A Witness To Sufferings

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10-11)

“We understand that in a broken world there will be suffering. But our God promises to be with us.” –Reverend Richard Griffiths

During Sunday’s sermon, Pastor Richard gave voice to the thought that resides in the hearts of many Christians in the western world: I’ll take power and I’ll take blessing, but I’m not taking suffering.

Why embrace suffering? Our pastor reminded us of the beginning of Romans chapter 5. In the first five verses of the chapter, the apostle Paul encourages believers to view suffering as a catalyst to hope. The embracing of suffering for the sake of Christ is the first step in a developmental process. What does suffering develop in us? Perseverance; character; hope.

The world, though, lives in opposition to the word of God. The world says that we ought to be free to be, say, and do whatever we please. The world says that if we don’t like something, we ought to drop it-- after all, why suffer? That is the way our world operates.

However, there is a more dangerous opponent of the tenets in the book of Romans. That opponent is found in the church. The model of suffering has grown odious in some spiritual circles. So, instead of a call to suffering, there are pockets of church culture in which Christians are told that the evidence of their spiritual prowess is found in their avoidance of suffering. But if we seek to avoid suffering, then how will we develop spiritual maturity?

Paul was willing to suffer for the sake of Christ. Much of his apostolic influence came not from his in-person visits to churches, but from the precious letters he wrote while imprisoned and held under house arrest. His transparency about the sufferings he endured served as encouragement to his fellow believers... and to us as well! Here we are, thousands of years later, still learning and growing from this example of a man who was happy to embrace suffering as a catalyst to spiritual growth.

Are you willing to suffer?

Lord God, help us to joyfully embrace the fellowship of Your sufferings.

All Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

A Witness To Salvation

This past Sunday, Pastor Richard shared that religious activities and rituals don’t ensure right relationship with God; rather, it is faith in Jesus Christ. Our pastor said, and we ought receive it as a creedal truth, “What has been accomplished in Christ Jesus is complete.”

Do we believe that Jesus’s death and resurrection have procured salvation for us? Or are we trying to add on our own “salvific” efforts to the work He has already done? Pastor Richard noted that as Philippians 3 begins, the apostle Paul speaks out against the spiritual leaders of his day. These leaders held the notion that new believers could not claim authentic salvation unless they also embraced the ritual of circumcision, which was a central component of Judaism. As Paul refuted this notion, he said, “But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.” (Philippians 3:7)

What were Paul’s gains in regard to his religious life?

v  Legacy: Paul could boast that his parents circumcised him in infancy, on the eighth day of his life, in keeping with the Mosaic law.

v  Lineage: Paul had been born into the tribe of Benjamin, and had a proud heritage as a Jew sold out to Judaism.

v  Legalism: Paul had been taught and trained by Gamaliel, the most gifted Pharisee of his day, and was highly educated in religious law.

v  Leadership: Paul had been an influential leader, persuading other Jews in and around his region to persecute Christians.

v  Lifestyle: Paul had been diligent to maintain all the religious regulations and expectations common to Pharisees.

But, as our pastor said on Sunday (paraphrased here), God can change everything in a moment. For Paul, that moment happened on the road to Damascus. Years later, Paul continued to share the testimony of how that encounter with the living God changed his life forever (see Acts 26). Life was no longer all about religion: it was all about Jesus.

Let’s consider what Paul said in Philippians 3. The apostle never denied his religious education. He never denied his spiritual heritage. He never denied that he was well-versed in the rituals common to his life as a “Hebrew of Hebrews”. But he said, in effect, Compared to all that Christ is and all He has done, all my personal efforts at religious ritual are like dung—I dare not put them on display. I know that my rituals did not contribute to my salvation!

In all of Sunday’s English-language services, Pastor Richard quoted from a hymn that has the following stanza:

“My faith has found a resting place—not in device nor creed:

I trust the Ever-living One – His wounds for me shall plead.” (Lidie Edmunds, ca. 1891)

For our reflection today, let’s ask ourselves: Where does our faith rest? Is it resting on Jesus’s death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead, or is it resting on the unstable frame of our own religious efforts?

All Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

A Witness To Process

“We resign to the Holy Spirit, but He calls us to divine partnership.” – Rev. Richard Griffiths

I have been struggling with how to begin this week’s posts.

This past Sunday was unusual, and yet at the same time it has been in keeping with a pattern of the unusual way that our God has been working through Pastor Richard in recent months. For those who don’t worship at Bronx Bethany Church of the Nazarene, I’ll try to explain.

Over the past several years, Pastor Richard has been the pastor from whom we’ve expected certain things: witty anecdotes, brilliant insights, and the ability to preach short sermons (that is, “short” by Bronx Bethany standards) while maintaining the depth and profundity we experience from all our pastors. But, in the last few times Pastor Richard has come to the pulpit, we’ve seen God move our pastor to speak and act in ways that are very different from what we were used to experiencing. The sermons are longer. The anecdotes are fewer. The amazing insights that our pastor has gained from his studies are being made to take a back seat as the rhema word of the Lord takes precedence. And, as God has been moving, our pastor has responded in obedience—even though the obedience requires that he do things that are vastly different from his personality, personal preference, and pastoral training.

