The Difference Between Want & Have

"In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' For a while he refused but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'" And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on this earth?" (Luke 18: 2-10)

What's the difference between wanting to do something and having to do something? Have you ever thought about it? The difference is eternal. The difference is heart and that's what Jesus is always after. That's why he told this story in the first place (Luke 18:1). There's a huge difference between loving your wife because you  exchanged vows 15 years ago and wanting to love your wife every day. One is begrudging obedience and the other is genuine love. Unconditional love. The widow in the story got justice from the unrighteous judge, but how did she get it? The judge was tired of her bothering him and was scared that she would eventually beat him down by her continual coming (Luke 18:5). Why does the means matter if you still get the end in which you came for? The means are what really matter. Please see this.

Jesus & the Judge

Some of you are very much like the unrighteous judge. Your relationship with Jesus consists of the same 2 things that the judge's relationship with the widow consisted of

1. Annoyance
2. Fear

Now I know you would never say I follow Jesus Christ because I'm annoyed with him and scared of him, but just because you wouldn't say it doesn't mean we don't live like it. We go to church and hear all these commands about do this and don't do that. We don't like Jesus stepping into our lives, but everyone else is doing it and we want to be good, upstanding, moral citizens. And this annoyance is boosted even more by fear because everyone is scared to death of death. We know that Jesus can get us to heaven so we have no love for Jesus, but we're very scared of hell. There is an eternal difference between people who love Jesus for more of Him and people who love Jesus to escape hell. Just like there's an eternal difference between the unrighteous judge and our heavenly Father. 

What's the Difference?

The difference lies between wanting to do something and having to do something. The unrighteous earthly judge feels backed into a corner. He feels obligated and has to do this for the widow. At the end of the story, Jesus brings in the magnificent heavenly Father who isn't obligated toward anyone (Acts. 17:24-25). God doesn't owe anyone anything, but eternal damnation for their constant sin and rebellion against Him.  He doesn't even owe us the little things such as delicious bites of food or fits of laughter, let alone the big things like eternal life in His son. We can't give God anything because he owns it all. Every bit of the universe and all you see are already His. He created it all. At the end of the day, the widow gets justice both from the unrighteous judge and God, but the how changes everything. How'd she get it? One she had to beg and knock on the door and keep coming back. The other came to her, knocked over her door of sin and unbelief by sending His son who wanted to give up his life for us. He wasn't forced to the cross (John 10:18). God didn't have to save you, but he wanted to. Jesus didn't have to die for you, but he wanted to you. That's love folks. That difference between want and have is everything. Don't lose heart. Jesus wanted to save you and that means he loves you.

Pray for Cordova, Peru

A team from Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, KY are currently traveling to Cordova, Peru in hopes of continuing to fulfill the great commission of making disciples throughout all the earth. Ashland has been trying to plant a gospel centered, bible believing church there for the last 7 years and they have sent a man named Eric Turner there for 2 years in order to establish roots and put this mission into high gear. This summer, a group of 6 will be joining Eric for 10 weeks as he begins his last year there.

You can keep up with Cordova through Eric's blog here or find out more about the mission at Ashland Avenue.

Here are some things that you can be praying for over the summer that were given to me by Celeste Hurst, one of the girls going down there. Please pray every day.

1. That the Lord would ease the communication barrier between our team and the Cordovans; that through our speech they would hear Jesus speaking into their hearts.
2. That we will rely solely on the strength of God while we are in Peru. We have no power to change their hearts or to grow in our faith, but Jesus is infinitely strong and "His power is made perfect in weaknesses." Pray he helps us grow in our understanding of what it means to completely trust in his perfect and holy will.
3. Please pray that God will protect our team in safe traveling and from sickness, that he may keep our bodies strong to help us proclaim His glorious message of salvation.

"The history of missions is the history of answered prayer…it is the key to the whole missionary problem. All human means are secondary.” (Samuel M. Zwemer)

Questions for the Heart

I have been reading through the gospels for one of my classes and one of the things that immediately jumps off the page is the number of questions Jesus asked to the people around. One could even make the assumption that this was his number one teaching technique.

So here are some great questions that I have gathered over the years that I ask myself and ask some guys in bible studies and discipleship. I pray that they dig at your heart and grow you closer in your relationship with Jesus and the people around you.

Questions for Discipleship (via Celeste Hurst and Campus Outreach)

1. What sin have you been taking before the lord lately?
2. What have you learned about yourself recently?
3. What have you learned about the Lord recently?
4. What have you been celebrating?
5. What burden have you been carrying?
6. What have you been struggling to trust God for?
7. What truth about God’s word has been encouraging to you lately?
8. How do you feel towards God lately? Distant, near, or I don’t know? Why?
9. What do you want God to do in you this week?
10. What are you trusting God for?
11. What has been consuming your thoughts lately?
12. How have you seen God’s grace in your life lately?
13. What false promises of sin are you believing this week?
14. What promises of God are you holding on to?

