Posted on by Rick Kirby

Why I Do Not Observe Lent

From time-to-time people will direct questions to me regarding the practice of Lent and Ash Wednesday. In this short response I will attempt to offer a biblical summary of why I do not participate in this particular religious custom. 

The main reason that I have personally never adopted Lent as part of my own religious exercise is simply that I have never heard or read a legitimate biblical argument for why Evangelical Christians should adopt as their own, a tradition born out of Catholic ritual, which seems to place more emphasis on the form of worship than the heart. In other words, the burden of proof should rest squarely on the shoulders of those who maintain that Lent should have a place on the Christian church calendar. But alas, I am aware that this simple assertion will be less than satisfactory for most of you so let me lay a stronger foundation for my view. 

    To be fair, my contention here is directed more toward the practices of Ash Wednesday than the broader forty-day Lenten period itself. I will confess that I celebrate Christmas, and I can hear now some cantankerous soul saying, “How can you forbid the observance of Lent on the basis that the Bible doesn’t instruct or command it, while celebrating Christmas which the Bible also doesn’t instruct or command?” Most of you know the answer to this before it’s offered. I can justify Christmas because I like receiving gifts and I can easily dismiss Lent because I can’t think of a single vice that I feel good about giving up! 

    Let’s get serious for a moment. If you want to set aside a period for fasting and “giving up” certain things in preparation for Easter, which also is not instructed or mandated in the Bible, then be my guest. I can offer no reason why you shouldn’t give up your ice-cream, vape, or your nights watching Naked and Afraid in order to prepare you to celebrate the glorious resurrection of Christ. However, those who are deeply committed to the gospel need to think a little more carefully about why we do what we do as it relates to our church traditions. As I promised initially, allow me to offer more substantial reasons why I do not participate in Lent and Ash Wednesday. 

    • According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “During Lent, we seek the Lord in prayer by reading Sacred Scripture; we serve by giving alms; and we practice self-control through fasting. We are called not only to abstain from luxuries during Lent, but to a true inner conversion of heart as we seek to follow Christ’s will more faithfully.”[1]

    The Bible says that those who are in Christ are to “put off the old self with its practices” (Colossians 3:8). The Apostle certainly intends that such a “putting off” be more than a temporary or seasonal practice, but rather the ongoing pattern and lifestyle of a true child of God. What many give attention to each Spring, the Word of God calls the faithful follower to walk in daily. We are instructed to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), while we are to “hide his Word in our heart” (Psalm 119:11). These and other Christian traits are to become enduring virtues rather than infrequent contemplations. 

    The temporary sacrificing of luxuries or other comforts seems to be the very opposite of God’s intentions for his people when the Bible declares, “Sacrifice and offering you have not delighted…” (Psalm 40:6), and “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it…the sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart…” (Psalm 51:16). There can be no doubt that God is more concerned with true repentance and obedience than he is with heartless public expressions that likely do not reflect the true nature of the heart. 

    Once again, my most severe contention with Lent deals specifically with the practices associated with Ash Wednesday. I am sufficiently aware that in the Old Testament there are many occasions which reference the practice of wearing “sackcloth and ashes” as a demonstration of a person or nation’s grief, anguish, and contrition over sin (Isaiah 3:24; Esther 4:1; Jonah 3:5-6). However, the New Testament deals with the spiritual realities which the Old Testament practices only pointed to.

    In 1st Peter, the apostle addresses the conduct of believing wives. However, the principle which is evident here clearly must be applied to every believer not just wives. “Do not let your adorning be external – the braiding of the hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear – but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a quiet and gentle spirit…” (1 Peter 3:3-4). Though not innately evil in and of themselves, braided hair, jewelry, and even clothes can become prideful displays of perceived worth when obedience and humility are neglected. In the same way outward religious expressions which draw attention to man’s piety rather than the goodness and glory of God are repulsive in God’s eyes. 

    There seems to be something quiet contrary about making a public show (ash on forehead) of our repentance and self-denial when Jesus clearly warns, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven” (Mathhew 6:1). How explicitly Jesus, himself, instructs us when he says, “When you fast…” (Matthew 6:16). Once again, hold tight if you will to your seasons of repentance and fasting as sincere and genuine attempts to renew your focus on Christ and his glory. But when those attempts become public exhibitions then we have very likely crossed a line. Jesus continues, “When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you” (Mathhew 6: 17). 

    For too long the church in America has embraced shallow self-serving superstitions rather than sound doctrine which is able to save those who preach it and those who hear it (1 Timothy 4:16). We’ve obscured the gospel message and dismissed the power of the cross by the games we play in the name of religion. Rather than Lent, why not “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship” (Romans 12:1).

