$3 Worth of God

God is our greatest treasure, and our lives will count on earth

only when we invest them in His kingdom for eternity.”  David Platt 

Some years ago Wilbur Rees wrote the following convicting description of the average Christian’s view of the Christian life:

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.  

Not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, 

but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk

or a snooze in the sunshine. 

I don’t want enough of God to make me love a black man 

or pick beets with a migrant. 

I want ecstasy, not transformation. 

I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth. 

I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. 

I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.

  It’s disturbingly familiar, isn’t it? If we’re honest, we find it very convicting. I know that I do. We want to believe that there is a good and gracious God who loves and accepts all people. But then, suggest that this same perfect Being might also be moral, holy, righteous, and pure; or that He may ask something of us in return and suddenly our enthusiasm to know and serve Him begins to wane.

  Yet, as we read the New Testament, it’s clear that what the Lord Jesus has called us to is not to just get “our ticket punched for heaven.” Being a Christ-follower is a surrendered life. Jesus, Himself told us what the cost is: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24; Luke 9:23). The call of salvation, the call of God for each man and woman is to a surrendered life. He calls us to come to Him, to embrace Him – all of Him and then having been with Him to go from His presence to be an agent of change in the world.

  When Jesus carried His cross up Golgotha to be crucified, no one was thinking of the cross as symbolic of a burden to carry. It wasn’t jewelry or wall decoration. To someone in the 1^st century, taking up your cross was a one-way trip. It meant one thing – death by the most painful and humiliating means human beings could develop.

  Two thousand years later, Christians view the cross as a cherished symbol of God’s love, atonement, forgiveness, and grace. But in Jesus’ day, the cross represented nothing but torturous death. Because the Romans forced convicted criminals to carry their own crosses to the place of crucifixion, bearing a cross meant carrying their own execution device while facing ridicule along the way to death. “Take up your cross and follow Me” means total surrender. It means being willing to die to self in order to follow Jesus. It’s a call to absolute surrender.

  A hen and a pig saw a church sign announcing the sermon: “What Can We Do to Help the Poor?” The hen suggested that they feed them bacon and eggs. The pig thought about it and replied, “There’s one thing wrong with your idea: for you it requires only a contribution, but for me it requires total commitment!” That’s what Jesus has called us to – total commitment.

  After each occasion that Jesus commanded cross bearing, He said, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:24-25). Though the call is costly, the reward, both in this life and in eternity is incomparable.

  Read the Gospel accounts and you’ll find that Jesus often sought to discourage would-be followers by pointing out the high price of being a Christ-follower. How different from the typical gospel presentation of today. How many people would respond to committing their life to Christ if it was also shared, “Come follow Jesus, and you may face the loss of friends, family, reputation, career, and possibly even your life”? The number of false converts would quickly decrease. Yet, that’s exactly what the Lord Jesus meant when He said, “Take up your cross and follow Me.”

  If you wonder if you’re ready to take up your cross, consider these questions: Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means losing some of your closest friends? Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means alienation from your family? Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means the loss of your reputation? Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means losing your job? Are you willing to follow Jesus if it means losing your life? Because that’s what it meant for believers throughout most of the history of the Church. In many places in the world, those consequences are still true.

  Notice the question is phrased, “Are you willing?” Following Jesus doesn’t necessarily mean all these things will happen but are you willing to take up your cross? If there comes a point in your life when you’re faced with a choice—Jesus or the comforts of this life—which will you choose?

  Commitment to Christ means taking up your cross daily, giving up your hopes, dreams, possessions, even your very life if need be for the cause of Christ. Only if you willingly take up your cross can you be called His disciple (Luke 14:27). Yet, the reward is worth the price. Jesus followed His call of total sacrifice and death to self with the gift of life, eternal life, in Christ: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it” (Matt. 16:25-26).

