“We Didn’t Know Who You Were”

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Holiday, Theology

–December of 2003

“We Didn’t Know Who You Were”

The early American spiritual, “Sweet Little Jesus Boy” has a profound insight running through its lyrics.  The writer appropriately reflects the world’s failure to recognize the incarnate Son of God when He says: “We didn’t know who You were.”  The third verse proves to be even more remarkable. “The world treats you mean, Lord, treats me mean too, but that’s how things are down here. We don’t know who you are.”  The writer deliberately shifts from a historical ignorance to a present-day failure to recognize the Son of God.

I’ve spent the last several months studying the gospel of John for the specific purpose of learning how to model the life of Christ in my own life.  The revelations have been startling.  As I looked for Jesus in John’s narrative, the first thing I learned was that it’s very easy to miss Him because of looking for the wrong thing.

The world completely missed Him on that first Christmas (John 1:5, 10).  Their kings were born surrounded by pomp and circumstance.  But Jesus came silently, in a stable, with only a few shepherds to pay him homage.  Their kings lived in palaces, dressed in splendor, dined with heads of state, and traveled in gold plated chariots pulled by majestic steeds.  Their vision of a king was one to be served, feared and honored from a distance.  Jesus wore the garb of common men, had no place to lay his head, traveled by foot, rubbed shoulders with the poor and diseased, held children on his lap and first revealed His glory at the wedding of a poor village girl.  The very thought of a king, dying on a cross to redeem his people and establish His kingdom, was to the world foolishness.

His own people missed him (John 1:11).  The Jews were looking for a conquering warlord that would throw off the yoke of Rome, liberate their country and return them to the golden age of Solomon.  But Jesus said His kingdom was not of this world, spoke of going the second mile, turning the other cheek, and loving your enemies.  The Jews watched in complete horror as He healed a Roman’s Centurion’s servant, talked to a Samaritan adulteress, stayed in the home of a tax collector and spent most of His time with a group of ignorant fisherman.  For their Messiah to be crucified on a Roman cross as God’s perfect sacrifice, proved to be a huge stumbling block.

His disciples had problems recognizing who He was.  Peter, speaking for the twelve, announced at Caesarea Philippi that, “Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.”  Jesus’ response to that was to explain that being the Christ involved a cross.   To which Peter replied, “Not so Lord.”  When Jesus washed the disciple’s feet, Peter’s paradigm of the Messiah came out again, and it was not one of self-sacrificing servanthood.  Even after three years, His disciples saw His death and resurrection as the ultimate end rather than the consummate victory.

You don’t have to miss Him.  Those who were in tune to God’s redemptive plan and activity recognized Jesus right away.  Simeon and Anna recognized Him as God’s means of salvation when He was still a babe in His mother’s arms.  The wise men worshipped Him, John the Baptist announced Him as the “Lamb of God,” and the woman of Samaria said to her friends, “Is not this the Christ?”

Even a Roman Centurion who witnessed His crucifixion said, “Truly this was the Son of God.”

If Jesus were reincarnated among us today, would we be prepared to recognize Him?  Or have we created a Jesus so much to our own liking that we would never know the one walking through the pages of our New Testament?  This Christmas season, go back to the gospels and look for Him.  You will be awed by what you find.

The Grace of Gratitude

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Holiday, Theology

–November of 2003

The Grace of Gratitude

According to a medieval legend, two angels were once sent down to earth, one to gather up petitions and the other to collect thanksgivings.  The first angel found petitions everywhere.  He soon returned to heaven with a huge load of them on his back and a bundle in each hand.  The second angel had no such easy time.  He had to search diligently to find even a mere handful to take back to heaven.

Admittedly, legends can be farfetched and unrealistic or they can be painfully accurate.  This one, however, is much too accurate for comfort.  We would all have to admit that the high-stakes scramble for more of this world’s good has robbed the church of her voice of thanksgiving.  Our long period of materialistic comfort has made us easy in Zion and unaccustomed to the exercise of humble gratitude.

The Apostle Paul knew the importance of gratitude to the Christian as well as the subtle danger of ingratitude.  Listen to the music of gratitude that plays through his epistle to the Colossians:

Chapter one, verse 3:  “We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus.”

Chapter one, verse 12:  “…giving thanks unto the Father.”

Chapter two, verse 7:  “…abounding…with thanksgiving.”

Chapter three, verse 17:  “…giving thanks unto God and the Father by Him.”

Chapter four, verse 17:  “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.”

Paul’s hymnody of thanks seems to center in chapter three, verse 15 when he says, “And be ye thankful.”

Paul’s strong imperative to “wear a garment of gratitude” is anchored to three firm convictions in the Apostle’s life.

