jeff warren Posts

Why Lent?

04 Mar , 2011 3 Comments

Growing up Baptist kid I didn’t know anything about Lent.  In fact, in North Carolina, I only knew Lent as a strange “Catholic” practice.  All I knew was they practiced some strange liturgy- at least to me, in my small little world.  Praise God as I grew older I was able to get broader picture of the Body of Christ through the study of Church history and I was able to experience a broader expression of prayer and worship.  Most of us Protestants think of Ash Wednesday and the Lenten season as a “Catholic thing” while, in reality it was part of the early church’s consistent pattern of worship.  Our earliest known reference is that of Ireneus (who died in 202 A.D.).  What I’ve sought to do is strip the Lenten season of anything that is not biblical but maintain a simple and clear focus of prayer, repentance, and sacrifice.  I’ve heard many sermons on Christ’s instructions to pray when He says, “When you pray…” pray like this.  But He also says, “When you fast…” fast like this.  He didn’t say, “if” you fast.  Jesus expected His followers to pray, and at times, fast as a regular part of our spiritual pattern of worship.  Could it be that we (in North America in particular) could learn a few things about giving up so much of what we want and dying to our selfish needs for more?  I am certain that prayer and fasting is greatly needed among believers- particularly in the affluent West.

What many have written off as “weird” (ashes on the forehead, giving up certain foods, etc.) I’ve sought to recapture in its purest biblical sense.  It is true that Ash Wednesday or “Lent” are not in the Bible (of course, neither are Christmas Eve services, Good Friday services, Advent, and so much of what others of us would call “normal”).  You don’t see “Easter Sunday” in the Bible either (because every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday for the believer.

“Lent” may not be in the Bible but focused seasons of sacrifice, confession, and repentance clearly are.  In the church I grew up in we rushed to Easter Sunday without any preparation of the heart before God.  I’ve learned much from the larger Body of Christ as it relates to the spiritual disciplines solitude, prayer, and fasting. “Lent” of comes from the Middle English word “Lenten” which means “Spring”.  The Lenten or Easter Season is a focused time of confession and repentance from “Ash Wednesday” to Easter Sunday.  Forty Days from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday (minus the Sundays leading up to Easter- because the early believers would not fast on Sundays).  Later many would go from Ash Wednesday to Maundy Thursday (forty days later).  Maundy comes from “mandatum”, meaning “mandate” or “command”.  Jesus said, “A new commandment” (mandatum nuevum) I give to you.”   So the Lenten season is a period of focused prayer and fasting (with a focus on confession, sacrifice, and repentance). Why forty Days?  Forty days shows up throughout the Bible.  Moses, Elijah, and Jesus (Luke 4:1-2) all fasted for forty days.

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Genesis 3:19

The ashes are to remind you of your mortality and of the need to repent of sin in your life.  It was common for Jews and early believers to mourn the loss of a loved one with “sackcloth and ashes”.  Ashes were also a sign of brokenness and repentance of sin.  Confession of sin is a private thing between you and God.  It is not something to be paraded around and seen by everyone but a private moment between you and your Savior.

Fasting is the act of the will through which the follower of Jesus puts forth spiritual control over the flesh (through sacrifice- not eating) with a view to a more personal and powerful experience with God in prayer. Fasting involves giving up but is much more about receiving.  You give up in order to receive.  You die in order to live.

Types of fasts:

Total fast (be careful and receive guidance)

Water only Prepare your body for it.  Hunger pangs will go away- first 2 days hardest.

Liquid only Juices- not milkshakes! (When you don’t eat, more time for prayer)

Eliminate certain foods No deserts, no caffeine, no junk food- “Daniel fast”- healthy

Media fast NO television, NO movies, NO paper, NO internet, NO video games, etc.

Multiple possibilities Be creative and specific-but a sacrifice- must cost you something

During a fast, when your earthly desires kick in, you turn to the Lord and you are reminded that He is more than enough to meet your every need.  It is a wonderful way to be drawn to the Lord and to overcome the desires of the flesh in many areas of your life.

“If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer.”  Psalm 66:18-19 What is David saying here?  I cannot harbor unconfessed sin or unresolved sin in my life.  Any Christian who desires to fully serve God and follow Him must attack sin from all fronts.  We cannot hold on to sin but release it and the first step is to confess it- to God first and then, to others.

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

To be alive to Christ and to live for Him means I must die to myself, my needs, my wants- continually.  “In the body” is where dying of Jesus is seen through my life and revealed to others.  It is, at the same time, the place where this life (the resurrection life) of Jesus is seen.  In the same passage he says, “so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in my body.”  My life then becomes a presentation of a Story- the Story of the passion of Christ.  I die to myself in order to reveal His life in my.  You see, you are called not only to tell the story of the Passion, but to LIVE it, experience it.  How?  By dying to self.

