The Relentless Pursuit

Surely none of us want our lives to be lived in vain. One of the mega-themes in Ecclesiastes is that any pursuit in life under the sun, apart from the pursuit of God, is like a chasing after the wind. Our quest for success, pleasure, happiness, leisure, or lust will always end in futility. So what are we called to pursue?

Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” The kingdom of God and the righteousness of God should be the final destination programmed into our life’s GPS. As we search after God first, those things that seemed so important seem to fade into a distant second (or twelfth!) Jesus explains later in this same gospel account that “all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me… therefore, GO”. As we pursue His kingdom, He will begin to draw us on a “wild goose chase” that will lead us down paths we would have never pursued otherwise. And the motivation for these endeavors should never be the need in front of us or the personal burden or desire to serve others, but simply the call Jesus has placed upon us. In a word, that call is “love”.

Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:14 “For Christ’s love compels us”. It is the love of Christ that smuggles Bibles through Chinese borders, that spends a lifetime in a hard field with little fruit and no conversion, that gladly trades the mirage of safety and comfort in America for the unknowns of faith and blessing. His love wakens men to trade the corporate ladder for the servant’s seat; it harkens young women to abandon the pursuit of courtship and seek a better reward in serving their Bridegroom; it draws young and old to people that have never seen a white face, heard an English word, or the saving name of Jesus. His love leads a young family to leave all that is comfortable and ‘safe’ to plant a church in an unfamiliar city for His glory. The love of Christ calls the broken, the failed, the fallen, the forgotten, and the firm equally, to lose their lives to find what is truly called life by their Lord. What compels us? It is the love of Christ.

Paul says, “the love of Christ compels us”, which literally means, “to hold together, to press the ears together, to press on every side, to hold fast, to hold oneself to”. His love is a keeping love, as He holds us to Himself, holding us together. That gives comfort to the struggling marriage in the struggling work in a struggling field. That brings peace to a young couple looking for direction in a wide-open valley of choices and opportunities. That brings endurance to the missionary that is questioning the will of God and whether this furlough is their last. His love is a compelling love, a staying love, a love that keeps us close. And as Paul said, it may seem to others that we are out of our mind, but it is for the sake of God.

May Christ’s love be our sole and relentless pursuit.

-Pastor Pilgrim

Thanks, Tyler Fox. In a strange way, as you now stand in the presence of God, I am thankful. I’m not happy that your young life was seemingly cut short on Wednesday. I’m not happy that those you love and care about are feeling a supreme sense of loss. I’m saddened that what could have been a longer, more productive life, on the surface seems to have tragically ended.
I don’t like thinking about eternity, at least not yet. Whenever someone dies at a young age, it forces us to rethink our priorities, our joys and sorrows, what is real and what is fake. We too come face to face with our mortality and begin to question all that seems mundane and trivial.

But beneath the surface, Tyler is in more than just a ‘better place’. His contagious smile that always lit up the room is now enjoying the fellowship of Jesus. I don’t want to speak about Tyler in ‘past tense’, because he is more alive now than last week. He is, not was. Tyler is filled with an inexpressible joy, receiving the goal of his faith, the salvation of his soul. He is in Heaven, in God’s presence, and for this I’m thankful.

Thanks, Tyler Fox. Thanks for living your life, even now, eternally. We miss you but we also long to be where you are. Thanks for reminding us even in your death that we are not promised tomorrow. Thanks for showing us the need to live with Jesus today, knowing that we will be with Him forever.

Pilgrim
Psalm 119:50

Comfort

(A few years ago our extended family faced an unexpected tragic death. This article was originally written during that time.)

2 Cor 1:3-5 (NIV)
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”
Comfort. In our day and age, we are constantly looking for ways to make ourselves more comfortable. We take long ‘comforting’ vacations on cruise ships, pay extra for the more ‘comfortable’ furniture, strive to get the most ‘comfortable’ loan rates, save money each paycheck for a more ‘comfortable’ retirement, and are constantly looking for a company that will help us feel more ‘comfortable’ as an employee.