Questions for Identity & Idolatry Detecting (via JD Greear)

1. What one thing do you most hope is in your future? 
2. What is the one thing you most worry about losing?
3. If you could change one thing about yourself right now, what would it be?
4. What have you sacrificed most for this week?
5. Who is there in your life that you feel like you can't forgive, and why?
6. When do you feel the most significant?
7. What triggers depression in you?
8. Where do you turn for comfort when things are not going well? 

John Wesley's Small Group Questions

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I am? In other words, am I a hypocrite? 
2. Did the Bible live in me today?
3. Do I give it time to speak to me everyday?
4. Am I enjoying prayer?
5. When did I last speak to someone about my faith?
6. Do I pray about the money I spend?
7. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
8. Do I disobey God in anything?
9. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
10. How do I spend my spare time?
11. Is Christ real to me?
12. What is the condition of your soul? 
13. What sin do you need to confess?
14. What have you held back from God that you need to surrender?
15. Is there anything that has dampened your zeal for Christ?

 

What is the Gospel?

The Advance Conference recently took place in Raleigh, NC to help train Christians all around the world to have both a "faithful & fruitful" ministry in their daily lives. You can listen or watch all the sessions from the conference here.

D.A. Horton's session was on sharing the gospel in the most effective way possible. Here is his basic layout of what the gospel is. Check out his 20 minute session below. It is well worth those 20 minutes. They might change how you do evangelism for the rest of your life.



G. (God's Image)

What does it mean to be made in God's image and not be God himself in our lives? This is where the Bible starts and this is helpful to begin a gospel conversation. 

O. (Open Fellowship)

After God made all of creation and made us in His image, we had perfect, unbroken fellowship with God. There were no such things as skeletons in the closet. No hidden lifestyles and fears of being exposed or known. Nothing was hidden. It was all good.

S. (Sin Introduced)

What is sin? It is helpful to talk to people what this word means because often times it is a church word that gets thrown around a lot but never clearly defined or explained. If we don't see sin, we won't need a savior and Jesus becomes irrelevant.

P. (Penalty & Price)

Because of sin, there is now a penalty (death) and a price (blood). This is the direction we are heading for because of our sin. Sin has a penalty and a price (Romans 6:23). 

E. (Enter Jesus)

Jesus, equally and essentially God, came and took the penalty and the price for you, in your place. He took the eternal sentence that we rightfully deserve. What it would take a eternity for you to serve in hell, Jesus finished on the Cross, once and for all. Nothing can be added to it or taken away. He did this freely for you because of the great love, with which he loved you.

L. (Life Everlasting)

When we repent and treasure Jesus because of who he is and what he has done for us in conquering our sin and death, we can now celebrate life everlasting with Him right now. It's not just joy when we go to heaven, but everlasting joy today because of what Jesus has done.

That is such a clear and simple way to share the whole gospel with people in our lives that desperately need to hear it. I pray that this acronym would help you go out and share both the gospel and your life with others for the glory of God.

Last Words: Rescue is Coming

I just finished my last college class ever. A Rakestraw graduating college. Can you believe it? It was very fitting that in my last class here at WKU, where I have been completely transformed by the person and work of Jesus, that I would sit in my last class (Rel. 300 - Life of Jesus) that has nothing to do with my finance major and hear the teacher say, "Things will never be the same because of who Jesus was and what He did." 

I came into college a scrawny young kid who was very religious, put together, and ready to conquer the world that was set in from of me. Four years later, I'm still scrawny, but in a week I'll leave this beautiful campus in Bowling Green, Kentucky completely broken, captured by love, and ready to lose my life for the sake of the One who gave it all for me. I came to WKU looking for something, and I was found by the sweet grace and mercy of the Lord of all.

I was asked to write a blog and give a senior talk for the campus ministry I've been involved with for four years called CRU here at WKU. They wanted me to talk about what I've learned in my four years and what I want to pass on or leave behind. This is really hard for me because not only have I really, really loved and enjoyed my time here, but I also learn about 10,000 new things every single day. If I had 15 minutes to tell my freshmen self anything in the world, what would it be? Out of all the things I've learned and all the people I've been impacted by what would I say to the that freshman four years ago?

