living in our identity - servants, part 1

"Paul, a servant​ of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God..."
Romans 1:1

when we began studying first corinthians as a church during the summer, we spent several weeks talking about our identity in Christ. we spoke of all the glorious facets of the new identity that God has given to us in Christ Jesus - we've been "enriched in him," "not lacking any spiritual gift," etc. we talked about what our lives would look life if our primary identity, the identity by which we thought of ourselves as, was the identity given to us by Jesus.

i was struck by Paul's primary identity as i started reading Romans yesterday. he refers to himself as, first a servant, then an apostle, and finally as set apart for the gospel. this is not the only time that Paul starts out a letter with these words. just look at the introduction to any of his other letters and these will pop up. therefore, it seems reasonable to think that Paul first thought of himself in these three manners.

these three words are loaded with meaning...

first, Paul refers to himself as a servant. this is the response to the gospel that we must all take on. Jesus came among us as one who serves (John 13). he came off of his glorious throne, and instead of hearing the songs of angels, he chose to endure the taunts of his creation. he came to serve us all in the greatest way by dying for our sins on the cross and giving us new life through his resurrection.

Jesus called Paul to the same life that he lived. he gave Paul a new identity. instead of being a slave of religion and a slave of sin, he became a slave of righteousness. this is the only reasonable response to the one who bought us out of slavery to sin by his blood. we become servants of God.

do you see how that carries over for us? when we repent and submit to God as Lord, we are his servants. this isn't a burdensome affair but instead a great joy.

think of your dream job, whatever it may be. for me, one of the things i have always wanted to do is play soccer professionally. well, that didn't work out, but i now am a coach...and that's my job. i get paid to coach. in one way i am a servant of the club that i work for. i serve the players on my team and the parents of those players. this is no burden. it is an incredible honor to do the thing that i love and get paid for it. i look forward to practices and games, and i enjoy the time that i am working.

in the same way, being a servant of Jesus is way better than anything else we could ever even imagine. think about having a master that literally died in your place so that you may live. and now he wants you to do his work! this is how it worked for Paul.

it wasn't his glory that he was working for - it was the glory of God.

it wasn't his work that he was doing - it was the work of God.

it wasn't even his strength by which he was doing the work - it was the power of God.

what would it look like if the way you thought of yourself most often was as a "servant of Christ Jesus?" how would your motivations change, and what would your attitude be toward prayer, evangelism, service, etc.?

my prayer is that my life would be marked by the identity of servant....that i would be "collin, a servant of Christ Jesus..."

epic date fail.

this was something i didn't have time to finish a couple months ago (7/29/09) that i figured i'd get done tonight. i hope you enjoy it.

so...let me tell you about my ridiculous date with addie today. we had planned to go to the coast to get out of the heat, and the weather said it'd be 85 and sunny in pacific city. we left this afternoon. just a little before reaching lincoln city, we hit lots of traffic and so i decided to try a different route to pacific city that i was pretty sure would work. i became more and more doubtful as we continued to go but not see any signs for pacific city...only tillamook and astoria. addie and i were contemplating going to tillamook when we did find a sign for pacific city...but since the weather looked a little sketchy and we thought it might be warmer up north, we went to tillamook.

once we got to tillamook, we realized there was no beach there...neither of us had ever been to tillamook before, and we just assumed that it would be easy to find somewhere to hang out on the beach. well, we were wrong. so, we just decided to head back to pacific city.

after 3+ hours of sitting in the car, we finally reached pacific city. when we got there, it was crowded, cold, and cloudy. because it took til dinnertime to get there, we went to a restaurant...it was packed. we ordered some fish and chips to go since the wait would have been a little ridiculous. a few minutes after placing our order, the waitress came to us and told us that they were out of fries...just our luck. we opted for "fish and salad" instead.

after receiving our fish and salad, we climbed to the top of the dune at pacific city. it would have been pretty cool except that we could hardly see the ocean because of how foggy it was. also, it was crowded...and addie was getting goosebumps because of the cool breeze. after sitting up there for a while (our plan was to watch the sunset, but it never cleared up enough), we decided it was time to head back. it was earlier than we expected to be back, so we figured we'd get a simple dessert - frosties from wendy's. well...wouldn't you know that their chocolate frosty machine was broken. addie and i decided we'd give the vanilla frosties a shot, and after a few bites we threw them away...

still, the night was young, and there might have been a chance to redeem it if we did something fun. so, addie and i went to mckinley and stargazed in the middle of the field. it was going well...a good, clear, warm night in salem...until....the sprinklers came on. addie and i scurried out of the way onto the path and were admiring the series of unfortunate circumstances that plagued us during the day, watching the sprinklers do their thing. well...wouldn't you know that the sprinklers didn't stop at the path - they just kept going....so, to conclude our night, we got soaked by the sprinklers. perfect ending to a perfect day;)

i would consider this the most epic date failure i've ever heard about. i mean, it was a good attempt, right? but, just about everything that possibly could have gone wrong...did. i'm laughing as i think about it....how could that have possibly gone so wrong!? haha...ah man.

