How would you feel if your son or daughter enlisted in the military, and the next day the leaders of our country sent them to the frontlines of a brutal war to fight a cruel enemy?

I’m sure you would protest and wonder what the leaders were thinking. What kind of a leader sends an untrained soldier into war who doesn’t even know the basics of soldiering?

Capture that feeling in your heart and you would know how our Heavenly Father feels when church leaders send Christian soldiers into the battle for souls against the fierce forces of evil totally unprepared and untrained. They don’t know how to read their Bible, share the Good News, walk in the Spirit, or even how to recover when they fail.

But the Lord Jesus never meant for it to be this way. If church leaders would just read their marching orders in Matthew 28:18-20 they would know that their first priority is to make disciples—maturing followers of Christ who are battle-ready for the spiritual war that’s been raging since Satan deceived the woman and the man let it happen in the Garden.

This is why we begin every year at Church of the Open Door reminding ourselves of our commitment to the Great Commission—to make disciples of all nations. The day Church of the Open Door forgets this, is the day we become irrelevant to the work of God on earth.

“Invisible kingdoms are at war for the hearts and lives of every human being who walks the face of the earth.” Erwin McManus

Vision of a Church: The Choice

This is the time of year when a lot of pastors feel the pressure to announce some big vision for the coming year. I used to do that. But I stopped it a few years ago. It’s not that we don’t have plans and dreams. It’s not that we don’t have a theme for 2012. As I’ve written before in this blog, it’s bible.cod–studying every Book of the Bible in 2012-13. We even have a promise to go with it: You give us two years, and we’ll give you the Bible.

But does a church really need a vision in the same way a bank or a hospital needs a vision? What we need is the truth.

Leaders of churches have a choice. We can try to impress people by describing our church in glowing nuanced terms that present a picture of what we think people want to hear or what we secretly wish were true about our church. Or we can just tell the truth and trust God for the results.

I’m at the stage in life where I’d rather tell the truth. The truth is that a “perfect” church is not a healthy church because we all suspect what the leaders and God know—there’s a lot of stuff they’re not telling us. Spiritual health, by its very definition, insists on truth. Healthy churches admit that we’re struggling toward spiritual maturity together—that it’s a messy but wondrously redemptive process.

So, you want to know what’s really going on in the healthy community of faith we call Church of the Open Door? Here’s the raw truth—in all its messy glory!

The Raw Truth—What You’ll Discover

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The Holy Spirit in Sanctification

“And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you forever” (John 14:16-17).

These words from the Lord Jesus raised the expectations of His discouraged disciples. Something new and wonderful was about to happen. In just a few days, when the Spirit would come, He would live inside them. Unlike their Master who was about to leave them, the Spirit’s presence would be permanent. This had never happened before. Note even with the greatest leaders of the Old Testament.

The Holy Spirit’s ministry in our lives can be confusing. The religious lingo seems so unfamiliar—indwelling, sealing, baptism, gifting, filling, walking. How do you know if any of these have happened? When should I expect it? How will I know?

Dividing the ministries of the Holy Spirit into three primary categories helps us appreciate their importance in our Christian experience:

¨      The Holy Spirit and eternal life—indwelling and sealing.

¨      The Holy Spirit and everyday life—filling by and walking in the Spirit.

¨      The Holy Spirit and body life—baptizing and gifting.

When it comes to everyday life, an understanding of the filling of the Spirit is absolutely critical to experiencing the joy and confidence of living by (walking in) the Spirit

Here’s the link to the sermon, study notes, and discussion notes from my exposition of the Holy Spirit and Everyday Life:

The Holy Spirit Filling and Walking

Not Analytical But Synthetic

I love teaching through a Book of the Bible analytically—a verse-by-verse exposition of the text. In the almost sixteen years I’ve been pastor of Church of the Open Door we’ve studied the following Books analytically, usually devoting an entire year to each individual Book: Philippians, Ephesians, John (chapters 1-12), 1^st John, 2^nd John, 3^rd John, Acts, Romans (2-year study), the Minor Prophets, Psalms, Proverbs, 1 Peter, Colossians, and Galatians.

