Obedience

God threw this one to me today so I thought I'd share

Jesus said "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." (John 14:15)

If we're believers, what do we think when we hear that? A typical response I think is something like "Okay God, I love you, I'll keep your commandments." We better get the gospel when we say that, because if we don't get the gospel, one of two things will happen.

- Thing 1. Pride. We'll do well, in some areas, and say "Look how good I'm keeping A, B, and C compared to those other people. Man, I rock!" Never mind D through Z.

- Thing 2. Despair. We'll recognize our miserable failure to do what we said and give up. "I can't do this, it's hopeless for me!"

We need to get the gospel.

Jesus didn't say "To be saved, keep my commandments." He said "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." If you just read that as "Obedience doesn't matter" that is NOT what I said. Hold your thought and keep reading. Let's focus on the first part -- "If you love me..."

Well how do you get to the point of loving God?

"We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." (1 John 4:19-21)

How did God first love us?

"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10)

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." (John 3:16-17)

"God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

So God first loved us through the cross. When we repent of our sins and turn to Jesus for our salvation, we get a new heart, a new nature -- one that desires God above all things. It is from this new nature that we can truly love God, and demonstrate it through obedience, which includes loving others.

But let me try to be very clear -- this obedience from the new nature is not a "try really hard to show my love" thing. It's a "by my new nature I will obey, because I love God" thing.

Or to put it another way getting rid of that pesky and confusing "you will" and clarifying the meaning:

"If you love me, you better keep my commandments to show it." No.

"If you love me, you're going to keep my commandments." Yes.

Not getting this right leads to works based self-righteousness that focuses on ourselves and what we do. It makes our perception of God's love for us, and possibly our state of salvation, dependent on our performance. That's evil.

Getting this right leads to to grace based Christ-righteousness that focuses on God and what he did. It makes our perception of God's love for us, and our state of salvation, dependent on the cross. That's good. That's God.

Blind Obedience?

You know there's a lot of misconceptions about God. One in particular is regarding obedience. There are those who might say that blind obedience is a bad thing. That listening to a bunch of rules because God's Word says to do them is stupid, and that we should think for ourselves.

Well.

First, its not a bad thing. If God says to do something, we ought to do it -- for no other reason than God said to do it. He's the creator of the universe and of all mankind. He made it, he made us, and therefore he gets to make the rules. You can't argue with him. His stuff, his rules.

Now, you can argue that the Bible is not the Word of God, but that is a whole different can of worms. Suffice to say, that the main reason many people deep down reject the Bible as the Word of God is not because of some great logical argument or evidence, but rather that they don't want to be held accountable to God for not listening to what he says. If you can rationalize away the Bible then you can go make up your own god and your own ideas about what this god wants. In effect, you make yourself God. That's a tradgedy.

But back on target, to blind obedience.

Despite the fact that blindly obeying God is a correct thing to do, the Bible doesn't leave us blind anyway! Check it out:

Genesis 4. The Lord asked Cain was he was angry and told him that if he does what is right, he will be accepted, but if he does what is wrong, sin is crouching at the door ready to get him. God doesn't just say "don't be angry" -- he gives Cain a reason. Can just doesn't listen.

Exodus 20. The ten commandments. The Lord gives a command to honor parents so the children may live long in the land they are going to get. Again, God gives a reason.

Leviticus 20. A bunch of laws. The Lord tells the people to keep them so the land will not vomit them out and because the people have been set apart from the other nations. Again, God gives a reason.

Deuteronomy 28. Moses' recap of the events that took place in the past 80 years or so before he died. He tells the people that if they folow the Lord's commands, he will set them high above all the nations on the earth and lists various blessings that will come on them. Again, a reason.

Let's skip to some New Testament stuff.

Matthew 26. "Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

Mark 10. "No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present ago and, in the age to come, eternal life."

Luke 12. "Whoever acknowledges me before me, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God."

John 15. "If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."

Revelation 3. The letters to the churches. To those who continue to follow Jesus to the end -- "I will give the right to eat from the tree of life." "He will not be hurt at all by the second death." "I will give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it." "I will give him the morning star." "I will never blot out his name from the book of life." "I will make a pillar in the temple of my God." "I will give the right to sit with me on my throne."

