Category: Theology

The Voice of Accusation Vs. Conviction

accusation vs conviction.png

After my sermon this past weekend (March 11/12), I got a huge amount of feedback about how helpful it was. Which is always encouraging – it was a good Sunday afternoon! Thank you!

But, I’ve also received this question a few times since then: How can you tell the difference between the voice of the accuser, and the voice of God convicting you of sin? Well, the answer is actually pretty easy…

Accuser: “You are wrong.”
God: “That choice was wrong.”

Accuser: “You are so bad.”
God: “That wasn’t right.”

Accuser: “See, you’re so worthless. Why bother trying?”
God: “You are pure, holy and blameless. You don’t need to live that way anymore.”

Are you seeing the difference? Satan accuses you – of you. God convicts you – not of you, but of sin and your calling to live into who you really are.

So, when God convicts us, it’s of our actions, not of our personal value or worth to Him. When the accuser accuses us, he takes our actions and then says that they are what determine our value and worth. 

God doesn’t guilt, He convicts. So, when you feel weighed down with guilt, shame and worthlessness, that isn’t from God. The difference is, when God convicts me of my sin (which is often), I know I’ve done something wrong. When Satan accuses me, I feel that I am intrinsically wrong.

The other thing to watch for is the outcome of the “conviction/accusation.”
With the accuser, his voice always leads to depression, shame, silence and despondency (or inaction). With God, His conviction leads to repentance, which literally means “changed behaviour” – a different way to live. With the accuser, his voice causes us to run from God – we hide (i.e. look at Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden). With God, His conviction leads to a greater reliance on Him and a desire to follow Him, knowing that He is faithful and just to cleanse us from every single wrong.

So, Satan tries to tempt us into believing our life is based on what we do (or fail to do). But, Christ has already done everything and so God’s conviction is based on living fully in that reality, not trying to earn it. 

May you hear God’s Spirit this week clearly, closely and personally, and may you not give the voice of the accuser the time of day.

by Andrew Mills

A Look at Sin

As you may be aware, a new Scorsese film came out called Silence. It’s taken from a historical fiction book written by Shushaku Endo about two Jesuit priests.
I haven’t seen the movie yet, but there is one line in the book that I’ve often thought a lot about. Endo writes this: “Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind.”
Now, I’ve read a lot of definitions of sin, but this one is a good one.
Read it again: “Sin is for one man to walk brutally over the life of another and to be quite oblivious of the wounds he has left behind.”
And, isn’t that what sin is? For us to brutally walk over someone – to hurt and harm them – without acknowledgement, compassion or realization?
This is why sin is both so brutal and something to be rooted out. This is why, especially during a season of Lent, we are called to focus on rooting out our sins – on really taking seriously the harm, hurt and damage that sin can cause.
The reason that I really like Endo’s quote is because of what he gets right – that sin harms others. It always has and it always will. This is why the church speaks so strongly against sin – because sin kills. Greed will kill your career, lust will kill your marriage and lying will kill your relationships.
So, I write all this as a simple reminder that we are in the season of Lent.
Traditionally, this is a time to slow down, reflect, and honestly spend some time in introspection and rooting out of sin. And, I think that, even though it’s hard work, it’s necessary work. Because, we as Christians never want to be oblivious to the wounds we might cause. Sometimes, before we can participate in healing the wounds of others, the Spirit needs to convict us of how we are causing wounds to others.
Is that easy? No. But the promise of following Jesus isn’t that it’s easy, but that it will lead you into true life. So, today, amidst all the busyness and noise, sit and invite the Holy Spirit to reveal any area of sin in your life, and seek to live differently.
by Andrew Mills

