I don't ever post on here... but maybe someone searching for these will find this blog and then message me!
Aaron, Thank you for taking the time to write such a lengthy comment on my blog. I appreciate the time that must have gone into that. About asking Jesus into your heart… I am uncomfortable with the phrase "ask Jesus into your heart" because 1) it is never used in scripture to describe what is necessary to be saved and 2) it does not accurately represent what scripture declares is necessary to be saved and 3) I asked Jesus into my heart sincerely when I was 7 and was not saved. About "accepting" Christ... I am uncomfortable with the phrase "accept Christ" (though it's better than the above phrase because John talks about the need to receive Christ in his gospel and "accept" and "receive" can mean very close to the same thing. I still am uncomfortable with it, however, for the same reasons as above; it is undescriptive. Perhaps if the Christian community labored a bit (a lot?) more to explain what it meant specifically, then it would not be so devoid of meaning. Right now as I see it, it is simply a catch phrase used to summarize the call to the proper response to the gospel, yet few people really know what is being communicated when it's used. I know this because (many) people don't know the proper response to the gospel, so they can't possibly be inferring it from "accept Christ." About my general concern with phrases like these… I find it utterly refreshing to hear people say things like "I repented of my sin and trusted Christ for salvation when I was…" as part of their testimony, rather than "I accepted Christ at such and such an age." It is still quick and reasonable, but at least it describes the two necessary aspects of a saving response to the gospel, unlike many other phrases used. Again, I think that if we did a better job striving to make the meaning of the phrases we use clear, it wouldn't be such an issue. Along those lines, being explicit about what the phrases don't mean is important too, because different teachers may say they mean different things, and the people listening might not pick up on the contradiction unless the teacher explicitly states what he does not believe. About the prayer… I don't mean to be nitpicky, but God does not need our prayers to have a clear understanding of the change in our hearts. Here's how I would say what I think you're trying to say. Someone who has repented and put their trust in Christ will pray to God and confess their sin and express their faith in this tangible, visible way. If they do not, that could be a red flag that heart change hasn't actually takes place. Is this condition possibly what you mean by "we need to?" Correct me if I'm wrong. I definitely think having people repeat the prayer as a kind of rite of passage into Christianity is unbiblical and probably dangerous. Emotional sincerity at the time of the prayer is not a measure of the effectuality of that prayer, so a the caveat "only if you're sincere" is not really a sufficient caveat. It led me astray when I was 7. The only authoritative lexicon we have is the Scriptures, and the "prayer" is neither modeled, mandated, nor mentioned there. About rededication… Struggling through the faith (against indwelling sin) is a necessary and inherent aspect of becoming like Jesus. If you don't struggle against your sin, if you're not fighting it, you should be hard pressed to claim to follow Christ, because each of us is desperately wicked and were forgiven much and are children of light and flee from darkness. The author if Hebrews assumes we struggle (Heb 12:4). Paul struggled (Rom 7). Christians fight their sin, and sin is not beaten this side of eternity. Therefore, they will always fight. Sometimes the turmoil is totally inward and we don't see the struggle, and therefore we cannot ultimately decide whether someone is a Christian. However, some may act like it's wrong to ever be unsure or question someone's salvation. That seems to me to be perfectly legitimate. Why should I act like I'm sure of someone's salvation when their life doesn't line up with how the Bible describes. Why should I be assured of my own salvation if my life doesn't line up with how the Bible describes Christians? Those are my thoughts. I hope it helps.
