Ever see that show Hoarders? It's quite the look into the lives of people with great unhealthy attachments to things and trying to break them away from it and get their homes or property cleaned up. There was a burst of time in my life when I watched it a lot, and in that time I saw episodes about people completely attached to animals, collections, projects, day to day things, food, and even complete junk and trash. Cleaning crews, psychologists, and "professional organizers" were brought in to help with the situations. Some of the time there was success in cleaning up a home or property, but despite that, more often than not, the deeper issue of attachment remained unsolved.
With the light and knowledge I have graciously received in my life, I couldn't help but think when watching "All your prattle and rationalization amounts to nothing -- these people are, almost certainly unknowingly, trying to get their fulfillment, or their hope, or their security, or whatever else, from the wrong source. What they need is the power of Jesus Christ to break them away from idolatry and sin and give them a new life."
That is, after all, what he did for me in my own life. I was seeking fulfillment from all kinds of things, trying to fill a hole in my heart that only God could fill. I just didn't know it until he broke into my life, showed me my sin, and ripped me away from myself -- granting me repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Praise God for that!
Now what about the sin in my life and how it relates to the topic? There were definitely attachments associated with that sin, but was I a hoarder? Let's look.
One of the sins of my past that totally wrecked my head was adultery. I've cheated on my wife countless times with countless women through the magic of the Internet and my own jacked up imagination. But not only did I do that, I collected them. I had the modern day equivalent of the stack of Playboys on my hard drive -- except I could fit a whole lot more of a whole lot worse on there. Before I was really born again, I believed in God and would try to make deals with him. "I'll delete all this if you do that. I won't get any more, I promise." Yeah, that lasted about what, 2 seconds? The Jesus hole was still in my heart, and my efforts were my own and with wrong motive. So of course I was bound to fail and fail back into hoarding porn. One tick mark for "hoarder".
Aside from being an adulterer, I was also a thief. Do you know how many pirated programs and songs I had on my computer? I don't either, but it was a LOT. Did I try to rationalize it? Absolutely not. I knew it was stealing and I was proud of it. Crap I didn't even use or listen to. It looks like that was hoarding too. Two more tick marks for "hoarder" -- one for the software and one for the music.
That's three strikes already. I'd have to say based on the evidence that I was definitely a hoarder.
Does it matter to identify the old man like that? Probably not. I just think it's interesting that in my old nature I had the same mentality about digital things that the people on this show had about physical things. Looking on the outside in, no would would peg me as a hoarder, because the outward appearance wasn't there, but the internal thought processes and attachments were the same.
I also find it interesting that, in either case, the outward signs of such a mentality are pointers to a deeper problem that plagues all men -- our sinful nature. That kind of deeper problem cannot be solved by man. It can be ignored, excused, or rationalized, so that a person "feels better" about being broken. However, a real solution can only come from God through repentance and faith in his Son, Jesus Christ.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Sola Fide
I've been reading a book about a couple who grew up solidly on the Word of God, was very against the Catholic church, and eventually through their study in the Word came to the conclusion that the Catholic church was the true church founded by Jesus Christ. While I'll obviously disagree with some of the arguments in the book, it's still an interesting read.
The man did make some good points I never thought about how the different covenants in the Bible (with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David) were connected and how the groups involved grew from a couple to a family to a tribe to a nation to a kingdom -- until at the end you reach the new universal covenant through Jesus Christ. I've never really looked into the different covenants all together before, so that to me was an interesting approach about how the bigger picture went.
But now on to the main two points of this pair of posts -- sola fide and sola scriptura. The man he said that through his studies, these two pillars of the Reformation, which he held as the only pillars, were knocked over for him. Those are what I want to think and talk about here. For today, I'll deal with sola fide. I wanted to deal with both, but this ended up to be a very long post as it is.
Sola Fide
Sola fide means "faith alone". In other words, we're justified, or made right with God, solely by our faith in Christ, not our faith plus works we do. Now I didn't quite follow how the man's logic went as he told his story, but he did quote two verses, James 2:24 (a man is justified by works and not by faith alone) and 1 Corinthians 13:2 (if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing). Well those sound pretty compelling on the surface, but you can make a lot of things compelling when you take them out of context.
First let's look at the James verse. There's a part of the verse missing. It starts "You see, a man is justified...". He is concluding an argument. Go read the rest of James chapter 2 for the full argument. He uses the word faith in two ways. One way is "lip service" which is bogus faith. In other words you say that you believe but that's about it. The Bible has a lot more to say about that kind of non "faith", and it's never anything good. The other ways is "real faith". What kind of faith is real? The kind that produces something -- for there will absolutely be evidence in your life to show that your faith is real. If someone can't look at your life and tell that you have a heart for God, you should be very troubled.
Now let's look at the 1 Corinthians verse -- the argument here seems to be that I am nothing if I have faith but not love -- so to be something, I must have faith plus love, which is shown by my good works. How about the verse just after it too, though? "If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." Those are works, that without love, make him nothing. There's other stuff in that passage too, that, without love, makes him nothing. One might say then "well then, I need faith, and works, and love, and" but read the whole passage and get the context. Paul isn't talking about justification anywhere in the passage -- he's talking about the importance of love and what it looks like. That's it.
Now, to be fair to the man, he's not presenting his full argument in this book -- just telling his story and throwing in some key points. I'm sure these two verses aren't the extent of his supposed discovery, but for a person who writes about himself as a student of the Word, to take them out of context like that to argue an important point is not a good thing.
What his wife said in her explanation resonated with me more: "Justification meant being made a child of God and being called to live a life as a faithful child of God through faith working in love." I read that and thought "duh" but I also don't see how in the world that goes against sola fide. I'm really not quite sure what she understood it to mean before! Absolutely justification means being made a child of God, and after you're justified, you're called to, and will, produce fruit -- with the Spirit in you, you'll have a desire to obey God and live a life that glorifies him.
Look at how it works from my understanding and experience -- you repent of your sins and put your faith in Christ. That in itself is a gift from God, and recognizing it as such glorifies him. We're not talking "I said the sinner's prayer and I'm good to go" nonsense, we're talking "Jesus barged into my life with a wrecking ball and got me" faith. Okay, at that point, you're justified. Born again of the Spirit. A new creation. Adopted into sonship. Bye bye heart of stone, and hello heart of flesh. After that, what are you going to do? Walk the walk without taking away the credit from God -- glorifying him. What about when you fall? Mourn over your sin and thank God for his grace and mercy in forgiving you and picking you up -- glorifying him.
Notice there's a running theme here, and it's not about you.
So however you say the words to understand this mystery of being "right with God" through Jesus Christ, never go down that dangerous road where you think "I NEED to do [whatever] TO BE or STAY in good standing with God." It's evil. The proper response for the Spirit filled believer is "I WANT to do [whatever] BECAUSE I'm ALREADY in good standing with God."
The first takes the focus off God and puts it on you. The second takes the focus off you and puts it on God. Only one of those glorifies him.
The man did make some good points I never thought about how the different covenants in the Bible (with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David) were connected and how the groups involved grew from a couple to a family to a tribe to a nation to a kingdom -- until at the end you reach the new universal covenant through Jesus Christ. I've never really looked into the different covenants all together before, so that to me was an interesting approach about how the bigger picture went.
But now on to the main two points of this pair of posts -- sola fide and sola scriptura. The man he said that through his studies, these two pillars of the Reformation, which he held as the only pillars, were knocked over for him. Those are what I want to think and talk about here. For today, I'll deal with sola fide. I wanted to deal with both, but this ended up to be a very long post as it is.
Sola Fide
Sola fide means "faith alone". In other words, we're justified, or made right with God, solely by our faith in Christ, not our faith plus works we do. Now I didn't quite follow how the man's logic went as he told his story, but he did quote two verses, James 2:24 (a man is justified by works and not by faith alone) and 1 Corinthians 13:2 (if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing). Well those sound pretty compelling on the surface, but you can make a lot of things compelling when you take them out of context.
First let's look at the James verse. There's a part of the verse missing. It starts "You see, a man is justified...". He is concluding an argument. Go read the rest of James chapter 2 for the full argument. He uses the word faith in two ways. One way is "lip service" which is bogus faith. In other words you say that you believe but that's about it. The Bible has a lot more to say about that kind of non "faith", and it's never anything good. The other ways is "real faith". What kind of faith is real? The kind that produces something -- for there will absolutely be evidence in your life to show that your faith is real. If someone can't look at your life and tell that you have a heart for God, you should be very troubled.
Now let's look at the 1 Corinthians verse -- the argument here seems to be that I am nothing if I have faith but not love -- so to be something, I must have faith plus love, which is shown by my good works. How about the verse just after it too, though? "If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." Those are works, that without love, make him nothing. There's other stuff in that passage too, that, without love, makes him nothing. One might say then "well then, I need faith, and works, and love, and
Now, to be fair to the man, he's not presenting his full argument in this book -- just telling his story and throwing in some key points. I'm sure these two verses aren't the extent of his supposed discovery, but for a person who writes about himself as a student of the Word, to take them out of context like that to argue an important point is not a good thing.
What his wife said in her explanation resonated with me more: "Justification meant being made a child of God and being called to live a life as a faithful child of God through faith working in love." I read that and thought "duh" but I also don't see how in the world that goes against sola fide. I'm really not quite sure what she understood it to mean before! Absolutely justification means being made a child of God, and after you're justified, you're called to, and will, produce fruit -- with the Spirit in you, you'll have a desire to obey God and live a life that glorifies him.
Look at how it works from my understanding and experience -- you repent of your sins and put your faith in Christ. That in itself is a gift from God, and recognizing it as such glorifies him. We're not talking "I said the sinner's prayer and I'm good to go" nonsense, we're talking "Jesus barged into my life with a wrecking ball and got me" faith. Okay, at that point, you're justified. Born again of the Spirit. A new creation. Adopted into sonship. Bye bye heart of stone, and hello heart of flesh. After that, what are you going to do? Walk the walk without taking away the credit from God -- glorifying him. What about when you fall? Mourn over your sin and thank God for his grace and mercy in forgiving you and picking you up -- glorifying him.
Notice there's a running theme here, and it's not about you.
So however you say the words to understand this mystery of being "right with God" through Jesus Christ, never go down that dangerous road where you think "I NEED to do [whatever] TO BE or STAY in good standing with God." It's evil. The proper response for the Spirit filled believer is "I WANT to do [whatever] BECAUSE I'm ALREADY in good standing with God."
The first takes the focus off God and puts it on you. The second takes the focus off you and puts it on God. Only one of those glorifies him.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Hard Stuff
There's some pretty harsh stuff in the Bible. Harsh stuff about God even. There's sections I know pastors skip over much more than not because there's just hard things to deal with in there. Things that people say keep them from believing the Bible in full or in part, and things that make those who claim it to be the absolute word of God still question "Would God really..."
