How do we objectively determine the value of something? Only by whatever the highest bidder is willing to pay for it. For example, if I want to sell an item on Ebay for $100, but the most I can get someone to offer is $30 - then what does this tell me about the value of my item? It tells me its worth $30. No matter how sincerely I might believe it to be worth $100, the actual value is equivalent the highest bid. In other words, whatever the market will bear.
Let's apply this concept to who we are as human beings. The Bible says that God "so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). This act of "giving" by God is elsewhere described in the Bible of an act of "redemption." The Biblical verb "to redeem" basically means "to purchase out of the slave market of sin." The picture God is painting is that at one time, each of us were on an "auction block" of sorts - being pimped out by our former slave-driver, Satan and his cohorts - the world-system and the flesh.
"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). When Christ gave His life to redeem us from that slave-market, He was making some very loud statements - one of which was regardign our VALUE to God. I've heard preachers say that telling someone they are valuable to God is just a bunch of "pop-psychology". They say that people need to feel and know how wretched and disgusting they are in order to relate properly to God.
Make no mistake that the Bible is very straightforward about the fact that before we place our trust in Christ, we are identified as "sinners". This means that "sin" was the core of our identity and because of this sinful nature, our behavior often flowed out of that sinfulness. While that's not a pretty picture, its an honest one. But its against this very dark backdrop that we begin to really understand the love of God for what it is!
God does not love us in some theoretical or theological sense in which He merely tolerates our disgustingness. Rather, while we were STILL sinners - right in the mix of all our grime and guilt - God loved us completely. In fact, He loved us to the point that He would rather come and die than live without us for eternity! Now THAT'S love!
What is more, the very moment we place our trust in Christ He irreversibly washes away that "sin nature" and all the guilty deeds produced by it - re-creating us so that we become as righteous as Jesus Himself is! "God made Him who had not sin to BE sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God." (1 Cor. 5:21).
So let me get this straight: God loved me while I was still a sinner. He loved me so much that He shed His own blood for me on a cross. He crucified my old, sinful nature with Himself and created within me a brand new righteous nature at the core of who I am. He not only has forgiven my sin, but made me alive together with Christ.
Boy, if you don't think these realities say something about my value to God, I'm not sure we're reading the same Bible! The grace of God is NOT pop-psychology or empty self-esteem. It is the reality that God - out of sheer, undeserved kindness toward me - paid the highest price imaginable to redeem me as His own. Does this affect my self-esteem? Of course! But it's not a self-help program. It's a mission of redemption where the highest Bidder paid hte highest price to purchase me from the auction block of sin. And it reminds me of something that religion could never teach me: Jesus didn't come to make naughty people nice - He came to make dead people ALIVE!
Jesus is the highest Bidder! He won the war for my heart. And I have this life and all eternity to love Him for it! How about you? Where do you get your sense of value? From the fleeting opinions of men or the rock-solid redemptive price Jesus paid for you?
Monday, June 11, 2012
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
What Matters Most?
So I’m sitting here on the final leg of our 40-hour journey back home - in this case, scheduled to arrive in San Francisco at 3:22pm west coast time. With about four hours to go, our return trip began nearly 36 hours ago in Kigali, Rwanda. For the past several years, our church has been sending teams to this tiny East African nation in hopes of bringing the grace and love of Jesus Christ to the people God has connected us with.
If you’ve been even remotely in touch with world affairs over the past two decades, you are aware that in 1994, this tiny nation experienced one of human history’s most horrific genocides, followed by a second retaliatory wave of killing in 1997. These horrors involved the tribal conflicts between two principle entities – the Hutus and the Tutsis – a series of conflicts that were as political as they were racial.
Now 15 years removed from the atrocities which eradicated a full ten percent of Rwanda’s population (one million killed in a country of ten million at the time), the Christian church in Rwanda stands at the heart of the ongoing reconciliation process. What an incredible privilege – and also a sobering reality – to be able to work with one particular group among God’s inter-denominational mosaic of wounded healers within this nation's borders.
On average, we have been sending one to two teams per year to target various aspects of holistic ministry among this nation. The group we primarily partner with is the Evangelical Free Church of Rwanda (EFCR) – currently a collection of about 60 churches with a vision to top 100 in the next five years in some of the most remote areas of the country and among the most marginalized.
The first part of our trip centered around an annual conference we’ve been leading for pastors and their spouses. In Rwanda, the reality is that only a very small percentage of Christian leaders are ever able to receive formal training in theological and practical areas of ministry. We had left the U.S. on Christmas night and arrived in Kigali on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 27. Having helped lead the conference in the past, I arrived at the humble event center with my ministry colleagues early Wednesday morning.
As we approached the small conference room packed with over 100 Rwandan leaders eager to learn, I immediately began to fight back tears as I heard the sweet, energetic sound of their worshipful voices, welcoming our small team of Americans with the warmth and excitement we’ve grown to love about these people. Though I could not understand a lick of what they were singing, the Spirit moving among these people was more than tangible.