    [1] https://www.usccb.org/prayer-worship/liturgical-year/lent

    Posted on by Rick Kirby

    The Anti-Social Church

     Recently I’ve been exploring with our church family the need for the church in America to rediscover the practice of hospitality as a means of engaging with “outsiders” to bring them into relationship with Jesus and his church. Increasingly, I become more convinced that hospitality is not merely a requirement for elders and deacons (1 Timothy 3:2), but rather it is the God-ordained strategy modeled by Christ, himself to foreshadow and expand the kingdom of heaven on earth. 

                There is, however, a problem. Hospitality assumes social interaction and a deep willingness to not only draw near to people but also a commitment to draw people into our most guarded spaces. Hospitality in the local church is never presented on the pages of Scripture as optional. Sadly, though, most of don’t fully understand what hospitality is, and what’s even more tragic is that most have never truly seen hospitality modeled faithfully. 

                The Apostle Paul instructed the believers in Rome to “contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:13), while the Hebrew writer warned his readers “not to neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware” (Hebrews 13:2). Hospitality in the New Testament is literally “love for strangers.” It goes without saying that the family of God must be family in more than just name. The earliest seeds of faith germinated in community as the early church grew in intimacy and in size “in their homes” (Acts 2:46). Still today, the community of faith multiplies and bears its kingdom fruit in the soils of familial relationships with those who are bound together in the person of Jesus Christ when often they have nothing else in common. This is the goal of the church’s mission, to see strangers become family. There is no better way to achieve this objective than by employing the very same practice modeled by Jesus. 

                Jesus challenged the conventional views on hosting when he said, “When you give a dinner or banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid” (Luke 14:12). All of us have friends who are easy to hang out with. They think like us. They share our values and interests, and they simply make life more enjoyable. But according to Jesus, these are not the only ones who should receive the major focus of our hospitable energy and effort. Instead, when we host a feast, we should “invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed” (Luke 14:13). 

                Volumes could and likely have been written about the biblical understanding of hospitality, but first and foremost, we must simply see that hospitality involves our homes. And in my opinion, this is where the tension exists in the American mindset regarding hospitality. We’ve all heard it said that “a man’s home is his castle,” and most of us take this quite literally. To be sure, few Americans have moats around their castles that are not visible to the naked eye, but rest assured, invisible moats do, in fact, exist. For most of us, our homes are the sacred spaces where we go to retreat and withdraw from the world. And with each passing year, we discover that it gets easier and easier to hold up in our homes without having to engage with people face to face. We can bank online, go to school online, order our groceries online, visit with our doctor online, and some even think they can attend church online. With more and more virtual opportunities, there seem to be fewer and fewer reasons to even leave our homes. But there is one very important reason that the church needs to change how they understand the role of their homes: the gospel!

                It is through the rhythms of the ancient world that our perspectives on hospitality must be shaped. Remember that Airbnb and Holiday Inn are modern conveniences that the world 200 years ago knew nothing about. If you needed to travel from place to place in Bible times, your lodging options were grossly limited. If an inn existed in a town, it was not likely that it was a place you wouldn’t want to stay. Inns were notoriously dirty, expensive, and very dangerous. Consequently, families seeking to avoid the risks of bedding down in strange and perilous places developed a vast network of hospitable homes in which people could safely travel and find accommodations in secure spaces.

                This travel pattern was dependent upon something called a “tally.” More times than not the travelers were strangers to their hosts, and you can imagine the potential dangers which would be present when inviting strangers into your home. The “tally” was a small physical object comprised of two halves, which when placed together, it would be obvious that they belonged together. The host possessed one half of the tally, and the traveler would present the other half upon arrival to validate his sincerity and identity. If one could produce the tally, he would not merely receive a free meal, he would be treated as one of the family. 

                When the Bible and especially the New Testament writers speak of hospitality, this system of travel is the backdrop. In his attempt to understand why God’s hand was against him, Job proclaimed, “…the sojourner has not lodged in the street: I have opened my doors to the traveler” (Job 31:32). Job practiced hospitality. Even earlier in God’s story, Lot encounters two strangers (who later turn out to be angels) at the gate of Sodom and he implores them, “…please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet.” When they refused, Lot “…pressed them strongly” (Genesis 19:1-3) until the strangers finally agreed to spend the night in Lot’s house. Lot was well acquainted with the wickedness of his town, and he knew all too well the jeopardy the strangers would encounter if they stayed in the public square. Lot practiced hospitality. Jesus tells a story about a man who shows up at midnight unannounced at the house of a friend who has no bread to share (Luke 11:5-8). The point of Jesus’ story has to do with persistence in praying, but the story itself is set right in the middle of hospitality because everyone listening to Jesus would have been intimately accustomed to the practice. What was familiar to the biblical world has become unfamiliar and strange to the American church.

