(W)right or Wrong: Race Is Still An Issue

The Apostle Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:17-19).

We at City of Hope Church believe that God has called us to be a diverse community of worshippers who, gripped by the gospel of grace, consistently reach out to bring hope and freedom to the diverse people of the Columbia area and beyond. As part of this vision, we desire to impact all who come (skeptic, seeker, or follower, Black, White, Asian or Latino) to become free as they live as God's instrument of love, mercy, and justice.

To see this part of the vision fulfilled, we put a high value on reconciliation. In fact, we state as one of our five values the following:

“We will boldly pursue racial, cultural, gender, socioeconomic and generational reconciliation. For it is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we are thoroughly reconciled with God and with one another. Therefore, we will prioritize and invest our very lives to reconciliation that is empowered by the Gospel of Jesus Christ who has come to break down the dividing walls of all kinds of tensions and divisions.”

So with this is in mind, this Friday (May 30) at 7:00 PM we are holding an open forum discussion at a local coffee shop in Ellicott City (check out www.cityofhopechurch.net for directions). We have entitled it: (W)right or Wrong: Race is Still An Issue. Yes, we are playing on the recent controversy of Jeremiah Wright, a former pastor of Barack Obama, but the focus of our honest and open conversation will be on how the gospel impacts, challenges and changes the way we view and work with one another in our lives, communities, workplaces and churches.

Here are some of the questions we will be considering:
1. What is your hope that our country will live up to the stated belief “that all men are created equal”?
2. How does race factor into the decisions that you make socially, economically, politically and religiously?
3. How solvable is the racial divide in America?
4. Why do you think Sunday at 11:00 AM is the most segregated time of the week?
5. How has the church contributed to the racial divide? If the church has, what can we learn from her failures?
6. What role can the church play in solving the racial divide? What role can you play?

Come Friday and let us hear what you are thinking! If unable to make it, share your thoughts here.

Warmly,
Pastor Jeff

One of a Kind Marriage, Part 3

How can Jesus possibly desire and love a wife like us?

Because that is why he came and died. He died so that we could enter and experience a forever-covenantal love relationship with God—where our acceptance is not based on our performance, our beauty, and our reputation but on His perfect performance, his pure beauty, his faultless reputation and his voluntary and sacrificial death on the cross.

There is an ancient ceremony between two nomadic tribes when a father promises a boy to a girl in marriage. The fathers would slaughter a goat or another animal and cut the carcass in half. At sundown, each father would walk barefoot through the blood path. The slaughtered animals symbolized what would happen to either party if they violated the terms of the agreement—death!

Since we broke our covenantal commitment in marriage with God the Father someone had to die. Because our Father is eternally and thoroughly committed to us in this covenantal marriage, He chose His Son Jesus to die the death we deserved to die. Jesus was slaughtered for us so that our marriage with Him would flourish and last forever.

Since he is our Husband, his sufficient grace frees us from the tyranny of living for our false lovers. Jesus isn’t merely the godly means of finally feeling good about ourselves and he isn’t our “natural high”.

Jesus as our Husband enables us to remain pure and chaste. He enables us not to be “led astray from our sincere and pure devotion to Him.” Due to his persistent commitment to us even in the midst of our struggle with other lovers, He pursues us and makes us who we are in reality, His beloved Bride.

Because he loves us so, we are able to love him in return. Not perfectly but as we depend upon our One of a kind Lover, he will grow us in our love for him.

And as we grow in our love for Him because we are overwhelmed by His love for us, he enables us to move towards others in intimacy and service.

“To know and experience that we are fully and eternally accepted by God in Christ makes the false marketing of idols [false lovers] much less attractive. By nature, we are captive to our own self-worship [our number one false lover]. Only the power of the gospel can begin to totally reorient the direction of our hearts toward the worship of God and the service of others. As this happens, we begin to look less and less for idols [false lovers] with which to support our own deification. We begin to find more joy in living for the pleasure of Jesus and less for the approval of men. A primary sign of the diminishing rule of idols [false lovers] and addictions is seen in our increased joy in loving and serving others.” (Scotty Smith, Reign of Grace)

How deep is your love for Christ your husband? Better yet, may you be encouraged and motivated by His deep love for you! His love never fails, and perfects our ill attempts to love him and others. Enjoy your scared marriage to our One of a Kind Lover! He went to great lengths to secure it!


