This week's post is by Ashley Bowie.

In a small upstairs dining room, in a rented space filled with quick glances and a tangible uncertainty the son of God sat breaking bread and praying. Low candles threw shadows around the room and on the faces of the men with Him. Some were afraid, or worried, most were confused. All sat listening intently through the sounds of eating and drinking and light conversation. With one ear to his brother and one ear to the Lord each of them waited. Something was happening, something was about to change. As they waited patiently they looked carefully at one another, Do you know what this is all about? Have you heard what he plans to do? All of them were looking for answers, all of them could feel the tension. All of them but Peter. Peter sat tall and easy. He sought a lively conversation but could not find it among his brothers. He leaned into his meal instead and focused on flavor. He did not notice when Jesus stood and filled a basin with water. He did not see the Son of the Almighty God wrap a servant’s towel around His waist and carry the water to his own feet. He did not notice until his feet were in the hands of Jesus and it became appallingly clear what He intended to do.

“Lord do you wash MY feet?” This was a job for the lowly, a disobedient servant, a young or very new servant. Certainly not a job for the great teacher, and not at all a thing for God himself to do. He could not allow it, Peter would do anything to serve the Lord and had said so, planned to say so again. I will die for you Lord. He rehearsed in his mind again. No this would not do. Maybe he would stand so Jesus could not wash his feet, or call on his fellow disciples to say something sensible.

“If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” Jesus said patiently, with an eternity of longing in His voice. Peter softened, his bravado deflated. Above all, he must be with the Lord forever. Of all the things he had ever wanted, of all the paths in life he had tried, following Jesus had been the only right. If He says I am not clean then I will let Him wash me, he reasoned. If cleanliness is what he wants, then I want to be totally clean.

“Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Don’t count me out Lord! Clean all of me so I can be with you.

“The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean.”

~

I’ve been talking about the subject of this blog for several weeks now. My friends know that when I get excited about something they can expect to hear about it day and night ad infinitum. It was something of an epiphany that hit me as I was reading through the book of John one morning. Like a flame lit in my heart spreading warmth through me. I’m a little bit more afraid of this little candle than I thought, because as it happens, it’s not just a candle, it’s the consuming fire of a real and consistent face to face relationship with Jesus.

When we think of submission, I would guess that most of us think about doing as we are told by whomever happens to be in authority. We think of bosses or parents, and making good choices when it comes to our spiritual lives. We think of abstaining from sin and doing the good right things that the Lord gives us to do. These are good thoughts about submission, right even, but in the context of John 13 we have this miraculous moment when we are commanded to submit to being served by the Lord.

Sit right there, child you have been walking in the world. You have been living and striving and walking to and fro trying to be a good servant and a faithful child and you have collected the dust and filth of the world on your feet. Let me pour this pure water over your feet and wipe them with this towel white as snow.

I have sinned recently. At the time of this writing I am unwilling to tally up all the ways I have been selfish or careless, cold hearted or have let my words get away from me. I’m sure you understand; you are every bit as human as I am. When I am made aware of my sins, the filth of the world on my feet, I have a tendency to wallow for a few days. Then I try to clean up myself. As though I sit with a gavel in my human hearts court room and lay out a sentence. Do three kind things, say words of encouragement to people who annoy you, read nothing but scripture for a week. I have a friend who says that she “grounds” herself. She feels like she cannot go out with friends or do anything fun.

James chapter 4 says that when we do these things we become judges of the law. As if to say that the plan Jesus laid out for confession and repentance is not enough and we need to add our own items to the list in order to feel clean again.

Repentance will never stop being a part of our lives on this side of eternity. There is always going to be something to be sorry for. No matter how hard you try, you will continue to walk through the world and collect the mess on your feet. True, soul deep repentance puts you face to face with Jesus. As He kneels before you, the one He laid down His life for, the one He paid His own blood for, He looks into your eyes and says “You are already clean, just let me take care of these feet. Thank you for coming to me today because I know that you needed to sit here and confess all the mess you have gotten into, and look there, it is finished.”

This story happens within the framework of the last supper. Jesus’s final communion with His disciples included a teaching on confession and repentance. It should be often and intentional that we come to have our feet washed. And when He has washed their feet He gives us this command; John 13:14-15 “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.”

I think most of us repent in solitude because we don’t want others to know just how bad we are. I really hate to imagine what people would think of me if they knew how selfish I can be sometimes, or how angry I can get if things don’t meet my expectations. But here we have the example of Jesus; we are not to come to one another with superiority or with any of our own judgments on the law. We are to come with a servant’s towel and humble knees. It is messy to live in the world my friend, and I don’t want you to be slowed down by thorns or a collection of dirt. So let me help you, let me pray with you and we can walk on together.

Isaiah 52:7 “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your GOD reigns!”

Current blog post written by Becca Wellan. A devoted and caring friend who loves coffee and talking about Jesus. Oh, and did I mention she loves coffee?

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved.” - Psalm 55:2. 

