Remonstrance

So I’ve been rewriting and reworking our neoxenos.org Web, and what an education it was! There’s tons of ministries underway, and lots of activity, yet all goes quite smoothly compared to anything I’ve seen before up here. Every ministry group is not only growing in size, but the maturity of people and the number of real workers and leaders just keeps increasing. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like that with all the bumps and bruises along the way, but I’ll take those pains any day compared to the major surgeries and critical injuries I’ve seen in the past.

HOPE!

It’s a picture of the biblical concept of hope in-motion, which I taught at CT last week. Most people’s hope is merely wishful thinking, but biblical hope is rooted firmly in history. To watch God answer prayers, change lives, uproot past failures and plant new seeds of growth all create a hope with certainty. Additionally, our hope is rooted in God’s historical work with humanity as evidenced in the resurrection, prophecy and the profound nature of the Scarlet Thread woven throughout His Word from beginning to end.

Hope is what I see working in people’s lives around me, and it’s infectious. We get our motivation and courage from hope, and hopeful people keep pressing forward no matter what. This what God says:

This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us… Hebrews 6:19-20 (NLT)

But there’s also many Christians living on low levels of hope. Why is that?

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Tags: central teachings, faith, hope

“Driven and courageous” describes a Christian living in hope:

So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. Hebrews 6:18 (NLT)

Courageous Hope

“Great confidence” is knowing that I stand right here, held by the “unchangeable” oath of God, knowing “it is impossible for God to lie!” With “great confidence” Martin Luther stood alone against the Holy Roman Empire and stood before a throng of menacing Cardinals at Worms to declare, “Here I stand. I will not recant, so help me, God.” His hope was tied to God’s character, not the powerful armies of the Holy See.

Luther at the Diet of Worms

With “great confidence” we too can stand face-to-face with whoever may persecute us for sharing the love of Christ. This includes old relationships with long histories of defeat and intimidation:

For He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6 (NASB)

This courage is the outcome of biblical faith, and the proof of faith, as I wrote earlier. Cowardly Christians are still babes floundering with the elementary issues of faith and have not yet settled the issue of who to trust. [Read more →]

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Tags: faith, hope

I won’t spoil our opportunity at CT to dig into the details of this, so I’ll just summarize it:

The Identity of Hope

The role of spiritual hope in sanctification is so vital that God anointed a special prophet, New Testament-style, to write the definitive book on hope. Weaving through all the great themes in Hebrews, hope is the “New Covenant life.”

“Christian! Your new identity is hope,” Hebrews says. This hope is eternal: it transforms, overcomes, and produces.

The flow in the book of Hebrews (top to bottom)

Here’s how Hebrews builds hope:

The hope of our amazing identity in God’s Eternal Plan, firmly established by Jesus (chapters 1-2). The person, authority and victory of Jesus adopts us into the family of God as heirs.

Live in hope today! (Chapters 3-6.) The road is open, the way is clear, all is ready but the only barrier is unbelief and unwillingness to follow Christ “behind the curtain” into new life.

Hope supercedes the Mosaic Covenant and replaces it (chapters 7-10). Established long ago, this hope is the superior, substantive, God-designed road to life.

Hope overcomes anything and changes everything (chapters 11-13). Hope produces a victorious, joyous and fruitful lifestyle despite the worse opposition in a way the Old Covenant never did.

In short, New Covenant Hope is fixed on our new identity in Jesus, while the Old Covenant was driven by works and rituals and all about receiving forgiveness. New Covenant Hope goes far beyond forgiveness, was fully obtained by placing our faith in the finished work of Jesus at the cross. What remains unfinished is obtaining our inheritance, and therefore it is a superior hope. This is the argument made by the author of Hebrews.

Think about it. Check it out. See if it’s true.

Effects

As the writer intended, the effect of his letter is life-transforming to those with a spiritual heart open to change:

• When burdened with guilt or failure, I am living under Old Covenant hope (7:19; 10:1-3).
• When I am consumed with my own self-worth, I am still living under Old Covenant hope and struggling with “Milk Truths” about the finished work of the cross (5:13; 6:1).
• When worried about the future, I am fixing my hopes and dreams on something uncertain which cannot possibly be my real hope (12:26-28).
• New Covenant hope builds substance in my life (6:10-12) and I become useful and significant to people God has placed in my life (6:7).
• People are scared of me or shun me if I’m living under the performance and works of Old Covenant hope (12:18-21).
• People enjoy being around me when I am pursuing New Covenant hope (12:14).
• When I “settle down” I’ve lost sight of New Covenant hope (11:9,10).
• I cut the ties to my past living under New Covenant hope (11:15-16).
• My sinful habits become boring and dissatisfying under New Covenant hope (11:25-26).
• I experience real joy even in the midst of terrible suffering under New Covenant hope (12:2).

Here’s the big question: does anyone else see “hope” mentioned in Hebrews?

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Tags: central teachings, exegesis, hope

Christian hope turns failure into a profound mystery waiting for revelation.

With the “eyes of hope” I see the problem with failure lies in my fallen plans which were doomed from the outset, so brain-dead they were. Yet despite my fallen folly, hope says, “We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God” (Romans 8:28). When I see with the hope of Christ, it produces spiritual maturity:

But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it. Romans 8:25

This happened to me once…

The Tar-Pit

In 1994 I plunged into a black, sticky tar-pit and dragged my family and the poor Yoergers along. Greg and his buddies had the brilliant idea that somehow we might stop the bleeding while his little Cleveland Bible study (about 30 shell-shocked bodies) remained alive.

It was a mess, I knew that, but I didn’t notice the tar-pit or the bleached bones scattered everywhere. I plunged ahead.

The meeting was held in an old, run-down, dumpy house which was soon condemned (as pictured below).

The 1994 meeting place - 'it ends up being burned' (Heb.6:8)

This was ministry in Cleveland: growth that doesn’t grow.

It was mysterious. The work was fruitful and we doubled in size, but suddenly everything got stuck. We were excited by high conversion-growth, but the group stopped growing. We fluctuated around 50 to 60, stuck in a tar-pit, and we continued to see salvations. Why is this?

[Read more →]

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Tags: brokeness, hope, leadership, missions