I was meditating on Psalm 9 this morning, and as I read, as is typical, there were many things that jumped out to me. But as I prayed through the Psalm (which I strongly encourage--praying through the Psalms), I saw both my life and the lives of many of those around me throughout it's words.
Over the next few blogs, I'm going to be covering my meditations of Psalm 9 in sections. Today, I'm going to cover verses 1-2, and then the next one will cover verses 3-4, and so on.
Psalm 9:1-2
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
I'm young and inexperienced at diagnosing the world's problems; I'll admit it! However, it appears to me as a distinct possibility that one of the problems in both the secular world and in the Church is a misunderstanding of what it means to "love". From the Beatle's "All We Need Is Love" to the 21st century Western culture's fascination with romantic comedies, "love" seems to be the message preached from anyone who wants to preach something.
That being said, it's my conviction that the Church's definition of "love" has been much more culturally defined than Biblically and truthfully defined. What I mean is this: As many in both the Church AND the secular culture know, Jesus famously said that the Greatest Commandment is "to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength," after which He said, "and a second is like it: love your neighbor. On these two commands, all the Law and the Prophets hang." Many young liberal Christians (young-like me, liberal-not like me) have taken this passage and said, "It's ALL about this ONLY", and some have went so far as to erroneously throw out the rest of the Bible because they assume they have the whole book summed up in one statement (which, in a sense, I suppose they do--Jesus said it!).
However, since Western culture has stripped "love" of it's element of truth and puffed up it's element of feeling, "love" has all but lost it's meaning. That's why divorce is so prevalent, crime is getting worse, and social interaction is being diminished to online communication instead of TALKING amongst people in a live setting(I understand I'm writing a BLOG, ONLINE--it's because I'm attempting to meet you where you are, which is online!).
To a non-Christian secular world, I COULDN'T expect anything less than a misunderstanding of love. The Bible makes clear that they've "ALL turned away", they've "ALL went their own way", they've "ALL not known the way of God", they've "ALL had their heart's hardened by their sin", etc.
The problem is when this creeps into the Church, and it has. Since everyone assumes that "love" is much more a feeling than a commitment based on truth and honesty, they figure that their relationship with God is simply about "feeling Him" and "being happy". So when the storms of life take over, "God must not be there" is the response; or when 'church stuff' gets stale or remedial, "I feel like I'm going through the motions--lets change some things up" is the response. This is all true when the fact of the matter is, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer has famously said, "God is not a god of emotions, but a God of truth."
Furthermore, if you develop conclusions about God based on worldly standards (ie: your thinking, your experience, etc.), you will be sadly and despairingly let down all your life. Your relationship with God must be understood as being on GOD'S terms and not YOUR terms, as He reveals Himself to You in ways He CHOOSES to, and the Scriptures have to be your primary discerning factor in thinking on the things of God. I think that that understanding being lost in our society is one of the chief causes of the clear lack of God's Spirit in Christ's Church all over our country today: People trying to speak of God in humanly terms because they try to understand God by humanly criteria, instead of allowing the Holy Spirit given them by Christ the access to change and transform them into Christ's likeness at the behest of the Living God who gives all good things and uses His creation to justly glorify Himself. People have taken freedom and the 'American dream' of being in control of our surroundings, and have erroneously applied it to the God who holds all things in His hand and doesn't answer to ANYONE. And because of this, when God doesn't "do what we say", we get mad and assume He must be dead, or must have never existed in the first place.
The reason why there are so many in our culture who don't believe in God isn't because of the lack of evidence (there's more evidence FOR Him than there is AGAINST Him), but rather, it's because of people thinking that they're the ends of all creation, that God should be who they want Him to be, and when they've prayed to Him (not really prayed--more like given Him a trial to prove Himself) and He hasn't answered how they wanted, they dismiss Him.
Thus you see the predicament we're in: The Bible tells us to love God with our whole heart and whole self, and the fact is, we can't, because our society has run so hard and far from the true meaning of love in the first place.
When "loving God" has a misunderstanding that it's really all just a feeling, the few who DO stick around (in spite of the fact that they know it's not happiness every second) THEN make it all about that which they can do to please God. Our churches are so full of people who doubt God's existence because they can't feel His presence, so they take it all the way to the other side and act off of the compulsion that the way they 'live in God' is to do, do, and do some more.
It breaks my heart--I've been in the Church my whole life, and I've worked in many different kinds of churches over the years, and the one thing I take as a common denominator from every church is this: an outside Christian on fire with the Holy Spirit would probably despair of seeing God's presence among most churches, simply by diagnosis of the fact that most people in Church don't SPEAK of God as anything more than the bearded man who sits on a throne and gives me what I want because I perform well for Him.
Do you understand that last part? I think many find their identity in God by way of performance: they're involved in church, they pray before meals, they help out in ministries, they tithe, they stay out of trouble, etc...ALL because they think it justifies them with God.
But it doesn't--those kind of people were the people Jesus had the strongest words for when He was here; why?: Sinful motives getting muddied with holy acts is worse than sinful motives leading solely to sinful acts, because the former is based on lies, and the latter is at least consistent. That's why Jesus told the church in Laodicea He hates their lukewarmness and wishes they were either hot or cold.
The hard truth in the Bible is that no matter if you're a murderer on the streets or a church deacon or elder, you're at the same base level of sin before Christ's work is applied to your heart by the Holy Spirit when you surrender to His goodness in spite of your badness. Let me rephrase: Both the murderer and the church leader are the same kind of sinful; it's just that one kills God's people, while the other kills God's Holy Name by their bringing selfish idolatry into church office. Idolatry causes a murderer to murder, and it also causes preachers to preach for the sake of impressing others and getting affirmation. The common denominator? Idolatry.
So when the Bible speaks of "loving God", many people have idolatrous misunderstandings of what love even is, and thus CAN'T truly and freely love God with their heart the way that God intends for His people to.
You can look around and blame culture all you want, but you need to remember what Paul said to the Ephesian church when he told them "our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." Don't be like Adam and blame someone else; be like David and take responsibility when you sin. But know first and foremost that the only hope you have is that JESUS took responsibility finally for all sin; that's the ONLY hope you have in the whole world.
My point is this: If you have succumbed to the worldly temptation of assuming that you are independent, don't need anyone to help you, and only need a dose of God every now and then, you've bought into a lie. God is your source. You come from Him, and one day will go back to Him to be judged. The reason you'll be judged is because He's God and you're one of his creations. But He wants you and has done all that needs to be done to GET you, in Jesus' Cross. You just need to admit your need for it, and accept all that it is.
David was able to be honest before the Living God when he wrote, "I will give thanks to the Lord with my WHOLE heart." He knew that all he had was given him by God, and the only proper and honest response was to give thanks, but not just thanks--thanks with his WHOLE heart. Every chamber of his heart had to be an open door to who God is, because God formed every chamber anyways. The truth and honesty of God's God-ship over David's life was something that took root as truth in David's mind, and then traveled to his HEART. Knowledge comes first, feeling comes second, and NEVER the other way around.
That's why he wrote, "I will recount all your wonderful deeds." Most people don't think God's done ANY wonderful deeds, because they're just hoping God will take them to a better place than they're in right now. And any time God gives someone what they want, they realize they're still broken and torn up inside like they were before. Thus, David sings of God's wonderful deeds because He knows that God doesn't answer to him; rather, David answers to God, and since God is sustaining David's life, giving him breath, sight, taste, provisions, etc., the only proper response is thanksgiving.
He then says, "I will be glad and exult in you." Whatever it is that you're in right now, you can be glad. But the only way to BE glad in the sense of 'gladness' that is the same in every situation is to know that every situation is under God's sovereign hand. Thus you'll be thankful for the happy times, because of the joy God is allowing you to know, and also thankful in the trials and hard times, because of the fact that you know God is moving in ways you can't see, shaping you, forming you, sanctifying you, disciplining you because He loves you (Hebrews 12).
Finally David rounds out verse 2 with, "I will sing praise to your name O Most High."