But the language used by Paul is a continual dying- the process of dying- you are continually dying.  To remind you of your mortality- your body is dying and to get you focused and busy on the eternal that does not die.  You see, death for Jesus was not the end- He lives. So, how can we position ourselves to move to this dying of self?  How can I be touched by God to go to deeper levels?  By confessing my sin to Him, by showing Him that He is all I want- all I need.  Fasting is that spiritual discipline that helps us live that out in unique ways.  It’s why Jesus says, “When you fast…” (Matthew 6:16)- it was an expected practice of the believer.  It’s a way to deny yourself of earthly things in order to focus on heavenly things.

“My food” Jesus said, “is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.” John 4:34 During a fast He is your food.  The will of God becomes your sustenance.

May you walk to the cross with the Lord Jesus this Easter season as never before.

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10

A Shadow of Heaven

25 Feb , 2011 1 Comment

One of the great blessings of being a pastor is that I am reminded daily of what really matters in life. Today I sat down with a precious family to plan the memorial service of their loved one. Our conversation jumped from here to there, earth to heaven, the temporary to the eternal, the already and the not yet.

I believe that every day we’re given glimpses of heaven. Whether we catch them or not is entirely up to us. It seems even the worst among us catch glimpses of the eternal: something more, something beautiful, something sacred. I’m sure I’m not the only one who hears the rumblings of something eternal among us. Milton’s question echoes across time, “What if earth be but a shadow of heaven?”4 Why does every culture in the world worship Someone or at least something? Philip Yancey notes in his book, Rumors, “Alone of all the beasts, the human animal has the power and freedom to center life in one impulse. We have not, it seems, the power to abstain from worship.”5

What is that within us? Is it simply the result of some evolutionary process that has created within us this God-consciousness, this desire to exalt Someone who is beyond us? Or could it be that God Himself really has “set eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)? Could it be we really do have a kind of “homing device” that calls us onward to seek, to search, to desire? In his classic book, Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”6 The fact that we have such longings doesn’t prove that God is the One prompting us or that eternity awaits, but I believe our longing for Heaven whispers to us in our joy and it seems to scream at us in our despair that something else is coming. And Someone else is writing this already-but-not-yet narrative.

Surely we all long for more. When Jesus prayed for the Father to set all things right by bringing His kingdom to earth (Matthew 6:10), He was calling for a present and future reality. “Thy kingdom come” should be the cry of every believer’s heart. As we join God in His restorative agenda we become the answer to the prayers of our Lord. The present life is but a shadow of heaven. You and I are not yet free from sin, but we do have the capacity within us (by the power of His Spirit) to reach our fullest redemptive potential. Live today with the end in sight. He is making everything new (Revelation 21:5).

The New Math of Grace

03 Feb , 2011 2 Comments

Several years ago I sat at a rehearsal dinner with a young woman who was getting her masters degree in mathematics. Not too fond of math myself, I told her how impressed I was and that I felt I had never been real good with numbers. She responded with, “Oh, we don’t really use numbers.” I was silenced. I didn’t even know how to respond, at least intelligently. Math without numbers? Isn’t that like geology without rocks, astronomy without stars, or zoology without animals? Surely she was talking a new math that I had not yet learned.

In Matthew 20:1-16, Jesus takes us to school with the scandalous mathematics of grace. Here He tells the troubling and frustrating parable of the vineyard workers and mathematically- challenged landowner. Troubling because it challenges our sense of fairness and it makes us question what is just. Of course, this is why Jesus so masterfully crafts this great story.

The landowner of the vineyard went out to hire workers for the day and found men waiting at the marketplace. He then hired groups of workers at different times throughout the day- “early” around 6 a.m., 9 a.m., noon, 3:00 p.m., and 5:00 p.m. The workday ended at 6:00 pm. When time came to pay all the workers he started with the last hour crew and paid them a full day’s wage. Those who had worked much longer and harder were eager and optimistic to see what the landowner would pay them. Each one received the very same wage, though the last to be paid had worked hard all day long. We resonate with the tired and frustrated workers as they complain of the injustice served. “It’s not fair!” is our collective response.

