Category: Blog Posts

Waiting On Christ, Part One

The chapter begins this way: “In God’s great school of tribulation there are many classes. In the section where God trains parents, there is one room, which everyone greatly fears to enter. Many, as they are led into it, are seen struggling and murmuring. As it’s darkness closes in over them, they almost refuse to believe that God is love. Many pass through it and come out of it without receiving any divine comfort. They did not know why they were there. They did not wait silently to receive the teaching and the blessing of Jesus. Others, who entered trembling, can testify that it was the death of a little one that first led them truly to know Jesus.” 

These are the words of Andrew Murray, a man who spent his entire life in South Africa ministering to the needs of God’s people. Of Murray’s sixteen children, five sons became pastors, four daughters married clergy, two daughters remained unmarried, and five of his children died young. Murray had 108 grandchildren.

He wrote these words in his book, “Raising Your Children for Christ.” He wrote it to help his congregation face the harsh realities of living in a fallen world. His closing prayer for the grieving mother and father to pray reads as follows: “Speak, Lord, and comfort your child. Reveal yourself to me as the resurrection and the life, the shepherd who has taken his lamb into his bosom. Reveal yourself as my shepherd, by coming nearer to me with your abiding presence. Reveal yourself as the family friend, making your self at home with us. Amen.” 

Due to the tragic effects of COVID and the stress and strain many are feeling over sickness and loss, it would be good for us to consider how one learns to know Jesus, to believe on him fully and to live by faith in Him when it seems as if the darkness is all around. We know that Jesus desires to take possession of us, but how does one wait silently in the darkness to receive the teaching and blessing of Jesus? 

I believe Jesus’s words in John 15 point the way. First, I’d like for us to focus on the nature of our union with Christ and then next month address what it means to wait on him in the darkness. 

What is the nature of our union? The imagery Jesus presents is intensely personal. Using the agrarian image of a vineyard, he describes three people. First, there is the Vine and verse one tells us it is Jesus. He is the exclusive source of fruitfulness. We also see that God the Father is the Vinedresser. He is the one who ensures that there is much fruit on the Vine by pruning the branches. If no fruit is found he removes the branch. He is looking for superficial relationships with Christ. Judas is a good example. Judas was connected to Jesus in a spurious way. And then, throughout the remaining verses, we are told that believers are the branches. We are told that when the same life-sap that is in the Vine is found flowing in and through us, fruit is produced. This is the nature of our union. 

Seeing the beauty of this union is often all that is needed to receive comfort in the darkness. For example, many of us enter the darkness with a wrong perception of Jesus. We see him as an outward or detached person. But the great story being told here is that believers are united with Jesus in a living union, a union whereby he occupies our hearts. He lives there by his Spirit. In other words, he comes into our hearts and wants to be present in our willing and thinking and doing and feeling and living. When we understand this, our souls become weighed down like a ripening vine. 

This idea of a living and intimate union with Christ is found everywhere in the New Testament. Consider Galatians 2:20. Paul writes: “Christ lives in me. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” Or consider John 17:21: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

These are profound truths coming from our Lord. Reflecting upon the implications of this living union in his own life, Martin Luther, the great Reformer had this to say: “My holiness, righteousness and purity do not stem from me, nor do they depend on me. They come solely from Christ and are based only in him, in whom I am rooted by faith, just as sap flows from the stalk into the branches. Now I am like him and of his kind. Both he and I are of one nature and essence, and I bear fruit in him and through him. The fruit is not mine; it is the Vine’s.”

Perhaps this alone is what is needed to lift the cloud of despair. Rest in your union with Jesus. He is in you. You are in him. You are one. Receive him as your friend and shepherd. 

Are You A Fruitful Christian?

Last week we looked at Ezekiel’s image of a useless vine. We found the questions posed by God in chapter 15 to be breathtaking. They cut to the quick and lay bare the heart. God is asking His people to remember the purpose of a vine.

What is the purpose of a vine? It is to bear fruit. Is there any other purpose for a vine? The answer given is, “no.” Unlike an oak tree, we are told a vine’s worth is dependent upon the quality of its fruit. It has no other redemptive purpose. No one cultivates vines to harvest the wood. In fact, as the parable reminds us, the only good one can obtain from a fruitless vine is fuel for a fire.

