The Extent of Our Devotion

The extent of our devotion to Christ is directly proportionate to the awareness of our offences that have been forgiven by him. "But he who has been forgiven little loves little." (Luke 7:47)

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Amazing Grace

"All . . . were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips." (Lk 4:22). Grace is amazing in every age. Share some today!

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Humble Orthodoxy: Holding the Truth High without Putting People Down

John"s gospel describes Jesus as displaying the glory of God the Father by being "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). In his short book, Humble Orthodoxy, Joshua Harris offers helpful instruction in our pursuit of these qualities as followers of Jesus Christ. Our human tendency is to focus on one to the exclusion of the other. However, we must view these as equally valuable virtues to be constantly held in tension. Harris admits: "There is a fine line between contending for the truth and being contentious."

In our culture that is set on challenging many of the foundational truths of the Scriptures, Harris insightfully lists some of the wrong reactions. Some christians, "Driven by a desire to reach lost people, cross the line from trying to reach our culture and start trying to impress our culture." When this becomes one's motivation, "Very quickly all that God has to say becomes, instead of precious truth, a hinderance. The christians who go this way become slaves to the trends, values and ideals of a spiritually lost culture."




The other extreme that other christians adopt is that "They turn their back on culture altogether. They lock themselves in their little christian sub-culture, move into their little christian ghetto and make their focus impressing people within their little christian clique. They might love truth, but to them truth isn't about God changing lost people, it's about them proving themselves right on any given issue." The biblical stance in relation to truth is not about trying to please people, rather, it's about seeking the approval of God (2 Timothy 2:15). When our motivation for living becomes what people think of about us, then we are in danger of being pulled to either extreme regarding how we handle truth.

The recent banning of Phil Robertson by A&E from the popular TV program Duck Dynasty, has stimulated a strong response from the christian community. I am troubled by a christian perspective that is surpised by opposition to truth and responds with a demanding attitude that a christian should have the freedom to say what he believes without being rejected. This sense of entitlement is foreign to the teachings of our Lord who said those who would follow him must deny themselves and take up his cross (Matthew 16:24). Further, he invited us to, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart." (Matthew 11:29).

Harris challenges us with some probing questions: "Are we giving as much energy to obeying and being reformed by God's word personally as we are to criticizing its detractors? . . . As we lose the esteem of our culture, as we see false teachers gain ground, what will we do? Will we grow bitter, angry and vengeful? Or, like Jesus, will we continue to love our enemies even as we suffer? Will we keep praying? Will we keep praying for God to open others' eyes?"

I highly recommend this short book to all who seek to be like Jesus by embracing the truth while living humbly. It can be read through in a few hours and concludes with a study guide for individuals or groups who desire further relflection and application. I am thankful to my pastors who passed it along to me.


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Location:Tom Mboya Avenue,Mombasa,Kenya

Christ Shall Never Forget You

"If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am." (John 14:-4).
"Love descends better than ascends. And so does the love of Christ, who indeed is love itself, and, therefore comes down to us himself . . . It is as if he had said, 'The truth is, I cannot live without you, I shall never be quiet till I have you where I am, that so we may never part again. Heaven shall not hold me, not my Father's company, if I have not you with me, my heart is so set upon you; and if I have any glory, you shall have part of it.'" (Thomas Goodwin, The Heart of Christ).
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Real Love

Real love is not a warm fuzzy feeling for another person; it is doing concrete things for others. It is sacrificial, in as much as it is an expenditure of oneself for the good of another. This is the kind of love that God has displayed for us in the giving of his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 4:10).

2 John 6, says, "This is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands." Love is not self defined; it is God defined. It is not what I think or feel I should do on any given day of the week. It is what God has clearly commanded me to do and shown me to do in his Son, Jesus Christ.

Greg Forster writes in his book, The Joy of Calvinism, "A pastor of mine once said that love is not an emotion; love is a way of behaving. And it's a pretty difficult, strenuous form of behaviour under most circumstances! The emotional experience - the feeling - that we call love is supposed to come to us as the byproduct of loving behaviour. It's partly a support that helps us do the behaviour and partly a reward for doing the behaviour. To make the emotion the main thing you care about, and put the behaviour second - or worse, to want the emotion without the behaviour at all - Is selfish and deeply wicked. Yet that's what we all tend to do. When we separate the emotion of love from loving behaviour in our real relationships, things go off the rails pretty quickly. We get conflicts, we get coldness, we get resentment, we get betrayal. Above all, we discover that the emotional experience of love, which we wanted so badly, has itself disappeared or radically diminished."

This is the great tragedy of our self-absorbed culture. Those who claim to be the followers of Jesus Christ have been called to a deeper level of loving: to love in truth; guided by his absolute commands and Christ's sacrificial life.


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Harambe and Running with the Kenyans

Just finished Running with the Kenyans by A. Finn. An inspiring account of a runner who took his family to Kenya to discover the secret of why the Kenyans have been the most successful people group in the world for long distance running.

One of the secrets is germane to Kenyan culture. It's referred to as harambe. It means "working together." When a Kenyan wins a race it is not only the result of many years of personal training and discipline but also of strong family and community support. There are no recreational runners in Kenya! A Kenyan runner makes it his occupation. And so his only means of support comes from his community. And when he wins, he shares his prize money back to his community. The whole community shares in the joys of success. ( see the Chalmers blog for this in practice in the lives of the students of Pwani Bible College).

This idea is alien to our self-absorbed western culture, where we glorify the successful for their personal skills and possessions. I believe the result of this is a pervasive sense of pride in those who "win"and shame in those who "lose." Consequently resulting in an overall sense of isolation and loneliness.

Followers of Jesus should be the leaders in harambe. The community of faith operates by the principle of "unity amidst diversity." God has made us different and yet we are all equally important to the calling of
Glorifying Christ. To this end the writers if Scripture included many imperatives around the idea of "one another." "Be devoted to one another in love. Honour one another above yourselves." (Romans 12:10). "Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt of love." (Romans 13:8). All of these are inspired by the teaching and example of Jesus himself, "As I have loved you, so you must love one another." (John 13:34-35). He demonstrated his love by expending himself for the good of others.

I can't help imagining what a powerful change that would bring about in our culture and world if all followers of Jesus lived by the rule of harambe. May it begin with me and you!

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M2MS

"Love knows no law but the law of sacrifice." L.E.Maxwell (1 John 4:10; ROMANS 13:8).

M2MS

To love involves great risk, but not to love is the greatest risk of all.