Observations and Opinions

Public Discourse

2011-10-18T09:31:00.000-07:00

So, Susan Sarandon recently said this, and just a few weeks ago we had the infamous statement from Hank Williams Jr.

What this shows is how ill-read, and ill-informed both of these folks are. It does seem to be in vogue to pull out the 'Hitler' card nowadays, comparing Bush, Obama, and now the Pope to the infamous murderer. Rather than couch arguments in well thought out sentences and insightful perspectives both the right and left side of our political spectrum resort to the most basic and crude ad hominem attacks.

While these two individuals are but the latest in our society to show a complete lack of ability to think deeply, this is an endemic problem, and is a frightening reflection of the society in which we live.

Everyone is out for themselves, and until that changes (if it ever will), the disintegration of our public discourse will continue -- for it is far easier to simply assassinate the character of the opposition rather than address their concerns.

Starting Up Again?

2010-11-10T06:42:00.000-08:00

After talking with my good friend Matt the other evening about blogging, I have decided to pray about and put forth the idea of a new direction for the blog.

I will be the first to admit that I am not the brightest (or even in the top 1000 brightest), Christian blogger(s) out there; nor do I have anything so important to say that someone else has not already addressed it. So, I have allowed my blog to languish - well, those reasons and I have been totally booked out time-wise.

But, after speaking with Matt - I thought that maybe I could work through Puritan books, just doing a type of 'book report' for those who might be interested in reading the Puritans. A reference point, if you will.

Again, there are sites out there that do this well already, but many of them are put up by scholars, and I am a simple country pastor in a small church. My perspective may not be as erudite, but it will be practical.

So, I plan on starting with Thomas Watson's The Godly Man's Picture.

We will see how this goes... Hopefully, I will talk to you soon....

Religious Respect?

2010-10-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

This article really got me thinking.

A couple of things come to mind.

First, I remember when Terry Jones threatened to burn the Koran -- as we all know. The outcry was deafening. Every media personality weighted in, and politicians, local and national, both sides of the aisle, (even international), raised a cry demonizing Pastor Jones.

This was a small church, in a middling town, that threatened to burn a religious book - something that is done every day in other countries (although primarily Bibles), and you would have thought that he had planted a dirty bomb!

Now, I disagree with Pastor Jones -- I am not saying what he did, or threatened to do, was correct, but I am attempting to draw a parallel.

Here, in Loveland, Coloerado we have an ART museum putting blasphemous art out for open public view. I don't remember hearing about this on the news, nor did any politician (say, the White House, or any other national politician) come out decrying this so-called 'art'. Why is that?

I would venture to say that it is because of two things:

1) - The religion being blasphemed is Christianity, which we all know is fair game. Christianity is not a protected religion, but any other religion certainly is!

2) - The world, while they loudly proclaim Islam as a 'religion of peace', KNOWS that it is not. They know that violence is an inherent piece of Islam; and they are afraid of it.

While I have friends who are Muslims, and they are not violent - the folks that have the loudest voice and the power within that religion are violent. A sad, but true statement.

Also, notice what the news was: A 66-year-old woman attacked a piece of trash with a crowbar. Not the fact that the so-called art was actually a piece of blasphemous filth, but that this woman attacked the art.

And, finally, my favorite piece of the article: 'Chagoya told the Associated Press he was saddened to see his work desecrated. "My intention has never been to offend anybody," he said.'

Amazing...

So the next time a politician, or a media personality gets on the TV and shouts about how we have to respect religion, keep in mind that they are not referring to religion in general, but to all religions outside of Christianity.

Where I am... (or where AM I?)

2010-04-05T07:09:00.000-07:00

It has been 4 months since I last posted here - but simply too busy most times to put something up.

I also find that I am nowhere near as prolific as many others in the blogsphere. Pastoring my church and working a full-time job pretty much consumed my time.

I am working in a new position, and still adjusting to it a bit. But, I wanted to at least post (probably to myself), and simply state that I am still alive...

The church has been doing pretty well - we have grown some, and now have a small choir - which for us is a major step, as we traditionally have had no tradition.. :-)

There has been the usual shake-ups, disagreements, and discussions that accompany any change, especially in the realm of church music. It has been, at various times, frustrating, maddening, rewarding and hurtful.

The choir performed an Easter cantata yesterday and it was amazing! We still have challenges ahead, but we have begun to move in a direction that I think will benefit all involved, even if, at this time, they fail to see the benefit.

We have had our share of loss as well, one of my dear friends passed to the other side last month - he had suffered for quite some time with the ravages of dementia and Parkinson's. I was honored to do his service and the church has gathered around his widow to ensure that she is OK. And I lost another good friend at work from cancer - and have tried to be there for his family...

As you can see - right now, I have nothing of import to say, nor any keen observations to share - this is just sort of an update to level-set. I could speak on the politics of our country, or the politics of church life - or even throw out something pithy about Tiger Woods, but I really don't have any keen observations on these things. My head and heart are in a different place and I will ponder and pray about what I may post on next.

I am currently doing a series on evangelism, specifically towards the Muslim community, and also a series on Creationism and its various positions (i.e. Young Earth, Old Earth, Evolution). maybe I will post some of my thoughts on these - we'll see...

Worship Music

2009-12-09T09:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, it has been about six weeks since I posted. A lot has happened -- got caught in a RIF at work, and been very busy at the church. However, I read a short book on worship music while I was away...

The book turned out to be a bust in my opinion. Even though it had the endorsement of a man I truly respect, J. Ligon Duncan III, IMHO, this book was not very compelling.

Before I go much further, I want to say that I agree, by and large, with many of the arguments in the book; i.e. that CCM is inappropriate for worship, and that many (if not most), CCM/modern worship songs are insipid and totally narcissistic. Where I feel that the author went afoul of a solid argument is when he began with the mantra that 'drums' are somehow part of the devil's music.

Now, he did not say that in those words, but he intimates it heavily throughout. And the old boogie man of the 'backbeat' somehow conjuring up Satan in the church is simply not true.

His argument for using classical music is that it is so far removed from anything evil that it is safe to be used in the church - although, in it's day, this music too was frowned upon by many within the church.

This is written from a Western man's view of music - drums and music of the type that he disparages, are used in other parts of the world where people have always used drums as part of their heritage. they also do not have organs, pianos and the other western instruments.

As I said earlier, I agree that CCM has no place in the worship life of the church, and I am a staunch believer in hymns, and even Psalter singing, however the arguments put forth by Mr. Lucarini just don't hold water from a musical standpoint. I would have enjoyed a much more theological argumentation, as opposed to the almost 'mystical' perspective that a certain beat and instrumentation is inherently evil.

Sadly, as I work through the changes in our worship style; attempting to jettison some of the inherited CCM and replace it with more solid modern hymns and Psalter singing, these types of books are really useless. I am going to pick up Michael Horton's A Better Way. This was recommended by a pastor that I truly respect.

I have also found Hughes Oliphant Old's books to be quite useful -- his Worship book is fantastic, as is his Leading in Prayer workbook.

Books such as Dan Lucarini's simply provide no useful theological argumentation - but instead, rely on the same arguments that the CCM folks use to introduce the drivel that they call worship music. I think there is a better way, and I believe that we can use arguments that transcend the 'drums are bad' mentality.

Are You Plugged In?

2009-10-29T18:36:00.000-07:00

So, the final question that I posed on a long ago post was: where do non-denominational churches find fellowship and support?

There are many groups that provide fellowship and accountability, but when you are just starting out, or you are a small church that does not fit the 'denominational' mold, it can be challenging to find support and fellowship. (Make no mistake, 'non-denominational' is much like a denomination)

I will tell you, from personal experience, that you must have this support; it is vital to the life of the pastor and his family that he have someone he can turn to for fellowship, prayer, emotional and spiritual support, and friendship.

I struggled early on in my ministry because I did not have this support structure, and I just wanted to post a few thoughts here about it:

1. Seek out a local pastoral fellowship, or alliance. Most all towns have one, and many times they are not well advertised. YOU must make the effort to find a group, and get plugged in. The group may not fit you exactly, and there may be some within the group who disagree with you on some points of ministry, but this is a good place to learn tolerance as well as the ability to articulate your faith and the reasons why you take a position that you have.

2. Do some web work, find a group that shares your perspective in ministry and join it. Some of these may just be an on-line community, but it is still a good outlet for support. And again, be prepared for discussion! Don't shy away from, or be adversarial to honest, open debate! You will grow tremendously as you learn to disagree in a godly manner.

3. Attend a pastor's conference. Even if you attend alone, the good ones will not leave you alone. You will meet people from all over the country/world, who will become confidant's and counselors.

4. Finally, do not allow your pride to tell you that you can do it on your own. I found my greatest challenge to be maintaining a perspective when I had no outlet or access to other pastors. My fellow elder at our church is fantastic, and I could never do it without him, but we both need the interaction that comes with engaging fellow ministers in discussion, debate, and counsel.

If you are at a small-church and have not done any of the above, I highly recommend that you get plugged in and maintain ties with fellow pastors. It will greatly ease your burden!

May God bless your work!

Are we just nuts?

2009-10-13T11:36:00.001-07:00

How can you tell when a society has jumped the proverbial shark when it comes to insanity?

Well, when you juxtapose this story with this one

Now, anybody with at least four brain cells functioning, please tell me which of these two is a more real and present danger?

TEC Strikes Again

2009-10-01T08:25:00.000-07:00

Abortion, a blessing?

As the writer says -- "What more need be said?"

Incredible -- simply incredible!

Church Growth

2009-09-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

So, I come to the question of "How do you stay true to Biblical truths when the church down the street grew from 5 - 5000 in the same timeframe by giving away a car and flat-screen TVs?"

Well, it is fairly straight forward -- recognize a couple of things:

1. - Churches have traditionally not been 5000, 6000 and up. There were a few but overall, churches tend towards 150 - 200. This is a size in which the pastor can come to know all the members. It is also a size in which people have an opportunity to be involved in ministry as opposed to being spectators at their own church.

2. - Staying true to Biblical truths has nothing to do with how big your church is. This myth has been propagated and circulated by those within the CGM leadership. It is in their best interest to lead everyone to believe that a healthy church is one that doubles their congregation regularly. This sells conferences, and books on CGM. A healthy church can be very modest in their growth, yet be true to Biblical truths. They can also be modest in their growth (numerically) as they grow spiritually.

When we compare our church to others they will inevitably look either much better or much worse than they truly are. In some small churches, every other church is 'missing it', and 'only we' have it figured out. Bad idea! In other small churches, they believe that they are bound for failure because all the churches around them are growing at a much larger rate. Another bad idea!

Truth be told -- most churches in our country are smaller, and most churches do some things well, and others poorly. Do not compare yourself to the most successful or the least successful church in town - compare yourself to the Biblical admonition that we have.

Remember, what you 'win' them with, you will have to 'keep' them with. If you bring people in by giving away a TV, then next week you will need to give away something better, and you will be stuck in a world of responding to the congregation rather than responding to the Holy Spirit's leading, and the clear direction given us in the Bible.

Stay the course!

Thoughts on Staffing

2009-09-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

So, to continue on our series -- "Why Do Small Church Pastors Quit?", I thought I would address staffing. This is a biggie in a small church, but I believe the "desperate" need for staff is based upon a fallacy.

Now, before you respond, understand that I am not saying that staffing issues are not a real concern, but the desperation associated with staffing often is.

Here is the fallacy -- "If I want to be 'successful', I must address EVERYONE'S needs, (or potential needs), right out of the chute."

Watch how you define success!

I know pastors who planted churches and worked feverishly to 'hire' staff for every conceivable position; before they had even thought about the purpose and mission of their church in the selected locale! Now, I will state that all churches exist to be a place for God's people to gather and worship Him corporately -- but why in a specific locale? Is it because there is a dearth of churches in the area? Or maybe, the area has a specific need that a church could bring to the fore, such as a food pantry, and a place where souls would get fed as well. Determine what type of ministries you will have and what your church will look like before rushing out to hire people.

All too often what you end up with in many of the so-called CGM type of churches is a professional staff of employees who deal with the needs of the church -- everything from a pastor of "facilities" (what kind of prayer request might a lavatory bring?) to every specialty ministry under the sun (for example, I know of some places that have a pastor for single men from the ages of 25 - 40).

So, what is a small-church pastor to do? What if he cannot afford to hire a 'heavy-hitter', or someone with a resume that highlights him/her as an up and coming superstar?

Well, here is a novel idea: find someone in the church that has a passion for a ministry and train them up. Now, they will make mistakes, but any pastor who thinks he never made any mistakes is fooling himself. Also realize that you may have to remove people from ministries where they do not work out. Honestly, this is why it is 'easier' to have a professional staff that you can simply fire, as opposed to friends that you love and care about who may have to be removed from their ministry for any number of reasons.

Here is what we have found -- when someone from within the church is involved in ministry, they have a real connection with the other members of the church - they are not employees -- they are not people who are there for the paycheck, but are part and parcel of the family.

Please understand that I am not saying that everyone who is a hired employee will have these issues/attitudes, but it is much more likely to happen when they have very little connection and history with the church and its members. The other issue with a hired staff is that they, like any other human being, may find a better position, and sadly, many today have left churches that needed them, for better, and greener (if you get my meaning), pastures.

I am NOT saying that we should not have any staff -- but I do believe that the Western Church has gone way overboard in this area. They have professional music teams, professional youth and senior pastors, professional sound crews etc. And most times, it is all for the sake of a polished, and all too often, sterile, environment. I believe that a senior pastor should be paid, if possible, as the other positions I mentioned, if these can be managed, but I believe that the people who grow into these roles should, as much as possible, be grown organically, rather than putting a search on Monster.com.

And a small-church pastor should not worry over filling every possible ministry position immediately, work with what you have -- develop your own people, they have a connection to the church and to you. Decide which ministries you NEED, and then work on filling them - the church can grow into other ministries as God provides the skills and workers.

Also, be very careful that you do not take those four people who are volunteer junkies, and work them to death - spread out your ministries amongst people -- we are having a ministry 'fair' at our next potluck, and we are going to highlight the ministries that we have available -- therefore, people who may not know much about the variety of ministries and needs at our church will have a chance to get involved.

I am no expert on staffing, or church growth -- but I do know that the church in America is far too enamored with professionalism, and far too laissez-faire about developing the Body of Christ in a local environment. It is easier to hire, it is easier to fire, but it really insulates a pastor and church from having to develop the ability to work together as a body and practice body life as Paul directs us to.

So, go on and hire, but do it wisely, and as much as possible, develop the gifts and talents that God has already placed at your disposal within your local body.

Money...

2009-08-24T07:17:00.000-07:00

So, the next question in the list of 'Why Small Church Pastors Quit' is one that involves the root of all evil: of course, I speak about money...

Now honestly, this is not a bugaboo for me, as I am not paid by our church - I have a regular 40+ hour / week job which supports me and my family. However, I have many friends who have experienced this problem.

The opinions I am about to express are just that, opinions, however, I have seen this situation enough to feel fairly comfortable with talking about it.

First and foremost -- pastors: if you are in this for the money -- get out now and save yourself some real headaches!

So, having said that I would like to bring to fore a few points:

1. - Why is it assumed almost universally within certain traditions (whom I will refrain from mentioning here) that poverty is related to godly? Many feel that, because their pastor is squeaking by on a salary that does not adequately feed his family, he is somehow becoming transcendent through that experience!

Most pastors in this situation are simply becoming disillusioned. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that poverty is next to godly, as a matter of fact the writer of Proverbs says this -- Proverbs 30:8, 9 -- give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. C'mon church! Give your pastor a break, pay him decently -- is it unreasonable that he be paid the average of what the congregation makes?

2. - Why is it that every purchase that the pastor makes is scrutinized by his flock? As if, it is still their money and they have say over what he buys! God forbid that he buy a new ANYTHING -- used is good enough for him! Yet, the congregation is happily spending their wages any way they see fit, and are happy to provide the pastor with their discards!

Now this is (maybe) a bit hyperbolic, but not much -- I have seen this in more than one situation. Pay your pastor a decent wage, and then shut up about how he spends the money -- I am not suggesting NO oversight; (for example, a quarterly trip to the Bahamas might indicate a problem), but if he buys a new car -- why do you view it as a sin?

3. - Why is there more money spent on carpeting than on upkeep of the pastors family? Is it pride in a building? What about the man who, week in and week out, provides pastoral care to you? 1st Timothy 5:17, 18 - Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain, and, The laborer deserves his wages.

Bottom line: Pay the pastor a livable wage - I fully recognize that the other extreme is alive and well, (no man is worth 1M/year), but this post is about small-church pastors and most of them make well under the average salary in America.

And again, please heed this warning -- if you are in the business of pastoring for the cash -- get out now; I don't need your help! Heed Paul's warning: 2nd Corinthians 2:17 -- For we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

All of you small-church pastors out there, I pray that you are well-loved and supported by your congregation. I have been blessed by mine!

Loss of Key Persons

2009-08-10T06:19:00.000-07:00

One of the things that will burn a small church pastor out is the loss of key persons within the core team. We experienced this as we worked through our first few years.

What often happens, as I stated in the last post, is that a church gets planted with a lot more emotion than planning, and therefore things have not been thought through.

So, what happens? Well, the folks heading up some portion of a key ministry realize that their four children have no Children's Ministry for a while as teachers are identified, and curriculum is sought and studied. (This is simply one example).

And so, they begin looking around at bigger, established churches and seeing that these churches have a ministry ready-made for their children. Off they go to that church.

Now, let me say that I understand that to a degree -- parents want their children to have a good Children's Ministry, but the reality is that a small-church drained of key personnel, AND their children never can get their ministries off the ground.

It might be youth, it might be a choir, but any of these things can strip a church of key members. Now, I will be blunt about part of the reasoning -- people are not as committed to a church as much as they are committed to a program, or perceived needs that their family has. Part of the issue there is that you did not do adequate planning and communication during the initial plant stage. People rarely understand what it takes to plant a church - there is sacrifice, frustration, and many other emotions that will occur.

You must understand that you are battling the social conditioning that we have created around the church that intimates that we are there for YOU -- and whatever needs YOU deem important. Long ago the church ceased, by and large, of being a gathering of God's people to worship Him, and became a social event with all the bells and whistles of a secular club.

Now yes, churches still worship God -- but many times the staff is professionally paid, the lights, music, setting all TV quality and the 'event' short enough to satisfy the most ardent football fan.

And when one plants a church that has none of that, it is a true disadvantage, and one will have a difficulty in maintaining members. So, enough of the problem -- what can one do about it?

Well, first and foremost -- be crystal clear with the people working with you -- "We may not have a functioning [children's ministry/choir/worship team/youth] for a while, are you committed to helping build that up?"

Second, don't try to compete with the local mega-church -- understand the focus of your ministry and stay true to it. You may shrink, but if you try to be all things to all people by adding every ministry that the local dotcom church has you will quickly exhaust your budget and your people.

If someone wants to be on a 90 person choir, well then you may just have to tell them that you won't be forming that sized choir for a while (especially since your church is 30 in number!), and they may have to find a church that provides them with that opportunity.

The greatest danger for a small-church pastor in this area is the attempt to be something that you are not, or do not yet have the funds to be. Don't over-extend your own time or the churches resources attempting to keep one or two key families, identify others who are committed to the church and work with them to bring them along.

We have had several key families leave for some of the reasons stated above, and have maintained friendships with them -- they have been a blessing to the churches where they have gone, and everyone ended up fine. Trust that God will provide for you, and that He will bring into your church those with the necessary gifts to provide the needed ministries.

At the end of the day, stay focused on your commitment to God -- NOT to the many felt needs that are out there. This can only lead you to burn-out, or compromise in some manner.

If you stay true to God He will make clear the ministries you are to have, and the size church that you will become.

May God Bless Your Work!

Friends

2009-07-27T07:06:00.000-07:00

I realize that I have posted on some of these topics before, but as I have changed and grown (hopefully), I wanted to repost some thoughts. So, as you may remember, my first question on the last post was:

How many friends do you have to lose while attempting to do the right thing?

Answer - I have no idea -- but I do know that this can be debilitating for a small-church plant/pastor.

Many people go into church-planting with a pastor/friend that they know and trust. Sadly, all too often, the idea of starting a church, or planting one, is romanticized by all involved. Their motivation might be that they will finally have a church in which they can contribute at a level they desire. Or, it may be that they came out of a broken church and finally have a chance to 'do it right'.

There may be many motivating factors, but what I have found to be true in most cases is that the people are not united in their desire to plant a church for God's glory. And when a pastor and the people around him are not united in that goal - the fallout is usually numbered in friendships.

In our case, none of us really knew what we were doing -- we truly wanted to do the right thing, but because so much of our initial impetus was emotion, the right thing was not the SAME thing in everyone's mind.

Therefore, as the church became more 'traditional' in it's perspective, many people left or had a change of heart, usually taken out on the pastor, because the church was no longer unique, or to use a more realistic, but baser word, the church had ceased to be 'fun' for those involved.

Now, to be fair -- as the pastor, I too struggled with the exact same emotions, and it truly was not until I REALLY read the Bible and spent time in prayer with fellow elders, and sat at the feet (figuratively) of many great teachers that I even had an inkling of what the church is really all about.

I was eaten up with making the church in my image, just as much as the others were bent on making it in their image -- no one was innocent on this. But, what finally prevailed was the overriding desire to honor and glorify God, and lift Christ up so that all men would be drawn to Him -- and that was a consensus that the church came to together.

I have lost a lot less friends in recent years, and I would encourage the small-church pastor to really plan and think about his church BEFORE planting, or even taking an existing one on. Ensure that you understand the purpose of the church, and the perspective of the congregation. Do not over commit on anything until you have a clear and detailed idea of what the church needs to do to get to the place of a God-honoring institution.

The church is a place where God's people come together to worship and honor their Lord, and a place where the visitor and/or lost will hear a clear and consistent proclamation of the wonderful, soul-freeing gospel weekly. The messages will be Christ-centered and not man-centered, the families will be drawn together to worship, not split into thousands of shards that have nothing to do with one another, and the music will be God-honoring, and Christ-centered -- not man-honoring and worldly-centered.

Surround yourself with people who understand what the church exists for, and weed out those who are looking to make a name for themselves. Find team-players who want to succeed to God's glory, and do not become a despot in your pastorate, but give those who have been gifted, a place in real ministry.

These are but a few common-sense ideas, nothing unique here -- but let me encourage small-church pastors who are ready to throw in the towel. If you will work at building a God-honoring church, and find others who want to work at that as well, you will lose fewer friends than I did..

May God bless your work!

Why do Small-Church Pastors Quit?

2009-07-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

As a note before I post this I want to answer a few questions:

1. No, I am not considering quitting.

2. No, I do not have any particular person or incident in my mind -- I just have recently heard some comments that stuck in my craw and I wanted to get my thoughts out...

With the above comments firmly in mind let us now go on to our post:

====================================================

I hear a lot of people talking about pastors who quit the ministry. Some say that they burn-out because of an unbiblical method of church planting; if one was 'truly' trusting the Lord, then the strength of the Lord would carry them through.

While this comment can be true, all too often it comes from a layperson or someone with a nice staff and an assistant, who have no idea how mind-numbing and physically draining small-church ministry can be. These folks seem to insinuate that those who face bone-weary burn-out are somehow trying to do things 'their way'.

A small confession here -- I used to buy that; but then I planted a church...

Here are some of the questions that are not well-understood by those outside of small-church ministry.

* How many friends do you have to lose while attempting to do the right thing?

* How many key persons leave to attend a church that has more 'functions' for their family.

* How does one build a church when resources leave for already established places?

* How does one support their family on a pittance of what everyone else in the church (usually those telling you to 'have faith', or 'trust in the lord') make in their vocation?

* How does one cover all the needs in the church when there is no full-time staff, only a volunteer staff, that is usually at their breaking point as well?

* How do you stay true to Biblical truths when the church down the street grew from 5 - 5000 in the same timeframe by giving away a car and flat-screen TVs?

* Also, if you are non-denominational, who supports you? There is no denominational support group built in.

These are but a few thoughts -- but I want to ponder them and in my next post put down some ways that we have managed, within our small church, to combat the above contributors to 'burn-out.

We certainly do not have all, or even most, of the answers. But, I would hope that this post and the next one might encourage someone who needs it.

Hope Part II

2009-07-17T19:35:00.000-07:00

In the previous posts, I have covered a lot of ground as regards God's providence, and the subject of death and dying. I now would like to close out this series by finally looking at the great hope that Christians have - ‘Our Eschatological Hope’.

Three things I would like to cover in this post:

o What is the physical resurrection?
o What is heaven?
o How does the Reality of our Hope manifest itself in our life now?

As I said last post, we simply cannot understand eternal life, death, dying or suffering without having a Biblical understanding of these terms. So, we have looked at providence, we have looked at suffering, we have looked at death and now we look at the final state of man.

So, let us start by looking at two passages of Scripture that will set the tone for the rest of the post.

Romans 8:18 – 25 -- For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

1st Corinthians 15:50 – 58 -- I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

PHYSICAL RESURRECTION

What is the final state of the believer and unbeliever. I am not discussing the spiritual state exclusively, but also the physical state. Well, we see in these passages, and in many others, that there will be a physical resurrection. When people think of heaven and the eternal state, they have a tendency to think of chubby little Hallmark angels and clouds as opposed to the Biblical concept of heaven being a place inhabited by people with bodies; physical bodies.

Paul clearly and unambiguously states that we will be raised into glorified bodies, not dwelling for eternity in some sort of ethereal, gauzy existence. And we will dwell on a New Earth and in a New Heaven, in our glorified bodies, serving, worshiping and dwelling in the presence of our God forever.

