New Summer Study with Cheryl Brodersen!

Ladies! We are taking up The Mark Challenge, a short daily devotional that will carry us through the summer! We invite you to join us LIVE on live.cccm.com this Friday, May 15, at 10:15 AM PT as Cheryl Brodersen introduces us to this exciting study! You can also download daily lessons FREE at women.cccm.com this Friday or NOW via the button below.

When to Watch

Tune in to watch live each Friday at 10:15 AM PT over 15 weeks, May 15 – August 28 (no study on July 3). We will be having a conversation about a new passage in Mark each week with Cheryl Brodersen, Angie Emma, Jasmine Alnutt, and guests.

Invite a friend to study with you … they can join in from anywhere!

Click Here to Download the PDF

Click Here to Watch Cheryl Live every Friday at 10:15 am PT

The world as we know it is always changing. We have all experienced that recently with the COVID-19 crisis. In order for us to preach and teach God’s Word faithfully in an ever-changing world, we need to be led and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Interactive Webinar

As part of their ongoing mission to help equip the next generation of expository Bible teachers, the Expositors Collective is excited to announce their first-ever online event: an interactive webinar on May 9, 9-11 AM Pacific Standard Time.

Schedule
. Brian Brodersen: “The Holy Spirit & Preaching”
. Q&A / Discussion
. David Guzik: “Consistent Message, Changing Styles”
. Q&A / Discussion

How to Join
The webinar will be over Zoom, promptly at 9:00 AM PST, and will be limited to the first 100 people who log in. Make sure to log in on time to ensure your spot.

Click Here

How do you have a decent quiet time? What does one do? And most importantly, why even do it?

George Mueller, who sustained his orphanages by prayer, thought he had to travail in prayer every morning. He would go quite a while working at it, and often not getting very far at it, in his opinion. George changed his mind later in life. He realized the main order of business was that he be happy in the Lord every day. Everything else in his life came out of his relationship with the Lord. So that’s what his morning time was about.

What a great way to spend your morning time: getting happy in the Lord!

How George did it was prayer through the Bible. This is another big change: He put the Word first instead of prayer first. He read, meditated and then he prayed.

When we spend time with the Lord, we end up developing our relationship with Him. I don’t have a quiet time because I’m a pastor. I was not born a pastor. I probably won’t die as one. But I am a man of God. Men of God and women of God pursue their relationship with God.

I want to tell you about three main activities we can do to pursue God. You need all of them.

1. Read the Bible

This is so simple that people miss it, and yet it’s so wonderful. Read the Bible to become familiar with it, not to understand it. Don’t worry if you don’t understand the Bible, just read it every day for the rest of your life. Make it your goal for the Bible to be the first thing you read in the morning and the last thing you read before you go to bed. The more Bible you are familiar with, the more the Holy Spirit can use it to speak to you. You will become familiar with His voice. It’s part of our salvation, that God Himself teaches us (Isaiah 54:13), and He will put things together for us as we have an ongoing read through His Word.

2. Study the Bible

If you study it, you will grow in knowing what it says and what it doesn’t say. Study is looking closely and carefully at the words, their syntax and grammar, and asking questions and getting answers from the text, dictionaries, lexicons and reference books (like Bible encyclopedias). Study is difficult if you don’t know what questions to ask and what you are looking for. So give yourself a treat and consider Living by the Book by Howard Hendricks and William Hendricks, the Holy Grail of how to study the Bible. Just to learn from somebody who really knows what they are doing is a fabulous experience.

3. Meditate in the Bible

This is Psalm 1, Joshua 1 and Romans 12:1-2. Meditation is the spiritual equivalent to digestion. There is only one way for you to live: eat, chew, digest and absorb the nutrient results of digestion. Your fuel is glucose, simple sugar, and you must get that glucose into every cell of your body. What would happen if you ate, chewed, digested, but didn’t absorb the glucose into your cells? That would mean your kidneys would flush the glucose from your blood stream, and it would be as though you had not eaten. Unless you get the glucose all the way into your cells, you will starve to death, even though you eat like a horse. This is not a hypothetical example, it’s a real condition that real people experience known as type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetics have to manually get enough blood sugar into their cells, or they will die. There is no substitute for that glucose.

