Monthly Archives: August 2010

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10

I have a confession. Not anything nefarious, more along the lines of embarrassingly dumb. Last Monday I wanted to back my prized Ford Taurus about half-way into my garage, and, for reasons too complicated to explain, I hopped out, leaving the door open, and left the car in reverse. I’ll let that sink in for a moment . . . all right, let’s proceed. As I realized the car was still rolling, with its front left “wing” heading slowly toward destruction, I jumped in and jammed on the brake.

Too late. That’s an awful, slow, crunching sound. The outer brick wall of my house had bent the door back at a precise 90 degree angle. A car door should stop about 60 degrees. I sat there for a moment in stunned stupidity. My dear wife, who had witnessed the entire incident, stood in very gracious silence. I pulled forward, and found that while I was still able to close the door, it made a loud popping, grinding sound that said, “this will cost you.”

After a few moments of recovery, I sheepishly called my good friend in the car business to ask about arranging for repairs. I explained the situation and repeatedly bemoaned my foolishness. He assured me that they could take care of it, and then he said, “you’re not the first person to do this.” He had seen situations like this before, and he had fixed every one. I felt better. That line stayed with me: You’re not the first person to do this, spoken by someone who knew how to fix the problem.

Now let’s move from something mildly inane to deeply evil. David’s sin is usually remembered as his affair with Bathsheba. The worse sin was trying to deceive her husband into believing he was the father. The sin was unspeakably worse when he arranged for Uriah to be left alone in battle. David took advantage of Uriah’s faithfulness and courage to murder him. This sin defies comprehension. Such traitors reside in Dante’s ninth and lowest circle of hell.

Nathan the prophet confronted David who quickly confessed and repented. That’s all very good, but how do you approach God after such evil?

David wrote Psalm 51 after his encounter with Nathan. He had realized painfully the full impact of what he had done. He described his sin in painful detail. He realized how bad he was. The line quoted for this week’s GraceWaves highlights his plea, “create in me a new heart.”

The word create (bara in Hebrew) is interesting. The writer of Genesis used it to describe God’s activity in the first chapter. “In the beginning, God created.” Theologians say the word describes creatio ex nihilo, creation out of nothing, but that’s not quite accurate. The earth was a formless void when God spoke creation into existence. I like that image better. He took a mess and made beauty.

David confessed to God and held nothing back. He asked Him to create something out of the terrible mess he had made of his life. God did not have much to work with in David, but He doesn’t need anything. That’s the nature of grace. God creates out of little or even nothing. He cleansed, purified, forgave, and accepted David. How? David was not the first person to do something like that, and God knows how to fix the problem. He is in the business of forgiving and transforming messy people.

I regularly speak with people whose past haunts them. After 25 years of looking out over congregations I have learned to never underestimate the terrible situations people get themselves into. Some are bearing a crushing guilt and seek to hide from God, certain that if they stood in His presence, openly and honestly, a holy fire would consume them. In Christ, and through His cross, that’s not true.

What keeps you from God? What do you fear about your past? You’re not the first person to do this. God knows the very worst about you, but He can create something out of nothing and has been doing this since creation. Let Him start to work on you. Give Him your mess. Be honest. Be open. Be new.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“So the last will be first, and the first last.” Matthew 20:16

Many words describe grace, and all of them are appropriate. Amazing, wonderful, infinite, sustaining, even scandalous, are a few. But I believe the first word that applies to grace is “puzzling.”

When you begin to look into the nature of grace, it makes no sense. Jesus highlighted grace’s puzzling nature again and again in some of His most memorable parables. The text for this week’s GraceWaves comes at the end of the parable of the laborers in the vineyard. The owner hired five sets of workers. The first group worked all day, and the last group worked only 1 hour. Every worker received the same pay.

Quite naturally, from the world’s point of view, the workers who had labored longer expected more, even though they received precisely what the owner had promised. “You have made them equal to us!” That’s a very telling line.

And most of us would agree with them. In fact, if I invite responses from an audience someone will say “I don’t blame them!” Often someone will say the same thing about the elder son’s complaint in the parable of the prodigal son. Vague feelings of “unfairness” also greet the text, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.” Puzzling. It does not seem right.

The key to solving at least part of the puzzle comes in Jesus introduction to the parable, “For the kingdom of heaven is like . . .” (Matt. 20:1). The kingdom of heaven, or the life where God’s kingdom has come, is fundamentally different from the world. Grace is not like the world. The kingdom of heaven operates by grace, and its citizens are to live by grace. A sad truth is that most Christians don’t trust grace, and thus don’t live by it. Grace does not have to make sense, you just need to accept its reality! When you do, you step further into the kingdom and begin to realize that grace is the only thing that does make sense.