Paul saw gratitude as a required grace.  Not a luxury but a necessity, not an option but a conviction.  Paul placed it among the required rather than the elective classes in the school of Christian experience.  I have a debt to be grateful!

I owe it to God to be grateful.  He has given me life, eternal life and the opportunity to do something with it.

I owe it to others to be grateful.  A sour, complaining spirit spreads gloom.  However, a joyful, cheerful spirit brings sunshine and smiles wherever it goes.

I owe it to myself.  Your physician will tell you that a mean, bitter, thankless spirit harms our health and robs us of life.  But of greater concern is what ingratitude does to us spiritually.  Of the thirteen plagues that came upon the children of Israel in their wilderness journey, eleven of those were punishment for murmuring against God.  In Romans chapter one, Paul charts the awful journey from godliness to godlessness.  He says in verse 21 that part of the root cause for such deviation is a spirit of ingratitude, “Neither were they thankful.”

Gratitude is also a ripening grace.  A more literal translation of Paul’s words would be, “and become ye thankful.”  We must seek the grace of gratitude and cultivate the grace of gratitude until we are “abounding with thanksgiving.”  This is not an easy task.  None will ever overflow with thanksgiving until they see that gratitude is an inner disposition towards life that must be worked at.  Life has its mix of good and bad – of the difficult and the delightful; but it’s up to us as to how we respond to that mix.  Some people in examining a bush unhappily see only the thorns; others rejoice in the fragrance of its roses.  The lens through which we view life is so important.  Jacob saw his days as “few and evil.”  He described the loss of Joseph and the famine that reunited them with these words, “all these things be against me.”  However Joseph looked at life through the lens of gratitude and described the same time period with a different set of words completely.  Joseph said, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”  We see exactly what we discipline ourselves to see in life, and looking through the lens of thanksgiving will ripen us.

If it often said among Christians that our reward is in the world to come.  However, gratitude is a rewarding grace.  It has its own reward for us right now.

Gratitude exalts God.  Very few things honor and glorify God more than the sweet fragrance of a thankful soul.  It expels gloom and ushers in sweet peace and blessed hope.  More than once the child of God has used thanksgiving to drive back the clouds of sorrow and gloom.  Gratitude encourages graciousness.  It gives us the politeness of soul and graciousness of spirit that can’t be purchased for any amount of money.

Let’s declare war on whimpering and complaining!  Let’s put away from us forever the grumbling and fault-finding that is such a blight on the church today!  Reach into the closet of God’s grace and adorn yourself with the garment of gratitude!  It will make a difference!

Trouble Never Triumphs

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Christian Living, Theology

–October of 2003

Trouble Never Triumphs

Psalm 34:19

Occasionally, the Lord allows us to see a biblical truth illustrated in real life.  Sharon Makcen is a fine Christian woman, a phenomenal pastor’s wife, and a mother of three boys.  Her husband, Greg, became ill a few months ago with an illness that couldn’t be diagnosed.  As Greg’s life slowly ebbed away, Sharon sat with doctors as they offered no answers and little hope.  I was with Sharon when the primary physician told her he didn’t know what was wrong and didn’t know what else to do but to transfer her husband to a major university hospital where specialists could work with him.  The doctor, who was a Christian, then asked if he could lead the family in prayer.  After prayer, Sharon stood in the middle of the room and spoke these words with great conviction, “I know God’s way is best.  I have perfect peace in my heart.” A few days later, Greg died.  After the funeral, Sharon spoke those same words again, “God’s way is best; I have peace in my heart.”

In the days since, the words of Psalm 34:19 have been ringing in my ears.  “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.”  The Psalmist did not say that God’s people would never have pain, heartache, or trouble.  Instead, the Psalmist said that the person who puts their trust in God will find that trouble is never the last word, never the final answer.  Paul said it this way, “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not is despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; stuck down, but not destroyed.”  (II Corinthians 4:8-9)

From the deep despair of a Nazi concentration camp, Corrie Ten Boom asked her sister Betsie this question, “Betsie, why has God let this happen to us?” to which Betsie replied, “Corrie, we are here so that the world may know that there is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still.”

Betsie and Sharon found that in walking with God, trouble never triumphs. And when our day of trouble comes, we too will find the same.

Arrival Theology

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Theology

–September of 2003

Arrival Theology

One of the great legacies handed down to the Church by the father of Methodism was a passionate pursuit of God resulting in personal holiness. Wesley taught that salvation was a journey marked by crisis (moments of actualization) – in particular two crises, regeneration and entire sanctification.   Wesley stressed a real conversion experience.  He was instrumental in reviving and renewing the Church’s teaching on full sanctification as a second work of grace attainable now by faith.  This was his doctrine of Christian Perfection.  Nevertheless, he insisted that every crisis was preceded and followed by the gradual and constant work of the Holy Spirit.  To Wesley, the pursuit and transformation never ended.

