Category Archives: Healthy Faith

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Forgiveness, Freedom and The Good Life

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Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash

At some point in your relationships, you will be hurt. Someone will say something that marks you; it might be a small thing or something that changes your relationship(s) forever. You might be the one who says something. Maybe you have already experienced this and wondered, How do I trust again? How do I forgive that person and move forward?

Our ability to forgive someone and move forward has an enormous impact on our ability to live in and experience the good life that God has for us. 

How do you forgive that person and move forward?

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When forgiveness comes up, we immediately jump to what is next. It is natural. But there is an interesting phrase that Jesus uses in Matthew 18 when he talks about forgiveness and reconciliation. 

In verse 15, Jesus says, “If your brother sins against you.”

A question Jesus wants us to ask that we often skip over is: Did they sin against me or just annoy me?

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So, before confronting or bringing someone with us, we need to step back and ask, “Did this person sin against me?” Or did they do something I didn’t like?

The reality is that they may have sinned against you, and you need to confront this issue. They may also have done something you didn’t like. The reason I start here is that we often get hung up on and ruminate on things we should let go of more quickly. 

Once you have clarity on whether it is something for you to wrestle with and let go of, or if it is indeed something you need to confront someone about or navigate the steps of forgiveness, you can move forward. 

Forgiveness is tough. In a sermon, giving forgiveness sounds so easy and clean. Yet, in real life, it is complicated and messy. Often, we forgive as much as we believe we are forgiven. Whenever we withhold forgiveness, we deny the power of the cross. Whenever we say, “I can’t forgive that person,” or “I can’t let go of that situation”, we deny the power of the cross. We deny the power of what God redeemed us to do.

How to Forgive, Let Go & Deal with Hurt in Relationships.

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Before walking through giving forgiveness, let’s look at what forgiveness is not, because many of us have the wrong idea about forgiveness. 

5 things forgiveness is not.

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Forgiveness is not the same thing as forgetting. Forgive and forget is not a reality. We will always remember. It is a part of our story and past. We will not forget the room, the smell, the face, the words. 

Forgiveness does not always mean reconciling or trusting. Just because you forgive someone does not mean you have a relationship with them moving forward. Wisdom might require you to have boundaries. You can forgive them and release them, but the wisdom may tell you not to trust them. You can also reconcile with them and not trust them to the same degree you once did. 

Forgiveness does not mean excusing what happened. This goes with forgetting, but forgiveness does not mean you are ignoring it or saying it’s no big deal. 

Forgiveness is not simple or easy. When the other person pushes you to forgive, they underestimate the impact of their words and actions. Forgiveness is complex and challenging. 

Forgiveness does not depend on the other person. You can forgive someone who hasn’t asked for forgiveness. They don’t need to apologize for you to forgive and let them go. Stop letting them take up real estate in your heart and mind.

5 myths about forgiveness.

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Forgiveness involves letting go, canceling what is owed to you, and relinquishing the control the offender has over you. It is giving up revenge; as we see in Romans 12:19, it leaves it in God’s hands.

As you walk through this door and grant forgiveness, here are a few things to keep in mind:

3 things to remember when you forgive.

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Forgiving someone does not mean pretending it didn’t happen. Forgiving does not mean forgetting, as the old saying goes. Those scars still exist. They are still there. Forgiving means acknowledging it happened and the pain associated with it. It is facing the hurt.

Giving forgiveness carries a cost. There is a cost to forgiveness. The cost of forgiveness is always on the person granting forgiveness. This is why forgiveness is so hard. C.S. Lewis said, “Forgiveness is a beautiful word until you have something to forgive.”

Forgiveness is possible because Jesus bore your sin and the cost of forgiveness. When we look at the cross, we see how Jesus bore our sins, knowing we would fail repeatedly. Yet, he forgave us. The power of this moment is what enables us to forgive the way Jesus did.

How to forgive, let go of your hurt, and move forward in relationships.

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The Crucial Step to Freedom We Often Miss

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Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash

All of us have things in our lives that we wish we were free from. Sins, hurts, betrayals, hang-ups, and addictions ruin so many parts of our lives. They have destroyed relationships, created all kinds of stress, destroyed careers, and taken us so far off track that it is sometimes hard to find the path to the life God wants us to live. 

