Tag: God

How to Continue as Salt and Light in a Corrupt Society

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Devotionals1 Comment

“In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain, for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.” (Ps 11:1–7)

David wrote this Psalm when Saul was seeking his life (1 Sam. 19). Knowing that Saul had a hit out on David, led David’s friends to tell him to flee to the mountains. It was his only hope of safety. The society was corrupt. The judges in the king’s pocket. Everyone was against David and out for his life. If he wanted to survive, he needed to leave and never come back.

Against all odds and in the face of great danger, David did the opposite. He didn’t leave, instead, he stayed. The reason was because he took refuge in God, trusting that His righteous judgment would prevail.

We too should trust in the Lord, even though our society is trending more and more liberal and anti-Christian. Even though the foundations are being destroyed (becoming lawless under lawless leaders), we can stay and not flee. No matter what men do, our God still sits on His throne in heaven and judges the evil in our world. We don’t have to flee or hold up by ourselves. We can confidently be salt and light in a godless society, trusting the Lord to care for us even if men are out to get us.

Admittedly, this is easier said than done, but our God is great. He is the Creator of the heavens and earth. He is the just Judge who reigns over all, and nothing happens outside of His control. We should, then, place our faith and trust in Him, running to Him as our refuge.

Question for Reflection

  1. Is God your refuge?

Resource

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Do You Hope in a Big God?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn QuotesLeave a comment

When our God seems small and our circumstances appear to be overwhelming it’s because we’ve lost touch with reality. The reality is: our circumstances are small, the nations are a drop in a bucket, and our God is massive. And so if our circumstances are horrible but small and our God is good and huge, then there is every reason for hope and there is a mountain of evidence to keep going. And to keep going with hopetimism – in touch with reality, even the brutal facts of reality at its bleakest, and yet confident and positive about the future.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Is your view of God big or small?
  2. How does your view of God affect your outlook on your circumstances?

Resources

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Quote from Wisdom in Leadership, Craig Hamilton, 165

How to Worship the Lord Daily in 2016 – Part 2

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Practical2 Comments

In my last post, we learned that we can worship the Lord daily by living according to His Word. Doing that, however, takes us sacrificing our will and desires for God’s. Sacrifice is where we run into a problem because as my father-in-law likes to say, “Living sacrifices have a habit of crawling off the altar”.

How Can We Die to Self, Giving Ourselves fully to God?

(1) We can and should be motivated to die to self and give ourselves fully to God because of the gospel (the mercies of God). 

The gospel tells us that we are all sinners who want nothing to do with God. We will remain in the state, until God works in our lives, creating in us a new heart with new desires. Until God works, we won’t give ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice because our inward affections, desires, and way of thinking won’t have changed. But once God renews our inward man, we are given the power to live for Him because our affections, desires, and way of thinking are brought in line with His.

Along with having the power to live for God, we should also be motivated to live for Him. Armed with the knowledge that God created a new heart in us and saved us from His wrath should spur us on to live for Him instead of self. We don’t do that in an effort to pay Him back because we never could. Instead, we live for God out of gratitude for what He has done for us.

As one author puts its,

“All Christian living and ethics are ultimately rooted in a deep gratitude for what God has done for us… [so that our] [e]very decision and every action…[is] a response to His mercy.”

(2) We can die to self and give ourselves fully to God by purposing to no longer be conformed to the world. 

In Romans 12:2 Paul writes,

“Do not be conformed to this world…” (Rom 12:2a)

The idea behind the word conform is that of a mold. Thinking about that reminds me of my son Camden’s play-doh set. Not only does it come with several containers of play-doh, but it also comes with a bunch of molds that help him make some really cool things like alligators, dolphins, monkeys, and dogs out of the play-doh.

The molds are easy to use, so easy that even Camden can use them. All he has to do is roll out the play-doh, push the molds through, and wa-la he has one of the animals.

Just like it’s easy for Camden to mold his play-doh into one of the sets many shapes, it is easy for the world to roll us out and mold us into itself. Christians, however, are  to avoid being conformed to the world because its values and goals are antithetical to God’s.

