Pick It Up—Put It On—Walk It Out — a small-group session

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Carl Simmons

This  session is based upon the following past devotionals—scroll down as needed:

Pick Up Yr Cross
Pick Up Yr New Life
Put on Your New Self
Put on Eternity
Walk It Out

For this session, you’ll need….

• 1 old, beaten-up jacket AND one new jacket, for every 4 to 6 people.The older and smellier your old jacket is, the better—but not so bad that people would get dirty just putting it on! (Know any mechanics or landscapers who’d loan you their jackets for the day?) Pair up your jackets, and leave them in an open area where everyone will be able to easily access them.
• a plan to worship
• a plan to celebrate. However you want to handle this is up to you; perhaps you even want to have a separate session for this. But do make plans to celebrate together what God’s been doing in your midst over the last several weeks.

Laying Down Your Day (15 minutes)

It’s our final session of this study—thanks for coming! I know you’ve just arrived and gotten comfortable, but I’m going to ask you to put on coats anyway—the coats you see over there.

Have your group gather into groups of four to six by each pair of coats.

Everyone should try on the old jacket first. But don’t just put it on and take it off again—try to get comfortable with it. Take a whiff of it; get a feel for where this jacket has been.

Leader: Put on one of the dirty jackets, and show everyone how it’s done.

Once you’ve done that, pass it on to the next person to try on, while you go ahead and try on the new jacket. Again, leave it on for a few moments—get a feel for where this jacket hasn’t been yet, and what kind of person might wear it.

Pass on your dirty jacket to the next person, and repeat your actions with the new jacket. Once everyone’s had a chance to try on both jackets, bring the group back together. Discuss:

1.Which jacket felt better while trying it on? Why?

Ask for one or more volunteers to read Colossians 3:1-16, then discuss:

2. How was trying on and taking off each jacket like the taking off of the “old self” and the putting on of the “new self” that Paul describes here? How is it different?

Ask for another volunteer to read the following passage. Then, discuss the question that follows.

Our natural “old” experience is life and death, and that experience extends to everything else in this life. The new resurrection life is life and life only. … Gaining this perspective on our lives on earth changes everything, and frees us to become more like the Savior we profess to follow.

3. When have you experienced this truth? Or, put another way: How does “put[ting] on the new self” (Colossians 3:9) free us to “seek the things that are above” (v. 1)? Share from your own experience.

Laying Down the Word (20 minutes)

Read Hebrews 12:1-15 as a group, letting each member read at least one verse each (or three each, if you have a group of five). Since the math probably won’t work out perfectly—and you might hate math anyway—it’s OK to let the same person read the opening and closing verses. But make sure everyone gets a turn.

Let’s connect this passage with how we’ve experienced this study, and discuss these questions together:

4. Describe the flow of this passage. How does it start, where does it go to, and where does it end?

5. Let’s apply that flow to ourselves now. On a personal level, how has your laying of your life and your pursuit of Jesus—and the disciplines you’ve undertaken in order to do that—already begun to produce “the peaceful fruit of righteousness” in you? Share a little about that.

6. How has that, in turn, enabled you to “ [s]ee to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God”? In order words, how has this study helped you to help others to “lay it down”? Again, share about how God’s been able to use you in this capacity.

Have a volunteer read the following passage, and then discuss the question that follows:

Your life is no longer yours. Stop behaving as if it is. You cannot force God to lead you into the next phase of your life. You can renounce all you have and entrust your life to Him, move when He tells you to move, and then rejoice in that He considered you worthy to be trusted with anything. Pick up your cross—consider yourself dead to sin and alive in Jesus—and truly begin to follow the One who carried your cross before you were even born.

7. How are you still wrestling with this idea? Is there fear, a lack of understanding, maybe even an unwillingness to deal with it? Take a step of faith here and be open about what you’re still working through.

Laying Down Your Life (20+ minutes)

Get into your pairs one more time. Give everyone time to reassemble.

We’ve spent a lot of time this week looking beyond this week. For the next 15 minutes, I’d like you to do the same thing with your partner. Talk about how God’s been speaking to your heart this week, and over the last few months. How has God helped you to better understand what He’s created you for, and what are the next steps you think He’s leading you into?

When you’re done sharing, pray for one another. Don’t be afraid to pray not only about what the other person’s shared, but also about what you’ve been seeing in that other person over the last several weeks. Put together what God’s been showing you with what God’s been showing them. Let’s get started.