We try all kinds of things to get our lives and relationships together. We listen to podcasts, go to counseling, join groups, and read books. All of those can be helpful, so you should do them. But as we see in 1 John, John gives us a clear first step to freedom: Confession. 

Confession is the doorway to God’s grace and forgiveness.

Confession is the doorway to God’s grace and forgiveness.

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But it is often the last thing we want to do. We don’t like to apologize to anyone, especially God. We, like the people John was writing to, would like to minimize the sin in our lives. Act as if it’s no big deal, or as if there’s no sin in your hearts and lives. 

Yet, deep down, we know that there is. 

We need confession. 

But why? John tells us in 1:9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. -1 John 1:9

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Our confession is not successful because we are really sorry or groveling. Our confession is successful because of who God is, because of his character.

If we’re honest, confession is not something we like to do. We don’t want to do it in our relationships. We don’t like to apologize. In fact, when someone says we hurt them, a favorite apology in our culture is, “I’m sorry you felt hurt.” That’s not an apology, that’s blaming them for being hurt.

My guess is that you don’t like to confess wrongdoing to someone else or to God. It shows weakness, need, and admits we did something wrong.

Confession, though, is something we must do; our soul, our heart, needs confession. Our relationship with God needs confession.

We need God’s grace, and it is only through confession that we receive it.

Confession is being honest with yourself and God about who you are and who He is.

Confession is being honest with yourself and God about who you are and who He is.

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But how do we practice this? 

What happens when we confess our sins.

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Richard Foster, in his excellent book Celebration of Discipline, said there are 3 things involved in confession:

1. We examine ourselves. Where is our sin? Where does it stem from? We ask our kids, Why did you do that?

That’s a great question during the examination of your heart. This is where our souls come under the gaze of God. We’ve already been told God is light, and that is a good thing. In this, we are also inviting God to show us places that need forgiveness and healing. 

Be specific. 

Do you know what is amazing in the gospels? When people came to Jesus, they came with particular things—specific requests. Bring specific things to Jesus in confession, specific situations, relationships, and specific hurts. Don’t generalize.

2. Sorrow. Sorrow is one of the reasons we avoid confession. But sorrow is crucial. We have sinned against both someone and God. This is a godly sorrow because what we have done is against the heart of God.

3. A determination to avoid sin. This is where we ask God to give us a passion for holy living, to provide us with a desire to fight our sin, and to help us hate it.

3 things we must do when we confess our sins.

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One Thing Your Church Can Do with “The Crisis of Discipleship”

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Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Recently, in one of my classes at Fuller, this question was posed:

Reflect on the “crisis of discipleship” revealed during the COVID-19 pandemic. How might thinking of the crisis of discipleship as an adaptive challenge shape your approach to the spiritual formation work of churches? And how might the development of adaptive capacity help better equip the Church for its formative task? 

Adaptive challenges and technical challenges are not the same thing. Thinking of discipleship as a technical challenge would involve meeting and brainstorming new classes or groups. What kind of new studies or sermon series might you come up with to address the crisis in front of you? 

Adaptive challenges require new behaviors, new ways of thinking, and letting go of old ways and old modes. They will also require loss and grief as you enter a new world, one Tod Bolsinger calls canoeing the mountains. 

The crisis of discipleship revealed in churches during COVID-19 is that separating discipleship from mission has stunted our growth as disciples and the health of churches. If the goal of discipleship, as seen in most churches, is “the more you know about God, the more you know God or the closer you are to God,” COVID-19 revealed that it is not true. As churches, we have made discipleship primarily about what is in our heads, rather than about our whole person, thereby separating discipleship from mission. 

Considering this crisis from the perspective of adaptive change involves confronting the notion that discipleship and mission are not separate but are interconnected, forming two sides of the same coin. Discipleship is about transforming the whole person, which leads to our mission in this world. According to writers like Ruth Haley Barton and Jim Herrington, this is a “deeper soul change.” Meeting God in the desert or “crucible of ministry and life.” Much of our discipleship talk and formation in churches has not prepared our people to navigate the desert and the dark night of the soul. My guess is that many pastors in America have not navigated their own desert or dark night of the soul, but that is a different post. 

During COVID, we returned to ‘what we’ve always done.’

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During COVID-19, we returned to our technical change tool belt to do what we’ve always done. If our discipleship was about justice, we focused on justice; if it was about serving or “doing good things,” as one church member told me, we collected food and made masks. Many churches focusing on Bible studies offered more online services and daily messages during COVID-19. 

Looking back, I wonder if all this activity kept us from the silence God wants to invite us into, the silence that could’ve been incredibly beneficial but is also, at times, painful. You see, the moments of solitude throughout Scripture are the places where God meets His people and brings them to places of deeper change. 

We all encountered solitude during 2020, and many of us were unprepared to navigate it. Now, solitude and loneliness are not the same thing. But it is in solitude that the deepest change happens. In solitude, the loudest voices in our souls start talking, bringing up past memories, hurts, or sins, and many of us prefer the busyness of life to the solitude we most desperately need. 

Many of us prefer the busyness of life to the solitude we most desperately need.

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God’s Love for You

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Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash

One of the strongest and clearest messages throughout the Bible is God’s love for us. We are reminded that God doesn’t forget us (even though many of us feel forgotten); that God is close to us (even though He often feels far away); and that not only has He created us in His image, but He knows us, and that doesn’t scare Him away (although we always fear that the moment someone truly understands us, they’ll bolt.)

And yet, many of us still struggle to believe God loves us.

We believe that God loves the world and that, through Jesus, God will redeem and restore it; however, we struggle to live as if this is true. 

So we run, hide, put up fronts, wear masks, beat ourselves up for past mistakes, try to earn God’s love, and try to prove ourselves worthy of God’s love. All the while, God’s love sits there.

If you’re like me, you can relate to this.

The problem for many of us is that we read verses about God’s love for the world and us (John 3:16), that Jesus loves us (John 15:9), that God predestined us in love (Ephesians 1:4 – 5), that God sings over us (Zephaniah 3:17), that God loved us first (1 John 4:19), that God draws us to Himself (John 6:44). We read the apostle Paul saying over 160 times that as a follower of Jesus, we are “in Christ”, and yet we live every day as if God is disappointed in us, indifferent towards us, mildly happy with us or “likes” us.

We’ll say, “I know God has forgiven me, but I can’t forgive myself.” Or, “God loves me, but I can’t love myself.”

When we say those things, we have made love and forgiveness something it is not. We have based that on our definitions and life.

Over the last two years, if there is one message that God has put on my heart for me to learn, it is this: His gracious, unrelenting, never-stopping love for me.

I keep returning to Luke 15 and the stories that Jesus told: a shepherd who goes after a lost lamb, a woman who searches for a coin, and a father who runs out to meet his son, who doesn’t deserve grace, let alone a party. Through this passage, God has softened my heart, enabling me to understand and feel His love.

Some of us (at least I did) balked a little at this because it seemed too emotional, making God too close and personal, and we feared it would diminish His transcendence and power. He’s God, Creator of the universe. Yes, and He’s also a personal God who created you in His image and sent His Son to die in your place so He could rescue you and so you could know His great love for you.

Here’s my challenge to you. Spend as much time as you need, months or years. Dive into Luke 15, Ephesians 1, and the passages listed above and ask God, “Show me Your love for me; help me to understand and feel Your love for me.”

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Thriving in the ‘In Between’ Times of Life

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Have you ever found yourself stuck?

As a leader or pastor, do you know where you want your church or organization to be, but it isn’t moving forward? Or maybe you are married, and you have a vision for your marriage or family, but it isn’t moving towards that or at the speed that you want. 

Often, we live in the in-between times of life and leadership.

The “in-between” is when you know (or at least desire something) where you are going personally, with your dreams and goals, or with your church or organization; you see the vision, the place, but you can’t go there yet. It might be timing, it might be that you need more finances, more leaders, or you need to allow people time to train or get used to the idea.

Whatever it is, the in-between time is tough to live in and lead in.

It is tough to lead and live when you’re stuck in the in-between.

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Leaders feel this when they know their church should make a change, stop a ministry or program, add a staff member they can’t afford, or change locations, but they are waiting.

The in-between.

We know this feeling when we want to complete school, start dating someone who isn’t ready yet, or get married to someone who isn’t ready.

The in-between.

It is the pain of longing to have children that never happens. It is the late nights as we wait for kids to fall asleep, start listening, or simply grow up and move out so we can get to the next season of life.

The in-between.

Many of us live our lives longing to be in the next place.

Do you wish your life was someplace else?

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You know where you are going in the in-between, but you can only talk about it with some. You need to wait for more information for things to fall into place before you let people know and clarify things. A leader lacks influence when he says, “In eight months, this change will happen. So we’ll just wait until then, but it’s coming.”

You can get antsy and frustrated in the in-between because it isn’t getting here. The frustration also comes from seeing things as they are when you know what they will be like and must wait for it. That’s not easy. It means biting your tongue, grinning, and bearing some things until it’s time.

The in-between is also a time when your faith is stretched. You learn about your impatience and lack of belief in God’s power and control as you wonder why He is taking so long, as if His timing is not perfect.

Leadership in this time is difficult because momentum is easily lost. It can be lost because you, as the leader, have moved into the future, but you can’t talk about it yet. Consequently, you are running out of steam on where things are. You must stay mentally engaged in the present, where God has you and your church.

The in-between time is also the time that grows us the most. That’s its blessing. Without it, we can never reach the place God wants us to be. It is easy to despair in the in-between, but if we do, we miss the point.

How to live in the in-between.

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The 1 Thing Holding You Back Spiritually

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Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash

In Mark 10, Jesus has a fascinating conversation with a wealthy man, also known as “the rich young ruler.” While the conversation is about money and stuff, it is also about what keeps us from wholeheartedly following Jesus. 

The man asks Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He betrays in this question that, from his perspective, eternal life is for those who do the right things. While many followers of Jesus would scoff at this question, many think the same way as this man. While many of us would say that we view grace as the entrance into the life that Jesus offers, we live like our behavior is what will keep us in that life.

While many of us would say that we view grace as the entrance into the life that Jesus offers, but then we live like our behavior is what will keep us in that life.

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Jesus responds to him in his line of thinking about the commandments. He tells Jesus he has kept all of them since he was a youth, so this, at least in his mind, is a righteous man. 

Jesus tells him, “You lack one thing…“

I want to pause the conversation and make sure you don’t miss a detail that Mark includes. This is one of the most incredible details in all of the gospel readings. Before Jesus responds, Mark tells us that Jesus looked at the man with love. Often, when we read the words of Jesus, we read them in different tones of voice: sometimes, we will read them in a condescending tone, a disappointing tone, or even a tone that says, “You should have this figured out by now.” But Mark wants us to know that the way Jesus responds to this man is in love, which means that Jesus wants nothing but the best for this man.

Jesus tells him, with love, “You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

His command is to go, sell, give, come, and follow.

We often fall into two traps with Mark 10: to lessen Jesus’ demands or think they aren’t for us. 

We often fall into two traps with Mark 10: to lessen Jesus’ demands or think they aren’t for us.

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Jesus did not tell everybody to sell everything they have and give it to the poor; he did tell at least one person that. 

But I don’t think the focus of the passage is on selling everything we have and giving it to the poor but on figuring out the one thing that keeps us from wholeheartedly following Jesus. For this man, it was his money and stuff, and for many of us, it might also be our money and stuff. But it might also be our family relationships, our careers, or our status in a community. 

Jesus did not tell everybody to sell everything they have and give it to the poor; he did tell at least one person that.

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The question for every follower of Jesus is to ask: Is there anything in my life that is keeping me from wholeheartedly following Jesus?

If we are willing to identify that and work through what we lack, on the other hand, that will be the spiritual breakthrough that we long to have.

The question for every follower of Jesus is to ask: Is there anything in my life that is keeping me from wholeheartedly following Jesus?

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5 Lessons from the Upper Room Discourse (John 13 – 17)

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Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

I recently wrapped up a sermon series on John 13 to 17, the upper room discourse. It takes place on the night that Jesus is betrayed by one of his followers and arrested, and is less than 24 hours from his crucifixion. Reading through these passages in that light takes on newer and more profound meanings for people who have heard these verses.

Jesus is preparing himself for what lies ahead and trying as hard as possible to prepare the disciples, especially because they do not realize what is about to happen. You see this in their questions and interactions with Jesus. The number of times that they ask him, “What are you talking about?” We don’t understand what you were talking about. They also have side conversations about Jesus’s comments about returning to the Father and not knowing what he’s talking about (John 16).

As I reflected on the series and the conversations that I had with people in my church, I thought I would share five things that stood out to me:

Jesus was serious about love.  John 13:35 is quoted quite a bit in churches. In it, Jesus says that the world will know who his disciples are by how they love one another. While this is a well-known verse, very few Christians actually live out it.

If you don’t believe that, ask yourself: Does the world find the church and their love for each other inviting or repelling?

It is interesting to read through the gospels how many conversations Jesus had with people about loving their neighbor and who their neighbor was. Throughout history, Christians have tried to figure out how to avoid loving their neighbor or the person at their church who is challenging to love. And yet Jesus sits with his disciples, including Judas, and tells them to love one another.

This verse is even more powerful because it follows Jesus washing all of the disciples’ feet. He serves them in a way that in that culture would’ve been seen as very humiliating and then tells them this is what love looks like. So, the question we have to ask is, am I serving the people around me in a way like Jesus did in John 13?

What if Jesus was serious when he told us to love one another and that by this everyone would know that we are his disciples.

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It’s okay if you don’t know what God is doing.  Many followers of Jesus believe they should always know what God is up to or calling them to do. We tend to beat ourselves up if we don’t understand something in the Bible or struggle to believe something about God or have questions or doubts about God. However, one of the interesting things throughout the upper room discourse is how confused the disciples were by what Jesus kept saying. They asked him question after question and even had side conversations with each other about what Jesus was talking about and how they had no idea what he was talking about.

Do you see this most clearly in John 16 when they look at each other and ask what he is saying? I wonder what that interaction was like. Did they say it quietly so that Jesus didn’t hear them? But Jesus does hear them and asks them questions about it. However, I think the tone in which we read Jesus’s voice is critical. Often, we can read Jesus’s tone and ask the disciples questions in a very angry or disappointed tone. But I think the tone that Jesus has when he asks them do you not understand? It is one of love and compassion.

Five things I learned from preaching through the upper room discourse.

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Jesus knew unity mattered and would be difficult. In John 17, we see the longest recorded prayer in scripture. It is what is known as Jesus’s high priestly prayer, and in it, Jesus prays for three things: our security in the Father, our sanctification in the Spirit, and our unity. 

In John 17, Jesus prays for three things: our security in the Father, our sanctification in the Spirit, and our unity.

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But I found it most interesting that of all the things that Jesus could have prayed for his disciples, he prayed that they would have unity. This tells us that unity is incredibly important to Jesus, but he also knew that it would be challenging for us to live out, which is why he prayed for it.

But then he says why we should have unity because it will tell the world that the Father sent Jesus and that the Father loves them. So unity is not just some pie-in-the-sky idea that Jesus had but essential to the mission of God being fulfilled here on earth.

We barely scratch the surface of the Holy Spirit’s power. One of the most difficult things for people to wrap their minds around was for the disciples when Jesus told them it would be better for him to leave so that the spirit could come to live in each of his disciples.

Along with us, he tells his disciples that they will do greater things than he has because of the power of the Spirit living in them.

There’s a lot of debate about what this means and what Jesus intended for the disciples to know. The one thing that seems clear is that most Christians barely scratch the surface of the power of the Holy Spirit and what that means as we live our daily lives with the Holy Spirit living in us.

Eternity is real, and it is our home. John 14 is often a passage used when you preach at a funeral, but it is more than that. When Jesus’s disciples begin to understand that Jesus is leaving and have questions about it, the comfort that Jesus gives them is telling them that he is going to the Father, and when he goes to the Father, he will prepare a place for them. So, he tells them about eternity in difficulty, hardship, anxiety, and fear. This tells us that eternity is real and that if we look towards eternity, we will begin to see how that answers our worries and anxieties.