This is also true spiritually: We can read and study and still starve in our souls, because we don’t take in the Word of God by thinking deeply on it. Just as there is only one way to digest and absorb your food, meditation is the only way to internalize the Word of God. If you don’t practice meditating in the Bible, you are missing a vital link in your spiritual nourishment. It’s a possible reason why you look elsewhere for fulfillment than Jesus.

Meditating in the Word of God satisfies because it brings you into contact with the divine, uncreated, eternal love of God. Just like He created you to live physically on glucose, He created you to live mentally and spiritually on His love. There is no substitute for the love of God. You must receive it into the deepest areas of your life, or you will starve.

Let’s say you decide that gasoline costs too much, so you economize and put sugar water into your gas tank instead of gasoline. Is that a viable, cheap alternative? Like it or not, you can only put one kind of fuel in your car; your body runs only on glucose, and only the love of God will satisfy your heart and soul.

Moses prayed, “O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days” (Psalm 90:14). David declared, “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise You”(Psalm 63:3). Put everything in life on one side; put the love of God on the other. Ask David to choose which he will have. David immediately says, “The love of God! I don’t need that other junk; I don’t even need life. But I absolutely need God’s lovingkindness!”

Seeking the Lord every day isn’t spectacular.

It’s like putting a seed in the ground. Planting a seed isn’t a spectacular event. There’s nothing visible to see. Watching a seed grow is not super exciting either. As we seek the Lord, reading, studying, meditating, we are planting seed after seed in our lives. Seeds are small, but do not despise small things: They are highly significant. They contain living blueprints for growing a living entity that is powered from the heavens, steadfast and immovable, able to reproduce itself, benefiting everyone around it by giving strength, shelter, food and pleasure. In nature, we call it a tree. Spiritually, that will be you.

Not planting the Word of God into you means you stay just the same as you are right now. That’s Isaiah 40:7.

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30, NKJV).

Do you get excited when you learn something new about a verse that you’ve read many times before? Do you get even more excited when the Holy Spirit seems to connect the dots between that new thing and your everyday life? A couple of years ago I learned something new (to me) about these verses, and the Holy Spirit is still connecting the dots. I know He wants to do the same for all of us.

Listening To Rabbi Jesus

Jesus was one of many rabbis that taught in synagogues and trained up disciples to carry on His teachings. In fact, many of the things Jesus says seem a bit confusing at first read, until you realize He’s using an expression that was commonly used among rabbis and known by the people at the time. When we put on the “rabbi filter” and read these verses from Matthew, this is what we discover.

First century Israel was an agricultural society. They used oxen and donkeys to plow fields and power simple machines. If one ox is good, two is better. You would put a yoke around the neck of the oxen, which then bound them to one another and to the plow, or wagon or whatever they were pulling. The two functioned as one. Whichever ox was stronger, or more stubborn, or had more experience, was the one that set the pace for both of them. Where one led, the other had to go because of the yoke.

If you needed to train a new ox, one that had matured enough to do a day’s work, you would put it in a yoke with an older, more experienced ox. This ox knew how fast to go and how much energy to use so as not to get burned out too early in the day. One ox trained the other.

This was one of the pictures that rabbis, including Jesus, used to communicate the process of learning to be a disciple of a rabbi.

Teamed Up With Jesus

In my own imagination I’ve always pictured the believer as an ox all by itself and Jesus as a farmer sitting on an empty wagon, steering and driving the ox. Am I the only one? I don’t think that’s what it’s supposed to be.

Instead, what I think Jesus is trying to communicate, what His original hearers would have understood, is this: Jesus is the more experienced ox, which in itself is a Biblical pattern for a servant, with whom I am to be yoked. As I am yoked to Him I can learn His pace, His rhythms, His strength and His direction.

This gives me goose bumps! Go back and reread the verses at the beginning of this article with that picture in mind.

The yoke was a picture of the manner in which rabbis trained their disciples. They could be rough, harsh and manipulative. Jesus said that His yoke was easy, which means gracious, kind and gentle.

The burden was the rules and regulations rabbis would put on their disciples. Think of the things Jesus often dealt with in regard to the legalism of the pharisees. Jesus said that His burden was light, meaning just that, not heavy. It wasn’t a drag.

