Monthly Archives: March 2011

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17

“Whatever you do” and “do everything” clearly cover every aspect of life. What did Paul have in mind here? For the average Christian, whatever that may be, what is the “whatever and everything” of life?

The mistake we typically make is to limit “whatever and everything” to the realm of “highly spiritual events” in which everything that happens every day must be by the hand of Almighty God. I once heard a minister say quite seriously that God told him that morning what kind of cereal to eat. In an effort to duplicate that kind of devotion some Christians try to see God’s hand in finding a good parking place, for example. We might want “whatever and everything” to be suffused with deep spiritual meaning and messages. A professor once told that a minister he knew that spoke as if he could not walk down the hall of his church without having six highly significant spiritual encounters. That sounds laudable, but is that really what Paul had in mind?

We want “whatever and everything” to be awesome (the most overused word in contemporary Christian vocabulary) and miraculous, and may even be guilty of trying to manufacture that. Thus, I want my sermon to be a tour de force, my column to be insightful and inspiring, my devotional to be so deep as to cause all heaven to pause in wonder. Why? Because “whatever and everything” is a call to supernatural excellence!

This approach to living the Christian life fits perfectly the post-modern mindset. Post-modernism is slippery, but it appears to me to be a mood. People today want feelings and emotions. Form and substance are secondary to experience. Thus, a post-modern wants the “whatever and everything” to be highly charged. The effect this shift has had on churches and Christians is profound and beyond the scope of a Monday morning devotional, but suffice it to say that in spite of all the recent (last 20 years or so) efforts to “make the church relevant” we have fewer Christians and arguably a dumbed down discipleship that results from wanting “whatever and everything” to be awesome.

Try to live the Christian life this way and at some point you will soon feel defeated and frustrated. Rather than “whatever and everything” being numinous and divine, you probably will find Monday morning to be rather ordinary. Too many Christians are then beset by a despair of inadequacy. Have you failed in some way? Of course not.

God did not make you to live every day on the Mount of Transfiguration. He made you to live in the afterglow of events like that. God has a habit of showing us great things, and then asking us to faithfully guard the memory of those events without expecting a daily duplication of the earth shattering miracle. Thus Israel remembered God’s deliverance from Egypt while they walked in the wilderness for forty years. They waited 700 years for a messianic prophecy to be fulfilled. The goal was to live each day with simple faith.

While weeding his garden one day, St. Francis was asked, “what you do today if you knew the Lord was returning tomorrow?” Francis replied, “I would finish weeding my garden.” He apparently saw glory in the ordinary but did not rely on a feeling or emotion to validate his genuinely spiritual outlook on life.

That is the kind of day-to-day faith you need. You do “whatever and everything” faithfully and gratefully, without complaint or a nagging suspicion that your “whatever and everything” is insufficiently spiritual. You live each moment under God’s careful watch and His tender care, not under His merciless evaluation. In every task you have God as your companion, and you do each task well. In this way, you will live the ordinary life extraordinarily well.

The truth is, we spend a great deal of our time living ordinary lives, but believing that as God powerfully demonstrated His faithfulness in the past, He will quietly demonstrate His faithfulness today, and tomorrow, and every day. So go to work. Take care of your family. Enjoy your recreation, your meals, your sleep. And give thanks to God in the ordinary “whatever and everything.”

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

March 27, 2011

“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” Philippians 1:21

When King Hezekiah was terminally ill, he prayed, and God responded by adding 15 years to his life (Isaiah 38). This prayer is natural and normal. We all would pray in this way and be grateful to God for any healing that He gave us. However, the difference between Hezekiah and a Christian is important. He feared “going down to the pit,” (Isa. 38:18), or Sheol, the hopeless place where all the dead were consigned to a kind of shadowy half-life. He wanted to live because of the dreaded afterlife he faced.

A Christian has two distinct advantages during the days when death draws near.

First, in the full revelation of Scripture, we know heaven awaits us. The difference this makes is tremendous. If we are sick we still pray for healing. If our disease is terminal we still pray for life to be extended. Never hesitate to pray like this. Asking for health or for more years is not a lack of faith in the future, but reverence for the life God has given us here.