in light of all the mishaps of the day, addie and i spent much of the day laughing and smiling. that's one of the reasons that i like her a whole bunch. we're able to aimlessly sit in the car for several hours, arrive at an undesirable beach situation, eat fish and salad, shiver on top of a crowded dune, try terrible vanilla frosties, and get sprayed by the sprinklers in the middle of stargazing....and still laugh through it all. there's a phrase that i heard from one of my teachers a lot in high school. she said, "it's not about the destination; it's about the journey." that almost had to be true for addie and i today...i'm very thankful for her and her patience. it's a huge blessing to get to walk through life with her...and laugh along the way at what life throws at us.

back to corban and frustrating christian culture

well, i've completed my first several days back at Corban, and it has been quite the experience. honestly, it has been very difficult. i had an amazing summer getting to live things out with my closest friends and enjoying Jesus together...it is hard to go back to school and see things change so dramatically.

the way that i think about life, about God, and about ministry has been transformed. God has been so gracious and loving to me by teaching me more about himself and what it means to follow him this summer. therefore, coming back to Corban has been a bit of a shock. i honestly was dreading it...

here's a few of the things that i've noticed/several experiences that i've had. as you read them please remember that God has been graciously teaching me these things...what i will describe about Corban is what i was just a few short years ago. praise God that he has been teaching me his gospel these past years.

first, Corban is such a bubble. the predominant view of church is that it is a refuge from the ills of society and culture. even though the mission statement says that Corban is trying to educate Christians to make a difference in the world for Jesus, it isn't practiced on a daily basis. that time of making a difference nearly always seems to be off in the future and not right now. therefore, we are content to do what we want during these four years of our lives rather than being obedient to God's call.

secondly, Corban is information and knowledge centered. this isn't wrong, especially since it is a school. the problem is that it is incomplete. like i said, Corban's mission statement is to educate Christians to make a difference in the world for Jesus. if this is purely cognitive education and information transfer, is this possible? is that even the way that Jesus taught his disciples?
let me give an example to illustrate this. in my class on world religions, the professor said that he hoped that we would use the information we gather about religions to someday teach a seminar or a sunday school class. now, wait a minute. i was under the impression that we would learn about other religions in order to more adequately share the gospel with others...yet, one of the goals of the class was to continue the information transfer to other christians instead of bringing the gospel to the lost.
i am not saying that seminars and learning are bad - just incomplete. many times it is a word of information, a sermon, or a book that creates change - but the goal behind teaching and eduaction must be life change and action. without action, learning dies. its sphere is limited to the brain and it never has the chance to demonstrate itself in changed hearts and lives and cities. action must accompany knowledge...and teaching must not be limited merely to knowledge transfer. it must be expanded to experience - that's why i appreciated Apologetics class with Anderson last year. we learned it, but we were actually required to practice it by interacting with unbelievers a few times over the semester. we need more of that at Corban. more experience. more action...

third, i've seen this individualistic, self-better ment sort of Christianity prominent in Corban's thinking. this, in fact, is all over evangelicalism, but i feel like i see this better in contrast to what we had the privilege of doing this summer. the attitude that i am speaking of goes like this: i am a Christian; therefore, in order to be a better Christian and be more joyful, i read my bible more, pray, go to chapel, serve in some way, etc. now, this looks harmless on the surface, but this is such a self-centered view of what it means to be a Christ follower. so much of what we do in Christian culture is all about ourselves! bible studies, spiritualized self-help books, experience oriented worship services, and even some mission trips are all about ourselves! how can i become a better Christian, be happier, feel less guilt...etc.

this attitude is deep within all of us. the past summer i came to a much deeper realization of how self-centered i really was. planting the church, i started out by using Jesse, my partner in the plant, to serve me and help me accomplish my goals for the church. i can't count how many times God exposed the ugliness of my selfishness in my interactions with him, especially that first month or two. God impressed upon me that a leader has to be the greatest servant of all by reminding me of his interactions with his disciples - and that means just giving and giving and giving....its not easy, but God has given us everything in the entire world - can't we give some of that away?!

this attitude is contrary to the gospel. if we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must learn to humbly, selflessly give all that we have. this goes against our flesh - even Christian culture. Jesus was the greatest, most selfless giver of all. he gave his life for his enemies - us! the gospel is inherently outward focused. it is good news that must be preached to those who need it. the gospel always goes out, just like Jesus stepped out of heaven and off of his throne in order to die our death for us on a cross. now, if we are going to follow Jesus and be his disciples, then we must do the same. we must step out of where is comfortable for us and go into the darkness. we must give of ourselves to the point that it hurts. that's what Jesus means when he says that we must lose our lives for his sake....and the beauty of that is that we actually find life when we lose our own.

so, Corban, we need a change. forget the way that we've always done things and what we're used to. much of it doesn't really look like Jesus. yet he loves us so much that he continues to pursue us dispite our idolatry and self-centeredness. he wants to change us. he desires to use our little city on a hill in order to transform Salem...not sometime in the future after we have our education, but right now. God is calling us to be a part of his glorious and life-giving plan right now. will we accept the invitation?