Bring your group back together after 15 minutes. Ask for a few volunteers to share what God’s been showing them—but if more than a few people share, don’t cut if off. Let God have His way.

Afterward, lead your group in prayer, again giving everyone the opportunity to pray. Thank God for your time together—and for the eternal life you look forward to together. Ask God to help each of you to go even deeper into laying down your lives before Him, and before others.

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Walk It Out

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Carl Simmons

All of our lives, when lived rightly, are a journey into trust. In fact, I’ve been praying/adapting a certain prayer for quite a while, and I think (and hope) that the development of this prayer has been reflected in these pages.

At first, and for a long time, it went like this: “Lord, help me to learn to trust You more deeply.” However, over the last several weeks, I’ve felt the need to add this: “…and to become more worthy of Your trust.”

This is not about theology, so don’t go there (and I apologize for any shortcomings in that department). This is about relationship. I want to know God more deeply, but I have to allow Him to know me more deeply. Again, suspend the theology here—I know that God knows me. And yet, I try to hide. And this journey into trust requires me to stop hiding. It requires me to put my sin and my agenda and my fear away, so that I can truly experience God’s knowing of me—that my relationship with God might be truly intimate and not just “all in order.”

The fact is, both parts of this prayer are flip sides of the same problem—because there’s only one person in this equation who can’t be trusted. But my own untrustworthiness feeds my inability to trust God. Only as I begin to obediently walk out what God’s commanded do I begin to in turn feel as if I can trust God with every part of my life. God doesn’t condemn me; He forgives me and wants me to be better.

And this isn’t just for me. At the same time that I need to receive His grace, I need to extend it to others. I need to show genuine pity—not in the sense of “I feel sorry for you,” but in the sense of “I ache for you and want to help you.” Because that’s the kind of pity Jesus has shown to me.

As we’ve observed repeatedly this week, we know the way to where Jesus is going. It’s time to walk it out.

We are called to be a blessing to every person we meet, whether they realize it or not. The only way to become that blessing is to be emptied of our own stuff, so that God can fill and transform us into the individuals He has created us to be. Each of our lives need to move from being of Christ to being in Christ—and finally to the point where our life “is Christ” (Philippians 1:21, et al.).

Love is union—with Jesus and with those He’s called us to love. We, as Christians—or, as C.S. Lewis put it, “little Christs”—are called to reconcile the world to God. We’re not just here waiting to be taken from the world, but to begin bringing a foretaste of the kingdom of heaven to the world now, even as we are “in the world but not of it” (see John 17:15-16).

We cannot change the things, or the opportunities, that we’ve lost, but we can be prepared to receive and walk in the new things God has created us to do. We are new creations. And God is still creating something new within us.  God wants to bring us into something new. But we must want what God wants—not just something new.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted…. Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12:1-3, 12-14).

One more thing to remember about walking: It’s not always exciting. Sometimes there are breathtaking vistas, and that great feeling of “a second wind.” Sometimes it’s monotonous. Sometimes it’s difficult. Often, it’s just plain tiring. But walking gets you somewhere. And if we’re following Jesus, it’s somewhere better.

We can walk in the knowledge that tomorrow will be a good day—and that even if it’s not a good day, experientially speaking, God is working out the events of the day for our good (Romans 8:28). Because His good is our good.

The time to walk out our new lives in Christ is today. So let’s do it. And may God continue to bless you as you lay it all down again each day, for the sake of the One who laid down His life for us.

Lay It Down Today

We’ve approached your next steps from a variety of angles this week. Hopefully, at least one of these approaches has resonated with you. So now, it’s your turn.

If you sense what God is leading you into next, or know you’re already in the midst of it, spend time thanking God for the desire He’s given you, how He’s fulfilling it, and for the desire to keep moving forward. If not, spend time pursuing things with God. “[H]ow much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! (Matthew 7:11).

Finally, spend some time thanking God for this journey into trust He’s taken you on over the last few months; and ask Him to take you far beyond even where you are now—and into eternity with Him.

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Put on Eternity

Posted on July 30, 2012 by Carl Simmons

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth… seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator(Colossians 3:1-2, 9-10).