I've asked those questions before, and I've answered "yes" to those questions before. I don't have a problem with some of the actions I read about, but I certainly won't scoff at those who wrestle with them either. I'm not sure where this difference in attitude comes from. Maybe it's the way Jesus just broke into my life that makes some sovereign actions less of an issue. Maybe it's because I came the Bible to be true first through the lenses of science, history, reliability, and prophecy about Christ that I trust all of it to be an accurate account of God's interaction with humanity. Maybe I'm impersonal and callous enough that I just don't put myself in the stories and feel the weight and pain in them. I don't know. Probably some of each.
That said, I wanted to write something about what I don't hear talked about whole lot. First, do a search in Revelation for "book of life" and see what there is. Among the results are these:
- "The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life." (Revelation 3:5)
- "The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come." (Revelation 17:8)
- "And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:15)
Real book, symbolic book, I don't really care. Let's work with the imagery we're given. It looks to me like a person's name was put in the book before the creation of the world, other people's names were not put in the book, a person's name can be blotted out from the book, and if a person's name ain't in it, there's hell to pay. Literally.
Who did the writing or omitting, can do the blotting, and will do the judging? God.
So that might make a person's brain hurt. God can make someone knowing they will be destroyed? Well, yeah. God can make someone with the purpose of destroying them? Well, yeah. Check these out:
- "But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." (Exodus 9:16)
- "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory -- even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?" (Romans 9:21-24)
I picked these on purpose because they both show not only the sovereignty of God in raising up people for whom it would not end well, but also the reason behind it -- God's glory. God can't very well demonstrate his love, grace, mercy, and so on, in delivering people -- without having something to deliver those people from. It's his universe, and he do what he wants with it, even show off his goodness by allowing or outright making the means to show it.
Think that's not fair? From a human perspective, it certainly could, and we're pretty tied to human perspectives. If you're there, consider this:
- It's not about us and our sense of entitlement. It's about God and his glory. All have sinned and fall short, and he's under no obligation to save anyone.
- Though under no obligation, he did choose to save people through his son Jesus. He lived as a man on earth, suffered much at the hands of those who should have exalted him, took the sins of the world on himself, and died a horrific death on the cross.
- All that stuff I just said -- he did for his enemies, such as myself, before I put my faith in Jesus Christ.
So before we throw up that cry of "unfair," consider how fair, from our human perspective, it was for Jesus to take our place on the cross so we could have eternal life and live with God forever instead of eternal punishment and be separated from God forever. From my point of view, Jesus getting a pile of wrath and God getting us left him with the short end of the stick. Of course, that limited view is because I'm the clay dude, not the potter.
If that still seems unacceptable and unfair toward some people, consider that for just about everyone, it's their own words and actions that will condemn them, by rejecting the means of salvation God has provided. In other words, though I can't prove it from scripture that I know of, I believe that most people start with their names in the book of life and cause it to be blotted out by rejected whatever light God reveals to them. Why do that and complain you've been unfairly destined for destruction? Why not instead turn from sin to Christ and prove yourself to be destined for glory?
Finally, if that STILL seems unacceptable, I don't know what else to tell you other than go make your own universe and run it your way. Good luck. I'll stick with this one with a God I know is completely sovereign and able to do anything, a God who is for me and not against me, a God who has a crazy love me and wants me to love him back with all my heart, and a God who is always right and just even when we don't get it, because he cannot be otherwise. This is my God, and though he's not safe, he is good.
I've asked those questions before, and I've answered "yes" to those questions before. I don't have a problem with some of the actions I read about, but I certainly won't scoff at those who wrestle with them either. I'm not sure where this difference in attitude comes from. Maybe it's the way Jesus just broke into my life that makes some sovereign actions less of an issue. Maybe it's because I came the Bible to be true first through the lenses of science, history, reliability, and prophecy about Christ that I trust all of it to be an accurate account of God's interaction with humanity. Maybe I'm impersonal and callous enough that I just don't put myself in the stories and feel the weight and pain in them. I don't know. Probably some of each.
That said, I wanted to write something about what I don't hear talked about whole lot. First, do a search in Revelation for "book of life" and see what there is. Among the results are these:
- "The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life." (Revelation 3:5)
- "The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come." (Revelation 17:8)
- "And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." (Revelation 20:15)
Real book, symbolic book, I don't really care. Let's work with the imagery we're given. It looks to me like a person's name was put in the book before the creation of the world, other people's names were not put in the book, a person's name can be blotted out from the book, and if a person's name ain't in it, there's hell to pay. Literally.
Who did the writing or omitting, can do the blotting, and will do the judging? God.
So that might make a person's brain hurt. God can make someone knowing they will be destroyed? Well, yeah. God can make someone with the purpose of destroying them? Well, yeah. Check these out:
- "But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." (Exodus 9:16)
- "Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory -- even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?" (Romans 9:21-24)
I picked these on purpose because they both show not only the sovereignty of God in raising up people for whom it would not end well, but also the reason behind it -- God's glory. God can't very well demonstrate his love, grace, mercy, and so on, in delivering people -- without having something to deliver those people from. It's his universe, and he do what he wants with it, even show off his goodness by allowing or outright making the means to show it.
Think that's not fair? From a human perspective, it certainly could, and we're pretty tied to human perspectives. If you're there, consider this:
- It's not about us and our sense of entitlement. It's about God and his glory. All have sinned and fall short, and he's under no obligation to save anyone.
- Though under no obligation, he did choose to save people through his son Jesus. He lived as a man on earth, suffered much at the hands of those who should have exalted him, took the sins of the world on himself, and died a horrific death on the cross.
- All that stuff I just said -- he did for his enemies, such as myself, before I put my faith in Jesus Christ.
So before we throw up that cry of "unfair," consider how fair, from our human perspective, it was for Jesus to take our place on the cross so we could have eternal life and live with God forever instead of eternal punishment and be separated from God forever. From my point of view, Jesus getting a pile of wrath and God getting us left him with the short end of the stick. Of course, that limited view is because I'm the clay dude, not the potter.
If that still seems unacceptable and unfair toward some people, consider that for just about everyone, it's their own words and actions that will condemn them, by rejecting the means of salvation God has provided. In other words, though I can't prove it from scripture that I know of, I believe that most people start with their names in the book of life and cause it to be blotted out by rejected whatever light God reveals to them. Why do that and complain you've been unfairly destined for destruction? Why not instead turn from sin to Christ and prove yourself to be destined for glory?
Finally, if that STILL seems unacceptable, I don't know what else to tell you other than go make your own universe and run it your way. Good luck. I'll stick with this one with a God I know is completely sovereign and able to do anything, a God who is for me and not against me, a God who has a crazy love me and wants me to love him back with all my heart, and a God who is always right and just even when we don't get it, because he cannot be otherwise. This is my God, and though he's not safe, he is good.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Joe Dude's Bible Thoughts: Genesis 19
Okay when I get to verse 5, I think what the !@#$ is wrong with you people? But then I remember. Our sinful nature. That terrible thing common to all people. That thing that makes us not live up to our own standards, let alone God's. That thing behind child abuse, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, sex trafficking, strip clubs, pornography, prostitution, abortion, murder, rape, kidnapping, neglect, fornication, adultery, divorce, backstabbing, gossip, fraud, envy, and so on. That thing behind making idols out of sports, games, food, clothes, jobs, kids, homes, bank accounts, cars, boats, hobbies, and so on. That horrid thing that, when we realize it, leaves us in a place where we realize we need someone who can solve a problem for us that we cannot solve -- a place where we realize our need for Jesus Christ.
So back to the gathering crowd. I get Lot's pleading with them not to do the wicked thing they were intent on doing. But, especially as a father of daughters, I do not get why in the world he would offer to send out his daughters in place of the men. I could get "touch my daughters and I will hunt down every last one of you and murder you while you sleep" but willingly giving them to the men I do not get. I can only assume based on a limited understanding of the culture, that hospitality was so greatly valued and women so little valued that this made sense. The hospitality thing seems to make sense when Lot says not to harm them "for they have come under the shelter of my roof."
It crossed my mind for a bit that maybe Lot's response would be different if he didn't know his guests were angels. But the text doesn't read that way to me, and I don't see that Lot actually knew they were angels.
If you try to picture the next scene in detail, I think there's something interesting. First, this angels strike the men with blindness -- they don't pussyfoot around here. However, why did the men wear themselves out groping for the door? If you were near the door, I would think you'd find it quickly or give up far before you wore yourself out. That's just my own thinking though -- we have to take the Word at face value here.
I get how Lot must have felt when he told people that the place was going to be destroyed. I feel the same way when I tell people about Jesus and they give me a "that's great, I'm glad it works for you" or scoff, or reject the message in some other way. It's very frustrating. It reminds me of when I was first rescued by Christ -- I asked a good friend "Why didn't you tell me?!" His response -- "Would you have listened?" The answer is a resounding no, I guess I wouldn't have.
I never really paid attention to the destination before -- that Lot requested to go to Zoar instead of to the hills. I could make something of that, but it would probably be reading to much into a simple detail of the account.
Lot's wife turning to salt has got to be one of the oddest miracles in the Bible. I still think confusing the languages is more odd, but this one is right up there. I've had people scoff and use this as an excuse for not believing the Bible is true -- "Really, salt? I don't think so." While I think it's weird, it's not beyond God. I mean, really, he made the whole universe and people to live in it. Aren't those a lot more awesome than a person turning into something?
The whole escape scene contains a great lesson. First you have people who don't believe Lot at all, and they perish. Then you have the people Lot didn't even tell, and they perish. Then you have Lot's wife, who looked back, and she perished. It's the same with Jesus and the coming judgement. You have people who reject the light of Christ, either outright, or by looking back and longing for their past with it's habitual sin they found so enjoyable. They will perish. But what about those who didn't hear the message? Don't worry about them.
"What? What do you mean don't worry about them." Don't worry about them. God's pretty big and can deal with that sort of thing. It's the person, maybe you, who hears a lot about Jesus, gets the message, and still rejects him, that has something deadly serious to worry about.
Okay, back to the account again. "We don't have a man around, so we'll get our father drunk and get pregnant by him." That doesn't sound like very solid thinking, but then again I don't think ahead regarding my actions a lot of the time. I wonder what he thought when they started showing, assuming he didn't remember what happened!
So back to the gathering crowd. I get Lot's pleading with them not to do the wicked thing they were intent on doing. But, especially as a father of daughters, I do not get why in the world he would offer to send out his daughters in place of the men. I could get "touch my daughters and I will hunt down every last one of you and murder you while you sleep" but willingly giving them to the men I do not get. I can only assume based on a limited understanding of the culture, that hospitality was so greatly valued and women so little valued that this made sense. The hospitality thing seems to make sense when Lot says not to harm them "for they have come under the shelter of my roof."