If I can sum up all I've said so far in this post in one statement, it would be this: You will never be able to truly and whole-heartedly worship God for who He is, if you don't understand that He is the Most High. To many people, God is just a bearded guy sitting on a throne. But God is eternally transcendent, eternally everywhere, and eternally powerful and all-knowing. Scientists will never find the end of the universe because it's infinitely big, and it's still not as big as God is. If God is the Most High, you will be the most true. That famous line of Proverbs 1, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" is misunderstood only because of a) misunderstanding what fear is, and b) misunderstanding who God is. Fear is not scared sitting in the seats watching Paranormal Activity--fear is realizing how small and insignificant you are and how big and significant God is.
Let me conclude: you will never understand Psalm 9:1-2 unless you understand the words David's using. You'll never understand the words David's using unless you, like Him, realize how sinful and wretched a sinner you are. And you'll never be able to realize it unless you come to the Cross honestly and let Jesus be your substitute; He'll let you be His righteousness. But it calls for an honest surrender and a full commitment to Jesus having Lordship over ever aspect of your life: heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Pray over Psalm 9:1-2, if you dare.
Scott Stine - Pastor of First Baptist Church, Newton NJ. Follower of Jesus; husband, daddy, PhD student, too distracted by basketball.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Christ who lives in me
"For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."--Galatians 2:19-20
In my first few years of ministry, I've given a lot of thought to this phenomenon Paul speaks of in Galatians 2. I was talking with a friend in ministry about this same thing yesterday--the "thing" being the question regarding rather someone is really born-again or not. As we talked I spoke of how I've struggled over the years with WHEN it was I really became a Christian. I believe a Christian is someone who a) is "reborn of the Spirit and water" (John 3:5-6), b) lives in obedience to Jesus' commands (John 14:23-24), c) has a broken and contrite spirit before God (Psalm 51:17, Luke 18:9-14), and d) considers their past life as loss for the sake of just KNOWING Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:8-11).
When I look at my life honestly, I'm not sure when exactly it was that each of these "checkpoints" took place, but as we spoke I was reminded the important thing is that they've happened, and here I am NOW. Nevertheless, it is a concern of mine being one who does the ministry of preaching, counseling, and shepherding. I suppose the reason for the concern is because if someone brings any sort of conundrum or problem before me, whether or not they REALLY have Jesus living inside of them and have TRULY trusted in Him matters because it'll change that which my advice will be.
Of course, all of life's problems stem from the same 2 roots: 1) idolatry of the heart which leads our rebelling from our Creator to give glory and worship to things that aren't Him, and 2) pride that makes it impossible for this problem to be faced HONESTLY. In that sense, the advice could be the same: if it's a non-believer, I'd say, "give glory to God"; if it's a believer, I'd say, "give glory to God". But if we're being honest, the statement "give glory to God" assumes something, doesn't it? It assumes that the person I'm talking to truly believes that God is even there in the first place. Many don't. So when I say it to them, many might look at me and say, "What are you talking about? I don't believe in God." At that point, the conversation is arrested because there's not much more in the way of advice that could be said. At that point, the conversation (if it continues) has to take a turn towards a "reasoning for faith" dialogue, because I would see that the REAL issue is their having strayed from acknowledgment of Him who is their source, and we would continue talking so that I may show them a) He IS their source, and b) He is their Redeemer as well, if they turn to Him.
You may read that and think, "That's a stupid scenario, because if YOU (a pastor) are talking to them, they're probably a believer, so of course you'd never run into unbelief."
I would disagree, and here's why: Like I said earlier, I'm not sure when it was I truly trusted in Christ, but I know it's been a process and I'm here now. The times when I've been molded and shaped the most have been the times when my sin was "ever before me" and I've been reprimanded by God's holiness, in light of my UNholiness. Those have been the times when I've been drawn closest to God's presence and the Holy Spirit has changed me the most. What I've learned from this is that believers should never assume they're "saved" just because they believe in God. Salvation is marked by those four things I mentioned earlier, and when you have them, you know. For much of my life, I believed, but i hadn't been reborn.
Interestingly, in Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (mentioned earlier, found in Luke 18), the ONLY way to be justified before God is to, like the tax collector, beat your breast and pray to Him "have mercy on me, a sinner!" This also assumes a few things: 1) God is Holy and Sovereign and alone can grant mercy, 2) I'm subject to Him, 3) I've sinned against Him somehow, and 4) I need to fall down before Him and pray for mercy so that I can be justified.
The problem with Jesus' definition of "justification" is that for so long I didn't think there was really much of a problem in and of myself that warrants me NEEDING to be justified. In other words, I'm good. Why does the Bible claim so clearly and unabashedly that the problem with the world is sin and that the problem with MY world is MY sin, and no one else's? Why doesn't Jesus give any thought in this indictment to how people have wronged me or hurt me or the kind of crap I have to put up with in my everyday life?
The answer is that the Bible is not written from man's perspective--it's written from God's perspective. The problem with most modern Bible-teaching and preaching is that too many preachers and teachers speak of and from the Bible as though it's penned BY us to get us to "enlightenment" or "better lives". They've forgotten (or maybe never knew) that the Bible was written by God to disclose Himself to us inasmuch as our time-space-imprisoned bodies can handle it, by way of truth and revelation. The difference between these two starting-points may seem minimal, but it couldn't be understated HOW different they really are: One looks from our perspective at God as utilitarian (meaning that God exists FOR us and He's meant to give us what we need for this life), and the other looks from God's perspective at us for who we (logically) really are: created for God's glory and His glory alone, and submissive to whatever it is He who is sovereign deems necessary for us. The second is the EMPHATIC teaching of the Bible, and I couldn't make my face blue enough screaming long enough that we're created for God's glory, instead of Him for our glory. Practically, one breeds people of pride mixed with arrogance, because people will see something in the Bible they don't like or agree with, and they'll turn away from it completely, never to speak of it again (many denominations have done this with Biblical doctrines that make them uneasy). The other breeds people who stay submissive to whatever doctrine it is that's preached if it comes from Scripture, and if it doesn't, the people will humbly hold the preacher accountable and correct him with the truth that they've been continually transformed by. Theology/doctrine/Biblical interpretation is just one example I use for the sake of brevity. The first group of people assume God exists for their glory, and the second understands they're created for God's.
The Pharisee in Jesus' parable assumed that God was created for His glory. He prayed, yes, but in his prayer, in noticing his righteousness (which was apparent as he stood next to a tax collector), notice he doesn't thank God for doing this work in Him; there is a subtlety in the original Greek language that gets missed in some translations now, but what it actually says in v 11 is, "...standing, prayed to himself". Then he proceeds to go through his list of good accomplishments and good works. He's in the Temple praying, but he's only there because the LAW tells him to be. So he does it so no one else will judge him as unrighteous--God is his utilitarian god of self-service. But when he prays, he's not even really praying--he's talking TO HIMSELF! When you find your righteousness in that which you consciously do and decide daily to give your time to, you are the Pharisee.
But the tax-collector, as sinful as he is, stands far off, beats his breast and cries out "have mercy on me, a sinner". Major difference in not just posture, but in demeanor. But let's just be honest: One believes in God and one doesn't. You may say, "Well the Pharisee is in the Temple, praying, so he believes in God, just not the right way." I'd disagree--he doesn't believe in God. He believes HE'S God, and God is, at best, an angry boss in the sky, or at worst, a conjured-up concept created by man to cope with the hardness of life. Thus when he "prays", he thanks HIMSELF that he doesn't DEAL with hard stuff in his life because he's attained a level of righteousness that shields him from "that life" or "those people." The God he believes in is not the God of the Bible.
The God the tax-collector believes in IS the God of the Bible, because the Bible calls this God eternally holy, eternally sovereign, eternally eternal, etc. And the tax collector knows that all of those characteristics (holiness, sovereignty, infinitude) are traits that he himself DOESN'T have. So the only possible response to this God is to pray honestly for mercy in light of the fact that you obviously NEED mercy. Furthermore, if God is God, then shouldn't He be the all-encompassing King of every thought in our minds, every second? Of course He should be. But He's not, is he? Thus, we MUST need mercy. We MUST need forgiveness. We MUST need saving.
Which brings us back to the original passage from Galatians 2. Paul says, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." To Paul, the problem with the world is himself, and (if you read the rest of Galatians and ALL of Romans) the only thing God's Law given in the Old Testament did was show Paul how sinful he really is before God. Thus, what's the solution? Christ's finished work on the Cross. That's it, and that's ALL that's needed. How does it work?
I liken it to a boss who has many employees and in order to keep order, he lays down a lot of rules to follow. Over time, the workers develop a bitterness to the boss because they feel like he gives them too many rules to follow, because man's heart is naturally rebellious and doesn't like rules. But they try to keep them, ONLY because they want to appease him and keep him happy. Still their whole careers are miserable because it's their will versus the boss's will, and the boss always wins because he's the boss.
It would seem that the solution would be as simple as going back to each of the worker's childhood and implanting in them the idea of respect for authority. Simple! Let's do that! If we did that, they would know that the work environment in any organization is SO much better and easier to deal with if the employees just respect and honor the rules of the boss, out of simply respecting and honoring the boss. Better yet, it's better if they understand that their job isn't JUST to produce that which the company produces, but their job also includes being obedient to and observing the boss's...uh...boss-hood(?).
I know this is a very imperfect illustration, with imperfect theology. My point is that Paul would say that whereas everyone has a sense of God's authority in their lives, and everyone has strayed to different points because of their disbelief in authority, whether it be not believing in Him AT ALL (atheism or agnosticism), believing in Him SOME (nominal Creasters--those that go to church on Christmas and Easter), or believing in Him much (going to church, observing the laws, etc.), the root problem of all of this is the idea that God is up there, I'm down here, and He doesn't have the right to tell me what to do, so I'm not going to listen. Atheists and self-righteous religious people are equally non-believers, because they both believe lies about God's character and they both think that they can escape his sovereignty, the former by way of just telling themselves He's not there, the latter by way of working hard enough that God CAN'T not bless me.
Paul is saying in the Galatians passage that Christ has broken this cycle completely, in that He has obediently and willingly went to the Cross to take responsibility for the sins of every person who has found themselves in the three classes of the previous paragraph (and everyone is in ONE of those). How it works is this: Christ is obedient, and anyone who would just simply accept that He is who He said He is, receives the Holy Spirit of God which causes them to WANT to live under the authority of God, like Jesus did. He takes our sin and disobedience on Himself, obediently, and we take His holiness and obedience on ourselves, subsequently, all by an act of God's grace on us sinners.
In the boss/employee illustration (again I know it's an imperfect one), this would be the same as all of the employees all of a sudden having their hearts changed to WANT to obey the boss's rules, because they know that the rules are good and the workplace is so much better if the employees just obey and respect the rules. Now they WANT to obey and respect them. Now they don't see rule-following as a means to an end (me keeping a safe distance from the boss), but rather they see it as the ends ITSELF (me being a good employee who knows my role and keeps it).
I'm convinced that many of the problems in the Church today are not because of the sinful world "out there" (outside the walls). The reason the Church, the invisible Church which is made up of people who live in TRUE repentance and TRUE obedience to their God, isn't growing has nothing to do with the non-Christians outside the Church. It has everything to do with the non-Christians inside the Church who are so influenced by the world outside, that they really think they're Christians. I'm not trying to be ugly or crass or anything of that nature--I'm trying to speak truth. Is Galatians 2:19-20 your testimony? Have you been crucified with Christ, meaning that you are constantly at odds with the things of this world and have to constantly pray for God to give you eyes to see things the way they really are, instead of seeing things through the lies this natural world makes you want to believe? Is it Christ who lives in you now, and not yourself, meaning that the difference between you NOW and you before you received Christ is markedly different? Or are you pretty much the same; it's just that now you have your Sunday mornings booked? Could you echo Paul when he says, "The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me"?
If this is your testimony, you don't feel uncomfortable--you're praising God because you recognize and understand the bankruptcy of the world and all of it's offers, and you recognize the easiness in your heart to be tossed about by every wind of culture, and this draws you into praising God because of the work He's done in your life through His Son's work on the cross, and you praise Him for the work He continues to do in your life.
If this isn't your testimony, you do feel uncomfortable, because you're struggling with a simple question: Do I really trust in Christ or do I trust in Him only given that He gives me what I think I need? Maybe it could be better stated: "Do I still live as a law to myself and expect others to match up to it, or do I let God define what my and their reality is?"
Regardless of where we are, praise be to God, He's not any farther away than simply crying out, "Have mercy on me, a sinner!" Jesus promised that this justifies us before the Father; and I'd say that this is a worthy cry at all times. But at least be honest about if it's your cry already or not. That's what the Church of Jesus Christ sings as long as it has breath on earth in this present age: "Have mercy on us sinners!" And it's always meant with the reply, "I WILL have mercy, because of what Jesus has done." And our natural response is with the angels in Isaiah and Revelation, "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty!"
To God alone the be the glory--He is good.
In my first few years of ministry, I've given a lot of thought to this phenomenon Paul speaks of in Galatians 2. I was talking with a friend in ministry about this same thing yesterday--the "thing" being the question regarding rather someone is really born-again or not. As we talked I spoke of how I've struggled over the years with WHEN it was I really became a Christian. I believe a Christian is someone who a) is "reborn of the Spirit and water" (John 3:5-6), b) lives in obedience to Jesus' commands (John 14:23-24), c) has a broken and contrite spirit before God (Psalm 51:17, Luke 18:9-14), and d) considers their past life as loss for the sake of just KNOWING Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:8-11).
When I look at my life honestly, I'm not sure when exactly it was that each of these "checkpoints" took place, but as we spoke I was reminded the important thing is that they've happened, and here I am NOW. Nevertheless, it is a concern of mine being one who does the ministry of preaching, counseling, and shepherding. I suppose the reason for the concern is because if someone brings any sort of conundrum or problem before me, whether or not they REALLY have Jesus living inside of them and have TRULY trusted in Him matters because it'll change that which my advice will be.
Of course, all of life's problems stem from the same 2 roots: 1) idolatry of the heart which leads our rebelling from our Creator to give glory and worship to things that aren't Him, and 2) pride that makes it impossible for this problem to be faced HONESTLY. In that sense, the advice could be the same: if it's a non-believer, I'd say, "give glory to God"; if it's a believer, I'd say, "give glory to God". But if we're being honest, the statement "give glory to God" assumes something, doesn't it? It assumes that the person I'm talking to truly believes that God is even there in the first place. Many don't. So when I say it to them, many might look at me and say, "What are you talking about? I don't believe in God." At that point, the conversation is arrested because there's not much more in the way of advice that could be said. At that point, the conversation (if it continues) has to take a turn towards a "reasoning for faith" dialogue, because I would see that the REAL issue is their having strayed from acknowledgment of Him who is their source, and we would continue talking so that I may show them a) He IS their source, and b) He is their Redeemer as well, if they turn to Him.
You may read that and think, "That's a stupid scenario, because if YOU (a pastor) are talking to them, they're probably a believer, so of course you'd never run into unbelief."
I would disagree, and here's why: Like I said earlier, I'm not sure when it was I truly trusted in Christ, but I know it's been a process and I'm here now. The times when I've been molded and shaped the most have been the times when my sin was "ever before me" and I've been reprimanded by God's holiness, in light of my UNholiness. Those have been the times when I've been drawn closest to God's presence and the Holy Spirit has changed me the most. What I've learned from this is that believers should never assume they're "saved" just because they believe in God. Salvation is marked by those four things I mentioned earlier, and when you have them, you know. For much of my life, I believed, but i hadn't been reborn.
Interestingly, in Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector (mentioned earlier, found in Luke 18), the ONLY way to be justified before God is to, like the tax collector, beat your breast and pray to Him "have mercy on me, a sinner!" This also assumes a few things: 1) God is Holy and Sovereign and alone can grant mercy, 2) I'm subject to Him, 3) I've sinned against Him somehow, and 4) I need to fall down before Him and pray for mercy so that I can be justified.
The problem with Jesus' definition of "justification" is that for so long I didn't think there was really much of a problem in and of myself that warrants me NEEDING to be justified. In other words, I'm good. Why does the Bible claim so clearly and unabashedly that the problem with the world is sin and that the problem with MY world is MY sin, and no one else's? Why doesn't Jesus give any thought in this indictment to how people have wronged me or hurt me or the kind of crap I have to put up with in my everyday life?
The answer is that the Bible is not written from man's perspective--it's written from God's perspective. The problem with most modern Bible-teaching and preaching is that too many preachers and teachers speak of and from the Bible as though it's penned BY us to get us to "enlightenment" or "better lives". They've forgotten (or maybe never knew) that the Bible was written by God to disclose Himself to us inasmuch as our time-space-imprisoned bodies can handle it, by way of truth and revelation. The difference between these two starting-points may seem minimal, but it couldn't be understated HOW different they really are: One looks from our perspective at God as utilitarian (meaning that God exists FOR us and He's meant to give us what we need for this life), and the other looks from God's perspective at us for who we (logically) really are: created for God's glory and His glory alone, and submissive to whatever it is He who is sovereign deems necessary for us. The second is the EMPHATIC teaching of the Bible, and I couldn't make my face blue enough screaming long enough that we're created for God's glory, instead of Him for our glory. Practically, one breeds people of pride mixed with arrogance, because people will see something in the Bible they don't like or agree with, and they'll turn away from it completely, never to speak of it again (many denominations have done this with Biblical doctrines that make them uneasy). The other breeds people who stay submissive to whatever doctrine it is that's preached if it comes from Scripture, and if it doesn't, the people will humbly hold the preacher accountable and correct him with the truth that they've been continually transformed by. Theology/doctrine/Biblical interpretation is just one example I use for the sake of brevity. The first group of people assume God exists for their glory, and the second understands they're created for God's.
The Pharisee in Jesus' parable assumed that God was created for His glory. He prayed, yes, but in his prayer, in noticing his righteousness (which was apparent as he stood next to a tax collector), notice he doesn't thank God for doing this work in Him; there is a subtlety in the original Greek language that gets missed in some translations now, but what it actually says in v 11 is, "...standing, prayed to himself". Then he proceeds to go through his list of good accomplishments and good works. He's in the Temple praying, but he's only there because the LAW tells him to be. So he does it so no one else will judge him as unrighteous--God is his utilitarian god of self-service. But when he prays, he's not even really praying--he's talking TO HIMSELF! When you find your righteousness in that which you consciously do and decide daily to give your time to, you are the Pharisee.
But the tax-collector, as sinful as he is, stands far off, beats his breast and cries out "have mercy on me, a sinner". Major difference in not just posture, but in demeanor. But let's just be honest: One believes in God and one doesn't. You may say, "Well the Pharisee is in the Temple, praying, so he believes in God, just not the right way." I'd disagree--he doesn't believe in God. He believes HE'S God, and God is, at best, an angry boss in the sky, or at worst, a conjured-up concept created by man to cope with the hardness of life. Thus when he "prays", he thanks HIMSELF that he doesn't DEAL with hard stuff in his life because he's attained a level of righteousness that shields him from "that life" or "those people." The God he believes in is not the God of the Bible.
The God the tax-collector believes in IS the God of the Bible, because the Bible calls this God eternally holy, eternally sovereign, eternally eternal, etc. And the tax collector knows that all of those characteristics (holiness, sovereignty, infinitude) are traits that he himself DOESN'T have. So the only possible response to this God is to pray honestly for mercy in light of the fact that you obviously NEED mercy. Furthermore, if God is God, then shouldn't He be the all-encompassing King of every thought in our minds, every second? Of course He should be. But He's not, is he? Thus, we MUST need mercy. We MUST need forgiveness. We MUST need saving.
Which brings us back to the original passage from Galatians 2. Paul says, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." To Paul, the problem with the world is himself, and (if you read the rest of Galatians and ALL of Romans) the only thing God's Law given in the Old Testament did was show Paul how sinful he really is before God. Thus, what's the solution? Christ's finished work on the Cross. That's it, and that's ALL that's needed. How does it work?
I liken it to a boss who has many employees and in order to keep order, he lays down a lot of rules to follow. Over time, the workers develop a bitterness to the boss because they feel like he gives them too many rules to follow, because man's heart is naturally rebellious and doesn't like rules. But they try to keep them, ONLY because they want to appease him and keep him happy. Still their whole careers are miserable because it's their will versus the boss's will, and the boss always wins because he's the boss.
It would seem that the solution would be as simple as going back to each of the worker's childhood and implanting in them the idea of respect for authority. Simple! Let's do that! If we did that, they would know that the work environment in any organization is SO much better and easier to deal with if the employees just respect and honor the rules of the boss, out of simply respecting and honoring the boss. Better yet, it's better if they understand that their job isn't JUST to produce that which the company produces, but their job also includes being obedient to and observing the boss's...uh...boss-hood(?).
I know this is a very imperfect illustration, with imperfect theology. My point is that Paul would say that whereas everyone has a sense of God's authority in their lives, and everyone has strayed to different points because of their disbelief in authority, whether it be not believing in Him AT ALL (atheism or agnosticism), believing in Him SOME (nominal Creasters--those that go to church on Christmas and Easter), or believing in Him much (going to church, observing the laws, etc.), the root problem of all of this is the idea that God is up there, I'm down here, and He doesn't have the right to tell me what to do, so I'm not going to listen. Atheists and self-righteous religious people are equally non-believers, because they both believe lies about God's character and they both think that they can escape his sovereignty, the former by way of just telling themselves He's not there, the latter by way of working hard enough that God CAN'T not bless me.
Paul is saying in the Galatians passage that Christ has broken this cycle completely, in that He has obediently and willingly went to the Cross to take responsibility for the sins of every person who has found themselves in the three classes of the previous paragraph (and everyone is in ONE of those). How it works is this: Christ is obedient, and anyone who would just simply accept that He is who He said He is, receives the Holy Spirit of God which causes them to WANT to live under the authority of God, like Jesus did. He takes our sin and disobedience on Himself, obediently, and we take His holiness and obedience on ourselves, subsequently, all by an act of God's grace on us sinners.
In the boss/employee illustration (again I know it's an imperfect one), this would be the same as all of the employees all of a sudden having their hearts changed to WANT to obey the boss's rules, because they know that the rules are good and the workplace is so much better if the employees just obey and respect the rules. Now they WANT to obey and respect them. Now they don't see rule-following as a means to an end (me keeping a safe distance from the boss), but rather they see it as the ends ITSELF (me being a good employee who knows my role and keeps it).
I'm convinced that many of the problems in the Church today are not because of the sinful world "out there" (outside the walls). The reason the Church, the invisible Church which is made up of people who live in TRUE repentance and TRUE obedience to their God, isn't growing has nothing to do with the non-Christians outside the Church. It has everything to do with the non-Christians inside the Church who are so influenced by the world outside, that they really think they're Christians. I'm not trying to be ugly or crass or anything of that nature--I'm trying to speak truth. Is Galatians 2:19-20 your testimony? Have you been crucified with Christ, meaning that you are constantly at odds with the things of this world and have to constantly pray for God to give you eyes to see things the way they really are, instead of seeing things through the lies this natural world makes you want to believe? Is it Christ who lives in you now, and not yourself, meaning that the difference between you NOW and you before you received Christ is markedly different? Or are you pretty much the same; it's just that now you have your Sunday mornings booked? Could you echo Paul when he says, "The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me"?
If this is your testimony, you don't feel uncomfortable--you're praising God because you recognize and understand the bankruptcy of the world and all of it's offers, and you recognize the easiness in your heart to be tossed about by every wind of culture, and this draws you into praising God because of the work He's done in your life through His Son's work on the cross, and you praise Him for the work He continues to do in your life.
If this isn't your testimony, you do feel uncomfortable, because you're struggling with a simple question: Do I really trust in Christ or do I trust in Him only given that He gives me what I think I need? Maybe it could be better stated: "Do I still live as a law to myself and expect others to match up to it, or do I let God define what my and their reality is?"
Regardless of where we are, praise be to God, He's not any farther away than simply crying out, "Have mercy on me, a sinner!" Jesus promised that this justifies us before the Father; and I'd say that this is a worthy cry at all times. But at least be honest about if it's your cry already or not. That's what the Church of Jesus Christ sings as long as it has breath on earth in this present age: "Have mercy on us sinners!" And it's always meant with the reply, "I WILL have mercy, because of what Jesus has done." And our natural response is with the angels in Isaiah and Revelation, "Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God Almighty!"
To God alone the be the glory--He is good.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
the doubts
In the beginning, God...
I love that the Bible starts off with God. The obvious implication is that before anything else ever came to be, there was God.
Of course we live in an increasingly doubtful world, and in making that statement, I mean the fact that there are many people who doubt God's existence, if they don't just simply dismiss it all together. While this is tragic, if you believe the Bible literally, it's understandable. I've struggled with doubts over the years and I'd be lying if I said I don't anymore--I most certainly do. This is because God's invisible.
It seems like the Bible assumes that God is there, and if you're going to read it, you have to at least possess some sort of belief that God is there and that 'in the beginning, God...', meaning that everything is 'from Him, to Him, and through Him...' (Romans 11:36).
That being said, the Bible does meet those of us who doubt and question an invisible God right where we are. In Colossians 1:15 Jesus is referred to as "the image of the invisible God, and in 1 Timothy 1:17, Paul says (having just talked about Jesus Christ's display of perfect patience), "To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." Upon reading these passages that refer to God as invisible, one could respond two ways: First, with despair at the idea that THIS God I'm supposed to believe in is invisible. "Who wants to believe in something they can't see?" they may question, and this could lead to a bottomless pit of depression. On the other hand, secondly, they could respond the way I've responded the last few years (which is so much better a response than the former, which I knew as response for a long time), with appreciation at the fact that the Bible meets me where I am, by calling God invisible. The Bible may call the people of this world stupid (especially me), but it also calls the people of this world incredibly loved. Both of these statements are things the Bible by nature would HAVE to say, because if it's assumed that God is the ultimate satisfaction and absolute experience of the fullness of joy for us His creatures, which the Bible DOES assume (Psalm 16:11, John 10:10), then if the created humans for whatever reason continually and persistently turn from trusting in His goodness and Godness, then it seems like a perfect picture of absurd, delusional, stupidity. This is why James says in James 1:6-7 that "the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind." Is the Bible calling me an idiot for doubting?
Not necessarily, because the Hebrews and 1 Timothy passages BOTH call Him the invisible God. If I say, "I'm struggling with the invisibility of God", I'm not saying anything sinful or wrong. We know from the Bible that I CAN struggle with God (Genesis 32:22-32), and that He IS invisible. Thus I can struggle with the invisibility of God. Therefore, the Bible meets me where I am in my doubts and questioning and says, "Yes, He IS (I AM) invisible. You're assessment is correct up to that point."
But it's when we move PAST that point that our assessment takes a turn for the worse. The problem arises when we consider what we mean when we say we're struggling with the invisibility of God:
Most of the time, we mean that we're struggling BELIEVING IN the invisible God. Most of us can sing honestly with the band The Fray's song 'You Found Me', which famously sings (to God), "Where were you when everything was falling apart? All my days were spent by a telephone that never rang...Why'd you have to wait? Where were you?...Just a little late...You found me." I always struggled with this song, because I can't tell if the guy singing is grateful, or if he's shaking his fist at God saying, "I KNOW you're there and you DID find me, but why didn't you do it THIS way?" It seems like the latter is more believable--the singer KNOWS God's there, but he wishes God would have acted differently in response to his cries. Most people find themselves in this place--they struggle with the idea that God doesn't do things THIS way, but they DO believe He's there. Even if they say they don't, they do (MOST do; I know some just absolutely don't, and I don't mean to arrogantly assume wrong things about you if you're one).
As Tim Keller brilliantly hypothesizes in his 'The Reason for God', if you have a framework of belief in 'right and wrong' or 'good and bad' (which everyone does--everyone agrees the Holocaust was a tragedy, and that the Penn State thing is horrible because it involves violation of innocent children), then clearly you HAVE to believe that those moral convictions came from SOMEWHERE and they couldn't have come from just simply evolution or 'nowhere'. You also can't say "Well everyone believes this..." Really? If everyone believes it, why does it happen still? Keller concludes, "If there is no God, then there is no way to say any one action is 'moral' and another 'immoral' but only 'I like this'. If that is the case, who gets the right to put their subjective, arbitrary moral feelings into law?" He's right. If truth is absolutely relative, then you and I couldn't call anything wrong, and if that's the case, then how much despair and hopelessness is there in a world with many problems, and everyone has differing opinions on how to fix these problems? 'Virtue' and 'vice' are relative, and you set yourself and others up to not have any opinion about anything. If you do, then you'll be inconsistent in your arguments, because you'll be arguing from a transcendent moral law that not everyone agrees with (because you've written it yourself), and you'll realize that every argument is pointless because no one believes exactly like you do. You'll say, "Why can't the world just all believe THIS?" or "Why don't they just see it THIS way?" which is exactly what both the Bible and Christians are saying, to which the common response is "That's oppressive." With all due respect, isn't ANY argument oppressive? Because it assumes a transcendence of virtue over the opposite side of the argument. In other words, isn't everyone close-minded about their beliefs?
Notice in the James 1:6-7 passage, after speaking of the man of doubts being like a wave of the sea tossed and thrown, he says, "For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." Notice James doesn't say, "That man will be sadly disappointed to find out God is really there..." Why is this significant? Because if the man COULD firstly have assumed he'll receive anything from the Lord, then he's already assuming that the Lord is THERE in the first place. He clearly believes in God already--he just is struggling with doubts. Doesn't it seem like nonsense to know God is there, and STILL doubt him? Of course it does.
And yet we who would say that that's nonsense are the same people who watch the news for five minutes and walk away saying, "I'm tired of seeing people break the law", as we get into our cars and drive 10 over the speed limit, breaking the law. You could push back, "That's not near as bad as murder." I'd respond by asking, "Who SAYS it's not as bad?" Well, it's just commonly accepted, you may responded. In one sense, I'd grant that, because clearly the penalty is different. In another sense I'd disagree, because they BOTH have a penalty because they're BOTH breaking the law. Furthermore, speeding puts yourself in a position where you could potentially hurt someone else--or worse--kill someone else. Then you're guilty of both. You might push back, "But I'm in control," which is what I'm sure intoxicated drivers think when they get into their car to drive home, and they hit some kid on a bike. Maybe you're NOT in control, and you just think you are. Maybe you're LYING to yourself.
Maybe we lie to ourselves all the time and just won't admit that we do.
Maybe we lie to ourselves when we project our culturally conditioned and personally biased sense of right and wrong on God. Maybe our doubts of his existence really don't stem from what we call 'facts', but rather from Him not fitting our personal criteria. We say that the FACT is that science has disproved God. No it hasn't. Science can't prove anything--science is just theories; even scientists say that. We say the FACT is that history has disproved God. Really? The history which bears God's name on it--BC (before Christ) and AD (anno domini--Latin for 'in the year of our Lord' which refers to Christ)? If anything, the Bible seems to have God making all sorts of promises that have either come to pass, or haven't passed YET.
Psalm 53:1 plainly says, "The fool says in his heart 'there is no God'." I've struggled with that verse for a long time and would say, "I thought God was a God of LOVE--if so, why would he coldly bash my heart which desperately WANTS to believe, but seems like it just CAN'T?"
The two clearest responses I received from God were these:
a) He is a God of love, but "love" doesn't just tell the beloved what they need to hear all the time. Love hurts sometimes, because love is honest. Often what we mean by 'love' is 'nice'. God is 'nice'. Whoa is me if I stand up in my inner-city neighborhood where there's crime, violence, drugs, and murder, and preach, "God is nice." Truly I've had more success in my short time here so far saying, "God says you suck, and He says it because He loves you." Nice doesn't cure sin. The naked and humiliated and offensive Savior of the world hanging on the cross cures sin. You can't preach the cross 'nicely'.
b) Secondly, if I'm reading the Bible and it says I'm a fool for saying there's no God, it must be true, because the Bible calls itself God's own Word on numerous occasions, and if I REALLY didn't believe in God, I wouldn't be sitting at a desk reading this book that claims to be God's Word--I'd be out doing what the rest of my neighborhood is doing.
But I realized that since I at least WANT God to be real, maybe that says something about God Himself. Maybe He's drawing me to Himself, and my doubts are really just misguided God-given longings for peace and justice. This would seem to make sense in light of Scripture--it talks all the time of God drawing people to Himself (Ephesians 2:13, 1 Peter 3:18) and it talks all the time of a) God's concern for peace and justice (Isaiah 1:21-23, Matthew 25:31-46), b) my having His characteristics built into me(Genesis 1:27, Romans 2:14-16), and c) those characteristics being tarnished by my sin of not trusting what God says (Romans 1:18-23, Revelation 3:15-20).
Then we read of Adam and Eve eating the fruit God said not to eat, but they do it anyways because the serpent appealed to their desire to 'be LIKE God', by telling them they WOULD be. Finally, the mirror was turned back on myself, and I realized that every waking second of every day I'm standing at trees, picking fruit that God says I shouldn't eat from.
We wonder why God's presence is so far from us? It's because we don't want His presence close to us, because if it was, we'd either run away and hide like Adam and Eve (because of embarrassment at our sin), fall face down like Isaiah at God's throne (because of the conviction of our sin), or die (because of our sinfulness's inability to handle the sight of God's holiness).
Let me tell you why I'm a Christian: It's because in the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon, the richest, wisest, and womanizerest man of all time (made that last word up--he enjoyed the presence of the ladies), pours his heart and his mind out in this book at the end of his rich, wise, womanizering life, and his conclusion is, "I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after the wind."(Ecc. 1:14)
Can I be personal?--I needed to hear that. "WHEW, finally, not only am I not the only one who sees the pointlessness and meaninglessness of the things in this world, but God's Word ITSELF is actually calling it that way as well!" And when you come to this realization, the only possible response is, "There HAS to be a God who will make all things new one day,". Then you realize the Bible speaks over and over and over again about how God will. Then you fear Him, because if He's God, you can't just like Him or love Him. You have to fear Him, because He's God and He owes you nothing and could take everything in a second (see Job). And, keeping with the famous Proverbs 1:7, which says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom," when you begin to fear Him, you begin to love Him; and when you love Him, you begin to truly love others, because you see them for who they really are: creatures of the Living God. You also see yourself for who you really are: a creature of the Living God. And when this becomes your reality, things start to make sense, and the beginnings of (what at least appears to be) wisdom start to take root.
At this point you realize that the God who doesn't owe you ANYTHING, gave you EVERYTHING at the Cross. In spite of the fact that you couldn't offer Him ANYTHING, He gave EVERYTHING to draw you back to Himself. Why? Because it glorifies Him if His creatures worship Him. As John Piper has said, "God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him." The only way for us to worship Him and be satisfied in Him is if He changes our hearts to want to worship Him, so that we realize we CAN be satisfied in Him. And the only way this is possible is if the pure and spotless Lamb, Jesus Christ, who perfectly worships the Father with His whole heart and is eternally satisfied in Him, is laid down as a final sacrifice for sins for all time, so that the stupid idolatrous people He created would finally have hearts that only desire God.
Of course we'll always have doubts because God is invisible. But He's only invisible if we refuse to see how He's been revealed in Christ Jesus. Hebrews 1:3 calls Jesus, "The radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of His nature." You want to see God? Look to Jesus. But don't say that He's so concealed that it's impossible. I'm glad God didn't look at our radical and total depravity and say, "There's no good in them...I have better things to do." Instead He said, "There's no good in them...but I want them, and I'll go to the end of myself to get them." Furthermore, if you look for God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ, you'll see that all of the things you truly care about and desire in this life are things that He cares about too.
Solomon ends Ecclesiastes with these words: "The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil." (12:13-14).
Will it ever be enough for us to just trust that this is true? Or will we go on living as though we're God because we don't think we can see enough of God Himself because we think He's hiding? When will it be enough to believe it when He says, "This command is all you need to know. JUST. TRUST. ME."
I love that the Bible starts off with God. The obvious implication is that before anything else ever came to be, there was God.
Of course we live in an increasingly doubtful world, and in making that statement, I mean the fact that there are many people who doubt God's existence, if they don't just simply dismiss it all together. While this is tragic, if you believe the Bible literally, it's understandable. I've struggled with doubts over the years and I'd be lying if I said I don't anymore--I most certainly do. This is because God's invisible.
It seems like the Bible assumes that God is there, and if you're going to read it, you have to at least possess some sort of belief that God is there and that 'in the beginning, God...', meaning that everything is 'from Him, to Him, and through Him...' (Romans 11:36).
That being said, the Bible does meet those of us who doubt and question an invisible God right where we are. In Colossians 1:15 Jesus is referred to as "the image of the invisible God, and in 1 Timothy 1:17, Paul says (having just talked about Jesus Christ's display of perfect patience), "To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." Upon reading these passages that refer to God as invisible, one could respond two ways: First, with despair at the idea that THIS God I'm supposed to believe in is invisible. "Who wants to believe in something they can't see?" they may question, and this could lead to a bottomless pit of depression. On the other hand, secondly, they could respond the way I've responded the last few years (which is so much better a response than the former, which I knew as response for a long time), with appreciation at the fact that the Bible meets me where I am, by calling God invisible. The Bible may call the people of this world stupid (especially me), but it also calls the people of this world incredibly loved. Both of these statements are things the Bible by nature would HAVE to say, because if it's assumed that God is the ultimate satisfaction and absolute experience of the fullness of joy for us His creatures, which the Bible DOES assume (Psalm 16:11, John 10:10), then if the created humans for whatever reason continually and persistently turn from trusting in His goodness and Godness, then it seems like a perfect picture of absurd, delusional, stupidity. This is why James says in James 1:6-7 that "the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind." Is the Bible calling me an idiot for doubting?
Not necessarily, because the Hebrews and 1 Timothy passages BOTH call Him the invisible God. If I say, "I'm struggling with the invisibility of God", I'm not saying anything sinful or wrong. We know from the Bible that I CAN struggle with God (Genesis 32:22-32), and that He IS invisible. Thus I can struggle with the invisibility of God. Therefore, the Bible meets me where I am in my doubts and questioning and says, "Yes, He IS (I AM) invisible. You're assessment is correct up to that point."
But it's when we move PAST that point that our assessment takes a turn for the worse. The problem arises when we consider what we mean when we say we're struggling with the invisibility of God:
Most of the time, we mean that we're struggling BELIEVING IN the invisible God. Most of us can sing honestly with the band The Fray's song 'You Found Me', which famously sings (to God), "Where were you when everything was falling apart? All my days were spent by a telephone that never rang...Why'd you have to wait? Where were you?...Just a little late...You found me." I always struggled with this song, because I can't tell if the guy singing is grateful, or if he's shaking his fist at God saying, "I KNOW you're there and you DID find me, but why didn't you do it THIS way?" It seems like the latter is more believable--the singer KNOWS God's there, but he wishes God would have acted differently in response to his cries. Most people find themselves in this place--they struggle with the idea that God doesn't do things THIS way, but they DO believe He's there. Even if they say they don't, they do (MOST do; I know some just absolutely don't, and I don't mean to arrogantly assume wrong things about you if you're one).
As Tim Keller brilliantly hypothesizes in his 'The Reason for God', if you have a framework of belief in 'right and wrong' or 'good and bad' (which everyone does--everyone agrees the Holocaust was a tragedy, and that the Penn State thing is horrible because it involves violation of innocent children), then clearly you HAVE to believe that those moral convictions came from SOMEWHERE and they couldn't have come from just simply evolution or 'nowhere'. You also can't say "Well everyone believes this..." Really? If everyone believes it, why does it happen still? Keller concludes, "If there is no God, then there is no way to say any one action is 'moral' and another 'immoral' but only 'I like this'. If that is the case, who gets the right to put their subjective, arbitrary moral feelings into law?" He's right. If truth is absolutely relative, then you and I couldn't call anything wrong, and if that's the case, then how much despair and hopelessness is there in a world with many problems, and everyone has differing opinions on how to fix these problems? 'Virtue' and 'vice' are relative, and you set yourself and others up to not have any opinion about anything. If you do, then you'll be inconsistent in your arguments, because you'll be arguing from a transcendent moral law that not everyone agrees with (because you've written it yourself), and you'll realize that every argument is pointless because no one believes exactly like you do. You'll say, "Why can't the world just all believe THIS?" or "Why don't they just see it THIS way?" which is exactly what both the Bible and Christians are saying, to which the common response is "That's oppressive." With all due respect, isn't ANY argument oppressive? Because it assumes a transcendence of virtue over the opposite side of the argument. In other words, isn't everyone close-minded about their beliefs?
Notice in the James 1:6-7 passage, after speaking of the man of doubts being like a wave of the sea tossed and thrown, he says, "For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." Notice James doesn't say, "That man will be sadly disappointed to find out God is really there..." Why is this significant? Because if the man COULD firstly have assumed he'll receive anything from the Lord, then he's already assuming that the Lord is THERE in the first place. He clearly believes in God already--he just is struggling with doubts. Doesn't it seem like nonsense to know God is there, and STILL doubt him? Of course it does.
And yet we who would say that that's nonsense are the same people who watch the news for five minutes and walk away saying, "I'm tired of seeing people break the law", as we get into our cars and drive 10 over the speed limit, breaking the law. You could push back, "That's not near as bad as murder." I'd respond by asking, "Who SAYS it's not as bad?" Well, it's just commonly accepted, you may responded. In one sense, I'd grant that, because clearly the penalty is different. In another sense I'd disagree, because they BOTH have a penalty because they're BOTH breaking the law. Furthermore, speeding puts yourself in a position where you could potentially hurt someone else--or worse--kill someone else. Then you're guilty of both. You might push back, "But I'm in control," which is what I'm sure intoxicated drivers think when they get into their car to drive home, and they hit some kid on a bike. Maybe you're NOT in control, and you just think you are. Maybe you're LYING to yourself.
Maybe we lie to ourselves all the time and just won't admit that we do.
Maybe we lie to ourselves when we project our culturally conditioned and personally biased sense of right and wrong on God. Maybe our doubts of his existence really don't stem from what we call 'facts', but rather from Him not fitting our personal criteria. We say that the FACT is that science has disproved God. No it hasn't. Science can't prove anything--science is just theories; even scientists say that. We say the FACT is that history has disproved God. Really? The history which bears God's name on it--BC (before Christ) and AD (anno domini--Latin for 'in the year of our Lord' which refers to Christ)? If anything, the Bible seems to have God making all sorts of promises that have either come to pass, or haven't passed YET.
Psalm 53:1 plainly says, "The fool says in his heart 'there is no God'." I've struggled with that verse for a long time and would say, "I thought God was a God of LOVE--if so, why would he coldly bash my heart which desperately WANTS to believe, but seems like it just CAN'T?"
The two clearest responses I received from God were these:
a) He is a God of love, but "love" doesn't just tell the beloved what they need to hear all the time. Love hurts sometimes, because love is honest. Often what we mean by 'love' is 'nice'. God is 'nice'. Whoa is me if I stand up in my inner-city neighborhood where there's crime, violence, drugs, and murder, and preach, "God is nice." Truly I've had more success in my short time here so far saying, "God says you suck, and He says it because He loves you." Nice doesn't cure sin. The naked and humiliated and offensive Savior of the world hanging on the cross cures sin. You can't preach the cross 'nicely'.
b) Secondly, if I'm reading the Bible and it says I'm a fool for saying there's no God, it must be true, because the Bible calls itself God's own Word on numerous occasions, and if I REALLY didn't believe in God, I wouldn't be sitting at a desk reading this book that claims to be God's Word--I'd be out doing what the rest of my neighborhood is doing.
But I realized that since I at least WANT God to be real, maybe that says something about God Himself. Maybe He's drawing me to Himself, and my doubts are really just misguided God-given longings for peace and justice. This would seem to make sense in light of Scripture--it talks all the time of God drawing people to Himself (Ephesians 2:13, 1 Peter 3:18) and it talks all the time of a) God's concern for peace and justice (Isaiah 1:21-23, Matthew 25:31-46), b) my having His characteristics built into me(Genesis 1:27, Romans 2:14-16), and c) those characteristics being tarnished by my sin of not trusting what God says (Romans 1:18-23, Revelation 3:15-20).
Then we read of Adam and Eve eating the fruit God said not to eat, but they do it anyways because the serpent appealed to their desire to 'be LIKE God', by telling them they WOULD be. Finally, the mirror was turned back on myself, and I realized that every waking second of every day I'm standing at trees, picking fruit that God says I shouldn't eat from.
We wonder why God's presence is so far from us? It's because we don't want His presence close to us, because if it was, we'd either run away and hide like Adam and Eve (because of embarrassment at our sin), fall face down like Isaiah at God's throne (because of the conviction of our sin), or die (because of our sinfulness's inability to handle the sight of God's holiness).
Let me tell you why I'm a Christian: It's because in the book of Ecclesiastes Solomon, the richest, wisest, and womanizerest man of all time (made that last word up--he enjoyed the presence of the ladies), pours his heart and his mind out in this book at the end of his rich, wise, womanizering life, and his conclusion is, "I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after the wind."(Ecc. 1:14)
Can I be personal?--I needed to hear that. "WHEW, finally, not only am I not the only one who sees the pointlessness and meaninglessness of the things in this world, but God's Word ITSELF is actually calling it that way as well!" And when you come to this realization, the only possible response is, "There HAS to be a God who will make all things new one day,". Then you realize the Bible speaks over and over and over again about how God will. Then you fear Him, because if He's God, you can't just like Him or love Him. You have to fear Him, because He's God and He owes you nothing and could take everything in a second (see Job). And, keeping with the famous Proverbs 1:7, which says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom," when you begin to fear Him, you begin to love Him; and when you love Him, you begin to truly love others, because you see them for who they really are: creatures of the Living God. You also see yourself for who you really are: a creature of the Living God. And when this becomes your reality, things start to make sense, and the beginnings of (what at least appears to be) wisdom start to take root.
At this point you realize that the God who doesn't owe you ANYTHING, gave you EVERYTHING at the Cross. In spite of the fact that you couldn't offer Him ANYTHING, He gave EVERYTHING to draw you back to Himself. Why? Because it glorifies Him if His creatures worship Him. As John Piper has said, "God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him." The only way for us to worship Him and be satisfied in Him is if He changes our hearts to want to worship Him, so that we realize we CAN be satisfied in Him. And the only way this is possible is if the pure and spotless Lamb, Jesus Christ, who perfectly worships the Father with His whole heart and is eternally satisfied in Him, is laid down as a final sacrifice for sins for all time, so that the stupid idolatrous people He created would finally have hearts that only desire God.
Of course we'll always have doubts because God is invisible. But He's only invisible if we refuse to see how He's been revealed in Christ Jesus. Hebrews 1:3 calls Jesus, "The radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of His nature." You want to see God? Look to Jesus. But don't say that He's so concealed that it's impossible. I'm glad God didn't look at our radical and total depravity and say, "There's no good in them...I have better things to do." Instead He said, "There's no good in them...but I want them, and I'll go to the end of myself to get them." Furthermore, if you look for God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ, you'll see that all of the things you truly care about and desire in this life are things that He cares about too.
Solomon ends Ecclesiastes with these words: "The end of the matter, all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil." (12:13-14).
Will it ever be enough for us to just trust that this is true? Or will we go on living as though we're God because we don't think we can see enough of God Himself because we think He's hiding? When will it be enough to believe it when He says, "This command is all you need to know. JUST. TRUST. ME."