Those of you in the Northeast might be familiar with the radio ministry of Wayne Monbleau (Loving Grace Ministries); perhaps not. In any case, he ministered heavily to my wife and me about 20-25 years ago, and he’s still going. He’s also written his share of worship songs, and one in particular sticks with me, the epic acoustic hootenanny “Let Heaven Fill Your Thoughts.” Seriously, it’s an eight-minute song that gets more rollicking as it goes along, as it depicts the reunion that awaits us in heaven. But it’s the lines that close out the minor-keyed introduction that still resonate with me on a regular basis:

Let heaven fill up all of your thoughts; keep your mind upon the Lord
Your life right now will seem so small when you think what you will behold
When you’re a thousand—years—old
When you’re a million—years—old
When you’re ten million—years—old.

Obviously it’s a great way of gaining perspective on our lives right now. But I’m beginning to view it even more in terms of what awaits us. An eternity with Jesus awaits us. And as we begin to gain a broader and deeper perspective on that, we don’t have to consciously adjust our vision to make our lives “seem so small”—they are that small.

And yet our small lives are seeds that contain this far greater eternal life. And by reaching for what lies beyond this life—and bringing that life to those around us—we begin to sprout and grow into the life God has intended for us all along.

To be human is to die. Everything around us… ends. That’s why Christ had to become a man, and had to die a human death, in order to reach us and impart eternal life to us. He calls us to do the same. To follow Jesus is to follow Him through death and into eternal life. And if God allows, we will have the privilege of helping others walk that same ever-beginning path.

Indeed, serving others now prepares us to serve God throughout eternity, and softens our hearts so that Jesus himself may continue to serve and guide us. Because that’s what’s in store for us: “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence…. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 5:15-17).

When all is said and done, what will I have to show at the day of judgment? I watered some seeds, helped plant a few trees, and did a whole lot more not even worth discussing.  Millions, maybe even billions, will have more to show, and go on to greater rewards. And I should rejoice in that, because God’s work was accomplished. More importantly, I will rejoice that one day I will no longer be unknowingly in God’s presence, buried under my own sins and those of the world around me—or often at best, mentally acknowledging a presence I cannot quite feel. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Our natural “old” experience is life and death, and that experience extends to everything else in this life. The new resurrection life is life and life only. We are just passing through…

…not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city (Hebrews 11:13-16).

Gaining this perspective on our lives on earth changes everything, and frees us to become more like the Savior we profess to follow. Remember, we “know the way to where [Jesus] is going” (John 14:4). Eternal life starts now. So let’s get ready to walk it out….

Lay It Down Today

Let’s begin practicing our ministry to God right now. For the next 24 hours, commit to praying every half-hour. If you need a reminder, set an alarm or create an Outlook event, and keep putting it to sleep. It doesn’t need to be a long or complex prayer—in fact, it could be a one-sentence prayer such as, “Lord, open my eyes to see the needs You’ve given me to meet, and help me to meet them in Your strength.” Just pray faithfully and repeatedly throughout your day. See what God bring to your attention as a result—and ask Him what He wants you to do about it.

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Put on Your New Self

Posted on July 20, 2012 by Carl Simmons

Whatever we truly do for God, it is Christ in us. Whatever holiness we have is not ours to take credit for, but Christ’s to be glorified with. And even then it is not what Christ does, but Who Christ is—and how He is being formed in us.

Slowly, we are becoming the people God created us to be. Slowly, the new life Christ has in us is growing outward. However, it’s not all about waiting for things to happen. We can begin, even now, to put on our new identities in Christ, even as we wait to mature enough to “fill out the suit.”

“In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going” (John 14:2-4).

When we look to Jesus, we “know the way to where [He] is going,” and consciously turn ourselves in that direction. And as we look to Jesus, we see One who “emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:7) but who nonetheless was in constant communion with God. It is simultaneously putting the flesh to death and living entirely for the Father. This can become the increasing reality of our lives—not perfectly, but intentionally, and progressively better. We position, we put on the new self that’s already given to us, the Spirit empowers us.

Because He is The New Man, Jesus looks at even the most common things in godly terms, and by doing so transforms them into lessons, parables, teaching instruments… temporary things capable of conveying eternal life. And in doing so—and because we remain connected with Him—He continually shows us how to follow Him as human beings. We become people who are capable of conveying eternal life.

We are no longer—check that: never were—self-appointed experts, no matter what the world tells us. We are God’s children, whom God increasingly entrusts with the fullness of His life so that the other kids can see it.