But there’s another way to teach the Bible. It’s called synthetic teaching. A synthetic treatment of the Bible is more of a big-picture view of a Book or section of God’s Word.

We’re going to devote the next two years to the synthetic teaching of the entire Bible, all 66 Books! I hope to deliver on the promise I made to our congregation on Sunday, January 1^st, when I introduced this new series—bible.cod:

You give us two years and we’ll give you the Bible!

Many people, even serious Christians, have never read through the entire Bible. They may know a verse from Isaiah and some stories from Genesis or Luke, but they couldn’t really place the verse or the story in its historical, geographical, and textual context.

So beginning February 26^th we will march through the entire Bible together. On that day I will cover the structure, geography, and message of the entire Bible. Then we’ll do the same for the Old Testament and the Pentateuch (1^st 5 Books), and then it’s Genesis and we’re off—a book a week!

Here are 3 Reasons Why I’m Teaching This Series

1. Every word of every book was written to change our lives (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
2.  To rekindle our desire to read through the whole Bible.
3. To equip us to understand God’s Word in context.

I hope you’ll join us!

Question: What is the primary reason most Christians have never read through the entire Bible?

There’s nothing like it:

A web of redemptive relationship sharing Jesus’ love in protective and nurturing ways.

Every Thanksgiving I get to spend time in Oregon But it always reminds me of what a wonderful church I get to be a part of. Here are thoughts from last year’s Thanksgiving that are still true for me today:

I just wrapped up five of the most authentic community days I’ve ever experienced. I’ve been speaking at the annual Thanksgiving at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center in Cannon Beach, Oregon. But it was so much more than a conference for my Judy and me: it was intimate community.

About thirty of our faith community in SoCal–Church of the Open Door–traveled two days braving the rain and snow just to experience it with us. A few families from our past–choice families God has privileged us to disciple now living all over the United States also joined us. Some of our dearest friends in the extended family of God lead the ministries of Cannon Beach–Ecola Bible School and CBCC. Finally, my daughter Celia with her husband David and little Zachary, and my daughter Aimee with her three children, Jackson, Megan, and Camryn were with us.

We ate Thanksgiving together, centered our thoughts on Jesus and His Word, worshiped Him, laughed, cried, prayed, played games, talked about our lives, watched our children draw closer together, and simply experienced the joy of sharing our lives with Jesus and one another.

It’s Sunday evening and everyone–including my Judy–has returned to their “real life.” I’m prepping to teach at Ecola Bible School next week and work on my next book. But before I move on, I have to tell you three reasons why this type of community enriches your Christian life:

It’s a taste of heaven. Judy and I have been coming to Cannon Beach for twenty years now. As we anticipated some of our friends arriving, we kept saying, “I can’t wait until they get here and we can show them this place and introduce them to our Cannon Beach friends.” Judy remarked, “We’ll probably have these same thoughts when we’re in heaven and the Lord Jesus tells us someone we love is about to show up in that wonderful place.” Heaven is going to be all about relationship with the Lord Jesus and one another. Community brings some of that experience to earth.

It enhances worship. Sharing life so intensely for five days just causes worship to erupt from our redeemed heart. Staying up late with friends you’re catching up with, helping someone process their dreams and doubts, inviting others into the deep places of your soul, studying the Bible together, it releases the energy of the Spirit from our thankful hearts in ways those who try to live the Christian life alone will never know.

It accesses grace. Because community demands openness with God and His people, the hard work of speaking and receiving the truth in love gives the Holy Spirit opportunities to influence our lives and build the character of Christ in us hidden and self-protective Christians miss.

Community can be messy. Five days living so closely with one another meant we had to give a lot of grace to one another.

But it was worth it.

Those are my  three thoughts on community.

What are your thoughts? How has community enriched your Christian life?

“That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ And these things we write to you that yourjoy may be full” (1 John 1:3-4).

