Monthly Archives: December 2015

“Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus” 2 Timothy 2:1

Philip Yancey often refers to his having been raised in a strict religious environment. In and of itself that is neutral. The problem was that grace was not a feature of his church or his early Christian thinking. He understands today why some troubled people say “Why would I want to go to church? They only make me feel worse.”

I want to point out here, that there are some legitimate reasons people need to feel some guilt and pain, but the contrast between the way many people regard the typical church and the way sinners regarded Jesus is arresting. Jesus attracted sinners. The typical church does not. Something is missing.

Back to Yancey. In What’s So Amazing About Grace? he relates a very revealing story. He attended a Bible college that was of the same tone as his early church experience. Years after graduation, the president of his college asked him to assess his experience at the school. How was his education? Yancey replied honestly, “some good, some bad. I met many godly people there. In fact, I met God there. Who can place a value on that? And yet I realized later that in four years I learned almost nothing about grace. It may be the most important word in the Bible, the heart of the gospel. How could I have missed that?” (p. 14)

He continues by adding that he spoke in that college’s chapel later and related that conversation, and offended some of the faculty. Some suggested he not be invited back. One professor wrote sensibly asking that perhaps he could have phrased it differently, that maybe he lacked the receptors to hear the message of grace. Yancey thought seriously about the question, but came to the conclusion that he had found at that Christian college campus as much ungrace as he had found anywhere else in life. (ibid)

I am deeply grateful that my pastor through my teenage years, James K. Pierce, helped me to begin learning of the importance of grace. So did my youth minister, Roger Sullivan. Without question in seminary I learned more about the fullness of grace from gifted men and women who were my professors. I have continued to be fascinated by God’s grace and committed to studying and teaching it.

In my experience with many Christians and churches, however, I would say that grace is not well understood or well lived. I agree with David Seamands, a counselor who summed up the challenge in this way: “Many years ago I was driven to the conclusion that the two major causes of the most emotional problems among evangelical Christians are these: the failure to understand, receive, and live out God’s grace and forgiveness; and the failure to give out that unconditional love, forgiveness, and grace to other people. . . . We read, we hear, we believe a good theology of grace. But that’s not the way we live.” (ibid, p. 15)

Apparently that was one of the problems Timothy faced. He was a young minister in a tough place. His struggles led him to doubt his own ability, and so Paul wrote to encourage him to be strong. His exhortation to Timothy is summed up in the verse for this week’s GraceWaves: “be strong in the grace of Christ Jesus.”

Some of the personal struggles and doubts that plague you this week are likely related to an inadequate acceptance of God’s grace. You have fallen into the trap of evaluating yourself and others, of comparing yourself, criticizing, and finding fault. Rather than being strong in grace, you have grown strong in doubt, fear, judgment, etc. How’s that working for you?

The problem is not really knowledge. You know what grace is. The problem is trust. You must trust God’s unconditional love for you. This truth is not complicated, but it is a bit difficult to accept. However, if you do accept it as true, stop doubting and questioning, just accept it, then life becomes clearer. You begin to see and sense God’s gracewaves and draw strength from Him. Then, most wonderfully, you discover that you can be both a recipient of grace and an agent of grace.

So be strong in grace today.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis
December 26, 2015

“God is love.” 1 John 4:16

On my desk is a tuning fork I’ve had for 25 years or so. This particular tuning fork gives me the note A. It doesn’t matter how often I strike it, it will always give me the note A. You can’t hear it from a distance. You have to be close. You must listen carefully. I could pack it carefully away and open it up in 20 or 30 years, strike it and it would give me the note A. Over and over. Always and forever. This tuning fork gives me the note A.

I have it because of a story I read many years ago. Lloyd Douglas tells about an old man he would occasionally visit who gave violin lessons. One day Douglas dropped by the old man’s studio and as a greeting asked, “well, what’s the good news today?” Putting down his violin the man stepped over to a tuning fork suspended from a silver cord and with a padded mallet struck it a sharp blow and then said, “there’s the good news for me today, that my friend here is C. It was C all day yesterday, it will be C all day tomorrow, next week and for a thousand years. The soprano next door warbles off key, the tenor upstairs flats his high notes, and the piano across the hall is out of tune. Noise all around me, noise, but my friend is C.”

