is Your Faith Vain

Vain

Having or showing an excessively high opinion of ones appearance or worth

We all know someone who cares more about the image that is being betrayed than the content of their character. They spend more time crafting and portraying a particular message that they come off as either shallow or narcissistic people. Jesus calls these people a bunch of white washed tombs because even though they make look good on the outside, because not only are they dead on the inside, but they stink, especially when their backs are up against the wall.  The title song to the vain soundtrack would Carly Simon’s song You’re So Vain and how often do we think the love song is actually about us?

1. Now I would remind you, brothers,of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2. and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

I Corinthians 15:1-8 ESV

     In this passage the Apostle Paul is hammering home an essential truth and this truth is that we should not believe in vain. So my question to all of us is, what does it mean to believe in vain? So here is what I think Paul was getting at, and the first observation is that believing in vain actually is distorting the truth. The Apostle Paul reminds us that he preached us the truth and the hearers of that word received it. Believing in vain actually is taking the truth that we hear and know, and we distort it for our own personal gain or for what makes us feel warm and fuzzy. We essentially turn into the Beauty and the Beast character Gaston and where we think that we are Gods gift to everyone and we start to believe our own hype. When we start believing our own hype, we tend to think the world and God revolves around us and that we either are Gods only or biggest voice. When we go down this path, we become a narcissist who lacks any sort of accountability.

     The second idea that Paul is getting at is that when we believe in vain, our works out ways Gods grace. We try and earn our way into heaven by doing and or saying certain things and in essence this is works righteousness. At best we minimize Gods grace because we don’t really need it because we can just earn our way into heaven. This means that we are all about following rules and we limit the relationship with God and others. I think we do this is because relationships are messy and why do messy when we can just follow a strict order of rules and regulations. This faith is more about our head and not so much heart.

    Another way we can believe in vain is the idea that we either limit the power or flat out deny that the resurrection ever happen. There were several groups at the time of this letter including the Saducees that did not believe in the resurrection. This is why Paul goes on the defense explaining the resurrection and how Jesus showed Himself to His disciples and five hundred people after His resurrection. Jesus even appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus. A dead person, whether its Jesus or anyone else really can not appear Himself unless they are resurrected. The other aspect of this is that, if there is no resurrection, the Christian faith is pointless. The lynch pin to the Christian faith is the death and resurrection of Jesus, and if He did not do this, Christianity does not exist.

    Here is the truth about sin, death and resurrection in relationship to Christianity. Because of our sin, we can not be in relationship with God, because God very character and nature prevents Him from being in contact with sin. The only way our relationship can be restored is through a sacrifice. The only two requirements is that the sacrifice is perfect and blameless. Jesus is the only one that meets this requirements. If there was another way for Jesus to restore our relationship with God, it would of been done. If Jesus would of just died, our sin would of been take care of, but victory over sin still would be an issue. This is why there needed to be a death and a resurrection. Jesus death takes care of our sin issue, and His resurrection gives Him victory over death. This means that our relationship can be restored with God and that eternity in heaven is a possibility. So lets finish up with some questions to ponder throughout our day and week?

Are there certain beliefs or actions that makes my faith about me?

What are those actions, thoughts or words we use to prevent healthy vulnerability and that leave us comfortably numb?

Are there any ways where we try to earn our way into heaven or earn the favor of God or others?

Spring time resurrection

Spring time is in the air and to be honest with you all, its not my favorite time of the year. Up north spring means plenty of brown, mud and impassible roads at times. Not to mention the work that has been put off because of the winter weather, or the cleanup that comes because of the winter weather, but I digress. It has gotten me thinking about several things though in relation to spring. When most people think of spring, they think of new life, warmer weather and a reason to wear the shorts and shirts. This idea of new life comes in many forms. Whether it is the baby animals being born, the leaves on trees, or even a moment of personal growth/self improvement can and is often started in spring. Spring gives hope, because there is something better to come,. whether it is warmer weather and longer days, or the chance at new life and new relationships. With the chance of longer days and new life, it has gotten me thinking, about two things that are kind of related......maybe and those are resurrection and discipline.
Resurrection means in my book not only something being brought to life, but not having to die again. Essentially, death has been conqured and we do not or will not have to die again. As a Christian, we do have that hope of final resurrection and hope that we will be in heaven when we die or when Christ returns. But there might be another form of resurrection that we can have here on earth. How many of us struggle with things here on earth. Whether it is food, what we watch, how we spend our money, we all struggle with something. That is why most of us make New Years Resolutions, so we can maybe conquer those things and so we can over come those things and be better people. I really think that we want to be resurrected from those things that hinder us is so that we do not have to deal with them again and we be raised up and have new life.
Here is the scary thing about this sort of thing, in order to obtain new life, something has to die. If it doesn't die, we are just making behavior modifications. These modifications may last for awhile, but eventually, they will come back to bite us in the backside. It may not be today, tomorrow or five years from now, but it will come back and bite us. If we are the sole provider of the death and resurrection, were in trouble because we are a pretty messed up people. Trying to get someone who is broken to fix themselves is like asking mud to turn itself into gold. It just doesn't or wont happen. We need someone or something to come and not only fix us, but provide that resurrection. Jesus death and resurrection provides that way for us. Jesus death provided the ultimate sacrifice for us and was more than sufficiant sacrifice for our sin and His resurrection provided victory over death. If we call ourselves Christians, Christ followers or any other name for Christians, we need to participate in Christ death also. Even though Christ sacrifice was and is sufficient, being a Christian means we put on the character of Christ. We are still created in God's image, but are scared with sin and its tendencies. So to replace those tendencies and our bad character, we need to die, so that Christ may live in and through us.
This takes work, but we are not at it alone. It takes both kinds of discipline. The first kind of discipline is the fortitude and actions to go through and do something to get it done. The second kind of discipline is a matter of correction. I am like anybody else, I hate correction and discipline. I don't view it as a chance to get better, but as I have done something wrong and shame. I don't like to think that I do things wrong, and I hope to do everything right the first time, but the likelyhood of this is not that good. With God's discipline, He is looking for more than just for action or attitude change. He is not only looking for us to stop gossiping about other people, but for our character to change and not only to stop it, but not have the desire to gossip and change it when it comes our way. If it was just about action change, it not only cheapens God's grace, but it diminishes who God is. My hope is that we can embrace discipline, so that we can not cheapen God and to be made into His image.
So here is a closing illustration. In the fall, a tree loses most of its leaves quite easily. They just fall off and then they are done. There are a few leaves who hold on tight and it takes a strong wind to knock them off. Then their are the one or two leaves that hang on no matter what. The only reason they fall off is because the new leaves are coming forth. This is the way for our lives to. Some habits are easy to kick, for other habits, it takes plenty of prayer or event to go away. That third leave represents those hangups that just don't go away no matter how hard we try. Until there is new life and God's grace, it isn't going away. So in this time of spring and while we are still in the Lenten Season, lets die to ourselves and cloth ourselves in the righteousness of God and grow more dependent on Him every day