Culturally Irrelevant

She was new to the group and struggling with depression, feelings of not being good enough. She knew in her head that God loved her, but she was fearful about the future. She was supposed to be baptized in a few weeks, but she was unsure if she should go through with it. She needed clarity, answers, a sense of peace and assurance in her heart. Finally, she asked us, “What’s going on? Why am I struggling with all of this stuff?”

I felt led to ask her about her salvation experience, so I said something to the effect of, “Describe the moment you encountered God personally and felt the presence of Jesus in your life.” She blinked twice and just sat there for a second. “Well,” she started, “I’ve always known God loves me, and I’ve tried to be a good person. I believe in God and I pray.”

“Tell me about your relationship with Jesus. Give me some specifics about how you’ve experienced him.”

She couldn’t. I realized she was confused about her own salvation. You see, God is a God of specificity and detail. Just look at nature or the Bible. Everything God does is full of exquisite detail. He’s no different in his relationship with us. When he reveals himself, it’s not vague or general.

I didn’t tell her she wasn’t saved. Honestly, I didn’t know where she was at, except that she needed to hear the gospel again. So we started in Romans 6-8 and I shared a very basic gospel message. What it means to know Christ, to be baptized with him in his death and united with him in his resurrection. About sin and grace and the cross. When I finished 10 minutes later, she sat back and said, “I’ve never heard that before. It’s so clear.”

The group prayed for her at that point and God began to melt away fear and insecurity in her heart. She cried and cried as different group members prayed and encouraged her. Months later this woman left town and moved back home. But before she moved, she was filled with joy. She was a completely different person.

I’ve seen this over and over, and I truly believe the church needs to hear the gospel as much as the world does. If we don’t know what we have in Christ, how will the world have a clue? If there’s not a clear sound on the trumpet, how will the army know it’s time to line up for battle?

Katy and I are walking through this foundational truth with a small group in our home. Last week I wrote them a letter to encourage them in their salvation. I’ve posted a link to this letter below. Perhaps it will encourage you or be helpful to someone you know who is struggling in their faith.

What does it mean to be saved?

The apostle Peter said “Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus is revealed” (1 Peter 1:13). Set your hope fully. I’ve been chewing on this for a while now, letting it go deep. I keep coming back to this basic question of hope. Have I really put my hope completely in the salvation that I will receive through Jesus in eternity, or am I putting my hope in other things, like my job, the economy, stable people in my life, the fulfillment of a temporal promise, a healing, my understanding of God in the season I’m in? Where does my hope truly rest? I know I’m saved and I’m thankful, but my “hope” is a living, active, daily thing. Is my salvation something I’m living daily, or is it something that happen-ed? How does the song go?

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.

Tiger Woods hits hundreds and even thousands of practice balls each day. He spends hours practicing little movements, just fractions of his swing, over and over to build muscle memory. He makes millions each year, has unprecedented success and still works on the fundamentals of his game. Why? Because he knows that he can never get away from those basic principles. Just because he mastered them at one time doesn’t mean he can quit working on them. The fundamentals of golf are a way of life, a daily thing that he can’t get away from without compromising his effectiveness and skill.

I love the movie Pistol Pete. It’s one of my wife’s favorites, especially because she grew up with a passion for the game of basketball. One of the main impressions I got from the movie was Peter Maravich’s constant focus on the fundamentals of the game of basketball: dribbling, shooting, passing. Everywhere he went as a boy, he was constantly dribbling a basketball. He slept with his ball, ate with his ball. When people saw Pete, they saw him dribbling or shooting his ball. Pete and the ball were synonymous in people’s minds. And did Pete mind? Nope. Where did he learn all of this? From his Dad. Press Maravich was a former pro player who taught his son the basics starting at the age of 7. The result? According to Wikipedia and Dale Brown’s calculations, a career average of 57 points per game.

Most of my life the promise of salvation has been a “foundational” element more than a fundamental, daily necessity. You know the foundation under your house is there, but you don’t have to look at it or think about it much because it’s hidden and it just works. You enjoy its benefits, but you don’t really talk about it or draw attention to it because it’s…well, foundational. It’s a good analogy for salvation, but incomplete (as all analogies are). But something that’s fundamental is daily, constant, something you think about, build from, interact with and always come back to. Like Tiger Woods and range balls or Pistol Pete and dribbling.

Maybe it looks like I’m getting hung up on semantics, but personally it’s a pretty big shift in the way I think and how I begin my relationship with the Father every day. Any day that I don’t get up and thank the Father for what Jesus did on Calvary is a day I’m already off track. There’s no way you could hang around with Pistol Pete or Tiger Woods and not know about their passion for basketball and golf. It would be all around them, even if they didn’t say anything about it. In the same way, can the people around me easily pick up on my passion for Jesus by my life?

In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. These (trials) have come so that your faith…may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. …for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.  (taken from 1 Peter 1:3-13)