We concluded last time that all of this is significant and quite shocking because how does Israel see herself? Routinely, she is likened to a vine that God planted with the aim of gathering fruit. In other words, God’s people see themselves as God’s choice vineyard! But what is the Gardner’s assessment? We are told Jacob’s descendants have become fruitless. And consequently, like a barren plant, they are good for nothing but fuel for the fire.

This raises two pivotal questions. What is the reason for the bareness of God’s people? And what is the consequence for the nation? Verse 8 gives the answer to both. It reads: “And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord God.” Notice there is a cause and effect relationship. Desolation in the land and faithlessness on the part of God’s people are linked in the providence of God.

Interestingly enough, this same connection is made in the New Testament. In John 15, Jesus picks up the theme of a choice vineyard and equates the believer’s faith as abiding in Him and faithlessness as a fruitless branch. We are told Christians are the branches and Jesus is the Vine. To be found fruitless, is to be considered barren, making a person good for nothing but fuel for the fire (15:6).

“Bearing fruit is the call of God upon every believer’s life!”

I personally do not know a sincere Christian that wants to be useless. But given the fact that the church is a mixed community, and we are prone to lose our first love, it may be good in these desolate times to ponder what it means to be fruitful – what it means in other words to have a living union with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Let’s consider five common characteristics.

First, a fruitful Christian winsomely proclaims and leads others to Christ (See Romans 1:13; Proverbs 11:30; Mark 1:17; John 4:35; 2 Corinthians 5:20). The ministry of proclaiming and leading others to Christ has many facets to it, but all (not some) who are in Christ have the responsibility of sowing seeds and being ambassadors of His gospel of grace, even if we don’t have the privilege of participating in the reaping.

Second, the Bible tells us that a fruitful Christian lovingly helps others grow in Christ (See Matthew 28:18-20; Ephesians 4:11-16; Colossians 1:28; Titus 2:1-15; Hebrews 10:24; James 3:1). Leading others to Christ is the first step in making disciples. Once a Christian is grafted into the Vine by faith, he or she must be discipled and taught all the teachings of Jesus. Helping others in this transformation process is essential, not an option.

Third, a fruitful Christian who abides in Christ and shares his or her life with others will produce the fruit of personal holiness (See Romans 6:22; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Galatians 5:22-23). Like a ripening ear of corn, the Spirit through faith fills and adds girth to the soul. Specifically, through daily repentance and dependence upon the Lord, the Spirit produces peace, joy, patience, kindness, humility, love, steadfastness, and joy.

Fourth, the Bible tells us that a fruitful Christian shares what he or she possesses (See Acts 2:44-45; Romans 15:28; 1 John 3:17). We have all been made stewards of God’s resources (See Matthew 25:14-30; Luke 17:7-10; 19:12-27), and have been given the responsibility of investing it in his eternal work by caring for the needs of others.

Fifth, a fruitful Christian abides in Christ for the sake of reconciling all people to God and each other (See Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 15:11; Ezekiel 16:49; Luke 14:13; Romans 12:20; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21; John 15:12, 17:20; James 1:27). A Christian bearing fruit will enter into the suffering of the oppressed and poor, not dismiss it or excuse it. He or she will follow Christ’s example and pray the church becomes one. Christ’s desire is not Asian-Americans here and Latinos there, Afro-Americans here and Anglo-Americans somewhere else. A fruit bearing Christian longs for nothing less than complete unity in the body of Christ, for there is only one vineyard and one Vinedresser. 

There are many more characteristics of a fruitful Christian. But the point the Bible is making is that for a vineyard to flourish, (and by extension the world to flourish) each individual branch has to respond to the attention of the Vinedresser, which means not all branches will respond alike. There will be some that seek to yield to Christ more than others. Thus when the great harvest day arrives, it will be revealed that each of us has produced a different-sized crop. And yes, that day will also reveal why fire is the only reward of a useless branch. 