In the words of Thomas Merton, “We do not want to be beginners. But let us be convinced of the fact that we will never be anything else but beginners, all our life!” There is so much God has for us next, and our perspective and our actions need to change to reflect that. We need to take those steps of faith that will allow the Spirit to change our perceptions and our actions—to faithfully and intentionally put ourselves in places where only God can work.

And we have not been left alone to figure out how to follow Him. “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning” (John 15:26-27). It’s a common misconception that walking in the Spirit invites abuse. The fact is: It’s the counterfeits of walking in the Spirit that invite the abuse, not the real thing. If we are truly in Christ, it will be impossible to go out into left field. Christ takes care of us, and the Spirit “will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13).

But again, remember: Our new lives in Christ bear fruit by abiding, not merely by doing. (John 15:4-10). Our lives are about passing along the life God has given us, in the ways He’s given it to us, not manufacturing something “to please God”—which ultimately doesn’t. It’s possible that God will honor our intent, and yet the works themselves will be “wood, hay, straw… and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done” (1 Corinthians 3:12-13 ESV). Isn’t it better to pass on those things you know have been given to you by God?

Receive the new identity you’ve been given in Christ, and cover yourself in it like it’s armor (because it is). Then, get ready to walk forward.

Lay It Down Today

Take as long as you need for this one—it could be a minute; it could be an hour. But get somewhere quiet and begin repeating the following to yourself: “I am in Christ, and Christ is in me.” Allow some silence between each repetition, but keep repeating this truth until it sinks in.

Then, once you’re “there,” ask yourself this question: “If Christ is in me, what does Christ want to do through me?” This is not the same as asking “What would Jesus do?” This is discovering how we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Earnestly seek an answer from God, and take your first steps in making that answer a reality.

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Pick Up Your New Life

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Carl Simmons

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose (Galatians 2:20-21).

Transformation comes by taking Jesus’ yoke—by saying, and believing, “I am Yours.” We can hear it, and say, “Yeah, that sounds right,” but we need to learn to see it—really see it—as the reality of our lives.

Let’s face it, some of this can sound pretty abstract. But we need it to become as real to us as our salvation has become real to us… just as God Himself has become real to us, and continues to become more real to us. It’s OK if you nod your head in agreement right now, but pursue it with God, and don’t stop. Be able to say with Paul, “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8), and mean it.

There’s no question whether God wants to see revival. Every word here backs that up—God wants us to draw closer to Him, and more often than not that’s going to require our hard hearts to be re-broken so that they might also be re-opened to Him.

The question is: Are we committed to seeing the Spirit bring this? Are we willing to be obedient to what God has called us to, and to who God has called us to be? Are we willing set aside our own self-image, good or bad, and believe that God has something better for us, no matter what package it might initially come in?

Most of all, are we willing to obey this command of Jesus, given to us as new creations in Him?:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

I believe Jesus is talking directly to the church here. Literally, He’s talking to the first apostles, but with the knowledge of what the Spirit would create in their midst only weeks later. Of course this commandment applies outside the walls of the church as well, but I fear many of us treat the church (at least in its current state) as a bad idea we’ve given up on. I get that—boy, do I get that—but Jesus has not given us that option. We not only have been given new life, but are part of a bigger new life—the Body of Christ.

Besides, given how we’ve done with this commandment within the church—a) it’s painfully apparent that we’ll never get it right outside the church until we take off the polite faces and begin truly relating to our fellow Christians in love; and let’s face it, b) who’d want to come inside the church until we do?

Those within the church have the same problems as those outside the church. We have the same temptations, the same sins—a fact that the world has no trouble pointing out to us. You’ve read this blog, probably as a believer. I’ll bet you’ve identified with a lot of what I’ve talked about here. Well, guess what? Non-believers struggle with (or for that matter, go on blissfully unaware of) all the same things we do.

The only difference between “us” and “them”… is Jesus. Jesus is the only reason we have a new life to talk about. And it’s all the difference in the world, and beyond.

And the only way other people will ever see that difference is if we actually love those other annoying, flawed—and yes, sinful—Christians. In other words, those people who are like us. If we can pull that one off, how will we fail to love someone with the same problems who doesn’t know Jesus? We want those people to know Jesus, after all. But without love, they’ll never see Jesus in us or through us, let alone beyond us.

Just as we’re here because we’ve recognized Christ as our eternal Savior, we need to recognize Him as our Savior, and our life, from moment to moment. Paul David Tripp, in his book Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands, says: “Remember, it is impossible to celebrate God’s work of transformation without confessing your need for more. No one is more ready to communicate God’s grace that someone who has faced his own desperate need for it.”