Our team approached the chairs on the small stage that had been arranged for us to sit in – as though we were their special guests on honor. As I looked out over the crowd, I recognized familiar faces, names and smiles of believers I had met on previous trips. Never short on grace and gratitude, my translator explained to me the essence of the song they greeted us with: “Our lives were once filled with heavy burdens, but Jesus has freed us and taken them away!”
“Really?” I thought to myself as I watched husbands and wives dance together with the unmistakable joy of the Lord beaming from their faces. From a well-resourced western perspective, a surface-level glance around the room seemed to identify burdens everywhere. Exactly WHAT burdens had Jesus lifted from these peoples’ lives? Only 15 years removed from one of history’s worst civil wars, dressed in comparatively tattered clothing and without the luxury of many of our technologies and resources, it took only a matter of minutes for God to remind me that – as usual – I would be learning far more from them than they would be learning from me during our time together.
Opening up the first training session, I placed my freshly-charged Macbook Pro on the plastic table provided for me to speak from. Realizing that the value of my computer alone was about the equivalent of the average annual income of each of the households represented in the room, I kept thinking about the message of the song they welcomed us with: “We were once heavily burdened, but Jesus has taken those burdens away.”
Jesus assured us that it is more blessed to give than to receive – and seldom am I more aware of this reality than when I am with my brothers and sisters in Africa. As always, I come prayerfully prepared to give of myself – and yet while I’m pouring out, I am simultaneously filled up with a fresh revelation of God’s grace being manifest through the very people I came to “invest in”.
At the end of the conference three days later, they reported to us about how encouraged they were – and about how we had helped them build their vision for their families, their churches and their communities. I was humbled by their enthusiasm – and prayerful that they would be able to retain and apply even a small portion of the “fire hose” of training they had received in this short time together.
After a weekend of rest and relational ministry, Monday began our second week with the first of four challenging days of work in Kareba – one of the more remote and marginalized villages near the border of Congo. Kareba is where our church has sponsored and funded a new Vocational Training Center designed to provide practical job skills such as auto mechanics, carpentry, tailoring and moto-taxi driver certification. Among the many activities of the week included the preparation and installation of a new volleyball court to be used for outreach by the school, the repair of various machines and tools needed for the operation of the school, and a visit to a high school campus also sponsored by our church where we observed some amazing advancements taking place.
People have asked us numerous times a very good and honest question: “Why would your church send teams of people to Rwanda instead of just providing them with more money? Wouldn’t the money be more practical?” In fact, early on in our relationship, we asked the EFCR leadership that very question. Their answer? “We are grateful for the resources you send us, but the greatest resource you send is YOU! We value relationship over handouts – and when you come to be with us, it does far more for the Rwandan church than sending cash ever could.”
I could say so much more – but once again the huge takeaway I bring home from this year’s trip remains very simple: grace-based relationships are what matter most in life and ministry. Not fancy buildings. Not the latest and greatest technologies. Not slick marketing or the coolest vibe.
Relationships. Community. They are the essence of the Christian life in practical terms. Jesus said, “In the same way I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” At Valley Church, I am thankful that God enables us to serve our community in culturally relevant ways. I’m thankful for the campus God has given us. I’m grateful for the technologies and resources at our disposal and for the challenge to always steward them wisely. But the thing I value most about Valley Church is the growing, grace-based community we are learning to experience together.
Beyond buildings, technology or creativity – love is always the most relevant thing. Love is something that our media-driven, socially-networked and increasingly tech-savvy culture cannot provide for a single soul. Only God can provide it. And He doesn’t do it by zapping people with a heavenly love-beam. Instead, He does it through people who choose to allow His Spirit to live the supernatural life of Christ’s love through them. I wish every American believer could experience the love I experience when I’m fortunate enough to go to places like Rwanda.
But do you know what? We don’t have to go to another continent to find it. We can have it right here, right now. In fact, we already do – because in reality, this love is not really an “it” at all. This love is a Person who has forgiven us of all our sins and infused us with the very life of God Himself. And our supreme task as a church family is to increasingly allow that Person to live His life through ours. Simple, but not always easy. I’m sure glad we have each other in the process of growing in this grace, because I couldn’t – and wouldn’t – want to live this life without my brothers and sisters in Christ.
If you’ve been even remotely in touch with world affairs over the past two decades, you are aware that in 1994, this tiny nation experienced one of human history’s most horrific genocides, followed by a second retaliatory wave of killing in 1997. These horrors involved the tribal conflicts between two principle entities – the Hutus and the Tutsis – a series of conflicts that were as political as they were racial.
Now 15 years removed from the atrocities which eradicated a full ten percent of Rwanda’s population (one million killed in a country of ten million at the time), the Christian church in Rwanda stands at the heart of the ongoing reconciliation process. What an incredible privilege – and also a sobering reality – to be able to work with one particular group among God’s inter-denominational mosaic of wounded healers within this nation's borders.
On average, we have been sending one to two teams per year to target various aspects of holistic ministry among this nation. The group we primarily partner with is the Evangelical Free Church of Rwanda (EFCR) – currently a collection of about 60 churches with a vision to top 100 in the next five years in some of the most remote areas of the country and among the most marginalized.
