My Inbox of Daily Inspirations: Daily Heartlight -- March 10, 2008

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March 10, 2008

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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================

Agony to Maturity, by Phil Ware

"I hate church. It's full of a bunch of hypocrites."

This caricature of church as a gathering of a bunch of hypocrites is so
overused that it has become trite. Yes, churches are full of flawed
people, many of whom are trying to be good folks. I admit that I am one
of those flawed, far from perfect people. Yes, we sometimes let
immaturity, weakness, and rebelliousness sometimes get the better of
us. The truth is, the place we often hate hypocrisy the most is when we
see it in ourselves!

When we come to Christ -- when we confess Him as Lord and share with
Him in His death, burial, and resurrection through faith in baptism --
our lives are joined to Him (Colossians 2:9-15). Because of what He has
done in His physical body on the Cross, God presents us before His
throne as "holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation"
(Colossians 1:21-22 TNIV).

As we stand there drippin' wet, having received Christ and shared with
Him in baptism, God chooses to view our imperfection through Jesus'
perfection! The problem is that the Church is where the gap between our
"drippin' wet perfection" collides with the "down to earth reality" of
our failures, faults, and flubs. Our life in Christ is spent trying to
live up to who we are because of God's grace (Colossians 1:23). When we
share in Jesus' glory, we'll also share in the reality of His
perfection (Colossians 3:3-4; 1 John 3:1-3). Until then, we are to
focus on closing the gap between our "drippin' wet perfection" and our
"down to earth reality" (Colossians 3:1-2). This is our journey to
maturity, seeking after the perfection of Jesus in our day-to-day
lives.

One of the reasons God gives us spiritual leaders is to help us close
this gap. Their temptation, and ours as well, is to reach for a handy
little list and say, "Here, do this and you will be godly." The reality
is that rules, laws, and lists cannot help us close that gap. Yes,
there are times when we need clear guidance on what is moral and not
moral, what pleases God and displeases Him, but knowing that can't make
us what we seek. In fact, trying to close the gap by such methods can
end up making us what we do not want to be -- hypocrites (Colossians
2:16-23).

But if God gives us spiritual leaders to help us close this gap, what
should we expect of them? What are their primary tasks as shepherds of
our souls?

God's leaders are to "strenuously contend" (literally, "labor
agonizingly") to help us close this gap and present us mature,
complete, and perfect in Christ (Colossians 1:28-2:5). Jesus must be
the model, the message, the motivation, and the means to this goal (Colossians
2:6-15). The leader's task in this process is focused on three key
areas.

First, we need our spiritual leaders to point us to Jesus (Colossians
1:28-29), proclaiming Jesus to us, correcting us when we lose our
passion for the character of Jesus, and teaching us the way of life of
Jesus. This is not just helping us get to know data about Jesus, but
actually helping us find practical wisdom to live like Him -- with His
values, His character and compassion.

Second, our leaders need to help pray us to maturity (Colossians 4:12).
Prayer releases the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit into
our lives. When the content of a leader's prayers is shared with us,
this prayer also furnishes spiritual direction, affirmation, and hope (Colossians
1:9-12). Read carefully the apostle Paul's prayers in the letters he
writes to the churches. These prayers are powerful and offer great
hope, affirmation, and direction to the followers of Jesus trying to
close the gap!

We often want our leaders to be the church customer service department.

Third, spiritual leaders must depend on the power of Christ to do what
they do (Colossians 1:29). Human leaders are no match for the power of
the evil one trying to distract and destroy Jesus' work in our lives (Ephesians
6:10-12). We need to see God's power at work in our leaders' lives so
we can trust it is at work in our own.

I want to challenge you to pray and to call for your spiritual leaders
to stay on task! So often, we want our spiritual leaders to do nothing
more than act like our church customer service department and fix every
thing we don't like or appreciate. Let's not let the devil, and our
culture of consumerism, distract us from the goal, being like Jesus.
Let's call our leaders to a higher calling so they don't have to waste
their efforts on surface issues, but help us find our substance in
Christlike living.

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I'd love to hear from you about your take on this article. Please look
at the following questions and share your responses on my blog:
http://blogs.heartlight.org/phil/?p=261

Do you think I'm off base when I suggest that we expect our spiritual
leaders to be the customer service department of our churches?

Clearly there are other things leaders do to "shepherd our souls" other
than these three things from Colossians. What one other thing has a
leader done to bless your walk in the Lord?

Reading Hebrews 13:7, 17, 24, what should we do to help honor and
encourage godly leadership in our churches?

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Daily Heartlight -- March 10, 2008