Reason after reason after reason.

No, not every single commandment of God is explained with a reason. That would be silly. We're supposed to TRUST God. Just like our children are supposed to TRUST us as parents. We know better, and there are many things that are way over their heads. Even more so with us and God. But this isn't blind obedience. This is obedience with a purpose behind it. Joy. Peace. Honor. Power. Glory. Eternal life. And yes, avoidance of the wrath to come for those who do not heed God's Word.

We should obey God simply because he is God, and we love him, and we trust him. As a BONUS he throws in all this other awesome stuff too. Yet, somehow, we stiff-necked human beings often thing we know better or that there is a better deal? Shame on us.

Grace and Peace

The Heart Of A Child

I came across this poem tonight and like it:

Whatever you write on the heart of a child,
no water can wash away.

The sands may be shifted when billows are wild
and the efforts of time may decay.

Some stories may perish, some songs be forgot,
but this engraved record, time changes it not.

Whatever you write in the heart of a child
a story of gladness or care --

That heaven has blessed or that earth has defiled,
will linger unbearably there.

Who writes it has sealed it forever and aye.
He must answer to God on that great judgment day.

And, fathers do not provoke your children to anger; but bring them up in the disciple and instruction of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)

These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9)

Grace and Peace

What's In A Name?

The name "Christian" is tossed around a lot these days. It originally meant something to the effect of "disciple of Christ" or "follower of Christ", but today it's so watered down that there are even those who say there are "Christian" drunkards, drug addicts, homosexuals, pornographers, and so on. Bunk. Jesus came to die on the cross to save us from our bondage to sin, not so we could revel in it and slap a label on ourselves to make us feel better and give us a false sense of security.

There are a lot of people who believe they are Christians, but are so in name only. They may go to church. They may do church work. They may have said the "sinner's prayer". They may have been baptised. They may go to Bible studies. They may have gone to seminary. They may even hold a leadership position in a church. And they may be wrong about who they think they are because they never really turned from their sin and turned to the Lord.

Jesus never told people to "come forward" or "pray this prayer". That's an American cultural thing. He told people to turn from their sin and follow him.

So if there is no marked change in your life to show evidence that you're a Christian, don't shrug it off, examine yourself, as Paul encouraged us to do, to see if you really fit the bill. When you turn your life over to Christ, you're washed, you go through a transformation.

Does that mean a Christian is perfect? By no means. There is a difference between committing sin and practicing sin. A Christian can definitely still stumble into sin. I know from first hand experience, and let me tell you, it's miserable. The Lord convicts you, and hard sometimes. You know shepherds would sometimes break the legs of the wandering lambs so they would learn to stay with the shepherd? The same goes for our good shepherd.

So what's in a name? Sometimes not much anymore. But there should be.

Grace and Peace

Light Of The World

At one point in his life Gandhi went on a quest to determine which religion of the world was best for his country. On his quest he visited Britain. He stayed in a Christian home. He went to a Christian church. He went away concluding that Christianity is not the religion for his country. Why? He felt no love. He reasoned that if God is love and he felt no love, then God must not be there, and in that home, and in that church, he felt no love. Not one person in the church extended a hand to welcome him, and the Christian home looked no different than a non-Christian home.

No wonder he also said something to the effect of "I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."

Why? Because many of us do not practice what we preach. We're often hypocrites. Period. That makes me hurt inside, especially when I realize the ways in which I also fall into this category. But I pray that anyone, especially myself, who falls into this category doesn't shrug it off and ignore it. I pray that we, who claim to follow Christ, all realize what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. I pray that we all realize what it means to be the light of the world.

I pray this because too often we want to be just like the world, liking the world and having the world like us. Rubbish. We're supposed to be set apart, which means that while we're in the world, we're not of the world. It doesn't mean isolation, and it doesn't mean conformity. It means standing up against the darkness around us and being the bright lights we're called to be.

Think about this. What if someone followed you around for a day? From the time you got up in the morning to the time you went to bed? Would you look like a Christian, or would you look just like everyone else?