To anyone who uses the phrases I am about to warn against (and anyone who might consider using them): I am for the gospel. I am for its spread. I am for its glorious proclamation. I am for making it more fully and clearly known. I am for letting people know that they are enemies of God but can be reconciled to Him through the blood sacrifice of Christ. I am for people becoming genuinely converted from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19), from a life lived in darkness to a life lived in the light (John 3). With these commitments in mind, let me say that I am convinced that phrases like "accept Christ" or "ask Jesus into your heart" hinder this process. I believe they hinder the communication of the gospel because they are not descriptive of God's good news or His required response to said news, and we (all Christians, not just professional theologians) should be striving with all our might to make it as clear as possible (Col 4:3-4), if indeed we believe it is so vital and so central to the faith (Gal 1:6-9). I see no Biblical precedent for these phrases, and have no reason to believe they either clearly communicate or sufficiently summarize the only right response to the gospel; therefore, it is my conviction that they ought to be discarded from our vocabulary. Two more phrases come up in my mind that I must address when I discuss this issue of clarity in gospel presentation. The first is "praying the prayer." This prayer is also referred to as "the prayer of salvation" or "the sinner's prayer" and usually is repeated after the evangelist who is leading the prayer phrase by phrase (though I did not repeat after someone when I prayed this prayer for the first time). Often, when I ask people their testimonies, they point to the time they "prayed the prayer" as the time when they became a Christian, and are unable to articulate that event beyond this phrase without serious coaching. The use of this phrase elevates outward conformity above the heart change that needs to happen, namely repentance from (turning from, hating) sin and faith (belief, trust) in Jesus Christ (Luke 13:1-5, Eph 2:8-9). Regardless whether we strive to be assured of someone's understanding of the gospel before leading them in "the prayer" or whether we tell people that there are no magic words, when we say things like "You can repent now by praying…" or "You can commit your life to Christ by praying…" we reveal a soteriology that says the prayer of commitment is the key to ensuring God will save you, rather than that the commitment itself is the key: biblical repentance and faith. The second phrase I must address is "rededicate your life." This is also a favorite of many testimonies I've heard in the church. Besides being a contradiction in terms (If you were truly dedicated, you wouldn't have to rededicate), it is a concept found nowhere in the Bible. In short, Christians continue walking with Christ. They don't "leave" Christ and then come back as if nothing happened, clutching their ticket to heaven the whole time. If professing believers leave, it proves that they were not committed (read: dedicated) to Christ to begin with! This is not a cop out; it is the Biblical position (1 John 2:19), and it's called the Perseverance of the Saints. When we think about it in those terms, rededication makes no sense - how can you redo something you haven't done before? Saints (Christians) continue in their faith. They endure. Rededication is people's excuse for claiming to be a Christian while living in sin. Bobby Blakey wrote an excellent blog on this subject a while ago that lines up quite accurately with the Bible's teachings on the issue. I encourage you to check it out right here. He makes the case quickly, but it's also enlightening to read the comments afterwards. I hope it's clear that I am passionate for the lost, and I would be greatly encouraged to hear your heart on the issue as well (Romans 10:1). I love evangelism and wish more people would do it. I want everyone to be saved from the wrath of God to enjoy fellowship with the Trinity and glory in the gospel as much as (and more fully than) I do. I want them to be so overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit and with joy and with gratefulness that they'd want others to experience what they'd experienced. That includes unchurched people and churched people. In light of these things I urge you: strive for clarity and cling to the scriptures. They are your authority. They give you the right to speak with authority. I hope this blog comes as an encouragement to press on through the struggles of laboring to present the gospel clearly. You may get discouraged at times. People might get uncomfortable when you get clear about what it is and clear about what it isn't. I plead with, admonish, encourage, and charge you to keep first things first. And that is the gospel (1 Cor 15). Keep it clear and keep it clearly the center. Grace be with you. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. - 2 Thess 2:15-17
Hello my faithful (and if I still have your attention by this point, it's definitely because you're faithful!) readers. My apologies for being so absent for so long. I figured if I were going to leave a blog up for a long time it should be about the gospel, but then I also had the end of school… and frankly it doesn't take long to get out of the habit of blogging. None of that is really an excuse, but hey, I'm a junior now, and I don't have any schoolwork for a good 3 months. So here I am, back again and excited about what I have for you this weekend. I am at Resolved. Resolved is probably the best Christian conference I know of. The worship is heavenly, and the preaching is legit. What else do you need for a good conference? The folks at Resolved do it far better than any other I've ever been to. Granted, no other conference has been as big, but even if you've been to a crusade or something, I guarantee you this is better. We had some trouble coming down 5 (the grapevine was closed), so we ended up arriving about 3 hours later than we had originally planned. Luckily, though, we walked in while Rick Holland was still preaching and managed to catch him making his 3 main points. He had just done a short intro before that (30 minutes or so), and we missed all of that unfortunately, except for my friend Roni, who kindly filled us in when we got back to the hotel later that evening. Rick's text was Hebrews 9:27-28, and his focus was on death. He had 3 intense points that I very much needed a reminder of: 1) Death is unavoidable, 2) Judgment is certain, and 3) Salvation is possible. Basically what I took away was this: get it in your head that you only have one shot. You will die, and you will be judged, and you need to consider the very real possibility that you may not fare well on that day. Most people (if they believe in hell) believe that God would never send them there. Hell is always a place for the other guy. The reality is that hell is a place for everyone who has disobeyed God and has not been covered by the blood of Christ. That is, each person who has broken God's law is accountable to being punished according to that law, except for those who have received the divine pardon made possible by Christ's death. It is this except clause that is the hope of every Christian. This refreshing perspective helped me consider the necessity of loving evangelism: an evangelism that is purposeful, passionate, and yet gentle enough to woo people away from the (apparently) attractive fires of hell.