Let God’s work of transformation begin here. And let it spread to the ends of the earth. We have a job to finish. So let’s begin living our new lives in full and get it done.

Lay It Down Today

Look inside your church today—or at least at the Christians you’re still in relation with. How can you serve them in love today, or in the coming week? I’m not asking for a long-term commitment here (although that’d be great, too). Just come up with one thing that breaks your routine, gets you outside your own life, and gets your sharing your new life in Jesus with someone else who has that new life—especially if it’s someone you don’t normally do it with. And watch what the Spirit does with it.

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Pick Up Your Cross

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Carl Simmons

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it…. For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done (Matthew 16:24-25, 27).

We’ve spent a lot of time on this blog laying our lives down, and rightfully so. Our hearts need to be prepared to receive what God has for us. And that means loosening up the soil of our hearts, so that we can bear good fruit. After all, as you read repeatedly last week, “A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit” (Matthew 7:18).

So now, finally, we can move on to the “what he has done” (Matthew 16:27) part —the good fruit our lives have always been meant to bear in Christ. And this isn’t about being “missional”—as if that idea were some new breakthrough unique to the 21st-century church—this is about walking in the realization that “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

There’s a prayer I’ve started putting before the Lord recently, and it while it sounds a bit odd to our “modern” ears, I’m betting something like it was a lot more popular even 150 years ago: “Lord, help me to find joy in Your commandments.” ‘Cause let’s face it, we don’t. We don’t really believe Jesus when He says, “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.” (Matthew 11:29). Instead, we scramble to find ways to serve visibly; without any sense of rest whatsoever. And I’m no exception.

If we could just believe that God truly wants our best, then all the fear, all the striving, all the shame—everything we’ve dealt with here—would be a moot point.

So with that, let’s circle back to where we left off last week in Romans 6—only this time let’s focus on the section I skipped over:

“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:8-11).

We—are—dead in Christ. Dead to sin. Dead to ambition. Dead to our past. Dead to anxiety.

And yet, we are alive to God in Christ Jesus. Alive to obey. Alive to rejoice in His good work through us. Alive to walk wherever He calls us to, because His calling is sure.

By submitting every piece of our lives to Christ, and at the same time realizing who we truly are in Christ, we’re being prepared to live the lives Jesus has always wanted. Thus, we don’t do works for ourselves—or even to show the world how great Christianity is—but solely to give glory to God.

Jesus delights in our following Him wherever He leads. And if no-one sees our good works but “[our] Father who sees in secret” (Matthew 6:4, 6, 18), that is enough. And should “[our] light shine before others, so that [others see our] good works and give glory to [our] Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16) it is God’s glory, and it is our joy to see it.

Your life is no longer yours. Stop behaving as if it is. You cannot force God to lead you into the next phase of your life. You can renounce all you have and entrust your life to Him, move when He tells you to move, and then rejoice that He considered you worthy to be trusted with anything. Pick up your cross—consider yourself dead to sin and alive in Jesus—and truly begin to follow the One who carried your cross before you were even born.

Lay It Down Today

Another way we’ve been preparing to bear good fruit throughout this study has been these daily assignments. Other assignments this week will be smaller, but because this one’s long-term—again, there is life beyond this study—I want you to start thinking about it today.

I’ve asked some form of this question repeatedly, and now I’m going to ask it again: What has God been impressing on your heart—and you’ve been doing nothing about—for way too long? Because this week, it’s time to start doing something about it.

Get out a piece of paper, and begin writing down ideas. Who do you need to talk to, or what other actions you need to take, to begin making this happen? You don’t have to know everything—or maybe even anything—except that God’s given you this burden and that it’s time to start dealing with it. Do expect that as you move forward, God will honor your steps of faith and guide you in the ways you need to go.

If this isn’t where you’re at—or, you know you’re already where God wants you—spend your time today thanking God for that. Give Him the glory for what He’s already doing in your life, and ask Him to keep your heart open to the situations He’s placed you in so you can continue to respond as He wants, when He wants.

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Lay Down Your New Life — a small-group session

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Carl Simmons

This  session is based upon the following past devotionals—scroll down as needed:

Lay Down Your Blessings
Lay Down Your Gifts
Lay Down Your Crown
Lay Down Your Dreams
Lay Down Your Life

 

For this session, you’ll need….