It crossed my mind for a bit that maybe Lot's response would be different if he didn't know his guests were angels. But the text doesn't read that way to me, and I don't see that Lot actually knew they were angels.
If you try to picture the next scene in detail, I think there's something interesting. First, this angels strike the men with blindness -- they don't pussyfoot around here. However, why did the men wear themselves out groping for the door? If you were near the door, I would think you'd find it quickly or give up far before you wore yourself out. That's just my own thinking though -- we have to take the Word at face value here.
I get how Lot must have felt when he told people that the place was going to be destroyed. I feel the same way when I tell people about Jesus and they give me a "that's great, I'm glad it works for you" or scoff, or reject the message in some other way. It's very frustrating. It reminds me of when I was first rescued by Christ -- I asked a good friend "Why didn't you tell me?!" His response -- "Would you have listened?" The answer is a resounding no, I guess I wouldn't have.
I never really paid attention to the destination before -- that Lot requested to go to Zoar instead of to the hills. I could make something of that, but it would probably be reading to much into a simple detail of the account.
Lot's wife turning to salt has got to be one of the oddest miracles in the Bible. I still think confusing the languages is more odd, but this one is right up there. I've had people scoff and use this as an excuse for not believing the Bible is true -- "Really, salt? I don't think so." While I think it's weird, it's not beyond God. I mean, really, he made the whole universe and people to live in it. Aren't those a lot more awesome than a person turning into something?
The whole escape scene contains a great lesson. First you have people who don't believe Lot at all, and they perish. Then you have the people Lot didn't even tell, and they perish. Then you have Lot's wife, who looked back, and she perished. It's the same with Jesus and the coming judgement. You have people who reject the light of Christ, either outright, or by looking back and longing for their past with it's habitual sin they found so enjoyable. They will perish. But what about those who didn't hear the message? Don't worry about them.
"What? What do you mean don't worry about them." Don't worry about them. God's pretty big and can deal with that sort of thing. It's the person, maybe you, who hears a lot about Jesus, gets the message, and still rejects him, that has something deadly serious to worry about.
Okay, back to the account again. "We don't have a man around, so we'll get our father drunk and get pregnant by him." That doesn't sound like very solid thinking, but then again I don't think ahead regarding my actions a lot of the time. I wonder what he thought when they started showing, assuming he didn't remember what happened!
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Proud To Not Be Proud?
Harry preached on the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector today in his series on the beatitudes -- today's message was on meekness. I thought that was great after hearing a message from John Piper on the same passage, with a different focus.
Today God used Harry to remind me of two points I typically forget -- that the Pharisee in the story really is as good, by man's standards, as he claims to be. He's not exaggerating. The people of the day would look at him as the model to follow, the one we should be more like. They wouldn't look at him as some hypocritical jerk who doesn't know God. Conversely, the tax collector in the story really is horrid in the eyes of the people. He's a sellout to Rome, taking money from his own people for taxes to fund the government that is oppressing them -- and taking extra money as well to line his own pockets. Yet the tax collector is the one justified before God, not the Pharisee, because the Pharisee puts the focus on himself and the tax collector puts the focus on God alone.
Thank God for constant reminders of this, because pride seeps into our hearts so so easily.
I thought after service before going to lunch with the family I would re-read the parable for myself just to get it in my head even more. I flipped to Luke 18:9 and read this preceding verse:
"To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable"
Stop.
I didn't get to the parable yet, and already there's trouble! What came into my head? "Thank you God, that I don't look down on other people." That sounds right. That sounds nice. We have the knowledge of Christ. We know his words and teachings. We know we shouldn't be putting ourselves above others, because we are all under God. So what's the problem?
The problem is in what is implied in the statement. It might as well read "Thank you God, that I don't look down on other people, like those self righteous people who look down on other people." Oh crap. I did the same thing. By thinking that way, I've just split people into camps in my mind and put myself above other men -- different men than the Pharisee did, but it's the exact same thing.
Think of this way through two people, Moral Deist and Ima Sinner:
- Moral Deist thinks he's really good. He gives God the credit for it. Even so, that kind of thinking leads him to look down on all those "other" people who do horrible sins. He prays "Oh thank you God that I'm not like those guys who cheat on their wives, or those guys who sell drugs, or those guys who are workaholics and never see their family, or those guys who murder and rob other people, or those guys who molest kids" and so on.
- Ima Sinner knows he's not good. She prays "Oh thank you God for showing me my sin and turning my heart to Jesus Christ. Thank you for showing me that in my own heart, I was the adulterer, the drug dealer, the workaholic, the murderer, the thief, the child molester, and so on. And thank you so much that you showed me this, and that I'm not like one of those hypocritical self-righteous people who put themselves above others, because we are all sinners who need to be saved by grace."
Moral's two groups were the people who do "good things" and the people who do "bad things". He put himself in the people who do good things group and thought himself above the people who do bad things. But the prideful act of looking down on others and thinking himself above them puts him square in the latter group anyway.
Ima's two groups were the people who don't think themselves above others and the people who do. She put herself in the people who don't think themselves above others group. The prideful act of creating two such groups in her mind puts her in the latter group anyway.
That is why the parable doesn't have the tax collector pray "Thank you God, that I'm not like the Pharisee", but rather "Have mercy on me God, a sinner".
In the end, there really ARE two groups -- the saved and the lost. But crossing that line comes through faith in Christ, which in itself is a gift from God. Really getting that leaves no room for a man to put himself above another.
A verse came to mind as I was writing this that very much applies -- "I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." (Romans 12:3)
LORD, kill our pride.
Today God used Harry to remind me of two points I typically forget -- that the Pharisee in the story really is as good, by man's standards, as he claims to be. He's not exaggerating. The people of the day would look at him as the model to follow, the one we should be more like. They wouldn't look at him as some hypocritical jerk who doesn't know God. Conversely, the tax collector in the story really is horrid in the eyes of the people. He's a sellout to Rome, taking money from his own people for taxes to fund the government that is oppressing them -- and taking extra money as well to line his own pockets. Yet the tax collector is the one justified before God, not the Pharisee, because the Pharisee puts the focus on himself and the tax collector puts the focus on God alone.
Thank God for constant reminders of this, because pride seeps into our hearts so so easily.
I thought after service before going to lunch with the family I would re-read the parable for myself just to get it in my head even more. I flipped to Luke 18:9 and read this preceding verse:
"To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable"
Stop.
I didn't get to the parable yet, and already there's trouble! What came into my head? "Thank you God, that I don't look down on other people." That sounds right. That sounds nice. We have the knowledge of Christ. We know his words and teachings. We know we shouldn't be putting ourselves above others, because we are all under God. So what's the problem?
The problem is in what is implied in the statement. It might as well read "Thank you God, that I don't look down on other people, like those self righteous people who look down on other people." Oh crap. I did the same thing. By thinking that way, I've just split people into camps in my mind and put myself above other men -- different men than the Pharisee did, but it's the exact same thing.
Think of this way through two people, Moral Deist and Ima Sinner:
- Moral Deist thinks he's really good. He gives God the credit for it. Even so, that kind of thinking leads him to look down on all those "other" people who do horrible sins. He prays "Oh thank you God that I'm not like those guys who cheat on their wives, or those guys who sell drugs, or those guys who are workaholics and never see their family, or those guys who murder and rob other people, or those guys who molest kids" and so on.
- Ima Sinner knows he's not good. She prays "Oh thank you God for showing me my sin and turning my heart to Jesus Christ. Thank you for showing me that in my own heart, I was the adulterer, the drug dealer, the workaholic, the murderer, the thief, the child molester, and so on. And thank you so much that you showed me this, and that I'm not like one of those hypocritical self-righteous people who put themselves above others, because we are all sinners who need to be saved by grace."
Moral's two groups were the people who do "good things" and the people who do "bad things". He put himself in the people who do good things group and thought himself above the people who do bad things. But the prideful act of looking down on others and thinking himself above them puts him square in the latter group anyway.
Ima's two groups were the people who don't think themselves above others and the people who do. She put herself in the people who don't think themselves above others group. The prideful act of creating two such groups in her mind puts her in the latter group anyway.
That is why the parable doesn't have the tax collector pray "Thank you God, that I'm not like the Pharisee", but rather "Have mercy on me God, a sinner".
In the end, there really ARE two groups -- the saved and the lost. But crossing that line comes through faith in Christ, which in itself is a gift from God. Really getting that leaves no room for a man to put himself above another.
A verse came to mind as I was writing this that very much applies -- "I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned." (Romans 12:3)
LORD, kill our pride.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Joe Dude's Bible Thoughts: Genesis 18
Abraham's visit is quite interesting, probably on a number of levels. But the level that maks me wonder the most is the LORD'S appearance to Abraham as a man. It's not insane -- after all Jesus came to earth, becoming God in the flesh.
I think what's most strange to me is Abraham's calmness about the whole thing. It seems like he looked up and thought "Oh look, it's the LORD and two angels. Let's make them dinner." This is GOD we're talking about, the creator of the universe who breathed out stars and also knows how many hairs are on your head. And here he comes walking up as a man without an indication of this being just a tad bit odd from Abraham. Though we do know Abraham has encountered the LORD before, so maybe it was in a similar form.
Whatever the case here, I am always reminded of Hebrews 13:2 - "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." The writer of Hebrews almost certainly had to be thinking about this when putting pen to paper.
I am also sometimes reminded of that time when Jesus was talking with Moses and Elijah in the New Testament, and Peter says they should put up three shelters. I think Peter gets a bad rap for his comment. Is that really so different than giving the LORD and his angels a meal when they show up? I don't know for sure, but I think we should give the poor guy a break on this one.
"Want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans." "Want to make Sarah laugh? Tell her God's plans." How often do we doubt God? Yes we acknowledge that his is sovereign. We sing songs about his power. We tell people that God is in control. But do we really believe it?
I love God's question here: "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" Well, that answer is yes. It's probably too hard for God to make a square circle, a married bacheolor, or a burrito so hot that he couldn't lift it. Nonsense questions, all of them. Aside from such mumbo jumbo, no, there is nothing too hard for the LORD. But do we really believe it? And believe that he's for us and not against us? And believe that all things for for those who love him and are called according to his purpose?
Much of the rest of the account shows Abraham asking God the conditions under which he's going to destroy Sodom. He says that if there are ten righteous people found there, he wouldn't destory it. Reading ahead we know that God did destroy the cities because of their wickedness. So it seems that there were not even ten righteous in the city. "No one is righteous, not one." So if Abraham got God down from 10 to 1 -- I still think the city would have been destroyed.