We love a lot of things in America. We love TV shows. We love cars. We love sports. We love food. We love other people. We love sleep (well, not me, I took a night off that to write this and do a few other things). We love to use the word love. There is one thing, however, that I especially love, and that is the gospel.
The gospel gives me the strength to get through each day. The gospel is my highest joy. I never get tired of talking about it (and trust me, I talk about it a lot). It captures my wonder. It is my cause for praise. It is my motivation for living and is my reason for hope. I have cast all I am on the truth of the gospel. Without the gospel, my heart is a dull, dreary dungeon, but with the gospel I carry the hope of eternal life and have been granted soul as white as snow. It is the power of God for salvation to all who believe (Rom 1:16). Coming this July I will have been a Christian for 5 years, and I love the gospel more now than the day I was sanctified by it. It is a treasure to me.
But what is it?
That's the question these days, isn't it? What is the gospel? Let's look at some scriptures and see what the LORD Himself says the gospel is from 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.
Now because of the gospel the fear has been removed. Now because of the gospel, death has lost it's sting. Now because of the gospel, I can sing this verse louder than anyone I know:"For I delivered to you as of first importance [the gospel] I also received:" (3). The gospel is a message, not a lifestyle. The gospel cannot be "lived out" in the most precise sense of the terms, because the gospel doesn't have anything to do with what I've done right, except to say that I haven't done anything right at all! The gospel is about Christ's work, and we don't live out Christ's work. We only demonstrate the power of the gospel by doing good deeds, we don't share it that way."that Christ died" (3). The gospel is that Jesus Christ died on a cross at Calvary. If the cross is missing from a presentation of the gospel, you have not been presented the gospel. Without it, there is no basis for hope in the rest of the message. For example, what does it mean for Christ to be raised without first dying? How is there a sacrifice (atonement) without a death (Heb 9:22)?"for our sins" (3). The gospel is primarily about God dealing with specific sins of specific people. This means that the gospel is NOT social. The gospel is not to prepare the world for Christ's coming by feeding the hungry and caring for the poor, but to snatch people out of the flames (Jude 23). The fact is that the gospel is primarily about our spiritual relationship to God, and by the way, the picture isn't pretty. We fall far short of God's glory and apart from the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit we like it that way. The personal nature of the sins being paid for informs us that the death of Christ is three things:My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought
Too much could not be said about this topic, but then I wouldn't be writing a blog, I'd be writing a book. I hope this blog encourages you greatly, especially given my 2 months MIA. God bless, and preach the gospel to yourself daily. We all need it.
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, oh my soul!
Today in order to let you know I haven't died, I direct your attention to Tim Challies' blog, where he has written a provocative article on forgiveness: whether God dispenses it unconditionally and whether we should dispense it unconditionally. Tim Challies is, as far as I know, the most popular Reformed Christian blogger out there. Check it out, and let me know what you think!