  When we read Jesus’ words we have a hard time understanding the word “lose.” We live in a culture that’s programmed into us that winning is good and losing is bad. When athletes lose a big game or a salesman loses a big account. they lose sleep as a result. Have you ever seen a car with a bumper sticker that says, “My child is a loser”?

  Our world’s attitude is: “Winner Takes All.” Jesus’ words fly straight in the face of this obsession with winning. He says instead that, “The real name of the game is ‘Loser Takes All.’” His statement about losing and gaining is a paradox. To help us understand this we should substitute some other words and phrases for the word “lose.” Jesus said, “Whoever wants to save (play it safe) his life will lose (waste) it, but whoever loses (surrenders) his life for Me will find it (be rewarded).”

  Instead of talking about losing, it’s really about the wasted life versus the surrendered life. The bottom line is that those are the only two ways you can choose to live – take up our cross or $3 worth of God. My friend, which one will you choose? 

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. 

Fully Committed

“There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when circumstances permit. When you’re committed to something,

you accept no excuses, only results.” Art Turock

When Texas pastor, Jim Denison, was in college, he served as a summer missionary in East Malaysia. While there he attended a small church. One day during a service, Denison happened to notice some worn-out luggage leaning against the wall in a corner of the church. When the pastor finished his sermon, he extended an invitation for people to receive Christ.

  A teenage Malaysian girl made her way down the aisle to announce her decision to follow Christ and be baptized. As was their tradition, they baptized the girl and a few others who had decided to trust Christ at the end of the service. But Jim remembered the luggage he’d seen earlier and asked the pastor about it as he was leaving the baptistry. The pastor pointed to the teenage girl who’d just been baptized and told Denison, “Her father said that if she was baptized as a Christian, she could never go home again. So she brought her luggage.”

  That’s a very common occurrence, particularly in cultures or in families antagonistic to Christianity. The price to follow Jesus is very high. The commitment to Jesus by believers who pay the ultimate price for following Christ puts me to shame. When we get Home, I believe that they’ll be some that are closest to the Throne! I can’t wait to meet them!

  American culture is anti-commitment, particularly when it comes to our walk with the Lord. Committing to a local church has become unusual. Some believers will attend, often for years, and never make a commitment of membership. It’s a bit like someone who lives together for years, yet never takes that step of an official marriage.

  While it’s true the Bible never uses the term “church membership,” a study of Scripture clearly shows that membership was the norm for those early believers. Each local church knew who was committed to their fellowship and who wasn’t. Nearly every letter written in the New Testament was written either to a church or to the pastor of a church.

  During this Pandemic I’ve continually repeated, #ThisOURtime. In one of the most difficult periods in recent history, our God sold both of our properties that we needed to sell, though they’d previously been on the market for several years. During this Pandemic because of your generosity, we’re able to pave our parking lot. During this Pandemic, we’re able to hire a new part-time assistant pastor, James Hauser. During this Pandemic because of the Spirit working in lives, we’re adding seven believers to our church membership. It brings tears to my eyes as I contemplate our Heavenly Father’s hand of blessing on our church!

  The local church is God’s plan. Study the New Testament and you’ll quickly discover that it’s God’s plan for this post-resurrection age. Several New Testament metaphors for the church delineate official membership.

  The local church is a family. This is my favorite picture of the church (Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2:19). Paul and Peter both call the church God’s “household” (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 4:17)—another word for “family.”

  What’s your family made of? Members, of course. Family members aren’t names on a paper or a file folder of marriage and birth certificates. A family is a network of relationships and obligations. Family members are bound to one another. They share meals, celebrate together, mourn together, rejoice together, make decisions together, and when they’re apart, they long to reunite. Family is a place where we share our intimate secrets and struggles, yet are still loved and accepted.

  Are you like me? I have lifelong friends in this church who are brothers and sisters in Christ. Yet, it’s not just our church. I have brothers and sisters who I’ve loved for more than forty years that I connected with at one of the first churches that I served in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

  If you have a painful biological family history, in the church we have a new family. It’s not anywhere near perfect, yet unlike our natural families our spiritual one is functional not dysfunctional, in that we’re committed to Jesus, committed to loving each other, committed to unity in the midst of diversity and committed to biblical problem solving.

