Category: Bruce’s Newsletter Articles

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Jesus Went to Church

When I was growing up, I was privileged to have a family who always went to church. I don’t mean every Sunday but nearly every time the doors were open. Now, I’m not going to say that everybody ought to attend everything there is to do at the church—there is a lot to get involved in—but I will say that we ought to have a habit of going to church regularly. If we truly want to have “more Jesus” and “less me” in our lives, we need to consider Jesus’ example.

In Luke 4:16, we read that Jesus had a habit of going to church: “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read.” We can learn several things from this event.

First, Jesus likely considered the synagogue to be “home.” When Jesus returned to his hometown, he knew that this was the place to be, especially if he wanted to announce that he was going to become a preacher and not the carpenter everyone likely expected him to be. Second, this is likely the place where Jesus learned the Scriptures that he used to battle Satan’s temptation in the wilderness—who better to hear first the announcement that Jesus would be preaching God’s Word than the people who likely taught him God’s Word? Last, we can see that not only did Jesus go to church, but he participated as well.

I know how busy life can be, especially with kids. However, if we want to be more like Jesus, we need to make sure that we put the proper emphasis on being among God’s people. Hebrews 10:25 tells us that we shouldn’t give up on meeting together but that we should encourage each other. Let’s continue to meet together, at least to worship our Father God, every week. Let’s make sure that our children develop the habit of meeting together so that they may also, when they face temptation, be able to defeat Satan with the Scriptures they learn here. Let us also be regular in our service, participating in God’s work and encouraging each other.

 

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Jesus Focused on God

As a Christian minister, husband, and father, I know that there are only 24 hours in a day and 168 hours in each week. And just like everybody else, I wrestle with how to distribute the time among God, my wife, my kids, my extended family in the church, and my friends.

The issue is the false assumption that there has to be balance among those relationships, that there must be some kind of distribution of time and effort among the ones I love. The problem is that there is no way to legitimately split up my responsibilities, especially to God. I am 100 percent God’s, but there’s no on-off switch for being a husband or father. So there has to be another perspective.

Jesus makes it clear that it is our relationship to God that carries the greatest priority, but he also shows us that we must carry out our responsibilities to others as well. In Luke 2:42-52, we read the account of when Jesus and his family attended the Passover feast in Jerusalem when he was twelve years old. When the family left, Jesus stayed behind to listen to and question the teachers of the Law in the temple. After a frantic search, Joseph and Mary found Jesus. Jesus explained that he had to be in his Father’s house, but they didn’t understand. But he went home with them and was obedient to them (v. 51).

Verse 52 tells us that “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” This wasn’t a matter of balanced time. There is no doubt that Jesus was 100 percent involved in the “business” of the Kingdom of God, but he also honored his father and mother. How did Jesus do it? Jesus was 100 percent God and 100 percent man. Since we cannot work with more than 100 percent of ourselves, we must trust God to make up the difference and continue to focus on God, praying for “more Jesus, less me” and to be filled with the Holy Spirit who enables us to do more than we can imagine with the time we have.

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Just Say "No"

In Mark 1:35-38 we read that Jesus got up early one morning, found a solitary place, and prayed. Soon, his disciples found him and said, “Everybody’s looking for you!” When I had studied this passage before, that’s as far as I had gone, understanding that in order to “get the job done,” even Jesus went off to pray and “recharge.” But recently, I learned something new.

Jesus had been traveling, preaching, teaching, healing, and driving out demons. Mark 1:28 says that news about Jesus spread through the whole region, and verse 33 said that “the whole town gathered at the door.” Jesus was doing amazing things, and the people wanted more. But when the disciples found Jesus, to let him know that there were people looking for him, instead of going back and healing more people or casting out more demons, Jesus said, in Mark 1:38, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

Having read and studied this passage many times, I am suddenly amazed to discover that Jesus said “no” to doing good things. Jesus had something more important to do.

We have all heard how we need to reduce our busyness and focus on what’s important, and we struggle to do that every day. Perhaps we need to consider the good things, too. Mark’s sermon on January 23 made this clear to me. Even though I spend much of my time doing good things within the building, working with leaders, running programs, and interacting with people, I have to force myself to consider whether those things are helping me be a witness of Jesus. To be honest, there are too many good things that occupy my time and my mind at the expense of better things, such as sharing my faith with my favorite baristas, training others to share their faith with their coworkers and families, and raising my kids to love God. I’d appreciate your help with this as we all grow and serve together, even if it means saying “no” sometimes.

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Sinful Selfishness

For the next year, I’d like to focus on the concepts Mark laid out in his “New Year Reality Check” sermon, particularly the key verse of John 3:30, where John the Baptist said about Jesus, “He must become greater; I must become less.”