It’s a Sunday morning, and a friend of mine asks me how I’m doing. I’m tempted to smile, say “I’m good!” and walk away. But, the word “good” tastes bitter on my lips, and I swallow it, along with all the other words I can’t say. With sincerity and compassion, he tells me I can give him an honest answer.

“Honestly...” I look out the window as though the grey sky is listening, too, as her sobs fall in droplets down the stained glass. I start sobbing, too. 

“I feel terrible.” 

He could have turned away. He could have awkwardly muttered “I’m sorry,” and turned to someone more cheerful, a conversation more comfortable. Instead, he prayed for me. Another friend prayed with us. Then he offered to help me with my practical needs so that I could get through the day. 

“Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you.” 

Promises like this have always been mildly abstract to me. Jesus will sustain me? How? I always pictured a wave of superhuman strength taking over my emotions, crashing through every last drop of weakness. 

But this never happened. 

Encourage
Verb | en·cour·age | To inspire with courage or hope

In a moment when I felt like my heart was being crushed by calloused hands, and I stood completely helpless, I grew courageous, by degrees, when my brothers and sisters in Christ stood with me. Amidst my great fears, I felt hope. They didn’t try to fix my situation; they didn’t talk too much. They didn’t use Jesus band-aids and Christian cliches (ex. Jesus loves you, you’ll be okay). 

But, they held me together. They listened, they prayed, they reminded me of the goodness of God. They reminded me of His power to restore lost souls and heal broken hearts. 

That day, in a hundred ways, my brothers and sisters were a source of incredible strength to me. Strength I could never have found on my own. Strength found only in speaking, hearing and believing the truths of Jesus. 

Through the Christ-like compassion of God’s people, God Himself sustained me another day.

At the heart of the gospel lies the glorious reality of friendship. Through His sacrificial death on the cross in the place of hopeless people, Jesus, a friend of sinners, brought us into a deep, immovable friendship with the creator of the galaxies (Mark 2:13-17). 

We shattered our friendship with sin. He sacrificed Himself to bring us back. 

And because He is with us now, the church is called to be God’s active, hope-filled, light-giving presence in the world. Because we are restored to friendship with Him, we are called to “bear one another's burdens” (Galatians 6:2), to “encourage one another” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) and to “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). 

He does not promise to miraculously heal us or change our circumstances though we wait for Him to come in waves of superhuman strength. Rather, He often shows us His grace and boundless love through other believers. God’s people are God’s presence in a broken world. 

(Reflections by Dane Burgess from Bob Thunes book, The Gospel-Centered Life)

What exactly is "the gospel"? It is a question that when posed to Christians can seem to bring more of the "deer in a headlights look" then a confident explanation spoken out of true understanding of identity. A lot of the time, when you ask a Christian "what is the gospel?" you tend to get answers that are broken down to two, three or even four core principles. But the problem within those principles is that they come off as dis-genuine and they lack true conviction. And when I mean principles, I am talking about very basic core beliefs that might be true about the Gospel but when boiled down to the bare minimum of its meaning will have no weightiness to its true reality.

But when you understand "the gospel" as an intricate story of God creating, man falling, Christ redeeming and a new people created then you start to see how your own life fits within this Redemptive Historical reality. 

Creation: The Story Doesn't Start With Us, But God 

As all stories begin, it starts with a beginning. But within this story, our human tendencies is to begin with us. Yes this story has something to do with us but it isn't primarily about us but God. 

God is eternal, infinite, perfect and unchanging who created all things before there was anything (Genesis 1:1-31). We can see through Scripture that our God is one God but He exists in three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). God was perfectly happy and  completely joyful amongst himself. Which means he did not create the world because he was lacking in anything. He already had perfect glory, community, joy and worship within the Trinity. Rather He created creation out of the outpouring of His perfection, His goodness and His love. Humans were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). And he created us to join in and experience that perfect joy he had amongst himself within the Trinity. We are the created and not the creator. We are dependent and under His authority whether we like it or not. We are on His terms and not on our own. We were made to worship, love and serve him. Not serve ourselves. 

God's words when he was done with all of creation were "And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." There was perfect order, perfect structure and all of creation was under submission to its Creator. 

Fall: We Batched It, Not God 

Humans were made in the "imago dei", which means we were made in the image of God. We were created by God to worship Him. All that we did was to be directed towards him. But instead of coming under full submission to God's authority, humans (We, all of us) turned away from God in sinful rebellion (Genesis 3:1-7; Isaiah 53:6). Our cosmic treason caused a great disease or an illness to saturate all of creation. God's perfect creation that he said "was very good" is now tainted. Cosmic brokenness happened because of our sin. Pain, suffering, death and sorrow to name a few happened because of us.

For now "all sin and fall short of the glory of God." Human beings, because of the great fall, are sinners by nature and by choice (Ephesian 2:1-3). Non of us truly think of ourselves as that bad or sinful. Someone is always worse then I am, we say. But in reality this view only shows our true lack of understanding of how our sinfulness is committed towards a Holy, Perfect God. 