The first part of our trip centered around an annual conference we’ve been leading for pastors and their spouses. In Rwanda, the reality is that only a very small percentage of Christian leaders are ever able to receive formal training in theological and practical areas of ministry. We had left the U.S. on Christmas night and arrived in Kigali on the afternoon of Tuesday, December 27. Having helped lead the conference in the past, I arrived at the humble event center with my ministry colleagues early Wednesday morning.
As we approached the small conference room packed with over 100 Rwandan leaders eager to learn, I immediately began to fight back tears as I heard the sweet, energetic sound of their worshipful voices, welcoming our small team of Americans with the warmth and excitement we’ve grown to love about these people. Though I could not understand a lick of what they were singing, the Spirit moving among these people was more than tangible.
Our team approached the chairs on the small stage that had been arranged for us to sit in – as though we were their special guests on honor. As I looked out over the crowd, I recognized familiar faces, names and smiles of believers I had met on previous trips. Never short on grace and gratitude, my translator explained to me the essence of the song they greeted us with: “Our lives were once filled with heavy burdens, but Jesus has freed us and taken them away!”
“Really?” I thought to myself as I watched husbands and wives dance together with the unmistakable joy of the Lord beaming from their faces. From a well-resourced western perspective, a surface-level glance around the room seemed to identify burdens everywhere. Exactly WHAT burdens had Jesus lifted from these peoples’ lives? Only 15 years removed from one of history’s worst civil wars, dressed in comparatively tattered clothing and without the luxury of many of our technologies and resources, it took only a matter of minutes for God to remind me that – as usual – I would be learning far more from them than they would be learning from me during our time together.
Opening up the first training session, I placed my freshly-charged Macbook Pro on the plastic table provided for me to speak from. Realizing that the value of my computer alone was about the equivalent of the average annual income of each of the households represented in the room, I kept thinking about the message of the song they welcomed us with: “We were once heavily burdened, but Jesus has taken those burdens away.”
Jesus assured us that it is more blessed to give than to receive – and seldom am I more aware of this reality than when I am with my brothers and sisters in Africa. As always, I come prayerfully prepared to give of myself – and yet while I’m pouring out, I am simultaneously filled up with a fresh revelation of God’s grace being manifest through the very people I came to “invest in”.
At the end of the conference three days later, they reported to us about how encouraged they were – and about how we had helped them build their vision for their families, their churches and their communities. I was humbled by their enthusiasm – and prayerful that they would be able to retain and apply even a small portion of the “fire hose” of training they had received in this short time together.
After a weekend of rest and relational ministry, Monday began our second week with the first of four challenging days of work in Kareba – one of the more remote and marginalized villages near the border of Congo. Kareba is where our church has sponsored and funded a new Vocational Training Center designed to provide practical job skills such as auto mechanics, carpentry, tailoring and moto-taxi driver certification. Among the many activities of the week included the preparation and installation of a new volleyball court to be used for outreach by the school, the repair of various machines and tools needed for the operation of the school, and a visit to a high school campus also sponsored by our church where we observed some amazing advancements taking place.
People have asked us numerous times a very good and honest question: “Why would your church send teams of people to Rwanda instead of just providing them with more money? Wouldn’t the money be more practical?” In fact, early on in our relationship, we asked the EFCR leadership that very question. Their answer? “We are grateful for the resources you send us, but the greatest resource you send is YOU! We value relationship over handouts – and when you come to be with us, it does far more for the Rwandan church than sending cash ever could.”
I could say so much more – but once again the huge takeaway I bring home from this year’s trip remains very simple: grace-based relationships are what matter most in life and ministry. Not fancy buildings. Not the latest and greatest technologies. Not slick marketing or the coolest vibe.
Relationships. Community. They are the essence of the Christian life in practical terms. Jesus said, “In the same way I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” At Valley Church, I am thankful that God enables us to serve our community in culturally relevant ways. I’m thankful for the campus God has given us. I’m grateful for the technologies and resources at our disposal and for the challenge to always steward them wisely. But the thing I value most about Valley Church is the growing, grace-based community we are learning to experience together.
Beyond buildings, technology or creativity – love is always the most relevant thing. Love is something that our media-driven, socially-networked and increasingly tech-savvy culture cannot provide for a single soul. Only God can provide it. And He doesn’t do it by zapping people with a heavenly love-beam. Instead, He does it through people who choose to allow His Spirit to live the supernatural life of Christ’s love through them. I wish every American believer could experience the love I experience when I’m fortunate enough to go to places like Rwanda.
But do you know what? We don’t have to go to another continent to find it. We can have it right here, right now. In fact, we already do – because in reality, this love is not really an “it” at all. This love is a Person who has forgiven us of all our sins and infused us with the very life of God Himself. And our supreme task as a church family is to increasingly allow that Person to live His life through ours. Simple, but not always easy. I’m sure glad we have each other in the process of growing in this grace, because I couldn’t – and wouldn’t – want to live this life without my brothers and sisters in Christ.
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