Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Love Does Not Rejoice At Wrongdoing, But Rejoices With The Truth
I am sure that most Christians, at one time or another, have experienced someone else or themselves quoting Romans 8:28 in regard to personal sin. For instance, I might get drunk one night, and the next day ease my conscience with the knowledge that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him. I would be right if I said that God is going to use my sin for His plan and for my good, the problem is that instead of celebrating His grace, I have now cheapened it. God did not tell us that He has a perfect plan, with His children in mind, so that we could sin with a clean conscience. He told us about his plan so that we would always seek the good work that He has prepared for us rather than the sin that is so easy to walk in.
Too often I have seen god’s plan being used as a comforter to the unrepentant. The fact is that is was never meant to keep people from feeling guilt for sin. The problem with forgetting God’s plan is that we are then inclined to cease in our service every time we make a mistake. Without “God Works all things together for the good of those who love Him,” each sin seems to be a foil to God’s plan, another reason to give up, more proof that I am God’s enemy, not His soldier. Romans 8:28 should not lull us into unrepentance, it should motivate us toward good works. God is working in our favor, and for His glory, despite our sin. No matter what, never give up. God’s ability to use you is not bound to your ability to attain perfection—He has already done that for you. Therefore, do not be discouraged by your own weakness, but rather be encouraged by God’s strength.
Too often I have seen god’s plan being used as a comforter to the unrepentant. The fact is that is was never meant to keep people from feeling guilt for sin. The problem with forgetting God’s plan is that we are then inclined to cease in our service every time we make a mistake. Without “God Works all things together for the good of those who love Him,” each sin seems to be a foil to God’s plan, another reason to give up, more proof that I am God’s enemy, not His soldier. Romans 8:28 should not lull us into unrepentance, it should motivate us toward good works. God is working in our favor, and for His glory, despite our sin. No matter what, never give up. God’s ability to use you is not bound to your ability to attain perfection—He has already done that for you. Therefore, do not be discouraged by your own weakness, but rather be encouraged by God’s strength.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Sin, Death, Love, and Lazarus
I think that if we are to be successful in ministry, we must understand the world that we are dealing with and the true state of the human soul. I have witnessed very frequently (in myself as well as in others) compassion for things that true love ought to hate and rebuke, and hate for what true love ought to have compassion for. I have seen us going about things all wrong. I believe the root of the mistakes that I have seen and made in ministry lies in a misdiagnosis of the human soul. We may think of it as rotten, gimpy, broken, injured, or otherwise damaged. To us, our souls are severely handicapped, perhaps even in the ICU, but even this view does not get to the truth. People are not hurt, injured, or struggling, they are dead. One hundred percent dead. There is no in between, you are either dead or alive, and people are dead without Jesus.
This changes our treatment tremendously. If someone has the spiritual equivalent of a knee-scrape, we might treat it with encouragement and kind words. If someone is on spiritual life support, we might offer a spiritual IV. What do we do for someone who is dead? Who has a cure for that? The truth is that only one can give life, and this is not by encouragement, but only by the breath of God! He must speak us into life. How was the world created? God spoke life into it. How was I created? God spoke life into me. How was I reborn? God spoke life into me. And the only hope I have is in the life that He gives.
So let’s go back to the compassion that should be hate and the hate that should be compassion. John 11 chronicles Jesus raising Lazarus from a bodily death. In this passage we see very clearly that God does care about our pain. Jesus knew that he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, and yet he saw the suffering of his family, he saw that Lazarus was dead, and HE WEPT. He knows the end, He IS the life, and when He sees the effects of death…He cries. However, He has no compassion for death itself. He has no compassion for the things that cause it. He spits in the face of death by overcoming it, and saying “Lazarus, come forth!” He does not say, “Lazarus, I know you’ve been struggling with death lately, and I want to be sensitive to that, but I also want to encourage you in your fight against it.” He hates death and He calls Lazarus out of it. This is the way we ought to deal with sin. We should hate it. We should not tolerate it because it is death, and we don’t want death in the lives of our friends. We must call people out of it because of our compassion for them, and our fervent hate for sin.
It is my prayer that we would rebuke and disown the work of Satan, which is death, and call one another into the true life by the faith and authority given to us by the grace of God.
This changes our treatment tremendously. If someone has the spiritual equivalent of a knee-scrape, we might treat it with encouragement and kind words. If someone is on spiritual life support, we might offer a spiritual IV. What do we do for someone who is dead? Who has a cure for that? The truth is that only one can give life, and this is not by encouragement, but only by the breath of God! He must speak us into life. How was the world created? God spoke life into it. How was I created? God spoke life into me. How was I reborn? God spoke life into me. And the only hope I have is in the life that He gives.