When a believer dies, they are taken into the presence of the Lord in a spiritual state – as Jesus told the thief on the cross -- "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." And we also find this in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus – Lazarus is carried away in the bosom of Abraham to heaven. So, when we initially depart from this plane of existence, we will be in heaven, but we will not be complete; the culmination of our resurrection will happen when the Lord returns, and soul and body are reunited in a glorified and perfected state.

1st Thessalonians 4:15 – 17 -- For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Even those who are alive when Jesus Christ returns will die in a sense, as their mortal bodies put on immortality, and their perishable dirt sacks are replaced with imperishable perfected bodies. So, yes, Virginia, there is a physical resurrection – and those who have departed first, those dead in Christ are raised first, and then those remaining will be translated into immortality.

The unbeliever will also be raised, but tragically, it will not be to bodies that have been glorified and perfected and in the presence of God forever, but to bodies that are bound for hell and pain. The unbeliever will be cast into the Lake of Fire with Satan and His minions, and there their worm will never die. They will forever be plagued with suffering – a suffering that is caused by being unprotected from God’s Wrath by the only mediator that is accepted, Jesus Christ.

WHAT IS HEAVEN?

So now we know that there will be a physical resurrection, but where will we be dwelling in our perfected bodies? Well, we will be dwelling in the New Heavens and the New Earth. And while there is a difference of opinion in how this new creation will take place, whether or not God will actually do away with the old creation completely, or simply restore and regenerate the old I will leave up to a discussion at a later date.

In the Revelation, as John was given the vision of the New Heaven and the New Earth, his descriptions were marked with the presence of jewels and crystal clear gold, and precious stones. It is obvious that John was trying to find words that would describe the beauty of heaven. What we do know is that it will be beyond anything that we can dream of, or imagine in this life.

"OK, so it is beautiful; but what and where is it?" Well, I think Wayne Grudem says it well “Heaven is the place where God most fully makes known His presence to bless.” We know that God is omnipresent – He is everywhere at all times in a way that we cannot understand, but He has always had places where He especially manifested His presence – in Israel it was the Tabernacle for example. So, Heaven will be the locus (if I may use that word) of His presence.

Will we recognize loved ones when we enter into this blessed place? Well, all I will tell you is this – Peter and the disciples recognized Moses and Elijah when they spoke with Jesus, and the disciples recognized Jesus Himself after His resurrection. What does that tell you?

HOW DOES THIS MANIFEST ITSELF NOW?

So, we have taken a brief look at heaven, the resurrection from the dead, and now we must ask ourselves, how should this knowledge impact our life in the here and now? Is there any impact in our lives? Well, let me put forth a few ideas quickly for you.

Colossians 3:1 – 4 -- If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

If you have been raised with Christ – if you are truly one of God’s children, what should you set your mind on? It is a sad truth that we Christians are as worldly and materialistic as the basest of pagans. We strive for, get consumed with, and suffer from, the same desires as the world. We do not set our minds on the things that are above. Yet, if we truly understand and believe the truth about our eschatological hope, should we not be a people who have their gaze fixed on the things above? What goes into your mind, what do you watch on TV, what do you desire above all other things?

Philippians 3:20, 21 -- But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Are you anxiously awaiting our Lord and Savior, do you live as though He could return at any time? Do you recognize that your citizenship is in heaven, above and beyond the earthly ties of citizenship – can you identify with the body of Christ around the world, or are you a person who is xenophobic and hateful towards those outside the pale of your earthly citizenship? We who are in Christ are all citizens of the same place!

Matthew 6:19 – 21 -- “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Like the Colossians passage, this one stresses that we are not to store up things on this earth, but store up our treasures in heaven. Do you do that? Are you storing up your treasures in heaven – are you living in and for Jesus Christ, or are you abusive and self-centered, grabbing all the gusto in this life, to the detriment of your family; are you willing to get that promotion at work through the denigration of someone else; are you socking away all of your grain in the barn, to the neglect of God?

He speaks of a man like that in Luke 12:16 – 21 -- And he told them a parable, saying, The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops? And he said, I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

Brothers and sisters, the siren song of worldly goods and desires beckons to us constantly and tirelessly, and it is hard to ignore that call. Let us keep our mind fixed on the things above, anxiously awaiting the glorious return of our Savior, praying that the Holy Spirit would strengthen and guide us through the rocks and shoals of this world’s treacherous and deceptive waters. And may we all say, Maranatha – Come Lord, Jesus!

The Hope

2009-07-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

In the past six or so posts we have examined God’s providence in detail, going from a basic definition of His providence to the providential care that He shows, even in the death of His saints. These posts have been difficult for me, as many in our church are going through hard times.

A providential God simply does not compute to those weaned on the American god who is, more or less, simply there for the good times – a god who promises nice cars, big homes, and a lack of suffering – the god of many in our modern world.

But the god advertised by many churches is simply not the God of the Bible – the God who sent His children into exile for their promiscuous love affair with idols; the God who did not allow Moses into the Promised Land because of disobedience; the God who allowed Job to be sifted, yet never snatched out of His hand; the God who has called many to suffer for His name over millennia.

This God is one that many who call themselves Christians would not recognize. Sadly we have become enamored with the comfortable god, the one who would never allow his children to suffer. But, the comfortable god is not the God of the Bible – the God in the Bible is mighty and frightening, He is in control of all things, and He is inscrutable in His ways ofttimes.

So, as I approach the final posts in this series, I wanted to quickly review the last few posts.

In my initial post on this subject, I ruminated on the fact that death, as is defined by most all of us, is an event in time. It is something that happens at a point in time, and can be delineated by a clock. What is one of the basic questions that always gets asked by the lead character in a police drama? What is the “time of death”.

All of us have this view of death, not just the lost – few people live in the mindset of eternity – that death is not an event, but a state in which all men find themselves as they march through life.

However, Paul had this mindset – we find him speaking of all being dead in their trespasses and sins before being made alive in Christ. [Ephesians 2 & Colossians 2]

I proposed a working definition of death a few posts ago. Here it is again - " Death is the state that we find ourselves in due to Adam’s sin. While physical death may occur at some specific date and time, we have all been born into, and live in a body of death until, in Christ, we are redeemed into eternal life."

This definition will really help us as we walk through this world. If we could but keep our minds fixed on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, then we would spend much less time worrying about the many issues and problems that confront us in this life, and much more time in the Word, in treating one another as we should, and in living fearlessly for Christ. We all face the danger, in our fallen nature, of becoming far more consumed with us and far less consumed with Christ.

Most relationship issues that I deal with are overwhelmingly centered around pride, and striving in this world. In marriage for example, men are to serve their families self-sacrificially, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, and women are called to serve under their husbands, yet we all struggle with the pervasive nature of pride and sin.

So, marriages in today’s world end up (up to 50% in the church!) in divorce, because the parties will not die to self, and live in Christ. People do not have a proper understanding of death – they strive under the delusion that our world has served up, loaded with sugar and additives, that our existence on this planet involves us being happy and getting the most stuff while we have the chance, rather than us being dead to self and living for Christ – Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 2:15, 16 that we are ...the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.

And yet, we have so bought into the world’s ideas that we jettison our role as salt and light, and an aroma of Christ, and climb aboard the desire train – living lives of blissful, or desperate, materialism.

As Christians, if we could but grasp the reality that we are dead, and that it is Christ who lives in us, the church would be a vastly different place. Marriages would be healed, broken friendships would be reconciled, and pastors would not be striving for bigger, better, and more more, more. Oh, the message that the church could send to a world not only consumed with, but in slavery to, materialism! It is sad when the world looks into the church and finds not only the same disease that affects them, but the haughtiness and pride of a people who believe that they somehow deserve the better ‘things’ in life.

If we would simply get a handle around the fact that we are not our own, but bought with a price, a price that included our death and rebirth through the power of the Holy Spirit, maybe we would once again be true salt and light to this sad, self-centered and dying world!

Rather than run on in this post, let's leave this here, and pick it up in the next post which will begin to discuss our eschatological hope - a hope that reaches beyond the grave into eternity itself.

Death - Part II

2009-06-19T07:08:00.000-07:00

We looked at death as a state of being in the last post, and in this one we will look at why it is inevitable and undeniable?

Romans 5:12 -- Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…

1st Corinthians 15:21, 22 -- For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Death is the result of sin – the sin of Adam, our father. Not just physical, but spiritual death was ushered into the world through the disobedience of the first Adam.

When someone dies, we are again reminded of that first sin of Adam, and the fact that the whole of creation groans for it’s redemption, looking forward to the return of the Savior, to the new heaven and new earth. Many Christians claim that when a fellow Christian dies we should not mourn; as if the act of mourning is somehow sinful. Believe me, I have done enough funerals to know that Christians mourn!

In reality, Paul says – 1st Thessalonians 4:13, 14 -- But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

When a loved one dies, we mourn, for our loss, for the fact that we miss them, for the very real fact that death is a reminder of man's fallen condition. However, having said that, we do not mourn LIKE those who have no hope, for we know that death for a Christian is a transition from here to heaven.

2nd Corinthians 5:6 – 8 -- So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

So, we now have a working definition of death, and we understand why death is, so let us now take a brief look at the reality of death and life for the Christian.

THE HOPE SET BEFORE US

So many today, even within Christendom, want to remove the pains and inconveniences of life. Some go so far as to say that these are caused by a lack of faith! But truth be told, these people are misled and misleading – like Job’s misguided and misinformed friends, they view pain, suffering and death exclusively as God’s punishment for their personal sins, whereas the Bible says that all people will undergo these things because of our sin nature that is inherent within mankind, and even more, Christians will undergo suffering and death for God’s glory. Much like Job’s suffering brought glory to God!

Having said that though, what is the hope of the Christian?

Well, first and foremost let us look again at 1st Corinthians 15:20 – 23 -- But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

Yes, death is a state of being, and yes, it was introduced into the world by the sin of the first Adam, but here is the great hope for all who are called by Christ – death has been defeated! Think about this; Jesus Christ came down to this earth, setting aside all of the glory that was rightfully His, and lived amongst man. During His first incarnation, He suffered – rejection, weariness, hunger and thirst, betrayal and many more things. Just as we are called to suffer, He suffered for righteousness sake. And then, He was nailed to a cross and suffered death – for sins that He never committed! He lay in the tomb for three days and was raised. It was as if we had died with Him – when He was raised, so were we. Into a newness of life!

Jesus was the firstfruits, and we will follow. Yes, when we die physically, our bodies will lie in the ground; but on that day when He returns, we will experience a resurrection like His – we will be in glorified bodies and will live in eternal joy in the presence of our Lord and Savior.

And in the interim, for those in Christ – they will dwell spiritually with Christ until they return with Him and like us, will be assume glorified bodies. So, when we lose a loved one who is in Christ, we can take comfort in knowing that they are in the presence of Christ; just as the thief on the cross, truly they will be in paradise – awaiting that glorious day when we will all be like Him, and know as we are known – when every tear shall be wiped away and we shall dwell in the light of the Lamb forever!

Death

2009-06-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

The last few posts have found us examining God’s providence and the purpose, place and probability of suffering in the lives of God’s children. These are not simple topics and I pray that God’s Word has comforted you as we have examined these subjects. In this post, the third installment of this series, I will post some thoughts regarding death and dying from a Christian perspective.

This is a subject which, we in the USA, hate to even contemplate. We see many death-defying products on the market today, and people are in a mad scramble to never grow old, nor to experience pain, death or even a hint of dying. But, the truth is that death is 100% terminal – everyone gets it, and succumbs to its inexorable pull.

So, let us look at this uncomfortable subject from the perspective of the Bible. Let us see what comfort the Word of God brings to this subject.

When most people define death, they think of it as an event – i.e. “Death is the ceasing of life functions”, or “Death is when the brain stops responding”, “Jane Doe died at 5:47pm”. Death is defined as an event in time, when in reality, as this post will examine – death is not an event – it is a state of being we all live in, until and unless Jesus Christ draws us to Himself and we turn to Him in repentance and faith.

So let me propose a working definition of death for our purposes in this post:

Death is the state that we find ourselves in due to Adam’s sin. While physical death may occur at some specific date and time, in truth, we have all been born into, and live in a body of death until, in Christ, we are redeemed into eternal life.

We simply cannot understand eternal life, death, dying or suffering without having a Biblical understanding of these terms. So, we have looked at providence, we have looked at suffering, now let us examine death from a Biblical vantage point.

If our definition is correct – that death is not an event, but a state of being; where do we get this thought?

Ephesians 2:1 – 7 -- And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 2:13 – 15 -- And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Notice that Paul did not say anything about an event – no, he is pointing out that the STATE of the person outside of Christ is death. You see, we have it all wrong, we are afraid of death the event, but what we should be doing is focusing on death as a state of being. If we understand that all who are outside of Christ are walking dead men, and all of those who are in Christ are ALREADY living eternal lives, it will change our perspective on the event of death and dying.

We who are in Christ have ALREADY died – and have been raised with Him! We may depart from this place, but we will be with the Lord, waiting that glorious day when all are resurrected and will stand before him. We can truly look at death and say, “Where is your sting?”

No doubt, we will still experience a physical event, but to quote Thomas Boston; “I feel a sting, may the dying saint say– yet it is but a bee sting, slinging only through the skin – but, O death, where is your sting, your old sting, the serpent's sting, that stings to the heart and soul? The sting of death is sin – but that is taken away.”

In the next post I will discuss why it is that we die, and conclude my thoughts on death and dying from a Christian perspective.

Suffering - Part II

2009-06-01T19:15:00.000-07:00

To continue my thoughts from the last post -- we saw that suffering may be a direct result of sinful actions or decisions, yet, at other times, we cannot discern the reason behind our suffering. Sometimes we suffer in order to be tempered and refined, drawing out the dross in our lives, and causing our faith to gleam like pure gold.

1st Peter 1:3 – 7 -- Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

In previous posts we have also looked at the secret and revealed will of God and how this should affect our understanding of suffering. Now I would like to close out this post by explaining why we can take comfort, even in the midst of suffering, in an all-knowing, all-caring, all-wise God and Father.

There are many Christians who are suffering, and many of them struggle with the 'why' of their suffering. As I have posted previously, there are several answers to the questions – why? Sometimes the answer is “I do not know”.

However, I would like to close out this post by telling you what I do know.

This world is full of trials and tribulations; yes, we suffer, get sick, grow old(er) and eventually die. And if the Lord tarries, there is not a person reading this who will not suffer these things; but having said that, there is something far greater that awaits the redeemed. I will post on this in more detail soon, but, I want to touch on it in the closing portion of this post.

The redeemed have a blessed hope! This hope carries them through the trials and tribulations of this life, and has carried several millenia of Saints through persecution, privation, and punishment.

I may not understand why you suffer, or why I am struck with a malady, but I do know one thing that is more comforting than a thousand great doctor reports, and it is this fact; God loves us and sent His only begotten Son to die on a cross for our sins. And while the physical affects of sin still work themselves out in mankind, those who are found in Jesus Christ have no longer to fear death and the grave, for these have been defeated – we have a home in heaven, prepared by our loving God, for His beloved children!

My dear friends, we WILL suffer while on this earth – of that we can be sure. There are many places that speak of that in the revealed word of God.

But listen to Paul as he wrote to the Roman church in Romans 8:19 – 21 -- For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Paul says – “Hey, I know suffering – I live it every day. But, I do not consider my temporal suffering worth comparing to the reality of what awaits me in glory!” Paul had an eternal perspective – recognizing that suffering is a part of the fallen world, he nonetheless, turned his eyes towards the reality of Jesus Christ’s finished work on the cross, and what that had bought for him. Paul suffered much in this life, but it was nothing compared to the life He lives, even now, in Jesus Christ!

John tells us in Revelation 21:1 – 4 -- Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

My friends, take heart, our Savior is nigh – He is coming – with His angels to take us unto Himself, that where He is, we might be also. And when that happens, there will be no more suffering, no more pain, no more death – all we can say is response is maranatha – Lord, come quickly!

If you are suffering, may I say to you that you can rest in the Lord? Trust Him in all your ways and He will make all your paths straight, never leaving nor forsaking you. Regardless of your suffering, our Father in heaven watches over you and will sustain you until He calls you home.

You do not have to take my word for it. Open God’s Holy Word and read of His love and care for His children. Read of His breathtaking promises to an undeserving people – He will be there God and dwell amongst them for all eternity. Take heart my friend, suffering is for a little while, but joy comes in the morning!

Suffering

2009-05-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

My last few posts laid the groundwork for the Providence of God. In this post and the next few, I want to address the reality of suffering in the life of the Christian.

One of the great frustrations I have experienced as a pastor is dealing with the fallout from the false teaching of the health and wealth purveyors. Many people live very broken lives because of their experience with the health and wealth 'gospel'. Much of this is due to the fact that this teaching has, as a foundational base, the false belief that all suffering is due to a lack of faith in the Christian.

That is one of the reasons for this post, but the second, and more important to me, is the fact that, as a church, Covenant Fellowship has recently been going through quite a time, with sickness, death and loss of jobs happening in rapid succession; therefore, I thought that it might be helpful to examine God’s providence in all stages of life, providing comfort and confidence in the great Hope found in our God!

So, before we go any further, let's examine what God's Providence is NOT.

1. God’s providence is not based upon the song - Que Sera Sera -- with the repeating refrain of ‘whatever will be, will be’. This makes God's Providence a blind, unknown, unfeeling force which causes things to happen. The atheist would be in total agreement with this mindset – the ‘forces of nature’ are driving the boat, a chance interaction of atoms, molecules etc. Suffering to this mindset is simply the happenstance of fate, not the guiding and governing of God.

2. Nor is suffering and providence simply the karmic outplay of events. Some think (as did Job’s friends) that God’s providential care is karmic in its outworking. Christians sound more like Hindus when they say things like, “That person got what was coming to them”, as if God’s providential plan is somehow working out the karmic balance of the Universe. Truth be told, if we got what was coming to us, we would all be in the same boat. No, God’s providential care is not a Christian balancing of the karmic forces. We see this refuted in the pleas of the psalmist as he sees the evil prosper and the good die, or suffer.

3. Then you have those who see suffering as an illusion – that it is not God’s providential plan that is being played out, but that we simply must understand that pain and suffering are illusory. This mentality sounds noble and lofty in many ways, but is unworkable in the real world. Buddhism and Christian Science promote this mentality. When suffering and tragedy strike, regardless of your belief in the illusory qualities of suffering, it still occurs.

I have stated, in an earlier post, that the definition of God’s Providence is “God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.” And we have now established that God’s providential care is not capricious, or arbitrary, but performed according to His most holy plan. His providential care is also not karmic or illusory. And we will see that this matters when it comes to the subject of suffering. We are not simply puppets in the hand of God, but are His beloved children, who are under His constant guidance, and loving care.

SECRET WILL vs. REVEALED WILL

As regards God’s providential care, we will find that there are two aspects of it that need to be addressed. First, in Deuteronomy 29:29 we read -- "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law." This passage clearly states that there are aspects of God’s Will that are hidden from mankind, and there are aspects of His Will which are revealed to us – these are found in His word; much to the chagrin of many modern day so-called prophets who claim to have some secret extra-biblical ‘word’ revealed only to them.

Why is it important to understand these aspects of God’s Will? Simply put – we will not know nor understand everything that occurs in this world, as some things reside exclusively in the realm of God’s hidden will. And frankly, quite often suffering falls within this realm. Now, first let us look at suffering as regards the revealed will of God.

Some suffering results directly from our fallenness; i.e. a person suffers the ravages of drunkenness or drug addiction – in the Word, God warns of the damage of drunkenness – and man, fallen and self-centered, will ofttimes suffer from the ravages of a self-imposed disease. Or maybe one runs with a rough crowd, and suffers beatings and/or worse. God clearly warns about running with a bad crowd. You see, some suffering is simply caused by our self-focused decisions, decisions which all fallen man is susceptible to; there is nothing secret about why these things occur.

Viewing the big picture, we all suffer from the decision of our father, Adam. When Adam fell, we all fell, and therefore we are all now heirs to the inheritance of Adam’s fall – i.e. sin, sickness and death. So, all suffering is rooted and grounded in a known cause, sin, at the end of the day. The best, most noble, most Godly people in the world get sick, and die for the same reason that everyone else does, this is the legacy of Adam, whose sin and rebellion brought sickness and death into the world.

We know this because, as it stated in Deuteronomy 29:29, this fact is revealed in God’s Word; Romans 5:14 – “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…" 1st Corinthians 15:56 - "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law."

However, with that being said – we often struggle with the suffering in our life, or the lives of our loved ones, when the cause of the suffering is rooted in God’s secret will. When I lost my daughter at 18 months, I could not figure that one out. When a godly person is lost before their time (in our eyes), we often ask God “WHY??” Robert Murray M’Cheyne, an amazing man of God died at the ripe old age of 29 years old. David Brainerd, the missionary to the Native Americans, suffered with TB most of his life before it took him at 29. And we can only ask “WHY?”

However, if we trust in a loving and caring God, while we may not understand the why of it, we can trust that God’s loving care was in it. When Huaorani warriors martyred Jim Elliot in an Ecuadorian jungle at the age of 29, it would seem to us to be a gross miscarriage of justice, or worse, a mishandling of the events by God. After all, Jim was down in Ecuador attempting to minister to those people. If that were your view, you would have to read, as Paul Harvey put it, the rest of the story. Elizabeth, Jim’s wife, and a group of missionaries continued his work in Ecuador, and many people in the Auca tribe came to know Christ, and some of the very same warriors who had killed Jim and his friends, became elders in the local church there.

To God be the glory – Jim Elliot understood this better than many people, as he said when writing of missions work being more important than life – “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

What of Joseph’s suffering, as I posted a few weeks ago? He suffered greatly at the hands of his brothers, his master, and friends, yet at the end of the day, it all worked out for God’s glory and the salvation of God’s people Israel. What about Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law? She suffered the loss of her husband and both sons, forcing her to return, with Ruth, to Israel from Moab. Did God have a plan for this woman, who insisted on being called Marah (bitter)? Well, let’s see – Naomi was forced to return to Israel, where Ruth met Boaz, they wed, Ruth had a son, named Obed – who had a son named Jesse – who had a son named David, through whom the Messiah came!

My friends, we all too often want an answer for all suffering, but truth be told, some things are simply hidden within God, but we can trust that His love and care guide us every step of the way as we go through the trials of this life. The so-called healers that claim all sickness stems from a lack of faith simply do not understand or appreciate God’s holy, perfect and wise providential plan for His children. Sometimes our suffering is a mystery.

I will continue this line of thought in my next post...

Providence Part II

2009-05-18T06:30:00.000-07:00

In the last post on this subject, I developed a working definition of God’s providence; in this post I would like to examine why we can be confidant in His providential care.

What does the Bible say about God’s providential care of all creation? Listen to Elihu describe God’s providence in Job 37:1 – 13 - "At this also my heart trembles and leaps out of its place. Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth. Under the whole heaven he lets it go, and his lightning to the corners of the earth. After it his voice roars; he thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard. God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend. For to the snow he says, 'Fall on the earth,' likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour. He seals up the hand of every man, that all men whom he made may know it. Then the beasts go into their lairs, and remain in their dens. From its chamber comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds. By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast. He loads the thick cloud with moisture; the clouds scatter his lightning. They turn around and around by his guidance, to accomplish all that he commands them on the face of the habitable world. Whether for correction or for his land or for love, he causes it to happen…”

Listen to the Psalmist as he speaks of God’s providential care in Psalm 104 -- Bless the LORD, O my soul! O LORD my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire. He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved. You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. At your rebuke they fled; at the sound of your thunder they took to flight. The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to the place that you appointed for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth. You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills; they give drink to every beast of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst. Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell; they sing among the branches. From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work. You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart. The trees of the LORD are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees. The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers. He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting. You make darkness, and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest creep about. The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God. When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens. Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening. O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it. These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things. When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. May the glory of the LORD endure forever; may the LORD rejoice in his works, who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke!

Remember the description of God’s providence; He is actively involved in sustaining and governing all of creation. Now, what about His children specifically; what of the redeemed? This same God whose providential care upholds the very universe itself, has promised His children that they would never be forsaken [Deuteronomy 31:6,8]; that He will be with them till the end of the age [Matthew 28:20] that their names are written on His palms [Isaiah 49:16]. This same God promised us salvation through His work poured out graciously on us, not through our own efforts and works [Isaiah 59:16; Ephesians 2:1 – 9]; Salvation through the life, death, and resurrection of the Second Person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. This same God promised us that He was preparing a place for us in John 14. This same God has promised that He will return to bring His children with Him that where He is, we may be also.

This same God who has promised us salvation is the same one described in Colossians 1:15 – 17 -- He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

We do not simply rest in God’s promises, but we actually rest in God himself. His promises are true and trustworthy because of who He is! Our comfort is not primarily found in the idea of a predetermined path, but trust in a loving Lord. We trust the one who is trustworthy, and carries out His purposes in a most holy, wise and powerful way. Even though we cannot always understand all the things that befall us, we can CONFIDENTLY say that we know that our God watches over His children, and nothing can separate them from His love! Which is not based upon our worthiness, but based upon His Son.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

First, imagine if we were at the whim of ‘fate’ – what type of comfort can we take in knowing that nothing more than impersonal, unfeeling fate has directed our path? We have no comfort in that, do we? Now, contrast that with knowing that a loving, caring Father is watching over our every breath, our very hairs are numbered by Him! That brings comfort in a fallen world that is ofttimes chaotic and confusing.

It is also important because we know at the end of the day that nothing will separate us from the love of God. When we get a diagnosis that tells us all is lost, we know that all is not lost – that our loving Savior, in His providential care, will watch over and guide us – whether or not He heals us in this life does not change our eternity!

We also know that, because we are His, God will guide us in our decisions. Even when these decisions turn out in a way that seems counter intuitive to our plan, we can rest in the fact that our great Shepherd leads and guides us, even when the path grows exceedingly dark and narrow. If we are truly the sheep of His flock we can trust, even when things seem to be going badly, that He is watching over us.