No fruit. Some fruit. More fruit. Much fruit. Which are you producing? If the land is desolate, and I think we all would agree that it is, shouldn’t this be the big question that weighs heavy on our hearts as Christians? Isn’t this the big lesson of the parable of the Ten Virgins (See Matthew 25)? They never took care of the lamp (basket) they were given. The Bridegroom arrives, finds it empty, and even says that he does not know them because they never cared about the Bridegroom and that is why they are unprepared now.

Bruce Wilkerson, founder and president of “Walk Thru the Bible,” says in his book Secrets of the Vine, that he has asked audiences all over the world how they would describe the “fruitfulness” of Christians today. They consistently conclude that about half of all people who identify as “Christians” bear very little or no fruit, a third bear some fruit, (ten percent bear more fruit), and only five percent bear a lot of fruit. 

Friends, bearing fruit is the call of God upon every believer’s life. It is our destiny (Romans 7:4). So let me encourage you to do the hard thing. Not the conformist thing. Turn your gaze inward. Not outward (Matthew 7:5). Take time to ponder the characteristics of a fruitful Christian and then ask the Holy Spirit, “How full is my basket?” And then be prepared to let go of all the things that stand in the way of His life-giving sap, like: our pride of heritage, our security in our cultural identity, our comfort in our color, and our unwillingness to surrender and obey all the teachings of Christ (John 15:9). Abiding in Christ is all about intimacy with God. You won’t be disappointed with the results!

A Useless Vine

In less than two months, our nation will remember the nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks at the World Trade Center. Pat Robertson, by his own admission, says foolish things in public. But when he suggested that the two airplanes that brought down the towers were divine judgment on our land, many Christians couldn’t distance themselves fast enough from these remarks, especially as certain people in the media howled at the very idea. 

No one completely knows the mind of God on matters like this. But I can’t help but wonder in light of all that is currently happening in our nation why so many Christians distance themselves from these types of remarks? Why are such conclusions considered foolish? 

Were Robertson’s remarks offensive because God doesn’t punish sin? Is it because God never uses evil people with their own agenda to exercise His judgment? Is it because He would never ruin a city in some devastating way? Is it because some of the righteous perished with the wicked? Is it because the Lord never sends foretastes of his judgment to warn a wayward people of worse things to come? What was there about 9-11, biblically speaking, that made people so sure that this was not an act of severe mercy on the part of God?

“And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord God.”

Ezekiel 15:8

In the book of Ezekiel, we are given a very helpful window into the mind of God. The book is filled with prophecies of the impending judgment of Jerusalem and Israel. And I believe there is much for us to learn today about the ways of God as they are communicated through these warnings. 

The book is divided into three sections. The first section is filled with warnings to God’s people. The second is filled with warnings to the nations. And the last is the promise of mercy and salvation for those who repent and surrender their lives to the Lord. Today we like to focus on the second and third section, but what about the first?

In chapter 15 we are given the image of a fruitless vine. The questions posed are breathtaking. They cut to the quick and lay bare the heart. God is asking His people to remember their purpose. What is the purpose of a vine? It is to bear fruit. Is there any other purpose for a vine? The answer given is, no. Unlike an oak tree, a vine’s worth is dependent upon the quality of its fruit. It has no other redemptive purpose. No one uses a vine to make furniture. No one cultivates vines to harvest the wood. In fact, as the parable reminds us, the only good one can obtain from a fruitless vine is fuel for a fire. 

All of this is significant and quite shocking because how does Israel see herself? Routinely, Israel is likened to a vine that God planted with the aim of gathering fruit. In other words, God’s people see themselves a God’s choice vineyard. But what is the Gardner’s assessment of the vineyard? We are told that Jacob’s descendants have become fruitless. And consequently, like a barren plant, they are good for nothing but the fire. 

This leads to the pivotal question. What is the reason for the bareness God’s people? Verse 8 gives the answer: “And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord God.”

Given all the cries for justice and the moral chaos raining down on our nation today, I can’t help but wonder. Could it be that the church is experiencing the same crisis as the people of God in Ezekiel’s day? Could it be that many within the church have become faithless? Could it be that for too long we have been so focused on preserving our nation, rights, comforts, and freedom to indulge the flesh (Gal. 5:13) that we have we forgotten what our sole purpose is in this fallen world? Could it be that the people of God then, and the people of God today, do not seriously ponder the possibility that God is awakening us to the possibility of far worse things to come because we are spiritually inclined to ignore the possibility that we are barren?

