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Modern-Day Laodiceans

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By Bill Naron

“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked” Revelation 3:17.

            This text in Revelation clearly lays out for us that the lukewarm hearts of the Laodicean church caused them to lose sight of their need for the Lord. They were complacent in their faith. They had wealth and they had provision; therefore, they did not see that they had need for anything. Is this true of us at Elim? Is this true of you?

            As a believer, I am constantly battling against my own complacency. I like the way that John Piper puts it in the article “How to Fight Lukewarmness”: “Most of us in the prosperous West live in modern day Laodiceas (Revelation 3:14-22). Our faith is not endangered by persecution but by the constant temptations of worldly compromise.” Because of their wealth and riches, the Laodicean church became complacent in their faith and need of a Savior. It’s easy to forget our constant need for Jesus when virtually every need—and, at times, every want—is met with supply.

            Take the Garden of Eden for example. God provided every want and need for Adam and Eve. In return, they were asked to be good stewards of what God had given them. However, when the serpent came in all of his tempting ways, Adam’s heart, previously content with all he had been given, turned to a heart of complacency when he stood by and watched Eve, his helpmate, eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam’s complacency is tied into the first sin recorded in the Bible.

            This sin robbed Adam and Eve of all the blessings and good God had in store for them. All because Adam became complacent. How much easier is it in this modern world to stand by, like Adam, and watch as our blessings from the Lord are robbed from us and the good that we are called to do slips away because of our own complacency? This week, I challenge myself and my church family to reexamine our lives and Identify areas of complacency and weed them out. Then as a church, we can move forward in the good works that Christ has called us to.

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What Am I Pursuing?

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By Bill Naron

It’s that time of year again: time for graduation! From Sunday school to public school, from high school to college, it is the time for pivotal moments of transition. In his sermon on Sunday, Pastor Brian Sharpe spoke out of the book of Ecclesiastes. If you have not had the chance, you can check it out here.

                Ecclesiastes is a great book. It was written by King Solomon, who was not only the wealthiest king of his time, but also the wisest. Ecclesiastes was Solomon’s reflection on the whole of his life, somewhat of an evaluation and a warning. Solomon, in a broad and general sense, sets the stage for us in the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, where he states, “I have seen the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.”

                Solomon sought after wisdom and pleasure but found all these pursuits to be meaningless. At this point, I began to think to myself, What made Solomon’s pursuits meaningless? Solomon sought these things instead of God; he hoped to find meaning and identity in these things.

Many of us today do the same thing. We search after knowledge, or we try to climb higher in position at work, thinking = these things we are pursuing will give us meaning, purpose, and identity. This is what is wrong with Solomon’s pursuits and what is wrong with our pursuits. Our purpose, meaning, and identity should be rooted in the person and work of Jesus, not in vain temporal pursuits.

                The book of Ecclesiastes is like advice from an old man with a lot of life experience. He tells us of the mistakes that he made and then, at the end of the book, tells us what we should do. In Ecclesiastes 12 Solomon writes, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Solomon brings it back to what matters the most; the things that we pursue are meaningless when we pursue them outside of relationship with God.

                I love this John Piper quote: “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” When we are satisfied in God, when our identity is rooted in what our Father says of us, when we find our purpose in walking with the Lord, and when we find meaning in chasing after Jesus, it shapes the way we live life. The things that we pursue in life begin to have meaning, because we are not pursuing them in order that we would be made greater but in order that Jesus would be made known.

                In times of pivotal transition, it is important for us to take time to self-reflect, the way that Solomon does in the book of Ecclesiastes. It is important for us to analyze our purpose and what we are doing with it. We need to ask ourselves if we have fully surrendered and committed to living the life that Jesus calls us to. For the body of Elim Evangelical Free Church, I think that we should be asking ourselves how we are fulfilling our mission of being Jesus to our community. How are we helping create an oasis where people can renew relationship with Jesus and others?

I wish all of those who are graduating this year the best of luck in all their pursuits. I would encourage everyone, from the graduates to those of you in the congregation at Elim, to ask yourselves what you’re pursuing and why you are pursuing it. As I found myself asking upon reflection on the sermon from Sunday, am I looking for purpose, identity, and meaning in vain pursuits that are temporal, or is my relationship with Jesus what influences the things that I pursue?