1) What about your reactions? Do you race to beat someone on to the freeway or get the parking spot? Do you look the other way when you see someone in need that you really don't want to help? Do you ignore the phone when someone calls because of what you think they might have to say? Do you ignore people that smile at you and say good morning just because you're having a bad day?

2) What about your speech? Are you kind to everyone, or are you kind only to the people that matter to you and rude to others? Are you quick to snap at someone, or do you hold your tongue? Do you join in with gossiping about others or making fun of them, or do you refuse and walk away? Do you yell at other people in your car, even if no one else can hear you? Do you speak graciously to your spouse even when you disagree?

3) What about your appearance? Do you dress modestly, or do you flaunt what you've got? Do you dress down to earth, or do you dress to impress with designer clothes? Do you come as the real you to church, or do you dress way up (or way down) just to stand out from other believers and make them look at you? Do you pick out clothes that represent your Lord and your heart, or do you wear clothes promoting man made "heroes" that have nothing to do with Christian values?

4) What about your music, television shows, movies, books, and video games? Do you make wise decisions about which ones to buy, or do you grab whatever is new and popular? Do the images and sounds glorify God, or are they filled with gore, sex, murder, theft, deceit, foul language, coarse jokes, wicked lifestyles, and demonic imagery?

5) What about your faith? Do you witness to people when the opportunity arises or do you shy away? Do you share the Lord in regular conversation when you're prompted by the Spirit, or do you ignore that prompting and steer the conversation to worldly things? Do you stand up for the Lord when your friend or co-worker takes his name in vain, or do you pretend not to hear? Do you take God's word seriously or do you cherry pick what you want to hear and ignore the rest? Do you pray earnestly and fervently, or do you just rattle off something canned and heartless in the last 5 minutes of your day? Do you teach your children about the Lord and set the right example for them, or do you leave that only up to the local church?

I could go on, but I won't!

I know there are places here we ALL fall short. That's not the point. The point is what we do about it. Are we content to fall short and chalk it up to "the flesh" and "our human nature" and "that's how I am"? Or do we mourn over our shortcomings, our failings, our sins and desire truly to pursue a godly life with all we've got? So, regarding these questions, and the million others that can be asked, the most important question is this: in everything we think, say, and do, is there an overwhelming amount of evidence to convict us of being Christians? If the answer is not yes, we have many things to work on.

And. Even if the answer IS yes. We STILL have many things to work on.

If we are to be a light of the world; that light needs to stand out and shine brightly, not fade into the darkness that surrounds.

Grace and Peace

Idiot's Guide To The Law

I liked the Golden Rule sermon from Duncan here very much:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-3352775746253694898

There's one phrase he used that made it stick in my head more than most. First, let's review the "Golden Rule" from Matthew 7:12: "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."

This, put quite simply by Duncan, is the Idiot's Guide To Following The Law. That's right, Jesus took all that Old Testament law and summed it up in this short, sweet, easy to remember phrase.

Note that there's an important point in the way its worded that we all too often ignore. It is not worded "So in everything, don't do to others what you would not have them do to you", but that is very often how we think of it. We think as long as we hold our temper back, or aren't rude to people, or we don't lie to people, or we don't steal from people, we're following this principle.

There's another bit in it. In this golden rule, we're not just told to refrain from doing bad things we don't want people to do to use, but we're also supposed to do good things that we would want people to do for us. That's a lot more difficult to do I think. Consider the following:

- Say there's a beggar on the street who really needs some food. Its pretty easy to not steal the money he's collected so far that day, but it takes a lot more effort to go across the street to the restaurant and get him something to eat.

- Say your boss is yelling at you about not submitting your TPS report on time. Its pretty easy to not slap him upside the head, but it takes a lot more effort to still tune in to what he's saying and legitimately try to understand the problem from his point of view.

- Say there's a kid at school who gets picked on all the time by your kid's friends. Its pretty easy for your kid to keep quiet and not pick on anyone himself, but it takes a lot more effort to stand up for the one getting picked on.

- And so on!

Easy to remember. Easy to understand. Difficult to do!