This, of course, is the tone deafness of our first parents Adam and Eve. One of the causes of their fall into sin was disbelief in the threat of divine judgment. God had said to Adam, “On the day you eat of it you will surely die,” and the devil flatly contradicted that in his conversation with Eve: “You surely will not die!” We see this same pattern today. The enemy’s first and primary argument for sin is you can sin and not suffer consequences. You will not be disciplined. Sadly, no other lie is more commonly believed than this one, even within the church.

Thankfully, as we continue onward in the book of Ezekiel, there is an alternative to wiping out Israel. And that was God’s plan to plant a good healthy vine from Jacob’s stock, a vine that would be the true Israel because it would bear the fruit that God intended when He established the vineyard of Israel. This vine—this true Israel—is the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are told in the New Testament that only as we abide in Him can we be fruitful (John 15:1–17).

In closing, I think it’s wise for us to take stock of our own faith in these last days. Without a doubt we are seeing the hand of God at work all around us. It is a firm hand. It has the feel of discipline and pruning for all our sins of oppression, favoritism, and pluralism. And yes, we need to wake up and realize that He is quite adept at using wicked people with their own agendas to bring about the kind of repentance that is needed in His people. We would be wise to stop critiquing the world’s unbelief (since this is all it knows) and be diligent in getting back to the basics of abiding in Christ. And that of course would be the work of bearing fruit, by faith, for the glory of His name, which is ultimately what will make this world a brighter and more beautiful place. 

Rediscovering the Things Money Can’t Buy

March of 2020 will forever be etched in my brain. It was the month the Coronavirus completely changed our lives. It sent the Board of Trade and the Dow Jones plummeting. It trigged mass unemployment and a complete shutdown of our way of life. Fear took hold. People started pulling their money out of the markets. 

To make sense of it all I went into my library and pulled off the shelf a book that someone gave me years ago called the Death of Money, written by a financial insider. It was very helpful in the sense that it gave me a better grip on the ways the global monetary system works. But at the end of the book, which is basically the “how to survive” chapter, the advise given was truly unsatisfying. Bottom line, his advice to prepare for uncertain times was simply this: invest in gold and undeveloped land, buy a monster box of silver and some hard assets that rely on the stability of the natural resources. That was his answer.

Now, this counsel is not completely irrelevant. Investing money and understanding debt to income ratios, and spreading out your risk capital is wise and prudent. But the thought occurred to me that if this is the big lesson gleaned from our economic troubles – or if the big lesson is that we need to put more faith in the right political people and their proposed strategies – then we are in big trouble as a nation and as a church. We are really no different than the people that survived the Great Depression and became enslaved to the fearful strategies of frugality. 

Maybe in light of the uncertainty of life, we will shift our focus from storing up treasures on earth and instead focus on being rich toward God.

Duane Otto

No, this crisis is much bigger than the solutions being offered. I am convinced that this moment provides an unforgettable lesson in clarifying what is really important in terms of material possessions. What really matters in this life and what could we live without during our short time on earth? And so it is my prayer that the current economic crisis would be a life-changing and unforgettable lesson in our values as Christians. 

Join with me, if you would, in praying that God will use this time to pry loose from our hearts the things that so easily tempt us. Maybe then we will begin to identify with the vast majority of people around the world for whom life is a perpetual recession. Maybe we will grow in our understanding of what it means truly to seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness. Maybe we will be more faithful to lay up treasures in heaven, where recessions never affect our investments. Maybe in light of the uncertainty of life, we will shift our focus from storing up treasures on earth and instead focus on being rich toward God.

Wealth and the freedom to spend have benefits. It can buy medicines, a bigger house, and a life of leisure, gadgets, services, vacations, clothes, and makeup. But at the end of the day, money can’t buy health, a home, wisdom, inner beauty, a life of purpose and meaning, godly children, serenity, neighborly love, and inner peace that comes with a soul resting in the care and counsel of God. As George Lorimer once put it: “It is good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good too, to check up once in a while and make sure you haven’t lost the things money can’t buy.” 