The story turns completely when we look harder, not at the characters in the parable but at ourselves- or I should say, as we find ourselves in the story. Every now and then if I read the Bible with a humble introspection and an eye toward application- I find myself in the story (which of course, is the point and power of Scripture). We identify with the frustrated workers because we actually think we’re the first-hour guys, the all-day workers. Our self-righteous angst betrays our misunderstanding, until we recognize that we are, in fact, the last-hour workers. You and I are the ones that others deemed unworthy to hire. We are the ones who showed up late and have done very little. This is the point of Jesus’ story. Perhaps the most profound words in the parable are found in the all-day workers protest against the landowner: “you have made them equal to us”. Praise be to God for the unfair and maddening gift of His grace.

The New Math of Grace
• Grace is not about human merit. It is about divine forgiveness.

• Grace is not about earning wages. It is about dispensing gifts.

• Grace is not about religious moralism or behavioral compliance to rules. It is about a complete reorientation of life to the Gospel.

• Grace is not about finishing first or last. It is about not counting.

Making Resolutions- James 4:13-17

02 Jan , 2011 2 Comments

As we make resolutions at this time of the year it’s important that we do not miss the first step in setting goals. Too often we make plans and then ask God to bless them. James calls this arrogance. It’s a practical atheism (believing in God but living as if He doesn’t exist). Most of us do not think of ourselves as boastful people, because we do not go around making people listen to our bragging. As a good discipler, however, James makes us examine more subtle forms of boasting. Our arrogance is revealed when we assume that we control time and events. By using the categories that James offers in Chapter 4:13 we can see how comprehensively we do this.

James challenges 4 categories that reveal our arrogance when:
1. We name the TIME- “Today or tomorrow”.
2. We state our PURPOSE- “we will go”
3. We name the PLACE “to this or that city”
4. We state our GOALS “to carry on business”
5. We name our REWARD “make money”

What else is there than time, purpose, place, goals, and reward?

So are we not supposed to plan? Notice he does not say “don’t plan”. In vs. 15 he says, “Instead”… plan this way… “if it is the Lord’s will”. As a pastor, of all the questions I’m asked, the most common centers around God’s will. “What is God’s will for my life?” “How can I know God’s will for my life?” “How can I discover God’s will for my life?” This is a question we all ask- but we don’t realize that we’re actually asking the wrong question. This question actually betrays our arrogance and the self-centered nature of prayer. What is God’s will for my life is overshadowed by a more important question. The better question is not, “What is God’s will for my life?” but simply, “What is God’s will?” I’ve discovered this question brings much greater clarity to what God would have me do. Now some may say I’m wrestling in semantics, but I think not…

The KEY question: “Lord, what is Your will?” Here’s the power and greater clarity of this question: We already know what His will is. His will is for you to know Him, to receive His grace and to love Him with all our heart, soul mind, and strength. His will is for you to grow to become just like Jesus. His will is for you to allow Him to continually transform you into His likeness. His will is for you to show His love to the world- starting right where you are. His will is for you to worship Him, become His disciple, and to live as a missionary for His glory everywhere you go.

What is God’s will? To give your life fully to Him- regarding TIME, PURPOSE, PLACE, GOALS, and REWARDS- they are ALL in His hand. That’s His will and that’s His will for your life. As for where you live, where you go, what you will say, and who you will encounter along the way- simply trust Him with all of that. In short, His will is for you to be His disciple.

Read Luke 9:23-25. The call to discipleship is an ever-expanding release of my life to Him. How counter-intuitive this is to our way of living, how counter-cultural. In this upside down kingdom the call is to self-denial and to a glorious release of all we are to become the very best of all that God has created us to be, all to HIS glory. I become fully “me” when I release all things that I have planned for myself.

Read Jeremiah 29:11. “I know the plans I have for you…” Notice: They are His plans and He knows them. So, the key question seems to be “How do I know His plans?” It is by seeking Him with my whole heart. It’s good to note: ultimately the journey is not to a place of position but to a Person. It’s in knowing HIM that I know His ways. In the end- Our calling is not to a place or to a plan or a position but to a Person- Jesus Christ. We can make resolutions but the highest calling of our lives is to Jesus Himself. He said, “Come, follow ME.”

The Gospel alone can empower this kind of shift- from my will to His will. Jesus gave up all control so that we can know everything is under control. When we see the King of creation losing control upon the cross, our fears are destroyed and our courage rises up- because of His love and because of the hope of resurrection!

Here’s my challenge: Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands and step out into an invincible future with Him. Give your life fully to Him.
Why not now?

Missional Church-Simple.

31 Dec , 2010 No Comments

2011 Resolution for pastors and church leaders: Turn your church inside out for the sake of the kingdom, for the sake of the Gospel, for the sake of the mission of Jesus… for the sake of your congregation.

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