  The local church is a body. In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul refers to the church as the “body of Christ” and to Christians as “members” of that body—an image he likely adopted from Jesus Himself (Acts 9:4). The Bible knows nothing of an individual, isolated or independent Christian. A Christian is like a hand, a foot, a toe, an artery, a kidney, or any other body part—we’re only healthy and useful if we’re in the body. This metaphor is fertile for application. It dignifies every church member because every body part is necessary. It also suggests the danger of not being in the body. How healthy is a detached limb or a discarded organ? The metaphor ties our spiritual health to each other. As we know from our own bodies, when one member suffers, the whole body suffers.

  The Apostle Paul refers to the believers at Corinth as “members” of the body of Christ five times just in 1 Corinthians. A member of the body of Christ as being vitally connected to the life of the body—so much so that the joys and suffering of other members become your own (1 Cor. 12:26). The shared life between the members assumes that they’re rubbing shoulders with one another, bearing one another’s griefs, and sharing in each other’s joys and burdens.

  The local church is a temple. Paul calls the church the “temple of God” (1 Cor. 3:16–17). Peter calls Christians “living stones” that build up a “spiritual house (1 Pet. 2:4–5). As we await the return of Christ, the church is now the dwelling place of God. Like bricks mortared together, a church is composed of individuals built into a single temple. As we work for the “common good” of the congregation, we manifest His Spirit that resides in us (1 Cor. 12:7). We’re held together in Jesus, Who is the cornerstone of our foundation as a structure built by God through His Spirit.

  As we’re joined together by Jesus, He’s the source of our unity. Our foundation is God’s Word, so we must study it, teach and preach it, and frame our lives by it. It’s our blueprint. But the building is incomplete. We’re continually under construction, so we must not get used to the décor or become satisfied that enough rooms have been added.

  Scripture is clear. The Christian life is a call to total commitment. Jesus challenges us to “take up our cross and follow Him.” He loves the church so much that He died for it (Eph. 5:25). He’s called us to love His church too and live for it. It’s a call to commitment. Do you need to sign up?

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. 

Commitment

“There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses only results.”

  A young man walked into a photography studio with a framed picture of his girlfriend. He wanted to have the picture duplicated. This involved removing it from the frame. In doing this, the studio owner noticed the inscription on the back of the photograph:

  “My dearest Tom, I love you with all my heart. I love you more and more each day. I will love you forever and ever. I am yours for all eternity.”

  It was signed Helen and contained this P.S.: “If we ever break up, I want this picture back.” Apparently, Helen wasn’t completely committed to that relationship and had already planned for the back door. 

  Certain characteristics are so intrinsic to Christianity that to neglect them is to be a walking oxymoron, a Christian without commitment is an aberration. Much of what’s considered committed today in the Church is not what we find in the Bible. Being committed is much more than just showing up for a worship service, giving a few bucks and going home. So, what does it really mean to be committed follower of Christ?

  Several passages in the Bible define commitment. The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:31: “I die daily.” You’ll never meet a committed Christ-follower who doesn’t die daily to a host of things that would seek to have a grip on him or her—personal ambition, worldly pleasures, people’s applause, greed. This culture ferociously maintains that “you can have it all” but such thinking is foreign to the mind and teaching of Christ. Even though we live in the midst of a very different culture than that of the New Testament, our Lord’s call to commitment hasn’t changed. There are things that we must die to, walk away from, and give up. Jesus’ repeat of the Jewish Shema in Luke 10:27 to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind” means that we need to obey God’s Word and order our lives in such a way that we can live in the constant awareness of His presence.

