February 2nd, 2011 by Kristi Stephens

A few years ago our small group worked through a great study together called Cat and Dog Theology (it’s better than it sounds! Ha!). One of the points made in that study that has stuck with me is this:

Am I asking God to help me do things, or am I asking Him to cause me to do His will?

If I am praying “help me” prayers – Lord, help me be a good mom today; Lord, help me serve my husband today; Lord, help me [fill in the blank] – I am operating under the basic assumption that there are some things that I can do. I just need a little help! When I ask God to help me, it is a good signal that I may not be abiding. I may not be finding myself utterly dependent before Him. I may be forgetting that apart from Him I can do NOTHING.

Quoting from our past discussion regarding the Sermon on the Mount:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

The meaning of the word “poor” here is fascinating. It is in contrast with another Greek word which means “poor but able to help oneself.” This word means “poor and helpless; one who, in his abjectness, needs lifting. So poor he can sustain himself only through begging – one who has nothing at all.”

This poverty of the soul was the very beginning of my salvation. It also is crucial in my sanctification. I must find myself continually lowly before my awesome and holy God, acknowledging that any good in my life, any good that I do is because of Him alone.

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5 (ESV)

Nothing means I need more than help. I need Him to cause me.

Lord, on my own I am a trainwreck. All of my best efforts fall flat. Even the good that I do becomes entwined with pride, with competition, with the desire to please people. Often I do not even want to do what is good, and like Paul I find that the good I want to do I do not do, and what I do not want to do I do. My perspective is easily skewed. I find that I cannot even dwell in your Word and focus in times of prayer as my focus wanders and I begin to fret or plan or daydream.

Lord, I need more than help! I need you to cause me – cause my heart to focus on You, cause my will to be in line with your own, cause me to love what you love and hate what you hate.

“I can do nothing” means that the only thing that’s good in me is Jesus.

Are you finding that you need more than just some “help?” I hope that you’ll join us throughout the month of February as we continue to consider what it means to Abide.

November 19th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

We’ve all been there. The waiting room.

After rushing and sweating and tripping over ourselves to get to an appointment on time, we find ourselves staring at the walls, counting the chairs, flipping aimlessly through magazines as we wait. Gazing at the door ahead of us wondering when it will next open, hoping our name will be called. Pondering what might be happening on the other side… what is occurring in the lives of others just out of sight that is causing us to wait. And wait. And wait.

My husband and I have felt for months, years, like we have been stuck in a waiting room. Knowing that God has called us to do and be certain things, taking fearful leaps of faith… and finding ourselves waiting.

From our very human perspective, we tend to think that life is going to happen once that door opens and we can move on to the next stage – but I think God often leaves us to live large chunks of life in the waiting room. It is in the waiting room that our hearts can be adjusted.

The Sermon on the Mount fascinates me. I have been reading through Matthew and once again find myself drawn to these chapters, pondering them, savoring them, longing to understand the heart of the Master. Matthew 7:28 ends this amazing section of Scripture with the observation that “the crowds were astonished at his teaching.” It is astonishing. Jesus’ view of life is so very different from our “natural” human view.

Jesus enlarges our understanding of God’s ways and shines a light on how far our ways are from His. We point to the fact that we have never murdered, He points out the anger simmering in our hearts and tells us that it is by meekness that we will inherit the earth.

We look around ourselves self-righteously as we mentally label “those” people as the immoral, the adulterers. He makes us squirm as He shows us that our very hearts are immoral, points out how prone we are to sin, advises us to painfully cut away and discard anything which might cause us to stumble even in ways unseen by those around us. To examine the plank in our eye before we take the scalpel to our brother’s speck.

We take delight in showing our “righteousness” to the world around us – trumpeting our giving as “setting an example,” praying long and showy prayers that others might notice our piety, making it public knowledge when we choose to fast or make some small sacrifice. Jesus tells us to have a vibrant life of walking with God in obedience and hiddenness – giving in secret, having a prayer life that is fervent and private before we pray to Him in public, sacrificing quietly and offering our lives as a gift to Him alone. He shocks us by saying that many who have prophesied and cast out demons and performed “mighty works” in His name will be cast from His presence, for He never knew them.

We tend to think that life is all about the big appointment – the active, obvious times when it is about us serving, us doing. Life is often about the waiting room. The times of quiet reflection, introspection, searching for the heart of the Father.

Because it’s not about us. It’s about Him.

Life in the waiting room is full of lessons – lessons that are often lost in the midst of hurry, angst, and worry. Is it any wonder that smack in the middle of this message we find this gentle reminder:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?… For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:25, 32-34)

“Lord, we need this… we’re waiting… why aren’t you opening this door?…”

So often, His answer is wait. Wait longer, my child. You’re still seeking your kingdom, your righteousness, your provision.

Seek mine instead.

May 5th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

Yesterday we discovered the cancer eating the Ephesian church from the inside out:  they had left their first love.  The diagnosis was serious.  The prescription is direct and clear.

Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Revelation 2:5

Remember.  I don’t know about you, but sometimes the greatest rebuke to my spiritual walk comes from talking to new believers in Jesus.  They are so passionate for their newfound Savior and His Word!  Their eagerness to learn, their willingness to obey, their enthusiasm for sharing Truth with others are refreshing and challenging to me.  I’ve often had new Christians comment to me that their new friends in the church don’t seem to want to talk with them about everything they are learning and their zeal to obey – and I think they’re right.  We don’t like to hear it.  It makes us uncomfortable.  We need to remember – to remember where we would be without Jesus Christ, to remember the amazing gift of forgiveness of sins He has offered to us, to remember that we do not earn grace with all of our “good works!”

Repent.  Why are they repenting?  Because failing to be motivated first and foremost by love was sin. SIN.

Consider this:  if the greatest commandment is to ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,’ then loving God with anything less than ALL our hearts and ALL our souls and ALL our minds is SIN.  And sin calls for repentance – to agree with God that our sin is deeply offensive, to desire His righteousness, to turn around and head in the other direction!

Do the things you did at first.  Dig into the Bible like you’ve never read it before.  Pray with the awe and excitement that the Creator and Ruler of the Universe has invited you into His throneroom!  Worship God out of the deep gratitude of one who knows that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for US.

I’ve been thinking off and on for quite a while now about the Sermon on the Mount – it strikes me that there is a reason why “blessed are the poor in spirit” is the first beatitude.    Until we realize how truly poor and undeserving we are of the rich grace He has lavished on us, we will not love Him like the woman in Luke 7.

Take a good long look at yourself today, friend.  See the ugliness of your sin.  Recognize the truth of what you deserve versus what God has given you.  Stop piling up your “good works” before God as ‘payment’ and recognize that they do not make you any more deserving of salvation – we are utterly poor in spirit, we are utterly dependent on grace.  Until we realize that we are the forgiven much, we will not love Him lavishly.  We need to remember, repent, and turn to Him in deep gratitude.

Art used (with permission) by Pat Marvenko Smith, copyright 1992. To order prints visit her “Revelation Illustrated” site,  http://revelationillustrated.com.

October 21st, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

This is a continuation of our series on the Sermon on the Mount – if you missed them, you might want to go back and catch up here.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:9

This verse is one that has been used and abused and ripped out of its context. What kind of peace are we talking about here?

Are we talking about “tolerating” one another and refusing to assert that one religion is more true than another? This is certainly a popular opinion today.

We are told that those of us who are closed-minded, those who assert that our beliefs are true and that others are not, those who cling to our “religious ideals” are to blame for the conflict in the world. Yesterday on twitter one of the trending topics was “No God” – in other words, that was the most popular topic happening worldwide on twitter. One individual posted a tweet which read “no God, know peace. Know God, no peace.”

Does this verse really mean that we should all just drop our differences and stop offending one another with our truth claims? A cursory reading of the context of this verse clears up this debate instantly – the next two verses read:

“Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.” (Matt. 5:10-11)

You don’t get persecuted for getting along with everyone. So, what kind of peace are we talking about? I think this verse is often misunderstood because we misunderstand the true conflict that we are to seek peace for. The ultimate conflict that needs to be addressed is that humanity is in rebellion against God. There will never be true peace on earth until Jesus sits on the throne of this world and every knee bows before Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17-19 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”

As believers, as the blessed ones, we have been reconciled to God through the work of Christ. In our hearts, the battle is over – we have bowed the knee to Him and now know a type of peace that passes understanding. Now we have been given a ministry of reconciliation – a charge to bring others into peace with God. To be peacemakers.

Now obviously, this peace also will surface in our lives in our interpersonal relationships, as well. Remember that these descriptions of “the blessed” in Matthew 5 are not descriptions of different groups – this is all one group being described in the beatitudes. Those who walk with God are poor in spirit, mourn over their sin, hunger and thirst for righteousness, show mercy to others, etc. So, while I am saying that peacemakers means seeking to bring peace between God and man, I am also saying that those who belong in this group fulfill this ministry of reconciliation in a manner consistent with all those other characteristics.

Peacemaking is an overflow of true inner peace with God. I love the description of this in the Jamieson Fausset Brown commentary -

When this reconciliation actually takes place, and one has “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”–even “the peace of God which passeth all understanding”–the peace-receivers become transformed into peace-diffusers. God is thus seen reflected in them; and by the family likeness these peacemakers are recognized as the children of God.

It’s a family likeness.

Today as we live in an increasingly hostile world, pray for God to open your eyes to the true battle going on. There were lots of angry, hateful things said today on Twitter; a few weeks ago was International Blasphemy Day; an atheist ad campaign is scheduled to begin in New York. Recognize that while believers in Jesus Christ get caught in the crossfire, these people are not really at war with us – they are at war with God. May God grant us compassion to see these people as individuals who are in desperate need of the ministry of reconciliation, for they have declared war on God.

For blessed are the peacemakers.