So let’s go back to the compassion that should be hate and the hate that should be compassion. John 11 chronicles Jesus raising Lazarus from a bodily death. In this passage we see very clearly that God does care about our pain. Jesus knew that he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, and yet he saw the suffering of his family, he saw that Lazarus was dead, and HE WEPT. He knows the end, He IS the life, and when He sees the effects of death…He cries. However, He has no compassion for death itself. He has no compassion for the things that cause it. He spits in the face of death by overcoming it, and saying “Lazarus, come forth!” He does not say, “Lazarus, I know you’ve been struggling with death lately, and I want to be sensitive to that, but I also want to encourage you in your fight against it.” He hates death and He calls Lazarus out of it. This is the way we ought to deal with sin. We should hate it. We should not tolerate it because it is death, and we don’t want death in the lives of our friends. We must call people out of it because of our compassion for them, and our fervent hate for sin.
It is my prayer that we would rebuke and disown the work of Satan, which is death, and call one another into the true life by the faith and authority given to us by the grace of God.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Who's the Boss?
I'm reading a book by Mark Dever right now called What is a Healthy Church? It's totally legit. On the section where he is stressing the importance of the teaching of biblical theology rather than whatever is easiest, or whatever a passage might be able to say when taken out of the context of the bible, he asks four questions that cause any christian who answers them to see how simple the facts of our faith are, even though it may be difficult to summon up the bravery or the faith to proclaim them.
1) Are people basically bad or good? Do they merely need encouragement and self-esteem, or do they need forgiveness and new life?
2) What did jesus Christ do by dying on the cross? Did he actually and effectively satisfy the just wrath of the Father, or did he merely set an example of self-sacrifice for his followers?
3)What happens when someone becomes a Christian?
4) If we are Christians, can we be sure that God will continue to care for us? If so, is his continuing care based on our faithfulness, or on his?
Now, obviously each of these questions is a trap for anyone who opposes the author's presuppositions. Regardless though, aren't the latter possibilities of 1, 2, and 4 eerily familiar? And also, does it not seem that the latter possibility is using what works practically rather that what is true? If the answer is yes, then my question is this: who are we trusting to change people's hearts? Is it the revelation that comes by the holy spirit, or is it the techniques and presentations that we use to portray a message that is, more or less, the Gospel? Are we picking and choosing the things about God that are easier to understand and are more universally appealing while we throw out the difficult and more counter-intuitive or counter-cultural aspects of our God? I would say yes, the church as a whole (of which I am a part) is guilty of a lack of faith when it comes to God's ability to reveal himself to the hearts of people.
He closes out this section with this:
"Just consider: If we want churches that display God's character, don't we want to know everything he has revealed about himself in the Bible? What does it say about our opinion of his character if we don't?"
This is the question that I am left asking myself, and challenge anyone who reads this to ask as well. May we, God's people, have faith in the power of God to redeem lives, and utter mistrust in our own ability to do anything of the sort. It is God who saves, and God alone. It is all of God who saves, not just the parts of Him that i enjoy, or am comfortable with, or the ones that i understand.
1) Are people basically bad or good? Do they merely need encouragement and self-esteem, or do they need forgiveness and new life?
2) What did jesus Christ do by dying on the cross? Did he actually and effectively satisfy the just wrath of the Father, or did he merely set an example of self-sacrifice for his followers?
3)What happens when someone becomes a Christian?
4) If we are Christians, can we be sure that God will continue to care for us? If so, is his continuing care based on our faithfulness, or on his?
Now, obviously each of these questions is a trap for anyone who opposes the author's presuppositions. Regardless though, aren't the latter possibilities of 1, 2, and 4 eerily familiar? And also, does it not seem that the latter possibility is using what works practically rather that what is true? If the answer is yes, then my question is this: who are we trusting to change people's hearts? Is it the revelation that comes by the holy spirit, or is it the techniques and presentations that we use to portray a message that is, more or less, the Gospel? Are we picking and choosing the things about God that are easier to understand and are more universally appealing while we throw out the difficult and more counter-intuitive or counter-cultural aspects of our God? I would say yes, the church as a whole (of which I am a part) is guilty of a lack of faith when it comes to God's ability to reveal himself to the hearts of people.
He closes out this section with this:
"Just consider: If we want churches that display God's character, don't we want to know everything he has revealed about himself in the Bible? What does it say about our opinion of his character if we don't?"
This is the question that I am left asking myself, and challenge anyone who reads this to ask as well. May we, God's people, have faith in the power of God to redeem lives, and utter mistrust in our own ability to do anything of the sort. It is God who saves, and God alone. It is all of God who saves, not just the parts of Him that i enjoy, or am comfortable with, or the ones that i understand.