Do you remember the story of Cornelius in Acts 10-11, where Peter gets this strange vision about animals coming down on a sheet? That's in 10:10-17. I remember the typical interpretation being "Hey, now we can eat whatever we want!" referring to the cancellation (for lack of a better term) of Old Testament dietary laws. That's convenient for us, but it struck me that this is not at all how Peter interprets it! He interprets it as having to do with the Gentiles and God's acceptance of them as legitimate receptors of His grace. "God has revealed to me that I should not call any person common or unclean" (10:28). Additionally in chapter 11 when Peter is recalling the events to the men of the "circumcision party" he mentions that it is immediately after having this dream that the three men sent to him appear at his door, and that he goes with them "making no distinction" (11:12). The good news? God is not racist or elitist. I can certainly thank God for that because "white" is not the race of the chosen people of God. Anyone who comes to Him in humble repentance and genuine faith can be saved, not just a special class of people or certain ethnicity. This might seem obvious to you, but I would encourage you to take a look at your church. How many different races are represented there? Are there only one or two major groups? Is this because of the area or because you might be subconsciously (or consciously!) favoring people more like you? Check the heart of you and your church. Do you just give lip service to the inclusiveness of different peoples or does your church demonstrate it by actions (1 John 3:18)? More importantly, do you demonstrate it by your actions? I know I don't as much as I would like to. It's hard to think of ways to destroy racism in our hearts, because often we think we're immune to it, especially in today's progressive age when such an issue is supposed to be long over and dealt with! I'm not saying that a church has to have no more than 20% of one race in order to be in a state of godly diversity! I just want everyone to make sure that the racial uniformity is absolutely nothing more than coincidence and not a result of different people being welcomed less than similar people! On the flip side, you can be certain a church which encourages the promotion of a certain race is not honoring to God (in that area, anyways). This was both true back when racist slavery was rampant in America and it is true today. Black people were not welcome in white churches, but unfortunately some of that same attitude has back lashed into the black community. Take for example a church that is "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian." Now, why is skin color (or culture, if you feel that's what they're referring to) even coming up when it comes to being a Christian? What would you think if I made a church that was "Unashamedly White and Unapologetically Christian"? Would that be viewed as at all inclusive of black people? How could I become a member of a church that is "Unapologetically Black," which I am certainly not! The pastor has made a statement against critics that "The African-centered point of view does not assume superiority, nor does it assume separatism. It assumes Africans speaking for themselves as subjects in history, not objects in history," but this seems a bit disingenuous as he is admitting from the start that it is "African-centered" rather than… God-centered, maybe? Even Bible-centered would leave me with nothing to mourn! Whatever the motto does or does not assume, it certainly has the effect of seeing African culture and history as objectively more important than other cultures, and it definitely encourages separatism, as I have already said. I could not join a church whose motto is "Unashamedly Black," because I am not black! May it never be so in my own heart or in yours! The Lord died for the whole world (John 3:16), not just yours.
If you're a regular here you'll notice two things that have happened recently on my blog: 1) That nothing has been happening recently on my blog with respect to new posts showing up regularly, and 2) That I added a 4th resolution to me list of Edwards-inspired statements of resolution. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, you'll notice that to the right of this blog is a section on the sidebar called resolutions that I desire public accountability for. Anyways, I was inspired last year at Resolved 2007, a conference inspired by Jonathan Edwards' 70 resolutions, that I should make some of my own. I wasn't ready (nor did I think it wise) to take on 70 all at one time, but I took CJ Mahaney's advice and went for 3 things that I could focus on. You'll notice a 4th one there as well, written 1/1/08 (Convenient right?). It reads: 4) Resolved, to always daily encourage another Christian brother or sister for the purpose of building them up and firmly establishing them in their faith that they might be presented to God fully mature in Christ. (1/1/08) I was convicted of the absolute necessity of doing this when I watched a sermon by my good friend and Pastor Bobby Blakey. Encouragement is so essential to the Christian faith for everyone, whether a veteran in the faith or just a new baby Christian. The verse that I think about that characterizes what our attitude should be on this subject is Hebrews 10:24-5: And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. Consider implies an active attempt at planning how and when to do what follows. "Stir up" has been translated elsewhere as "spur on." We know that spurs don't feel good in horses, but it gets them to giddy up! We should be actively encouraging other Christians, even if that requires us to induce a little pain. A friendly rebuke. A confrontation. Something to communicate the seriousness of continuing in "love and good works." The next phrase gives us a practical way to do this, that is, that we should continually be meeting together. I have often used this to refer to church gatherings and why we ought to go to church regularly, but Bobby explained that this "meeting" is a bit different than a public gathering. It refers more to personal meetings where the chairs (pews?) are facing each other, rather than facing the front. I have had the wonderful privilege these past few weeks to gather together with likeminded Christians for the express purpose of mimicking the early church as described in Acts 2:42-7. We even named our group Kata Hemera, which is the transliteration of the Greek words translated "daily." We met together almost every day, except for those holidays that were devoted specifically to our families. It was a time of encouragement unlike anything else I've ever experienced. At the moment, I have the privilege of visiting (and therefore meeting!) with Bobby, Christa, little Tyler, Ty, Brad, and the rest of the Compass crowd here in Orange County. Knowing (experiencing) the benefit of such constant encouragement coupled with the clarity of Bobby's sermon convinced me to continue a similar kind of active encouragement as I go to school this coming quarter, hence the resolution. However, you might ask, why is this blog called "Resolutions 4 and 5"? Well, resolution number five came about as a result of 2 separate but related convictions. One was that I do not pray enough, which was made obvious during a meeting with Kata Hemera where we listened to a sermon by John Piper on what it means to "be devoted to prayer" (Romans 12:12). The second conviction was when I remember being in bed tempted to take the Lord's name in vain, to say it in an irreverent or cavalier manner. This is what I decided to resolve: 5) Resolved, to be devoted to prayer. Resolved, if at any time I should be tempted to take the Lord's name in vain, that I should remember the necessity, benefit, and privilege of using His name in prayer and immediately commit myself to such a task, lifting up His name in praise and not in scorn. After listening to the sermon I came away thoroughly convicted that John Piper loved and was devoted to prayer, and that I did not and was not respectively. That needs to change. Now! I hope that you will make this year a year devoted to encouragement and to prayer. Everyone desperately needs both.