                Tim Chester, in his wonderful little book, A Meal with Jesus, reminds us that of the many things which Jesus was known for, Luke says, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking” (Matthew 11:19). That seems like a strange thing to emphasize about the man who came to restore creation. What possible objective could Luke have in mind by telling us that Jesus was “eating and drinking?” Chester helps us to see that the manner in which Jesus approached food and table fellowship displays for us how he intends for us to go about engaging the broken and marginalized around us. In a culture like ours which demands bigger, more innovative, attractional strategies and church programs, the life of Jesus stands in stark contrast to our own. He embraces the ordinary rhythms of life as the means by which he intersects with people in spaces where they see Jesus as he truly is and not as the Jesus people want him to be. 

                If the only image which the world has of Jesus is the one shaped by our Sunday worship events, then it is no wonder that the world has no earthly idea who Jesus is or why it even matters. What takes place in many church services from week to week is so void of Jesus and the power and presence of his Spirit that I doubt Satan himself is threatened by it. But when followers of Jesus crucify the belief that their home is their castle and instead recognize their homes to be the sacred space where we should invite our neighbors, hell will begin to tremble. 

                Our homes have become havens where we can escape the world rather than a place to engage it. Even as I tried to locate statistics to reveal generational trends regarding eating together in the homes of our neighbors, there were few stats to speak of. In fact, type in the word hospitality into your search bar, and the only articles you’ll find are related to hotels but absolutely nothing related to showing hospitality in our homes. Our culture simply doesn’t even have a category for this biblical mandate anymore. 

                It seems that Jesus was so well known for table fellowship that there were some who called him a “glutton and a drunkard” (Matthew 11:19), and the references to Jesus eating and his allusions to food in his teaching are numerous, not isolated. By the time we come to the Book of Acts we find that this new community which Jesus birthed through the power of his Spirit is multiplying and “breaking bread together in their homes” (Acts 2:46). It would be a gross mistake to think that these references are merely informative rather than a model for how God intends his people to share their lives and their homes throughout every generation. 

                When followers of Christ invite strangers, neighbors, and friends alike to fellowship at their table a very graphic image emerges. The simple act of opening our homes reflects the open door of Christ through which the elect can enter into relationship with our Creator. By feeding others food which I have paid for and prepared with my own hands, I am demonstrating that Christ alone is the Living Bread and the Living Water, and he is the only thing that can satisfy. Every meal offered to strangers around a believers table is a profound enacting of Isaiah’s prophecy, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price…Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food” (Isaiah 55:1-2).

                It is time for the church in America to acknowledge that our homes are not our own. They belong to God, and he intends that our homes be filled with his presence and opened to the world around us. There is no greater discipling strategy than the one which Jesus modeled through his own life. Purchase a bigger table, and let’s party!

    Posted on by Rick Kirby

    It’s Time to Examine Yourself

    This week I exhorted our church family to “examine themselves to see whether or not they are in the faith.” This sobering admonition is not original with me. In fact, it was the Apostle Paul who first asked a church with questionable character, “Do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? – unless indeed you fail to the meet the test!” (2 Corinthians 13:5). 

    The Apostle had legitimate reasons to call into question the credibility of the professions of faith of many of the church members whom he was addressing. Their lives, attitudes, affections, values, and character simply didn’t match what they claimed to be. In every sense of the word, these people were delusional. They had false security in their standing before God. 

    What about you? Are you in right standing before God? A popular evangelistic question is, “If you die today do you know you’d spend eternity in heaven?” The Bible, however, is not concerned only with what happens when we die. The focus of the Bible is as much on how we live today! Eternity doesn’t begin when we die. I am living eternal life now! Matthew’s earliest recorded words of Jesus are, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here!” (Matthew 4:17), as opposed to “the kingdom is coming.” Certainly, I would implore every person to repent and turn to Christ with God’s imminent judgment in mind, as none of know when our last breath will be spent. But the question before us is simply, are you secure in Christ today? And if the answer is yes, my next question would be, what is the basis for such confidence? 

    Do you have confidence that you are right before God and if you would answer yes, then why are you so confident? Do you base your hope on a prayer you’ve prayed or a baptism you’ve received? Do you look to your church involvement or to your perceived goodness? Does your life bear the marks of Jesus Christ and his character as the result of his indwelling presence in you? 