We know that because of God’s providential care, we may undergo trials and testing, but it is for His glory and purpose. We can look at trials as James does in James 1:2 – 4 – Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Or as Peter says in 1st Peter – that the trials we go through test our faith, refining it like hold, to the praise, glory and honor of Jesus Christ.

It is important when we face tragedy in life. We all will, at some point, be faced with tragedy. But, if we can say with confidence that God is in control, we can trust that somehow, some way, His perfect, holy plan is being executed. As I wrote in the last post, the life of Joseph was marked with what seemed to him, I am sure, like tragedy; yet he ended up saving the lives of not only the people of Egypt, but his own family – the very people who had sold him into slavery.

And there are other examples found within Scripture; what of the tragedy of Lazarus’ death [John 11]? Through his death, God’s plan was executed in that, through his being raised from the dead, many people believed, and God was given glory.

And what of the most horrific tragedy in history? The death of Jesus Christ; what did this make possible? Well, only the salvation of an entire people for all eternity. All of this was according to the purposes of our glorious triune God!

When we live our lives in light of the providence of God, with a full confidence in that providential care, we will encounter the same trials, testing and tragedies that all others face. The difference is that we will not mourn as those who have no hope. Instead, we, like Job will say, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!” – Job 19:25 – 27 –

Basics

2009-05-15T12:14:00.000-07:00

I just returned from Alistair Begg's Basics Conference. I have attended for seven years and have never been disappointed; however, not every year has been as good as this year.

The speakers were; John Lennox, John Piper, and Alistair Begg. And each man challenged us.

I would highly recommend, if you were unable to attend, going out and listening to the available media from the conference.

As I scanned the blogosphere today, I was again reminded how quickly we draw our swords and go at one another within the body of Christ, all the while the glorious news of the Gospel is marginalized by sectarian or worse, fratricidal violence.

We have an enemy, not of flesh and blood, that we are encountering. Let us be about doing warfare with him, using the tools given us by God. Yes, when those who call themselves Christians are causing damage, let us point that out, but let us pick our battles carefully, and ensure that we are not attempting to advance our own hobby horse.

Listen to the message from John Lennox. What is important? Let us grow in maturity to separate the noise from the true problems in evangelicalism.

The Providence of God

2009-05-07T05:46:00.000-07:00

Over the next few posts I want to examine God’s providence in four, (hopefully), progressive stages. This post will examine God’s providence from a high-level. I want to look at, and hopefully answer the question:

How do we define God’s providence?

What spurred these posts was a series of difficult events that have affected our little church. I felt that the study would be helpful to those going through difficult times.

DEFINITION

So what do we mean by ‘God’s Providence’? The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines providence in the answer to Question 11: “God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.”

Notice what the Catechism says: we often think of God’s providence in a static sense – not in the sense of actively preserving and governing all things. We (most of us) believe that, while God controls the events in the world, he does so in a reactive way – responding to situations as they crop up, as opposed to the Biblical perspective that states that God is actively involved in a second-by-second upholding, and governing all things.

Then, we must ask, what exactly does He control? Many would say that God only does the good things, but has no control over the bad ones. While I would agree that God is not the first cause of evil, He uses the evil works of fallen man and Satan to fulfill His purposes. To paraphrase J.I. Packer “The nature of God's "concurrent" or "confluent" involvement in all that occurs in his world, as - without violating the nature of things, the ongoing causal processes, or human free agency - he makes his will of events come to pass, is mystery to us, but the consistent biblical teaching about God's involvement is overwhelming…”

While it is unbiblical to state that God is not in control of all things, it is equally unbiblical to state that God is the root cause of evil – rather He uses the evil that exists in this fallen world to make His perfect will come to pass.

Let us consider an example found in Genesis 50:15 – 20 -- When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him." So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father gave this command before he died, 'Say to Joseph, Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants." But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

In the Scripture cited, Joseph’s brothers had committed an evil act, they admitted it; they had thrown their brother into a well, and then sold him to traders who took him into Egypt to be auctioned off as a slave. We can only imagine Joseph’s mindset initially; this young man who had had such grandiose dreams about people bowing down to him etc. He must have been traumatized, hurt and bewildered. Yet, God had a plan – and as Joseph rises in importance in the house of Potiphar, it seems that God HAS taken care of him, but wait! Potiphar’s wife trumps up a charge of attempted rape against Joseph and he is sent into prison… Where is God in all of this? Another evil deed – the lie of Potiphar’s wife has tossed our hero into the jailhouse! But wait, maybe the baker or the cupbearer will speak well of Joseph when they get before the Pharaoh? Nope, they forget about him! Does it seem like God has been involved in this at all? Does there seem to be a plan? No, at least not a good one!

And yet… Eventually Joseph does climb the rungs of power ending up as the second most powerful man in Egypt. And in this role he not only saves the lives of many Egyptians, but also the embryonic tribe of Israel! And in Genesis 50, we find Joseph explaining God’s providence to his frightened brothers. What THEY meant as evil, God meant for good. Their evil plan was driven by their jealousy of Joseph, the first cause of the evil was in their own hearts – yet, God used the evil deeds of the brothers to save the nation of Israel!

God is no absent watchmaker! Hence, the definition, again from the Westminster Catechism, which fits very nicely is “God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.”

More on this in my next post....

Update

2009-05-05T18:49:00.000-07:00

I did not fall off the face of the earth... I have merely been overwhelmed with events at church and work which have taken all of my time... I hope to have a new post this week...

Current Series

2009-04-22T13:48:00.000-07:00

I have begun preaching through a four week series on God's Providence. I normally preach through a book, (currently Matthew), in an expository manner, but our church has gone through some tremendously difficult times in recent weeks. Because of this, I felt that a study of God's Providence would be of benefit to the congregation.

The four sermons are tentatively entitled:

1. God's Providence; what is it? Why can we be confident in it? What does it mean for the redeemed?

2. The Suffering of the Saints; What can we know about this?

3. Death and Dying in the Providence of God.

4. The Eschatological Hope of the Redeemed.

I hope to post my thoughts on each of these as I finish the sermon...

Theological?

2009-04-08T07:10:00.000-07:00

I have written a few posts about my thoughts on pastoring. There are many more things that I could say, but I wanted to touch upon this subject today.

In the modern world, it seems to be a badge of 'honor' that a pastor does not have a seminary education. Many wear this as a indicator that they are uniquely gifted, or exceptionally smart. Some even use this as a way to show that they are able to connect to the common man in the pew. All of these reasons, I find, are nothing more than either ignorance or a false humility, veiling a prideful spirit.

Within some communities within the charismatic groups, and in other denominations, such as Calvary Chapel, there is a 'tradition' to ordain someone who is charismatic, (not necessarily in the 'gifts' area, but in the traditional sense of charisma), but untrained, depending upon their love of the Lord to carry them through as a pastor.

Now, I will admit right up front that I do not have a degree from Seminary, I am working on it, but I believe that this gives me a perspective that is different than writing from the 'Ivory Tower' of academia. I was ordained in a denomination which did what I spoke of above - that is, they ordained good teachers. Sadly, I bought off on the idea at the time, and have since learned the many pitfalls that proceed from this well-meaning, but wrong-headed practice.

In the role of pastor, one faces questions from all sides -- from the questions about aberrant practices within the church, to questions about living together, or homosexual unions which are socially acceptable. And there are many areas in-between, such as "what book would you recommend for one going through depression", or "what do you think of Christian psychology?"

Things like this should not be OJT learning experiences for a pastor, as the life of a parishoner may hang in the balance! Pastors need to not only be trained AND mentored, but they also need to conitnue in their training.

Another example is in the discussion of the Bible. If a pastor has no idea of the methodologies of translation, who is to say which translation is correct, or do we go 'with our gut'? Shouldn't a pastor not only have confidence in the Bible, but be able to explain why?

There are many 'pastors' who will use the Bible as their personal palette upon which to paint their ideas, and when a member of one's church asks why you disagree with someone's teaching, should it not be based upon knowledge and not just "I don't care for his teaching?" And should we not, as pastors be able to offer something more substantial than "Just have a positive outlook" when sitting at the deathbed of a loved one?

And should we not know history enough to be able to spot heresy when it is raised up? If there were more pastors who took their job as shepherd seriously, we would have a lot less craziness from the televangelists circle, and the insipid outgrowth of the CGM, and many more men faithfully shepherding the people that God has given them watch over.

We should love our congregations enough to be constantly growing in knowledge and faithfulness to the Word of God. As I said, I do not have a degree, but am working as hard as I can to get the knowledge. And i would say that if you are a young pastor, or even an older one, and do not have the necessary knowledge to properly pastor, then get it.

And by the way, some of those folks who have gone to seminary and got their degree in Church Growth or some other side discipline, you need to go back and get the Theology side of the house, if you do not have it.

We are called to be pastors, not pop psychologists, not stand-up comics, not motivational speakers, but men who handle the Word of God with due reverence and care and use it to change the lives of our congregations. Trust in God and He will do the work!

It is Well

2009-03-31T09:18:00.000-07:00

Our church is going through a difficult time right now. It is not that we are having problems, but one of our people is very, very ill. At a church of our size, that seems to hit harder. But, I just wanted to post the lyrics to Horatio Spafford's hymn, 'It is Well'.

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.

It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and hath shed his own blood for my soul.

It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.

And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
the trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well with my soul,
it is well, it is well with my soul.

Text: Horatio G. Spafford
Music: Philip P. Bliss

We love you Peggy!

Example II

2009-03-24T07:03:00.001-07:00

In the last post I spoke of being an example to the congregation in our dealing with the things relating to others. In this post I would like to think about what type of example we are as it relates to God.

There has been much argument, discussion, and posturing on the topics of dress, language and attitude behind the pulpit. And I have posted several times to state my disagreement with pastors who feel that gutter language, sloppy dress and casual attitudes somehow make them 'relevant'.

I am not a prude, believing that somehow we return to the glorious 'yesteryear' of society, having preachers in full suits, and everyone putting on a front at church. At our church, I don't wear a suit to preach, and I don't speak King James English. But, I try to be an example to the people who attend as regards God.

I wear clothes that are not:

(1) Distracting - For example, T-shirts with all sorts of stupid phrases non them.

(2) Sloppy/torn/dirty

(3) Age/Position Inappropriate - I am not eighteen, why would I dress that way?

Now - you may be saying, "That's fine for you, but you don't understand the make-up of our congregation". Well, you do not know the make-up of ours. We have bikers, semi-homeless, poor, handicapped, 'regular-joes', older people (the oldest is 75), younger people, and everything in between. We meet in a strip mall, between a country and western bar, and a Mexican restaurant.

Now, this is not about clothing -- that is the mistake made when discussing this subject. No, this is about attitude, and example. I find it interesting that when a 'pastor' goes out for a job interview, (this may not be universally true, but in my experience I have seen it), he will wear a suit, but the minute he gets into the pulpit, after having secured the job, he is dressed in cutoffs and a stupid T-shirt.

What statement does that make? Well, that he will wear a suit in order to impress the men who hold the keys to a position in the church, but when it comes to standing before God, whatever he pulls out is fine. Again, this is not about clothing. We could make this observation about clothing, language, actions etc.

What example we are setting when we act like a fool behind the pulpit? Are we not denigrating the Holiness and Transcendence of God? Are we not treating Him like just another person? Why is it that a pastor will act appropriately when interviewing, or being honored at an event, but then he will turn around and act foolishly when standing before God?

Pastors need to reread Isaiah 6, or Revelation 1. These men, when confronted by a Holy, Transcendent God were on their faces before Him. This is about something far greater than language or clothing, it is about (as Aretha says) R-E-S-P-E-C-T! When we disrespect God in our actions, we teach our people to be cavalier in their relationship with God. There is nothing special about teaching people to be casual in their approach to God -- the entire world does that, there is something that sets Christians apart as pertains to their approach to God! It is done with respect, and a holy awe that recognizes God's holiness.

Some would say " I am the way I am all the time, I have sown God into my life", and hence they say that they are more 'real' than the 'phony' pastors (who, by the way, are any pastors that disagree with them). I would say, rather than sowing God into our life, we are called to sow our lives into God. This will cause a change, we will approach the pulpit in an altogether different way. We will revere the Word of God, and actually use it for more than a jumping off point. We will honor the sacred desk, not dressing to be distracting or cool, but to be unnoticed as we read the word. We will keep in mind that we are to refrain from filthiness, foolish talk, and crude joking [Ephesians 5], and keep our discussion to God and His Word.

When we do anything different, we are being examples to the congregation -- sadly, we are being bad ones! Let us, as pastors, return to the role that we have been called, if in fact you have been called, and leave behind the entertainment, cult-personality driven attitudes that have so enfeebled many a pulpit.

Example

2009-03-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

Let's look at 1st Timothy 4:12 again ... set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity..

We, as pastors are called to be examples; this requires that we are diligent in controlling our words and actions!

Many pastors (and I am not exempt from this), intentionally or unintentionally, create a congregation that is bound together, not by their love of Christ and the brethren, but by their common hatred. The attitudes and preferences of the pastor are often appropriated by their congregation - especially by those who are newer believers. And, being fallen men, we pastors often perpetuate our own biases amongst those that we are called to care for.

We are called to proclaim the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, practice church discipline in a Biblical manner, and be pastors over God's flock that He has entrusted to us. We are NOT called to force people to vote for the correct political party, protest the world's events in a manner unworthy of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, hate the brethren, or the myriad other things that the modern Western church has become mired in.

Should we teach our people what the Bible has to say about the things of this world? Absolutely -- we are called to teach God's Word; but we are not called to inflame the passions of our people in order to get them to rally around 'our' cause; unless, of course, it is Christ's cause!

I have seen many well-meaning and naive people carrying signs full of invectives against people who disagree with them. Sadly they will often quote Scripture -- Scripture that they themselves do not adhere to! And so many times, at the head of the pack is the pastor -- rallying his troops, shouting in a megaphone, and spewing hatred everywhere.This man creates a following; not of Jesus Christ, but of his own hatred and fear!

Are there things we can, and even should protest? Sure, there are, and we have a right to do so -- we should desire to change our society to be more reflective of Christ. But there is a way to do that, and it is not through hatred and violence.

O, that we were governed by the Biblical convictions that we want to force others live by! We should be praying that when the lost witness our example and hear the gospel clearly proclaimed, that they will be drawn to Jesus Christ, not that our side will 'win'.

Let us be firm in the truths of Jesus' deity, the inerrancy of the Bible, the truth claims of salvation by faith alone, through grace alone to the glory of God alone, but let us not do drive-by ad hominem attacks on others within the faith who believe differently on the spiritual gifts, baptism, eschatology, or any of the other usual suspects. This type of leadership teaches our people to be suspicious of others who are in the faith. We should clearly articulate what we believe to be true, but it should never be done in a way that demeans other Christians.

Also, let us be clear about the situation with the world. They are lost; we are called to be in the world, but not of it, holding up Jesus Christ and His gospel in such a manner that some will be drawn to Jesus. There will always be those who are repelled by the gospel, but let us not repel everyone by hateful invective.

I realize that some of my posts do not follow this advice, and I must admit that I have work to do in this area. I do not want to create hateful people within my congregation. While I do not apologize for pointing out inconsistencies within the Body of Christ, nor do I mind exposing false teaching, I must be careful not to participate in character assassination, or ad hominem attacks that are poorly thought-out.

Let us, as Pastors, ensure that our words and deeds are reflective of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Care?

2009-03-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

I am always amazed when I read of pastors from days past, and how they cared for their people. They truly gave themselves for their congregation -- for instance, Adolphe Monod the famous Swiss/French protestant, preached from his sick bed for nine months before succumbing to liver cancer. These months are considered by many to be the most fruitful of his ministry.

And what of the many pastors in persecuted lands that lay it all on the line every week to open the Word of God to their congregants. They face imprisonment, exile, or death, and yet they continue week in, week out.

That makes this all the more odious. Yes, I did listen to the rest of the sermon, and I understand that this is but a small part of it. But I also know that what this man understands about the role of a pastor is badly mistaken. The number of times he says "I don't care" as regards the feelings of his congregation is ridiculous.

While this person may be the most wonderful orator in the world, he is not a pastor; a true pastor would NEVER say these things about their congregation. It is an HONOR to not only open God's Word and speak to people that the Father has entrusted to you, but care for their needs.

And it is not only this person, but there are many others that I could mention, this just happens to be one of the latest. Sadly, pastors today seem to be much more concerned with their image than their people. I would pray that this person has rethought his comments, and has been convicted about these statements. However, from his site, and the comments there, it seems that he has blithely moved on.

I do not want to make this about one person, and a few minutes of a sermon, this just illustrates something that is pandemic across the USA: the lack of concern or care for the people that are under our care.

What does the Bible say about a pastor -- Well, how about this? 1st Timothy 4:12 -- ... set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.

This is something we can all can improve on! I am in no way saying that the man linked above is the only one that needs to do that, but he, like the rest of us, needs to put this in the forefront of his mind. We must be EXAMPLES to our congregations. And saying that we have no time for them is not a good example! Our entire lives are our ministry, not just Sunday mornings and evenings!

And if we are to be examples, then are we not to put others before ourselves ? I understand that ministry is difficult, and a time-consuming beast, but if we have been truly CALLED to ministry, then the Lord will provide us with strength. And yes, there are times when it wears us to a nub, and we simply need a break. I know a wonderful man of God who had to take six months or so off, he just worked himself to a breaking point (he also has a 'mega-church'), but this is the exception, and not the rule (unlike the comments of the man in the video, not all pastors burn out in two years. I know MANY pastors, and most of them have been serving their congregations for 5+ years with no thoughts about leaving).

And, just so that we all understand -- while you will not get to heaven by knowing the pastor, there are places in the Scriptures where it is said that we (pastors) are to give it all up so that people will come to know Christ -- 2nd Timothy 2:10 -- Therefore I [Paul] endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Giving it all up may mean that we actually have to (gasp) MINGLE with our congregation, and yes, even eat food that we do not like! I know that this may seem like a lot to sacrifice for the people, but I guess I will struggle through it!

Just read the opening chapter of Colossians, and tell me -- what is the heart of a pastor supposed to fixed on? Paul suffered so much for the church, and yet, he considered it a minor thing -- we (and I am guilty as well as anyone else) consider it 'suffering' if we have to take time with our congregation? BTW, lunch with the congregation is the very time when I am able to minister one-on-one with some of the people within the community of believers at our church -- I have been able to work through some fairly thorny issues whilst sitting at lunch with a confused, or concerned member.

And lest you think that I am just throwing these thoughts out without understanding the situation -- I will tell you that I am a bi-vocational pastor, working 40+ hours/week at a secular job and functioning as pastor at my local congregation. I understand what it is like to harried and busy -- but we should never let this interfere with the needs that are placed before us.

Pastoring is much more than preaching -- it involves the love, care, concern and guidance of the flock that God has placed under your care. If you are unable, or unwilling to do that, then please do not call yourself a pastor; regardless of your abilities as an orator, you are not a pastor -- do not insult the people by telling them that they are stupid if they think you are going to make time for their needs -- as you are too busy tending to your own!

I have nothing personal against the person that I used as an example today -- I probably fail in many of the same areas, but I would pray that we, as pastors, would get back to the business of pastoring, and let the other things that seem to consume us simply slide off into the trash where they belong. The people of God need, and deserve, a caring concerned shepherd. Let us all be that person in the lives of our congregations!

Feed?

2009-03-13T06:42:00.000-07:00

The first post in this series will concern itself with the feed that is provided by the shepherd. Feed is important to all living things; and in this case, the better the feed, the healthier, and more capable of survival the sheep. And yet... When we look at what passes for feed in this modern day we see a shocking dearth of decent feed.

The flock today is being fed with junk food which does nothing but put on spiritual fat and make them lazy. Junk food satisfies the immediate craving, but contains few nutrients, and a steady diet leads one to disease and obesity.

In a world where everything is being questioned, from the authority of the Scriptures to the deity of Christ, do people REALLY need 'sermons' (I hesitate to even honor these talks with that title), on sex? Do they really need more information on the import of marriage partners to be sexually intimate with one another? I think not.

But, this certainly brings in some free publicity and will pack the church with people. Heck, if you play your cards right, you will even be invited to the Colbert Show.

But is this what the people of God need? Is this the proper subject for a Sunday Morning Sermon Series; the time when God's people come together to worship Him, the time which should be devoted to God and Him alone?

And, I am not simply singling out this series -- the list of sermon series that have been taught in the church lately are abysmal. I won't do them honor by posting them on this blog. But, the same pastor I mentioned above had a recent sermon series introduced by Hulk Hogan!! And then you have the amazing plagiarism which takes poor, unscriptural sermons and spreads them out amongst all the churches who slavishly follow the 'big guys'.

What people need today is solid, Biblical exposition -- sadly, most people in the church today are Biblically illiterate, but culturally 'relevant' (whatever that may mean to them). Cultural relevance, the way it is displayed in some churches, is meaningless when one gets the big diagnosis, or loses their family or job, or both.

Frankly, 'cultural relevance' is a trojan horse used to hide the lazy, unbiblical self-absorbed rantings of many who want the title of pastor. This form of 'relevance' is foisted upon the church today; yet there is nothing actually culturally relevant about using gutter talk behind the pulpit, or dressing like a fourteen-year-old, or telling people off from behind the pulpit. Rather, these are all symptoms of an increasing narcissism that is infecting the so-called pastors of many churches. Their brand of cultural relevance is nothing more than grass that will wither and dry up. In a few years they will be passe.

Matthew 24:35 -- Heaven and earth will pass away, but my [Jesus']words will not pass away.

Isaiah 40:8 -- The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

The promises of God have carried the people of God through several millenia of persecution, pain and death. That is cultural relevance! The culturally relevant silliness of today cannot even carry one through the week. Let us get back to preaching and teaching the Word of God -- and let us throw out the false shepherds who are doing nothing but fleecing the flock, being so greedy as to even break open their hooves and eat the flesh found within!

What is a Pastor?

2009-03-04T20:23:00.000-08:00

Is it me, or is there a disturbing trend oozing from within the ranks of those calling themselves pastors?

This trend runs the gamut from the well-known and popular pastor who tells his congregation that he does not have time to care for, and watch over them (he is too busy running the church, and visiting with his family), to the usual lunacy of people such as Benny Hinn and those of his ilk.

It would seem that, in the modern age, anyone can take on the title of 'Pastor' without really taking on the role.

The role of pastor is something that is misunderstood, or worse, ignored by many within Christendom today.

However, before I start this series of posts, I wanted to repost an old entry that will set the bar for my own abilities as a pastor.

I am aware that I am sub-par in many areas of pastoring, and I would appreciate your prayers, helping my growth in these areas. However, I feel that I have a basic grasp of the role, and therefore, I feel that a short series on the role of the pastor may be of service to someone (quite possibly, me!)

So, with that brief introduction, let me repost this entry:

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Pastor?

For Pastor Appreciation Month, my wife and I were given a gift certificate for a local B&B. I will soon take her to the B&B and we will enjoy our twentieth wedding anniversary. Thank you to my wonderful congregation!

That is not why I am posting today, but wanted to set the stage a bit. When I receive recognition during Pastor Appreciation Month, I truly wonder, did/do I really deserve recognition? I look into the faces of my congregation and ask myself,

a) "Have I done EVERYTHING I could do to ensure that my teaching is solid?"

b) "Have I paid proper attention to those hurting, or in need of counsel?"

c) "Have I recognized those unsung workers, who week in and week out, are there, teaching Sunday School, and giving of their time and finances?"

And I find often that the honest answer is less than stellar. I wish I had more time to devote to study (don't we all), and I wish that I was able to spend more time visiting, but truth is, I have a limited number of cycles, and the laws of physics works against me.

In Jewish circles, during the month of Elul (which this year took place around Pastor Appreciation Month), a time is spent in reviewing the past year, and making things right with others. Now there are many things in the concept of Elul which I disagree with, however one of the things that I appreciate about Elul (also called Teshuvah) is that it forces me to look over the past year and see how I have done.

Truth be told, I owe my congregation many apologies for sermons that should not have been preached, or preached with more clarity. I am not sure who Alistair Begg was quoting, but I have heard him say, "We should keep our old sermons to weep over". I heartily agree and have done so on many occasions.

When a pastor preaches a bad/poor sermon and it is recorded for posterity and broadcast on the radio, I try to be understanding; I shudder to think what my life would be like if all of my sermons were broadcast on the radio! Now, there are always exceptions, where a sermon is simply inexcusable, badly researched, or NOT the gospel. However, there are many sermons in which a faux pas is seized upon and blown into a major debate/critique, judging a pastor by one slip that he made.

I have heard sermons by men that I respect greatly, such as John MacArthur and Mark Dever, where I thought that they lacked a bit of grace, or maybe the sermon contained an agenda which I felt was not fully exegeted out of the Scripture. I do not fault these men for that, they are, after all, simply men. They have fed their flocks faithfully for many, many years, and an occasional sermon that misses a bit is going to happen (And besides, that is my opinion, after all).

Sorry, went off on a tangent for a minute -- Back to our discussion: Yes, we all preach sermons that we would like to take back.

Also, I sometimes struggle with counseling; our church is a bit unique in that we are truly an outreach church, working with people who have had some very tough lives, some RIGHT off the street. Sometimes the questions these folks ask fall outside of the counseling techniques and guidance that I learned. I always pray before, during and after counseling sessions, desiring for the Word of the Lord to reign supreme in the session. I must admit that I sometimes miss on this. As emotions raise and discussions get more heated, or emotional (on the side of the counselee, usually), I find myself, at times, desiring to comfort when confronting is what is called for, or vice-versa.