"Fire and brimstone" preaching wasn't popular in the Old Testament days either.
"'Do not preach' - thus they preach -
'one should not preach of such things;
disgrace will not overtake us.'" (Micah 2:6)
Let's just say the prophets weren't shy about warning other nations of God's impending judgment. It doesn't always have to be horrible news, of course. There is much about God's grace for those who repent, but there is also very much about God's wrath. More than I'm comfortable with, to be honest. It simply isn't a taboo subject for them, though I'm increasingly more convinced that God doesn't tell them to preach as such simply because "it was more effective back then" or something. People don't like to hear about their sin, but this is where the gospel starts, does it not? Law before grace.
I hate talking about my own sin. I hate when others know about my sin. I just hate it. It's not comfortable; it's embarrassing; it's humiliating. But it needs to happen. Sometimes we can feel good about getting the respectable sins out. Like "I thought better of myself than I should have in this situation" or "I desired that thing covetously." What about the deepest parts of your soul that you don't want anyone to know about? What about the kind of sins that you're afraid of people knowing about because even if they're your best friend, you're sure they'll abandon you for it? Those hurt. The conviction there is not fun.
And then comes the Christmas news, the good tidings of great joy. In that darkness and sin and sickness Jesus Christ enters on the scene, and he takes personal responsibility for everything. The good news is that when there was nothing worth being excited about, when there was every reason to be afraid and be weighed down with guilt, it is then that Jesus Christ steps between you and God's wrath. It is then that he comes with hope of justification and freedom and salvation.
First off, I want to apologize for recently dropping off the face of the blogging earth. I know I had been doing this daily and then suddenly stopped, but I should be back in business for a while, given that I'm now officially on Christmas break from school. The reason I stopped was due to finals until Friday; since then I've been having so much great fellowship with Christians who are back home that I simply haven't set aside time for blogging! It's a great situation actually. There's clearly a bond that we have, and it's founded on Biblical truth. We've been spreading God's gospel together at Westfield mall and constantly sharing meals and encouragement with each other. I love it.
Today's reading comes from Jonah! Slap me if I've already blogged about this, but not too hard because I think it deserves to be said again if I have. If you haven't read Jonah, you should do so. It's short enough to read all of it in like 5 minutes. Since most who read this blog will probably already know the gist of the story of Jonah, I'm just going to skip that part. After Jonah finally turns from his sin of directly running from God's will to obeying it by preaching a message of repentance to Nineveh, Nineveh actually heeds Jonah's words and repents, all the way up to the king! Because of this, God relents of the disaster that He meant to give them.
And Jonah gets angry! Listen to this crazy complaint from Jonah 4: "1But Jonah was greatly displeased and became angry. 2He prayed to the LORD, "O LORD, is this not what I said when I was still at home? That is why I was so quick to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3Now, O LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live." Whoa! Isn't this crazy? God is so amazingly merciful that he gets on a prophet's nerves! And that is good news for me. Really good news.
Some verses in the Bible just scare me plain and simple. I have the privilege of leading worship before Almighty God in High Point, as well as in RUF, the Stanford college fellowship I'm involved with. So when I come across warnings specifically dealing with public assembly and such, like this one from Amos 5, it hits me right between the eyes:
21I hate, I despise your feasts,
and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
22Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them;
and the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
I will not look upon them.
23Take away from me the noise of your songs;
to the melody of your harps I will not listen.
24But let justice roll down like waters,
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.
The point is that if we come to God in praise and live the rest of the week scorning his name in what we do the rest of the week, God is not pleased. In fact, he hates such assembling, and the sound of our voices is annoying to Him. It would be better if we didn't sing and instead came before Him with fear, trembling, and repentance, pleading for forgiveness. It would be better if we would go show our devotion to Him, rather than hypocritically singing it. So here is my encouragement for you: "let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18).