    Do you…

    1. …Love Christ (Matthew 22:37)
    2. …Love God’s people (John 13:35)
    3. …Love the lost (Romans 10:1; 2 Timothy 2:25-26)
    4. …have an appetite for and obedience to God’s Word (1 Peter 2:2)
    5. … have conviction over sin/Repentant (Romans 2:4)
    6. …possess a maturing faith (Colossians 3:1-10)
    7. …showcase Christ’s character (Fruit of the Spirit- Galatians 5:16-25)

    The Bible leaves no room for confusion when it speaks to how a man’s salvation is secured. “For by grace are you saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). The Scripture is also explicit when it claims that “if a man is in Christ, he is a new creature, old things have passed away and all things are becoming new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). If you believe God’s Word and repent (turn from) of your sin you shall be saved. Believing is more than just believing in God’s existence, however. Believing “in Christ” is a belief that reorients every thought and action to Christ thereby altering the very values of my life. In other words, my life is transformed by what I believe to be true. 

    But make no mistake, this transformation in values is brought about entirely because of the completed work of Jesus on the cross on our behalf and his sovereign grace. My new life in Christ is the result, not the cause of my salvation. “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 the newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

    Again, I ask you, what is the basis for your claim that you are right with God? Have you prayed as David did, “Search me, O God…and see if there be any wicked way in me…” (Psalm 139:23-24)? Are you willing to take a long, honest inward look at yourself as Paul exhorted the Corinthians to do also? Don’t allow your pride to delude you into thinking that you are right before God because of how good you think you are. Christ alone can save. 

    Posted on by Rick Kirby

    The Church, A Worshipping Community

    What is worship? Is there such a thing as acceptable worship and unacceptable worship and if so, who gets to decide which is which? Is it really that important? Is worship just about a religious experience that caters to the emotional needs of the worshipper? And if this is the case, is it also acceptable to create the worship experience around the perceived needs of the worshippers? More and more, I’m convinced that the typical worshipper in western culture doesn’t think nearly as deeply about such questions as the issue demands. 

    Over the next few weeks, I want to simply make some observations from Scripture that might help all of us to understand the nature and role of worship in the personal life of the saint and the public life of the church. 

    Do you know what the word worship means? It means to “ascribe worth.”  “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name, worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness” (Ps 29:2). There is a place for crying out to God, acknowledging my need, weeping or mourning because of my sin, and pleading for the desires of my heart, but only as those facts lead me to proclaim the goodness and splendor of God. If these real needs and heart desires do not lead us to proclaim the glories of God to God, then our activity has ceased to be true worship.

    The Psalmist says, “The heavens (cosmos) declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1). All of creation teaches us a valuable lesson about what all of God’s image bearers are created to do. Jesus made a profound statement in response to the Pharisees in Luke 19:40. Many of Jesus’ disciples had lined the highway leading into Jerusalem and were loudly proclaiming, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” The Pharisees demanded that Jesus silence these loud proclaimers of Jesus’ worth who were causing such a commotion. To this Jesus replied, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out” (Lk. 19:38). Jesus was harkening back to Habakkuk 2:11, which reads, “For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork respond.” Nature itself screams, “God is good and glorious,” but those of us made in His image have an innate, sinister longing to worship ourselves instead of the God who made us. 

    True, biblical worship is literally about declaring, proclaiming, and ascribing to God his worth. I recently heard it said that true worship does not begin with man and his needs, but with God and his glory. God is at the center of true worship, not man! If man, man’s desires, man’s needs, man’s preferences move to the center of our worship, then our worship ceases to be true worship and becomes a counterfeit, idolatrous worship, with man occupying a space reserved for the one, true God. 

    We must always be evaluating our private and public worship to ensure that our own desire for acclaim and worth doesn’t subtly slip in unannounced. Every part of work, homelife, and every relationship must be an expression of worship toward our God. But the same scrutiny by which we measure our lives must also be applied as well to our corporate worship. Every song, every prayer, every sermon, along with the very order and posture by which we come to worship, must be measured against the backdrop of God’s design for worship. Are we truly proclaiming his worth in the manner through which we worship? Who are we really worshipping? Who are we truly seeking to please? 

    We must be more diligent than ever before to heed the Psalmist’s invitation, “O Magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together” (Psalm 34:3)! I implore you as saints in the Lord, prepare your hearts and minds for worship by allowing the Word to shine its light into the dark crevice’s of your heart. Come to the worship gathering on Sunday full of Jesus and empty of yourself. It is dangerous to attempt to stand in the place reserved for God, alone. We should long to be a people who reflect the radiant light of God’s glory in every space, especially in corporate worship, instead of being one who seeks to steal the limelight from the only One who deserves it.