And how do you thank people who are so giving of their time? We are a completely volunteer church, not having any paid staff, and I am always amazed at the work that the people in this congregation will do for ministries. We hold a Passover Seder every year to explain and illustrate the Messiah in the Feast, and the people in the church work for weeks preparing; we will have more people attend the Seder than we have in the church (usually by about double!)

These are examples of what I think about as they recognize me during Pastor Appreciation Month. I know that the Scriptures say that elders are worthy of double honor, but Paul puts a qualifier in the passage that says, "Let elders who RULE WELL be considered worthy of double honor..." And I always wonder: Am I ruling well?

While many, many pastors know, and quote, the 1st Timothy Scripture above, we need to go back and look over what qualifies as 'ruling well'.

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Jeremiah 23:1, 2 - "Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" declares the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: "You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD..."

Am I attending to my flock?

Ezekiel 34 - The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. "Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: As I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely because my sheep have become a prey, and my sheep have become food for all the wild beasts, since there was no shepherd, and because my shepherds have not searched for my sheep, but the shepherds have fed themselves, and have not fed my sheep, therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: Thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require my sheep at their hand and put a stop to their feeding the sheep. No longer shall the shepherds feed themselves. I will rescue my sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them. "For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice. "As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet? And must my sheep eat what you have trodden with your feet, and drink what you have muddied with your feet? "Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: Behold, I, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. Because you push with side and shoulder, and thrust at all the weak with your horns, till you have scattered them abroad, I will rescue my flock; they shall no longer be a prey. And I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken. "I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places all around my hill a blessing, and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. They shall no more be a prey to the nations, nor shall the beasts of the land devour them. They shall dwell securely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will provide for them renowned plantations so that they shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and no longer suffer the reproach of the nations. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, declares the Lord GOD. And you are my sheep, human sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Lord GOD."

Have I fed the flock with proper food? (Thanks be to God that we have a perfect Shepherd, and are simply the under-shepherds!)

2nd Timothy 2:15 - Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

Have I done my homework? Am I rightly handing the Word of God?

James 3:1 - Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.

Let ME keep that in mind as I labor for the Lord this year!

I pray that this year I will be a more effective, and learned pastor than I was last year! I pray that my prayer life will improve and my handling of the Word will align with the proper handling Paul stresses to Timothy.

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Evangelitis Warning!

2009-02-25T11:08:00.000-08:00

I have noticed a disease reaching epidemic proportions within the church. It seems to be quite insidious and can develop, at times, almost undetected. So, I wanted to send out a CDC (Church Disease Control) warning.

The disease is Evangelitis, and it can be fatal if not treated. Here are some of the symptoms:

1. Your church may rapidly swell 2, 3, up to 5 times it's normal size, yet it's functionality may be reduced by ten times. Even though it would seem that a larger church would INCREASE the proper functioning of the body, in fact, when this disease begins to take root, the exact opposite is observed; the older people are shuffled into 'vintage' services and the younger ones enjoy the 'contemporary' services. Slowly but surely, the more traditional folks will begin to feel alienated and isolated. They will eventually begin to fall off.

2. Your pastor regularly preaches in attire that is more suitable for an all-night lock-in at a cream pie factory with 100 crazed youth. (you know, torn jeans, a snorgtee, and sandals, or maybe barefoot).

3. Your pastor has a blog that he updates with frantic, almost obssessive regularity. But the posts have almost no spiritual bearing, most of them being self-absorbed rants. Oh, and he will use the word 'freaking' a lot, and it often times is all in caps. (My guess is that this proves how cool and relevant he really is?)

4. The sermons at your church can readily be found at a number of sermon prep sites for a small fee, and were generally not authored by your pastor. (I assume he is far too busy updating his blog?)

5. The leadership at your church are far more concerned with being 'relevant' as opposed to 'Biblical'.

6. Your time of singing consists of a worship 'band' that 'performs', (loudly), while everyone stands around clapping. And the band has enough gear (lights, sounds, instrumentation) to float the next Police reunion tour.

7. Your leadership seems to be enamored with technology as opposed to Theology.

8. Your church sponsors conferences that are named 'Revolution', 'Awakening', 'Fire' and the guest speakers are pop psychologists, eastern meditation experts and prayer maze designers.

9. Your pastor has replaced the pulpit with a card table and chairs, a bed, a music stand, or a couch.

10. Not only has the pastor replaced the pulpit with a stage prop, but he has also replaced the Bible with a book from the McManus/McLaren/Bell/Eldridge groups.

If you notice any of these symptoms, you should immediately begin checking the church regularly for a loss in the proclamation of the Evangel. At times, the loss of a functioning Evangel is almost imperceptible, so be on your guard.

You have been warned!

Soli Deo Gloria Part 2 - Conclusion

2009-02-23T06:21:00.000-08:00

In my last post, I ended by saying that we should never forget the men and women who lived and died to the glory of God.

I would like to tell you of one – Captain Allen Francis Gardiner.

Capt. Gardiner was a very devout Christian man, and naval officer in the British Navy in the 19th century. Captain Gardiner left England to do missions work amongst the Patagonian peoples in September 1850; it took about four months for the small band to arrive in Patagonia, which is on the southernmost tip of South America. Immediately they had problems, losing several of their small vessels and most of their provision of gunpowder, which was their only way to procure food for themselves.

The mission work was difficult as well, for the natives were hostile to much of the work that Gardiner and his band were attempting. To make a long story short – eventually the British Admiralty sent a ship to check on the seven. They had all died of illness and starvation. But, I want to share with you what the Navy found when they came upon the camp in which Gardiner had finally perished.

Here is an entry from Gardiner’s diary dated September 3rd, 1851 -- "Mr Maidment was so exhausted yesterday that he did not rise from his bed till noon, and I have not seen him since; consequently I tasted nothing yesterday. I cannot leave the place where I am, and know not whether he is in the body, or enjoying the presence of the gracious God whom he has served so faithfully. I am writing this at ten o'clock in the forenoon. Blessed be my heavenly Father for the many mercies I enjoy--a comfortable bed, no pain, or even cravings of hunger; though excessively weak, scarcely able to turn in my bed, at least, it is a very great exertion; but I am, by His abounding grace, kept in perfect peace, refreshed with a sense of my Saviour's love, and an assurance that all is wisely and mercifully appointed, and pray that I may receive the full blessing which it is doubtless designed to bestow. My care is all cast upon God, and I am only waiting His time and His good pleasure to dispose of me as He shall see fit. Whether I live or die, may it be in Him; I commend my body and my soul to His care and keeping, and earnestly pray that He will take my dear wife and children under the shadow of His wings, comfort, guard, strengthen, and sanctify them wholly, that we may together, in a brighter and eternal world, praise and adore His goodness and grace in redeeming us with His precious blood, and plucking us as brands from the burning, to bestow upon us the adoption of children, and make us inheritors of His heavenly kingdom. Amen.

A day or two before his death, Gardiner made a final entry into his diary -- "Should anything prevent my ever adding to this, let all my beloved ones at home rest assured that I was happy beyond all expression the night I wrote these lines, and would not have changed situations with any man living. Let them also be assured that my hopes were full and blooming with immortality; that heaven and love and Christ, which mean one and the same divine thing, were in my heart; that the hope of glory, the hope laid up for me in heaven, filled my whole heart with joy and gladness, and that to me to live is Christ, to die is gain. I am in a strait betwixt two, to abide in the body, or to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. Let them know that I loved them, and prayed for every one of them. .God bless them all.”

Capt. Gardiner lived AND died to the glory of God. You hear no whimpering or self-pity in this man, only a laser-focused perspective on the providential will of God, and serving that God to His [God's] glory. I wish I were that dedicated to God's glory. Sadly, I fear, I am far too self-absorbed much of the time. May we all pray that God transform us all into a people consumed with His glory!

How do we live in a manner that reflects Soli Deo Gloria? To glorify God, you must first acknowledge Him! That is the first aspect of soli deo gloria. All too often, our only thoughts of God take place at church for 60 minutes on a Sunday morning, and even then, He is competing with thoughts of football, social activities, or any number of other things. God must occupy our thoughts at all times – as Reverend Geoff Thomas of Alfred Place Church says – “The idea of God must be the greatest idea you ever had. It must swallow up and dominate all other ideas.”

Then, when we have acknowledged God, we must recognize that He is the giver of all things; everything that we have, is given to us from God – our talent, our looks, our abilities, these all come from God. When we recognize that fact we are much better at glorifying Him in all that we do. Phil Keaggy may be a great guitarist, but it is God who gave Phil that talent – yes, he worked at it by practicing, but I could practice as long and hard as him, and I would never be the guitarist that he is. God gifts us with our abilities – why is it that you have the intelligence that you have? Is there something you did to CREATE it? You may have studied and nurtured the ability, but God is the first cause!

Finally, we must grasp that God is not only the first cause, but the end of all things. All things begin and end in God – when we recognize this fact, we are able to put everything else in perspective. At the end of the day – God is all in all, when this election year, this century, this country, this earth is but a memory, there will still be God. Knowing that enables us to put everything else in its place. How could Captain Gardiner write in such a manner only days before his death? He was not bemoaning the futility of his life and death, no he was living coram deo – before the face of God, fully cognizant that God is glorious!

We so often are like Martha – anxious and troubled about many things – so busy with the ‘doing’ of life that we forget the ‘why’ of life – we are to live to the glory of God in such a way that the world will notice! Again, let us remember Paul’s command in 1st Corinthians 10:31 -- So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Let me close this post with the words to the Hymn, Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise [Walter Chalmers Smith, 1867]:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
thy justice like mountains high soaring above
thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all, life thou givest, to both great and small;
in all life thou livest, the true life of all;
we blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
and wither and perish, but naught changeth thee.

Thou reignest in glory; thou dwellest in light;
thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
all laud we would render: O help us to see
'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Soli Deo Gloria Part 1 - Introduction

2009-02-14T07:52:00.000-08:00

This series of posts will be my final ones on the solas. This post will look at 'soli deo gloria', or ‘for the glory of God alone’. So far I have posted about:

1. - sola fide – ‘by faith alone’
2. - sola gratia – ‘by grace alone’
3. - solus Christus – 'by Christ alone'
4. - sola scriptura - 'scripture alone'

The reason for these posts is that, sadly, we again find these solas under attack in the modern so-called evangelical church! We regularly find well-known preachers denying these solas – preaching a semi-pelagian message that resonates so well with man in his fallen nature. These 'preachers' will state or intimate that Adam's sin is not imputed to us, nor is Christ's righteousness. Adam is merely a bad example, not the representative in whom we stand guilty. Similarly, Christ is simply a good example, not the representative in whom we stand righteous.

How much of modern preaching focuses on the moralistic message of 'WWJD' as opposed to the God-glorifying message of 'What Did Jesus DO!?' The primary message coming out of many churches today is this human-centered, works-based one. Fallen man LOVES the law – it makes us feel that we can affect our own salvation at some level – therefore, we pump up the most legalistic of the televangelists and pour money into their coffers, as they tell us that we MUST do this and that to be accepted by God! It is amazing that people will follow a leader who is constantly preaching all law and no gospel, yet we see it everyday!

We must always keep before us that our salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, by Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Without keeping this perspective, which is the perspective of the Bible, then God’s Word becomes all Law – what to do and what not to do – and we therefore must make ourselves ‘right’ by following all the rules. What the solas do is remove all reason for boasting; all thought that somehow we affected any part of our own salvation.

Therefore, this is not a popular message amongst many modern 'evangelicals'; man wants to feel like he/she has a part in their salvation, and if we can get someone to provide us with a measuring rod to allow us to compare and contrast ourselves with God’s Word, and others, then we will feel better about the whole thing.

As Paul said to a prideful, puffed up Corinthian church – 1st Corinthians 4:7 -- For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?

There is arrogance in today’s church that is very off-putting, and affects outreach efforts, growth of disciples, and maturity within the body – and that arrogance is directly an outgrowth of failing to remember that we are saved by God’s grace alone, through a faith imparted by Him alone, in Christ, His perfect provision alone, to His glory alone!

TO GOD ALONE THE GLORY!

The very first question in the Westminster shorter catechism is:

Q1. What is the chief end of man?

A1. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

The reformers taught the sovereignty of God over ALL aspects of the believer's life. ALL of our life is to be lived to the glory of God.

In the Medieval Church, glory assigned to many things – from icons and saints, to Mary, to the Pope. Each of these and more, had glory inappropriately assigned to them. This was what the Reformers attacked in their statement of Soli Deo Gloria – that there is no one and nothing on Earth that is deserving of the glory that is meant for God alone. The elevation of the church offices by Rome led to the mindset that only people in full-time ministry could truly glorify God, and everyone else was beholden to them! And here is where the Reformers tore down the idolatry that had grown up around the church officers – be it the local parish priest or the pope himself.

We still have people who attempt to wrest glory from God. Do not be fooled by their pious sounding nonsense; watch their actions, and see who they give glory to. These are the modern popes, who want the glory that is God's alone!

In 1st Corinthians 10:31, Pauls says - So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Paul says that in ALL things we are to do it to the glory of God – there is no ‘special’ vocation that brings glory to God, rather it is the entirety of our lives that are to bring glory to God!

This sola is a most difficult one for us – isn’t it? For, as much as we want to deny it, we love glory – we relish someone idolizing us, assigning glory to us. As a pastor I can tell you that there is something incredibly dangerous about being put on a pedestal – it can cause the best of men to believe their own press clippings; soon they are the one to whom the adoration and glory, which belong to God alone, is funneled. And it is not just the pastor, but each and every one of us who is susceptible to wanting glory.

Not only do we love glory, but, as Calvin said in his institutes, our hearts are idol factories. Not only do we attempt to usurp the glory that belongs to God, but we focus our affections on other things BEFORE God!

This was clearly illustrated this election year, when many put more faith in their candidate than in Christ, in their party than in God – we showered glory and respect on mere men, and in doing so, we often dishonored God in our actions, words, or thoughts! We are called to live our lives in such a manner that we glorify our God and Father – the one whose plan of salvation made it possible for us to become His children!

Here are a few questions

1. - Is the purpose of the evangelical community to honor God, or please men?

2. - Is our joy found in God, or someone, or something else?

Here is a quick test of priorities: do you know the starting line-up of your favorite sports team, but do not know anything about God’s Word? Do you spend hours watching TV, but cannot find a minute to pray with your kids? Are you more interested in being entertained by upbeat and “I” centered worship songs than you are in worshiping God in Spirit and Truth? Are you living so that God is glorified in your life, or are you living your best, and self-centered, life now?

I fear that the church has forgotten, or worse, discarded, this sola! We have become overwhelmed and infatuated by the world and its ways – we can simply witness the recent financial storm that hit Wall Street – I have spent more time talking about this with Christians than we have discussed God and His glory; it would seem that when it comes to our own convenience, comfort or safety, we place God in the queue and get to Him when time permits.

However, if we but look at a few examples found in Scripture, I believe that we will discover that to truly live a life of soli deo Gloria, our comfort and safety is not taken into consideration. What of Stephen in Acts 6, 7? Stephen preached the gospel, giving glory to God for what He had done, and this led to his stoning. Yet, even at this juncture he did not waiver – as they stoned him, he looked up and saw Jesus waiting to receive him into heaven. Stephen’s very death brought glory to God!

And then of course, there is Paul – 2nd Corinthians 11:24 – 31 -- Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

This Paul would also say – Philippians 4:12 - 20 -- I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Let us not forget about the men and women who lived, and died to the glory of God in the past two millennia of Christian work. In my next post, I will finish off the solas by posting about one of these men. For now, may we all refocus our lives and live to the Glory of God alone!

Sola Scriptura Part 2 - Conclusion

2009-02-12T06:21:00.000-08:00

While Luther and most of the other Reformers did not advocate throwing the baby out with the bathwater as regards the tradition and teaching of the Church, there was a movement within the Reformation that actually swung completely the other way, and was in complete error!

This was the radical Anabaptist group – they believed that they did not need the teaching office of the church, or even the Bible; since the Holy Spirit spoke to them -- or at least to their leaders -- directly. Instead of one Pope, Anabaptism produced numerous "infallible" messengers who heard the voice of God. Their modern day ancestors are found in the fringes of the charismatic movement and beyond – people who believe that they can have an extra-biblical revelation, and even when it does not square with the bible, or worse, even directly contradicts it, they are validated in holding to that claim because it was ‘revealed’ to them by the spirit. Of course, no one is quite sure which spirit it is, because the Holy Spirit of God would never contradict His Word.

Over and against the errors of both Rome and the Anabaptists, the Reformation insisted that the Bible was the sole final authority in determining doctrine and life. In interpreting it, the whole church must be included, including the laity, and they must be guided by the teachers in the church. Those teachers, though not infallible, should have considerable interpretive authority. The creeds were binding and the newly reformed Protestant communions quickly drafted confessions of faith that received the assent of the whole church, not merely the teachers.

You see, the concept that the church has no authority vested in leadership is not Biblical – yet there are groups who do not believe that there should be teachers or preachers in the church, that each and every person considers and studies the Bible on their own and comes up with their own unique interpretation. This is why you have such an illiterate and self-focused church today, there is no methodical and learned study of God’s Word from the pulpit and in the weekly lessons, there are lots of feel-good therapeutic messages which use bits and pieces of God’s Word to prove their validity, but the individual believer is left to figure it out on their own – and in our egalitarian society, whatever they come up with is held to be true FOR THEM! Truly Luther was right – each and every man is going to hell in his own way.

Yet, this is not what we see in the Biblical record – The first thing Paul did was to appointed elders to the church – and they were not just any man off the street – 1st Timothy 3:1 – 7 -- The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.

We see in 1st Timothy 1:3, 4 that Paul charges Timothy to “remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.” Going on in 1st Timothy 4:6 – 16 to say: "If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

While the modern church says that doctrine divides and we should be more interested in social activity or some such nonsense, Paul was obsessed with correct doctrine, and men charged to preach and teach it!

Peter illustrates the import of the Scriptures in 2nd Peter 1:16 – 21 -- "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Peter states that he and the other disciples bear the testimony of being eyewitnesses to Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry, specifically during the Transfiguration, but he then goes on to say that there is even a more sure testimony – that of the Scriptures!

While certain men may be gifted and guided to be teachers and preachers in the church – they will never trump Scripture. As long as they are faithful witnesses to the Word of God, they are valid teachers; when they stray, like Hymaneus and Alexander, they make a shipwreck of their faith!

So let me leave you with a couple of thoughts –

First, the Bible never makes the claim that we are to toss out everything save for the Word of God – but that everything is to be validated by, and verified by the Scriptures. We are to have churches, with leaders who are given the honor due their position, and these men should be held up to a different, higher standard in their knowledge and conduct. These men should give themselves to the study, preaching and teaching of God’s Word, being first and foremost shaped by it themselves.

Secondly, like the Bereans, the laity, the congregation are to also be students of the Word of God. It is said that in the day of Jonathan Edwards, during the formative days of this country, every plow in his district had a Greek New Testament balanced on it – so eager were the people to know the Word of God. Would that we were that hungry for God’s Word!

And finally, that we are to study what the great men of God have learned throughout the ages as they gave their lives to the study of, and meditation upon God’s Word. These men must never be elevated above the Scriptures; Calvin, Luther, Augustine, all had their flaws, but there are many jewels of insight they gave to the church – we must not throw away these treasures.

Let us treasure and love the Word of God!

Sola Scriptura Part 1 - Scripture Alone?

2009-02-09T06:09:00.000-08:00

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. I do not turn aside from your rules, for you have taught me. How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:97 - 105

As we begin today’s message, let me start by telling you what sola scriptura DOES NOT mean.

There are those who believe that sola scriptura means we throw out all tradition, all learned teaching, and all history. This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, what Luther and the reformers meant by sola scriptura! There were those movements in that day, the more radical elements of the Anabaptist movement, who took that direction, but Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon and the others understood that there was truth and learning contained within the tradition of the church; there was good tradition, and we were to study the Early Church Fathers, such as Augustine (Luther was an Augustinian monk at one time.)

When he was questioned about the idea of throwing out the creeds, the traditions and all the history contained therein – Luther responded thusly: "That would mean that each man would go to hell in his own way."

Sola scriptura NEVER meant that we were to do away with everything learned up to the 16th century. Most cults start just this way – a bunch of people get together and claim that their only creed is the Bible – of course, they have no learning, and they throw out all of the learning that can be gained from men who gave their entire lives to the study of Theology, tossing the entire history of a church that has carried the saints through millennia of persecution, deprivation and hatred. All one has to do is search the web; every goofy idea that was refuted centuries ago has resurfaces, from total mythology to some of the more bizarre movements within the so-called 'Messianic Movement'.

As well, we see this mindset in many a church today; it is just me, the Bible and the Holy Spirit – no parameters, no authority, no guidelines.

And what does the church end up with? People who claim that the Godhead is NOT a trinity, but instead nine persons, or that Adam flew to distant planets like an ancient Superman – or people who claim that the ‘spirit’ revealed to them that we should all stop going to church. All of these are the result of the mindset that there should not be any authority vested within the church, but that every person should be free to do what they want; truly Luther’s fear: that every man will go to hell in his own way, is being expressed in many circles today where authority and the beliefs of the church from its founding have been trumped by a slick talker with a Bible and a personal revelation from a spirit!

As a matter of fact, this mindset is the exact thing that the Catholic Church warned about – with a complete breakdown of authority you will have anarchy – and we see it in today’s church!

So, if that is NOT what the Reformers meant by sola scriptura, what then, did they mean? It helps to understand the times, and what Luther was attempting to reform: In that day, (and even now), Rome believes that not only did the church need an infallible Bible, but they also needed an infallible interpreter. The Bible is so difficult, so dark, that the common man in and of himself was unable to understand the it, and therefore, the church needed an interpreter who was also vested with infallibility to make clear the Bible. And this interpreter (The Roman church), because of their infallibility, could make pronouncements that were as binding as Scripture upon the church.

As a side note, this continues to this day – many Catholics do not obey the church as they once did, but the official position of Rome is still that it is infallible when ruling upon the faith and practice of the church.

So, when the reformers claimed sola scriptura, they were NOT saying that they denied all authority vested within the church, but that authority was based upon the foundation of the Scriptures – in other words, the church could not ‘reinterpret’ the Scriptures to say something that they never said, but instead their authority was based upon the correct reading of, and adherence to the Scriptures. The Scriptures are the final rule for faith and practice of the believer.

When Johann Tetzel brought his cart around to demand payment for indulgences, Luther felt no compulsion about calling him on it. Although indulgences were authorized and endorsed by the church, there was no precedence within Scripture for this practice, and therefore Luther felt that it should be scrapped. He recognized it as nothing more than a money making venture for Rome. Likewise, the thought that an ecumenical council could be infallible was extra-biblical – so the rulings of the councils that did not square with the Bible were considered spurious by Luther.

When Luther stood trial at the Diet of Worms in 1521 – he was asked if he would recant his writings, the very writings which opposed the councils and rulings of the church that were not found within the confines of Scripture.

As he stood in defense of his writings, Luther was standing on the shoulders of great men before him, such as Wycliffe, the Morning Star of the Reformation, who rebelled against Rome in the 14th century, and Jan Hus, a 15th century Bohemian reformer.

At this point, the Reformation stood in the balance; would Luther recant?

He asked for a day to consider.

After a day in prayer and meditation on the Word of God, Luther returned and gave his famous statement – “Your Imperial Majesty and Your Lordships demand a simple answer. Here it is, plain and unvarnished. Unless I am convicted of error by the testimony of Scripture or (since I put no trust in the unsupported authority of Pope or councils, since it is plain that they have often erred and often contradicted themselves) by manifest reasoning, I stand convicted by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my conscience is taken captive by God's word, I cannot and will not recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither safe for us, nor open to us. On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me.”

This was a shot heard around the world! Luther was saying that unless one could convince him from the Scriptures of the error of his ways, no council, no man should budge him. This was a death sentence, and Luther knew it!

This was before papal infallibility; that would not develop for another 370 or so years, but the church did believe that the councils were infallible, and Luther's statement sent a shockwave through Christendom. He was stating that the church does have a certain biblical authority, but unless that authority is based upon the Scriptures, it has no binding rule over the believer. Therefore, the church must practice Biblical discipline, but not extra-biblical discipline, the church must practice the ordinances, but not add to them, the church is authorized to place leaders over people, but when those leaders violate the trust of the people and go against Scripture, they are to be removed. The church is UNDER the authority of the Scriptures not OVER or EQUAL to them!

I will leave you with that thought, and put up a second post later in the week to finish off sola scriptura.

Solus Christus Part 3 - The Work of Christ

2009-02-04T06:07:00.000-08:00

And finally we come to the work of Christ; what is that work? First, it is not just His death on the cross – if Jesus ONLY died on the cross for our sins, (although this is far beyond simple minds to even consider by itself), then we would have been set back to the original state of Adam, left to our own devices, but cleared of past sins. This is the view of some – they believe that Jesus made the BIG payment on the cross, but we are responsible for the remaining payments, by adhering to the Law! And people preach this! As I said earlier, I am not exempt from having done this – and for that I am sorry! The truth is much more incredible, we did not just have Jesus reset the counters to zero and hand us the reins, wishing us all the best. He imputed to us His sinless, perfect life. So, when the Judge of the Universe looks upon the redeemed, He sees them clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ!

Romans 3:21 – 26 -- But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Philippians 3: 8 – 11 -- Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith — that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Jesus’ death on the cross was He who knew no sin, being made sin for us. It is amazing that for the joy set before Him He endured the cross isn’t it? His love of the Father, and desire to do His will was set before all other things, and He became obedient, even unto death on a cross! On the cross Jesus became the propitiation – the one who bore the wrath of the Father, and the one who expiated our sin – taking them away.

It is in His work on the cross that we find Jesus taking on the sins of His people. Isaiah 53:4 – 6 -- Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Hebrews 10:10 – 14 -- … we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

My friends, there is no salvation found outside of the Person of Jesus Christ! Only in His finished work in the cross can we find redemption – all roads do not lead to heaven! Jesus Himself said – John 14:6 -- … I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Whether you have been a Christian for 40 years or 40 minutes, He calls to you to find your rest in Him. Jesus, in His final words on the cross, said “tetelestai” – paid in full. Find your rest in Him, and His finished work – for you, my dear Christian brothers and sisters, are in the hand of the Father and no one can snatch you from there. Even when you are faithless, He is faithful!

Solus Christus!

When we understand that Christ paid it all, we can say, with the poet Fredrick Whitfield:

There is a Name I love to hear,
I love to sing its worth;
It sounds like music in my ear,
The sweetest Name on earth.

Oh, how I love Jesus,
Oh, how I love Jesus,
Oh, how I love Jesus,
Because He first loved me!

It tells me of a Savior’s love,
Who died to set me free;
It tells me of His precious blood,
The sinner’s perfect plea.

It tells me of a Father’s smile
Beaming upon His child;
It cheers me through this little while,
Through desert, waste, and wild.

It tells me what my Father hath
In store for every day,
And though I tread a darksome path,
Yields sunshine all the way.

It tells of One whose loving heart
Can feel my deepest woe;
Who in each sorrow bears a part
That none can bear below.

It bids my trembling heart rejoice;
It dries each rising tear;
It tells me, in a “still small voice,”
To trust and never fear.

Jesus, the Name I love so well,
The Name I love to hear:
No saint on earth its worth can tell,
No heart conceive how dear.

This Name shall shed its fragrance still
Along this thorny road,
Shall sweetly smooth the rugged hill
That leads me up to God.

And there with all the blood-bought throng,
From sin and sorrow free,
I’ll sing the new eternal song
Of Jesus’ love for me.

Solus Christus Part 2 - The Person of Christ

2009-01-27T19:45:00.000-08:00

I closed my last post with the thought that it is who Christ is, and what He has done that saves us. So, let's look at the Person of Christ in this post; WHO He is, and why this is important for our salvation.

What do we mean when we say that it is the person and work of Jesus Christ that saves? What is it about His person that is so special? Well, let me quote Paul in Colossians 1:11 – 20 -- May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

And the writer to the Hebrews says this: Hebrews 1:1 – 4 -- Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

And finally in John 1:1 – 5 -- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

What is so special about the person of Jesus Christ? Well, for all who think that the Bible is dull and lifeless – check this out – Isaiah 59:16 -- He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.

Let this sink in; God in the second Person of the Trinity, died on a cross to redeem His people! God the Father, knowing that no fallen human being could accomplish the work of salvation, sent His only begotten Son, the SECOND PERSON of the TRINITY, to die in our stead!

This is why the person of Jesus Christ is so important. I could not die for you – my life does not have infinite worth, nor am I sinless. No matter how ‘nice’ I could ever be, I am unable to save anyone; but Jesus Christ – He, whose life has infinite worth, was the only one capable of sufficiently priopitiating the wrath of an infinite God, who has been infinitely offended! Is any of this boring???

And those who have been redeemed can rest in the comfort of knowing that we cannot be snatched out of God's hands. What a comfort and blessing it is to know that God Himself came to Earth, incarnated as a man, and died on the cross for His people -- thereby ensuring that they would inherit Heaven, and that NOTHING can take that away from them! Boring? I think not!

John 6:35 – 40 -- Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

John 10:27 – 30 -- My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.

Jesus Christ is the only sacrifice that is acceptable to the Father. He whose life has infinite worth, took on the sins of His people to redeem them completely and utterly. He and the Father are one - Jesus Christ is deity, and because of this, those whom He died for, those whom He holds in His hand cannot be snatched out! Because Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Second Person of the Trinity we receive redemption, and can have assurance that we are kept in His infallible, immutable care. Praise the Lord!

I would like to close this post with Romans 8:1 - 4,28 - 39 -- There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit ... And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Solus Christus Part 1 - An Introduction

2009-01-23T07:40:00.000-08:00

This post continues our examination of the 5 sola’s of the Reformation.

This post will look at solus Christus, or ‘by Christ alone’. I pray that I will be able to do justice to this most holy of subjects – to proclaim the glorious truth of Jesus Christ is a holy and awesome task that should be the desire and aim of all pastors at all times.

In this post, I hope to spur a desire to look at Christ anew – with fresh eyes; eyes illumined by the Holy Spirit, such that you might once again be drawn to Him afresh – taken in by the beauty of His person and work.

The focus of the church should be on Jesus Christ, however she no longer has Christ and Him crucified as her primary message. We have reduced the Bible to a great moral story, and like Thomas Jefferson did with his Bible, we have effectively removed Jesus’ deity, and atoning work. We now have sermons such as “How to raise positive kids in a negative world”, or “How to eat healthy, like Jesus did”, or, as a local pastor is currently doing, we have sermon series on the joy of SEX! Jesus Christ, and Him crucified is relegated to an Easter service. We have the mistaken notion that once one comes to Christ they no longer need to hear the gospel – they now need moral stories. The truth is that every Christian needs to regularly hear and reflect on the salvation found in our Lord Jesus Christ!

Without Christ as the focus of our message, the Bible becomes all Law – what to do and what not to do, and we become legalistic – I know, I have been there, and regrettably, all too many of my messages have been heavy on Law and light on Gospel. It is not from an ivory tower that I preach this, I have been there, and have several t-shirts!

Without Christ as our focus we cannot understand the message of the Bible; Jesus, in speaking to the Pharisees says this in John 5:39, 40 -- You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.

The Pharisees knew the Bible, all the do’s and don’ts of the Law, but they did not know Christ. They could preach a mean moralistic message on how to live but without Jesus Christ there was no true understanding of God’s word, and tragically, no salvation! It is not Biblical knowledge in and of itself that saves. It is the Christ revealed in those Scriptures that saves!

Many claim to find the Bible dull and uninspiring (I speak here of Christians), and sadly, it is because they sit under teaching that does not have as its focus Christ and Him crucified! How can one expect the Bible to be interesting, when the pastor has removed the plot line, the main character and even the ending from the book? What book would hold your interest without those key elements?

I have had pastors tell me that their people do not want to hear the Bible taught; they want something relevant. I claim that if they were properly taught the Bible, they would view it as the MOST relevant thing in their life! The Bible is not dull and uninspiring – it is pastors who, in seeking to be relevant, offer up the same promises as the world, just repackaged in ‘Christian’ wrapping, that are dull and uninspired! Take the superficial moralistic and therapeutic messages and throw them out, plug Jesus into His rightful place in the Bible and then teach Christ and Him crucified, and you will discover that the Bible goes from Lawrence Welk in Black & White, to Transformers in full color and THX sound!

In the church today we find many types of 'jesus' presented:

(1) - The ever popular sugar daddy jesus; always a favorite with televangelists – you have heard about him, haven’t you? Just say some magic words, click your heels together and say “there’s no place like home” and He MUST give you your hearts desire.

(2) - Then there is the comforting Doctor-Phil-jesus; he is at our disposal for all our dysfunctional concerns and worries; this Jesus is preached in messages such as the aforementioned Joy of Sex sermon series.

(3) - Then there is the latest, and in my opinion most disgusting jesus: jesus as my boyfriend, reflected in many of the so-called worship songs that are being sung today.

(4) - And finally we have jesus as Ghandi, a great moral teacher who showed us, by example on the cross, how we are to live sacrificially.

Sadly, none of these Jesus’ are the Biblical Jesus. Did Jesus provide us with an example – yes, He did. Did Jesus say to ask in His name for things – yes, He did. BUT, first and foremost, Jesus is the Christ; the ONLY mediator between God and man, whose death on the cross redeemed us from death, hell and the grave! These other facets of His ministry are not the primary focus.

What did Paul say in 1st Corinthians? “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified…” Why? Because the most important thing that you can know is Jesus Christ and Him crucified!

The fruit of these faulty presentations are people in pursuit of the gifts in lieu of the giver, healing in place of the healer, and blessings devoid of the blessed. Sadly, many of those who do not get their prayers answered in the 'allotted time-frame' promised by the pastor, or don’t experience a perfect marriage after completing the “Seven Steps to a Successful Marriage”, leave the church never actually hearing the good news of the gospel! These people will say things like “I tried Christianity, and it didn’t work for me”, as if Christ is just another apothecary jar in the medicine chest of life. “Well, that didn’t work, let’s go to the Bah’ai Temple next week…”

Saddest of all, oftentimes these people have never been presented with Christ, and Him crucified; the church may have spoken a lot ABOUT the gospel, but the actual gospel was never presented in all its glory! People do not realize that salvation is found OUTSIDE of themselves; it is nothing that we have done, or will do that saves us – it is the finished work of Christ, and Him ALONE that saves!

Many of the most popular preachers in the land preach a neo-nomian message – no gospel, just an emphasis on the Law and doing ‘our part’. Just because these people have a pleasant demeanor and a blinding smile, makes them no less responsible than the Pharisees in Matthew 23. These people scour the Earth for a proselyte and make them twice the son of hell that they are; the result of Christless Christianity – a message stripped of Christ in His person and work!

We are saved by something OUTSIDE of ourselves! It is who Jesus Christ is, and what He has done that saves.

With the hymn writer we can exclaim:

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.

When Darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, his covenant, his blood
supports me in the whelming flood.
When all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay.

When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found!
Dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne!

A Letter to Our President

2009-01-20T05:57:00.000-08:00

1st Timothy 2:1,2 -- First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

Titus 3:1,2 -- Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

Mr President,

For the next (at least) four years, the entire world will watch your every move; your every statement will be scrutinized, and studied, and every decision will be lauded or criticized. I cannot imagine the pressure of this job, and I do not believe that any man is sufficient for the performance of it. While I do not agree with some of your staff selections, and we have differing opinions in certain key areas, I will pray for you, as I have your predecessors, every day.

President Obama, I pray that your administration will truly mark a turning point in our country. As I watch you this morning, going through the official routine of inauguration day, I cannot help but be filled with the hope that this country may finally begin to heal from a wound that has long lain open.

President Obama, I oppose your position on abortion and several other areas, and will continue to stand against them, but I will support you as the President of this country, and I pray that God will lead and guide you in your decisions.

With that in mind, I would like to extend this pray:

Our gracious Heavenly Father, we know that You created the heavens and the earth and all that are in them. The earth is Your footstool, and You are seated in the heavenlies. Lord, You appoint leaders, and depose them, and it is by Your providential Will that nations rise and fall. And on this day as we appoint a new leader in this country, I would pray that You would lead and guide His Hand as he directs the country. Lord, we know that President Obama is a man, and like all man, is fallen and fallible, so we pray that Your grace would cover Him, drawing Him evermore back to Your Divine counsel. We pray that his family would, as well, be drawn close to You, and that You would watch over them and protect them. Finally Lord, we know it is only through the finished work of Your Son, Jesus Christ that we may approach Your Throne, so it is in His Name that we pray for this man and this country. Amen.

And, since we just celebrated Martin Luther King's birthday, and today is the historic inauguration of President Barak Obama, I wanted to repost some snippets from Dr. King's "I have a Dream speech. May we hear these words anew on this historic day!

=================================

"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice."

..........

"But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom."

...........

"And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

What I Got For Christmas!

2009-01-18T19:36:00.000-08:00

And it is WONDERFUL! Every verse of 625 hymns (including seven verses of Amazing Grace)

Now, enough braggadocio -- back to the solas...

Sola Gratia Part 3 - The Glory!

2009-01-16T07:02:00.000-08:00

In the last post we examined the condition of man, and, in this final post, I want to illustrate the beauty of sola gratia. Think about this; sinners do not seek God; God seeks sinners. What a wonderful reality!

Here are a few closing Scriptures to illustrate God's work in salvation - a salvation wrought solely by HIS grace!

Ephesians 2:1 – 10 -- And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

John 6:35 – 40; 60 - 65 -- Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day… ...When many of his disciples heard it, they said, This is a hard saying; who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) And he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.

The work of salvation is God's - we are justified by grace through faith, and that not of our doing. What a staggering thought that the Judge of the Universe would look upon the helpless estate of mankind and stretch out HIS right arm to save us!

With David, I exclaim - O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? [Psalm 8:1 - 4]

Because of the truth of sola gratia, I can proclaim, with Horatio Spafford:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blessed assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

To close out this series on sola gratia, I would like to lay out the grand and glorious gospel; (the few folks who read this blog are familiar with the gospel, however I love saying it again!).

Adam, our federal head, fell, and his fall was devastating to mankind, separating Adam, and by extension all mankind, from God. There is none righteous – we are conceived in iniquity, we are inherently sinful.

God then chose a people to proclaim His glorious plan of salvation, Israel. And in His Grace, He gave them a ceremonial system of animal sacrifice so that, working through faith, they might be made right before God. While the blood of goats and bulls was only a temporary covering of sin, they foreshadowed the great and perfect Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, whose sacrifice would once and for all save the redeemed.

Throughout all of time, God promised this deliverer, who would once again make God’s people right with Him. Then, two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ came to this Earth to fulfill the Father’s plan of salvation. Jesus lived a life of perfect obedience, fulfilling all righteousness and then He took upon Himself our sin and nailed it to the cross. He imputed His life of righteousness to us, and took upon Himself our sins. Three days later, He was raised; the perfect, acceptable sacrifice, who, once for all time, removed the stain of sin from His people! He then ascended to Heaven where He sits at the right hand of the Father and makes intercession for His people. Truly, with Paul we can say: 2nd Corinthians 4:6 - For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

And all those who, by God’s grace, not by their own actions or merits, come to Christ in faith, are redeemed.

The beauty of this gospel is that our salvation does not depend on our faithfulness in doing the right things; it is God who is the faithful one. Nor does it depend on our good works; it is through the finished work of Jesus Christ, nor does it depend upon our knowledge, but rather upon the Spirit’s work in our life. Truly it can be said that we are chosen by the Father, Redeemed by the Son, and born of the Spirit! Praise God for His amazing grace in saving a wretch like me!

Sola Gratia - Part 2 - Our Condition

2009-01-12T06:16:00.001-08:00

Why is sola gratia so disliked, or misunderstood by the majority of Christians today? Because it reduces our self-esteem to ashes, and everyone knows that we, (I speak specifically of those in the US, my cultural milieu) are the ‘can-do’ folks – we believe that we can do anything we put our mind to, including having a hand in our own salvation, and therefore, the doctrine of sola gratia is a stench in our nostrils. While this doctrine forces us to admit that we cannot do anything to save ourselves, most within modern evangelicalism have been taught, or believe that there MUST be something within us that merited God’s grace.

It is a mighty hard pill to swallow that it is God’s unmerited grace that brings us to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ! Robert Schuller is so offended by this doctrine that he openly refutes it and speaks of its awful affect on mankind – but that is because Robert Schuller believes, at the end of the day, that the most important thing in all the world is our self-esteem.

Rather than spar with others who want to defend the pastors who preach against sola gratia, let's just examine what the Bible says about man’s condition. Let's just see if it says somewhere that we add to God’s grace, or that we somehow merit it.

I will be honest with you – there is not a dearth of Scripture that supports sola gratia – there are actually so many Scriptures that support it, that I pared the list down to reduce the size of this post.

So, let us look at some of the Scriptures that speak of man’s condition:

In Psalm 51:5 David speaks of his inherent wickedness: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

And then there is Paul’s statement in Romans 3:10 - 12 – in which he quotes from Psalm 14 and 53 -- as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.

Ephesians 2:1 – 3 -- And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

These, and many other Scriptures make it abundantly clear that it is sola gratia that we are saved. We place too little import on the effects of Adam’s fall. It was totally disastrous, sending mankind from a state of grace into a position of inherent sin. We are not sinners because we sin – we sin because we are inherently sinners.

Not only are we inherently sinners, but we are dead to God – we are dead in our trespasses and sins – we are not simply sick, needing a hand up from God, but dead without a hope of 'helping' ourselves! (Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13). Jesus did not set a vial of medicine outside the tomb of Lazarus and tell him – “Lazarus, drag yourself out here and take this medicine that I provided!” No, rather, Jesus went to the tomb – HE directed the stone be rolled away, HE prayed, HE called Lazarus, and when Lazarus was regenerated by God, he then came out.

For crying out loud, Lazarus could not even unwrap himself! Now, with that in mind – why in the world do we somehow believe that we, who were dead in our trespasses and sins, stinking to high heaven, wrapped in the death clothes of sin, could drag our way to Jesus until we could grab on?

My friends we were as dead as a doornail in our sins, just as Lazarus was, and it was God’s grace that put life in the rotting corpse and regenerated it; providing faith upon which we walk out of the tomb towards our Savior’s voice who calls us! WOW! Why would ANYONE want to deny that?

Sola Gratia Part 1 - A Definition

2009-01-09T07:17:00.000-08:00

As we have just recently examined sola fide, I thought we would now move to sola gratia, and discuss it briefly.

Before I finish this series, I hope to have examined all 5 of the sola’s:

1. sola fide
2. sola gratia
3. solus Christus
4. soli Deo Gloria
5. sola Scriptura

Unfortunately, in the evangelical community today there is much confusion, not to mention downright ignorance as regards the sola's. Due to this confusion we find that, (by and large), the church has lost her moorings, and is now adrift in a morass of semi-Pelagian, ( or fully Pelagian), man-centered teaching, which places the responsibility for salvation onto the believer.

We may be unaware of just how far we have sunk into this man-centered pseudo-gospel, but it only takes a quick look at the television, or a brief listen to the radio to hear the dissonance of man-centered preaching that masquerades as the gospel.

One well-known TV “preacher” presented such a muddled, confused explanation of salvation on 'Larry King Live' that viewers were left with, at best, an unclear understanding as to the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as '...the way, the truth and the life'! This man's explanation of salvation denied the foundational truths of the faith: it can’t be through Christ alone (solus Christus) if all paths lead to heaven, and it can’t be by grace (sola gratia) through faith alone (sola fide), because, as this preacher has said on numerous occasions; we are to do what “God told us; and if we do our part, He will do His part”. So we partner with God in our salvation as well. And it cannot be to God’s glory alone (soli Deo Gloria), because we have played a part in our own salvation, and therefore we deserve some of the glory; and finally – almost everything that this preacher states clearly illustrates that he does not believe the Bible is the final authority for the believing community. Oh, and by the way, he is called “America’s Preacher”! How apropos that title is!

So, in this post I hope to look at God’s Amazing Grace with fresh eyes, and I pray that you will clearly see how amazing our salvation truly is. Without any further ado, let us look at the amazing reality of sola gratia!

What do we mean when we say that we are saved sola gratia; that it is by grace alone that we are saved? This means that we are saved by the unprovoked and undeserved acceptance of God. The words, unprovoked and undeserved are important here; many preach that we are saved by grace, but it is rarely alone. Our natural bent is to believe that there is a way for us to participate in our salvation.

Oh, we may require a bit of ‘divine assistance’, but we are able to get ourselves MOST of the way! As Michael Horton says, in his article on the sola’s, we mistakenly believe that “…perhaps God will have to show us the way, or even send a messenger to lead us back, but we can actually follow the plan and pull it off..." "We were born with a conscience that tells us that we are condemned by the Law, but our human reason concludes that the answer to that is to do better next time..."

We are looking for someone tell us how to save ourselves, this is why so many of the modern semi-pelagian preachers are so popular – they are telling man what he instinctively wants to hear; that we get by with a little help from God, to paraphrase Joe Cocker. But, in truth, God's Word tells us that even our best works are filthy rags; the Gospel tells us that it is something in God and his character (kindness, goodness, mercy, compassion) and not something in us (a good will, a decision, an act, an open heart, etc.) that saves us.

Interestingly, the phrase , "God helps those who help themselves" is the mantra of the modern church. Again quoting Michael Horton – “Over half the evangelicals surveyed thought this was a direct biblical quotation and 84% thought that it was a biblical idea, that percentage rising with church attendance at evangelical churches.” This is at best, a semi-Pelagian thought, at worst, a full-fledged Pelagian attitude. And Pelgianism, just so you know, was declared a heresy by the church!

In Pelagianism, Adam's sin is not imputed to us, nor is Christ's righteousness. Adam is a bad example, not the representative in whom we stand guilty. Similarly, Christ is a good example, not the representative in whom we stand righteous. To understand how far we have come from sola gratia, let me ask you -- how much of modern preaching is focused on following Christ (WWJD) rather than focusing on His person and work, or to put it another way -- not 'What WOULD Jesus do??', but What HAS Jesus DONE?' While it is important to follow Christ; I am not denying that, there is a greater focus; the person and work of Jesus Christ – His perfect obedience and righteousness, imputed to the sinner, and His work on the cross of propitiating the wrath of the Holy Judge of the Universe, and expiating our sins.

Pelagianism is so ubiquitious in the United States because of the work of Charles Finney, the revivalist of the 19th century. Most people think he was a wonderful Christian, but when we examine his writing and teachings, we find that he denied original sin, substitutionary atonement, justification through Christ, and the need for regeneration by the Holy Spirit. In short, he was Pelagian in thought and work. And sadly, this man was so influential within the US church that he virtually wrecked the mainline denominations and his work is still poisoning the well of evangelical thought today!

What I am hoping to accomplish in this series of posts, is to show how sola gratia completely destroys man’s reliance upon his own work in salvation, and forces one to fall fully on the grace of God alone! These posts will go against the grain of prevailing thought within the evangelical church, but in truth, is part of the faith once delivered to the saints for all time.

Sola Fide Part 3 - The Result

2009-01-06T06:35:00.000-08:00

In this final post on sola fide we find that the result of justification by faith alone is that:

1. We have no place for boasting. When we understand that it is solely the work of Jesus Christ that secures our justification, there is no room for us to be boastful. We cannot look down upon others because we have come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ – we brought nothing to the table – therefore boasting is excluded.

2. More importantly we have come to a place of peace and reconciliation with God. Again quoting from Romans 5:9 – 11 -- Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

And again in 2nd Corinthians 5:17 – 21 -- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

And again in Colossians 1:19 – 23 -- For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Christian, you have been justified, declared righteous, through faith alone, in Christ alone, by the grace of God alone, to the Glory of God alone. Let us rejoice in the grace and mercy of our Father in Heaven – truly to Him belongs all the glory!

Sola Fide Part 2 - The Instrument of our Justification

2008-12-18T19:54:00.000-08:00

In my last post I wrote about the grounds of our justification; that being the person and work of Jesus Christ. In this post I am going to look at the instrument of our justification.

When we say sola fide -- 'faith alone' we are not saying that faith is our justification; faith is not the grounds of our justification, but the instrument of it.

Let me state it this way; we are saved through faith, but not because of faith. Our faith in and of itself is not salvific – it needs an object. Some would claim that if one simply has ‘more', or 'enough' faith then they would be saved, but it is not the volume of our faith that is justifying, rather it is the object of our faith – that is, Jesus Christ and His finished work.

People may have faith in many things, but only one thing is salvific -- the person and work of Jesus Christ. We can have faith that our favorite baseball team will make it to the World Series, but that will not save us -- we can have faith that our president will 'save' America, but that is not salvific -- it is only faith in the correct object; that being the person and work of Jesus Christ, that has any efficacy in our salvation.

And our faith is not even generated by us – it is a gift of God. Ephesians 2:8, 9 -- For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Even the faith to cry out to God is a gift from Him.

Sadly, we have come under what R.C. Sproul calls the ‘Pelagian Captivity of the Church”; we somehow believe that we come to the table with SOMETHING and only need a bit of a boost from God to affect our own salvation.

However, having said that; let me clarify something: faith is something that we take and work with. God gives the faith, but we are to believe. God does not believe for us. Faith is not some condition that we meet to merit salvation, but a gift from God that we exercise. God is the one who gives faith to us, but we then take this gift and reach out to Christ in awareness of our need. Faith is our open and empty hand reaching out to Christ.

So, faith is the instrument of our justification – faith, given by God, enables us to respond by reaching out to Jesus Christ so that we have His perfect righteousness imputed to us, giving to Him our sinful, soiled garment in the great exchange.

Let us meditate on those thoughts for a bit, and I will complete this section on sola fide in my next post.

Sola Fide Part 1 - The Gounds of our Justification

2008-12-16T06:36:00.000-08:00

I recently taught on the 5 'solas' of the Reformation, and I thought I would put some of my thoughts up on the blog.

I just noticed that I have only posted around 36 times this year -- that indicates what the pace and tenor of my year has been like!

The church has grown a bit, and it is interesting, but even a change of ten or twenty people in a small church affects the time of the pastor more than many would realize. And of course, my eyes were working through their paces this past year as well, which certainly slowed down my ability to regularly post. And then there is the very real aspect that I just did not have a lot to say that I felt was blog-worthy -- yes, I had some strong feelings about the election, and the economy, but there are many other people in the blogsphere that are much better, and much more qualified at commenting on these areas.

So, let me post on some things that I am more familiar with -- we will start with the first sola I taught on - sola fide

During the reformation there were five solas that were pillars of the Reformation - they were:

sola fide - faith alone
sola gratia - grace alone
solus Christus - by Christ alone
soli deo gloria - to the glory of God alone
sola scriptura - Scripture alone

I felt that our church would benefit from understanding what these solas really meant in the life and faith of the church, and spent five weeks talking on them (although I could have spent much longer).

sola fide is the doctrine that states that we are justified by faith alone. Luther said of this doctrine - "This doctrine [justification by faith] is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour…. For no one who does not hold this article – or, to use Paul's expression, this 'sound doctrine' (Titus 2:1) – is able to teach aright in the church or successfully to resist any adversary . . . this is the heel of the Seed that opposes the old serpent and crushes its head. That is why Satan, in turn, cannot but persecute it."

Calvin's comment was that sola fide was the hinge on which everything else (in our faith) turns.

I want to first define justification, then I want to state the problem, and then touch upon three points. The three points are: the GROUNDS of our justification; the INSTRUMENT of our justification, and the RESULTS of our justification.

In this post we will look at justification and then discuss, briefly, the 'grounds' of our justification.

First and foremost – what exactly is justification? To say that we are justified is to say that we are declared right before God. God, in His role as the Holy, Righteous Judge of the Universe has declared us to be right. We are not declared righteous because WE ARE righteous; nor are we declared righteous on the grounds of our own belief. When we say that we are justified by faith alone, we are saying that the Holy Judge of the Universe has declared us to be righteous because of His Son, Jesus Christ and His work.

Sadly, the reality of our justification is either unknown, or taken for granted by many in the church today. We have lost our perspective, or never had one, on just how incredible our justification truly is. So, let me state the problem – it is found in Romans 3:23 - for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… As a matter of fact, if you put Romans 3 into its context, you begin to see the thrust of Paul’s argument and just how incredible it really is. In Romans 1 and 2 Paul builds the argument. He starts in Romans 1:16 by stating that he is not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to all men.

He then paints the picture – man is fallen, horribly and completely. Not just the Greek, but the Jew as well. All men are horribly and hopelessly fallen, and as of yet, Paul has not fleshed out the gospel. He has simply made the statement that it is the power of salvation. So first, Paul shows the situation that man finds himself in, and then in Romans 3, Paul begins to unpack the gospel. He starts in the opening verses of Romans 3, by reiterating that we have all fallen and cannot be justified by the Law or any other way. It seems hopeless – if one stops reading at this point, they will miss the thrust of the remainder of Romans.

Paul then begins to outline the gospel with those wonderful words – ‘But God…’ Romans 3:21 -- But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law… How sweet those words should be to every Christian – we cannot span the chasm that separates us from God; there is no way one can work their way into being declared righteous; but God provided a way!!! And that way is through His Son, Jesus Christ. So, without further ado – let us now look at what, or rather who, our justification is grounded in:

THE GROUNDS

What is the grounds of our justification – the foundation of our justification? Well, it is not something that is found within us – it is something OUTSIDE of us that causes us to be declared righteous before God, the Judge of the whole universe! It is not our intelligence, our good looks, our wisdom, or anything that God foresaw in us that is the grounds of our justification.

Here is what Paul says: “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith…” [Romans 3:23b – 25a]

We are justified by redemption that is in Christ. Solus Christus – by Christ alone are we justified, through faith alone, by God’s grace alone. It is Christ’s righteous life that provides for us the grounds of our justification. The guilty are declared righteous because of the obedience of Christ. Think about that for a minute – let it sink in: to our account is accredited righteousness, because of the obedience of the Savior. And, horrific as it is to consider, He is declared sin for us. Therefore, as Paul says – God is just (He punished sin by laying it on His Son at the cross), and the justifier (God the Son justified His people through His obedience).

The grounds of our justification are under attack again in today’s world. There are those who would claim that we have misread Paul all these years and the reality is that we are responsible for some work in our justification, that we 'cooperate' with Christ in producing righteousness in ourselves. My friends this is a return to Rome – to the concept that we somehow can ‘improve’ upon the finished work of Jesus Christ through our own work. If that is the case, then we are all in trouble, because God Himself says that all our works are as filthy rags – so if Jesus Christ is not the grounds of our justification, we are doomed!

Notice in Romans 3 how Paul goes on to demolish this thought by stating that there is no room for boasting in our justification – we have nothing with which to boast – he brings this to the fore again in Ephesians 2:1 - 9 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

My friends, the sole grounds for our being declared righteous is the finished work of Jesus Christ – it is not within us, but in fact is an alien righteousness which is found ONLY in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior! And we see it in three ways:

(a) Jesus Christ is our substitution – in our place He suffered, taking upon Himself the righteous judgment of our sins, suffering at the hands of the righteous judge so that we would never have to say those horrific word – “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?”

(b) Jesus Christ is our propitiation – His death satisfied the wrath of a righteous and Holy God. It says in Psalm 7:11 - God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day. The wrath of God was poured out on Jesus Christ.

(c) Jesus Christ is our reconciliation – Jesus Christ, through His work, has provided reconciliation between God and man. Romans 5:9 – 11 - Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Let that sink in for a bit and in the next post we will examine the instrument of our justification.

The Persecuted Church

2008-10-22T06:23:00.001-07:00

I was really hoping that I would begin to regularly post here again - sadly, it seems that there is simply no way to be regular as far my attendance to this blog. As you know, I am a bi-vocational pastor, and our church has grown some; add to that the fact that my secular job has picked up, and I find more tasks than hours in a day.

However, I do occasionally get an opportunity to stop by here and drop a line.

I don't know how some of these other pastors come up with something brilliant everyday AND then post it! I am in awe of those folks! God has given us all gifts; regularity and the brilliance do not appear to be mine!

Anyway - enough of that - coming up in the next month is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (November 9th & 16th); I would ask that you pray for the persecuted church. This is very near and dear to my heart as I have very good friends in India right now (they are indigenous pastors), and they are feeling increasing hostility. Likewise, I have a friend in Congo and it is not good there either.

And we should not forget Mosul, Vietnam, or any of the other places where Christians pay for their faith with their lives and/or freedom. I am writing this primarily to my friends in the USA and Canada as that is the cultural milieu that I find myself in.

Next month our church will be focused on the Persecuted Church. Besides preaching on the subject, we will enjoy a week when Wycliffe Bible Translators will speak, and then a friend of mine from E3 Sudan will update us on the situation in Sudan.

The Western Church operates in relative freedom, (although they want to decry how 'persecuted' they are!), and is often so inwardly focused, that I really want to urge each and every person to remember their brothers and sisters who are suffering for their faith in lands that seem so far away. We operate in ease here, both economically and religiously, yet all we do is complain about both, without really understanding what true suffering is. I would pray that this would change as the USA Christians turn their attention to those in lands where Christianity is a punishable offense.

There is much more I could write here, but go to the below websites - they say it better than I could.

Some websites:

Voice of the Martyrs
International Christian Concern
International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Who Ya Gonna Trust?

2008-09-23T06:35:00.001-07:00

I find it telling, during these serious economic times, that many Christians are spending more time watching CNN Money and reading the Wall Street Journal than they are praying and reading the Scriptures. I know, I know, that sounds like some type of religious prudishness, but it truly is not...

I am not oblivious, or unconcerned about the economy, but we also need to remember that our trust is not in man, but in God - a SOVEREIGN God, one who is completely in control of the situation. "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." -- Psalm 20:7.

We also need to remember that many of our economic situations are caused by taking on debt that we cannot pay - an unchristian practice. I am not talking about taking a loan out - I am speaking of getting into debt up to our eyeballs, eventually causing default.

The materialistic, commercialized, greed-based mentality that pervades our society is as prevalent within the church walls as it is outside. Christian churches are filled with 'stores' nowadays that sell 'merchandise'; from pictures hand-painted by the pastor (who cares!), to gaudy trinkets and 'Jesus-junk'. I am not talking about having a place to purchase books and Bibles for the congregation, I am talking about the tawdry 'dime-store' type of venues that I have seen in several places.

And the church itself is placed deep into the debt-based environment by building colossal monoliths to the success that they have experienced. Why would one need hundreds of thousands of dollars of monitors, lights and sound? Why is it necessary to have high-dollar restaurants within the walls of the church?

We, the church, have turned Jesus' statements regarding His disciples on it's head: In John 17, Jesus says that we are not of the world - however He does not pray that we will be removed from the world - in other words, we are called to be IN the world, but not OF the world. Instead, we are now OF the world (practicing the same behaviors and mores as the lost), but not IN the world (we have separated ourselves from the very lost and dying people that we are supposed to be placed amidst, in order to shine the light of the gospel into the world!)

What do I mean? Well, we live according to the same sexual, social, and economic practices as the world does, but we do it in a 'Christian ghetto', made up of Church mega-complexes, Christian big-box stores, and Christian entertainment facilities. We go into debt the same way, we sleep around the same way, we laugh at the same trash on TV, but we do it in the safety of a Christian cocoon.

At this time in the nation's history, the Christian community ought to be shining the light of the gospel and showing that we do not trust in chariots, but in God; that we do not practice the same economic and social patterns that the rest of the world does, that we have the Truth contained within these clay jars. We ought to be living in such a manner that the truth is breaking out through us.

Now, as a final caveat - I know that many of us have gotten ourselves into debt - I have, you have, we have all heard the siren song of materialism and reacted inappropriately; but now is the time for that to change. Church, now is the time for us to rise and show the world the greatness of our God - that our contentment is found within Him, that our joy is found within Him, and that our love and care is found within Him.

What would be wonderful is to again have the church be a place where those stung by the times could come for solace, hope, love and charity; hearing the Good News of the Gospel, that there is so much more to this world than their next purchase! May we be a light to this world in which our God has placed us...

Here it is

2008-09-09T07:01:00.001-07:00

I told you in my last post that I was going to get something off my chest. Well, here it is. In my studies, I have been doing a lot of reading about great men of the Faith - how full of grace they were, how they were known for their kindness. (John Newton comes to mind).

This has spurred me to go back into the Word (which is always a good thing), and do a bit more of an in-depth study of this. What I found, and continue to find, is disturbing to me.

Here it is: I am, many times, FAR too many times, graceless and unkind in my dealings with people. I can be contentious and self-righteous, and it is very disturbing. As I read passages, such as Romans 7, passages which used to be of comfort to me, I fear that now I only use them to rationalize that I am just as human as Paul. Sadly, this is not what my focus should be - rather, as Paul admonishes the Corinthians church to do, 1st Corinthians 9:24 -- Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it, I should be running to receive the prize, NOT rationalizing, and justifying my behavior.

There are times when I feel that I started the race fairly well, but I began to slack off about halfway through it, and I would love to place blame on any number of reasons, that are not 'my fault'; but the bottom line is that this is slothfulness.

Here are a few passages that have brought me to this place of repentance and (hopefully) improvement:

1st Corinthians 9:24 - 27 -- Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

1st Timothy 1:15 -- The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:8 -- Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ...

I coudl go on - but I think you get the picture - I also have read John Bunyan's Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, and as mentioned Letters of John Newton.

My God give me the grace to continue to be conformed to the image of His Son!

Hello World!

2008-09-05T19:50:00.000-07:00

I have been absent for quite a while. It is good to see that some folks periodically stop by and see me, even when the Out to Lunch sign is hung out. :-)

I have been in a crazy state of hyperactivity as the eye situation has stabilized. The eyes have now been corrected, with glasses to, believe it or not, 20/20!! (NOTE: The above picture is of me in my new glasses). My job has picked back up to pre-surgery levels, I am traveling quite a bit, and the church has grown a bit.

My wonderful friends and family that help me shepherd the flock that Christ has entrusted to us, has gotten me into the 'hi-tech' world of burning CD's for my messages (replacing a very tired old cassette duplicating machine).

We also have a Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University scheduled for a September 9th start, and we are having a Wycliffe speaker at the church sometime in the next few months.

There has been much going on with me -- I have not simply neglected this blog!

I am putting together a post about something that has been on my heart lately -- a thing that I have realized about myself that has made me really take inventory of things. It is nothing earth-shattering for the readers of this blog, I don't have some skeleton in my closet which I am going to reveal - well, actually I do, but it is not something that will make the headlines on the National Enquirer. It is just something I want to get out in the open.

Stay tuned!

I Have a Dream as well!

2008-07-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

At the risk of alienating some folks, I felt compelled to put together this blog. I have been sitting on the sidelines watching the increasingly ugly mood envelope our political and social arena, and I am honestly, tired of it.

It seems that daily now we have race-baiting, name-calling, and other unsavory actions coming from the supposed leaders of this country. I am a child of the sixties (barely!), and I am appalled by where we are at.

And this is not a one-sided event – oh no, everyone has joined the fray – trying to solidify their position within the community by using underhanded and malicious argumentation.

And then I hear several of these self-righteous flacks make reference to Doctor King’s famous “I have a Dream” speech, all the while doing the very things that he was against! If we would but read a few lines of this most brilliant speech, we could see that Doctor King was light years ahead of the hacks on both sides of the debate. His speech was TRANSCENDENT – it was not a speech mired in a narcissist mindset, nor was it to ‘position’ Dr. King in the hierarchy of the Civil Rights movement – he spoke eloquently, passionately and directly; something we so badly need from SOMEONE today.

Read these lines from Doctor King’s speech anew today, and tell me who is speaking like this?

"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice."

And he continues on….

"But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom."

And still yet, he builds to the crescendo that so many know a PART of…

"And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,
From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

We all owe Doctor King a huge apology for the mess we have made of his dream!

So, what do we do about this? For starters, turn off your TV, for far too long the politicos and activists have told you and I what to think about those different from us. Turn off Don Imus, and Rush Limbaugh; turn off Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton, and do something radical – REACH OUT to your neighbor, get to know them – and, as Christians, how about we begin to act like we expect everyone else to act…???

Let the people reclaim their land – let those who are in Christ light to way to something new – NOT tolerance, NOT even simple acceptance, but something transcendent to that – let us fulfill Doctor King’s dream! Let us become color-blind and compassionate. We can do this!

Apologies

2008-07-04T09:37:00.001-07:00

Seems that I write more of these apologies than real posts anymore. I have been away nigh on a month, but what a month it has been!

Just in the last week, my lovebird, Lovey passed away. He lived WAAAYYY longer than anyone thought he would. These lovebirds usually live about 12 years, he lived well past 16. He went peacefully, and now we are down to one bird -- our white-cap Pionus, Josiah.

On another front, I had surgeries number 7 & 8 this week, both on my right eye. The first was a cataract surgery on Tuesday -- it went OK, but unfortunately a piece of the cataract slipped through the back of my torn lens capsule and drifted into the posterior chamber of the eye, hence the need for surgery number 8. I had a lensectomy, and vitrectomy on Thursday to remove the cataract piece and the doctor also cleaned out the PC. Good news is that the retina stayed in place, the IOL is still in place, and everything looks like it is holding together! Another three days and I will know more...

Thanks for the many prayers! I am hoping that once my eye settles down, I will get back to regular posting.

Evangelism

2008-06-12T12:18:00.000-07:00

I recently said, during a teaching session, that I disliked, and disagreed with the ever-popular colloquialism that is on the lips of the Christian community today -- "God loves the sinner, but hates the sin"

I expected to get reaction from that, and sure enough, I did. I had several people come up and said "God does not 'hate' anyone". They were appalled that I would say such a thing. I tried to, probably unsuccessfully, talk with them about the fallacy of the statement.

When one tells a person who is lost that God loves them, but hates their sin, they hear, and agree with: God loves me. This does not speak of the damnation that is facing those who die without Christ. It is a false 'advertisement'.

I must confess that I find so much so-called 'evangelism' today to be nothing more than an activity that people do to apply balm to their OWN souls. It comforts one to say "I 'did' evangelism today". However, much of this evangelism really is nothing more than a handful of well-learned, witty statements that do not bring to bear the very real, and dire situation, a lost soul is in.

A statement such as "God loves the sinner, but hates the sin" is untrue, for God does not send the SIN, but, in fact, the SINNER to hell! One who hears these words and continues in their sins is comfy knowing that God 'loves' them! This is nothing more than universalism. The lost souls remains comfortably numb, to borrow a phrase from Roger Waters.

Another reason that I dislike this statement, and others like it is that it allows the redeemed to approach evangelism with a laissez-faire mentality -- taking away the urgency and seriousness of evangelism. There is no pleading for men's souls -- rather there is a warm, cotton candy feeling of 'accomplishment', when in fact, NOTHING has been accomplished.

We can stay safely within our realm of 'being liked' while 'sharing' with others. Sadly, those within the church oftentimes do not weep for the lost, or pray for them -- rather they send them these little 'Hallmark-moments', that quite frankly, are not meant to drive a person to their knees in repentance, but are meant to provide comfort and acceptance to the soul of the redeemed!

Let our evangelism be done in a way that is Biblical and urgent. Let me leave you with some thoughts from Paul as regards his heart towards his brothers, the Israelites:

Romans 9:1 - 3 -- I am speaking the truth in Christ — I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

Let our heart for the lost be so great that we are in anguish for their souls!

Further Observations

2008-06-09T07:08:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to post and state that I received some interesting comments (via phone and email), about my last post. One person accused me of being the very type of pastor they are 'running away from'. They claim that they are living with another person (not a spouse), yet they LOVE the Lord with all their heart.

Can I just add another controversial statement to my last post? How can one love the Lord with all their heart and yet live in a lifestyle that they KNOW is inconsistent with the Bible? Jesus states in the Word, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments". What do we do with that?

Now, I understand that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God -- I sin everyday, no question about that. But here we are talking about a WILLFUL, REBELLIOUS lifestyle that is counter to the Biblical model for a man and a woman in marriage; one in which the person knows that their lifestyle is wrong (they told me they knew it)! How can you square that with the words, I love the Lord with all my heart?

This is why I posted the last time, and here these folks are simply solidifying my feeling that the U.S. Church (at least), has completely lost its moral compass -- it is no longer that the Bible is the infallible rule for the life of a Christian -- now it is the social mores of the society around us that set the tone for what is acceptable.

And it does not stop with this one thing -- witness the issues in many of the mainline denominations with the ordination of gays, or the performing of 'wedding' ceremonies for homosexuals. This is due to the fact that the word of God is no longer 'valid' in the eyes of the church, at least as a rule for life. No, it has some 'good ideas', and people today talk about tragectorial theology (where was Paul heading with his theology had his life not been ended, or had he been sufficiently enlightened), to validate the any and all of their variances from Biblical norm.

And these people lead with their emotions -- "I know a really nice XXX that loves the Lord" (fill in the blank). This is a dangerous and slippery slope -- witness Carlton Pearson's slide into universalism -- when they interview him, his statement is very much akin to this. Everyone builds their own personal Jesus and then makes the claim -- "MY Jesus would never judge anyone.", or "MY Jesus would never confront anyone about their sin". Yet that is what He consistently did within the pages of the Bible!

May I just say that if you know a really nice XXX, AND you believe the Bible to be true, then would you not tell them about the gospel, and explain that it is not enough to be a really nice person? I have many really nice XXX's that I know, and they know my feelings about their lifestyle -- do I hate them? No, but I make it clear that BECAUSE I care about them, and I understand the grace shown to me, a wretched sinner, I MUST share the gospel with them and tell them they are in danger of hell. That may seem narrow-minded to many, but if you truly care for someone, do you just let them go on their merry way? That is not being tolerant; rather it is cowardice -- you are more afraid of what they will think of you than you are of their eternal home. I can't call that loving and tolerant.

Paul went through persecution by the Jews for his proclamation of the gospel, yet in Romans he says that if he could give his salvation away to save his fellow Jews, he would do so. Does that seem unloving and narrow-minded? No, it is a clear understanding of the ramifications of the gospel, and a clear view of the grace shown to him.

We all must come under the rule of Biblical teaching -- we do not redefine it, it redefines us, and until (if ever), the U.S. Church understands that, we will have a weak, tepid, polarized and politicized faith; without unity or a clear bearing on truth. We will not be a City on a Hill, but rather another dim light shining amidst the lights of this world.

Observations on Church

2008-06-04T10:13:00.000-07:00

I find it interesting that I will often find people who come to our church and tell me about the 'legalistic' church they just left. This has happened several times, and one person even had a rant on their web page about 'legalistic' churches, and how they were 'killing' the church!

So, I began, after I learned, to check a bit into these claims. I could not believe that there were that many legalistic churches out there; my experience has been quite the opposite, or they are the neo-nomianism folks, ala Osteen.

What I found as I did this was an interesting fact -- These so-called 'legalistic' churches did not approve of a lifestyle of sin, and therefore, these people had left. This is why it is important to get letters of transfer, if possible, from people.

They will look at you like you are crazy, especially at a little church like ours -- they think they can get away with hiding in a little place. To give but one example:

Them: "We left our last church because they were SOOOO legalistic"

Me: "What was their concern?"

Them: "Well, they thought it was wrong that me and my girlfriend live together."

Me: "Well, so do we!"

Them: "bye".

It is amazing to me how people think one is being 'legalistic' by simply upholding church discipline! And this is common! People are shocked and appalled when I 'get in their business' as the pastor of the church! As if, what they do in their own time is of no consequence to the church. A completely unbiblical attitude!

We truly have reached a point where Biblical literacy is at its nadir!

Miscellany

2008-05-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

A few news notes, with a bit of commentary:

This week a Prestonwood Baptist pastor in Texas was arrested for attempting to consummate an illegal rendezvous with a 13-year-old girl. This was a shock to Pastor Jack Graham, the senior pastor of the church, and I would ask that you pray for that church and their staff.

Sadly, I have seen many comments that speak of Prestonwood as being full of ‘hypocrites’ and ‘unsaved’, and this from the Christian community. Many of the comments touch upon the fact that Prestonwood is a Mega-Church, with 26,000 congregants. While I am not a fan of the Mega-Church movement, I feel that these comments are not only unnecessary, but untrue.

While I agree that large churches enable people to be less accountable, painting the entire church with the brush of hypocrisy is wrong. Be in prayer for the staff, the family of the arrested pastor, and the pastor himself.

In another area – Christian Music has been touched with several deaths recently. The first was Dottie Rambo, who was killed in a bus accident in Missouri on May 11th. She was to be inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame. She was a prolific writer, and has many songs to her credit. And just this morning, Steven Curtis Chapman’s 5-year-old daughter, Maria, was tragically struck and killed by one of her older brothers as he pulled into their driveway. Pray for these families.

Many have ‘celebrated’ the transition of Dottie Rambo from here to eternity, but I think that this is an unfortunate aspect of modern Christianity. We should grieve and allow the families to do so as well. Yes, when a believer ends their life here, they enter into eternity with the Savior, but to trivialize death, by ‘celebrating’ it is missing the point IMHO. We should rail against death – we should grieve; we should not ‘celebrate’. Death is the direct result of sin, and therefore we should not be comfortable with it. I am not saying that we should fear death, but we should understand that it is our enemy, and Christ has defeated death, sin and the grave. If anything should be celebrated, it should be that fact.

And finally, Ted Kennedy has just been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. While I disagree with virtually everything he stands for politically, I have been in prayer for him. I pray that Christ would move his heart, and that the reality of his mortality would draw him to Christ. I do not know the state of his soul, but whatever it is, I am in prayer for him.

The Source of our Faith

2008-05-15T13:47:00.000-07:00

I have posted on the necessity of faith, and the object of our faith, but now let me dwell for a moment on the source of our faith.

In the Heidelberg Catechism we read: "This faith, [saving faith], the Holy Spirit works in my heart by the gospel."

Sadly there are many who have been taught, directly, or indirectly, that they can grit their teeth and 'develop' faith. My friends, you cannot 'develop' your own faith; the source of our faith is God and God alone. Yes, we exhibit it, but it is given to us by the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, through the preaching of the Word of the Gospel.

One cannot work up saving faith – it is a gift from God, by grace. God, monergistically – that 25 dollar word meaning working alone - works in us to give us saving faith. It is not synergistically developed, with me adding a little something and God adding a little something.

Let me give you but two examples:

Ephesians 2:8, 9 -- But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Acts 16:14 -- One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul.

My friends, we were as dead as Jairus’ daughter when Christ arrived at the door of our heart – it was the blessed Holy Spirit that made us alive, like Lydia, to hear the word of the Lord, and believe! And by this belief we are saved.

Why would God do this? I don’t know, but what an awesome God we serve, one who sent His only begotten Son to die a horrific death on the cross for sins that I committed, providing a way for me to be made right before the Father. Not only did Christ die for our sin, but God puts in our hearts the very ability to believe this! Words fail me when I think of the greatness of salvation, and the amazing Grace of God!

Let me close out this post by saying this; the means that God has chosen for stirring the hearts of those being regenerated by the Holy Spirit is the Word of God – as Paul says in Romans 1, For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

My friends, the proclamation of the word is so vital! We must never forget that God uses the means of His Word to stir the hearts of one who is lost, and by the power of the Holy Spirit He brings them to Himself – let us never neglect the reading, studying and applying of God’s Word to our lives!

State of the Union

2008-05-06T10:48:00.000-07:00

Amidst the cries of 'Deeds not creeds", and the antagonism against any type of doctrinal discussions, we find this!

What is amazing is the final line in the article -- understand that this statement comes from a man whose daughters are still caught up in this cult. "I can't judge it," Sayer said. "Every person's got their own relationship with God."

This could have come from the lips of almost any modern 'evangelical' attending the largest churches in the land!

So we find here the result of Biblical illiteracy, doctrinal ignorance, and the whole 'personal jesus' cottage industry that is propagated by so many within the church today.

If anything and everything is right, and we all have our own 'personal relationship with God' that is torn loose from its Biblical moorings, then why are we surprised to find these types of things going on?

Sadly, the modern church is only a step away from this -- when you throw out orthodoxy, the Bible, doctrine and history -- preferring to 'experience' Jesus in an all new and totally personal way, then this church fits right in with many other, well-known, so-called churches out there.

The Object of Our Faith

2008-05-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

Having said that it requires faith we now come to the next point – the object of our faith. Today there are many have been taught that they were to ‘have faith’ and they would be healed, or if they mustered up enough faith, God would provide them with prosperity. Sadly, all too often, the object of this faith is left out of exhortations such as these. People come to believe that we must simply have strong enough ‘faith' and things will happen… Faith somehow becomes the object of our faith – which is not Biblical.

Everywhere in the Bible we are called to have faith IN someone – not in our own faith, or our own strength, but in Jesus Christ! The woman who was healed in Matthew 9 had faith IN Jesus Christ, the blind men who were healed had faith IN Jesus Christ – as a matter of fact, before He heals them, He asks a pertinent question – “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” He was saying “Do you have faith in Me?” The object of our faith is Jesus Christ, and Him alone – not our own strength, our own faith, our own anything, but casting ourselves upon the only Savior and Lord of our souls, Jesus Christ.

Paul in Acts 20 and 24 speaks of how he is constantly preaching about faith IN Christ. Not simply living a life of faith, but living a life of faith IN Christ. This is the great divider – many people will say, I am a ‘spiritual’ person, and I have a lot of faith…

But when pressed, they have faith in their own abilities, in their own faith, in something BESIDES Jesus Christ, and my friends, that IS NOT saving faith – saving faith originates in, and is focused on Jesus Christ! We can see in Romans 3:21, 22 that the righteousness of God is found through faith IN Jesus Christ! And in Galatians 2:16, a particularly poignant Scripture on this, we find Paul saying – “…we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified…”

It is poignant because the Galatians believed in Christ, but had devolved into believing that they could only be FULLY justified by the addition of something else – by their keeping of the law. Friends, this is a great danger – we come to Christ empty handed, and understand that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ, but somehow we fall back to believing that we stay saved by ‘doing’ something. It is all of faith – By faith you have been saved – the word speaks of a continuing event – you are being saved!

We must never let the object of our faith be overshadowed by the many 'get-rich' schemes that are touted by the snake-oil salesmen of our day -- telling us to have faith; a faith without an object, and all of our hopes and dreams will be answered.

By faith in Christ we are saved – He is the author and FINISHER of our faith – we are saved in no one else, save Christ!

Necessity of Faith

2008-04-24T17:55:00.000-07:00

Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 21

Q. What is true faith?

A. True faith is a sure knowledge whereby I accept as true all that God has revealed to us in His Word. At the same time it is a firm confidence that not only to others, but also to me, God has granted forgiveness of sins, everlasting righteousness, and salvation, out of mere grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits. This faith the Holy Spirit works in my heart by the gospel.

References -- John 17:3, 17; Heb. 11:1-3; James 2:19. Rom. 4:18-21; 5:1; 10:10; Heb. 4:16. Gal. 2:20. Rom. 1:17; Heb. 10:10. Rom.3:20-26; Gal. 2:16; Eph. 2:8-10. Acts 16:14; Rom. 1:16; 10:17; I Cor. 1:21.

Matthew 9:18 - 38: While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live." And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, "If I only touch his garment, I will be made well." Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well. And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, "Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose. And the report of this went through all that district. And as Jesus passed on from there, two blind men followed him, crying aloud, "Have mercy on us, Son of David." When he entered the house, the blind men came to him, and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to him, "Yes, Lord." Then he touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith be it done to you." And their eyes were opened. And Jesus sternly warned them, "See that no one knows about it." But they went away and spread his fame through all that district. As they were going away, behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to him. And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, "Never was anything like this seen in Israel." But the Pharisees said, "He casts out demons by the prince of demons." And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

I recently posted about the woman grasping the hem of Jesus' garment, but I wanted to take a look at the rest of this passage and make some observations. But before I post about of saving faith, may I just return your attention to the Heidelberg Catechism I posted above? You see faith is not something that has no object, i.e. faith in faith. Faith has an object – that object is Jesus Christ – we cannot simply have ‘enough faith’ and ‘be saved’, but we must, in fact, have faith IN someone to be saved.

This may seem to be obvious to my readers here, but all too often the tendency within some circles is to have faith in faith – in other words, if one simply musters up enough ‘faith’, they will reap all sorts of benefits – but faith in the Biblical texts is never without an object, and that object is Jesus Christ!

So, as we look to Scripture, I am hoping that I will be able to do several things in the next several posts – first, I am hoping to show the necessity of faith, secondly, the object of faith, and finally the source of faith.

THE NECESSITY OF OUR FAITH -- We see in the Scripture, the outworking of several people’s faith; Jesus says to the woman who was healed – “Take heart daughter, your faith has made you well”. The leader,(aka known as Jairus), in coming to Jesus was exhibiting great faith as he went against his peers, asking Jesus humbly to heal his daughter – and of course, we find the blind men crying out in faith to Jesus as ‘Son of David’.

Is faith necessary? Well, it says in Ephesians 2:8 it says that we are saved by grace through faith. In John 3, as Jesus speaks with Nicodemus, He tells him that, just as the serpent was lifted up in the desert by Moses, so too will the Son of Man be lifted up and all who believe on Him will be saved. Romans 3:21 – 26 -- But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

So faith is required – one cannot be saved without faith. And we see it in today’s passage – the woman reaching out to grasp the promises of God in Jesus Christ did so in faith. She had tried all the doctors, and Luke says she was incurable – she had no hope, only in reaching out to Jesus Christ in faith was she healed. What of Jairus? His daughter was dead! How much hope did he possess? Yet, in faith her father reached out to Jesus, and she was returned to him. And the blind men – crying out to Jesus as Messiah, they showed their faith in their very words! Yes, we must reach out in faith to Jesus Christ – it is by grace THROUGH faith, by which we are saved!

Next post - "The Object of our Faith"

What???

2008-04-17T13:04:00.000-07:00

Words fail me!

This defies words...

Even brute animals have more sense! And here is my favorite line... "Shvarts will be honored at a reception April 25."

HONORED?! For what? Terminating several lives? Why don't we also honor Jeffery Dahmer and John Wayne Gacy? They were just practicing their 'art'.

The Hem of His Garment

2008-04-14T06:25:00.000-07:00

Matthew 9:18 - 22 -- While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live. And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, If I only touch his garment, I will be made well. Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well. And instantly the woman was made well.

I wanted to look at this encounter, and try to set the context, maybe providing a bit of insight into this event.

Jesus has been walking amongst the people of Capernaum teaching and performing miracles, and has gathered a large following of people. During this time, Jesus is approached by Jairus, a leader, in order have him come and heal his daughter.

So, Jesus gets up to follow Jairus to his home, and amongst the throng was a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years. She determines to simply touch this amazing rabbi’s cloak at the fringe, and what happens is an amazing event!

Jesus would have been wearing a Tallit (prayer shawl). However, His tallit would not have been like the modern tallit, which has been reduced in size to simply a shawl. Rather, Jesus would have been wearing a full-length cloak that would have had tzit-tzit (tassels) attached to the four corners.

These tzit-tzit were commanded to be worn by God in Numbers 15:38 -- “Speak to the people of Israel, and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner…” and Deuteronomy 22:12 -- “You shall make yourself tassels on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.”

The reasoning for these tassels in explained in Numbers 15:39 -- “And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after.”

So Jesus, being an observant Jew, would have had a garment with tassels on the corners. It is one of these tassels that the woman grasped – in the Greek, the word used is kraspedon, which is the same word that was used in the LXX to translate the Hebrew tzit-tzit.

These fringes are attached to the corner of the tallit; the corners are known, in Hebrew, as kanaph, or wings. When a Jewish man dons his tallit, he will often reflect on Psalm 36:7 -- How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Now what does it have to do with the story? Well, the factof the matter is that the woman did not simply reach out and touch Jesus, thinking the touch itself would heal her, but rather she was reaching out in faith – as she reached for the fringe of His garment, she would have been reflecting on a well-known Messianic passage in the Old Testament, found in Malachi 4:2 – “But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. The word wings here is the word kanaph!

The people of that day were looking for the Messiah, and as this woman heard more and more about this rabbi, her thoughts would have turned to the passage that states that there will be found healing in the wings of the Sun of Righteousness. And Jesus responded! MANY were touching Him in the crowd, but only one touched Him in faith – faith in who He was!

Christian Nation?

2008-04-08T13:51:00.000-07:00

I was having a conversation with a friend recently when we went down the path of politics and religion. Now, my friend is a wonderful Christian person, and I love him as a brother, but we have sharply different views of this subject.

He began the conversation by saying that he was disgusted with all of the politicos and their pandering of the Muslim community. I asked him to expand on this thought, and basically, he believes that if a politician even gives a nod of acceptance towards the Muslim community, then he/she cannot be Christian! I found that to be a bit over the top.

Now, mind you, I am not going on record to say that I believe that ‘all people pray to the same god’. I am simply saying that a person who is going to be the leader of the USA needs to be the leader of the USA, NOT simply the ‘Christian’ leader, or the ‘black’ leader, or the ‘white’ leader, or the ‘left-handed’ leader. This is [one] of the problems I have with the current round of election nonsense, there is no one standing up and saying “What is good for America?”, rather it seems that everyone is saying “What is best for me?”

But I digress from my original intent.

Our conversation really revolved around his statement that the USA is a ’Christian’ nation, and was founded, and should be ruled as such. Here is where we began to strongly disagree. Mind you, I am not saying that the USA was founded by wiccans, but rather by a diverse group of people coming from several different perspectives.

I tried to explain to my friend that the US Constitution, a brilliant document by all accounts, expressly had no ‘God language’ by intent. As a matter of fact, I believe that the US Constitution was one of the first nation-founding documents without reference to divine fiat.

Here is the preamble -- ”We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence [sic], promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The First Amendment is clear that the government is not to establish, nor prohibit religious practice. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Many folks on both sides of the argument have either not read this amendment, or decided to interpret it in their own way.

My friend then went on to say that it was the Pilgrims who were the true ‘founders’ – well, no, actually the indigenous people were the true ‘founders’ in that sense. It is true that the Pilgrims were fleeing from religious persecution, but they were not the ‘founders’; they were the first to arrive from Europe. The founders were represented by a much more diverse group, including many deists, i.e. Jefferson, Franklin, and (the most infamous of the deists), Paine.

To further illustrate -- let’s look at another document, the Declaration of Independence, where we find in the first line, these words -- ”We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Compare that line with this quote from Plato -- ”All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.

It would seem that our founding fathers dipped into many fountains to pen the founding documents! Now, I am not denying that the USA was founded on Judeo-Christian ethics, but that primarily means that we took the framework for our legal structure from the Decalogue. But utilizing Judeo-Christian ethics does not constitute a ‘Christian’ founding!

So, I write all of this to say that when a presidential candidate recognizes the pluralism of the country by mentioning Islam, or another religion, this does not, in and of itself, constitute an unchristian act, nor does it mean that the person will ‘surrender’ our country over to the radical Jihadists, any more than giving a nod to the Christian community means that they are endorsing Fred Phelps! I would hope that any presidential candidate worth their salt would recognize that the USA is a diverse melting pot…

Let us, as a Christian community, think critically and cogently about whom we vote for, and not knee-jerk react to every statement that we are fed!

New Baby

2008-04-01T18:09:00.001-07:00

Finally got a picture of my new bird -- Josiah... He is a white-cap Pionus...

A New Post?

2008-03-31T07:15:00.000-07:00

I am back - for those who might actually still check by here and see what's new (I don't know if any of those folks are left!)

I just wanted to post something about the youth study we are doing:

We are going through the Bible and talking about the life of a Christian. The first week I started by talking about the (sad) stats that show the evangelical community looking much like the secular world in the areas of abuse, divorce, crime etc. I asked why there is such a great disparity between the words we say, as evangelicals, and our lives.

Then we talked about what the Bible had to say about some of these areas, and discussed what that meant in the lives of a Christian. The next week we actually looked at how the Gospel is presented, oftentimes, in the modern western church; focusing on the fact that we are MOST concerned with 'fire insurance' as opposed to understanding the fact that we are a NEW creation! Unfortunately, sanctification is often left on teh table, and the 'salvation' experience is focused on to the exclusion of everything else.

So this week we discussed this questions: What should our lives look like as Christians?

So far, this has been an interesting study, with some lively discussion. I am using Ron Sider's book as a basic framework. While I may not agree with everything Mr. Sider says, overall the book is a good skeleton upon which I can lay some thoughts.

A final thought -- We have tagged our young people with names such as 'narcissistic', 'materialistic', and 'relativistic'. Now, they are all of these, but no more so than their parents! What I have found as we study is that the young folks are very idealistic, and want to live lives that reflect Christ -- they have just never been confronted with that reality!

Will continue this line of thought in upcoming posts.

Busy!

2008-03-11T10:33:00.000-07:00

This is a post that I believe the Pyro crew would call WIARN -- "Where I Am Right Now".

You may have noticed that I have not posted in over a week at this location. Simply put, I have been underwater -- my 'secular' job has been consuming me, I have Passover Seder coming up, as well as the Easter morning service. I also have several counseling sessions going on and a new bird at home to boot!

I must be honest; there are times when I wish I was NOT a bi-vocational pastor. There is much to be said for being bi-vocational, i.e. getting out into the community, functioning in a role that helps me identify with the congregation etc., but there are also times when it would be nice to simply be able to focus for long periods of time on the job at hand at the church.

Truthfully, without the fantastic folks at the church, I could never accomplish what I do -- but I feel like I could be a better pastor to them if I were able to spend more time being a pastor. At times I feel like I am 'robbing' them because of the other demands on my time.

So, I apologize for the spotty posting, but for now, it will have to be that way... If I do not have time for the important things, then this blog will definitely be lower on the list... I hope to dig my way out in the next three weeks!

Yesterday

2008-02-25T10:45:00.001-08:00

I have been speaking on the cost of discipleship (read my last two posts), and yesterday after the service a young lady came up and gave her life to Christ. What is amazing is that we do not have altar calls at our church, I will even say (as I have been teaching through this series), that one is to count the cost of knowing Christ. I truly believe and have seen that the Holy Spirit regenerates a heart, and not persuasive, and often manipulative words, from a pastor.

This young lady came forward, spoke with me, obviously understood what she was saying and prayed with me. It is so incredibly humbling to be a small part of God's work on Earth -- what an honor to be able to share in the glorious moment of a new believer coming to Christ!

The Cost of Discipleship - Part II

2008-02-21T09:04:00.000-08:00

I closed out the last post by looking at the Scribe who approached Jesus, anxious to follow Him 'anywhere'. However, as we saw, Jesus is not moved by his apparent piety, clearly stating the cost of discipleship.

Jesus’ teaching may have moved this man, or the miraculous healing of the leper may have amazed him, but Jesus knew his heart. The Scribe makes the pious statement that He will follow Jesus wherever He goes, but Jesus outlines the reality of following Him. The Scribe might have thought that it would be exhilarating to follow this man who healed people and was an incredible teacher, but he had not given much thought to the reality of following Jesus.

In today's world, we have gladly brought this guy in and maybe even put him in a leadership position, (he was, after all, a Scribe). At a minimum, we would have him as a member of our church before you knew it. But Jesus knows the heart of man, and penetrates to the crux of the issue in one statement. Just like the rich young man in Matthew 19, Jesus looks beyond the pious words to the heart and makes the statement that He does not live a lavish life, but one of discipline, not having a big home or a even, at times, a place to lay His head. Interestingly, we do not hear from this Scribe again!

So often one can get caught up in the moment and make vows and oaths to God, but once they have calmed down, they are still unregenerate; they simply got caught up in the 'hype' that often surrounds altar calls! I have heard many people say that this person or that person is saved because "They said the sinners prayer with me", but there was never any indicator that they had been regenerated, and often times these self-same people go on to live lives that make it obvious that their 'commitment' to Christ was but a fleeting moment of emotion.

This is why emotional, manipulative methods that get people to ‘come down front and accept Jesus’ are non-Biblical – Jesus is basically telling this man, "Count the cost – here is what life with Me is like.”

In Luke 14:26 – 33, Jesus says it this way: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

Believe me, He is not fooled by our pious words! He says in Matthew 15 that the people honor Him with their lips, but are, in actuality, far from Him! You see, there is a cost to discipleship – and that cost is death to self, and a new life in Christ. I fear that we have done away with this vital teaching because it is not the type of teaching that packs the house. And our churches have suffered because of it – we have churches that have a membership roll of hundreds or thousands, many of whom never darken the doorway of the church, but at one point said – “I will follow Jesus anywhere”.

The church no longer talks of the cost of discipleship, it might cause people to find another place to have their ears tickled, but it is those who are truly redeemed who can grasp the incredible gift of salvation found in Jesus Christ, it is these people who are not offended by the cost of discipleship.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer says, in his incredible book, “The Cost of Discipleship” -- "Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth which has a place for the Fatherhood of God, but omits Christ as the living Son. … There is trust in God, but no following of Christ."

Bonhoeffer made the distinction between ‘cheap’ grace and ‘costly’ grace in his book; here are a few more passages that bear repeating -- "cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ." In contrast to this is costly grace: "costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. It is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." "

The second man we read about is one who seems to have a reasonable request – “I need to go and bury my father.” I mean, who could refuse such a request? Yet Jesus says that the dead should bury the dead. What does Jesus mean by this seemingly heartless response? Well, there are several thoughts on this – the first is that the man was saying – “Let me wait until my father dies and I claim my inheritance”. This was known to have been a colloquialism meaning just that; the Jews would have buried someone the same day that they died, unlike today in the West.

Some would say that the man’s father was not yet dead, but aging, and he wanted to wait until his father HAD died before embarking on the journey of discipleship with Jesus, and finally, some say that Jesus means that we are to let the ‘spiritually’ dead bury the dead. And in some sense this is also true; but I believe that what Jesus is saying is something contained in all of these perspectives. He is calling this man to drop his earthly concerns and follow Him now!

The call to discipleship is one that is immediate and all consuming. We cannot have one foot in the realm of the world and one foot in the realm of the kingdom. We are to be IN the world, but not OF it – and it would seem that this man had the concerns of the world consuming him – he was asking Jesus to allow him to delay his following until he had taken care of the earthly concerns that he had. Jesus’ answer is unequivocal – following me will require that you leave behind your inheritance, letting the spiritually dead bury the dead, and take up your cross and follow Me.

In the case of the first man, he was reacting to the hype of the events taking place around him, he was, like the seed that lands in rocky ground, [Matthew 13], sprouting up quickly (i.e. “I will follow you wherever you go”), but has no root and when hard times come, it withers.

The second man is like the seed that falls amongst thorns; it sprouts up, but the cares and concerns of the world choke the seed and it dies. This man could not leave behind the cares of the world.

Paul talks of leaving behind worldly cares and concerns in Philippians 3:7 – 11 -- whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Friends, do we understand that Jesus Christ calls us to a life of discipleship? Those who know Christ as their Lord and Savior, the redeemed, are called to a life that is perceptively different from the world's. The call to discipleship impacts all aspects of our life: in our marriage we are called to self-sacrificial love, the marriage being the very picture of Christ and His redeemed bride; it calls for sacrifice of our time to help build the kingdom, proclaiming the gospel and helping to build up the body – many who go by the name Christian do not give financially, or time-wise to the church to assist in the ministries that she performs. Often many who would call themselves disciples will spend hours watching a sporting event, or sitting at a computer or playing an instrument, but will not give up any of their time to do anything within the church.

Our lives should reflect the fact that we are captive to Christ; does your life? Are we being conformed to the image of God’s Son, as it says in Romans 8, or do we look, for all intents and purposes, exactly like the world, our biggest differentiator being that we spend a few hours at church on Sunday?

Are we disciples at work? Are we disciples at home with our family? Are we disciples when we are out with our friends? Jesus took these two men today to task – He did not let them get away with a cavalier statement about being His disciples, but clearly explained what the life and concerns of a disciple are to be. I wonder how many of us would still claim to be His disciple if we truly examined the cost?

Cost of Discipleship - Part I

2008-02-19T06:29:00.000-08:00

I spoke this weekend on the Cost of Discipleship. It seems that this is a topic that has gone out of favor amongst the Christian community. I have heard a variety of reasons, mostly those that have to do with 'chasing away seekers', I even had one person tell me that it was this type of preaching that was hurting the church!

It would seem that some believe that the way to get someone to come to Christ is lull them into it through good music, designer coffee, and a rational 'discussion' that enables them to weigh all the options and make a decision as to the 'validity' of the claims of Christ!

And you would definitely not tell these people that there is a cost to discipleship! So often the message, implicitly, or explicitly from Christians, is that once you come to Christ EVERYTHING gets easier. If you want to be richer, prettier, more athletic, and have a winning smile, just come to Christ! This is often the message posed to people but it paints an unrealistic picture of discipleship (true discipleship)

True discipleship is a call to die to self! That is not a popular message, so it is often muted, or ignored.

Yet, in the passage I spoke on this weekend, it would seem that Jesus Himself approached things rather differently. I spoke out of Matthew 8:18 - 22. This is an interesting juxtaposition from the immediately preceding verses.

In those verses Jesus approaches two people who, it would seem, would have been outside the pale of God's 'acceptance'; a leper, and a Roman Centurion.

The first would have been an outcast considered unclean, and adjudged by God as accursed (see Numbers 12 and 2nd Chronicles 26). This rotting, stinking walking corpse would have been in constant torment, separated from the family of God (Israel) and forced to live in the outer areas of town.

The second man was an avowed enemy of God and His people -- a man who oppressed and subjugated the nation of Israel. And this was no ordinary man in the Roman ranks, He was a centurion -- a leader who commanded the men who were oppressing Israel!

Yet Jesus heals the one, and heals the servant of the other. This would have been shocking in that day and age.

And then this week we see a SCRIBE approach Jesus, and make a wonderful profession as to his willingness to follow Jesus. Now, you would think that after Jesus had been willing to heal the aforementioned two, then He would gladly welcome this scribe. But, Jesus does something unexpected -- He challenges the scribe; "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Interestingly, we never hear from the scribe again.

The second man makes a seemingly simple request - "Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” but Jesus, in a seemingly callous way, says “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”.

It would seem that Jesus is acting in an irrational manner, wouldn't it? Yet, when this passage is examined we find a profound message. First, in the case of the leper and the Roman Centurion, we see those whom Jesus came to save -- the ones who were outside the gates, doomed to death and avowed enemies of God.

Are we really any different than the leper? We were, before Christ, clothed in the stinking rags of our own righteousness, outside the gates with no hope of entering in, separated from the people of God and cursed with an incurable disease. Yet, like the leper the redeemed are drawn to Christ to say "If you will, you can make me clean", and He has said "I will, be clean".

And likewise, we are reflected in the Centurion -- an enemy of God and His people (witness Paul); one who oppressed God's people. Yet, Jesus brought healing into our lives, even with our enmity towards Him -- "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Now, what of these next two? Well, the Scribe seems to have been caught up in the moment -- I am sure it was an exciting time; this rabbi had come down from the mountain and healed two men, the crowds were growing, and in his exuberance, the scribe exclaims "Jesus, I will follow you anywhere". Sadly, in today's church we would go no further and instantly put him in a leadership role (he was, after all, a scribe!). I see this in many cases where a celebrity or sports figure (what is the difference anyway?), has a salvation 'experience' and the next week is preaching to throngs of people. But Jesus informs the scribe that following Him may not be what the scribe thinks it is. There is a cost to discipleship. And it does not matter if you are a scribe or a leper, the cost is the same -- “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?"

As I said previously, we never hear from this scribe again.

I just realized that this post is getting a bit lengthy, even for me, so I will continue these thoughts in my next post.

Puritans!

2008-02-12T05:47:00.000-08:00

The Blind Eye

2008-02-06T06:45:00.000-08:00

This infuriates me.

The incredible hypocrisy of Mendell in his statement -- "We are shocked, saddened and sickened by what we have seen today," Mendell said. "Operations have been immediately suspended until we can meet with all of our employees and be assured these sorts of activities never again happen at our facility." -- is simply amazing. This type of abuse has been recorded over and over again for well over ten years.

Management is well aware of these practices; there have been hundreds of interviews with former and current employees at many plants which speak of these atrocities. What is amazing is that they are not similar acts, but IDENTICAL, leading one to believe that this is SOP for these plants.

The nonsense of having USDA inspectors and vets located on-site has been shown for what it is many times. Just the speed of the line makes it impossible for the inspectors to keep up, and anytime outside consultants or OSHA personnel show up, their visit is known for days in advance and the plant 'cleans up' for the inspection.

The USDA actually has the audacity to say this!

Why is that incredible? Well, because they have staff ON-SITE -- did they simply MISS the activities?

And then they lay the blame at the feet of the HSUS with this little self-righteous blurb -- "It is unfortunate that the Humane Society of the United States did not present this information to us when these alleged violations occurred in the fall of 2007. Had we known at the time the alleged violations occurred, we would have initiated our investigation sooner, and taken appropriate actions at that time."

Let me ask them this: Where were your inspectors when these events took place?

Christians have abdicated their responsibility as stewards of God's creation -- this is not about vegetarianism vs. non-vegetarianism, this is about basic humane treatment of animals. The animal rights groups that are out there often have agendas which are directly counter to the Christian beliefs (witness people like Peter Singer who believes that there is no difference between an animal and human beings), so do not think that I am saying these groups are correct, what I AM saying is that we are incorrect.

The two things that I often hear from the Christian community are:

(1) - "I don't know anything about meat preparation, and I don't want to" or
(2) - "God gave us the right to eat animals starting with Noah, so what is the point?"

There are several problems with this, but let's just look at one -- Where does God say ABUSE, MAIM, and TORTURE these animals before slaughtering and eating them?

It is high time that Christians (who seem to want to be involved in anything politically or socially which improves their lot in life) begin to speak out against this type of wanton and horrific practice. If you want to put your blinders on, and actually believe what Hallmark and the USDA are trying to pass off, then I pity you!

Go read up on the abuses recorded over DECADES within the meat-packing industry, and then tell me that this is an isolated incident!

Whether you want to continue to eat meat or not is not my concern, what IS my concern is that we Christians go blissfully through life, ignoring this issue.

Read up on the issue, take the time to understand where your food comes from, read Slaughterhouse, or Prisoned Chickens, Poisoned Eggs. Actually educate yourself before you react to this post.

We believe that we were made in the image of God (imago dei): do you really believe the God who created everything and saw that it was good does not notice our apathy?