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Reflections on Ephesians 6:4

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By Bill Naron         

            “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” – Ephesians 6:4  

            The above Scripture starts with fathers and their relationship with their children. On Sunday, Pastor Martin took us through this Scripture and talked to us about “Navigating the Parent-Hood.” This Scripture made me think about my own parenting style, and Martin’s sermon gave me a road map to process those thoughts.

           “Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath.” This is the portion of Scripture that has brought about the most reflection for me. I feel like it is not merely provoking my children to be rageful themselves, but also causing them pain. Martin shared four points in his sermon with the help of his oldest son and daughter-in-law, Jeremy and Lynda. The four points were to be kind, delight in, honor, and repair.

            Martin’s first point was to “be kind to yourself but deal with your stuff.” Parenting exposes traits of ours that we are do not even realize exist, and we have to deal with them. In a blog post from 2007, “More Thoughts for Fathers on Ephesians 6:4,” John Piper said, “Fathers cause their children’s souls to shrivel into small, hard, angry shells mainly by being like that themselves.”Fathers are the head of the house and the spiritual leaders of the home. I think that the author makes a point of addressing fathers because of their leadership position within the house. It has been said that as fathers go, so goes the house.

I have found the above statement especially true in dealing with my own issues exposed through parenting. Parenthood proved my personal anger issues that I was not even aware of, and I became someone that I did not want to be. In turn, when I give in to that anger, begin to yell about everything, and have unreasonable and unachievable expectations, my family feels a tremendous burden upon them, and they start to feel like they cannot measure up. Not only do my children feel burdened by the expectations I place on them at this moment, but also when I am angry, I do not convey to my children that I delight in them and in who they are. This causes them a great deal of pain.

Delighting in my children is important, so I can show them that they indeed are a blessing from the Lord and not an inconvenience. I love to get to know who my kids are and to take an interest in the things they are doing. This includes spending time with them, learning about their personalities and what kinds of things they enjoy doing. I love spending time with my kids! We play this game where I chase them and tickle them, and they just love it. In those moments, we have so much fun. I would love to see more times of delight taking place.

Martin’s third point was that parents should honor their children’s voice with empathy and understanding. This again is an area of struggle for me that parenting has exposed. I tend to say, “I am the parent and you are the child, so you just need to do what I tell you” or “Your opinion does not matter.” What I have learned over the years, though, is that my children need to be heard. They need to know that their thoughts and feelings are valid. This lesson that I am learning is a stark contrast to the home where I grew up. The concept of listening to my children in this way is foreign to me, and I am learning to listen to their voice and hear their hearts.

The last point Martin shared was that we need to repair wounded relationships. This is probably the hardest point for me. Repairing means I have to go to my children in humility and make myself vulnerable, admitting that I have messed up. I do try to go to them and apologize and let them know that I was wrong when I lash out in anger or yell at them, and before I leave the conversation, I ask for their forgiveness and wait to receive it. I think that this is just a small part of the repairing process.

I have never sat down with them and asked them if I have ever said or done anything that has hurt their heart. The real reason for this is my own pride and shame. My wife recently asked this of our oldest, and she was really honest with my wife, and that has been so good for their relationship. I, however, am dragging my feet. I know there are ways that I have hurt my children’s hearts. It is not going to be an easy conversation to have, and I am afraid to have that conversation for purely selfish reasons. I am fearful of what I may find out and how much it may hurt me to hear what my children have to say. However, I know that it is a conversation that needs to happen.

What I have learned through my times of reflection this week is that I need to sit down and repair with my children. I need to ask for forgiveness, and I need to relieve my children of the hurt that they may be carrying around. I need not be bitter and angry and, in turn, cause my children to be bitter and angry. I need to continue to delight in who my children are, their quirky personalities, and take an interest in their interests. Parenting is really about dying to oneself in order to invest in the lives of the blessings God has given us. Through all my imperfections, I need to remember that my heavenly Father has grace for me, and I need to have mercy for myself. Parenting is a unique process because it is refining me as much as it is shaping my children.

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Are People Mostly Good by Nature?