Well then, some may say. Why doesn't God destroy other cities if no one is righteous? The time for wrath and judgment will come, and it's not pretty. I don't get a lot of that symbolism in Revelation, but I get enough of the descriptions to know I don't want to be an unbeliever going through that kinds of chaos. But, I digress. Back to the question. Jesus answered this in Luke 13 -- "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
Remember, it's not about our performance, it's about the cross and repentance. The performance comes from the change!
I think what's most strange to me is Abraham's calmness about the whole thing. It seems like he looked up and thought "Oh look, it's the LORD and two angels. Let's make them dinner." This is GOD we're talking about, the creator of the universe who breathed out stars and also knows how many hairs are on your head. And here he comes walking up as a man without an indication of this being just a tad bit odd from Abraham. Though we do know Abraham has encountered the LORD before, so maybe it was in a similar form.
Whatever the case here, I am always reminded of Hebrews 13:2 - "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." The writer of Hebrews almost certainly had to be thinking about this when putting pen to paper.
I am also sometimes reminded of that time when Jesus was talking with Moses and Elijah in the New Testament, and Peter says they should put up three shelters. I think Peter gets a bad rap for his comment. Is that really so different than giving the LORD and his angels a meal when they show up? I don't know for sure, but I think we should give the poor guy a break on this one.
"Want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans." "Want to make Sarah laugh? Tell her God's plans." How often do we doubt God? Yes we acknowledge that his is sovereign. We sing songs about his power. We tell people that God is in control. But do we really believe it?
I love God's question here: "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" Well, that answer is yes. It's probably too hard for God to make a square circle, a married bacheolor, or a burrito so hot that he couldn't lift it. Nonsense questions, all of them. Aside from such mumbo jumbo, no, there is nothing too hard for the LORD. But do we really believe it? And believe that he's for us and not against us? And believe that all things for for those who love him and are called according to his purpose?
Much of the rest of the account shows Abraham asking God the conditions under which he's going to destroy Sodom. He says that if there are ten righteous people found there, he wouldn't destory it. Reading ahead we know that God did destroy the cities because of their wickedness. So it seems that there were not even ten righteous in the city. "No one is righteous, not one." So if Abraham got God down from 10 to 1 -- I still think the city would have been destroyed.
Well then, some may say. Why doesn't God destroy other cities if no one is righteous? The time for wrath and judgment will come, and it's not pretty. I don't get a lot of that symbolism in Revelation, but I get enough of the descriptions to know I don't want to be an unbeliever going through that kinds of chaos. But, I digress. Back to the question. Jesus answered this in Luke 13 -- "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
Remember, it's not about our performance, it's about the cross and repentance. The performance comes from the change!
Friday, October 14, 2011
French Hookers
I read this account in a book I borrowed and absolutely love it.
An acquaintance told me about Dr. Francis Schaeffer, a great Christian scholar with whom he was studying in Europe. Dr. Schaeffer decided to take a weekend off to visit Paris with a couple of his students. One night as they strolled the streets of Paris, they saw a prostitute on a street corner. To the student's horror, they watched their mentor walk right up to the woman.
He said, "How much to you charge?"
"Fifty dollars."
He eyed her up and down and said, "Nah, that's too little."
"Oh yeah, for Americans, it's one hundred fifty dollars."
He stepped back again, "That's still too low."
She quickly said, "Uhh, oh yeah, the weekend rate for Americans is five hundred dollars."
"No, that's still too cheap."
By this time she was a little irritated. She said, "What am I worth to you?"
He responded, "Lady, I couldn't possibly pay you what you are worth, but let me tell you about someone who already has."
The two men watched as their mentor -- right then and there -- knelt with her on the sidewalk and led her in a prayer to commit her life to Christ.
That's the end of the story. I don't know what happened to the woman after. Maybe it was just the emotion of the moment that she got caught up in and she's on the streets today. Maybe she's the most zealous Christ follower in her part of the world, letting his light shine through her everywhere she goes.
But that's not really the point. The point of the story for me is not the woman, but how the man saw the woman. As one of Shane Claiborne's college buddies has put it in the past -- Jesus never spoke to a prostitute. What?! That's right. He never spoke to a prostitute because he never saw one -- all he saw was a child who was lost and needed to come home.
An acquaintance told me about Dr. Francis Schaeffer, a great Christian scholar with whom he was studying in Europe. Dr. Schaeffer decided to take a weekend off to visit Paris with a couple of his students. One night as they strolled the streets of Paris, they saw a prostitute on a street corner. To the student's horror, they watched their mentor walk right up to the woman.
He said, "How much to you charge?"
"Fifty dollars."
He eyed her up and down and said, "Nah, that's too little."
"Oh yeah, for Americans, it's one hundred fifty dollars."
He stepped back again, "That's still too low."
She quickly said, "Uhh, oh yeah, the weekend rate for Americans is five hundred dollars."
"No, that's still too cheap."
By this time she was a little irritated. She said, "What am I worth to you?"
He responded, "Lady, I couldn't possibly pay you what you are worth, but let me tell you about someone who already has."
The two men watched as their mentor -- right then and there -- knelt with her on the sidewalk and led her in a prayer to commit her life to Christ.
That's the end of the story. I don't know what happened to the woman after. Maybe it was just the emotion of the moment that she got caught up in and she's on the streets today. Maybe she's the most zealous Christ follower in her part of the world, letting his light shine through her everywhere she goes.
But that's not really the point. The point of the story for me is not the woman, but how the man saw the woman. As one of Shane Claiborne's college buddies has put it in the past -- Jesus never spoke to a prostitute. What?! That's right. He never spoke to a prostitute because he never saw one -- all he saw was a child who was lost and needed to come home.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Marriage Dots
I just had some biblical dots connected for me that had previously been sitting around as solitary dots. Poor dots. These particular dots have to deal with marriage. Let's break it down.
First, God creates man and woman in his image. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27) Why two sexes? Why not just one, or three, or six? It seems two is significant, and -- I'll jump ahead a bit here and have it make sense later -- it sets the stage for marriage. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (Genesis 2:24)
Marriage? Why marriage? Why not whoever you please? There are a lot of practical reasons here, but it seems that promise of faithfulness between spouses has a place also. It was a mystery from the beginning, but it has been revealed in scripture what purpose it served -- to be an earthly picture of a more heavenly relationship. Paul tells us this when he quotes the Genesis 2 verse and writes "This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." (Ephesians 5:32)
Now fast forward a bit, probably a lot actually -- to the return of Christ. He's coming back in power and glory to get his bride, the church. Remember that the church is not a building, nor is it all the people who say they follow Christ but may end up living like the devil. The church is all of those who really put their faith in Christ and have been born again of the Spirit of God, no matter what label they claim. We who make up the church are the bride, and he's the groom coming to take us home, wedding feast at the ready. Check out what John writes about this -- "'Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure' -- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." (Revelation 19:7-8)
So what about marriage after that? All those marriages on earth after the groom comes back for his bride? That's where another dot comes in, where the Sadducees where probing Jesus about the Resurrection that they didn't even believe in, and who a certain woman would be married to at that time. Jesus answers pretty clearly -- no one, despite being married to seven dudes while on earth. "And Jesus said to them, "'The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection." (Luke 20:34-36)
Thus, the dots are connected. God in his foreknowledge and wisdom creates two sexes which allows for this temporary institution called marriage, which becomes an earthly picture of a heavenly relationship between Christ and his church. Once the heavenly picture becomes reality, the temporary earthly one is no longer needed, and it goes away.
It is with this understanding that Paul can legitimately write 1 Corinthians 7 where he says that he wishes others remained unmarried as he was, if that was their gift, urges those who are married to live as if they weren't (hold that thought that just popped into your head and keep reading), and talks about the married having divided interests between worldly affairs and the Lord. He's not knocking marriage, just getting that it's only a pointer to something much, much greater. And it is with an amazing amount of joy in Christ and anticipation of his return that Paul urges people on toward single minded devotion to Jesus, our heavenly groom from whom we ultimately get our eternal joy!
Grace and peace friends.
First, God creates man and woman in his image. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27) Why two sexes? Why not just one, or three, or six? It seems two is significant, and -- I'll jump ahead a bit here and have it make sense later -- it sets the stage for marriage. "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." (Genesis 2:24)
Marriage? Why marriage? Why not whoever you please? There are a lot of practical reasons here, but it seems that promise of faithfulness between spouses has a place also. It was a mystery from the beginning, but it has been revealed in scripture what purpose it served -- to be an earthly picture of a more heavenly relationship. Paul tells us this when he quotes the Genesis 2 verse and writes "This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church." (Ephesians 5:32)
Now fast forward a bit, probably a lot actually -- to the return of Christ. He's coming back in power and glory to get his bride, the church. Remember that the church is not a building, nor is it all the people who say they follow Christ but may end up living like the devil. The church is all of those who really put their faith in Christ and have been born again of the Spirit of God, no matter what label they claim. We who make up the church are the bride, and he's the groom coming to take us home, wedding feast at the ready. Check out what John writes about this -- "'Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure' -- for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." (Revelation 19:7-8)
So what about marriage after that? All those marriages on earth after the groom comes back for his bride? That's where another dot comes in, where the Sadducees where probing Jesus about the Resurrection that they didn't even believe in, and who a certain woman would be married to at that time. Jesus answers pretty clearly -- no one, despite being married to seven dudes while on earth. "And Jesus said to them, "'The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection." (Luke 20:34-36)
Thus, the dots are connected. God in his foreknowledge and wisdom creates two sexes which allows for this temporary institution called marriage, which becomes an earthly picture of a heavenly relationship between Christ and his church. Once the heavenly picture becomes reality, the temporary earthly one is no longer needed, and it goes away.
It is with this understanding that Paul can legitimately write 1 Corinthians 7 where he says that he wishes others remained unmarried as he was, if that was their gift, urges those who are married to live as if they weren't (hold that thought that just popped into your head and keep reading), and talks about the married having divided interests between worldly affairs and the Lord. He's not knocking marriage, just getting that it's only a pointer to something much, much greater. And it is with an amazing amount of joy in Christ and anticipation of his return that Paul urges people on toward single minded devotion to Jesus, our heavenly groom from whom we ultimately get our eternal joy!
Grace and peace friends.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
God, I Thank You
I've been listening to John Piper the past two days and must say that is one solid dude in Christ. I will not be so foolish as to glorify the messenger, so praise God for working through this man to teach the Word clearly to all who turn their ear to him. Much of what I am saying here comes from greater understanding I have because of this message:
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/did-jesus-preach-the-gospel-of-evangelicalism
I listened to a teaching of a story Jesus told today that floored me in a sense. It's short, and I've heard it and read it many times -- so much that I've never really slowed down in it enough to check out the details. There are just some things in the Word that are right in front of my nose sometimes that I don't even see. That's probably a sad pointer that I should get into it more and do more of my own studying.