Wesley’s renewed emphasis on these crises experiences lead to great revival and thousands of transformed lives.  However, this same emphasis also created a problem.  He addressed the situation formally at the general conference of 1770 when he wrote: “Does not talking, with proper caution, of a justified or sanctified state, tend to mislead men; most naturally, leading them to trust in what was done in one moment?  Whereas, we are every moment pleasing or displeasing to God, according to our works; according to the whole of our present inward temper and outward behavior.”  Wesley was seeking to warn those who were falling victim to what might be called “arrival theology”.  This false sense of “having it made” was breeding a spiritual pride in the ranks of Methodism and undermining further spiritual growth.

We face the same problem today.  Darius Salter in his excellent book, Prophetical Priestly Ministry, says that arrival theology comes from thinking that, “Entrance into the Christian fold is more akin to arrival than it is to the beginning of a pursuit.”  Salter goes on to say that “Strangling the church’s health is the belief that one’s past spiritual experience guarantees today’s Christian vitality.  Though only a few within evangelicalism’s broad spectrum of theology overtly espouse eternal security, most have adopted it.  The result is a sterile faith that knows little of the thirst that is absolutely essential to find spiritual nourishment.”

The Bible clearly teaches that men’s lives can be radically and instantly changed through regeneration and entire sanctification, but it never teaches that those are stopping points.  Our spiritual life is indeed a lifetime journey.  Regeneration and entire sanctification are critical crossroads on that journey, but neither experience will put us on a plateau of self-congratulatory ease. Salvation will both satisfy and intensify your spiritual hunger. Keeping this tension is your spiritual journey will place you in the company of the great saints.  It will certainly be key to your ultimate arrival in heaven.

Parents, Listen Up!!

by Mike Avery, posted in All Articles, Education

–Summer of 2003

Parents, Listen Up!!

A major consulting firm says that there are approximately 370,000 Christian seniors in America.  Of that number only sixteen percent (60,000) will attend a Christian/Bible college this fall.  Of those who do attend, 98 percent will maintain their faith and stay in church.  The remaining 84 % will attend a secular university or Jr. College near home.  Of those that do, 52 % will lose their faith and drop out of church.  Why wouldn’t Christian High School seniors and their parents overwhelmingly seek to attend a Christian College?

Another recent study shows that there are approximately 3000 churches that identify with the conservative values of a College like GBS or its peer colleges and institutes. (There are still others that would not fully identify with GBS but would still want the values based education it offers.)  An observation was made in this study that denominations tend to send at least 1 student for every 2 churches to the denominational College.  There is some parallel also between Church groups and Colleges they identify with. This means that there is a potential student pool for GBS and its peer colleges of approximately 1500 to 1800 students.  Yet enrollment records show a little under 50% of that number attend.  Why?

Our own survey shows that the key influence in a student coming to GBS is their parents (and it should be). However, our recruitment feedback also shows that the one reason college bound seniors go to secular schools is also because of parents.  Why?

We have been given many reasons.  The most consistent is money. Money on the front end:  Junior colleges are close to home and cheap, secular universities are close and cheap, and scholarships abound in these state funded school.  And money after graduation: “I want my kids to have it better than I did, and ministry doesn’t pay enough!”  Parents pushing their kids for upward mobility is the number one reason for Christian young people pursuing secular training and jobs.

Another reason is status.  They want their child to graduate from a college with national recognition.  Another reason is some parents don’t think their child is mature enough to be away from home and fear the loss of control over their lives.

I have also heard the reasons why some parents are willing to send their son and daughter hundreds of miles from home to our Campus. Let me list some of those.  They want them to get settled spiritually. They appreciate the academic excellence and ministry opportunity.  They see the value of resident life in the maturing process.  They want them around other kids who share their values and faith so as to have appropriate choices for a life partner.  It also places them in an atmosphere where they can make themselves available for full-time Christian ministry if God so calls them.

This is true for many parents who know that their child will only be here for a couple of years and then move on to a college that offers a career field we do not and could not offer.  They do not see it as wasted time, but as one of the best investments they can make in the future of a child they want to see maintain their faith and be an effective Christian servant no matter what calling they follow in life.

Nothing is more important to parents than their children. Nothing is more important to the Christian parent than the spiritual welfare of their children.  If that is so, then why not do whatever it takes to get them in that 98% group that keep the faith and bless God’s Kingdom!