Do Not Fear

donotfear.pngJoy Davidman (wife of C.S. Lewis) writes this: “Fear is so much a disease, we have forgotten it is a disease.”
I couldn’t agree with this or believe in this more. Fear is a disease and it’s one that runs our world. We are constantly under the sway of fear. Of course, we don’t call it that. We call it things like: being realistic, prudent planning, worry, anxiety, stress or a whole other host of euphemisms. But often, what is really lurking under the surface is fear.
We save and save because we are fearful we don’t have enough. We try to “grab” all we can because we fear scarcity. We have “stress,” but what is it really? It’s fear of failure, fear of the future, fear of so many other things. What I am saying is that often what is driving our decisions and actions isn’t the goodness of God, but a belief that things will get worse, and that’s fear. 
And, that’s wrong.
Because, if you read the Bible, what you will see again and again is the command: “Do not fear.” Do not fear. Do not give in to fear. Fear does not run our world. Fear is not in control. Fear does not decide your fate. “Do not fear.” Because as Bruce Springsteen sings…
Fear’s a powerful thing, baby
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It’ll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
And, that’s true. Which is why Jesus often says in the Gospels, “Do not fear.”
So, my hope today is to remind you of something I’m sure you know deep down: Don’t give in to fear. As Jesus says, “Do not fear.” As the Apostle John says, “Perfect love casts out all fear.” Or, as Joy Davidman writes, “Fear is a disease, so don’t give in to it.”
Because, God is good and God is love, and that has always been the antidote to fear.
by Andrew Mills

When Being Relevant Becomes Irrelevant

Relevant.pngToday, I want to talk about a buzz word and what I believe is actually a curse on our current church culture: relevance.
What I often hear in and around the church world, and ministry in general, is the need to “be relevant” – that we need to ensure our message meets people where they are at and that it’s “relatable.” It’s then often tied to some new cultural trend that we need to “utilize to reach a new generation.”
Now obviously, at a certain level, this is both obvious and necessary. Jesus met us in our world, and it was certainly both relevant and pertinent to our lives. We need to continue to live and change with our world and where it is moving. So, in this sense, yes, we need to be relevant.
But, in another very specific sense, there is a problem with pursuing relevance in that “being relevant” has moved from the sidelines to the centre. And, whenever relevance becomes the marker of faithfulness or success, that becomes a problem. Because the church is first and foremost not called to be relevant, but rather to be faithful.
Please hear me clearly, this short little post isn’t calling church to be irrelevant. What I am trying to say is that the arbiter of success, the point of a church or the meaning of a church has never been in its relevance, but in its faithfulness. And, I believe that when a church is faithful to its calling, it is incredibly relevant to all of our lives. But, when a church is just trying to be relevant, it does not ensure that it will be faithful.
What I’m seeking to write and bring to our attention is a point about priorities. Relevance is a great thing when it follows faithfulness; it is a disaster when it drives faithfulness or function.
So, what does this mean for all of us today? It means, if you are older and don’t get social media, that’s okay. Be faithful. It means, if you are younger and know all the cool cultural trends and memes, that’s okay. Be faithful. It means, wherever you are at, the focus shouldn’t be on “being relevant,” hip or cool, rather it should always be on being faithful. And, that’s a hard thing, but it’s also the most relevant and life-changing thing.
by Andrew Mills

Confession Brings Freedom

The other day while reading (which, full confession, I do kinda frequently), I read this statement by Craig Groeschel…
“It’s so much better to confess your sins and enjoy forgiveness than to be caught in them.”
Wow, how true is that?
Rather than confess, I’m more likely to hide my sins, flaws and mistakes. And, I actually think this isn’t just true for me; it’s a human response. In fact, if you read Genesis 3, this is exactly what you see when Adam and Eve sin. Rather than confess to God and find forgiveness, they hide their sin and are eventually caught in sin.
The truth is just this: Whenever we let sin dictate our decisions, hurt isn’t far behind and hiding never brings healing. Forgiveness brings freedom, whereas hiding brings more guilt and baggage. The beautiful thing is that God is a God of forgiveness; it’s actually what He does best.