While conforming to the world is something we must avoid, it is also something we have to be careful with. On the one hand, we are naturally nonconformists who don’t conform for nonconformities sake. But we can’t just be blanket nonconformists so that if the world wears lipstick, we don’t. Or if the world goes to the movies, we don’t. Or if the world plays sports, we don’t. And so on and so forth.

But on the other hand, because we are conformists by nature we must be careful we are not conforming to the world’s sinful patterns. So then, we must not run to either extreme. Instead, we must balance on the beam between conformity and nonconformity, which we do by purposing to no longer be conformed to the world, and by being transformed by the renewal of our minds so that we know the will of God.

(3) We can die to self and give ourselves fully to God by being transformed by the renewal of minds.

Starting in the middle of Romans 12:2, Paul says,

“but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom 12:2b-c)

Paul is explicit. He tells us that our minds must be renewed so that we can know and test what is the will of God. There is only one problem. We can’t renew our minds on our own. We first need God to work in our lives because our minds are fallen. They have a spirit all their own — a viewpoint, a mindset, a bent. Thankfully God doesn’t leave us in that state. He works in our lives renewing our minds through the work of the Holy Spirit, who both changes us from the outside-in and the inside-out.

From the outside-in He changes us by presenting God’s Word to us. By drawing us into prayer, and into relationships with other godly Christians. As well as by leading us to hear the Word preached and to meditate on Christ.

He also changes us from the inside-out, which is necessary because without this type of change we wouldn’t accept the truth of God.

You ever wonder why someone can grow up in a Christian home, attend church every week, have godly mentors, and even read the Bible cover to cover, but then reject God as soon as they move off to college? It’s because their hearts haven’t been changed by the Holy Spirit to accept the things of God. If our hearts aren’t changed, we can hear all the preaching we want, meet with godly people, and read God’s Word cover to cover, but we won’t accept God’s truth, nor will we apply it to our lives, which is why it is so crucial we be changed first from the inside-out.

Once the Holy Spirit has wrought a change in our heart, we should work as well.  We work alongside the Spirit by reading God’s Word, attending weekly worship services, going to the Lord is prayer, meeting with godly Christians, memorizing Scripture, and reading Christian books and commentaries that help us understand and apply God’s Word. In these ways and others, we work alongside the Spirit to renew our minds, which means we must put a premium on doing these things.

As we do all these things our minds are renewed so that we are able to discern what the will of God is and live by it. Living by the will of God means that we are giving ourselves as living sacrifices, and we are worshipping God.

Conclusion

So if we want to worship God every day, we need to purpose to give ourselves as living sacrifices holy and acceptable to God, which we do by:

  • Meditating on the gospel, preaching it to ourselves daily.
  • Purposing not to be conformed to the world around us.
  • Working alongside the Spirit so that we are transformed by the renewal of our mind and are able to test what is the will of God.

So now that you know how, I challenge you to be resolved to worship God daily. To give yourselves “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

Question for Reflection

  1. How are you doing living as a living sacrifice so far this year?

Resources

Post developed from the sermon How Can You Worship God Daily In 2016?

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How to Worship the Lord Daily in 2016 – Part 1

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Practical4 Comments

If there is one thing we all share in common, it is that we all make New Year’s resolutions. We make these resolutions as a way to motivate ourselves to start working out, eating better, spending more time with family, take a vacation, read a book or whatever else you may come up with.

Many of us make resolutions every year. If we are honest, almost every year we fail to keep them. Of course, we have good intentions, but by about March our intentions are thrown out the window and we settle back into life as usual. This year, however, I want you to try and do something different. Instead of settling back into life, as usual, I want you to try to keep one New Year’s Resolution. The resolution I want you to try to keep is to worship the Lord daily in 2016.

Hearing me ask you to do that, probably leads some of you to think, “Does this mean that I have to go to church every day now?” No, you don’t have to attend church every day. In fact, you don’t need to come to church at all in order to worship God daily. Now, that doesn’t mean you can stop showing up to your church on Sundays. While we don’t need a daily church service to worship God, it is still a necessary and commanded part of our life together.

However, for those who do attend church weekly, we must recognize there is still 6 days and 23 hours left in which we are to worship God. How are we going to worship God during that time? In order to worship God the rest of the week, we have to change our idea of what worship is. It has to change from what takes place inside the four walls of a church building once or twice week, to what we do all day every day. But how do we do that?