• A small (or at least cheap), wrapped “re-gift” from/for everyone in your group.

Note: If you have time, you can turn your opening experience into a full-blown “white elephant party.” Or you can do it as prescribed below. The follow-up questions will work either way.

 

Laying Down Your Day (20 minutes)

As your group members enter, have them place their gifts on a nearby table or on the floor—somewhere they’re easily accessible.

Have everyone grab a gift to start off your session. Once everyone’s taken a gift, open them simultaneously. Have a good laugh, and then discuss:

1. When have you given a “re-gift”—or been the obvious recipient of one? Either way, how did feel about giving/receiving it?

Ask for a volunteer to read Matthew 7:7-11. Then, discuss this question:

2. How do we sometimes treat God’s good gifts like our “re-gifts” here? Be specific, if possible.

Ask for another volunteer to read the following excerpt. Then, discuss the question that follows:

Everything we have from God, ultimately, is a gift…. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1). Why then do we live as if this isn’t true—as if we need to have a contingency plan in case this “God thing” doesn’t work out?

3. What’s your response to this question? And again, what does it say about how you regard God’s good gifts?

God has given us many good gifts—not the least of which is new life in Him. But He doesn’t give His gifts just for our sakes. They’re meant to be “re-gifted”—to others, and sometimes even back to God Himself. This is how gifts become fruits, and as you’ve read this week, that’s what we want to be known by. So let’s dig further into this.

 

Laying Down the Word (20 minutes)

Ask for a volunteer to read the following excerpt. Then, discuss the questions that follow:

God has often blessed us by giving us the desires of our hearts. The thing about following Jesus, though, is that he keeps us moving…. And moving forward almost always means leaving things behind—even good things… so God can give us something even better—or transform it into something better. However, God often doesn’t show us “the better thing” until we’ve given Him what He’s asked us to give Him.

4. When have you experienced this truth?

5. Tell about a time God prepared you for something, but it meant letting go of something else. Why do you think God wanted you to let go? What were the results?

6. Why do you think God often doesn’t show us “the better thing” until we’ve given our good gifts back to Him?

Ask for a volunteer to read 1 John 3:16-18, and then discuss:

7. We’ll explore this more in our next small-group session, but let’s start today: How does laying down our lives—even the good things in our lives—enable us to love others better? Provide an example, if you can.

 

Laying Down Your Life (20 minutes)

Have everyone get into their pairs. If anyone’s missing, help group members find another pair for the rest of this session. Again, have no more than three people together.

Laying down our lives isn’t easy. But as Jesus did, we do it for the sake of others, that they too can have new life in Jesus. And as we do, God raises us up higher—and closer to Him.  

You’ve had a lot of stuff to process on your own this week. Therefore, the rest of this session will be devoted to processing it in your pairs (or trios). Take the time to share your answers—and the questions you’re still struggling with—with one another. When you’re done sharing, take the time to pray for one another. Invite God deeper into the process He’s already started in each of you.  

Also, set aside a time during the week to touch base with one another, whether that’s phone, e-mail, texting, whatever. Once you’re done, stay quiet until everyone’s had a chance to finish sharing and praying for one another; then, you’re free to leave—or to keep hanging out and sharing together.

8. How have you responded to your readings from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) this week? What’s hit you the hardest, and why?

 9. Reflect also on your “Lay It Down Today” assignment from here. (Re-read Romans 6:3-4, 12-14; 14:7-9, if you need to.) Discuss your answers to the following questions from that assignment:

How is God calling you to be “instruments for righteousness”? What still needs to die for you to fulfill that calling? Where do you need to trust God and just walk, regardless of the consequences? Where do you need to accept that “you are not under law but under grace” and get on with it?

Again, close your time together in prayer for one another. And may God continue to bless you—and those He puts in your path—as you lay down your lives even further!

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Lay Down Your Life

Posted on June 29, 2012 by Carl Simmons

Death is not just the end of life—it is the returning of life to its Creator. Therefore, death is not a loss but a fulfillment. All the laying down of all the pieces of our lives is but a rehearsal for that moment.

No wonder Paul says, “[W]e would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8). Sometimes we just want to jump to the end. Even for a coward like myself, the idea of martyrdom seems noble, even romantic. But if we’re not willing to die to ourselves right now, it’s a fairly safe bet that we wouldn’t lay down our physical lives if we were ever called to do so. On the other hand, when we lay down every claim we have to our lives—which, after all, has been the thrust of all of these columns—we’re free to be used of God in any way He chooses, up to and including martyrdom. And no matter what God calls us to actually do at that point, our obedience will not seem spectacular to us, but normal.