Monday, May 4, 2009
God is Real
I find that I need to remind myself that God is real. This is not from any deficiency of His; the fault is my own. I love to think, I love to discuss, I love to have a healthy argument, but in this God becomes nothing more than an idea. I am so thankful for my mind, but I hate what Satan can do with it. Satan, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus! In the course of my defense of God and the Gospel, I feel like I have created God. After all, I create stories, I create songs, all other practices of this sort do involve invention on my part. The problem is that God is real. He is not subject to my opinions, and He certainly is not formed by them. I hate pride. My boast should be in nothing but Christ. Why can I be great, glorified, and humble? It is because the work is done in me by the Spirit of God, not by me.
I keep coming back to the subject of my inadequacy because I find so much joy in it. Let me make it very clear that I am not beating myself up when I say that I am bad, or useless, or that my efforts are futile. There is enormous freedom in these admissions because I am no longer fighting a battle that I am unable to win, it is in the recognition of my inadequacy that I am enabled by and empowered with the strength of Christ. I get frustrated when I attempt to glorify and serve God on my own because it does not work. I find joy and greater worship when I concede because I am filled with the power that comes from the Spirit of Sonship, the power that causes me to be more than a conqueror.
I keep coming back to the subject of my inadequacy because I find so much joy in it. Let me make it very clear that I am not beating myself up when I say that I am bad, or useless, or that my efforts are futile. There is enormous freedom in these admissions because I am no longer fighting a battle that I am unable to win, it is in the recognition of my inadequacy that I am enabled by and empowered with the strength of Christ. I get frustrated when I attempt to glorify and serve God on my own because it does not work. I find joy and greater worship when I concede because I am filled with the power that comes from the Spirit of Sonship, the power that causes me to be more than a conqueror.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Guilt
Why is guilt bad? It is a simple question, and most children in Sunday school know to say that guilt is from the devil and conviction is from God. This is true, but it does not answer why guilt is bad, it only explains that it exists and where it comes from. There is something in the very nature of guilt that can explain its opposition to conviction, its good counterpart, in a way that goes beyond a simple lesson of origin. So, what is the true difference between guilt and conviction? Is guilt bad because it makes us feel bad? No, that cannot be true because conviction also come with the feeling and/or act of contrition (which is not necessarily bad, but one does not enjoy contrition in the same way one would enjoy a warm bath or a candy bar). I would like to argue that it is because of they why (why do we feel guilt, and why do we feel conviction?), and also the subsequent action (which cannot be divorced, especially in the case of guilt, from its cause).
Repentance is the act of turning away from something, presumably sin, and this is the natural successor of conviction; the heart is made aware of its rebellion, the mind defines this, and the will carries out a definite change. Out of such an act comes freedom. We believe that the mandates of our God serve first to give Him glory, but, through His grace, they also benefit us by freeing us from our fallen nature, which always proves to be binding. The difference between conviction and guilt is that guilt is produced through a lack of repentance. I realize that this idea is very simple, but for some reason or another I find in myself the need to write it down. Perhaps it is because through this revelation one can cease to blame God for guilt. He produces within us the distinction between right and wrong because He wants us to be set free, rebellion against what is known sets a person off balance, an unwillingness to conform to righteousness causes a disagreement within a person between what is known and what is practiced.
Therefore, it is not a mean, imposing, or joyless God who causes people to feel guilty, but rather it is a person’s unwillingness to be set free, his or her inconsistency, that causes confusion and subsequent depression. May our hearts remember that it is for freedom that we are set free, that guilt was never God’s desire for humanity, and that we will be satisfied when He is glorified.
Repentance is the act of turning away from something, presumably sin, and this is the natural successor of conviction; the heart is made aware of its rebellion, the mind defines this, and the will carries out a definite change. Out of such an act comes freedom. We believe that the mandates of our God serve first to give Him glory, but, through His grace, they also benefit us by freeing us from our fallen nature, which always proves to be binding. The difference between conviction and guilt is that guilt is produced through a lack of repentance. I realize that this idea is very simple, but for some reason or another I find in myself the need to write it down. Perhaps it is because through this revelation one can cease to blame God for guilt. He produces within us the distinction between right and wrong because He wants us to be set free, rebellion against what is known sets a person off balance, an unwillingness to conform to righteousness causes a disagreement within a person between what is known and what is practiced.
Therefore, it is not a mean, imposing, or joyless God who causes people to feel guilty, but rather it is a person’s unwillingness to be set free, his or her inconsistency, that causes confusion and subsequent depression. May our hearts remember that it is for freedom that we are set free, that guilt was never God’s desire for humanity, and that we will be satisfied when He is glorified.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Judgment
It’s a word that people like to stay away from, but as much negative though as there is surrounding it, judgment is a righteous, holy thing that is to be celebrated. It is difficult for the post-modern (or even the modern) mind to view judgment in a positive light, yet somehow justice seems to be an overwhelmingly popular notion for my peers, and even myself. The truth is that justice can never come without judgment; those who are worthy must be distinguished from those who are not in order for justice to be…well…justly administered. What does justice mean? Well, my friends, it means restoration. There is something very wrong with this world, I would like to posit that this wrongness is an outcome of the fall, but I think that, regardless o the causation, any thinking person would readily agree with the statement that something has gone awry.