This verse, I struggle with, because it seems so uncaring towards those who actually have to endure the suffering of the disaster coming to the city. Nevertheless, the Bible is clear:
Is a trumpet blown in the city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster come to a city,
unless the LORD has not done it?
Now, I don't know about you, but I immediately thought of things like 9-11, the Columbine shootings, the recent shootings in Colorado and Nebraska. What is our response to such things in light of this verse? What should our message be?
One thing we certainly do not do is automatically pronounce judgment on the people killed! They were not killed because they were "worse people" than us. As Jesus says of those on whom the tower of Siloam in Luke 13:4-5:
Do you think that they were worse offenders than the others…? No, I tell you...
So people do not necessarily suffer this "irregular" harm because they're worse than you or me or the other people in the city. So that's certainly not how we approach their suffering. Second, we need to "weep with those who weep" (Rom 12:15). We should have compassion and sympathy for those who have experienced loss. Finally, our message is Christ's, and it comes at the end of Luke 13:5:
…unless you repent, you will likewise perish.
The question is "are you ready?" You don't know when you're going to die, so be ready for it! How do we prepare for such an event? The fearful thing about death is not that I don't know what happens afterwards, but that I know exactly what happens afterwards:
It is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment. (Heb. 9:27)
But this is only a fearful thing for one whose conscience has not been cleansed by Christ's blood. His sacrifice is central to our answer to death. Do we know the eternal state of those who have died? Why would we look into that? We can only examine ourselves. That is the exhortation we present to those questioning why crazy things like this happen.
Yesterday was Christmas in the City for High Point. We had a good time singing carols to some elderly folks, passing out cookies, and then spending time at Pier 39, Union Square, and Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. Here are a couple things that popped up as favorites in addition to the obvious hanging-out-with-friends aspect of the event: talking to the elderly people after singing and passing out tracts! I was encouraged by this. Praise God that I and a number of the students (most notably my sister) had a chance to pass out some million-dollar-bill tracts as well as big-money tracts. There seemed to be an unusual abundance of people that weren't interested in taking the tracts from me, so that was discouraging. However, there were always those times when someone came up to me asking for more. I got to meet a guy from Australia who had an Australian version of the million-dollar-bill tracts, and one lady was offering to buy two more off me for a dollar so all her kids could have one! I talked to two police officers for about 15 seconds; literally all I got out was, "Good evening, officers", "Did you get one of these", "I'm spreading the Christian gospel", and "What do you think happens when we die?" This was the first Christmas in the City I've gone to where I've had more of an evangelistic mindset than a self-centered one. It was a great blessing to work towards fulfilling the great Commission. Talking to the students was encouraging, as well, just to know that they're even willing to process spiritual things! Damien especially was a treat as he had so many questions and I didn't have to try hard to carry on spiritual conversations with him. There were negative aspects, as well, but I know the Lord is faithful and good. Pray that He will tear the sin out of our lives.
This Christmas time I have been burdened about a way to communicate the majesty of the incarnation. I want to do this not only for the benefit of others, but also because I am so susceptible to just saying, "Yea, I get it. Can we talk about something new?" I was convicted of this as I was reading the four sections in my daily reading. I got through the last passage and thought to myself, "Well, that was nice, but there really isn't anything much to write about today." At that point, I knew my heart was wrong. I'm reading my own personal copy of the Word of God to mankind! I had lost sight of the significance of this daily routine that I've gotten myself into. The exact same thing happens at Christmas every year. So I got thinking, based on the fourth chapter of Revelation, which was the last portion of the reading. Here's what I decided: I think that in order to understand how truly amazing the incarnation is, we must understand how glorious and holy God is. That is where this text from Revelation comes in. I'll just post verse 8, but it would certainly behoove you to read the whole chapter:
And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
"Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!"
Did you catch that? I'll point you to what caught my attention: "Day and night they never cease." These amazing creatures never tire of proclaiming God's holiness. And that to the choir of all choirs! These creatures are in awe of God and they never tire of declaring his praise. Surely the only reason we ever would tire is because God has been removed from the center of our focus.
So what's the difference between us and them? Why do we tire of hearing of the glory of the incarnation, or praising the Lord for His holiness, or standing in wonder at His majesty? The simple answer is that we do not understand it. No one on earth does. Not me; not you; not the newly repentant sinner; not the aged and experienced veteran of the faith. There isn't a soul on earth who grasps the majesty of God. Realizing this is part of what will magnify His glory in your eyes. If you, as an insignificant speck, grasped the majesty of God, I would have to submit that He would not be all that majestic. Can your mind contain the glory of God; or your heart, the fullness of praise He deserves? You cannot do it.