One of the main ways to start this journey is to identify with the late workers and the prodigal son. They are you! The sooner you accept that, the more you trust the grace you have received from God, and most importantly, the more likely you are to share this grace with others. “Others” probably don’t deserve it. Neither do you! That’s the puzzle. Grace draws and keeps us all together as we allow it. Still puzzling, but it’s so much easier to live the way God created you. You were created to live by grace, not to worry about whether you are first or last or being treated fairly.

So breathe a prayer of gratitude now for God’s grace, and watch for it as He washes it over you throughout today. He surely will, for He does delight in you! Then look for ways to awaken others to grace. It might be “an undeserving person” who has worked only one hour, or who has wasted time, money, and opportunity, or whose name is Gomer (can’t leave out Hosea’s story as an illustration of puzzling grace!). It won’t “make sense” to share grace in the world, but it makes perfect sense in the kingdom, and now it makes more sense to you.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” 1 Cor. 2:2

Anyone with a basic Sunday School background can recite some of the problems the church at Corinth faced. They argued over their favorite preacher (Paul, Cephas, Apollos). They compared and ranked the very gifts the Spirit had given them to build up the church. They loved visions, and knowledge, and wisdom, and looked down on anyone who could not match their level of performance or insight. They were committed, but the commitment was to a form of self, and peace was lost.

Paul worked hard to heal the resulting fractures, but our best evidence is that he was only marginally successful, or successful for only a short time. We have extensive correspondence between him and the church. The problems came and went and resurfaced. In fact, we even have a letter written by Clement of Rome near the end of the first century. Some forty years after Paul, the problems he described at Corinth were much the same.

The “Corinthian potential” exists in every church, and also manifests itself in every Christian. We all have an almost irresistible tendency to rank and grade everything around us, and that includes church. Every part of the liturgy is up for evaluation, and the standard for grading is personal preference. Rather than creating better and more devoted disciples, this approach has created more discontent and stress than ever before.

The reason for this over-examination is clear. We are the most “marketed to” people in history, and that creates a sense of entitlement that our preference be acknowledged and met. Thus churches attempt every possible form of catering to the whims of people who may be interested in religion but not sacrificial commitment to Christ. Churches today expend a great deal of energy chasing after an audience that is not really all that interested in being caught.

The real challenge facing the Corinthians, and the real issue facing you, is not a matter of taste, of worship style, or even particular shades of theological meaning. The real issue is commitment. Our basic spiritual need is never met by the latest trend, it is only met by Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. William Sloane Coffin wrote, “Socrates had it wrong. It’s not the unexamined life that’s not worth living. It’s the uncommitted life.” Frankly, we are often long on examination and short on devotion.

Spending too much time evaluating everything and everyone around you can create a sense of superiority or even super-spirituality that leads to dissatisfaction. Lost in the rush for the next new thing, or the more passionate experience, is the basic commitment to Christ. Paul focused on Christ as the solution for the fractured Corinthian Christians, and Christ is still the solution for fractured lives and churches today.

I doubt there is any spiritual problem you are facing right now that would not be diminished by a more focused commitment to Christ. We need a little less Martha, a lot more Mary. So let Christ be your vision today. Remember, you are in Christ, and He is in you. Speak to Him and, more importantly, listen. He is the source of peace in your life and church.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Matthew 5:44

Do you have an enemy? It’s always been interesting to me that most Christians would claim to have no enemies. Disputes among Christians are often in church and revolve around eternally important matters like the color of the new carpet or the volume of the organ (or drums). They respond to one another with snide comments, gossip, hard feelings, and holding grudges. This kind of mischief is highly infectious (all evil is), yet the involved parties would still claim they do not have an enemy!

Be honest. Is a grudge still there? The hard feelings? Do you share your irritation or complaint with anyone who will listen? Some of you have genuine hurt and real wounds from the actions of others. You still might say “that person is not an enemy.” All right, but don’t you sense you still have a long way to go before you can genuinely love and pray for that person?

The passage for this week’s GraceWaves takes us to the core of the Sermon on the Mount and the core of grace. We can read and understand this passage. You could repeat the lesson and teach others. But living it out? That is another matter completely.

When teaching the Sermon on the Mount one of the basic statements I give the class before we get into the text is that Jesus did not give us a new Torah in the Sermon. He was not providing a new list of rules. He was not standing in the long line of rabbis providing new commentary on the Old Testament teachings. Nor was He trying to replace Judaism (Jesus was a Jew, for goodness sake!). You could say that the Sermon’s purpose was to replace legalism, but even that does not go far enough.