More than likely, what we’ll be called to—and are already called to—is to die anew every day, to crucify the flesh day by day and moment by moment. Not only that, but to live that death outwardly, so that we can “let [our] light shine before others, so that they may see [our] good works and give glory to [our] Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Even here on earth, there is a life beyond all this dying. First John 3:16-18 gives us a glimpse into both dying to self and what our lives should look like beyond that death:

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

Before we head to the finish line—and at the same time, see how far we’ve already come—let’s spend one more day in the Sermon on the Mount. Remember that Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them…For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:17, 20), and that He then proceeds to break it down for us throughout the rest of that chapter—anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retribution, loving others. “You have heard it said… but I say…” All of it is about dying to ourselves, rather than clinging to our lives (especially by outwardly conforming to the law).

Our only hope is in Jesus, and following where he leads. “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14). And the way that leads to life leads through death to ourselves—and by giving our life for others. Paul puts it even more bluntly:

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life…

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace….

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living (Romans 6:3-4, 12-14; 14:7-9).

We lay the entirety of our lives down, as Jesus did, because of the hope of new life—eternal, incorruptible, irreversible, and communal. Even in us right now, He is both Lord of the dead and of the living. Eternal life starts now. Let us get on with dying, so that “we too might walk in newness of life.”

Lay It Down Today

I’m leaving today’s assignment(s) rather open. The first piece is between you and God; the second is a longer-term challenge that I hope you’ll accept.

First, spend some time dwelling on our passages from Romans. How is God calling you to be “instruments for righteousness”? What still needs to die for you to fulfill that calling? Where do you need to trust God and just walk, regardless of the consequences? Where do you need to accept that “you are not under law but under grace” and get on with it?  Spend some time praying about this. Ask God (“and you shall receive”) to give you the clarity and courage to “walk in newness of life.”

By the way, congratulations (I hope, if you’ve been following along here) on spending time in the Sermon on the Mount. I assume you’ve already been challenged pretty hard by Jesus’ message. Here’s my additional challenge: Commit to memorizing the entire Sermon on the Mount. Give yourself a chance to do this, even if you think you can’t. See how God might use it. At the very least, take on the Beatitudes, and then move on to some other small passages.

I’m just about done with this assignment myself. It hasn’t been easy; in fact, it’s taken three and a half months.  But I can tell you that it’s been a convicting, difficult, yet steadily transforming experience. You’ll spend time wrestling with Jesus’ words in ways that you wouldn’t have otherwise.

In fact, you can spend a lifetime dealing with everything Jesus says here—and if you’re smart, you will. For “[e]veryone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:24-25). Seriously consider this challenge, and then do what you think is best. And good luck!

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Lay Down Your Dreams — the fuller version

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Carl Simmons

I am becoming increasingly convinced, as I get older, that God does not demand our obedience simply because it honors Him. That is, of course, a true and healthy reason to do it; and I wouldn’t even bothering arguing with someone who insists that it is the primary reason. Still, as I come to more deeply experience God’s love for us, I’d suggest that God demands our obedience because He wants us to become the people we were truly created to be. Because only God sees the final picture, He is therefore the only one capable of making that happen.

Without our obedience—our submission to God’s vision of us, which is far bigger than anything we can come up with—the end result is a tragedy that only God can comprehend and experience the full depths of. The suffering we see and experience is but a rough fragment of that. In fact, I think that’s why Jesus became so angry with the Pharisees. They saw a broken law as an excuse to claim superiority. Jesus saw it as a sin so profound that only He could die to remove it.

And yet, we insist on pursuing our own ways, our own visions of life. After all, we live in the Land of Opportunity, Where Dreams Come True®. All sarcasm aside, though, sometimes our dreams are God-given. Even then, however, they are God’s to dispense with as He pleases.

God has often blessed us by giving us the desires of our hearts. The thing about following Jesus, though, is that he keeps us moving. We’re never going to reach our destination here on earth. If we’re following Jesus, we’re always going to be moving forward, even if it doesn’t always feel that way. And moving forward almost always means leaving things behind—even good things. At the very least, as Jesus changes us, our relationships with whatever or whoever comes along with us will also be changed.