The story is very short, so let me just put it here, from Luke 18:10-14:
"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
Whenever I got to this, I thought "Duh, it's against works righteousness. All this crap I do doesn't earn me anything before God. The point is that it's God who does the saving, not our own efforts."
I missed something that is so small and yet so huge. It lies solidly in four words -- "God, I thank you". The Pharisee was NOT a legalist trying earn his own righteousness with his good works -- he thanked God for making him the way he was. Thus, he gave God the credit for the change inside of him. That's not earning anything.
Let me pause and throw in a side story here. The story is one I've heard of a Sunday school teacher who teaches the story and then blows it at the end by saying "Thank you God, that we're not like the Pharisee." The person telling the story says the teacher blew it because she was acting just like the Pharisee. Now I admit I didn't quite get that. I thought she was okay -- after all, if the Pharisee was trying to earn something, then wasn't it right to say "Thank you that we're not like him" -- not to be superior in anyway, but because we understand that salvation is a gift from God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross -- nothing we earn.
I missed it, but I get it now.
The Sunday school teacher and the Pharisee acted in the same manner, not because they trusted in themselves -- neither did. They both gave God credit for making a change in them; however, despite giving God the credit for the change, they both still looked to themselves and their own righteousness for justification -- even though they acknowledged it was God given.
Let me make that more plain, maybe just for myself -- if we look to our own righteousness as a basis for our standing before God, even if we give God the credit for the change he's made in us, we're looking to the wrong thing. We must ALWAYS point to the cross. It is NEVER our own righteousness that counts for anything -- it is Christ's righteousness given to us by grace that counts before God.
I must admit I have been guilty of this very thing. I don't know to what extent, but I know that I've certainly thanked God for changes he's made in me -- taking bad stuff out and putting good stuff in. I don't think it made me look down on the unsaved in the same way the Pharisee did, as I still remember the old life I came from and know how easily I could have been in much dire straits in life on this earth. But I do know that I've looked down on my own brothers and sisters -- jumping to quick judgment on perceived sin in their lives -- focusing on specks in their eyes without seeing the plank in my own. I know I've been critical of members of my spiritual family and failed to show grace in the same way I've been shown grace.
I think this evil in my mind almost certainly was a result of falling into "moral deism" to some extent and looking inward instead of to the cross, always to the cross. I can't say there wasn't good intent behind any of it. I still think there's a lot of "easy believism" without any move toward holiness and honoring God with our very lives, and I still think there's a lot of knowing what God's Word says and then ignoring it. I want such evil in my life less and less, but I don't want the pursuit toward that end to make me ever, ever, EVER forget that when I stand before God, I don't want him to be looking at anything in me, other than Christ and his righteousness that was freely given to me.
Let us never boast "I was a wretch that God saved and made good!" but rather let us boast "I am a wretch that God saved, isn't he good?" Let us never forget that moral transformation is not the root of our good standing before God -- rather it is the fruit of our good standing before God that came about solely by grace through our faith in Christ.
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/did-jesus-preach-the-gospel-of-evangelicalism
I listened to a teaching of a story Jesus told today that floored me in a sense. It's short, and I've heard it and read it many times -- so much that I've never really slowed down in it enough to check out the details. There are just some things in the Word that are right in front of my nose sometimes that I don't even see. That's probably a sad pointer that I should get into it more and do more of my own studying.
The story is very short, so let me just put it here, from Luke 18:10-14:
"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."
Whenever I got to this, I thought "Duh, it's against works righteousness. All this crap I do doesn't earn me anything before God. The point is that it's God who does the saving, not our own efforts."
I missed something that is so small and yet so huge. It lies solidly in four words -- "God, I thank you". The Pharisee was NOT a legalist trying earn his own righteousness with his good works -- he thanked God for making him the way he was. Thus, he gave God the credit for the change inside of him. That's not earning anything.
Let me pause and throw in a side story here. The story is one I've heard of a Sunday school teacher who teaches the story and then blows it at the end by saying "Thank you God, that we're not like the Pharisee." The person telling the story says the teacher blew it because she was acting just like the Pharisee. Now I admit I didn't quite get that. I thought she was okay -- after all, if the Pharisee was trying to earn something, then wasn't it right to say "Thank you that we're not like him" -- not to be superior in anyway, but because we understand that salvation is a gift from God through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross -- nothing we earn.
I missed it, but I get it now.
The Sunday school teacher and the Pharisee acted in the same manner, not because they trusted in themselves -- neither did. They both gave God credit for making a change in them; however, despite giving God the credit for the change, they both still looked to themselves and their own righteousness for justification -- even though they acknowledged it was God given.
Let me make that more plain, maybe just for myself -- if we look to our own righteousness as a basis for our standing before God, even if we give God the credit for the change he's made in us, we're looking to the wrong thing. We must ALWAYS point to the cross. It is NEVER our own righteousness that counts for anything -- it is Christ's righteousness given to us by grace that counts before God.
I must admit I have been guilty of this very thing. I don't know to what extent, but I know that I've certainly thanked God for changes he's made in me -- taking bad stuff out and putting good stuff in. I don't think it made me look down on the unsaved in the same way the Pharisee did, as I still remember the old life I came from and know how easily I could have been in much dire straits in life on this earth. But I do know that I've looked down on my own brothers and sisters -- jumping to quick judgment on perceived sin in their lives -- focusing on specks in their eyes without seeing the plank in my own. I know I've been critical of members of my spiritual family and failed to show grace in the same way I've been shown grace.
I think this evil in my mind almost certainly was a result of falling into "moral deism" to some extent and looking inward instead of to the cross, always to the cross. I can't say there wasn't good intent behind any of it. I still think there's a lot of "easy believism" without any move toward holiness and honoring God with our very lives, and I still think there's a lot of knowing what God's Word says and then ignoring it. I want such evil in my life less and less, but I don't want the pursuit toward that end to make me ever, ever, EVER forget that when I stand before God, I don't want him to be looking at anything in me, other than Christ and his righteousness that was freely given to me.
Let us never boast "I was a wretch that God saved and made good!" but rather let us boast "I am a wretch that God saved, isn't he good?" Let us never forget that moral transformation is not the root of our good standing before God -- rather it is the fruit of our good standing before God that came about solely by grace through our faith in Christ.
Begotten
There's a lot of Jesus camps in the world today, and I don't mean the kind you send your kids off to get their brains sufficiently scrubbed with the truth. I'm talking about different beliefs about Jesus' nature and mission on Earth. There's probably about as many beliefs about Jesus as there are pizza topping combinations, but there are some pretty major groups the take the lead.
You've got the "Jesus never existed" camp and the "good moral teacher" camp for those who don't believe Jesus is the savior of the world, and then you have the camps that believe Jesus died for their sins, some of which say Jesus is God and some of which say Jesus is something less than God. It's the latter camps I'm most particularly interested in, but let's address the first two very briefly.
Regarding the "legend" camp, there's more evidence that Jesus existed than any other ancient historical figure. The Bible is incredibly reliable historically, especially the New Testament which talks about Jesus. In other words, if you're willing to believe a bunch of old dead guys existed 2,000 or more years ago, you have no reason to say Jesus didn't.
Regarding the "good moral teacher" camp, you also cannot say reduce Jesus to this based on his recorded life in the Bible. You could say that he was if you didn't believe most of what was written about him in the Bible, which you'd have no basis for believing, but that would be a whole other blog post. Given that the things he did and said are even somewhere in the ballpark, there some pretty bold stuff in there.
Let's just take a look through the book of Matthew only, quickly. He said that he had the authority on earth to forgive sins. He said that anyone who acknowledges him before men, he would acknowledge before God, and that anyone who denied him before men, he would deny before God. He said that no one knows God the Father unless he, the Son, chooses to reveal him. He said that those who left all for his name's sake will inherit eternal life. He said that he's going to come back in glory with the angels and judge the world. He said that he would died and be raised to life again, and told his followers where to meet him. That doesn't sound like something a "good moral teacher" would say. That sounds like something a lunatic or a liar would say -- unless it was true. There is no door open for the good moral teacher argument. You either say that Jesus is Lord or a nut case or a devil. Those are your choices.
Moving on from there, let's go to the camps that say Jesus is, in fact, Lord. How about those that make him out to be something less than God? Let's take a look at a few things.
How about the first part of the gospel of John? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Read on and you'll see that the "Word became flesh". That sounds like God becoming flesh to me. Some will say the Bible is translated wrong here and it should read "the Word was a god" -- nevermind that those who know Greek and have read the ancient text say that's hogwash.
How about the first part of the book of Hebrews, where it was through Jesus the world was created? Not "a" world, but "the" world. Everything. The whole universe. From nothing.
How about in Acts, where it is written "be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood." who's blood? God's blood. Jesus' blood. Same blood.
How about those times people worship Jesus and are not corrected, knowing full well the commandment about worshiping God alone? They are not corrected. Other times people fall down at the feet of angels to worship them, and they are corrected and told to get up.
How about when Thomas says "My Lord and my God!" He's not corrected by Jesus either. Or how about when Paul writes "our God and Savior Jesus Christ?" He does that more than once.
How about Jesus' play on words? "I tell you that before Abraham, I AM." This isn't poor grammar, this is a reference to that whole burning bush thing with Moses, where Moses asks God who to say sent him, and God replies "I AM WHO I AM -- tell them I AM has sent me to you."
How about claiming to forgive sins? He goes around forgiven sins and talking like he's the one offended. Think of it this way -- if someone smacks you in the head, and I tell them "I forgive that," won't you wonder what kind of funny cigarette I've been smoking? I didn't get hit in the head. But that's how Jesus went about -- forgiving sins without checking with the people that might have actually been hurt by people's sins.
How about claiming to die on the cross for the forgiveness of the sins of the world? How could any being less than God himself pay the price for the sins of the whole world? The payment due to an infinite God for sin is infinite. If Jesus is finite, he could not pay it. If Jesus is not finite, then he is infinite, and there is only one who is that.
How about the phrase "Son of God" itself? This isn't some phrase that was taken to be heard as "yeah, we're all sons of God." No, to the Jewish ear 2,000 years ago, that is the equivalent of saying "I'm God." To make it fairly clear, he also said "I and the Father are one." Not one purpose, not one team, not one group. One. Don't believe that's a claim to be God? What was the reaction? "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." It's pretty clear that the Jews of the time thought Jesus was claiming to be God.
How about the most famous Bible verse of all time? Let's go to the KJV on this one -- "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Now I'm not a "KJV only" guy, but I think we've lost something in more modern translations with "one and only Son" or "only Son. I get why it was changed -- no one knows what the heck begotten means any more. But look in the lists of families in old Bibles -- "so and so begat so and so who begat so and so and so on!" Begat means you made another one of the same kind. People beget people and dogs beget dogs, and so on. God creates. He created matter, people, animals, plants, and so on. They are not him. But Jesus was not his "created son" -- he was his "begotten son". In other Words, the same "stuff" of God, not anything lower that was created.
