SEEK GOD'S FACE

“Don’t focus on the problem. Instead, just seek God’s face.”

It was a cryptic piece of advice from a treasured brother in the Lord, who knew some of the agony of prayer I had been going through. My first reaction was simple frustration with these words. I thought, “Right. Easy for you to say ‘Don’t focus on the problem,’ since you aren't dealing with it all day, every day.”

So, I figured I’d just ignore the advice until I heard something more in line with what I wanted to hear. After all, what I was looking for was a solution to the problem, and how was I supposed to find the solution if I didn’t think about the problem?

However, though I tried to ignore this piece of advice, it apparently wouldn’t ignore me. Every time I bowed my head to pray, every time I opened the Word for some time with the Lord, there it was, running through my mind again. Could this be the Lord speaking to me? Did God really want me to quit focusing on the problem and simply seek His face instead?

Well, two weeks later, I have begun to think that, yes, it is the Lord speaking to me. Almost every verse of Scripture I’ve read has said the same thing to me: seek the Lord’s face. That’s where the solution lies: not in human ability or ingenuity. Not in better organization, increased skill or improved work. Only in the presence of God, as I seek His face, will His solution to this or any problem ever be found.

Indeed, God seems to have set before me a challenge for Lent: that the focus of all my praying would be to seek His face, intently and intentionally. The difficulty with that is that I’m not so certain I know how to do that. Generally, when I come to God in prayer and quiet time, I’m seeking His advice, or seeking His blessing, or even seeking His power. Seeking His face: what’s that mean? I mean, really.

So . . . I’ve been asking God to show me how I should go about this. Two passages have come to me with a sense of urgency.

First, Psalm 16:11: “You make known to me the path of life; in Your presence there is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

The words “in Your presence” are literally “before Your face,” in the original language. In other words, as we come before God simply to behold His glory, and praise Him for the grandeur of His grace, there is available to us in that moment “fullness of joy.” The word translated “fullness” literally means “enough to satisfy:” this means that your desire for joy is fulfilled before the face of God. Since He is full of joy, we find our need for joy met simply by being intentionally with Him, focusing on Him.

Second, Psalm 27:8: “When You said, ‘Seek My face,’ my heart said to You, ‘O LORD, I will seek Your face’."

This verse is simple. God wants us to seek His face. Our proper response is not to say, “But what does that mean?” or, “I don’t know how to do that.” Our proper response is simply to come before God in prayer and say to Him something like this:
“Lord here I am. You told me to seek Your face: and so, I am seeking Your face. I don’t know what it means, but I ask You to reveal Yourself to me. I need to know You personally, face-to-face: the real You, not some image I may already have in my mind. So, here I am. Show me Yourself, because when it’s all said and done, I need You desperately. More than solutions, I need You. More than answers, more than guidance, more than blessing, more than anything, I need You. Just You. Here I am. Please, show me Yourself.”

Do you have the courage to set aside a few minutes each day to join me in praying a prayer like this? Could you? Would you?

A BIBLICAL CHURCH, part 3: Responding to Biblical Truth

Last week we looked at the three biblical truths that comprise an outline of the gospel. Let’s review briefly.

Biblical truth #1 is that God is holy. God also has many other attributes, but what always comes first in Scripture is His holiness. And since that’s where God’s Word starts with God, it’s also where we ought to start.

Biblical truth #2 is that people are sinners. Once we realize that God is holy, our sinfulness becomes immediately obvious. Indeed, in every Scriptural account in which God reveals Himself to people, the first thing these people do is acknowledge their sin. Nobody has to tell them they’re sinners: that knowledge comes instantly in the light of God’s holiness.

These two biblical truths mean that humanity has a serious problem. Since God is holy and we are sinful, we are separated from Him; and to be separated from Him ultimately means hell forever. And that, beloved, is the most serious problem that exists.

Biblical truth #3 is that Christ is sufficient to solve our sin problem. He lived a perfectly sinless life so He can give us righteousness. Then He died under God’s wrath for our sins, so He can take away our punishment. Finally, He rose from the dead to live His life out in us.

Scripture is very clear that once we know these three biblical truths, a response is required. And that response is as simple as A – B – C.

A stands for “Admit.” Specifically, you and I need to admit we are sinners who need a Savior. It is sheer folly to suppose that we could establish our own righteousness before God by our own effort. Even if we lived perfectly for the rest of our lives, it’s already too late. Admit it: we’re sinners, and we need a Savior.

B stands for “Believe.” Scripture is very clear that salvation is given to us when we believe something, not when we try to do something. And the thing Scripture instructs us to believe is that Christ’s finished work is all we need. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Sadly, our culture has hijacked the term “believe,” and rendered it captive to broad misunderstanding. We need to refresh our understanding of what “believe” means in Scripture. That’s where the “C” comes in.

C stands for “Commit.” Scripture unambiguously declares that if we believe in Jesus, our believing necessarily includes committing our very lives to Him. In other words, so-called believing that does not include submitting your life to Christ, so that He may exercise His rightful Lordship in you, is not biblical belief at all.