"Sin is not primarily an action, it's a disposition" - Bob Thune

Sin is our soul's bend towards our perfect Creator. Sin has permitted everything within us. Our pride, our selfishness, our independence, and our lack love towards God and our neighbors. At times sin is very open and obvious but other times it is hidden within ourselves. Like I said earlier, sin has permeated every part of creation and there is no hope for change or is there...

Redemption: God's Acts To Save Us And What We Have Broken 

How often do we put our hope and trust in other sinful human beings to save us or save our world. We look to political systems to bring us out of bondage, we look towards self-help books to make us feel better. And yet no matter what we do, there is always that sense of brokenness and guilt that we can't seem to get rid of fully. That is why we need a hero. We need a Savior. That hero and Savior is Jesus Christ. We sinners need a Savior, a Redeemer, a Deliverer to free us from the captivity of our own sin and restore the order of the world back to its original purpose. A purpose that had a worshipful, dependent bend towards God as Creator. 

Jesus Christ being fully God (to incur sin fully) and being fully man (to pay the ultimate debt we  owe to God). God sent his Son to be a perfect substitute. One who lived the life we could not live and died the death that we ultimately deserved. 

"This is why God sent Jesus into the world to be our substitute (1 John 4:14). The Bible teaches that Jesus was fully God - the second person of the Trinity - and also fully human. He was born to a human mother, lived a real flesh-and-blood existence, and died a brutal death on a Roman cross outside Jerusalem. Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience to God (Hebrews 4:15), making him the only person in history who did not deserve judgment. But on the cross, he took our place, dying for our sin. He received the condemnation and death we deserve so that, when we put our trust in him, we can receive the blessing of life he deserves (2 Cor. 5:21)" - The Gospel Centered Life pg. 9

Jesus did die in our place. But how do we know who he said he was unless he could show us who he was? We know this by him rising from the dead, displaying his victory over sin, satan and death. All that was lost, broken and corrupted in the fall will ultimately be put right. Redemption isn't simply salvation for individual souls; it means that all of creation is being put back to the way it was suppose to be.

Restoration: Now This Is More Like It 

What is required of us to partake in this restoring process? How to we experience salvation and become mirrors of redemption towards our world? By faith alone (Ephesians 2:8-9). Faith is complete trust or confidence in Someone. It is a heart that has a whole-hearted commitment to Jesus Christ. 

When we trust in Jesus Christ we are released from the penalty of sin and from the power of sin. We were originally created "able not to sin" but through the fall we were "not able not to sin" but for those who believe in Jesus we are now "able not to sin" and once Jesus brings redemption to completion of all things we will "not be able to sin." That is an amazing hope and reality that will come one day! One day, for those who are in Christ, will not be able to sin. Are you kidding me!!

We are free to die to ourselves and live a life that has a dependent bending of the knees towards our King Jesus. We are free to serve because Christ first served us. We are free to see all the things we own as gifts given to us by God and steward them well to bless others. We are finally free in whatever we do to do it all for the Glory of God. 

Jesus promised that he will return soon to judge sin and make all things new. Until then, he is gathering under His rule a people from every tribe, tongue and nation (Rev. 7:9). As he has given us eternal life, he has also called us to participate with Him in His mission (Matthew 28:18-20). 

This is the Gospel! A story of triumph and vindication. A story of hope and longing. It is the good news, the greatest news this world has ever heard and needs to hear.

photo credit: JLM Photography. via photopin cc

"The definition of sin is when you replace God with something or someone, and the result is an addiction of spirit. There is an attraction at the spiritual level every bit as powerful as sexual attraction at the physical level: You cannot produce your own meaning in life, your own worth, your own security. Spiritually speaking, if it’s not God who is the source of your meaning, then you’re in bed with something else." Tim Keller follows his sermon, "Sin As Slavery," with a look at how sin replaces God and results in an addiction of spirit.  Keller looks primarily at three major areas; the dynamics of spiritual attraction, the dynamics of spiritual addiction, and the dynamics of spiritual restoration. We learn in this message how to escape our “lover gods” by personalizing our understanding of sin, remembering grace, and looking at how Jesus transforms us into something beautiful.

“How Sin Makes Us Addicts”

"Why do we sin, even when we know right from wrong? Sin is a power that enslaves us, but we can be freed from its power by encountering God through worship." Tim Keller's sermon on Numbers 11:4-6,10-20 is a powerful message that speaks to the soul shriveling effects of sin while pointing us to the hope that comes from our only Savior Jesus Christ. Keller demonstrates how sin shrinks our emotions, overwhelms our thinking, and dries up our strength. He also draws a powerful connection between the similarities between sin and addiction. Keller powerfully concludes the sermon by showing how God gets us out of sin's slavery through intervention an ultimately through the Incarnation of Jesus.

Listen to the sermon for free here:

"Sin As Slavery"