The word awesome is far overused now, which is why I have tended toward words like majestic and glorious; nevertheless, if you can set aside all the puny subjects - like TV shows, good food, and people - that have somehow taken hold of this adjective, then I will say to you: God is awesome. He alone deserves our awe. Stand in wonder at the sight of God's work in the world and in your life. Fear him for the sacrifice He made in becoming man!
The awe of the incarnation comes in realizing that God - Whose glory we cannot grasp, Who overwhelms to the point death all who would look on His true form, the God Who is thrice holy - that this God steps down from His throne and takes on the human flesh that He created, subjects Himself to disobedient ingrates, and suffers under the wrath of the Father. That is truly awesome.
I think it is always vital to keep in mind this precious saying of Christ when dealing with what can at times feel like the "harsh" message of repentance found all over the Bible: "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline" (Rev. 3:19). That's one for the noggin right there. In Christ's zeal for purity and hatred of hypocrisy, He comes through with this precious line of hope. In his exhortation He is for us, if we are His children. This can be awfully confusing when we consider that the church He currently reproves is the one He calls lukewarm! After all, what are we saying? Will You reject those You have received, Lord? Will You vomit up those You clutch tightly in Your hand? I don't think so.
About a year ago, and from a rather unfortunate source, I was pointed to this nevertheless great truth. Paul, in his shipwreck on His way to Rome, is visited by an angel, and promised that all of those on board will survive: Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, "Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you." So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. (Acts 17:22-26)
So Paul has God's good faith promise that those who are with Paul will all be alive at the end of the day. So what in the world is Paul doing telling the centurion 5 verses later that "Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved" (Acts 17:31)??? Paul had an understanding of the relationship between the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. He was no fatalist! You could say that God used this exhortation from Paul as a means to grant His promise.
So don't take Christ's warnings lightly! If you remain lukewarm, He will indeed spit you out of His mouth. But seriously, what Christian redeemed by the blood of Christ from the depths of sin and granted eternal bliss in glorious communion with the Holy Trinity can stay lukewarm in light of his Father's rebuke? Would this even make sense? For those who are Christians, you ought to be encouraged in a sense by the Lord's rebuke. Better to be rebuked by Him than forgotten! Indeed, if you aren't receiving the Lord's chastisement, you aren't a true child (Heb 12:8).
And what is our response to Christ's chastisement? Zealous repentance (Rev 3:19). Pretty consistent, eh?
Not these days, anyways. It's too… extremist. It's a sermon on wisdom. Here's the central passage from Job:
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding. (Job 28:28)
Trying to figure out what it means to fear God? I'll let this supporting passage give you a subtle hint:
But when they had grazed, they became full,
they were filled, and their heart was lifted up;
therefore they forgot me.
So I am to them like a lion;
like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs;
I will tear open their breast,
and there I will devour them like a lion,
as a wild beast would rip them open. (Hosea 12:6-8).
Don't let your comfort help you forget God this Christmas (or ever!). Let it remind you of His goodness!
This topic has been on my mind a significant amount lately. Yesterday I read through a website article that seeks to give those who have "invited Jesus into their lives" the assurance that they really are saved. Other articles on the website seem so much more solid that it really confuses me how they could drop the ball on a subject like this. I also watched a sermon from a church that, from my miniscule amount of knowledge, had seemed solid. The preacher did a 10 minute altar call at the end of his sermon, and then they baptized the new "converts" right there on the spot! Want to guess what the test was for regeneration? "Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior?" A "yes" gets you dunked and what fool would slip and say "no" at that point? I was dumbfounded that this church could call itself Baptist. In answering someone's question of whether or not they should have assurance of their salvation, I don't think it is wise to come back with trite answers like "well if you weren't saved you wouldn't be worrying about it, so yes!" In fact, I don't know that it is wise to say yes ever, because that isn't our job. Only the Holy Spirit can grant assurance through the promises found in Scripture. The website was always completely affirming and sought to dispel all doubts about whether a person is saved or not without applying any Biblical tests. I came across one such test today in my reading through John: "By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples" (John 15:8). How do we prove to be a disciple of Christ? By bearing much fruit. Instead of telling someone, "Look at all these promises. If you asked Jesus to save you, then of course you are saved," we need to be saying, "Here's how you become a Christian, and here are the things the Bible says should be true of you once you have become a Christian. Examine yourself. I can't do it for you!" More than likely, the loss of assurance stems from the fact that they either lack a desire for God or they are entertaining some sin in their life. Let's encourage people to bear fruits in keeping with repentance! We cannot just assume people are in the faith because they call Jesus "Lord." We already know what Jesus' response to many of those people will be (Matt. 7:21-23).