So I'll agree, it's true. There is no one place in the Bible Jesus says "I am God." There are a ton, just in case we miss a few of them.
You've got the "Jesus never existed" camp and the "good moral teacher" camp for those who don't believe Jesus is the savior of the world, and then you have the camps that believe Jesus died for their sins, some of which say Jesus is God and some of which say Jesus is something less than God. It's the latter camps I'm most particularly interested in, but let's address the first two very briefly.
Regarding the "legend" camp, there's more evidence that Jesus existed than any other ancient historical figure. The Bible is incredibly reliable historically, especially the New Testament which talks about Jesus. In other words, if you're willing to believe a bunch of old dead guys existed 2,000 or more years ago, you have no reason to say Jesus didn't.
Regarding the "good moral teacher" camp, you also cannot say reduce Jesus to this based on his recorded life in the Bible. You could say that he was if you didn't believe most of what was written about him in the Bible, which you'd have no basis for believing, but that would be a whole other blog post. Given that the things he did and said are even somewhere in the ballpark, there some pretty bold stuff in there.
Let's just take a look through the book of Matthew only, quickly. He said that he had the authority on earth to forgive sins. He said that anyone who acknowledges him before men, he would acknowledge before God, and that anyone who denied him before men, he would deny before God. He said that no one knows God the Father unless he, the Son, chooses to reveal him. He said that those who left all for his name's sake will inherit eternal life. He said that he's going to come back in glory with the angels and judge the world. He said that he would died and be raised to life again, and told his followers where to meet him. That doesn't sound like something a "good moral teacher" would say. That sounds like something a lunatic or a liar would say -- unless it was true. There is no door open for the good moral teacher argument. You either say that Jesus is Lord or a nut case or a devil. Those are your choices.
Moving on from there, let's go to the camps that say Jesus is, in fact, Lord. How about those that make him out to be something less than God? Let's take a look at a few things.
How about the first part of the gospel of John? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Read on and you'll see that the "Word became flesh". That sounds like God becoming flesh to me. Some will say the Bible is translated wrong here and it should read "the Word was a god" -- nevermind that those who know Greek and have read the ancient text say that's hogwash.
How about the first part of the book of Hebrews, where it was through Jesus the world was created? Not "a" world, but "the" world. Everything. The whole universe. From nothing.
How about in Acts, where it is written "be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood." who's blood? God's blood. Jesus' blood. Same blood.
How about those times people worship Jesus and are not corrected, knowing full well the commandment about worshiping God alone? They are not corrected. Other times people fall down at the feet of angels to worship them, and they are corrected and told to get up.
How about when Thomas says "My Lord and my God!" He's not corrected by Jesus either. Or how about when Paul writes "our God and Savior Jesus Christ?" He does that more than once.
How about Jesus' play on words? "I tell you that before Abraham, I AM." This isn't poor grammar, this is a reference to that whole burning bush thing with Moses, where Moses asks God who to say sent him, and God replies "I AM WHO I AM -- tell them I AM has sent me to you."
How about claiming to forgive sins? He goes around forgiven sins and talking like he's the one offended. Think of it this way -- if someone smacks you in the head, and I tell them "I forgive that," won't you wonder what kind of funny cigarette I've been smoking? I didn't get hit in the head. But that's how Jesus went about -- forgiving sins without checking with the people that might have actually been hurt by people's sins.
How about claiming to die on the cross for the forgiveness of the sins of the world? How could any being less than God himself pay the price for the sins of the whole world? The payment due to an infinite God for sin is infinite. If Jesus is finite, he could not pay it. If Jesus is not finite, then he is infinite, and there is only one who is that.
How about the phrase "Son of God" itself? This isn't some phrase that was taken to be heard as "yeah, we're all sons of God." No, to the Jewish ear 2,000 years ago, that is the equivalent of saying "I'm God." To make it fairly clear, he also said "I and the Father are one." Not one purpose, not one team, not one group. One. Don't believe that's a claim to be God? What was the reaction? "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God." It's pretty clear that the Jews of the time thought Jesus was claiming to be God.
How about the most famous Bible verse of all time? Let's go to the KJV on this one -- "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Now I'm not a "KJV only" guy, but I think we've lost something in more modern translations with "one and only Son" or "only Son. I get why it was changed -- no one knows what the heck begotten means any more. But look in the lists of families in old Bibles -- "so and so begat so and so who begat so and so and so on!" Begat means you made another one of the same kind. People beget people and dogs beget dogs, and so on. God creates. He created matter, people, animals, plants, and so on. They are not him. But Jesus was not his "created son" -- he was his "begotten son". In other Words, the same "stuff" of God, not anything lower that was created.
So I'll agree, it's true. There is no one place in the Bible Jesus says "I am God." There are a ton, just in case we miss a few of them.
Friday, October 7, 2011
A Streetcar Named...
As of late I have been listening to a reading of the book "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. I highly recommend it to any thinking person, Christian and non-Christian alike. My only exposure to Lewis before this has been through quotes or snippets, and the movies based on his Narnia books, which I'm sure don't do his written works justice in comparison.
That said, one part of the thought train in his book discusses the impulses we had, and how no impulse on it's own is "good" or "bad", but it is what we do with that impulse that takes on such a characteristic. Now that the statement and following discussion has had a chance to churn around in my brain a bit, I feel the urge to write about it.
Looking back on my life before I was born again by the Spirit of God, or became a new creation, or came to Christ, or whatever phrase you like, I can see the perversion of my impulses, or desires, quite clearly.
Take for example, the desire for sex. A beautiful thing designed for husbands and wives to create children and be a wonderful expression of love for one another. Perverted it became in my own life a desire in my heart for sex with countless women so easily available through the Internet, in solely self gratifying ways that completely betray the natural design and haven't the slightest to do with love.
For another example, take the desire for play. I like to play video games, or should I say more accurately, one video game at a time that I get really into. Fine for a hobby that is in balance with the more important things of life, allowing my brain to shut off for a while. But many times in the past such games consumed my life -- so much so that early on in my marriage I ignored my wife in the real world to battle goblins in a false one.
Or for yet another example, take the desire for bonding with one's children. I absolutely did this when my children were much littler. So much so that they became false idols in my life. I justified it, as men typically do of their actions when they think they are right (and sometimes when they are not), but the fact was there were things in my life that were ignored for the sake of otherwise good intent run amuck.
These are just a few examples from my own life, but you can apply this concept of excess to just about anything.
The desire to work hard is not a bad thing in itself, unless hard work turns into an obsession that trumps family and friends.
The desire to sleep is not a bad thing in itself, unless it makes a person lazy and negligent of his/her responsibilities.
The desire for food is not a bad thing in itself, unless it turns a person into a glutton or a bad steward wasting enormous sums on "fine dining".
The desire for comfort is not a bad thing in itself, unless it blocks a person's ability to be a comforter to others.
The desire for freedom is not a bad thing in itself, unless the fight for freedom is what enslaves a person.
The desire for protection is not a bad thing in itself, unless it makes a person too fearful to step out into new territory to help a fellow soul.
The desire for approval is not a bad thing in itself, unless it turns a person into a mere people pleaser, vain and shallow.
The desire for long life is not a bad thing in itself, unless long life becomes the end goal instead of a gift to be used in service to God and others.
Need I go on? I think not! The point is clear -- our desires are things to be directed and measured out with thought, not released without rhyme or reason so that we run from one to the other, trying to fill with something else a hole that only God can fill.
And that brings me to a desire I have not yet mentioned. There are many, but I speak of one specifically. That is a desire for God, and God IS the end goal, not a means to something else. When we seek fulfillment through any other desire, we don't find it, because only God can give us fulfillment. When we seek fulfillment through a desire for God, we will find it, because he is what can fill the hole inside of us that we may not even realize is there.
Mind you, I did not say a desire for God "stuff" -- I said a desire for God himself. We can exhaust ourselves forcing the study of his Word, volunteering at church, witnessing to people, teaching here, giving there, and so on. Forcing work "for God" I think is a sign of a wrong approach and a wrong desire. Maybe we secretly, even unknowingly, desire the self-satisfaction of meeting our own moral standard. Or maybe it is the approval of others. Or maybe it is because we think it is our "Christian duty". I stand guilty of all of these, hands down. But I know in my mind, and I hope and pray that it makes it to my heart and sticks, that the only desire I should encourage unchecked growth of is the desire for God himself.
Praise God for Jesus Christ, the one who saves us from our sins and thus ourselves when we put our faith in him. It is he that opens the way for the Spirit of God to come live in us and rekindle a desire for God that would otherwise lay dormant and be trampled on by our own self indulgence.
That said, one part of the thought train in his book discusses the impulses we had, and how no impulse on it's own is "good" or "bad", but it is what we do with that impulse that takes on such a characteristic. Now that the statement and following discussion has had a chance to churn around in my brain a bit, I feel the urge to write about it.
Looking back on my life before I was born again by the Spirit of God, or became a new creation, or came to Christ, or whatever phrase you like, I can see the perversion of my impulses, or desires, quite clearly.
Take for example, the desire for sex. A beautiful thing designed for husbands and wives to create children and be a wonderful expression of love for one another. Perverted it became in my own life a desire in my heart for sex with countless women so easily available through the Internet, in solely self gratifying ways that completely betray the natural design and haven't the slightest to do with love.
For another example, take the desire for play. I like to play video games, or should I say more accurately, one video game at a time that I get really into. Fine for a hobby that is in balance with the more important things of life, allowing my brain to shut off for a while. But many times in the past such games consumed my life -- so much so that early on in my marriage I ignored my wife in the real world to battle goblins in a false one.
Or for yet another example, take the desire for bonding with one's children. I absolutely did this when my children were much littler. So much so that they became false idols in my life. I justified it, as men typically do of their actions when they think they are right (and sometimes when they are not), but the fact was there were things in my life that were ignored for the sake of otherwise good intent run amuck.
These are just a few examples from my own life, but you can apply this concept of excess to just about anything.
The desire to work hard is not a bad thing in itself, unless hard work turns into an obsession that trumps family and friends.
The desire to sleep is not a bad thing in itself, unless it makes a person lazy and negligent of his/her responsibilities.
The desire for food is not a bad thing in itself, unless it turns a person into a glutton or a bad steward wasting enormous sums on "fine dining".
The desire for comfort is not a bad thing in itself, unless it blocks a person's ability to be a comforter to others.
The desire for freedom is not a bad thing in itself, unless the fight for freedom is what enslaves a person.
The desire for protection is not a bad thing in itself, unless it makes a person too fearful to step out into new territory to help a fellow soul.
The desire for approval is not a bad thing in itself, unless it turns a person into a mere people pleaser, vain and shallow.