Farms, Churches, and Jesus

How is the farm and church related? They are both fruit bearing enterprises. Both need a trellis system that is designed to facilitate and optimize the growth process.

By Rev. Duane Otto, Christ Community Church of Chenoa

There are two kinds of farmers, generally speaking. There are those naturally drawn to projects that have visible and measurable outcomes. They like to work on machinery, build things, or work with numbers and spreadsheets. Conversely, there are those that are inspired by the growth process. They give special attention to plant health, animal nutrition, and the strategies necessary to promote vitality and fruit bearing. They are pastoral at heart, desiring wholeness over concrete results.

Like most things, the secret to success is keeping these two approaches in perspective, seeing the role of each, and not neglecting one over the other. For instance, when spreadsheets become the focus then one can easily be consumed with making money. Soon this takes all your energy and you lose sight of the ultimate purpose of nurturing and stewarding that which the Lord is growing in your midst. And, most worryingly, because management decisions seem to be the most important factor in this tight economy, it is easy to justify a breathless, fruitless pace in one’s personal life.

Not surprisingly, the same holds true in the church. The Bible uses the imagery of a vine and a trellis to convey this twofold perspective. For example, a trellis is a necessary aspect of fruit bearing. It is a physical structure sturdy enough to support the weight of the vine. Without it, the vine would lie in the dust and soon rot and decay. But a trellis is not the main priority of the gardener. It does not need to be embellished or extravagant; indeed, adding such things may potentially hinder the growth of the vine.

All that said, what would you say is your inclination? Is it to focus on the trellis or major in the things of the vine? I think it is safe to say that the tension of trellises and vines will always be a part of any church culture. For instance, some of us feel the pressure to build programs and tally numbers (trellis). And that’s generally okay. Management, infrastructure, policies, and programs are necessary aspects of a growing and flourishing church. We need gifted trellis-workers. But the ultimate question is this: What is the status of the vine? Which leads to some underlying questions, like: Do the vinedressers outnumber the trellis-workers? Are you seeing spiritual growth? Is your pastor the only disciple maker? Is the pastor expected to manage the church AND help people grow? Do the trellis-workers see their work in the light of the Gospel?

These are the kinds of questions our elders in training will be wrestling with at Christ Community Church of Chenoa next month. By God’s grace, we want to be a church that humbly invites the Owner of the vineyard to work in and through us so that we will find great joy in tending the vines that have been entrusted to us and we will rejoice at the fruit they bear.

For this to happen, though, we need to remember how spiritual growth happens. In His Upper Room Discourse in John 13 to 17, Jesus talks about fruit: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches, He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing” (15:4-5).

In this parable Jesus is teaching that spiritual growth, or vine work, comes when we totally surrender to Jesus. The life-sap of Jesus, which is His Spirit, moves through us when we are utterly dependent upon Him.

What does this look like? Author and teacher, Sinclair Ferguson, identifies at least four things from this passage. The first is daily dependence on the grace of Jesus through prayer because we can do nothing without Him. The second is obedience to Jesus and His teachings. Paul echoes this idea in Colossians 3:16, where he writes, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,” a statement closely related to his parallel exhortation in Ephesians 5:18: “be filled with the Spirit.” Our fruit bearing in other words is intimately tied to what we do with our Bibles. The third thing is resting your life on the love of Christ (15:9). On this, Ferguson writes, “We must not drift from daily contemplation of the cross as the irrefutable demonstration of that love, or from dependence on the Spirit who sheds it abroad in our hearts.” And lastly, Jesus calls us to abide by accepting the pruning knife of our heavenly Father.

This is how spiritual growth works. It is a holistic approach. The fruit of a new life comes through union with Jesus that flows from the inside out. Programs and management techniques must be designed and run to optimize this growth process. Which brings us back to the big picture. How is the farm and church related? They are both fruit bearing enterprises. Both need a trellis system that is designed to facilitate and optimize the growth process. If they are not aligned in this way, they will create a culture that resists change. Rigidity will set in. Growing the trellis will become the focus. (To explore this metaphor further, I highly recommend the book, The Trellis and the Vine, by Colin Marshall and Tony Payne.)