I imagine that it’s true for many people—at least I know it’s true for me—that the greatest obstacle to “More Jesus, Less Me” is sin. Ever since Mark began a series about the Fruit of the Spirit, I’ve been wrestling with the idea of the “sinful nature.” In Galatians 5:16, Paul writes, “Live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” This reminds me of Genesis 3:6, where Eve discovered that the forbidden fruit was “good for food,” “pleasing to the eye,” and “desirable for gaining wisdom.” The first two selling points for Eve are pretty high in my list of desirable traits. When food tastes good and looks good, I want it, and I usually end up wanting more—even when more might not be good for me.

That’s where I start to understand the sinful nature. The word that is translated as the phrase “sinful nature” literally means “the flesh.” The “desires of the sinful nature” are the desires of the body. Ultimately, the sinful nature is selfishness, wanting for the sole purpose of satisfying “me.”

So when we start trying to refocus our lives on having “More Jesus, Less Me,” we end up struggling with our own selfish desires. For some it’s a matter of food; for others it might be a matter of materialism, getting more stuff; for others it might be a matter of position, getting a better job or being in charge. Whatever our sinful nature, our selfish desires might be, we have to let God uproot them so that we can live by the Holy Spirit. As we begin a new year, I pray that we will encourage each other to let God make the necessary changes in our lives that we can overcome our selfish, sinful desires so that we can grow and serve God together.

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God’s Family Shares His Name

In the past few years, Christians have been emboldened to “take back Christmas” by saying, “Merry Christmas!” whenever they can, especially when greeted with “Happy Holidays!” While I’m not a big fan of being confrontational in the “name” of Christ, I am thrilled that more Christians want to be identified openly with Jesus.

In Ephesians 3:15, Paul tells us that God’s family derives its name from him. So, when we approach the celebration of Jesus’ birth, how much more special it is for the people wearing Christ’s name to honor Jesus on the day bearing his name. Surely our growing relationship with God, through Jesus, is the source of our desire to proclaim Jesus’ name more openly.

That was Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:16-21. Consider what he wrote: “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus within our own families and as God’s family, let us remember the amazing expense of God’s gift to us. Let us grow closer to God through Jesus’ loving sacrifice. Let us grow in God’s strength and, with his power, proclaim to the world the name we share, giving all the glory to God.

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Family Grows Fruit Together

When Mark began his series about the fruit of the Spirit, he told us that we need to uproot those things that keep fruit from growing in our lives. Mark reminded us of Paul’s words in Galatians 5:16, that we should “live by the Spirit” so that we will not “gratify the desires of the sinful nature.”

I’ve often wondered what the “sinful nature” is. Galatians 5 gives us a list of the ways that the sinful nature is revealed in our actions, and Mark pointed out that most of those sinful actions are, at their core, relational problems. Ultimately, our sinful nature can be summed up in one word: selfishness.

If we go all the way back to the garden, Adam and Eve were tempted by the fruit because it looked good, it promised to taste good, and it would give them wisdom; they sinned because they were focused on themselves and not on God. Throughout the rest of the Bible, we can see that sin was often caused by someone’s selfishness. Even in our own lives, we know that most, if not all, of our sins are related to selfishness.

So, if we want to “live by the Spirit” instead of our selfish, sinful nature, we need to be focused outside ourselves. Obviously, we need to be focused on God—how else can we live by the Spirit? But we need to be focused on others as well.

Throughout his writings, the apostle Paul refers to other Christians as “brothers”; Paul clearly thought of the church as family. In Galatians 5, Paul frequently encourages the church family to serve one another; in fact, that’s exactly how he told them to beat the sinful nature of selfishness. So, if our family wants to grow the fruit of the Spirit, we must focus on God and on others and work on it together, taking Paul’s advice from Romans 12:10: “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.”

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Families Celebrate with God

The more we study the Bible, the more we can see that God’s Word contains one central message: Grace. My Sunday evening class has been studying the Old Testament sacrifices and offerings found in Leviticus. Yes, there is a lot of blood being offered to God in order to have sins forgiven, but we’ve also learned that these sacrifices, while commanded by God in the Law of Moses, are the means by which sinful people can experience God’s grace.

Perhaps the best example is found in Leviticus 7 where God explains the peace offering, also known as the fellowship offering. Again, an animal is sacrificed, its blood sprinkled on the altar to atone for the people’s guilt. However, not all of the animal is burned on the altar, as with the sin offering; only certain fatty portions of the animal are burned on the altar as an offering to God. The rest is shared with the priest and his family and among the family and friends of the one who brought the sacrifice. In addition to the animal sacrifice, there is also an offering of grain, in the form of bread and cakes, which are also shared with the priests and others.