The sermon is the quintessential new wine in new wine skins. Jesus’ singular purpose in the Sermon was to change the direction of religion. He drove home the point again and again, that real and good religion works from the inside - out.

The Sermon reflects in many ways the Suffering Servant we find in Isaiah. True, but I would say the most accurate prophetic connection is with Jeremiah, for the Sermon perfectly illustrates God’s intent “to put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts” (Jer. 31:33). With a transformed heart, we truly become His people and He truly becomes our God.

So now, let’s go back to the context of “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” The ultimate context is the one you are in right now. As you read this GraceWaves from your office, your cubicle, your breakfast bar, etc. you are surrounded by people, family and colleagues, employees and clerks. Some of them have given you trouble. Some of them are trouble! What is your response?

You must discern what is in your heart and then invite Christ to transform your heart and let Him love through you. On a very practical level, consciously reject the hard feelings as they surface and pray for the genuine blessing of those who are “your enemies.” Make a commitment to not utter a negative or judgmental word about that person. This kind of love and goodwill makes you vulnerable (it led Jesus to a cross), but it also makes you available to God’s transforming grace.

The heart is a hard muscle and difficult to change. The transformation takes a lifetime. Sharing grace speeds this transformation. As you have received grace, give it out to others, especially your enemies.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

“Can that kind of faith save him?” James 2:14

The green bean casserole is a standard of Baptist practice. Ranking in importance just under the wafer and juice, the green bean casserole shows up at dinner on the grounds, the homes of grieving families, Sunday School fellowships, and just about every other place where at least two or three Baptists gather together. So common is the dish that some people mock it. Heresy! I can make the argument that the green bean casserole is a pure form of good religion and the kind of action that all of you reading this GraceWaves today can take today.

To start, let’s think about the word “faith.” Everyone agrees that faith is important, but for some people, faith is a little bit slippery. It ends up having a gauzy feel to it. Faith becomes a feeling, a notion, a mystical force. We reduce it only to “belief,” and “belief” apart from action is incredibly hard to pin down.

In the Bible, faith is not at all hard to pin down. It is so plain, simple, and matter-of-fact that even with a little bit of it we can move mountains! The challenge is differentiating between “faith as a feeling” and “faith as action.” James, in his letter, tackled this problem head on.

Some of the most difficult passages about faith are in James. Notice again the passage for this week’s GraceWaves. James had described a wealthy man in church who had ignored a poor visitor. This favoritism offended James, and so he asked the question that is usually translated as “can his faith save him?” That little innocent question has created centuries of debate about salvation by faith versus salvation by works.

The problem disappears, however, when we look closely at the Greek text. The pronoun “his” is not actually there. Instead we have a single letter Greek article that could better be translated as “the” or “that.” James’s question then becomes “can that kind of faith save him?”

James objected to “the kind of faith” that is merely a set of beliefs. “Even the demons believe and shudder” (2:19). He advocated a muscular faith that changed the way a person lived and looked at the world. What constituted good religion for James? Visiting the orphans and widows and embracing the ethical standards of the kingdom (1:27). Not showing favoritism (2:1-17). Avoiding the pretense and façade that often come with wealth (1:9-11). Speaking purely and not gossiping (3:1-12).

I could go on, but do you get the point? An important but often neglected component of great faith is simple actions. More than one prophet taught that the Lord wants us to do things like pursue justice, love kindness, and walk humbly before the Lord (e.g. Micah 6:8). Simple.

Sometimes I hear the Christian faith proclaimed in such extraordinary and lofty terms that I wonder who can attain it? We are supposed to change the world, and be passionate, and desperate! Every exhortation comes with an exclamation mark! Or two!! One result is that we pursue a synthetic enthusiasm in our worship services that is simply impossible to sustain Monday through Saturday. We then end up with a load of discontent. Is that really from the Lord?

And that brings me back to the green bean casserole. Yes, Christians are here to change the world, but usually that means doing things that won’t end up on the cover of Christianity Today. We are to wash feet, serve the poor, speak graciously, live ethically, and do the things that we might not even recognize as qualifying us to be sheep instead of goats.

So when you finish reading this GraceWaves from your office cubicle, or at home on your lap top, or wherever you might be, breathe a prayer of commitment to God to be His son or daughter for the remainder of the day. Look for a simple way to be kind and help a coworker, friend, or family member. You might even bake a green bean casserole, and wonder of wonders, you would be great in the kingdom of heaven.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis