The Grace Discipleship Group

Steve Lehrer has an interesting series on his blog. I have asked his permission to post it here as well, as I think it has much to say to us. Read it and let me know what you think. There is more to follow if you want it!Here is Steve’s article: Jesus and my mini-van pt. 1

I would like to share with you something that I have been thinking about lately. I warn you, this is painful and may cause you to change your life in radical ways. So, read at your own risk!

“If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men…If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus for merely human reasons, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:19, 32)

I am disturbed, unsettled, and upset by these verses all at the same time. You see, these verses assume something about the Christian life you and I are living. They assume that we are living in such a way that if we came to the end of our lives and we found out that Christ was not really true or real, that objectively we should be pitied beyond all people in the world because, for Christ’s sake, we gave up so much money; we suffered so much persecution; we lost so much sleep loving people; we lost so many dear relationships; we lost opportunities to gain status and prestige; etc. The bottom line is that Paul is assuming that we are living a full-throttle self-sacrificial putting-everyithing-on-the-line kind of life for Jesus Christ. How about you? If it were suddenly revealed that Christ was not raised and Christianity was a farce, would you cry out, “I have wasted my life!” or would you say, “that is terrible, but I have made quite a life for myself right here anyway”?

You must understand just how disturbing this question really is to me. You see, I just bought a mini-van. You might not quite get the impact of that statement, so I will try to flesh that out for you. You see, I am firmly convinced that there is no such thing as a Christian who lives a “half-hearted unsacrificial and not-very-radical life.” I think Scripture is quite clear that if you are not living in this world as one who is always laying it on the line for Christ, you either need to repent immediately or you simply don’t know Christ. If you knew Christ you would know and feel “in your bones” that He is so wonderful, compassionate, kind, loving, gracious, and perfect that He is worth sacrificing everything this world has to offer. And if you really knew Christ, you would also know that He is the coming judge who will crush everyone who loved this world more than God. Buying a mini-van is not sin, but it is one of a series of decisions that have me living comfortably in suburbia. My relationships are comfortable. My lifestyle is comfortable. My giving is comfortable. Even my ministry is comfortable. Oh, and my mini-van is quite comfortable as well! I am not saying that poverty is somehow godly or that we should all be sleeping on beds of nails and depriving ourselves for the purpose of being uncomfortable. But what I am saying is that in order to live for Christ in this world, certain decisions need to be made that result in suffering and sacrifice. If I am not being squeezed and pinched by suffering and sacrifice for a short time, praise God! He might just be giving me a short break! But if I have never been (or it has been a long time since I have been) squeezed or pinched by suffering and sacrifice for Christ’s sake, I must ask yourself if I am really living for Him. I must ask myself if I really know Him.

Let me bring a few more passages of Scripture to bear on this issue:

Money and Possessions

“The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
10″Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?
13″No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”
(Luke 16:8-13).

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” 15Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
16And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. 17He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
18″Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ‘
20″But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’
21″This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:13-21).

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15).

Persecution

Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. 20But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. 21They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, 22strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said (Acts 14:19-21).
You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:10-13).

Self-Denial and Strife

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. 25What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? (Luke 9:23-25)

“Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. 34″Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn ” ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law - 36a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ 37″Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it (Matthew 10:32-39).

The Command to Live in the World as if You Don’t Belong Here

17Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear…11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. 12Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us (1 Peter 1:17, 2:11-12).

“What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; 30those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; 31those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away” (1 Corinthians 7:29-31).

Be of Good Cheer!
If what I have just written feels like you have gotten sucker punched in your gut, be of good cheer. There is hope. There is not simply hope, but there is something practical that you can do that is built upon that rock solid hope. But for now, Let this line of thinking sink into your soul. In the next blog I will examine the way to move forward if you have gotten sucked into loving the world and living comfortably. The way forward may surprise you! Stay tuned.

Steve