The idea of restoration is exactly what would come to the mind of an ancient Jew when presented with the idea of judgment. First, Adam and Eve caused the fall, then a lot of kings did a lot of stupid things involving Baals, and asherah poles, and foreign women, but all along there was a promise of restoration for Israel. From David’s line there was to be a child who would restore Israel, and the Jews held tightly to this promise. Judgment, to them, was the condemnation of the wicked, by judgment things would be put right with God, and with God’s people. Jews would rejoice in this and await it eagerly. To them, it meant the expulsion of foreign leaders and the end of oppression because this child was to become a king and liberator to God’s chosen people.
The child was born, and His name is Jesus. He has been around since the beginning, but He spent a brief amount of time on earth. While He did not come in the way that many expected, He came with a reign of justice. So what does this mean to the modern human? Well, it still means a lot. There is still a final judgment to come (whether this will come in my life or through my death I do not know) where the world will end and all who are in it will bow before God in the necessary worship that happens in His presence. Every soul will bow, and all of them will confess the Lordship of the Godhead. In this there will be no refutation of God’s judgment because all things will be made clear in His presence. Some will go to heaven, others to hell; this is the judgment that concerns every person. Paul tells us that those who are justified through faith in Jesus Christ have been grafted into the line of Abraham, and therefore we, being the chosen people of God just as the Jews are/were, should see judgment in the same way as an ancient Jew. Judgment sets right the things that are wrong, restores God’s place in His creation, and restores the fullness of communion between God’s people and Himself. This is just, far more just than anything carried out by the heart or hands of man, and that is the most important thing of all and the reason we rejoice. This is not justice carried out by the mind or judgment of humanity, instead it is justice carried out by a loving, good, and perfect God. WE recognize that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28), but we cheer louder for the glory of God than we do for the glory of man. The victory is God’s, and it is God who will be praised ceaselessly into eternity.
This is very important to remember because justice is carried out by God and to God. Salvation, and any other gift, is a product of God’s grace, but His goodness does not rest upon His grace. It is important that grace does not become an expectation because grace is beyond goodness. It would be good of God to condemn all, for all have sinned and fallen short of perfection, the fact that He does not makes this victory even greater. Let us always remember to praise God for His goodness, and thank Him for His grace as we wait patiently and expectantly for the day of judgment.
The idea of restoration is exactly what would come to the mind of an ancient Jew when presented with the idea of judgment. First, Adam and Eve caused the fall, then a lot of kings did a lot of stupid things involving Baals, and asherah poles, and foreign women, but all along there was a promise of restoration for Israel. From David’s line there was to be a child who would restore Israel, and the Jews held tightly to this promise. Judgment, to them, was the condemnation of the wicked, by judgment things would be put right with God, and with God’s people. Jews would rejoice in this and await it eagerly. To them, it meant the expulsion of foreign leaders and the end of oppression because this child was to become a king and liberator to God’s chosen people.
The child was born, and His name is Jesus. He has been around since the beginning, but He spent a brief amount of time on earth. While He did not come in the way that many expected, He came with a reign of justice. So what does this mean to the modern human? Well, it still means a lot. There is still a final judgment to come (whether this will come in my life or through my death I do not know) where the world will end and all who are in it will bow before God in the necessary worship that happens in His presence. Every soul will bow, and all of them will confess the Lordship of the Godhead. In this there will be no refutation of God’s judgment because all things will be made clear in His presence. Some will go to heaven, others to hell; this is the judgment that concerns every person. Paul tells us that those who are justified through faith in Jesus Christ have been grafted into the line of Abraham, and therefore we, being the chosen people of God just as the Jews are/were, should see judgment in the same way as an ancient Jew. Judgment sets right the things that are wrong, restores God’s place in His creation, and restores the fullness of communion between God’s people and Himself. This is just, far more just than anything carried out by the heart or hands of man, and that is the most important thing of all and the reason we rejoice. This is not justice carried out by the mind or judgment of humanity, instead it is justice carried out by a loving, good, and perfect God. WE recognize that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28), but we cheer louder for the glory of God than we do for the glory of man. The victory is God’s, and it is God who will be praised ceaselessly into eternity.
This is very important to remember because justice is carried out by God and to God. Salvation, and any other gift, is a product of God’s grace, but His goodness does not rest upon His grace. It is important that grace does not become an expectation because grace is beyond goodness. It would be good of God to condemn all, for all have sinned and fallen short of perfection, the fact that He does not makes this victory even greater. Let us always remember to praise God for His goodness, and thank Him for His grace as we wait patiently and expectantly for the day of judgment.
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