The next section of reading I had in Revelation was of the first 3 letters to the seven churches. These are the churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamum. I picked up on a few themes that resonated with me and they are as follows: The Lord loves pure doctrine. He praises Ephesus for theirs and rebukes Pergamum for their lack. This is because right doctrine leads to right conduct (orthodoxy begets orthopraxy). The Ephesians spotted false teaching and evil practices a mile away. They hated the deeds of the Nicolatians, followers of Nicolas who essentially taught that Christians have a license to sin. Christ hates their deeds too. The church in Pergamum, however, struggled with false teachings and even had some who followed the teaching of the Nicolatians. The Lord does not love mechanical orthodoxy. This was the fault of the church in Ephesus. Despite their endurance, their intolerance for moral misconduct, and their watchful eye for erring teaching, the Ephesians had abandoned their love of Christ. This was such a serious error that the Lord threatened to remove the church! I often have to check myself and see if my devotion to discernment has exiled my love of Jesus. It is quite an easy thing to do for the church who is determined about being truly committed to the Bible. Endurance is an essential part of the Christian life. At the end of each letter so far, Jesus expresses some wonderful truth about the fate of "the one who conquers" (vv. 7, 11, 17). They will "eat of the tree of life" (v. 7), they "will not be hurt by the second death" (v. 11), and they will get some "hidden manna" and a stone with a secret name on it that only they know. I think the first two things are pretty straightforward. Eating of the tree of life is representative of everlasting life, and escaping the second death is escaping God's wrath toward evil. I can't figure out what the hidden manna refers to, but I believe that the image of the white stone is reflective of a heightened level of intimacy with Christ. That sounds good to me! In addition, each church is praised for it's endurance and encouraged to continue. So endure! Whatever trial you might be facing, whether it be temptation or ridicule or the death of a close one, endure. It's most certainly worth it, and Christ smiles on you for it! He understands your hardship and is with you in it. Let that strengthen you. The proper response to sin is repentance. In both cases when Jesus has something against the church (Ephesus and Pergamum), He commands them to repent. It's that simple, but don't get me wrong, simple does not mean easy. Realize where you've gone wrong. Apologize for it. Hate it. Move on. This is not some complicated process of needing to figure out what sort of repressed feelings are at work and how we need to get in touch with our inner self by meditating on the… NO! You're struggling with a sin? Repent. Love what God loves and hate what God hates. Have nothing to do with that sin anymore. Don't give it any pathways into your life. Don't put yourself in a position to be tempted by it. I can't count the number of times when I asked myself why I struggled so much with a particular sin. Then the question came up of what I was doing to actively combat it and… I had no answer. As John Piper says, "Make war!!"
Sometimes I roll out of bed to go to my morning classes, look up at the sky as I walk out the door toward my bike, and see that it is completely overcast. An hour later I walk out of the classroom and it is completely sunny out, with hardly a trace of cloud anywhere! Sometimes it's frustrating because I can't figure out what the day is going to give me. Once I start mentally preparing for overcast and possibly rain, but then it ends up being wonderfully sunny and warm out; this forces me to change my mindset toward the day. The weather is fickle, you could say. The morning cloud does not give a true picture of what the day will really be like. This is exactly the charge that the LORD brings against Ephraim and Judah in Hosea 6. They are fickle, and their sacrifices do not reflect their heart: "Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away" (4b). God desires a love that is settled on Him, not one that is constantly looking for the next best thing to come around. You could say He is looking for marriage, not recreational dating. He desires a commitment and that from the heart, not just in word and outer appearance: "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice" (6a). We're striving here for a love that lasts. Sometimes I wonder if I have that kind of love. There have been times in the past where I was simply not enticed by the prospect of reading God's Word, or when I deliberately defy his clear commands. How it hurts to even think of such a time! I think there is a comfort in knowing that I am not and can never be worthy enough to keep God from destroying me. That might sound strange, but it simply entails that it must be God Himself who is empowering me to have a continued faithfulness - a fact clearly attested to by the rest of Scripture. That is a freeing concept! I can obey my master with a full heart; my failings and defiance are washed away and never held against me because of the blood of Christ.