How do we get to a place where we are worshipping God every day?

I believe the answer is found in Romans 12:1

There Paul says,

“I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (Rom. 12:1b-c)

It’s here that Paul tells us that we must die to self in order to worship God daily. We are to die to self, giving our lives to God because He has given His life for us. Notice in what Paul grounds his appeal. He says, “I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God,” (Rom. 12:1a)

As many of you know, when you see a “therefore” you are supposed to ask what is it there for? In this case, it is there to point us back to all that Paul has written so far. We don’t have time to explore all of Romans but suffice me to say that prior to chapter 12, Paul expounds for us the gospel in detail.

The gospel, or good news, as presented to us in Romans tells us that we all are sinners who have rebelled against God. Because of our rebellion God has given us over to our sin, as well as He is planning to visit His wrath on us one day. There is nothing we can do on our own to escape that day. Because we are incapable, God does the unimaginable, He sends His Son to be our substitute, to take our punishment for us. Then, because we won’t turn to Him on our own, God gives us the faith we need to believe in Jesus. Those who believe experience salvation —Freedom from sin, satan, death, and God’s wrath. As well as they have the promise of eternal life. That’s the gospel — the mercies of God — as it is presented to us in Romans.

In light of the gospel, we must offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. That is what Paul tells us next. Right there in the middle of verse 1, Paul tells us “to present [ourself] as a living sacrifice,” (Rom. 12:1b). His word choice — “sacrifice” — is significant. It not only tells us what we are to do, but it paints a picture of what is expected of us. What God expects is for us to be wholeheartedly devoted to Him. Think about a sacrifice, say a lamb. Half the lamb isn’t brought, chopped in half, and burnt on the altar. Instead, the entire lamb is brought, killed, and offered to God as a sacrifice. Once it is given to the priest to be sacrificed it can’t be taken back. That is what must happen with us. We must purpose to give our ourselves over to God in wholehearted devotion. We can’t just give ourselves one day and take it back the next so that we are living for God on, say Sunday, and for self the rest of the week. We must give ourselves completely and fully to God each and every day.

Giving ourselves fully to God means that we turn our actions, thoughts, and plans over to Him. Literally everything about us must be given over to God so that we are allowing Him to guide and lead us in every aspect of our lives. Commenting on the idea of giving ourselves fully to God, R. C. Sproul says,

“God does not ask us to bring in our livestock and burn it on the altar; he asks us to give ourselves, to put ourselves alive on the altar. To be a Christian means to live a life of sacrifice, a life of presentation, making a gift of ourselves to God. Some people think that all it takes to be a Christian is to scribble a cheque or to give a few hours of service here and there on special projects for the church. But that’s not what believers are called to. My life is to be set apart and consecrated to God. That is what is acceptable to him; that is what delights him; that is what pleases him; that is the appropriate response to him and for him.” –  R. C. Sproul, The Gospel of God: An Exposition of Romans (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1994), 195.

When we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice, we are worshipping God. Look at what Paul says in the last part of the verse, “Which is your spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1d). Paul’s last phrase tells us that by allowing God to direct our entire lives, we are worshipping Him 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Question for Reflection

  1. Have you given your entire life over to God or are you still holding part of it from Him?

Resources

Post developed from the sermon How Can You Worship God Daily In 2016?

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Does God Help Those Who Help Themselves?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn Discipleship, Practical2 Comments

America is a hard working nation. The average workweek is no longer 40 hours a week, but 50, 60, or even 70 hours a week. Why do we work so hard and for so long? We have been told no one is going to do it for us and so we operate under the mentality that we have to go out there and earn it ourselves. While that is partly true in the secular world, it is not true when it comes to salvation found in Christ.

Sadly, many have applied this concept of ‘earning it yourself’ to Christian life. They live by the motto ‘God helps those who help themselves.’ If we do our part, then God will do his part. Even though that may sound right to our ears and in our culture, it is not true.

What Does Living By This Motto Mean?

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. (Galatians 5:2-4)

Paul is saying that if we believe we need to do something other than have faith in Christ for salvation, we do not understand the gospel. Instead of understanding Christ we have rejected him and are obligated to keep the whole law, which cannot be done.