So today, I’m probably not writing something you don’t already know. But, it isn’t in the knowing that we struggle, it’s in the acting. I write all this to remind us of one little thing: “It’s so much better to confess your sins and enjoy forgiveness than to be caught in them.”
I know that’s something I need to not only hear, but to act on too. And maybe you need to as well.
by Andrew Mills

Perspective Changes Everything

perspectiveToday, I want to write something that is true, but can also be challenging… We interpret the Bible through our own experience. This is normal. This is inevitable. It is part of being human to interpret our reality in and through the experiences we have.
But, it is also very problematic.
Why? If you are reading this, you likely, in some way, shape or form, have lots of advantages that others don’t. You have a computer, a smart phone, or some other way to connect to the Internet, which is amazing, if you think about it. You have enough leisure time to read this. You might even have some food or drink easily accessible to enjoy while you peruse Facebook. The point is that many people in life don’t have these advantages and the fact that we do affects how we read the Bible.
Why do I bring this up? Well, if we interpret life and the Bible through our own experiences (which is true) and those experiences are more privileged than most (which is also more than likely true), than we may have a slanted view of the Bible because it is written from a disadvantaged position.
The Bible was written to people struggling in poverty, living under an Empire and, in many ways, were very disadvantaged. For many of us, though, we don’t have the same experience.
Lauren Winner puts it this way, “If we are going to draw on our own daily experiences to help us interpret the Bible’s metaphors for God, those of us who read the Bible, as I do, in well-appointed homes, with plenty of leisure time for this pondering, must make the effort to stretch our imaginations to include experiences beyond our own.”
Winner’s point, and mine, is that unless we stretch our imaginations and experiences to understand what it is like to live in poverty, difficulty, under the Empire, etc., we will not interpret the Bible well. And, in this, I’m not trying to make anyone feel guilty for the advantages they have (as a white male, trust me I have tons), but rather I want to encourage you to become aware of them.
So, while I believe lots of education, training, and study is great to learn the Bible, I also equally believe listening to others and having stretching experiences is absolutely necessary to learning the Bible. My challenge for all of us this week is to try to learn from someone else’s experience that is not your own. Learn what it is like to live with deep health challenges, in poverty, as a refugee or displaced, as a minority, etc. with all the fears and worries that come alongside those things.
Because, when we stretch our imaginations and experiences, we can often find the Bible saying new and needed things to us.
by Andrew Mills

Busy, Busy, Busy

busy-busy-busy
“The spirit of our times is joyless urgency…” – Marilynne Robinson
Read that line again, and if you don’t have time, well there is the irony right there. The spirit of our times is joyless urgency.
Doesn’t that capture where we are at as a society, as a culture, as a people, even? Aren’t we rushing from one thing to the next, always busy, always hurried, unable to even enjoy all the things that rush past us?
Marilynne Robinson is known to be an astute observer of our times and she resonates with me. Sometimes that’s exactly how I feel – a joyless urgency to continue rushing forward to the next thing and the next thing after that.
But, when you live like that, chasing one thing after another, you quickly end up just feeling like a “thing.” Because to be human isn’t to rush from one thing to the next; it’s to appreciate life in all of its complexities and nuances. Being human is to have space to experience joy and grief.
So, if you are rushing from one joyless experience to the next, I have a remedy. It’s old, and it’s often admired and untried. It’s called Sabbath. 
Take one day this week to rest. To relax. To unplug. To cease the endless rushing and to live in whatever space you may be in – good or bad. Stop the joyless urgency and running, and slow down for one day. You may feel bored, you may feel purposeless or even inefficient (that’s almost a synonym for sin in our culture), but my promise is if you do it consistently, you will feel healthy.
The spirit of our age is joyless urgency, but that doesn’t need to be your spirit. Sabbath.
“If there is any truth in relevant statistics – I doubt them all – perhaps health and longevity are not the effect of diet, of fish, vegetables, and olive oil, but having a little time to oneself, with family and friends.” – Marilynne Robinson
by Andrew Mills

Discipleship in an Instant?