So, on Sunday, before the sermon, a number of different things happened. Our pastor called us to prayer for releasing people from the burdens they were carrying. Our pastor led us in worship and praise and adoration of God. Our pastor called people to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. And our pastor suspended his concern with time, because he realized that God was changing the ministry agenda to suit His divine purpose.

In light of what we see God doing in and through our pastor, will we follow his example? Will we embrace the act of complete obedience to God? Will we set aside our own agenda in favor of God’s agenda? Will we let go of our skill sets and comfort zones in order to make a clear path for God’s glory to move through our midst?

We’ll be focusing on Pastor Richard’s sermon in the remaining posts this week, but I want us to reflect on his sermon in light of what happened before the sermon could be preached. So, let’s re-read Philippians 3:1-14 with a recollection of the awe and reverence we experienced in our services: an awe and reverence that our God demands and deserves.

The God who can change the order of our worship service, and who can call us to prayer, and who can inhabit our praise, is the God whose resurrection power is available to us. As we learn of Him, let’s worship Him.

Philippians 3:1-14

Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless. But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture references are from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Ceding Cornwall, Part Two: Deliverance From Reputation.

Friends, by now you will have noticed that I always refer to pastors and speakers by their first name (or nickname) when I'm blogging. I think there is some relief, some peace, in the presence of informality. Additionally, I really don't want to have one set of blogging rules for pastors who are my friends and a different set of rules for pastors who are visitors.

I blog on a first-name basis because when I give up my family name, I give up the rights and privileges and associations that come with it. I'm just Genise. There is no reason for you to care about who I belong to or what "great" things my family is known for. My hope is that you will love me because of the love of Christ Jesus working in and through you. My hope is that you'll hear me and read my work not because of personal or denominational connections, but because the Lord is gracing us with His presence.

In Philippians 3, as well as in Acts 26, Paul reminds us of his past: I had a great reputation. You all know how I grew up. Ah, but then Christ appeared! And in Christ's appearing to Paul on the road to Damascus, an amazing thing happened: nothing else mattered. Dr. Kirkpatrick used the term "tectonic shift": the power of Jesus appears, transforms us, and liberates us. And we are never the same. We can't go back to what we used to be. The fame, the accolades, the attention... it's all worthless. It can't compare to the joy of abiding in Christ.

Friends, are you abiding in Christ? If you are, then don't worry about people knowing your name. In fact, let's pray that they forget your name, and that only Jesus will shine forth in their hearts. People of great reputation carry the risk of being turned into idols, and as was shared in a sermon some months ago (and, ironically, I have to call a name because I'm quoting Pastor Sam directly), "God has a way of making competing idols fall on their faces" (see First Samuel 5).

Jesus made Himself of no reputation (see Philippians 2:7). What about you?

Ceding Cornwall, Part One: Deliverance from School Spirit.

This Sunday's sermon was taken from Philippians 3, and our guest speaker (Dr. Kirkpatrick Coholl, Lenox Road Baptist Church) spent some time looking at the life of Paul: his cultural heritage, his education, his call to ministry, and his understanding that to embrace Christ meant that he must consider his cultural heritage and his educational accomplishments to be worthless.

What irony, to preach such a sermon in the face of a band of men whose affiliation is not Christ, but Cornwall College. I will even go out on a limb and say that if Pastor Sam had not attended that high school, his former classmates probably would not have been in our church this past Sunday.

Please hear me out, and don't send me hate mail- you know I love Pastor Sam and any friend of his is a friend of mine, just as we who are in Christ are all siblings in the kingdom of God. I'm simply making the observation that, in light of Paul's letter to the Philippians, we all have some soul-searching to do concerning the supramundane power known as "school spirit". (That's a task for all of us, even those of us who never attended school, because of the way we act and respond when certain institutions are being discussed.)

I've gotten to the point where I can't stand telling people what school I'm in. I've experienced that when they find out, they treat me differently. It smacks of favoritism, elitism, all those "isms" that create division and stratification. I dread the prospect of ever having to preach in my doctoral robe, and am in fact praying that Tina Scott remains alive and healthy so that, when that day comes, she can make me a nice clergy robe that can't be tracked to any particular educational institution.

What is the prize? Education is not the prize! Cultural heritage is not the prize! Talk to us, Paul: "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things" (Philippians 3: 7,8). In the glorious light of God, even the greatest learnings "at the feet of Gamaliel" are nothing (see Acts 5 and Acts 22).

Cornwall, you are nothing in the face of Jesus.
KC, you are worthless in the face of Jesus.
Ivy League, you are a complete loss in the face of Jesus.

At the end of the sermon Dr. Kirkpatrick left us with an amazing thought: Jesus frees us to give up our contacts.

Friends, are you ready to give up your academic connections for the sake of knowing Christ?