The desire for long life is not a bad thing in itself, unless long life becomes the end goal instead of a gift to be used in service to God and others.
Need I go on? I think not! The point is clear -- our desires are things to be directed and measured out with thought, not released without rhyme or reason so that we run from one to the other, trying to fill with something else a hole that only God can fill.
And that brings me to a desire I have not yet mentioned. There are many, but I speak of one specifically. That is a desire for God, and God IS the end goal, not a means to something else. When we seek fulfillment through any other desire, we don't find it, because only God can give us fulfillment. When we seek fulfillment through a desire for God, we will find it, because he is what can fill the hole inside of us that we may not even realize is there.
Mind you, I did not say a desire for God "stuff" -- I said a desire for God himself. We can exhaust ourselves forcing the study of his Word, volunteering at church, witnessing to people, teaching here, giving there, and so on. Forcing work "for God" I think is a sign of a wrong approach and a wrong desire. Maybe we secretly, even unknowingly, desire the self-satisfaction of meeting our own moral standard. Or maybe it is the approval of others. Or maybe it is because we think it is our "Christian duty". I stand guilty of all of these, hands down. But I know in my mind, and I hope and pray that it makes it to my heart and sticks, that the only desire I should encourage unchecked growth of is the desire for God himself.
Praise God for Jesus Christ, the one who saves us from our sins and thus ourselves when we put our faith in him. It is he that opens the way for the Spirit of God to come live in us and rekindle a desire for God that would otherwise lay dormant and be trampled on by our own self indulgence.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Who Is This Man?
I love this part from C.S. Lewis' "Mere Christianity":
Then comes the real shock. Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world Who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips.
One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sins: any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offences against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men's toes and stealing other men's money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did.
He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history.
Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is "humble and meek" and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings.
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Then comes the real shock. Among these Jews there suddenly turns up a man who goes about talking as if He was God. He claims to forgive sins. He says He has always existed. He says He is coming to judge the world at the end of time. Now let us get this clear. Among Pantheists, like the Indians, anyone might say that he was a part of God, or one with God: there would be nothing very odd about it. But this man, since He was a Jew, could not mean that kind of God. God, in their language, meant the Being outside the world Who had made it and was infinitely different from anything else. And when you have grasped that, you will see that what this man said was, quite simply, the most shocking thing that has ever been uttered by human lips.
One part of the claim tends to slip past us unnoticed because we have heard it so often that we no longer see what it amounts to. I mean the claim to forgive sins: any sins. Now unless the speaker is God, this is really so preposterous as to be comic. We can all understand how a man forgives offences against himself. You tread on my toe and I forgive you, you steal my money and I forgive you. But what should we make of a man, himself unrobbed and untrodden on, who announced that he forgave you for treading on other men's toes and stealing other men's money? Asinine fatuity is the kindest description we should give of his conduct. Yet this is what Jesus did.
He told people that their sins were forgiven, and never waited to consult all the other people whom their sins had undoubtedly injured. He unhesitatingly behaved as if He was the party chiefly concerned, the person chiefly offended in all offences. This makes sense only if He really was the God whose laws are broken and whose love is wounded in every sin. In the mouth of any speaker who is not God, these words would imply what I can only regard as a silliness and conceit unrivalled by any other character in history.
Yet (and this is the strange, significant thing) even His enemies, when they read the Gospels, do not usually get the impression of silliness and conceit. Still less do unprejudiced readers. Christ says that He is "humble and meek" and we believe Him; not noticing that, if He were merely a man, humility and meekness are the very last characteristics we could attribute to some of His sayings.
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Christians Are Hypocrites
That's what is heard a lot from people who aren't Christians. If you're not a Christian and think Christians are hypocrites, then let me say this:
I agree with you. Absolutely we're hypocrites.
And now, so as to not accuse my own brothers and sisters, I will discuss how this applies to me. But first let me delve a little bit into two standards.
Now I've said, correctly, for quite some time that no one lives up to God's standards. The Bible says "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" and that is absolutely true. There is no way we as mere human beings can live up to the perfect standards of a perfect and holy God. And it was from that position I would say "See that's why we need Jesus Christ -- he solves the problem. He paid the price for our sins so that we don't have to, nor could we if we tried. That is why he is the way, and the only way."
I don't disagree with any of that. In fact, it's even more obvious now that I know Christ and have commands like "love God with all your heart", "love your neighbor as yourself", "be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect" and "do everything for the glory of God". Yeah. Ain't gonna happen. So now that I have come to know the one who saves me from my sins, I see even more so what a sinner I am, as there is no way I can live up to those commands.
But what I'm noticing more and more lately (thank you Prayer Dare) that I don't even live up to my own standards -- not just in the past, but day to day, even with some knowledge of God's Word, connection to God in prayer, his Spirit in me leading me and prompting me, and so on. I was a sinner saved by grace and I'm still a sinner saved by grace. Praise God for grace, and mercy!
Let me throw out some examples:
- It bugs me when someone rattles off a bunch of cuss words in a sentence. But when I'm alone playing Halo (which in itself doesn't glorify God no matter what stupid argument I could come up with to say that it does), I'm no different. You !@#$, that was my rocket launcher!
- It irritates me when someone cuts me off one the freeway, especially without the courtesy wave. I would never do that. Except for when I really need to get over or I'm way behind.
- I tell people in circumstances far less rosy than mine not to worry. After all, Jesus said not to worry. And then when some little thing goes wrong in my perfect little Disneyland world, guess what I do? You'll only need one.
- I have that Bible verse in my office about working hard -- "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men". It's still sitting there above me head when I'm posting something on Facebook or distracted by a Francis Chan video on Youtube. I'm not sure my rationalization about being Mary instead of Martha flies here.
- I put Bible references in my posts that may be there for good reason, or may be there to sound all smart and spiritual. I'm not quite sure, but I do know I don't study the Word for myself a whole lot, and I do know that I just had to look up when name was which for the previous comment.
- I say that the Bible says not to judge incorrectly, and then I turn around and judge incorrectly -- with the top ways being judging with incomplete information, judging by appearance, and, of course, judging hypocritically.
- I sometimes make comments about how girls should dress more modestly, especially when they're coming into church on Sunday morning -- but I tend to (read: always) leave off that part about the motive for saying it being because I am weak and prone to lust.
- I get on my wife's case sometimes about what she spends time and money on, and what she puts into her head from TV. I'm right of course, because all those things I waste time and money on, and the different crap I put into my head is much more holy, right?
- I caution against making checklists and evaluating one's goodness based on performance, and then I end up making checklists and "testing myself" by seeing how many boxes on my "Christian life list" I have checked off.
- I try to force in additional spiritual training with my kids to get one of the above boxes checked off and end up getting frustrated and feeling worse about my own standing with God when it doesn't go right because I crammed it in out of my own effort. That doesn't sound like living by a gospel of grace.
Is that enough? I could keep thinking and going on, but, man, I suck. So yeah, this Christian is a hypocrite.
And guess what? That's pretty much the whole point. It's one of the MANY reasons I needed, need, and will forever need, Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.
Christian, faith in Christ is not a one shot deal. You need him every day. Your sanctification is a lifelong process. Keep searching yourself and asking God to show you what's broken and in need of fixing. Trust me, there's a lot. If you ever think you've arrived, you're either an outright liar, or you're just not wanting to see what's in front of you.
Non-Christian, I'm sorry if you've been turned off to Christianity because of the behavior of any Christian people, rather than the Christian message itself. But please see that such behavior is just further evidence of why we ALL need Jesus Christ.
'Nuff said!
I agree with you. Absolutely we're hypocrites.
And now, so as to not accuse my own brothers and sisters, I will discuss how this applies to me. But first let me delve a little bit into two standards.
Now I've said, correctly, for quite some time that no one lives up to God's standards. The Bible says "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" and that is absolutely true. There is no way we as mere human beings can live up to the perfect standards of a perfect and holy God. And it was from that position I would say "See that's why we need Jesus Christ -- he solves the problem. He paid the price for our sins so that we don't have to, nor could we if we tried. That is why he is the way, and the only way."
I don't disagree with any of that. In fact, it's even more obvious now that I know Christ and have commands like "love God with all your heart", "love your neighbor as yourself", "be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect" and "do everything for the glory of God". Yeah. Ain't gonna happen. So now that I have come to know the one who saves me from my sins, I see even more so what a sinner I am, as there is no way I can live up to those commands.
But what I'm noticing more and more lately (thank you Prayer Dare) that I don't even live up to my own standards -- not just in the past, but day to day, even with some knowledge of God's Word, connection to God in prayer, his Spirit in me leading me and prompting me, and so on. I was a sinner saved by grace and I'm still a sinner saved by grace. Praise God for grace, and mercy!
Let me throw out some examples:
- It bugs me when someone rattles off a bunch of cuss words in a sentence. But when I'm alone playing Halo (which in itself doesn't glorify God no matter what stupid argument I could come up with to say that it does), I'm no different. You !@#$, that was my rocket launcher!
- It irritates me when someone cuts me off one the freeway, especially without the courtesy wave. I would never do that. Except for when I really need to get over or I'm way behind.
- I tell people in circumstances far less rosy than mine not to worry. After all, Jesus said not to worry. And then when some little thing goes wrong in my perfect little Disneyland world, guess what I do? You'll only need one.
- I have that Bible verse in my office about working hard -- "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men". It's still sitting there above me head when I'm posting something on Facebook or distracted by a Francis Chan video on Youtube. I'm not sure my rationalization about being Mary instead of Martha flies here.
- I put Bible references in my posts that may be there for good reason, or may be there to sound all smart and spiritual. I'm not quite sure, but I do know I don't study the Word for myself a whole lot, and I do know that I just had to look up when name was which for the previous comment.
- I say that the Bible says not to judge incorrectly, and then I turn around and judge incorrectly -- with the top ways being judging with incomplete information, judging by appearance, and, of course, judging hypocritically.
- I sometimes make comments about how girls should dress more modestly, especially when they're coming into church on Sunday morning -- but I tend to (read: always) leave off that part about the motive for saying it being because I am weak and prone to lust.
- I get on my wife's case sometimes about what she spends time and money on, and what she puts into her head from TV. I'm right of course, because all those things I waste time and money on, and the different crap I put into my head is much more holy, right?
- I caution against making checklists and evaluating one's goodness based on performance, and then I end up making checklists and "testing myself" by seeing how many boxes on my "Christian life list" I have checked off.
- I try to force in additional spiritual training with my kids to get one of the above boxes checked off and end up getting frustrated and feeling worse about my own standing with God when it doesn't go right because I crammed it in out of my own effort. That doesn't sound like living by a gospel of grace.
Is that enough? I could keep thinking and going on, but, man, I suck. So yeah, this Christian is a hypocrite.
And guess what? That's pretty much the whole point. It's one of the MANY reasons I needed, need, and will forever need, Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior.