Putting It All Together

Oftentimes Bible teachers today put this verse out as a call to people who are burned out by life. Life can be very hard to be sure. Sickness, finances, politics, addiction, family turmoil, depression, the list goes on. However, in context, these verses are not primarily aimed at people who are having a hard time in life.

In context, these verses are primarily aimed at people who want to follow God, but they have a harsh yoke and a heavy burden put on them by those who are leading them. Jesus is talking to people trapped in any religious system where there are rules to follow and standards to meet & exceed in order to be saved. Laws, not love. Rules, not relationship.

The reason we cannot apply these verses to simply being burned out by life is because taking Jesus’ yoke upon ourselves, which is an act of choice and obedience, doesn’t automatically make life easy. The things we deal with in life don’t just go away and suddenly life becomes light.

What does happen as we take on Jesus’ yoke, is that the way in which we deal with life changes.

If you are someone who is burned out by life, Jesus’ words do apply to you. What you may not realize is that you are following someone. It might be yourself, it might be the culture, but you are yoked to someone; and it is harsh and heavy. Stop following that and start following Jesus.

The purpose of being yoked with Jesus is to let Him lead while we learn. We learn how to navigate these things the way Jesus did, the way Jesus does.

. We learn to go at His pace and not be in a rush nor be too slow.
. We learn His rhythms, which means we learn when to work and when to rest.
. We learn to rely on His strength as well as using the strength and skills with which He has equipped us by His Spirit.
. We learn to follow where He leads and not go our own way.

How Do We Do This?

First, you have to be someone who wants to go deeper with the Lord, just like those Jesus was talking to in Matthew. You get out of a relationship what you put into it, which includes your expectations. If you don’t expect Jesus to do anything, or if you don’t expect to get anything out of this, then He won’t, and you won’t.

Second, obey Jesus’ command to “come.” Find ways to actively and intentionally be near to Him. How do we do this? It depends on how you’re wired. Try some combination of the following and find what works for you. If/when it stops working, because we all change over time, try a different method.

Prayer: Speaking with God. You talk, He listens. He talks, you listen. You can pray in your head silently, out loud, or even written. Find ways to pray throughout the day because Jesus is moving through the day.
Bible Reading: Churches often provide a reading schedule you can use. Free and paid Bible apps provide a variety of reading plans. They are usually based on a topic, or reading a part of the Bible over a period of time. There are audio Bibles you can listen to on breaks at work.
Bible Study: This is different than Bible reading. To be a Christian is to be a student of ancient history. Pick a book of the Bible, a character or a topic and try to become an expert on it. You may or may not become an actual expert on it, but it gives you a level of depth and commitment to aim for. There are podcasts from Bible teachers, Bible schools and universities with materials on ancient history and languages, all available for free in many cases.
Devotionals: Devotionals often provide most of the above elements in “bite sized” pieces for you to read and pray through every day. Some pastors provide a daily devotional email you can subscribe to. You can find devotionals in book form, included in Bible apps and as standalone apps.

Third, put it into practice. Follow Him. Don’t run ahead and try to impress Him. Don’t hang back thinking He is going to do everything for you either. It’s a partnership. Watch what He does and do it. Listen to what He says, believe it and share it.

It was understating the picture that Jesus was using that partially inspired me to embark on a project called The Rhythm Journal. I needed something to help me recognize Jesus’ yoke in my life, so I made this for myself. If you are looking for something to help you be consistent in your daily habits, or perhaps learn them for the first time, it might be helpful to you as well.

The point is, if you are tired and feel overloaded in how you are trying to follow after God, or tired of doing things your own way, then stop. Team up with Jesus. Get in His yoke with Him, learn how He does it, and your soul will be refreshed. Develop a habit of prayer that works for you. Find a way to keep God’s word in your mind and heart all day everyday. Become an expert at something in the Bible and share it with others. As you do this you will be regularly equipped to follow Him and His example.

Where do you need to start?

We are excited to announce a new series titled Church Van with hosts Pastor Riley Taylor & Jarryd Bryant. Enjoy interviews on the road with special guests! The series kicks off with guest Pastor Brian Brodersen of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, as they cover topics about reading, studying the Bible, developing a good devotional life, stories and more!