5 things Jesus told his disciples right before he was arrested and crucified.

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What to do When Life Beats You Down

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The reality of evil and suffering is one that a lot of people have argued about and questioned God on, and it is one of the main roadblocks to trusting God and following him.

In my years as a pastor, I’ve sat with couples who have buried a child, adults burying their parents, and wept with people who just found out they had cancer and a short time to live. I have listened to the brokenhearted stories about the end of a marriage, a child who wants nothing to do with the family or God, the loss of jobs, financial difficulties and addictions that can’t be beaten.

It’s heartbreaking, and those are just the ones I’ve been party to. This doesn’t even count the national and international tragedies and natural disasters we see every day on the news and on social media.

What to do when the storms of life beat you down.

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I’ve walked through the loss of friends, difficulty in family and work relationships, loss of jobs, setbacks in life, and challenges in starting our church. I’ve walked through the joys and difficulties of moving a family across the country, pastoring a hurting church while watching it grow and reach new people, and walking through the pain of having people leave. I’ve looked at mountains in my own life that seemed impossible to get past, hurt that felt so painful I thought I could never recover, betrayal that ran deep.

And then sits Romans 8:28 – 30. One of the most quoted verses in the Bible is Romans 8:28 – 30. It has been used for encouragement over and over in the lives of thousands since Paul wrote it.

It says: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Right now, you might be in the midst of a storm in life. You might not be. If you aren’t, the reality is your storm is coming at some point.

Here are a few questions to help you see where you are, where God is in the storm you are, and how to have the faith to walk through what you are in and what is ahead:

4 questions to help you trust God when life feels out of your control.

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What storm are you facing? It is crucial to identify the storm you are facing. Often, we don’t know what it is. We simply feel down, or something feels off from what used to be or what we hope. Sometimes, it isn’t a storm we’re in the middle of; we’re simply tired or burned out. Other times, we are in the dark place of the storm, and the waves are crashing around us. Also, without identifying our storm, we will struggle to see anything God is doing because we’ll simply go into survival mode or become jaded.

Identifying a storm is a key to getting through the storm.

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Are there any sins that need to be confronted? By this I mean, have you sinned to get you into the place you are in, or has someone else? Take finances for an example. This can cause an incredibly stressful storm, but many of our financial issues (housing market, retirement, etc.) are out of our control. Other financial storms are in our control (debt, spending, saving, giving, etc.). Or relational storms: did you hurt someone? Are you holding onto something you need to let go of? Is there someone you need to confront or forgive and let go of?

Look back at a storm, hurt, or pain from your past. With some distance from that situation, can you see God’s hand? I know that the further I am from a situation, the more clarity I have. I will often see my pride and sin more clearly, but I also see God’s hand more clearly. The reality is that on this side of heaven, we will not have answers for everything that happens to us. We aren’t promised that. We are promised that God will never leave or forsake us, that all things serve a purpose in God’s plan, and that all things will bring about God’s glory and our good if we are called by him and love him.

Sometimes you must look back to go forward.

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What does looking at your past help you to see about God with what you are facing? What is he trying to do right now? I like to look back on my life because it often helps me move forward. This is why God had the nation of Israel do things to remember how he moved in the past. This is why, as followers of Jesus, we do things like communion and baptism to remember how God worked in the past, which enormously impacts our faith in the future.

4 ways to handle when ministry gets hard.

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Letting God Love You

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One of the things I love to do each year in my own life and a small group I lead is to ask everyone this simple question: If you were to look more like Jesus a year from now, what would that mean? What changes would you make? How would you know if you became that person?

Many people miss what God has for them because they lack a vision for their spiritual growth. 

Many of us miss what God has for us because we don’t have a vision for our spiritual growth.

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But make no mistake, God has a vision for who we are becoming. 

In John 15, Jesus tells his disciples what some of that looks like: to abide in Him. 

To abide means to dwell, remain, make your home in, to be held and kept.

To abide in Jesus means to dwell, remain, make your home in, to be held and kept.

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A simple heart-check question is, “What or who am I abiding in?” We are all abiding in something or someone. We all look to something or someone to keep us and hold us. We look for love and security from someone or something. We are making our home somewhere. That might be in our career, political party, relationship, kids’ sports, or lives. But we are all abiding in something or someone. 