Because I care,

Pastor Jeff

One of a Kind Marriage, Part 2

In my last Blog, I encouraged you that Christ is your Husband and we are His Bride. Jesus pursues us actively securing a lasting intimate relationship with us. And yet even in God’s stubborn love for us in our marriage with Christ, we still struggle with other loves in our lives.

Here the Apostle Paul reminds in 2 Corinthian 11:3:

3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.


How do we struggle to desire and love Christ in this sacred marriage?

Paul fears and rightly so that the Corinthians will be seduced to unfaithfulness by other false loves. Their past has proven his concern. They had allowed other things (e.g., pride, sexual immorality, forsaking the poor) to lead them astray from a growing relationship with Jesus.

He reminds them of the Fall when Satan tempted Eve and she was deceived. When her heart desired the fruit more than God, she lost and left her first love and turned to other things to make her complete and satisfied. She began to doubt God’s goodness and truth and this led her to replace God with other things—to be like God, gain knowledge, and experience “true happiness.” You can see the affects of Eve leaving the Lover of her soul— she hides and blames others for her sin. She now gets her satisfaction from loving other things rather than God.

We do not have to stop with Eve. Throughout Biblical history God’s people have struggled to remain faithful, chaste, and pure to their covenant vows to God. Here these graphic descriptions of God’s people unfaithfulness to their marriage to Christ found in Scripture:

“If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the LORD." (Jeremiah 3:1)

15 “But you trusted in your beauty and played the whore (were unfaithful) because of your renown and lavished your whorings (unfaithfulness) on any passerby; your beauty became his. 16 You took some of your garments and made for yourself colorful shrines, and on them played the whore (were unfaithful). The like has never been, nor ever shall be. (Ezekiel 16:15-16)

12 My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore. (Hosea 4:12)

In these passages, God is denouncing their unfaithfulness to Him as spiritual adultery. Paul warns the Corinthian church and us of a similar struggle in this passage. We will commit spiritual adultery.

In fact, we need to know what may lead our hearts astray. For we are tempted and often times give into the temptation of being unfaithful to God and committing spiritual adultery.

God knows that we can and will be deceived like Eve, and to love other things more than God. Often these other things drive us away from our marriage with Christ. Seeking comfort, peace, power and position are such competing lovers. Our obsession with our reputation, respect and approval interferes with our relationship with Jesus, and they become more meaningful to us than Jesus. Our pursuit of career, possessions, physical health, strength, and obedient children can also lead us astray from the One who loves us completely and thoroughly. Not that any of those things are evil or wrong in themselves. But when we allow ourselves to be ruled by them more than Jesus and his love, then we will become complacent and unmoved by our Husband and his pursuing and stubborn love.

Friends, I know that this is true. One such competing love in my relationship with Jesus is my obsession with order and respect. If the house doesn’t look a certain way and I am not resting in Jesus and his love for me, I can become angry with my wife and children and say things that are manipulating and hurtful to get my way. What’s going on? I fear that they are not respecting me when they don’t keep the house in order. Because I find more value and satisfaction in an ordered house than in Jesus and all that he has provided me in the gospel, I show what I am really loving, serving and worshipping—myself.

Every false love promises to free us so that we finally feel good about ourselves—about our place and performance in life. The substances we choose to provide us life—i.e., alcohol, money, spiritual performance, sexuality, knowledge, etc.—suck us into varying degrees of dependence and addiction. False loves promise a life of purpose, peace, control and affirmation, but they cannot deliver the goods. The only deceive and destroy. Our false loves either in religious or irreligious forms are just “a destructive mirage full of empty IOUs”, says Scotty Smith.

So God in this sacred marriage desires for you to come and to honestly confess the competing false loves in your life—to acknowledge your unfaithfulness and run to your Husband and find forgiveness and rest. He delights to provide it!

What are your false loves? Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to see what is leading your astray from your sincere and pure devotion with Jesus. He desires for you to find rest and freedom for your souls so that you can experience a growing intimacy and confidence with Him.

My next Blog, we will consider:
Even though we are unfaithful to Jesus as we struggle with our false loves, He is never unfaithful to us. Jesus is the end of our struggle to find life in our false loves.

Pastor Jeff