As Jesus changes us, we also begin to let go of whatever keeps us from following Him wholeheartedly. As we’ve seen, sometimes that’s sin; sometimes it’s our personal agendas or ambitions; sometimes we let go of lifelong dreams because they’ve become our idol. Sometimes, however, we even need to let go of something good so God can give us something even better—or transform it into something better. However, God often doesn’t show us “the better thing” until we’ve given Him what He’s asked us to give Him.

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it in The Cost of Discipleship, “The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world…We must face up to the truth that the call of Christ does set up a barrier between man and his natural life.”

We must be careful not to love our dreams for their own sake. We are to love the One who gives us those dreams and takes joy in fulfilling them, and to share in His joy. Our joy and our longing are not always related to one another. The joy produced by longing also delivers the promise of fulfillment, while longing without joy usually evolves into depression, decadence or both, depending on your moral inclinations. It is the joy of God’s fulfillment, not the longing toward the dream’s fulfillment, which should be desired.

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order 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 comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:7-11).

We have a long way to go. Whatever dreams we have right now, even the ones God has placed in our hearts, are but “see[ing] in a mirror dimly” (1 Corinthians 13:12). They’re an infinitesimally small part of an infinitely larger picture. So lay down your dreams, so God can create what He intends from them.

 

Lay It Down Today

Re-read Philippians 3:7-14 above. What’s the one thing—no matter how good or bad it is in itself—that you sense God is calling to you to surrender? What better thing(s) do you sense, even now, that God may want to give you? And even if your answer to one or both of those questions was “I don’t know,” are you willing to trust God anyway?

If something did come to mind in response to that first question, decide now in your heart to commit to give that thing to God. And pray. Decide that no matter how many times you might fail—how many times you take that thing back—that you’ll trust God more and more to help you to let it go.

Also ask God to help you receive what He wants to give you. If you’re comfortable doing so, turn your palms downward as if you’re releasing that thing. Now, turn your palms upward to receive what God wants to give you—even if you have no idea what it is. It might even be that same thing, only changed. But let God have His way with it.

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Lay Down Your Crown

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Carl Simmons

“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him” (James 1:12).

“Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).

“I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown” (Revelation 3:11).

“And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created”
(Revelation 4:9-11).

Read those passages again; and this time note that the last three come from successive chapters of Revelation. There is a crown reserved for each of us who love God, and who out of that love persevere and remain faithful. And one day, we will certainly have to follow the lead of the 24 elders and lay—nay, cast—those crowns down before Jesus. It’s hard to picture, isn’t it? But try, right now.

Perhaps the most difficult part of this picture to accept is the idea that the only way to have a crown is if God should give it to us—and that God ever would give it to us. In fact, the knowledge that we deserve far less than a crown makes us want to hang onto the lesser things we do have all the more tightly.

But this takes us back to yesterday’s devotional. Everything we have from God, ultimately, is a gift. When we can truly accept this, we’re able to “give to God what is God’s” (see Luke 20:25). We’re able to trust God with His own gifts.

Read that last sentence again. It sounds ludicrous when put that way—because it is ludicrous. Who else can we trust? Do really have a choice—besides either trusting or not trusting God?

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 24:1). Why then do we live as if this isn’t true—as if we need to have a contingency plan in case this “God thing” doesn’t work out?

For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory….

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:9-11, 17-18).

Whose image are we being transformed into? The image of our King. The one who deserves His crown—and ours. What the Lord has done for us is not contingent on our own righteousness.

However, our faithfulness does play a role in all this. We will be given crowns; but we will never possess those crowns. Everything, including us, is God’s. As we lay down everything that is us, and remain steadfast and faithful to Him and what He has done for us, we shall receive the crown of life. And as we remain faithful into eternity, we shall be forever entrusting our crowns back to our King.

Today is the day to begin—and to stay forever beginning.

Lay It Down Today

Matthew 7:7-8 promises, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” Where is your lack of faithfulness showing? What are you still hanging onto? What are you trying to do yourself instead of asking for God’s help? And thus, where are you denying God’s life so that you can live your life self (however miserably)?

Spend time brooding on these questions—then, spend some time repenting over the answers. Afterward, take the time to ask, seek, and knock. Let go of your pride, your shame, your sense of self-sufficiency. Instead, ask God to show you the better things He wants to give—and for the heart to receive them on His terms. This gift, too, can only come from Him.

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