The question is, are we abiding in the right thing?

I have often struggled to know what it means to abide. Abiding sounds passive, but it isn’t. 

When we think of the Christian life, we usually focus on the commands to go, do, make, etc. 

And those are all over Scripture. 

But John 15 also says that part of the Christian life is abiding, dwelling, remaining, being held and kept. 

For that to happen, we must choose it. 

In many ways, abiding is letting God love me. 

In many ways, abiding is letting God love me.

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How do we do that?

One, we must choose it. We must actively believe and trust that God loves us. We must believe that we can make a home in God and that he will hold us and keep us. 

If this is hard, ask God to help you. Ask him to show you that you are loved and that he is keeping you. 

3 truths from John 15.

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Two, dwell with him. 

Jesus tells his disciples in verse 3 that this happens through the word. 

Third, submit to the pruning that the Father brings into our lives. 

We don’t know the fruit we need to grow in as well as the Father. 

3 ways to let God love you.

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What God is Doing Right Now in our Crazy World

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Photo by Diana Vargas on Unsplash

In the gospel of John, he tells his disciples two incredible things: the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these (14:12), and it is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away, the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you (16:7).

These two verses tell us so much about what God is doing in our world today and how he moves within the lives of Jesus’ followers to bring about his will.

For many Christians, and honestly for me as well, these two verses seem confusing. How is it possible that anyone can do the works that Jesus did or even greater works than he did? And how could it be better without Jesus here?

I’m sure his disciples, just like Christians who have been mystified about this for centuries, had the same confused looks on their faces. What do you mean it would be better if you left? What do you mean we will do greater works?

In John 14, Jesus tells us how this happens. The person who believes and keeps his commands will do greater works than these and see the counselor (Holy Spirit) come to him.

As Alan Fadling said, “Obedience is not the path to being loved. Obedience is the reality of being at home in love.”

Obedience is not the path to being loved. Obedience is the reality of being at home in love. – Alan. Fadling

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This is so important.

Jesus doesn’t say obedience saves you. Obedience reveals the reality of your salvation.

Jesus doesn’t say obedience saves you. Obedience reveals the reality of your salvation.

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So, the person who will do the works that Jesus did and greater works, the person whose life is better with “the spirit in them instead of Jesus beside them,” is the one who loves God and keeps his commands (John 14:15).

Then, Jesus tells us what followers of Jesus experience in the spirit each day: The presence of the Father, Son, and Spirit; counselor; and teacher.

Jesus tells us that we will find our home through the Father, Son, and Spirit and won’t be left as orphans. Jesus knew that his disciples would feel abandoned and vulnerable, so he told them, “I won’t leave you as orphans; you will not be alone” (John 14:18). As a follower of Jesus, you and I are never alone. We are not navigating anything by ourselves. We are never abandoned, no matter how much the enemy makes us feel that way.

Then he says the Holy Spirit is our counselor (or advocate in some translations) and teacher.

A counselor carries the idea of helper, which the Spirit is also called. Someone who helps us, guides us, convicts us, and gives advice and direction.

But also a teacher of all truth. So, in the moments we aren’t sure what to do, what to say, which way to go, which decision is better, when we need wisdom and truth, the Spirit gives it to us. We are not alone. We are not trying to figure it out by ourselves. God isn’t holding back on us.

What does our world need now?

Followers of Jesus who do greater works than Jesus through the power of the Spirit.

Our world needs followers of Jesus who do greater works than Jesus through the power of the Spirit.

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What are the “greater works” that you will do — all of you?

Pastor John Piper says, “You will receive the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of the crucified and risen Christ. Before the resurrection of Jesus, nobody in the history of the world had ever done that, not even Jesus. And in the power of that absolutely new experience — the indwelling of the crucified and risen Christ — your works of love and your message of life in union with Christ, will point people to the glory of the risen Son of God, and you will be the instrument of their forgiveness based on the finished work of Christ (John 20:23). This will be new. This will be greater than Jesus’ earthly miracles, because this is what he came to accomplish by his death and resurrection.”