  Included is to love others (our neighbor). The Apostle John connects the dots with this question: “How can you say you love God yet hate your brother?” (1 John 4:20). Today hate is “normal.” Too frequently, a hateful attitude spills over into the Church. But the Bible makes it clear that devotion to Christ includes being loving and at peace with others, particularly brothers and sisters in Christ. As Christians, we must take Matthew 5:23-24 (the need to be reconciled with our fellow believers before coming to God) very seriously. Relational integrity is to be a priority. It demands that we pro-actively seek reconciliation whenever a problem arises and obediently follow the steps of Matthew 18:15-20.

  Commitment means adhering to Jesus’ teaching on the use of time, talents and treasure. God wants first place not after someone has spent forty plus years devoting their time and talents to the marketplace. Scripture says, “Seek first the kingdom of God” “Always abound in the work of the Lord,” or “What does it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul?” It takes a lifetime to develop personal spiritual disciplines—Bible study, prayer, giving and serving. Commitment requires us to invest the time in fellowship and community. It means seeking to advance the Kingdom in practical service and sharing the gospel with family and friends. Those commitments are yardsticks evaluating our devotion to Christ.

  The Christian life is about death to self and allowing the Spirit to live through you. The greatest fulfillment never comes from getting but from giving. There is an immeasurable joy that comes from giving yourself to Christ and sharing your life with others. There’s something about seeing a younger brother or sister grow in grace that gives an un-matchless pleasure but you’ll never discover this apart from commitment.

  I learned commitment by watching my adopted parents (Dave & Mary Cummins) care for his aging mother in their home. I’ve seen it when a family provides hospice for a cancer victim. It’s a custom often forgotten today, when such care is frequently subcontracted out.

  Our world knows very little of commitment. Even the Church has often jettisoned commitment. Yet, by abandoning commitment, our narcissistic culture has lost the one thing it desperately seeks: joy. Without commitment, our lives are barren and sterile. Without commitment they lack meaning and purpose. Because if nothing is worth dying for (the anthem of the ‘60s anti-war protesters), then ultimately, nothing is worth living for. With commitment comes fulfillment and flourishing—of a personal calling, of marriage, of the Church—and our very hearts. It's the paradox Jesus so frequently shared when He urged us to come and die so that we might truly live. 

  James Calvert was a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands. When he and his fellow missionaries landed on the island, the captain of the ship that brought them attempted to get them to turn back. “You will die, the men with you will die, if you stay here.” he cried. And after a moment Calvert replied simply, “We died before we came here.”

  Our world wrongly says that life comes from living it up and living for self. The evidence of such flawed reasoning surrounds us. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Jesus urges us to trust Him and come, and die. It’s only as we take up our cross and die to self that we begin to live in His resurrection power. It’s total commitment. It’s what Paul meant when he wrote, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). It’s only by first dying with Christ that we live in that “gain” of the fulfillment of His resurrected life now. Commitment is the first step to real life.   

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. 

I do: It's a sacred vow

“If you want something to last forever, you treat it differently.

You shield it and protect it. You never abuse it. You don’t expose it to the elements. You don’t make it common or ordinary. If it ever becomes tarnished, you lovingly polish it until it gleams like new. It becomes special because you have made it so, and it grows more beautiful and precious as time goes by.”  F. Burton Howard

  How often do you go to the doctor, not just when you are sick, but for a check-up? How about the dentist? What about changing the oil and filter in your car? A tune-up? The air filter in your furnace? The batteries in your smoke detectors? So what is there in your life that doesn’t require some periodic attention and regular maintenance?

  Yet, for some reason when it comes to our marriages, the focus we made many years ago is supposed to be enough. Then, regrettably, many couples get married and are not given any pre-marital counseling at all (hopefully, that trend is changing…at least for church weddings).

  For some reason we believe that material possessions require maintenance, yet are oblivious to the “maintenance” needs of our marriage, and then we’re shocked when they cough and sputter as we drive down the road of life. Some wait too late and only seek help when the marriage is already in critical care. Sadly, sometimes the relationship is so diseased, it’s virtually unsalvageable.