Marshall McLuhan coined a pretty famous phrase that says, “the medium is the message.” This means that the medium does actually shift, alter and change the message. And, while I don’t want to spend 3,000 words unpacking that today, I want to draw our attention to something that is happening in our culture.
We now live in a world that is about speed, convenience, newness and simplicity.
Here is the tie in to McLuhan’s phrase… When everything is fast, easy, new and simple, we can then unconsciously adopt the posture that anything that is slow, difficult, older and complex is not only odd, but is also wrong.
When our TV shows, food, Amazon Prime shipping and our friendships with social media are almost instantaneous (clear, newly refreshed and right at our fingertips), it can be difficult to appreciate the reality that some things take time. Some things are incredibly hard. Some things ancient matter. Some things simply aren’t simple, but incredibly complex.
It doesn’t take a genius to notice that our current cultural expectations of speed, convenience, novelty and simplicity will have a disastrous effect on discipleship.

Because, here is the truth… Discipleship is not fast, it’s not convenient, it’s not new and it’s anything but simple. The honest truth is that following Jesus is a long journey, it requires you to give up a lot, it’s actually pretty ancient and it often places us in difficult situations in which complexities abound.
So, my point is, the current cultural trends do not fit well with the life of discipleship that Jesus calls us to follow. And, I’m not lamenting that fact actually, because this gives us a chance to truly stand out and be different than the culture around us.
Often, we want to be counter-culture morally (and we should be!), but what if we also became counter-cultural in a different way? What if we, as believers, praised and valued a long obedience in the same direction? What if we didn’t always try to be new, but focused on being faithful? What if we praised doing the next right hard thing over just the easy thing? What if we really sought to never reduce people or ideas to cultural clichés, but sought to enter fully into the complexity of life?
What I’m pondering, and even challenging us to do, is this… To counteract the instantaneous, easy, new and reductionist world around us by living like Jesus. To value slow and long-term change. To value doing the right hard things over the easy things. To value living faithfully over novelty. To value the complexity of our stories over reducing them.
In essence, I’m asking what it might look like for you and me to live differently than our culture. Because, that might just be the thing that actually changes our culture.
by Andrew Mills

Finding Joy in the Midst of a Mess

On the weekend, we continued our Advent series by talking about joy. Because joy is something I think we all need and want. Joy is different than happiness, actually. While happiness is often based on our circumstances, joy can transcend our circumstances.
So, we began by looking at how we might find joy in the midst of our real lives. Because our real lives are sometimes difficult, especially around Christmas time. There can be financial strain, family drama and unmet expectations – all of which makes “the most wonderful time of the year” a little, well, not so wonderful.
What we discovered, as we examined Mary and Joseph’s life, is that their lives were full of mess, drama and difficulty when Jesus was born. First of all, Mary is with Joseph, even though they aren’t yet married. Most likely because of family drama. Then, they show up to Joseph’s ancestral hometown, but there is no room for them. No one seems to want to take in a very pregnant woman in their own hometown. So, all of this leads to some pretty obvious conclusions – Mary and Josephs’ life is not perfect, clean and put together. It’s a lot like ours – messy and occasionally hurtful.
Yet, it is into this reality that Jesus shows up. And, He brings joy to Mary and Joseph, as their first child is born. More than that, He draws in the shepherds as well. This might seem insignificant, but it’s hugely meaningful. Because when you have a child, you want to share that story and experience it with others. But, no family seems to show up, so God sends shepherds to share in the joy and celebration with Mary and Joseph.The Scriptures say that it impacts Mary deeply and she treasures it all.
So, from this, we pulled out the obvious, but necessary point – that with Jesus comes joy. One of the first things He does on earth is bring joy to His parents, and bring others together to share in this joy.