In his first letter, John wrote very simply that God is love. He didn’t write, “God is anger” or God is wrath” or “God is disgusted” or “God is uninterested.” He wrote God is love. Four words in Greek, three in English that summarize the fundamental and unchangeable nature of God. Everything God does emanates from love. Everything I know about God must start with love. Love is God’s one note.

That’s so important to remember because we live in a noisy world. We live in a world of anger, wrath, disgust, and apathy. The noise comes from the outside, and too often it comes from a critical voice inside. I know both sources. I also know that when the noise is too loud and too constant I need to pull away to a quiet place, and listen for the one note. It’s always there, if I’m still enough to hear it. God is love.

John did not always have this idea about God. We have enough information about John to piece together his pilgrimage. We know that Jesus nicknamed him and his brother James Boanerges, a word that means thunder. Sons of thunder. Or as some translators put it sons of commotion or agitation. It was a good nickname, for John, as a young man, was noisy.

Consider: soon after Jesus first predicted His death, John and James asked Jesus if they could have the places of honor when Jesus fully established His kingdom. They were self-seekers. They had not clearly heard the one note.

Consider: soon after that they came to a Samaritan village, but the people there didn’t want anything to do with Jesus. They refused to let Jesus enter. Two disciples came to him and said, “Lord do you want us to bid fire to come down out of heaven and consume them?” Guess who it was. Two noisy brothers. You can almost hear the excitement in their voices. Their hatred drove their desire to punish and kill. John had not heard the one note.

At some point, however, perhaps at the cross, he began to hear that note. He came to realize that God was not a God of vengeance and power displays. He had come to die for us because of his great love for us. John heard the one note, and realized some things needed to die in him. He got rid of all the noise in the succeeding years and later would write, “God is love.” John was transformed by love.

That is the first great truth about God’s love that you need to commit to memory. God’s love transforms. It powerfully transforms the life of anyone who accepts as reality and lives accordingly. It will flow into any open heart and change you from the inside out. God’s love transforms.

We never argue anyone into the kingdom. Or berate them into belief. I do best by simply telling the story of how God’s love has changed me. That keeps me from telling other people how they must write their story. I believe that by telling mine, people are more likely to turn to God in a quiet moment and hear the one note.

The candle on the Advent wreath for this week is the candle of love. If you’re like me you need a silent night in the midst of this noisy week. Though you may not have an Advent wreath in your home, you can light a candle, be still, open your heart and mind, and listen for the one note. Do you hear it? It’s always there. God really does love you.

Merry Christmas,

Dr. Terry Ellis
December 20, 2015

“And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger…Then they returned to their fields, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.” Luke 2:16, 20

Shepherds have a place in every Christmas play, and, especially when children are involved, the part is charming. Shepherds have an appeal to us. They’re cute.

But not in the first century. The vocation was difficult, dirty and derided. Shepherds worked long hours. They were not able to attend at the temple or the synagogue. When they did, they weren’t especially welcomed. Fellow worshipers did not line up to sit next to them. Their calling was not an exalted one, owing in part, I suppose, to the fact they smelled of sheep.

But when God chose the first audience to hear about the birth of His Son into the world, He selected shepherds out in a field. Not the nobility. Not the community leaders. Not the clergy. He didn’t choose the wealthy, or the professionals or the beautiful people. Gabriel to God, “To whom shall I announce the birth?” “To the shepherds,” God said. “Tell the shepherds.”

You can learn so much about God from the simple fact that He wanted the birth of His Son first announced to shepherds.

Their response, after some initial fear, was to “make haste” and go see the child. They were excited! This was something incredibly new, mysterious, wonderful, magnificent! After seeing the baby, their response was no less exuberant. They glorified and praised God for all they had heard and seen.

I doubt they immediately realized this was the Messiah. I do believe it was an event so powerful they would always remember it and talk about it. In fact, it awakened a deep longing and met that deep longing.

If I were to define it with one word I would say that they experienced joy that night. They were surprised by joy.

Joy is one of the great words in the New Testament. Paul said it is the second fruit of the spirit, right after love. Etymologically it is from the same root as the Greek word for grace. Grace elicits joy. When we drink deeply from grace, we find our greatest need met, and we long for more. Grace is the living water Jesus offers. Joy is the relief we feel afterward.