Christian, faith in Christ is not a one shot deal. You need him every day. Your sanctification is a lifelong process. Keep searching yourself and asking God to show you what's broken and in need of fixing. Trust me, there's a lot. If you ever think you've arrived, you're either an outright liar, or you're just not wanting to see what's in front of you.
Non-Christian, I'm sorry if you've been turned off to Christianity because of the behavior of any Christian people, rather than the Christian message itself. But please see that such behavior is just further evidence of why we ALL need Jesus Christ.
'Nuff said!
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Joe Dude's Bible Thoughts: Genesis 17
Remember Abram and Sarai's attempt at fulfilling God's promise on their own? It was thirteen years from that time until God started fulfilling his promise HIS way. "Waiting on the LORD" is something good that we all need to learn how to do better -- especially in rush rush instant gratification western culture, where we want everything now now now. God will do things his way in his own time. I wonder how many doubted the promise of God to send a savior, until Jesus showed up on the scene to pay the price for our sins on the cross.
I wonder how many more doubt still the promise of his return where he will judge the world. After all, it's been almost two thousand years. Instead of doubting God, one is wise to remember the words of his servant, who wrote "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (2 Peter 3:9) Think on that for a minute -- if you are follower of Christ, why wouldn't you want him to come back? It would be the best news ever! Unless there was someone you loved who didn't believe in him. There, for their sake, you would ask the Lord Jesus to delay just a while longer, wouldn't you? God patiently waited for me to come to repentance, and I'm eternally grateful for it. If you reader are on the fence about Jesus Christ, don't delay! God will wait, but he won't wait forever -- if you feel that push on your heart to turn toward Jesus, do it now -- today is the day of salvation!
Okay, moving on -- verse 3. Abram fell on his face. I'm pretty sure that's what I'd do too. I know people who have said "when I get to heaven, I'm going to tell God", thinking they're so much wiser than God that they can give him consuel. I've also heard people say, and have said myself, "when I get to heaven, I'm going to ask God ". Well, there's no arrogance there, but I still don't believe it's going to happen. Think about it, this is the creator of the universe -- a God of all kinds of crazy power and might. Isaiah saw a vision of him and was completely undone. Paul saw a vision of heaven and had no words to describe it. That's how we'll be before this holy and sovereign being that is so far beyond us, no questions asked -- absolutely floored.
Time for a name change -- Abram is now Abraham. I looked up Abraham on Wikipedia, a less than brilliant idea on my part. The biblical text pretty much says Abraham means "father of a multitude of nations" but scholars don't accept this. We're talking about God's Word here, not Pat the Bunny or Hop on Pop -- if the Bible says "A" means "B" then I'll wager that "A" means "B?!
I don't get the whole circumcision thing. I mean I get the idea of having some sign that sets you apart and the whole argument later in the New Testament about it meaning nothing without the proper heart change -- the same way baptism means nothing if you haven't been transformed by Jesus Christ. I just don't get why this particular sign was used. I'm not going to dwell on that too much -- when we start asking "Why did God..." we are headed for trouble. We can make some sane guesses about why God did some things, but the fact is, unless his Word explicitly tells us, we don't know the "why", and that's okay. I don't know why God made stinkbugs, but he did, and I'm okay with not knowing why.
There's something pretty sketchy here -- buying people with money. At this point I'd like to take one of those big old school Bibles and whack everyone in the head who used Bible passages like this to support slavery in America. From what I understand, "slavery" in the time of Christ was more like an employer/employee relationship. I'm not sure about during Abraham's time though -- but really, it doesn't matter. It seems that throughout history God puts up with all kinds of cultural crap (such as polygamy) without giving it the thumbs up. Remember when Jesus' disciples asked about the sin that caused the guy born blind? The two reasons they asked about came from two different beliefs in the culture at the time, and Jesus pretty much ignored both of them and just told it like it is.
It doesn't seem like a good idea to laugh at God. But really, how often do we hear him speak to us and shrug it off or ignore it? Probably a lot more than we want to admit.
I wonder how many more doubt still the promise of his return where he will judge the world. After all, it's been almost two thousand years. Instead of doubting God, one is wise to remember the words of his servant, who wrote "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (2 Peter 3:9) Think on that for a minute -- if you are follower of Christ, why wouldn't you want him to come back? It would be the best news ever! Unless there was someone you loved who didn't believe in him. There, for their sake, you would ask the Lord Jesus to delay just a while longer, wouldn't you? God patiently waited for me to come to repentance, and I'm eternally grateful for it. If you reader are on the fence about Jesus Christ, don't delay! God will wait, but he won't wait forever -- if you feel that push on your heart to turn toward Jesus, do it now -- today is the day of salvation!
Okay, moving on -- verse 3. Abram fell on his face. I'm pretty sure that's what I'd do too. I know people who have said "when I get to heaven, I'm going to tell God
Time for a name change -- Abram is now Abraham. I looked up Abraham on Wikipedia, a less than brilliant idea on my part. The biblical text pretty much says Abraham means "father of a multitude of nations" but scholars don't accept this. We're talking about God's Word here, not Pat the Bunny or Hop on Pop -- if the Bible says "A" means "B" then I'll wager that "A" means "B?!
I don't get the whole circumcision thing. I mean I get the idea of having some sign that sets you apart and the whole argument later in the New Testament about it meaning nothing without the proper heart change -- the same way baptism means nothing if you haven't been transformed by Jesus Christ. I just don't get why this particular sign was used. I'm not going to dwell on that too much -- when we start asking "Why did God..." we are headed for trouble. We can make some sane guesses about why God did some things, but the fact is, unless his Word explicitly tells us, we don't know the "why", and that's okay. I don't know why God made stinkbugs, but he did, and I'm okay with not knowing why.
There's something pretty sketchy here -- buying people with money. At this point I'd like to take one of those big old school Bibles and whack everyone in the head who used Bible passages like this to support slavery in America. From what I understand, "slavery" in the time of Christ was more like an employer/employee relationship. I'm not sure about during Abraham's time though -- but really, it doesn't matter. It seems that throughout history God puts up with all kinds of cultural crap (such as polygamy) without giving it the thumbs up. Remember when Jesus' disciples asked about the sin that caused the guy born blind? The two reasons they asked about came from two different beliefs in the culture at the time, and Jesus pretty much ignored both of them and just told it like it is.
It doesn't seem like a good idea to laugh at God. But really, how often do we hear him speak to us and shrug it off or ignore it? Probably a lot more than we want to admit.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Joe Dude's Bible Thoughts: Genesis 15 And 16
Stop after verse 6. Look at just what happened. God told Abram something that seemed impossible to him, yet Abram believed God. I have heard it said that faith is "believing God despite the evidence and then watching the evidence change." That's exactly what happened with Abraham, isn't it? The initial promise of an heir was given, and Abraham had numerous descendants. Check out Galatians 3:29 which says "And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise."
There's a whole lot of future telling that God does with Abraham next. I never paid a whole lot of attention to it before, but he pretty much tells Abram -- "Your descendants are going to be slaves, then I'm going to judge the nation they're in, bring them out, and give them a bunch of stuff. Then I'm going to have them come back here and wipe out the people that live around here because they're wicked too -- and after 400 years, they're still going to be wicked. But you, you're going to die in peace." That's a whole lot to lay on a guy who's really old wife isn't pregnant yet with a promised heir.
I'm not a geography wizard, but I do recall hearing that not all the land God promised to Abraham's descendants was taken by the Israelites. There's a whole lot of failing to trust God in that I think. think of it this way -- if you're a baseball player and God promised you 3 home runs in the game, and all you do at bat is try to bunt, those home runs probably aren't going to happen. Why should they? You would have obviously not believed God's promises in the first place.
That said, there are some promises God obviously did not allow to be hindered by man's own stubborn and unbelieving heart -- all that stuff leading up to a savior who would take away the sins of the world especially!
On the topic of doubting God's promises, Sarai didn't seem to believe God's promises too well in chapter 16. She's thinking "Well, this child by me thing isn't working...hey Abe, go sleep with my servant." So what was going on in Abraham's head? Was he also not believing God's promises, or was he thinking with his lower brain more than his upper one in this case? Given my sins of the past and my weakness, I could get the whole "Hey my wife told me to go bonk the servant girl, and she had a good reason!" rationalization here. I'm not saying it wasn't sin, just saying I get how he could fall into it pretty easily.
Like how that whole plan backfires? "Hey that girl you slept with doesn't like me now!" "She's yours, deal with it." And then whatever Sarai does makes her run away. Broken relationships and tension lay all over the place here. That's pretty much what happens when we go off and do things our own way instead of God's way -- we break a bunch of stuff.
And what does God to in the middle of the mess? He steps in to get it worked out like a dad steps in between his fighting children to get things right again. He shows grace and mercy in spades here, restoring the relationships that got jacked up.
There's a whole lot of future telling that God does with Abraham next. I never paid a whole lot of attention to it before, but he pretty much tells Abram -- "Your descendants are going to be slaves, then I'm going to judge the nation they're in, bring them out, and give them a bunch of stuff. Then I'm going to have them come back here and wipe out the people that live around here because they're wicked too -- and after 400 years, they're still going to be wicked. But you, you're going to die in peace." That's a whole lot to lay on a guy who's really old wife isn't pregnant yet with a promised heir.
I'm not a geography wizard, but I do recall hearing that not all the land God promised to Abraham's descendants was taken by the Israelites. There's a whole lot of failing to trust God in that I think. think of it this way -- if you're a baseball player and God promised you 3 home runs in the game, and all you do at bat is try to bunt, those home runs probably aren't going to happen. Why should they? You would have obviously not believed God's promises in the first place.
That said, there are some promises God obviously did not allow to be hindered by man's own stubborn and unbelieving heart -- all that stuff leading up to a savior who would take away the sins of the world especially!
On the topic of doubting God's promises, Sarai didn't seem to believe God's promises too well in chapter 16. She's thinking "Well, this child by me thing isn't working...hey Abe, go sleep with my servant." So what was going on in Abraham's head? Was he also not believing God's promises, or was he thinking with his lower brain more than his upper one in this case? Given my sins of the past and my weakness, I could get the whole "Hey my wife told me to go bonk the servant girl, and she had a good reason!" rationalization here. I'm not saying it wasn't sin, just saying I get how he could fall into it pretty easily.
Like how that whole plan backfires? "Hey that girl you slept with doesn't like me now!" "She's yours, deal with it." And then whatever Sarai does makes her run away. Broken relationships and tension lay all over the place here. That's pretty much what happens when we go off and do things our own way instead of God's way -- we break a bunch of stuff.
And what does God to in the middle of the mess? He steps in to get it worked out like a dad steps in between his fighting children to get things right again. He shows grace and mercy in spades here, restoring the relationships that got jacked up.
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