I remember selling shoes part time at Bible college, and the best sales technique I learned was to allow the customer to try on the shoes to see how ‘comfortable’ they were. As Americans, we trust our military and law enforcement to keep us ‘comfortable’ and safe from harm. Even in our relationships, we find the need to be ‘comfortable’. We surround ourselves with those who make us ‘feel’ good, and rarely allow anyone close enough to upset our delicate personal lives! We like calm waters, not rough seas!

But God’s comfort transcends the materialistic and physical comforts I’ve just mentioned. God is known in this passage as ‘the God of all comfort’. The word ‘comfort’ means to call to one’s side, and is the same word that Jesus used to describe the Holy Spirit in John 14:16, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever”. The Holy Spirit of God is our Comforter, the One who God has sent to come alongside us and help us in our times of pain, suffering, loss, doubting, fear, and anger.

The comfort that God gives isn’t based on circumstances. It’s based on a Person. When King Nebuchadnezzar was about to throw those three young men into the fiery furnace, they looked confidently into his eyes and said, “The God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand…But even if He does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods” (Daniel 3:17-18, emphasis mine). And with that incredible faith, they were thrown into the furnace, the fire, the trial, where everyone around would expect them to be burned.

But when the king looked into the furnace, he said, “Weren’t there three men that we threw into the fire? Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like the Son of God”(verses 24 and 25). You see, they weren’t delivered FROM their trial, but they were delivered IN their trial. It wasn’t based on the circumstances changing; it was based on a Person being there to comfort them in the midst.

And so you and I will walk into fiery trials that will test our faith. The enemy would want us to be tied up and bound, thinking we were facing certain destruction. Yet in the midst of the fire, though the heat is consuming and the flames are pressing in around us, God’s Spirit is there to bring comfort to us. By trusting in Him, we will be as these three young men were: unbound, unharmed, and in the presence of the Son!

After we have been saved through the fire, we can then go and be a blessing to others. We can comfort others with the same comfort the Holy Spirit gave us. With the fiery furnace, their deliverance so radically affected the king that he began to praise God! When Jesus and His disciples walked near a blind man, the disciples asked, Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life” (John 9:2-3). Jesus went on to deliver that man from blindness. Perhaps we are facing our trial simply because God wants to display His work in our lives. May our lives be such that when we withstand the fire, others will see God’s work being displayed, and they will give glory and praise to Him.

Pressed but not crushed,

Pilgrim

"Daddy, I'm on a Mission"

This morning I woke up to London, my two-and-a-half-going-on-twelve-year-old daughter, refusing to play with her older brother Aiden. What was her response to his pleading? From the living room I awoke to, "I can't. I'm on a mission." Then she came running into my room yelling it with determination: "Daddy, I'm on a mission, I'm on a mission!" What daddy wouldn't wake up with a smile in these moments?

Though her mission was to find some gum, our mission as believers is clear and with great reward (Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 1:8). God's mission is to draw His elect into a right relationship with Him from the ends of the earth, with kindness and grace leading us to repentance and faith. He does so not by angelic proclamation or a high-tech gospel billboard from space, but through you and I, the church. Our mission is a mission of love, sent by a loving God to win people to a loving Savior by living lives of loving obedience and laboring in love until our last breath. I've heard some people say with a profane tone, "for the love of God!", and I would say, "yeah, absolutely right!"

William Carey, the great missionary to India, once said, "Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God". I echo his exhortation but my prayer is not that I would attempt great things for God. My desire is for God to attempt great things through me. The only way this is possible is for you and I to live submitted lives to the gospel of grace, to yield to the work of the Holy Spirit in every area, and to take risks and go boldly wherever He leads us.

Can you say like London, "Daddy, I'm on a mission"?

Pilgrim

Bruised Reeds

Matthew 12:20 A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out…

Let’s face it, life is difficult sometimes. After just a brief survey of the scriptures, any young disciple will quickly realize that trials are inevitable in anyone’s life, whether that person is a Christ-follower closely abiding or a vehement unbeliever dead in their sins. And it also becomes clear that we are to rejoice in the midst of trials because they are in our lives for a defined purpose that God will ultimately work for good, including our maturity and growth. There are seasons of sowing and seasons of reaping, and moments of pain and tears that sometimes make us forget the moments of laughter and peace and joy.