The peace or fellowship offering is brought as a statement of thankfulness to God, and it is an opportunity for God’s people to celebrate their blessings with God and with others, especially within their families. Since the offering to God was fat portions of the sacrifice, it is understood to be offered out of the excesses of life, which are due to God’s blessings. So when God’s people wanted to thank God for his blessings personally, they had to offer a sacrifice, thus allowing them to have a relationship with God, and they were able to celebrate God’s blessings with their friends and family.

This sounds a lot like our celebrations of Thanksgiving, feasting with our families because of the blessings we have received. As we celebrate Thanksgiving with friends and family, let us remember the blessings that God has given us, especially his grace.

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Family Celebrates Together

Our annual meeting on October 13 was a turning point in our life as a church family. Rather than conducting a business meeting filled with reports from all the various ministry teams and committees, we celebrated the new additions to our family by honoring those who had been baptized in the past year plus those who had transferred their membership.

Just as a new mom and dad will celebrate the arrival of a new member to their family, the church celebrates new life as well. Sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down in the activities of day-to-day life; we get up, go through our daily tasks, eat a couple of meals, go here and there, and go to bed. Sometimes the days blur into weeks and weeks blur into months, and the years just seem to fly by—and we miss a lot.

As we head into the fall and toward Thanksgiving, our minds tend to focus on celebration. Despite the fact that the calendar between October and January often turns into one giant to-do list, we find ourselves celebrating the past year. Not only do we celebrate the arrivals of new life, but we celebrate marriages, anniversaries, promotions, graduations, and all sorts of other milestones. We celebrate with those who continue to live long, healthy lives and with those who are able to celebrate another year of life despite cancer or other illnesses.

As God’s family, we must continue to celebrate these things together. We must continue to praise God for the blessings of what we have plus the blessing of answered prayers. Most importantly, we must continue to celebrate those who turn back to God and give their lives to him. While we continue to work together to make more disciples of Jesus, let us remember his words from Luke 15:10, “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

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Family Shares

Coming from a large family, I’ve learned the value of sharing. Sure, when you’re eight or nine years old, sharing a new toy or sharing the last chocolate chip cookie doesn’t seem like a great idea, but later in life, sharing makes a lot of sense. It doesn’t take long for us to figure out that there are people who have and people who don’t have. Whether it’s money, possessions, family, or love, it’s pretty clear that there isn’t an even distribution of anything among us. So it is up to individuals to share.

At least that’s the way it was in the early church. Acts 2:44-47 says that “All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.”

Sometimes we miss these details. Acts 2 starts with a great sermon, so good that 3000 people were baptized. After that, Acts 2:42 tells us that they adopted new spiritual disciplines, and everyone was amazed by the transformation. But it didn’t stop there. The new church didn’t hunker down and wait for Jesus to return. They continued to live their lives, but they were different lives. They shared what they had with everyone.

They shared their possessions, giving to whomever had a need. They shared their time, meeting together daily in the temple courts. They shared meals together in their homes. They shared their joy, and apparently they shared their faith because “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Let us not forget that the early church, upon receiving the best gift ever, salvation through Jesus, shared everything they had so that others would be saved.

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Family Encourages Each Other

On Sunday, September 12, we kicked off our fall programming with a concert and the first group meeting of the elder care teams. That evening was a great example of how important it is for the family of God to encourage each other. Several people in our group mentioned how good it is when their brothers and sisters in Christ call on them when they miss just one Sunday or when someone visits them when they’re sick. One person called us to accountability about praying for each other and especially for the elders, who guide and protect this body of believers.

This is the way the church is supposed to be. This is one important characteristic of the church that sets it apart from all other groups and organizations: the church family encourages each other. In Romans 1:11, 12, the apostle Paul writes: “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” While this is a simple statement of Paul’s love for the church in Rome, it speaks volumes about how the church ought to feel and act toward each other.

Think about your friends at church. Do you long to see them? Sure, we’re usually separated from each other from one Sunday to the next. But does that separation from your brothers and sisters in Christ bring just a little heartache? Does that longing encourage you to come to church as often as you can? Does it encourage you to form or join other groups, whether study, fellowship, or service groups?

The idea that the church is family isn’t merely a “nice” idea; it’s a matter of mutual encouragement and growth. Paul didn’t long to see the Roman church just because they made him feel good; he wanted to see them so that he could encourage them and so they could encourage him, with the ultimate goal that everyone’s faith would grow. Let us continue to encourage each other so that we can grow together in our faith.