However, we maintain a different and deeper hope than Hezekiah could ever claim when we approach the grayer days. We find this hope in Paul when he faced the possibility of death: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Hezekiah never would have seen death as a gain. Paul did, as should every Christian. In fact, Paul even found it hard to choose between death and life, seeing tremendous advantages with either option. He saw a personal advantage if he were to die (for me to die is gain), but an opportunities for continued service here if he were to live (for me to live is Christ).

That brings us to our second advantage. Belief in heaven creates in a Christian’s mind a continuity of purpose, not a longing for release. The oft-heard criticism of the Christian doctrine of heaven is that it will lead us all to stand and simply gaze heavenward. The assumption is that becoming heavenly-minded makes us no earthly good.

A fair look at the facts leads to precisely the opposite conclusion. Belief in heaven compels us to store up treasures there by serving others selflessly here. Roy Hattersley, a leading English atheist, noted this after Hurricane Katrina. In an article for The Guardian entitled “Faith Does Breed Charity” (and with the notable sub-title “We atheists have to accept that most believers are better human beings”), Hattersley noted, “Good works, John Wesley insisted, are no guarantee of a place in heaven. But they are most likely to be performed by people who believe that heaven exists.”

The “theological engine” for this engagement is the Christian conviction of a kind of continuity or connection between earth and heaven. You were created to serve God eternally, and that eternity begins now. The implication of embracing this conviction is life-changing. I say this reverently and with great appreciation for my life here, but whether I serve God here on earth or in heaven is as incidental as whether I serve God in Baton Rouge or Mobile or Houma, etc.

Adding to the exuberance of Christian service is the conviction that such service to God is not really a service at all. Serving is merely our existence, not a duty we perform. It is not something we do because we must, or because we are slaves of God. Servants and slaves are words Paul and others use to describe their work, but those are images only. Look behind them and you cannot help but note that service was a joyful obligation or even an opportunity. So also our service should be suffused with joy, a joy that continues into the timeless halls of eternity as we work for God here or in heaven. Service and loving others is simply what we are, in the same way that love defines God.

You were created to serve God and enjoy Him forever. Cherish the opportunity every day God gives you here on earth. Serve Him today with joy. And when “thy summons comes” then answer it with equal joy and hopefulness. You will still have the blessing of serving God.

Dr. Terry Ellis

March 20, 2011

“These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” John 14:25-26

Jesus spoke these words the night He was betrayed. The next day He would die on the cross. He knew it, and so did His disciples. These stunned and bewildered men felt their hope dying within them. The Gospel of John provides unique insight into those tremulous hours, recording Jesus’ efforts to teach and encourage them (chs. 13-17).

Several themes emerge from these fascinating chapters, and they provide a very good summary of the gifts God grants you this week and the attitudes He wants you to embrace. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would come and remind them. What would He remind them of? What does He remind you of?

You have peace. Peace is a major theme of this section. In fact, the 14^th chapter begins with the exhortation “let not your hearts be troubled.” Those same words are near the end of the chapter. We also find the words “peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you” immediately following the teaching about the Holy Spirit.

Christians should be possessed of a certain inner tranquility. The storms may rage around you, and they certainly will, but you know deep inside that God is holding you together. That is part of the meaning of the word peace. Wholeness. Togetherness. Your spiritual center remains untouched because God guards your heart and mind through Christ (Phil. 4:7). You are whole and secure where it matters most. Listen to the Spirit remind you of this peace.

You have joy, another theme of this section (see especially 15:11). This second fruit of the Spirit is often absent among many Christians I observe, but today I want to highlight the fact of its presence in places you would not expect to find it. I have seen many Christians have a certain lightness of heart in the direst circumstances. A good-natured attitude in the pre-op room or even in ICU is not unusual. This is the laughter of the soul that knows its eternity is secure even though the next day may not be.

You have confidence. One of the most remarkable verses in this section is 16:33, “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” The word translated as “good cheer” is derived from the same root word that means to be full of hope and confidence. We must admire Jesus’ transparent honesty. He did not promise a life free from trouble, in fact He said precisely the opposite, which is why the encouragement to be confident has a particular ring of truth.

This confidence comes from the abiding presence of Christ in your life, a related major theme of this section (see 15:1-10). Certainly this abiding presence of Christ makes Christianity unique. You are joined with your Lord, the Spirit, and the Father (see the remarkable statements in 17:21 and 23). Whatever you face this week, you are not alone. You can be confident in God’s presence.