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By Bill Naron

Doctrine and theology are terms that in our time carry a lot of negative connotations. Some people in the church find it boring or do not really understand it. For some, it is offensive because of the objective nature of the truth that it conveys. For others, they have heard so many false teachings on doctrine or theology that they are not even sure what to think.

One thing is certain: we live in a culture where ambiguity is king! Truth must be relative, and culture encourages us to go out and find OUR truth. “My truth is good for me, but it may not be true for you” could be the mantra of our culture today. In many ways, the Church has struggled with how to engage culture with truth in this time. We want to share Jesus with the world, but we do not want to come across as judgmental.

In this struggle, it becomes hard for us to see how to stand on objective truth. We then see the pillars of objective truth start to corrode. We can see this portrayed in the following survey from Ligonier Ministries.

In 2018, they gave people the statement, “Everyone sins a little, but most people are good by nature.” Among evangelicals, 55% either strongly agreed or moderately agreed with this statement. Only 42% of evangelicals disagreed, and another 3% of evangelicals were not sure. When you look at the data from the overall survey group, which is inclusive of the general American public regardless of religion, they show that an overwhelming 67% of those surveyed agree, while 26% of those surveyed disagree and 7% were unsure. These numbers are astonishing!

The Church in majority believes that people are mostly good by nature. This is a huge contradiction to the truth of Scripture. In Mark 10:18 Jesus says, “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.” Jesus plainly states the truth for us that no one except God is good. In Romans chapter 3, Paul expounds upon this point and lays out for us the state of humanity.

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips” (Romans 3:10-13).

Paul lays out for us the state of humanity. We are trapped in sin; we are not seeking after God. We are by our nature opposed to God. In this it is seen that no person is without sin, that every person has fallen short of God’s glory. Because of this we were subject to God’s wrath, we deserve the penalty of sin, which is death.

There was seemingly no hope for us. Like a corpse, we were lifeless; the members of our body could not seek out for our Creator, nor were we able to commune with Him, because we were so diseased. Jesus was the only one who could do what He did; He was and is the only one who could and can save us.

We now have hope! We are now aware of our sin, and while we strive to live a life wholly dedicated to God, our flesh is still inclined to sin (Romans 7:18). Our justification was instant, but our sanctification takes time.

If it were true that people are mostly good by nature, then why did Jesus come, and whom then did He come to save? We diminish the sacrifice of our Savior with this type of belief. Since our beliefs will influence our actions, this false belief may also cause us to take a more apathetic approach to outreach, when the reality of what we see in the Scriptures and the examples of the apostles show us that this should move us to compassion for those who are lost.

Feel the weight of what we were saved from, knowing that those who are lost are subject to the same fate. Jesus endured the cross for His bride that we may be reconciled to the Father. He also endured the cross for those around us. Let us boast in the cross of Christ and rejoice in His resurrection, that we may go forth and share this hope with the world.

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God Is Sovereign in Our Suffering

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By Bill Naron

God’s sovereignty is very weighty, and at times it can be difficult to rationalize with our emotions and hard to reason within our thoughts. We find that in the good times we can rejoice in the truth of His sovereignty. However, in seasons of suffering, the reality of this truth can be so hard to grasp.

All throughout the Scriptures, we can find references to God’s supremacy. For example, the first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” This speaks to God’s supremacy by showing us He is above and before all things.

Growing up in church, I have heard this concept preached so many times. However, over the last couple of weeks, this has been impressed more heavily upon my soul as something that I have just not grasped fully. It has begun to stir up a passion within me that is difficult to contain. Then, in my morning devotions today, I read the following verse:

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9.

During the sermon on Sunday, a couple of statements really caught my attention. One of them communicated that Rich and Marla knew no matter what the outcome was, God was still God, and He still had a plan and a purpose. The second statement was when Rich described rejoicing when they found out what had caused Marla to collapse originally.

I thought of these statements as I read through this verse from my devotions this morning. I thought about what an inspiration and a blessing it is to be part of a community that has so many stories of people such as Rich and Marla, who came on hard times and yet saw the sovereignty of God in their situations. This is such a great encouragement to the rest of us who have difficulty seeing this.

I have been wrestling with the idea of God’s supremacy in all of life—not just in good times, but in suffering as well. I have had to reflect on difficulties and sufferings that have happened in my own life.