Galatians 6:1-5

Galatians is the Magna Carta of Christian liberty. It’s a powerful little book. We’re studying it this year at Church of the Open Door. In Chapters 5 and 6 Paul applies the messages of justification and sanctification by faith.

In the first section of the epistle proper, 1:11-2:21, Paul defended his apostleship. In 3:1-4:31 the Apostle clarifies the implications of justification and sanctification by faith and why it’s true. His final section (5:1-6:10) demonstrates how this grace works in life. Grace works through liberty. Christ set us free to demonstrate His righteousness in ways that transcend any enslaving set of rules or moral codes (5:1-12). This liberty isn’t so that we can indulge the self-centered desires of our flesh as we did before we trusted in Christ. Using our freedom in that way will cause us to lose our inheritance in the coming kingdom (5:13-21). We’ve been set free to walk in the Spirit (5:16-18) so that we can display Christ’s righteousness through the fruit of the Spirit (5:22-26). But even this transformation isn’t about us; it’s about Christ and others. What we’ve really been set free to do is to love and serve others (6:1-10).

Those who walk in the Spirit glorify God in their liberty. Freedom from the Mosaic Law does not mean freedom from responsibility. Truly spiritual Christians will fulfill the “law of Christ” by gently restoring those within the community of faith who have lapsed into sin:

Here’s the link to the sermon, study notes, and discussion notes from my exposition of  Galatians 6:1-4:

Restoration by Grace Through Faith

Galatians Special

When most Christians encounter the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles on eternal rewards and an inheritance in His coming Kingdom we’re initially surprised. “Why would Jesus want to reward me for my faithfulness? Eternal life seems reward enough!”

Though it may seem incredible, an honest reading of the New Testament connects our willingness to trust Him enough to obey and suffer for Him during our life on earth with His desire to reward us with significance in His coming Kingdom.

Our eternal destination is decided by our belief. In all His teaching, Jesus identified only two places to spend eternity: heaven or hell. All who believe in Him, trusting Him as their Savior who made payment for their sin, receive eternal life and spend eternity with Him in heaven (John 3:16-17) Once we believe, our experience of eternal life is based on our faithfulness to Jesus.

While there is no good hell or bad heaven, Jesus offers eternal rewards to those believers who trust Him enough to remain faithful during our lives on earth.

It may be the greatest difference between Christians today and the early church. The original readers of the New Testament lived with a healthy respect for and desire for eternal rewards:

Here’s the link to the sermon, study notes, and discussion notes from my presentation of the subject, Rewards and Inheritance:

Rewards/Inheritance

Galatians 5:16-26

Galatians is the Magna Carta of Christian liberty. It’s a powerful little book. We’re studying it this year at Church of the Open Door. In Chapters 5 and 6 Paul applies the messages of justification and sanctification by faith.

In the first section of the epistle proper, 1:11-2:21, Paul defended his apostleship. In 3:1-4:31 the Apostle clarifies the implications of justification and sanctification by faith and why it’s true. His final section (5:1-6:10) demonstrates how this grace works in life. Grace works through liberty. Christ set us free to demonstrate His righteousness in ways that transcend any enslaving set of rules or moral codes (5:1-12). This liberty isn’t so that we can indulge the self-centered desires of our flesh as we did before we trusted in Christ. Using our freedom in that way will cause us to lose our inheritance in the coming kingdom (5:13-21). We’ve been set free to walk in the Spirit (5:16-18) so that we can display Christ’s righteousness through the fruit of the Spirit (5:22-26). But even this transformation isn’t about us; it’s about Christ and others. What we’ve really been set free to do is to love and serve others (6:1-10).

In one of the most important passages on the Christian life in the Bible, Paul explains the grace alternative to the law. By walking in the Spirit, Christians overcome the self-indulgent sins of the flesh and express their faith through love, a love that glorifies God by displaying the character of Christ:

Here’s the link to the sermon, study notes, and discussion notes from my exposition of  Galatians 5:16-26:

Walk in the Spirit!