I can try to sum it up with one word: rescue. Rescue is not a past tense word. It's an all encompassing word that means past, present, and future. I would tell the younger Luke that rescue is here and it is coming. And it is coming in ways that you would never believe. In fact, it is coming most spectacularly in 3 ways.

1.) Rescue is coming for your greatness

Jesus, first, graciously rescued me from me. My view of greatness coming into college was defined by me: who I was and what I did. Greatness looked a lot like the American dream: a beautiful wife, great upstanding children, a two-story house, two-cars, a dog, and a healthy salary. Greatness was that people would remember my name. Greatness was straight A's and popularity and worldly success. And then I met King Jesus and saw what real greatness looked like (Isaiah 6:1-5). I learned who the true hero of the story was and it wasn't me. We all pursue what we think greatness is until we meet something greater. My pursuit was over when I ran smack into the Great I Am. My good works didn't look so good measured up against God's holiness. My mightiness didn't look so mighty against the power of God Almighty. I felt like David in the Psalms:

 "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him,and the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8: 3-4)

Who am I? I'm not that impressive. In fact, I'm very, very sinful. But God cares for me. How? I'll get to that in the second rescue, but the greatest truth in this universe, is the fact that the One that created this universe cares for me, not because of how great I am, but because of how great He is. There's nothing in me that screams out great, but God sent his son to rescue me from myself so I might get a shot at real greatness: being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). 

This started me on my very present journey of seeing that God is supreme in all things (Col. 1:15-23). No amount of money or prestige, or leisure, or sports, or family, or job, or health, or toys, or friends -- nothing brings satisfaction to my sinful, guilty, aching heart beside God. This makes me want to go hard for the One that is truly great: my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 2.) Rescue is coming for your love and affections

After rescuing my greatness, Jesus was far from done with me. At the same time, he was ferociously going after my idea of love. Coming into college I saw love like the world sees love: with conditions. You scratch my back I'll scratch yours. The world says very clearly that if you do these certain things then we will love you. If you fit this mold then you will be taken care and loved immensely. So if you make good grades, tell the funniest jokes, work really hard, be devoted, and loyal then you will have a shot at our love. We see this in our relationships, families, and work environments. You perform, you will be loved and rewarded and Jesus said we ain't doing it like that.

Why did Jesus save me? Why did he lavish his grace upon me and adopt me into his family? Coming into school I thought it was because of my church attendance, prayer life, bible study time, and moral works. But Paul said something different in Ephesians 2: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ" (Eph. 2:4-5). God saved us from our sins because of his great love and affection, not ours. I didn't love God. I loved myself, but he saved me. And he didn't wait for me to clean myself up or get back on the right track. No, Paul says that "while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me" (Romans 5:8). That mega, other worldly love blew me out of the water. God's love for me, despite of me eternally wrecked me and I haven't been able to get over it since. That he would look on me foreknowing all the times I would sin against him, and go my own way, and fall over and over and over again, and still say I'm sending my son to die for that man to get him in my family. What do you with something like that? You worship. Jesus didn't have to go to the cross, but he wanted to out of his great love and joy for the Father and for us, as sons and daughters.

Jonathan Edwards, a famous pastor in the early 1700's, said "that the meaning of life is found in intense loves, including earthly loves." Not moderate loves.  Not play-it-safe loves.  Not this-won’t-cost-you-anything loves.  Not let’s-dabble-in-the-shallows loves.  But intense loves.  Brightly burning loves.  All-consuming loves (John 2:17). I loved timid-loves because I could control it. I was able to set the terms and limit risk. God wasn't having any of that and sent his son to fully embody the most intense love anyone will ever see. A love that consumed him. A love that meant the death of him, and thankfully the death of me.

3.) Rescue is coming for your joy

All throughout highschool and coming into college, I never understood why so many people in the Bible would act the way they did. I didn't understand why David would stay up all night thinking about God, or why a prostitute falls weeping with joy at Jesus's feet, or why the man when he finds a treasure in the field immediately goes and sells all he has, with joy, in order to buy it. I most certainly didn't understand why Paul says "to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21). I understood to live is Christ. I was taught that in sunday school, but to die is gain? Are you for real Paul? Because here is the thing about death that we all know: you lose everything when you die. You lose your wife, your kids, your house, your money, your friends, your accomplishments, your reputation. All of it gone when you die. And Paul is looking at all of that in his life and says being with Jesus is gain far beyond all that. I was missing something about Jesus. Jesus gave Paul more joy than everything else in his life combined, where he could look at death and weigh the costs and say gain.