So then, by thinking we can add works or merit to the gospel we will earn acceptance with God, we, in fact, do the opposite. We do not gain the acceptance from God for which we were hoping. God doesn’t help those who help themselves.  God helps those who can’t help themselves. That may come as a shock, but that is what Scripture tells us.

By thinking we have to do our part, we prove we don’t believe Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient; we believe we have to make up for something that it lacks.

Christ’s sacrifice, however, lacks nothing. His work on the cross sufficiently paid the price for our sins – past, present, and future. We do not need to do anything to earn or pay God back for our salvation. Christ paid it all and earned it all for us.

How Do We Try To Earn God’s Acceptance?

Even though the Bible tells us that we are accepted and made righteous because of Christ’s work–not because of our works–we still have a tendency to try and earn God’s acceptance. Why do we do this knowing it doesn’t work? The temptation of moralism is powerful. It fits within the framework of our society.

Moralism is the idea that we can earn righteousness, or acceptance through our works, and it is inherent in our DNA; it is natural to us.

For example, if you do well in school, you will be rewarded with recognition or accepted into an elite program. If you do well at work, you will be acknowledged and promoted. This is how our society works, but it isn’t how the gospel works.

In order to combat something so natural to us, we must know what things we typically add to the gospel. If we know some of the things we add to the gospel, we can watch out for them and seek to rid them from our lives.

What Are The Things We Add To The Gospel?

Before we get into it, let me first say, we should do all of the following, but for different reasons. The reason we do them is because Christ has made us righteous, not in order to gain acceptance or righteousness.

What are the things we may add to the gospel, thinking we become more righteous by doing them?

A Quiet Time – Some believe that if they miss their quiet time they will loose God’s acceptance and things will go bad for them. It is almost as if they treat their quiet time like Karma. However, the reason we do a quiet time is to commune with God, learn more about him, and how he would have us live in his kingdom, not so that things will go well for us.

Church Attendance – There are those in the Church who think themselves superior to others and more accepted by God because they come to church every time the doors are open. Yes, we should attend church services. The reason we attend should be to fellowship with, encourage, and serve other believers; worship the Lord; and learn more about our Savior, not to make ourselves more righteous or acceptable to God.

Holding to a Certain Political View – In the South, I think we have this false notion that being a Republican is the same as being a Christian. Well, not necessarily. There are some who genuinely follow Christ who politically identify with Democrats or Independents. In order to come to Christ, you don’t have to change your political affiliation; you only have to believe in Jesus as your savior. That doesn’t mean; however, all believers should not hold to their party affiliations without biblical discernment.

Social Justice – It is right and good to fight and provide for the needs of others. Scripture calls us to love our neighbor, take care of widows and orphans, and provide for the poor and needy. All these things, however, are the result of the gospel melting our heart of stone into hearts of flesh. In other words, we do them because we have been made righteous, not to gain righteousness.

Being on Mission – Our God is a God of mission. He both calls us and uses us to accomplish His mission. While it is true a large number of Christians avoid, or half-heartedly accept God’s call to mission, those who actively take it up are not more righteous than those who do not. I need to be careful here because I do not want to discount the necessity to be on God’s mission. I do, however, want to make sure those who label themselves as missional do not create a false sense of superiority, or believe they are more accepted for their labors. We are on God’s mission because He has called us to it, not to puff ourselves up or gain greater acceptance from God.

Community – Since we are made in the image of God, community is in our DNA. The Trinity has existed in community for all eternity, serving, loving, and glorifying one another. We are called to reflect or image that community here on earth as those redeemed by Christ. By God’s grace some reflect that relationship better than others. Where I believe some go wrong is to believe better community equals greater acceptance from God. The only reason, however, we can exist in community with one another is because the gospel has changed our heart. Better community then does not equal greater acceptance from God. Better community is the result of God’s work in the gospel.

Other things we may have a tendency to add to the gospel are:

  • Prayer
  • Community service
  • Adoption
  • Home schooling
  • Baptism
  • Giving
  • Eating organic

Again, all these things are right and good, but none of these things make us more acceptable to God. We are justified by faith alone. You see, in Christ, we are as accepted as we will ever be. We can do nothing to make ourselves more acceptable. Nor do we need to do anything. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is sufficient.