So, where do you stand? Have you made an A – B – C response to the gospel? If not, I pray that you will do so today.

A BIBLICAL CHURCH, part 2

Last week I pointed out that, among everything else that it is and does, a church must have two key components to be true to Scripture. As authors Tim Chester and Steve Timmis put it in their rich little book called "Total Church," these two essential elements are the gospel and community. In other words, the primary "content" of the church is the gospel, and the primary "context" of the church is community.

Two questions obviously arise. First, what IS the gospel? Second, what is meant by community? Last week we saw that "community" means the sharing of life together in genuine Christ-centered love, care, support, prayer, and encouragement. It's what Jesus was talking about when He commanded us in John 13:34 to love one another.

Now to the other question: what is the gospel?

The best I can encapsulate it, the gospel involves three biblical truths, to which we must each make three biblical responses.

Biblical truth #1 is that God is holy. While God also has many other attributes, in Scripture, what always comes first is His holiness. Every glimpse of God given to us in Scripture shows us that He is holy. And since that's where God's Word starts with God, it's also where we ought to start.

Biblical truth #2 is that people are sinners. Once we catch a glimpse of God's holiness, the sinfulness of humanity becomes immediately obvious. Indeed, in every Scriptural account in which God's holiness is revealed, the first response of the people is to know and acknowledge their sin. Nobody has to tell them they're sinners: that knowledge comes instantly in the light of God's holiness.

These two biblical truths mean that humanity has a serious problem. Since God is holy and we are sinful, we are separated from Him; and to be separated from Him ultimately means hell forever. And that, beloved, is the most serious problem that exists.

Biblical truth #3 is that Christ is sufficient. In His incarnation, He did everything necessary to solve the sin problem that separates us from God, a problem we could not solve ourselves. He lived a perfectly sinless life so He can give us righteousness; and He died under God's wrath for our sins, so He can take away our punishment. Finally, He rose from the dead to live His life out in us.

Scripture is very clear that when we know these three biblical truths, a response is required. Just knowing these truths is not enough. It's like this. Since I studied Physics in college, I know one of the main reasons airplanes can fly: it's called Bernoulli's Principle of Fluid Dynamics. However, just knowing Bernoulli's Principle (even if I know a lot about it) wouldn't fly me to Florida: I would actually have to get on an airplane! Similarly, just being acquainted with these three Biblical truths doesn't save you. The truths call for a response.

And, as everyone in my church can tell you, that response is as simple as A - B - C. We'll look at that next week.

A BIBLICAL CHURCH, part 1

Okay, I know I’m likely about to come in for some hot water, because what I’m going to write about (as promised last week) is what defines a biblical church. Actually, it’s pretty simple. Indeed, as Thom Rainer wrote in his book with the fascinating title of “Simple Church,” it’s really far more simple than most Americans think.

So . . . here it is, what defines a biblical church. Two things:
1. gospel; and
2. community.

Actually, Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, in their rich little book called “Total Church” speak much more eloquently to these two defining aspects of what makes a biblical church, so let me have you listen to them.

“Two key principles should shape the way we ‘do church’: gospel and community. Christians are called to a dual fidelity: fidelity to the core content of the gospel and fidelity to the primary context of a believing community. Whether we are thinking about evangelism, social involvement, pastoral care, apologetics, discipleship, or teaching, the content is consistently the Christian gospel, and the context is consistently the Christian community.

“Being gospel-centered actually involves two things. First, it means being word-centered because the gospel is a word – the gospel is news, a message. Second, it means being mission-centered, because the gospel is a word to be proclaimed – the gospel is good news, a missionary message.”

Throughout the rest of the book, Timmis and Chester make a resounding and air-tight case that Scripture requires the church to determine its identity, purpose and ministries around these two simple priorities: gospel, the content of the church’s message; and community, the context of the church’s mission. It’s a very good book. Very good.

However, two questions obviously arise. First, what IS the gospel? Second, what is meant by community?

Let’s take those questions one at a time, starting with the simple one: what is meant by community?

“Community” is our English word for the New Testament Greek term “koinonia,” which Scripture uses to describe the way the first Christians related to each other — with genuine love, fellowship, care, support, prayer, and encouragement. It’s what Jesus was talking about when He commanded us to love one another.

It’s certainly more than what we do on Sunday mornings over coffee in the fellowship hall. It’s living a shared life centered on the gospel. It means we actually live out – in practical terms! – the fact that we are connected to each other by a shared salvation wrought in us by God’s sovereign grace revealed in the gospel. We help each other. We share with each other. We pray for each other. We obey the 57 “one-another” commands in the New Testament, commands we can’t possibly keep if we live life in isolation from each other except when we meet in a big room on Sundays.

In other words, if there’s no community happening, the church is squeezing itself out from under its own biblical definition. To be a biblical church, there must be community

There must also be the gospel. And we’ll look into that next week.