I always thought, in the back of my mind, being a Christian was the opposite of joy. Kind of like sitting in a jail cell watching all your friends have fun for 70-80 years, but one day you'd be in heaven so it was all worth it. And then I read Psalm 16:11:

"in your presence there is fullness of joy;

at your right hand are pleasures forevermore"

Pleasures and God don't only co-exist but true pleasure is found in God? That somehow, in God, there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore? So if this was true God wasn't the opposite of joy, actually he was the beginning and end of all true joy. If this was true everything was changing. If this was true I had been settling for unhappiness by looking to the world to provide it. Like sucking on sand, when I have a fountain of water right beside me saying "that one day this sand will satisfy me."

Not only was God the beginning and end of joy, but I saw in the scriptures that he commanded us to be joyful. I thought it was a sin, but really to be happy in God was what God wanted all along because when I'm most happy in God he looks the greatest. God looks big and I get to be happy in him for the rest of my days. You tell me where I can find joy fuller than full and longer than forever and I'll cease to be a Christian. But you won't find joy fuller than full or longer than forever. God is true joy. Thomas Brooks said:

"To be in a state of grace, is to be miserable no more. It is to be happy forever. A soul in this state is a soul near and dear to God. It is a soul much beloved and very highly valued by God. It is a soul safe in God's everlasting arms. It is a soul fully interested in all the highest and greatest privileges."

C.S. Lewis said it like this in his essay from The Weight of Glory:

"if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

Jesus has rescued me every day of my life and no more than in the last 4 years on the hill at Western Kentucky University. I want to thank all of you who have been a part of it and all the many hand prints on my life that have pointed me more and more to his delightful rescue. 

Why Religious Change Doesn't Work

I like posting sections from books, sermons, or anything else on here because there are so many wise people out there that can say things so much better than I could.

Here is JD. Greear's very wise words on why religious change doesn't work in his wonderful book Gospel: Recovering the Power that Made Christianity Revolutionary.

Why Religious Change Doesn't Work

1.) Religious activities fail to address the "root" idolatries that drive our sin.

 At its root, our sins are driven by the fact that we desire something more than we desire God. Religious change targets the acts of sin without addressing the idolatry that prompted the sin in the first place.

 Let me give you an example: Tim Keller tells of a notoriously sexually promiscuous kid he knew in college. The young man's sexual prowess was about more than lust, however. Gaining "notches on his bed post" was a source of identity to him -- it proved he was a man and gave him a sense of power over women. During his junior year this guy got involved with a campus ministry and "got saved." He quickly got "on fire for Jesus" and gave an inspiring, bold testimony of his new commitment. However, Keller says, he was not a very enjoyable person. He had to win every conversation and he wanted you to recognize his opinions were insightful. The guy had all the external signs of love for Jesus, but he had simply traded sex for religion as the outer manifestation of his true desire. What he really wanted -- his "root idol" -- was power over others.  

True worship is obedience to God for no other reason than that you delight in God. There is an eternal difference in serving God to get something from Him and serving Him to get more of Him. Getting religiously active in a church does not necessarily mean you have become a true worshiper of God. You may have simply discovered religion to be a more convenient means to other cherished idols like respect, pride, success, a good family, or prosperity. 

 2.) When our acceptance is based on our performance, we show 2 root sins in our heart: pride and fear.

Everyone on this planet senses that we are not acceptable as we are (which is true), so we all feel driven to do something to make ourselves more acceptable to God. But whatever we think makes us better than others, we feel proud about, and that leads us to more sin with pride. Pride gives rise to violence, impatience, intolerance, judgmentalism, and many other vices. Of course, on the other hand, when we don't feel like we measure up to others, we despair and our fear of rejection grows.  Our despair creates a void that we often turn toward drugs, alcohol, relationships, and work to fill. 

While performance-based acceptance thrusts us into a cycle of pride and despair, acceptance by God's grace produces exactly the opposite. We are complete in Him. We are even free to let others see our faults, because we know we we already have the absolute approval of the only One whose opinion really matters anyway. We are not afraid to lose all we have, because in Him we have all that we need.

 3.) The insecurity of always wondering if we've done enough to be accepted causes resentment of God, not love for Him.

When I first became a believer, I constantly felt guilty about things I needed to do better to become a good Christian. Despite my fervency, my love for God was not growing. True love for God cannot grow when we are unsure about His feelings for us. 

When our salvation depends upon our righteous behavior, our righteousness will be driven by a desire to elevate ourselves. This is not love for God; its love for ourselves and self protection. The gospel turns religion upside down. The gospel assures us of God's love and acceptance, given to us as a gift earned by Christ's worthiness, not ours. The gospel reawakens us to the beauty of God and overwhelms us with mercy. Our behavior changes because we change. Until that happens, all religious changes will be superficial and about us.