I think about my son who was diagnosed with mild Dandy-Walker variant. This is a very rare condition that affects his cerebellum. While he looks and acts much like any other three-year-old, there are a lot of unknowns for him as he ages. He has overcome so many things already, from struggling with stiff muscles as a baby to balance issues as a toddler. Every milestone he has hit and exceeded what seemed to be the expectation.

As I reflect on this, I see truly the hand of God in my son Jasher’s situation, and I can see how God is glorified. At first the answers came so slowly, and there are still a lot of unknowns, but God is still God. I can see how this experience was used to bring my wife and me closer to our Father. In the storms, when we are at our weakest, when our fear of the unknown has gripped us, when we can’t see how God is present, we do not in the moment always see that there is a plan and a purpose.

The truth of Scripture, though, is that God always has a purpose for the things that happen in our lives. He cares for us, and nothing happens in this world without God knowing about it. God is never caught off guard!

In our suffering, are we going to live in the truth and perspective that God is sovereign? Knowing that God could make it so that we never suffered, are we going to trust that God is God and has a purpose for allowing this suffering to enter our lives?

God’s grace is what is sufficient, and it is not by my own strength that I live this life, but it is because of Him that we live. The purpose for our suffering is that we would grow more satisfied in the person of Jesus. That in our suffering we would choose to surrender to God and choose to say, “God, You are still God, no matter the outcome of my situation.” This is how we glorify our Father in the midst of our suffering: by relying solely on Him.

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Risk with Immeasurable Reward

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By Bill Naron

In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18, we come upon a scene where Jesus is approached by a rich ruler. This man is interested in inheriting eternal life, and he wants Jesus to tell him how to do so. Jesus lists out the commands, and the ruler quickly responds that he has kept them since his youth. But then the unexpected response from Jesus comes, and we pick it up there in verse 22:

Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me. And when he had heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. (Luke 18:22-23, KJV)

Sorrowful — this is how the ruler responded. Jesus presented him with the answer to his question, and it saddened him. At the surface, we see that it saddened him because he was very rich. But I would add that it challenged his status quo. It presented a challenge to him, to sell everything he had and follow Jesus.

Is this not the same challenge that we are presented with still, to give of all we have to follow after Jesus? On Sunday, Martin was presenting to us about the culmination of being a guide. Being a guide takes risk; it takes moving beyond what is comfortable to what is uncomfortable. To accomplish the task that is set before of reaching the unbelieving community around us, it takes us setting ourselves and our comforts off to the side. One may even say that it takes us losing our lives, just like Jesus talks about in Luke 9:23-24.

The ruler was not sorrowful simply over the loss of riches that he had gained. It was a challenge that was loaded with risk; he was also sorrowful because it was calling him to engage outside of his comfort zone, where he may encounter people whom he would not normally engage, where he would be stretched to do things he would not normally do.

I wrote a Last Word back in November of last year, entitled “Called to Be Sheep!” As I have reflected on the state of the community around me, I have been reminded of this article. When I wrote this blog post last year, I was talking about reaching out to help the community around you to be like the sheep in Matthew 25:31-46. In the last couple weeks, my wife and I have been presented with situations that have really brought this back to the forefront for us.

Jesus says that if we lose our life, we will find it. He has called us out of the world to follow Him and to reach into the darkness that surrounds us and offer hope. When we decide to be the Church and we begin to go and shine a light in the darkness, it is going to get uncomfortable. Engaging with people in our community will be messy.

There is great risk in taking up our cross to follow Jesus. There is risk when we begin to be sheep, engage the community around us, and work to meet needs. There was risk in the challenge that Jesus presented to the rich ruler. We must not be like the rich ruler, though, clinging to our possessions and comfort so much that Jesus’s presentation saddens us and causes us to walk away.

We should hold loosely to everything we have, because we only have what God has given. Our possessions, our finances, our homes, were all given to us by the Lord. These things should be used to do His work. It may be risky in the sense that it challenges our status quo, and maybe it could even cause us a lot of hardship.

Jesus said that we should not be surprised when the world hates us, because they first hated Him. Jesus came to reach those who were broken and calls us to be His sheep and to do the same. This challenge is risky and uncomfortable, but the reward is great and immeasurable.

 

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