  Yesterday, I had the privilege of officiating at a wedding for a couple that I’ve known for several years. Over the course of several months we met several times and worked through some of the key basics of what it takes to have a healthy marriage. Essentially, we only laid a foundation that they are now going to have to build on and maintain if they want to have a Christ-honoring marriage.

  One of those final details though of the wedding ceremony are the vows. Usually, I use the traditional vows. Some couples want to write their own and that’s fine. There is only one vital challenge. Because a wedding and love is emotional (as it should be), there’s a tendency when it comes to the vows to say what expresses your feelings. That’s not enough. When it comes to the wedding vows, they must also convey the commitment of the couples’ wills.

  Most people fail to realize that during the wedding ceremony, they are never asked how they feel about the person that they are marrying. Think about other areas where we take vows. Can you imagine someone taking a vow to serve in the military including in their vow how they feel about serving our country? Does anyone really feel like going to boot camp? Does anyone feel like having an enemy shoot at them to try take their life? What about becoming a citizen of the United States? Do you take an oath of allegiance that includes how you feel? Does anyone really feel like paying taxes?  

  When the Bible speaks of marital love, it is always presented as a result of the person’s will, not some fickle emotion that changes with the weather. In fact, the Bible never teaches that romantic love is the foundation of marriage. Many times marriages in biblical times marriages were arranged and couples had to commit to making them work.

  Please understand, no one is suggesting that we return to arranged marriages (though when you look at who some people pick for a life partner, you have to wonder if it might be an improvement J). Marriage can’t be founded on emotional surges or physical attractions. That’s one of the reasons that the Bible teaches purity and withholding of sexual intimacy until marriage. Many couples are merely infatuated or worse, have mistaken sexual pleasure for love. Having feelings or even eroticism as the foundation of marriage is a nearly certain way to have a marriage that will deteriorate before the normal storms of life. Feelings come and go. Our bodies deteriorate and succumb to the aging process. But the likelihood of marital health and survival is markedly improved when marriages are grounded in friendship, companionship and the commitment, as well as the awareness of an unending vow – no matter what.

  The vows are critical. They provide walls of protection when threatening emotional winds and waves beat down upon the relationship. The traditional vows have stood the test of time because they aptly summarize the commitment that is demanded of marriage. A husband and wife have a duty to one another to abide by the vows, much like a soldier or a citizen, because those vows were not just made before the witnesses of family and friends. Their marital vows were made in the presence of God. Faithfulness to the vows is automatically a faithfulness to each other.

  When I officiate at a wedding, I encourage married couples who are present to repeat the vows in their own hearts that I am leading the new couple in. It’s a subtle and small act of marital maintenance.

  But please don’t stop there. If you are having struggles in your marriage, seek good, godly help quickly. If your car was making some strange sounds, you’d have a mechanic check it out. If your marriage is coughing and sputtering, it’s foolish to ignore it and hope it will get better. Having some marital issues is very normal. Let me repeat that: Having some marital issues is very normal. Scripture speaks of issue that are “common” to all of us, 1 Corinthians 10:13. If you’re having some troubles in your marriage, ask a godly sister or brother here at church to partner with you in praying for your marriage. Then, seek out someone who will give you honest, objective biblical counsel. Prayerfully and graciously ask your spouse to go with you, communicating that you have some issues in your heart about your marriage that you’d like for them and a counselor to help you grow through. And even if they won’t accompany you, if you believe that your marriage has some serious issues, go alone.

  You probably can avoid that though if you’ll do consistent maintenance. Schedule regular times when you and your spouse can share what you love and appreciate in your relationship and what are also some concerns without finger pointing or becoming defensive. Once a year, either attend a class on marriage, watch a video series or read a biblically based book on marriage. The key to a healthy marriage is regular maintenance, whether you’ve been married five years or fifty. Too many couples settle for the same soggy death of sameness in their marriage, when God has so much more for them! Be proactive! God is glorified and your marriage will be so much more fulfilling. 

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