adam at the beginning, “it is not good for man to be alone.” Adam was lonely not because he was imperfect, but because he was perfectly made in the image of the God of community. There was no sin, there were no relationship breakdowns. He was designed for “other,” not just self.  

  At Grace Church, we are committed to community. We are committed to being part of God’s solution to eradicate loneliness and don’t want anyone to be alone. We were built to know and be known because we’re made in the Father’s image.

  Our Grace  Community groups exist to foster this basic “life together” for which we were built. They’re vital to healthy Christian living. Yes, they will help us grow in our knowledge of God and His Word BUT that’s not their main purpose. Their main purpose is to help us draw closer to each other by drawing closer to the Lord. It’s unusual to find a growing Christian who is not part of some type of small group. That’s because…

  We are redeemed for community. When Adam fell into sin, we were not only separated from God, we were also separated from each another. The world was relationally fractured, resulting in racism, murders, strife, alienation, and every other kind of societal breakdown. A critical aspect of God’s work in Christ is to heal broken relationships caused by sin. And God has a wonderful plan for relational healing – the local church. God is a community-forming God. He never brings a person into a relationship with Himself, without bringing them into a relationship with others.

  In the New Testament the local church is described with strikingly intense metaphors. Christians are likened to “living stones” in a holy temple. We’re called “fellow citizens” of the kingdom of God and “members of the same household.” Throughout the New Testament we’re called “brothers and sisters.” Scripture is wonderfully clear. The gospel unites us in relationships closer than even with our blood relatives. Jesus connects people of different classes, races and genders into “one new man.”

  It’s impossible to be a Christian on your own. It’s a violation of God’s plan and it’s a sin to be a “Lone Ranger” Christian. God has redeemed you to be in a deep, rich, close-knit community.

  Love is the identifying behavior of a Christian. Jesus said, ““By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). The only way you can know that you love other believers is if you actually spend time with them and know them. You can’t truly love someone you don’t know or have little contact with.

  There’s a famous character in Dostoyevsky’s Brother’s Karamazov who considers himself a humanitarian. He loves humanity and gives lots of his money to charities. The problem is that he hates people.

  The power of the early church is seen in that former enemies (Jews & Gentiles) live together as “brothers and sisters” in a close-knit community. Community is the context where our love is tested. How do I know if I love others? You must get to know a real “other.” You get into close Christian community with a person that’s different than yourself, even a person who was once an enemy. Community is the only place where God’s agape love is revealed. That kind of love happens best in small groups.

  Community matters enough to be prioritized. It must be more than an afterthought. It must be our focus.

  It grieves me that many in our church miss this vital aspect of the Christian life. We’ve sought to make our groups very convenient in that many of them meet on Sundays after the morning service. There’s not a more important ministry in the life of our church than our small groups. It’s truly that important. They begin again on September 15^th at 10:45 am.

  Please plan to join one. Please make it a priority! Your spiritual health depends on it!

Can we help you spiritually? Can we help you know Jesus better? Please check out more resources on our church's web page, Gracechurchwi.org. Or, call us at 262.763.3021. If you'd like to know more about how Jesus can change your life, I'd love to mail you a copy of how Jesus changed my life in "My Story." E-mail me at Carson@gracechurchwi.org to request a free copy. Please include your mailing address.