C. S. Lewis said that certain events in life will awaken in you a longing for something sublime. Nothing else will satisfy you. It is more desirable than any other satisfaction. That is joy. It is neither happiness nor pleasure. Once you have experienced it then you will want it again.

Here is the challenge. Most of us wouldn’t recognize joy if it were right in front of us. We don’t think in those terms. Joy is not usually a part of our vocabulary. It’s as if we have forgotten that something so wonderful is actually available to us. Look at most Christians today and you will not see anything akin to joy, and I’m not simply talking about the time of year and its attendant busyness. Look at most Christians any time of the year. Do you see joy? It’s akin to what Charles Spurgeon said about heaven and hell. “When you speak of heaven, let your face light up. When you speak of hell, well, then your everyday face will do.”

We can do better! Most of us don’t spend 10 solid minutes thinking quietly about matters of the Spirit. No wonder we don’t feel joy! So let’s try this: Try to imagine yourself as a shepherd. See an angel in the night sky. An angel! Then a whole host of them. Run to the manger. What do you see? What do you feel? In your soul? Take your time. For God so loved the world. For God so loved…you. Think about it. Accept it. That is joy.

Celtic Christians wrote of the “thin places” where the spiritual world draws very close to the physical world. I believe Christmas is that kind of place and time. I know this time of year elicits a special feeling in me. I call it joy.

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis
December 13, 2015

“I've told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I've conquered the world." John 16:33

Deeply at peace. How wonderful does that sound? Especially at this time of year when retailers want us to be extremely agitated and overspend in the belief that things that moth and rust can destroy and thieves break in and steal will somehow fill the whole in our souls. Thus to have a December to remember, buy your loved one a Lexus, and never mind that it will depreciate considerably by December 26.

In our right minds, when we can step back from the retail clamors, we know that nothing from Wal-Mart or Jared is going to bring us deep peace. Though we still act like it. We know better! So why don’t we have deep peace?

Maybe it’s the undeniable fact that we market fear more than merchandise. Ironically, in a season where the words of the angel to the main characters was “fear not” we hear “Fear!” from our politicians, media markets, and even religious types. Fear motivates, there’s no doubt. But what a price it exacts! Embrace fear, and you sacrifice peace.

I have no deep theological insight to solve this fear problem. No exegetical trick is going to eliminate fear. The best answers to the most important questions are simple, and that surely is the case here.

First, we accept the fact we do live in a pretty frightening world. Eugene Peterson translated The Message, the version I quoted above for this verse. I love The Message, and I love this translation of this verse except for the word “difficulties.” In the Greek language, this word means to crush or press. The root word means “to break.” Algebra is difficult. A crummy workplace is difficult. But cancer crushes. Depression squeezes the life out of us. Losing a loved one breaks us.

Life isn’t just difficult, it’s sometimes brutally hard, unfair, will pummel you, and leave you broken. No amount of planning, faith, hard work, or anything else in our power can prevent that. Jesus said so. This world breaks us all. So quit screaming at the darkness. The sun goes down every day. Just accept it.

However, Jesus also said He has conquered the world. I believe that. He’s the Son of God. He wins. No doubt. That’s simple.

So why am I still so afraid sometimes?

Here’s the simple answer: fear is the precise opposite of trust. When I feel fear I’m implicitly lacking in trust. I’m essentially saying, “I don’t believe Jesus really conquered the world. He obviously left out a few things.” Then my peace dissipates like smoke in the wind.

The way back to peace is very simple, and is summed up in an old hymn. Most of you know the tune:
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.
Just to take Him at His word.
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know “thus sayeth the Lord.”
Refrain
Jesus, Jesus how I trust Him.
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er.
Jesus, Jesus precious Jesus,
Oh, for grace to trust Him more.

The theme of the Second Sunday of Advent is peace, and the promise of God is that we can have peace in the middle of any whirlwind. The saints have long been trying to teach us that there’s really is a peace that passes all understanding. It’s a puzzling peace. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s real.

I want that peace, for in it I am unshakable and assured.

Let’s decide to take Jesus at His word this week. Deep peace is the real gift we need. We can have it if we simply say the words, sometimes repeatedly, “I trust You. I trust You. I trust You.”

Grace,

Dr. Terry Ellis
December 6, 2015