We then walked through how this applies to our lives. That, first and foremost, if we are in need of some joy, we should pray and ask for it. Jesus, Himself, says this in John 17 – that we can ask for joy. On His birth, Jesus demonstrates how He brings joy when He arrives. So, the first thing we should do is pray and wait and watch for Jesus to come with some joy.
The other thing we should be open to is that Jesus might want to send us out to bring joy to others. This is what we see when the shepherds come to meet with Jesus. So, what if that’s our calling this Christmas – to bring joy to others? To show up with cookies, a conversation or a connection? To show up and surprise others by bringing them joy?
So, we ended with a simple challenge – To pray and ask for joy, but also to listen and follow God if He sends you to bring joy to others. Because, as Christians, we are not only to experience the joy of Christmas and Jesus, but to spread it.
Teaching Notes
Passage: Luke 2:1-20
 
Big Idea: When Jesus shows up, He brings joy
Teaching Points:
  • All families are dysfunctional at some point
  • Jesus’ first act is to bring joy
  • Happiness is dependent on what is going on around us; joy is dependent on what is happening within us
  • Jesus brings in others to share in the joy
  • Pray and invite Jesus to show up
  • Giving joy spreads
  • Show up so someone else receives joy
  • Prayers coupled with action is always better
  • Joy is on its way, and we can find it and be part of it
Adult Discussion Questions:
1. What stuck out to you from the sermon? What was challenging to you? What was new?
2. Do you agree with Andrew that all families are dysfunctional at some point? Why or why not?
3. Are you more likely to think of the story of Mary and Joseph as history or fable? Why?
4. When have you been filled with joy? Have you ever found joy amidst difficult situations?
5. How can you commit to asking Jesus to show up with joy in your life? How can you show up to bring joy into someone else’s life? What next steps do you need to take?
Challenge for the Week: Pray for Jesus to show up and show up so someone else receives joy
by Andrew Mills

How to Read the Bible

itsownvoice.pngToday, in a short blog post, we are going to try to dive pretty deep theologically and philosophically. I want to begin with a quote from a pretty well-known Biblical scholar at Wheaton, named John Walton, who apparently Larry went to school with, which makes me quite jealous.

Walton writes this, “We must notice that when God wanted to talk to the Israelites about their intellect, emotions, and will, he did not revise their ideas of physiology and feel compelled to reveal the function of the brain. Instead, he adopted the language of the culture to communicate in terms they understood.”

For me, that last line is incredibly important… “[God] adopted” – or we could say incarnated Himself – “in the language of the culture to communicate in terms they understood.” What this means is that the message of the Bible is imbedded and formed by the ancient cultures of the Bible. Or, as John Walton puts it, “[The Bible’s] message transcends the culture in which it originated, but the form in which the message was imbedded was fully permeated by the ancient culture.”

So far, if you’ve read this and think to yourself, “I have no idea what this means and why this matters” and you feel sorry for my wife because I like to sit down on Friday nights and read passages like this, then here’s my interpretation of what this means…When it comes to interpreting the Bible, we need to be humble.

We cannot pretend that the Bible speaks our modern-day language – it doesn’t. We cannot pretend that the Bible is asking our modern-day questions – it often isn’t. We cannot pretend that we have everything put together – we often don’t. The Bible speaks in an ancient voice that we need to listen to and not be so arrogant to think we have it all put together. Because, while I believe the Bible is authoritative, I just as equally believe I am not, nor are my interpretations.

So, for me, the main point of this post is this… We need to be open to letting the Bible speak in its own voice, not in ours.We need to be humble with our interpretations because we aren’t perfect. We need to be open to continually learning, searching and growing because none of us has it all put together.

That doesn’t mean we have to give up on the truth we know, but rather our fallibility should shape how we hold the truth. We shouldn’t be arrogant, haughty and overconfident. Instead, when we come to reading the Bible, we should be humble, grateful and open to learning. Because, this amazing, ancient document has changed lives for centuries, and it will continue to change lives when we learn to humbly listen to it and the wisdom found in it.

by Andrew Mills