Stay updated with all new episodes of Church Van as well!

“…And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3).

In the last article, I spoke of how the Trinity makes the Christian view of God distinct and unique. The aim of this post is to explore the relationship of the Trinity to the Christian life. To begin, I ask you to consider the following statement: The Christian life is a life that participates in the life of the Trinity. That is, the Christian has been invited into the very life of the Trinity, and thus, experiences this life, being drawn into it. Thus, the Christian life is entirely Trinitarian and cannot be truly understood in any other way. Donald Fairbairn goes so far as to say, “The doctrine of the Trinity is the gateway to understanding Christian life” (Fairbairn, 2009, p. 243).

Union with Christ

In order to understand this, we must first understand the nature of our union with Christ, for this is at the very heart of Christianity. We are vitally connected to Christ in His life, death, resurrection and ascension. In the incarnation, God has forever united humanity to Divinity. Therefore, by the incarnation, we participate as humans in the Divine life by the Spirit through the humanity of Jesus Christ, our brother, great High Priest and Living Head. Because He participated in our life as a human, we participate in His life as humans, and His life is a life that is lived within the eternal relationship of the Triune God. Therefore, we are brought into the Trinitarian relationship.

James Torrance puts it like this:

“The prime purpose of the incarnation, in the love of God, is to lift us up into a life of communion, of participation in the very triune life of God” (Torrance 1996, p. 32). Thus we participate ‘through the Holy Spirit in the incarnate Son’s communion with the Father…'(ibid, p. 9). The point is that through our union with Jesus, we are invited and brought inside the circle of Trinitarian love (Seamands, 2005, p. 60). We participate in the unique love relationship of the Son and the Father in the Spirit.

This is what John has in mind in 1 John 1:3: “…That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” John is here saying that they have been included in the fellowship of the Son and the Father, a relationship that is extended to humans through the humanity of Jesus. Jesus Himself speaks to this in John 14. Notice the Trinitarian emphases of Jesus: “…The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:17).

Here Jesus makes reference to the indwelling of the Spirit, which is how He unites us to participate in His relationship with the Father. “At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (John 14:20). Jesus speaks here of what is termed the mutual indwelling of the Son and Father. What is remarkable is that by the Spirit uniting us to Jesus, we are included in this relationship. It is not that we are absorbed into the Divine so that we become Divine, but rather that we are included in the Divine fellowship between the Father, Son and Spirit.

As our great High Priest, in His prayer in John 17, Jesus clearly describes eternal life in terms of Him bringing those whom the Father has given Him into their communion and fellowship. Notice these words in John 17: “As You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:2-3).

“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me” (John 17:20-23).

Here it is stated that our union with Christ brings us into the unity of the Godhead, and by that participation, we receive the love of the Father for the Son and become partners with God in the mission of Jesus.

Lastly, Jesus says, “And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26).

Again, Jesus is saying that through our union with Him, the Father’s love for Him will be in us. This may mean that He loves us as He loves Jesus, or that we now love Jesus with the love that the Father has for Him. Perhaps both! One thing is certain; we are included in this unique relationship between the Father and the Son.

The Role of the Spirit

All of these benefits come to us by way of the operation of the Spirit. He is the one who unites us to Jesus by faith. You can recall John 14:17, the Spirit comes to dwell in us. He also unites us to Jesus by baptizing us into His body by uniting us to His life, death, resurrection and ascension (1 Cor.12:12; Romans 6:3-6).

He applies the life of Christ to us and bears witness with our spirits that we are God’s adopted children (Romans 8:15,16), as He is the agent who has brought about our adoption as sons of God. As He works the life of God in us, we bear fruit (Galatians 5:22-26) that show we have crucified our flesh by union with Jesus. Paul also says that He intercedes for us when we don’t know how to pray (Romans 8:27). From this, it is intimated that even our prayer life is part of the Trinitarian fellowship.

Yet, you may be wondering how all of this is applicable to the Christian life. Good question. Let me offer a few ways in which this is relevant to how you go about your daily discipleship.