Attempting to gain acceptance outside of Christ, will merit us nothing but exhaustion, because our work will never be done. Exhaustion will turn into anxiety because we never know if God accepts us or not. Exhaustion and anxiety will turn into distress, and finally disappointment as we realize we cannot be made righteous through our own work.

In addition, by adding these things to the gospel message we functionally prove we don’t believe Christ’s sacrifice is sufficient. Rather, we prove we actually believe we have to make up for something that it lacks. But what Paul is telling us, and why this message is so important, is that if we think we must add to the gospel in order to be saved, or to maintain our righteousness, even though we say we believe in Christ as our Savior, we may not be saved.

So as Christians, we have to examine our hearts. We have to ask ourselves why we do the things we do. Is it because Christ has saved us and the Holy Spirit is working in us to produce the fruits of righteousness through the means of grace? Or is it because we think we have to do these things in order to either gain or maintain our acceptance with God? Your answer will be telling of your understanding of the gospel.

God Helps Those Who Humble Themselves

God does not help those who help themselves; God helps those who humble themselves. He helps those who completely and utterly depend on Him for salvation. He helps those who see Christ’s sacrifice as sufficient and who do not attempt to earn his acceptance through their work.

God wants us to depend on him completely and to trust that Jesus’ sacrifice is all we need for salvation. If we are trying to help ourselves, then we do not really understand the gospel. We do not really know what it means to accept God’s free grace for our sins. We do not understand that all our works are like filthy rags and they are not able to merit us even one ounce of God’s acceptance.

We are saved by God’s grace through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross, which means we must stop laboring for God’s acceptance. We must stop laboring for our salvation. We must trust in Jesus Christ for our salvation! Once we realize our salvation doesn’t come through our labors but Christ’s, we can then labor for the right reason. We can labor because we have been accepted, not for acceptance.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Have you thought in the past that you need to earn your acceptance with God?
  2. Do you believe you need to pay God back for your salvation?
  3. How freeing was it for you when you realized that salvation was by faith alone?
  4. If we do not earn salvation from God through our works, why do we work?
  5. What or whom empowers us to work?

Resources

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This post was also posted at Gospel Centered Discipleship. Click here to view my post there. You can also download a PDF copy if you are interested. While you are at it, check out some of their other work.

Who Do You Trust and Fear?

On By Dr. Casey LewisIn DevotionalsLeave a comment

As Christianity is marginalized more and more, there will be stands we have to make. Whether we stand for the Lord or man will determine who we trust and fear.

A Contemporary Issue

The sanctity of marriage is a hot button issue in our country right now. Those not on the bandwagon of gay marriage are quickly labeled as bigots and haters; their participation in the public arena is limited; and they are pressured by their friends, family, employers, and the media to embrace and celebrate the sexual revolution.

As the pressure mounts, those desiring to please others and continue to have public influence will eventually evolve on the issue. Those who evolve on the issue show who they fear, man not God. They fear what man thinks of them, what man can take from them, and what man can do to them.

However, those who can’t or won’t acquiesce their beliefs show who they fear, that is the Lord. Those who rightly fear God will find themselves being marginalized. While the marginalization of Christians may limit the jobs we can hold, the businesses we can run, and the public influence we have, we need not fear because the Lord will care for us.

The Truth

Knowing the marginalization of Christianity is coming, and is indeed already here, we need to decide right now who we are going to fear and who we are going to trust.

If we cave to societal pressures, by fearing and placing our trust in man, we may find ourselves exalted and praised. We may experience all the benefits this world can offer. However, at some point you can bet things will not work out like we thought. Man always lets us down. They never stick to their word.

However, if we continue to fear and trust the Lord, we can be confident we will never be let down, and we will experience eternal life because the Lord always sticks to His Word. He doesn’t sway and shift with the cultural breeze. He doesn’t bend his knee to Caesar. He is unmovable, unshakeable, unbendable. He is who He is today and tomorrow. The Lord doesn’t change, which means the Lord can be trusted.

Who will you trust and fear? God or man?

Questions for Reflection

  1. Have you felt pressure lately to go along with society instead of God? If so, how did you deal with it?
  2. Do you believe Christians are being marginalized in our country?

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