Jesus brings us comfort in tragedy and literally gives us His peace. This is not the peace that the world advertises. Worldly peace is usually either a forced cease-fire or simply ignoring all the terrors around us through a sideshow of entertainment and pleasure. But Jesus affords us true peace, the peace that surpasses all understanding and exceeds all human wisdom and doesn’t seem to be proportionate to our circumstances. He offers this peace to us everyday.

Jesus promises not to break a bruised reed. Every Sunday our chairs here at Calvary Chapel are filled with bruised reeds, people who have been beaten up all week by the world, their sin, shame, guilt, condemnation, temptations, fear, injustice, persecution, and hatred. God knows our vulnerability and our weakness. He promises to give us sufficient grace and even strength in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9) and to allow us to walk, run, and even soar in life without losing our spiritual vitality (Isaiah 40:30-31).

God also promises not to snuff out a smoldering wick. We’ve all gone to douse out a candle in the house, and sometimes we approach a barely-lit wick that is about to flicker out. That certainly describes life for some of us: where a brightly burning fire should be, there is just the faintest bit of combustion and one more bad day is all it will take to turn us to ashes! There are many whose passion for God is simply outward, going through the numb motions but lacking true intimacy and fervor because their hearts are far from Him (Matthew 15:8). Others get disillusioned and doubt their faith and their lamp is just a question away from being extinguished. But Jesus won’t quench the fire. He wants to fan it into a flame that will blaze with fervent heat as we rest in His grace and truth.

We as a church have an enormous opportunity during this difficult season to live what we’ve been exhorted to for so many years: to be a body that truly cares for one another and builds up those who are struggling and weary. Let’s model what Jesus gave the world as our commercial: that they would know we are His disciples by our love for one another (John 13:35).

Pilgrim

20 Questions

I picked up a "20Q" handheld game yesterday to try and stump the omniscient computer that can supposedly guess whatever you are thinking within 20 questions or less. I wasn't expecting to blog about what happened, but some of life's biggest surprises can come in moments of low expectations!

I decided to pick in my mind "the church", the gathering and scattering of God's chosen people bought by His blood and sent for His name to be salt and light on the earth (I figured that would be harder to guess than "Ketchup"). What blew my mind was the questions that 20Q began to ask:
"Can it be heard?"
"Do you find it in a house?"
"Is it comforting?"
"Do you use it in the dark?"
"Does it affect you?"
"Can it change size?"
"Is it worth money?"
And my favorite: "Is it colorful?"

At Question 21, after admitting defeat, the 20Q game didn't relent. It tried some last ditch questions:
"Does it move?"
"Is it a source of energy?"
And finally, 20Q's best guess was: "Is it a FIRE?" What an apt description of what the church SHOULD be. The scriptures tell us that 'our God is a consuming fire', and that our lives and bodies should be a living sacrifice, a burning offering given to Him for His glory and our good.

May our hearts burn within us as we spend time with Jesus, and may the church spread like wildfire in these dark days of apathy and confusion.

Pilgrim

Organic Evangelism

Extended Notes from Pilgrim's Teaching this week: Click Here

Weary of Intercession

Whenever we see tragedy or suffering or pain in the life of someone we care about, initially there should always be "spontaneous intercession". I am compelled to immediately turn to my heavenly Father when any overwhelming situation comes into the life of a friend or family member. But does this ever grow tiring?

In Jesus' parable of the persistent widow, He commends this woman for her example of stubborn persistence for mercy. We too should have the same relentless struggle as we wrestle in prayer for those around us bound in drugs, porn, pride, and selfishness. We should be in agony on our knees for marriages that are struggling, houses that are being lost to financial ruin, and diseases that are wreaking havoc on faithful saints. But too often we lose sight of the reality of long-suffering, and believe a simple prayer here or enough faith there will evoke relief, repentance, or a reversal of adversity.

Jesus was literally sweating drops of blood before facing the excruciating pain and torment of death by scourging and crucifixion. And He asked His disciples to stay alert nearby and pray with and for Him. Their response is no different than ours: they fell asleep. May we rise up from resting on our backs in sluggish spiritual posture, to falling hard on our knees as we bear one another's burdens in prayer.

Pilgrim