British minister Alan Redpath summed up the confidence you can have in this way: “There is nothing—no circumstance, no trouble, no testing—that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone passed God and passed Christ, right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret, for I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord is. That is the rest of victory.”

Disciples in the 1^st or the 21^st century can be so overwhelmed by trouble they forget the assurance that should sustain them. Samuel Johnson wrote, “People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed.” That quote seems to apply particularly to the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit within you whispers the reminders. Take a moment to listen.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

March 14, 2011

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs that cannot be uttered.” Romans 8:26

This verse is a favorite for many Christians, but before we delve into the particulars let’s begin by noticing an important admission by Paul: he did not know how to pray as he should. In any list of “the most important Christians of the first century” I would wager Paul is going to make the top three. So here we have one of the greatest Christians, the author of nearly half the documents in the New Testament, who often in those documents enjoined us to “pray constantly” admitting that he’s really not very good at it.

Prayer is a basic tool of the Christian trade, so this rather stunning admission may sound akin to your thoracic surgeon telling you he’s not very adept with the scalpel. But there is one important difference: prayer is much more mysterious and vastly deeper than thoracic surgery. Prayer is at once amazingly accessible and tremendously baffling. Pray openly and honestly because God invites it, but never for a moment believe that you have become skillful. Even Paul felt inadequate. So what should we learn about prayer from this verse that will encourage us to pray?

First, this verse answers an important question: How important is prayer to God? Prayer is so important that one part of the Trinity is devoted to listening to our prayers and “bringing” them to God. We must not trip over any thought of a reluctant God not wanting to hear our prayers. Paul’s point, and the truth of this verse, is that God wants to assure us of His intense interest in hearing and responding because He loves us. You may not pray as you should, but the problem is not with an uninterested God.

Second, the Spirit’s intercession for us transcends definition. The word for intercede can mean to plead. The Spirit pleads our case. The word for sighs can be used of someone who is in distress. These word pictures are beautiful images not concrete descriptions. Just as Paul’s journey to the third heaven gave him insights which “cannot be told or uttered” (2 Cor. 12:4) this revelation of prayer leaves him struggling for words. The picture Paul paints for us here is of the Spirit genuinely longing to hear our prayers and earnestly seeking an understanding of them that is greater than our own. He also appears to be working our requests into God’s great providence (note: “the Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God” in 8:27).

Third, we must not conceive of this work of the Spirit as something external to us. In other, words, do not think of your praying alone in your room, prattling on about this and that, and then having the Spirit hear in heaven and somehow “translate” your incompetent utterings. No, that simply won’t do! Particularly in Romans 8 Paul has driven home the point that as Christians we walk according to the Spirit (8:4), are now “in the Spirit” and “the Spirit dwells within us” (8:9), “are led by the Spirit” (8:14), and experience the Spirit “bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (8:16). Paul would have us understand that the Spirit, who is in us by birthright, is deeply involved in our prayers and, in some manner, shares in both the origin and reception of them. He is praying with you.

So what do we do with all of this mystery? A concrete testimony is appropriate. Harry Fosdick, one the greatest preachers of the 20^th Century, suffered a deep depression as a young minister. Of this “horrid experience” he wrote, “I learned to pray, not because I had adequately argued out prayer’s rationality, but because I desperately needed help from a Power greater than my own. I learned that God, much more than a theological proposition, is an immediately available Resource; that just as around our bodies is a physical universe from which we draw all our physical energy, so around our spirits is a spiritual Presence in living communion with whom we can find sustaining strength.”

None of us can comprehend Romans 8:26, but we have enough light to be comforted by a thrilling truth. Prayer is a chief expression of an intensely personal relationship between you and God. Never let your lack of understanding, or even your feelings of ineptitude prevent you from praying. He understands you better than you understand yourself. Take anything to Him. Hide nothing. What good would that do anyway?

Your prayers are not orphan sobs in the darkness. You are a daughter or son of the Father, in Whom you are in constant contact. Pray, not because you fully understand it, but because you desperately need to, and the Spirit desperately wants to help you.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis

March 6, 2011