1. This is the Christian life.

This is the essence of what it means to be a Christian. This is why Paul would say in Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” He is not saying his personality is erased, or his personhood swallowed up, but rather that the Christian life is the life of Christ lived out by Christ in and through the people of Christ. And the life of Christ is at its very core a life of perfect communion with the Father in the relationship of the Trinity from all eternity. He allows us to participate in that communion with the Father.

2. This is the basis for the exhortations of Christian living.

For example, Paul would base his appeals to righteous living on these matters as he does in Romans 6 and Colossians 3. The reason it is in this order is that our life flows from the Godhead, by which we participate by the Spirit through the humanity of Jesus in His life, which is a life of communion with the Father.

3. This makes us focus our discipleship efforts on the work of God in us.

We are not people who simply live for God. We are people who God lives in and through. This makes us more aware of our need to rely on Him and find our life, meaning, significance and strength in Him. Discipleship is not something we do for God, it is primarily something He does in us.

4. This raises our awareness of the greatness of this gift of life we have been granted, to participate in God’s triune life.

To be swept up in the Divine dance between the Father, Son and Spirit. To see ourselves as living in this joyful, intimate relationship, to be in awe and wonder. To see the true significance of what it is to be a Christian, to raise our view of our lives in light of all this. To be ultimately at a loss for words and enter into a deep felt, overwhelming posture of worship as we contemplate these mighty truths.

Fairbairn, Donald. Life in the Trinity: An Introduction to Theology with the Help of the Church Fathers. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2009. Kindle.

Seamands, Stephen A. Ministry in the Image of God: The Trinitarian Shape of Christian Service. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005.

Torrance, James. Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996.

This is a message to pastors and those involved in church leadership, but I believe it is relevant to us all!

We experienced a new record of “interesting” in a one-week period at church recently. We had two “Satans” and one “Jesus” visit.

It’s pretty common for the unusual to happen at our inner city church, but this took things to a whole new level. Two devilish distractions didn’t quite make it into church, but “Jesus” did. From the beginning of worship, we were concerned for him. He was weeping, and we wanted to reach out to him.

One of our leaders was just waiting for worship to be over, so he could pray with him and see how he could help.

When our worship leader said, “Amen,” “Jesus” went straight to the stage, shouting that he was the third person of the Trinity. He was fast!

The ushers and I were right behind, trying to calmly escort him out. He didn’t want to leave, so we helped him a little more. I was proud of our men, as they were extremely respectful but also firm. As “Jesus” was leaving, he shouted out that he was the reason gas prices dropped by 5 cents. He added that he was hungry and didn’t have shoes.

Someone found him a pair of shoes, and our head usher took the young man to dinner. It seemed he was either high or off his medications. Either way, it’s sad, and now I’m known as the guy who kicked “Jesus” out of church!

Since my first church plant 18 years ago, we have had people come to church with every conceivable circumstance. I remember the first young man who came to church drunk and wanted to talk during the Bible study. The church consisted of only about 15 people at the time. There were no ushers, no boundaries, just a really tall, muscular, drunk guy weeping.

I asked him if we could speak after I was finished, and several minutes later, he agreed. We had a great chat, and from time to time, I would see him in town.

We continued a good relationship, and he knew that he was loved and not judged.

I wish I could say that I always “did the right thing,” but that’s definitely not true. I could mention (to my shame), several instances when I was more concerned about “church” than people. It’s easy to justify:

“You can’t help a drunk person, when they are drunk.”- Usually true.

“You can’t stop service for every single person that wants to interrupt.”- Also true.

Here’s the thing I’m learning. How I respond to interruptions and hurting people says A LOT to the church. 
Those of you who are pastors or church leaders, can I make a suggestion? Learn to relax a bit more! Things are going to happen in our services that turn the focus and throw us off a bit. Maybe that’s ok.

Jesus didn’t preach in sterile church environments.

The greatest truths the world has ever heard were probably spoken with the sounds of crying babies and the bleating of sheep in the background.

We work hard to create an environment where people can come into church distraction-free, but that is not always possible…and that’s OK. Let’s learn to relax. God is bigger than distractions. God is greater than disruptions. Who knows, if those moments will be an incredible opportunity to learn about mercy by showing mercy.