Goodbye to a Companion

2008-02-04T06:22:00.000-08:00

My companion, and partner on sermon writing sessions, my green-cheek conure, finally succumbed to cancer. He simply fell asleep on Saturday night and never woke up on Sunday. We had him 14 years, and have no children, so this is will be a hard few days or so. But, in honor of him, I wanted to repost something from last November:

=======================

My beloved pet, who has been through many things with me, Isaac, a green-cheek conure, was diagnosed with lymphoma yesterday. We have had him around for 13+ years. He sat by me on many a day as I prepared sermons etc.

You can see him with me in the new picture to the right of this posting.

As I watch him deteriorate, I am driven to this Scripture:

Romans 8:9 - 22 -- For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

All too often we Christians think only of our own lives as regards redemption, but in fact CREATION will be redeemed! We need to understand the depth of sin and decay before we can truly appreciate the heights of God's salvific plan! My bird is dying because of sin, just as I am dying because of sin, just as the world is dying. When we understand that, it is then that we can begin to understand the incredible beauty of redemption!

Revelation 21:1 - 5 -- Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.

BUSY!

2008-02-01T09:08:00.001-08:00

Well, I know I have not been writing on here much -- but I am really running at a quick pace right now...

I foolishly decided to start back up in taking some classes, so I am working through Calvin's Institutes: a LOT of reading! PLUS, I am taking Timmy Brister's Puritan challenge and I am trying to catch up by reading through 'The Bruised Reed' by Richard Sibbes.

Plus my 'other' job (telecommunications system engineer) is really picking up.... I will be back when I can catch my breath!

A Brave Mom -- Lorraine Allard

2008-01-25T15:22:00.001-08:00

In this day and age of abortion on demand, and eugenics, this story is amazing.

In a world where narcissism reigns, especially in the area of the abortion debate, this woman is a shining gem. All we hear is that women have the right to decide what to do with their body (although conveniently neglected is the right of the baby), and then we are treated to a plethora of so-called stats that tell us how many women would die of either complications or 'back-alley' abortions should this 'right' be repealed. (just an FYI, almost all abortions are for convenience, and not life-threatening).

Interestingly, Lorraine Allard got very little airplay here -- guess this simply does not accord well with what the feminists and liberal community might want to portray -- a mother willing to give up her life for a child. It sounds strange in our ears, doesn't it? We are so used to mothers killing their children (I speak not only of abortion, but of the number of women who have killed toddlers etc.) And so unused to true sacrifice in a parent.

I do not know the faith of this women, Lorraine Allard, but I applaud her for being a true mother -- one who went the distance to give her son a fighting chance at life!

I may revisit the idea of self-sacrifice soon, but did not want this to go unnoticed.

The Challenge

2008-01-25T06:34:00.000-08:00

Well, I am going to try and take Timmy Brister's challenge (found here http://timmybrister.com/2008/01/07/join-the-2008-puritan-reading-challenge/). I cannot get it to hyperlink, and quite frankly, I don't feel well enough to work through it at this point.

Likewise, try as I might, I cannot get the 'button' to show up in my sidebar, but if you go there, you will see that there is a challenge to read a Puritan book/month for the entire 2008 time frame.

Here is the list, and yes, I am getting a late start, so Mr. Sibbes might have to wait until I can squeeze him in during another cycle.

Timmy Brister’s Puritan Challenge:

January: The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes (128 pp)
February: The Mystery of Providence by John Flavel (221 pp)
March: The Godly Man’s Picture by Thomas Watson (252 pp)
April: Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices by Thomas Brooks (253 pp)
May: Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ by John Bunyan (225 pp)
June: The Mortification of Sin by John Owen (130 pp)
July: A Lifting Up for the Downcast by William Bridge (287 pp)
August: The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (228 pp)
September: The True Bounds of Christian Freedom by Samuel Bolton (224 pp)
October: The Christian’s Great Interest by William Guthrie (207 pp)
November: The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter (256 pp)
December: A Sure Guide to Heaven by Joseph Alleine (148 pp)

I will let you know how it goes.

Update

2008-01-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

Well, the doctor was able to drain the oil, make some external laser repairs, and some conjunctiva work. I have a sterile air bubble in my eye which should dissipate after a few days. Just a reinforcement.

If all goes well, this should be the final retinal surgery -- I then have a cataract surgery in May. Pray that this surgery holds!

Thanks for everyone's concerns, cares and prayers.

Ray

It Is Well With My Soul

2008-01-21T13:36:00.001-08:00

I am going in for surgery tomorrow to drain the oil out of my right eye, and have a previous repair reinforced. The doctor will then fill my eye with gas to keep the reinforcement in place.

I am also having the left eye looked at while under (while he has the hood up, he is going to check the whole engine).

Anyway, in keeping with the theme of worship and music, I thought I would post a brief thought on one of my favorite hymns; a hymn that has been of great comfort to me over the years.

Anyone who reads this blog with any degree of regularity (I know you're out there), will be familiar with this story, but it was brought to my mind again as I prepared for tomorrow's surgery.

In the 1870s Horatio Spafford was a successful Chicago lawyer and a close friend of evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Spafford had invested heavily in real estate, but the Chicago fire of 1871 wiped out his holdings. His son had died shortly before the disaster.

Spafford and his family desperately needed a rest so in 1873 he planned a trip to Europe with his wife and four daughters. While in Great Britain he also hoped to help Moody and Sankey with their evangelistic tour. Last minute business caused Spafford to delay his departure, but he sent his wife and four daughters on the S. S. Ville Du Havre as scheduled, promising to follow in a few days. On November 22 the ship was struck by the English ship Lochearn, and it sank in twelve minutes. Several days later the survivors landed at Cardiff, Wales, and Mrs. Spafford cabled her husband the brief message, "Saved alone."

When Horatio Spafford made the ocean crossing to meet his grieving wife, he sailed near the place where his four daughters had sunk to the ocean depths. There, in the midst of his sorrow, he wrote these unforgettable words that have brought solace to so many in grief:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blessed assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

There is nothing more I can add to that. When I realize that Christ has regarded my helpless estate and paid for me with His own blood, it truly is well with my soul!

Good News!

2008-01-18T13:28:00.000-08:00

Wow -- this is not frivolous::

A Texas court has decided that chimps cannot sue a facility in Texas.

Now, doesn't that make you feel better?

'Happy' Worship

2008-01-15T06:47:00.000-08:00

So, as I begin looking at music in general I wanted to start with some basics.

1) - Not ALL contemporary worship music is bad.
2) - Not ALL Hymnody is good.

With those basic two points, I shall begin to do a brief examination of the status of worship music. The first thing that is disturbing today, (and I believe that I have touched upon this before), is that most people consider 'worship' the musical/singing piece of a service only.

This is wrong-headed; worship is what takes place when God's people gather together and involves singing, preaching, praying, the ordinances and invocation/benediction. For far too long, the modern church has downplayed the preaching of God's Word and built up an emotional outlet that many call the 'worship service', until in the modern world what we have is 2 hours of singing (and sadly, many of the songs are inane), and 5 minutes of 'preaching' which usually involves not much more than a pep talk to the gathered throng.

I find it interesting that many churches today, especially the 'top' growing churches, advertise NOT that they preach the Word, but that people need to come and be involved in their worship experience. And when you dig a bit, that usually means professional musicians and songs all about US!

Recently White Horse Inn did a series on 'Happy, Clappy, Worship', and spoke of the very real fact that almost ALL worship music is one-dimensional -- that is, that almost all worship music is 'happy'. How many churches sing through the Psalms, or sing laments?

Recently our worship leader came up to me and told me that he had penned a lament out of the Psalms and would it be OK to prepare it for our church? I very much encouraged him, as we spend far too much time singing songs that get our 'happy' emotions going, but far too little time singing out in our pain as David did.

Something that struck me while I was listening to the White Horse Inn broadcast was Rod Rosenblatt's statement that the 'requirement' to be 'happy' within the modern church is a new form of legalism. One is often discouraged from being anything but artificially pumped up by happiness. And this is reflected by the songs and preaching style of many mega-church pastors.

Their messages are ALWAYS Anthony Robbins-like, and the songs that their worship teams sing are happy, happy, joy, joy.

You may disagree with me, but that was one of the things that I enjoyed about Casting Crowns first CD. They spoke of pain, doubt and worry. They addressed God in these areas, and spoke of trusting Him. Now, I don't know if I agree with everything they ever wrote, who does, but their CD was a breath of fresh air in a CCM market so often over-saturated with sappy nonsense, and contrived happiness.

The church should get back to singing the Psalter, singing through the Psalms -- and letting true emotion out -- the pain and contrition of David in Psalm 51, the sorrow in Psalm 77. Not every song needs to be a Psalm, or a hymn, but the full range of emotion should be dealt with, not just one facet.

An example of the 'sanitized' worship that I am talking about is the modern worship song -- His Steadfast Love Never Ceases.

Below is the song:

The Steadfast Love of the Lord Never Ceases
Robert Davidson

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases
His mercies never come to an end
They are new every morning
New every morning.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord.
Great is Thy faithfulness.

Now, now compare that with the Scripture it was taken from: let us hear from Jeremiah, just to give context to these words. I am only going to put the first 26 or so verses in from Lamentations 3 -- I recommend you go read the rest!

I am the man who has seen affliction
under the rod of his wrath;
he has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;
surely against me he turns his hand
again and again the whole day long.
He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;
he has broken my bones;
he has besieged and enveloped me
with bitterness and tribulation;
he has made me dwell in darkness
like the dead of long ago.
He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
he has made my chains heavy;
though I call and cry for help,
he shuts out my prayer;
he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;
he has made my paths crooked.
He is a bear lying in wait for me,
a lion in hiding;
he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;
he has made me desolate;
he bent his bow and set me
as a target for his arrow.
He drove into my kidneys
the arrows of his quiver;
I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,
the object of their taunts all day long.
He has filled me with bitterness;
he has sated me with wormwood.
He has made my teeth grind on gravel,
and made me cower in ashes;
my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
so I say, My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the Lord.
Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, says my soul,
therefore I will hope in him.
The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.

See how different the steadfast love of the Lord is? In the song, it is some 'good' thing that never really specifies, and is bouncy and happy. In the Lamentation it is AMIDST the agony and pain of the destruction around Jeremiah that he finds the steadfast love of the Lord. We need to KNOW the steadfast love of the Lord in these times!

Now, if you like the aforementioned song, that is fine, the song is not incorrect, just incomplete. God is there and sovereign, and not every day is going to be a good day -- and that is when we will need Him most!

I'm Back

2008-01-11T07:54:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the length of time between posts. I made no resolution regarding posting, so I am not breaking any resolutions either! :-)

I have been in California and just catching up at work after the holidays. Anyway, I am trying to decide what to post on this year. I am not all that political, which can be seen by my few political posts -- you might consider me an idealist, or maybe just an old-fashioned goof, and I do not add much to the plethora political blogs out there, so I will try and comment infrequently as regards that.

I have been contemplating posting a bit on the creeds, but there are plenty of places to get that information. I have also considered trying to be more series-oriented in my posting. It will all have to wait, as I am still in contemplation mode right now.

There is one subject I am doing some personal study in, and that is 'worship' music. This is a subject that has been much debated and written about, but I feel that there are some positive directions I see this going in.

I may touch upon that a bit -- for now I will leave you with this:

Check out Indelible Grace.

Here we go again!

2008-01-03T06:33:00.000-08:00

Why won't this man stop?

Sadly, so many Christians rally around him and defend his 'prophetic utterances'... Although he misses every year, and modifies his 'prophecies' to fit the times, thousands of Christians still defend him as a 'prophet'...

Sad....

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T07:33:00.000-08:00

Isn't it good to know that, with all of the unrest in our world, we serve a sovereign God? May 2008 be a time of blessing for you.

Bravery and Benazir Bhutto

2007-12-29T05:59:00.000-08:00

I want to start this post by clearly stating that I am no political expert, and I do not advertise myself as such; however there are a few things I wanted to note about the recent tragic events in Pakistan, and the U.S.'s current political clime.

1. - Our Founding Fathers put together a pretty good system, which has enabled 'bloodless' transfer of power for over two centuries. That is pretty amazing considering how rare that is. Even when we have close calls, such as in 1960 and 2000, we are able to transfer power without massive riots in the street. Obviously, this says something about the society as a whole as well.

2. - After saying the above, I would like to say that, while this system has served us well, the people within the system are in drastic need of revamping. Look at Bhutto, a person willing to risk her life for what she believed. She took a position which she knew was unpopular to the more radical element in her society and stuck to it. Ultimately, as she knew it would, this cost her her life.

Now, look at the current state of our politics, the BIG 'issues' so far are:

1. - Did Hilary Clinton lie? (of course, so did they all)
2. - Did Barak Obama take drugs?
3. - Was there a (gasp) cross surreptitiously positioned in Mike Huckabee's Christmas message?
4. - Is Mitt Romney a cultist? (yes)

On and on it goes -- and do you notice anything? There is no a single issue of substance involved in any of the debates, attacks or discussions. Whichever way the polls turn, so too do our 'leaders'. What a contrast with Bhutto who stood FOR something, regardless of what the polls said, regardless of what the times dictated as far as regards her personal comfort.

Oh yes, the ads 'act' as though they are addressing issues, and again, it is the issue du jour -- i.e. Mitt Romney attacks everyone's position on illegal immigration, yet what is his plan? Who knows, you can't answer a complex question like that in a five minute sound bite on a so-called Presidential Debate (which are not only jokes, but actually misnamed, they are not debates, but a platform to test out the latest sound bite).

REAL leaders have REAL answers to REAL issues, and stick with those answers because they have been thought-out and tested against what makes sense, not what resonates with the most people. Because, my friends, quite frankly, we, the people, are as shallow as those we elect. Who would actually sit and listen to a true debate about the issues?

We watch the debates for the same reason many go to the NASCAR races -- to wait for that one spectacular crash.

We can learn much from Bhutto's life and death -- yes, she made mistakes, and was no saint, but she actually stood for something, and there were people who actually cared about that. How about this election year: can you and I get off of our duffs and actually elect someone with answers? Can we stop focusing on only the issues that the media and the politicos point us to, and actually start addressing the politicians and asking hard questions like:

Is this person a leader? Why?
Do they actually have a vision for this country? What is it?
Can they articulate their position on the issues in a way that is meaningful and not simply sensational?
DO THEY STAND FOR SOMETHING BESIDES GETTING ELECTED?

Preach the Gospel?

2007-12-27T07:59:00.000-08:00

This week I had several conversations that went like this:

(a) - "This is a great opportunity, (Christmas), to preach the gospel. We can reach people that we normally would not reach"

or

(b) - "Boy, our pastor really preached the gospel this weekend! I love Christmas sermons!"

Now you may see nothing wrong with this, but I believe this is the crux of the problem in the USA today. The gospel is NOT something that is preached with regularity, instead it has become the 'message' when the 'lost' come to church! Yet, in reality, what else should a pastor be preaching with regularity?

Now don't get me wrong -- I understand that sometimes you are preaching through a section of the Bible that may have various applications, but the gospel should be regular fare at your church and not just the 'holiday meals'.

How different was Paul's statement found in 1st Corinthians 2:1, 2 -- "And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

He also makes this statement in Romans 1:16, 17 --- For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, The righteous shall live by faith...

Now, contrast this view of the gospel with the messages that were preached this year in the USA:

1. At least five huge churches preached on sex -- of course, couching it in the mindset that they are trying to show we are not prudes, just good, moral people.

2. There were three (that I found) that preached on how to live a fulfilled life by losing the fear and anxiety that holds you back -- they did not speak of the power of the gospel (yes, I listened to several of them), rather that we need to 'break free' from fear.

3. You have a major 'evangelical leader' who now teaches other religions how to be more successful and 'Purpose-Driven' -- This is a person who has created an empire out of non-gospel preaching.

No wonder that people are so pleased and vocal about their pastor's Christmas service; he FINALLY gets around to preaching the gospel. Sadly, this should not be a rare event, but THE event that gathers the church.

I did not link to any of the sermons because I do not care to give these people free publicity, many of them are well-known, and they all have their defenders and trolls, who have nothing better to do that troll the blogs looking for a mention of 'their' church. They then proceed to make it all about 'their' man, instead of addressing the truth that the church they attend has little regard for the power of the gospel.

Sad is the day when a congregant brags that their pastor 'really preached the gospel', as if it were a novel concept!

May God have mercy on us!

'Just' a Pastor?

2007-12-18T19:59:00.000-08:00

I was talking with someone recently about our church and he asked me about my role. When I informed him that I was the pastor, he asked a few more questions, such as 'have you authored any books?' etc.

When he found out that I had not written any books, and that our church didn't use illustrations that were sensational (i.e. driving an expensive car on stage), he made this statement -- "Oh, so you are just a pastor?".

I answered in the affirmative, and at the time it did not affect me; actually I am used to that response, but then as I got to thinking about it, I was bothered more and more by this statement.

JUST a pastor??? This is where we are at in our country -- unless you have authored a best-selling book, or you have a church numbering in the thousands, you are a failure in the eyes of many, even within the Christian community. At some pastor gatherings that I have attended, the first question that is asked is "How big is your church?" and when you answer 45 - 50, you almost feel the pity coming from other pastors.

I feel bad for the majority of pastors who pastor a smaller church and have never authored a book. It is no longer respectable to proclaim God's Word from the pulpit, and love the flock that God has entrusted to us; now we must be grasping for the golden ring that contains our 15 minutes of fame. A pastor isn't complete unless he is 'somebody'. What a tragedy! There is no higher calling than to be entrusted with a portion of God's flock, no matter what size!

Our problem is not that we have too few pastors that are also authors, but that we have too few pastors that are pastors! We do not mentor young men coming out of seminary in the role of pastoring; far too many come straight out of seminary and feel that they MUST be a Senior Pastor. In truth, these men should be mentored for two or more years.

Also, during the mentoring period they should also work in the community, interacting with the world around them. This enables them to understand the world in which most of their flock lives 6 days per week.

They need to serve in various roles within the church, from janitor, to children's ministry, to visitation. These folks need to understand the entire scope of ministry. Far too often the role models for young men are people who are 'successful' in the eyes of the world, but lack any pastoral concern or care. My first pastor was a true pastor, you would not know his name, and he never wrote a book, but he led me to Christ and he served his flock faithfully, sacrificing for them and loving them.

In many churches the role of caring and loving the flock has been delegated to a committee of people, while the pastor works on programs that will grow the church. Sadly, the first and foremost role of the pastor -- that is, the teaching of the Word and prayer, is relegated to the shelf, and the second most important role -- caring for the flock, which is an extension of reading and studying the Word and engaging in prayer, is delegated to a committee, while the pastor works on growing his influence.

We desperately need more pastors, and less 'Church Growth experts', 'best-selling authors', and self-aggrandizing men who put their reputation before their role.

Doctrine, Doctrine, Where far art thou Doctrine?

2007-12-14T09:08:00.000-08:00

So many people have written about this subject that I almost just dropped it. However, I feel inclined to make a comment as I have recently (again) had this subject brought to my attention.

One of the perks/curses of being a pastor is that everyone feels that it is necessary to send me links to other pastors who are doing 'well'. I am unsure of their reasoning; maybe it is because we are a smaller church and they are trying to give me some 'pointers' on church growth, or, quite possibly, they feel led to assist me in 'improving' my pulpit skills.

However, all of the links that I get, inevitably, look like this:

(1.) - The church is has some pithy, hip, name -- i.e. Oxygen, Mountaintop, etc. (Please note that if this is your church name, I actually made these up out of thin air -- I am trying to avoid giving any of these churches free publicity).

(2.) - The pastor has a blog in which he never writes anything of substance about the faith, his posts are usually an endless and narcissistic monologue of subjects, such as: "What I am doing right now", or "Why I think Haagen-Daz Ice Cream is Cool", or "Why I love XXXXX Jeans".

(3.) - EVERY ONE of these hip, cool, relevant guys has the EXACT same wardrobe and haircut -- they are mostly 20-somethings to 40-somethings trying to look like teen-somethings. They all dress in an untucked shirt, jeans/shorts, sandals, and wear glasses that David Crowder inspired. Their hair is cut short and stands on end, in what we used to call 'bed-head' style.

(4.) - Whenever these folks receive criticism that they are, to be kind, light in content, and heavy in relevance (as described by them, of course), they quickly and arrogantly point out that their church has grown from 25 to 1000 in one year. They are under the delusion that simple numerical growth somehow indicates spiritual health.

(5.) - These 'pastors' seem to be either; incredibly ignorant of, or openly disdainful of, any form of doctrinal statement. Funny thing is, their actions are making a doctrinal statement.

(6.) - After watching a number of their sermons, I can honestly say that these people say so little of value that their relevance (which is the Golden Calf whose feet they worship at), has the shelf-life of a bunch of bananas! They are relevant ONLY to people who do not actually want to hear of something that is of timeless relevance. These 'pastors' will be gone like winter wheat when people move to the next fad. (witness the Willow Creek model which is now coming apart).

(7.) - And finally, what do these great thinkers read? Well, almost all of them read each others books and blogs. Also included in their recommended reading list are a number of business, marketing and church strategy books; some even have Harry Potter in their recommended reading -- it should make you feel good, regardless of your opinion of Harry Potter, that your spiritual leader is reading mediocre juvenile fiction for his sustenance! What is almost universally missing is anything of substance, there is a complete dearth of books regarding our faith, no one reading any of the timeless Christian works that have sustained the church over hundreds and even thousands of years.

Let me just say a final thing -- to you who might fit this mold. I don't hate you, nor do I even dislike you. I don't even know you, but I will tell you that those who are called to pastor are called to a much-higher calling than being hip and cool. We are called to be God's spokesmen to the saints -- we are to be proclaiming the Word of God, not our own witty little writings that make us look good, or hip. The 'game' for pastors is not to grow a large church and proclaim numbers. NOTE: I have nothing against a large church, I would like to have a larger church myself one day, however that is not what we are to be consumed with, rather it is the proclamation of the Word of God, and He will bring the growth. At the end of the day, we are under-shepherds to our great Shepherd. He has entrusted us to watch over His flock; those whom He has purchased with His own precious blood -- and you know what...? This requires study and diligence and work. For all of you who say doctrine is not important let me simply remind you:

Romans 16:17, 18 -- I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites, and by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive.

Ephesians 4:11 - 14 -- And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

1Timothy 6:3 - 5 -- If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

Titus 1:7 - 9 -- For an overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

Are you, young man, one who lives a life that is godly? Or, do you revel in being a rebel, and a lightning rod for controversy? Do you not understand that your flock watches you, and by acting juvenile and worldly, you are, in fact, creating a church that looks just like you? We are called to be a City on a Hill, NOT just another option on a list of things to do.

Where is Your Treasure?

2007-12-11T06:49:00.000-08:00

This weekend we came to the place in Matthew where Jesus speaks of laying up treasure (Matthew 6). I find this interesting, that during the season of Thanksgiving we came across a passage regarding fasting, and now during a time often marked by rampant consumerism, we come to this passage:

Matthew 6:19 - 34 -- Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

During this time of year I am often discouraged by the constant complaints of Christians who, (it seems to me), want to force EVERYONE to say "Merry Christmas". All we have to do is reflect on the last few years of nonsense by 'Christians' to boycott, Wal*Mart (Not that I disagree with boycotting Wal*Mart, but for entirely different reasons!), Target, or any other store that has offended their sensibilities!

These self-same Christians are often eager participants in the consumerist orgies that take place around our country every year in the last quarter. I assume these folks want someone to say "Merry Christmas" to them, so they will feel 'comfortable', and remember why they are standing in line for 12 hours to buy a new Wii.

I am often amazed at how Christians eagerly participate in the ritual shopping sprees, taking joy in them, and talking about them at church as if they were something to be proud of. People who would not come to a prayer meeting because it is too late, or too early, are found standing in line at Mervyns at 4am in order to pick up the latest and greatest junk that will be outdated by January. People who could not give any money at church last week to help feed some of the community's needy, now shell out $$$$$, going into credit card debt, in order to appease the children they have weaned on materialism.

Yes, this is a time of year when I really struggle with the Christian community -- it seems that they want their cake and eat it too -- "You will say Merry Christmas to me while I sate my materialistic soul on junk, junk, junk". Here are a few stats that I found to be interesting:

(1) U.S. Evangelical Assets: Somewhere between 2 - 6 trillion dollars in assets are in the hands of American evangelicals, not including the value of their primary homes.

(2) U.S. Evangelical Income: In 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 trillion in income.

(3) Worldwide Income: Worldwide, Christians collectively have personal income totaling $6.8 trillion a year.

(4) Decline in Giving: Church members gave $2.8 million less to their churches in 2004 than in 2003.

(5) Then and Now: Giving by North American churchgoers was higher during the Great Depression (3.3 percent of per capita income in 1933) than it was after a half-century of unprecedented prosperity (2.5 percent in 2004).

(6) Sunday Offerings: The average amount of money given by a full or confirmed member of a U.S. Christian church in 2004 was $691.93. This comes to an average of $13.31 per week.

(7) Tithing: 9% of American “born-again” adults tithed in 2004. This means that the vast majority of God’s people are not financially supporting his work.

(8) Already Enough Wealth: Eighty percent of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America—and the total represents way more than enough to fund the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

(9) Even a Little More Giving: There would have been an additional $164 billion available for the work of the church in 2004 had American church members given at least 10 percent of their incomes, instead of the 2.5 percent that was actually given.

You can find much more information at Generosity Giving where I gathered some of these statistics.

Now, you can rationalize about your shopping, as I can, but truth be told, we must ask ourselves a tough questions -- "Where are we storing our treasures up?"

Are we more concerned with building the Kingdom of God, or building a pool in our backyard? The world watches and waits...