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Whatever It Takes
(this is a long one, again; sorry)
Whatever It Takes
Along with being the title to one of my favorite Lifehouse songs, this has become a prevalent line in many of my prayers for non-believers and believers alike. As I pray for more and more people to truly be brought face to face with the glory of the Living God, I recognize I'm praying for something that is a) atypical compared to many of our prayers, and b) atypical compared to what many of us say when someone asks us "how can I pray for you?".
I've wondered why this is over the years, and specifically why it's this way with me much of the time, and I believe it's because most of the time I truly think that my greatest need is for (fill in the blank) to happen, with the 'fill-in-the-blank' not usually having anything to do with being brought up under the glory of God. As the Holy Spirit, by God's grace alone, has brought this realization to the forefront of my mind, I've been both convicted and humbled to know that even in my prayer requests, I'm missing the mark of God's holiness.
In the famous part of Acts 9 that tells of Saul's (later Paul) conversion, the part that always made me skeptical that this was just a fairy-tale Sunday school/VBS story was the fact that he was blinded until eventually some fish scales fell from his eyes (9:18). What? Why would fish-scales fall from his eyes?, I've asked in reserved skepticism. At best this is surely an add-in from the author to make the story more palatable to children who need images in order to stay engaged to the story...if the story is even TRUE, I've stated.
This of course, until I realize what has just happened to Saul. As a hardcore Jewish Pharisee who persecutes and murders those men and women who proclaim that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth rose from death because He's God like He said He was, the idea that he would eventually become one of them seems like the silliest and most far-fetched idea Luke's Acts narrative could possibly have happen next.
But then it happened. Saul is on his way to Damascus to persecute and kill more Christians who profess that Jesus is Lord, when he is suddenly struck to the ground, and this Jesus Himself asks him "Saul, why do you persecute me?" (9:4). Interestingly, Jesus doesn't ask why Saul persecutes Jesus' followers, or why he persecutes Jesus' people. He asks him why he persecutes Him. Why? Because Jesus' resurrected body is now in two places: at God's right hand in Heaven(Matthew 26:64, Hebrews 8:1), and in the Church on Earth (Ephesians 1:22-23, 5:22). Apparently, in hurting and murdering Christians, Saul had been hurting and murdering Jesus. But since Saul clearly doesn't trust in or have regard for the faith the Christians have, this wouldn't strike Saul if just anyone said it.
But it was Jesus that said it. And right on the spot, Saul calls Jesus "Lord" (9:5). Now Saul asks Him who He is, so we can clearly deduce that he isn't aware that the obvious 'Lord' he was talking to was Jesus Himself. Many people, even those who knew Jesus personally, didn't recognize His resurrected body, and Saul was no exception. But then Jesus tells Saul who it really is, and the story doesn't have Saul saying anything more after that. All we see is Saul being blinded by the light, and sent into the city, where he will await further instructions.
We then find out in 9:10 that a man of God named Ananias was called to reach out to Saul, explain to him that he's a chosen instrument of Jesus the Risen Lord, and Ananias has to put his hands on Saul so that he'll receive the Holy Spirit. Ananias, eager to be used by God, uses the same phrase Isaiah did when God called him, "Here I am, Lord", and he does it. As Ananias prays over Saul, the scales fall from his eyes and he receives the Holy Spirit which, just like with the Christians in Acts 2, causes him to start making much of the glory of God in the face of Jesus for all to see and hear, no matter who they are.
You may wonder, "Okay, but what about the scales? That's still wierd." Granted, it is. But what's wierder: the Living God converting a man who hated Jesus into a man who worships Jesus, or that man having 'something LIKE' fish-scales fall from his eyes? Or what about the fact that Saul was blind in the first place after he saw Jesus? Why was Saul blinded?
Because God does whatever it takes to make one of His sons or daughters trust in Him totally.
Repeatedly throughout the Bible, the case is the same: Abraham has to be willing to sacrifice his own son on an altar before he realizes he can truly trust in God. Jacob wrestles with God and suffers an injury so that his stubbornness will finally be tamed enough to trust God. Isaiah had to be confronted with his own sinfulness before he trusted God's goodness enough to be sent out to minister. Jesus' disciples have to spend three years following Jesus around and learning the Gospel, failing in faith continually, before they finally trust in God enough to be Gospel ministers who Jesus uses to build His Church (Peter even denies Jesus the night before He's crucified...Peter was a failure to the end, but Jesus loved him to the end (John 13:1). And it doesn't stop with them. Now, Saul, proud of his Jewish heritage (as he should be) and satisfied of his own great and wonderful accomplishments, had to be stopped dead in his tracks, and blinded and immobilized for three days before he was ready to go out and minister. Then he immediately begins preaching the Deity of Jesus: Acts 9:20-21--"and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, 'He is the Son of God'. And all who heard him were amazed and said, 'Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name (Jesus)?'"
If you're a Christian who truly trusts in Christ for everything in your life from first to last, you know that it takes a lot for God to truly get your heart. You also know that many of your earlier times "being a Christian" weren't times when God truly had your heart, but rather were times where you felt you had GOD'S heart, and you self-righteously still lived to worship yourself, as you assumed God worshiped you, too.
I'm convinced that if Saul would have jumped up and began preaching right there on the spot of seeing Jesus, he would have hung onto his self-righteousness as he preached the Gospel, which would have probably made for him not preaching the REAL Gospel ever. Of course, we know the story that Saul's name was changed to Paul, he planted churches everywhere, mentored pastors and elders like Timothy and Titus, and wrote almost half of the books of the New Testament. So what happened, and why was he always so zealous for the Name of Jesus Christ and so unconcerned for his own name, like he had been before?
It's because he saw the risen Christ who died for his sins when he saw the risen Christ who is Creator and Sustainer of all things, and this risen Christ in His glorious goodness and power will take someone's eyesight if it means humbling them for the ministry of proclaiming His glory. That's why Paul famously said in Philippians 3:8-9, "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." He said it because it's infinitely better to live with Jesus on your horizon, than with anything else on the horizon, and Paul knows, because he's been to both extremes.
All people worship something--whatever it is that gets you out of bed in the morning, and whatever thought or hope it is that keeps you working THIS job or living in THIS house or studying THIS topic, we all worship SOMETHING. Paul worshiped himself. But when he encountered Jesus, he began worshiping Jesus. And the necessary first step was for him to be immobilized and shown how un-powerful he really was.
The temptation for Christians often is to think that if they receive Christ or if they're baptized or if they read their Bibles or if they pray hard enough, God is OBLIGATED to do for them whatever it is they want Him to do. That's why many people get baptized or get zealous for God, and then fall off the radar of their church for months, years, or decades: because they thought God was supposed to give them what they wanted and make their lives easier.
But in Paul's case, as in the case of anyone in the Bible who was brought to God's feet, the person had to suffer some sort of debilitating or excruciating loss in order to be counted as "one of God's".
The reason for this is that, as John Calvin has rightly said, "the human heart is an idol factory" and our idols follow us into our conversion to Christianity, if God doesn't squash them. Not unlike cancer patients needing chemotherapy to kill many good cells so that the bad cells die, human beings need the part of their heart that worships idols killed in order for the worship of the idol to cease. This is a painful process, but a necessary one. Maybe you're going through it right now. Many people think that since they're a Christian, they shouldn't have to experience pain, so when the storm comes, they look up at God and say, "seriously?" They don't stop to think that perhaps they're STILL producing idols in their heart and worshiping them, even though Jesus is their Sunday or Wednesday Savior.
Paul knew this. That's why he wrote so adamantly against false worship and selfishness in his letters--because that's a sign of Christ not TRULY being Lord of your life.
Maybe that's why it hurts so bad right now for you. Maybe that's why it's so scary and dark and you don't feel like you'll make it.
But it certainly isn't because God doesn't know pain. At the Cross, God suffered the loss of His only Son who has shared eternity with Him. Where there needed to be a shedding of blood to atone for humanity's idolatry, He brought the blood.
Because God does whatever it takes to get you.
Whatever It Takes
Along with being the title to one of my favorite Lifehouse songs, this has become a prevalent line in many of my prayers for non-believers and believers alike. As I pray for more and more people to truly be brought face to face with the glory of the Living God, I recognize I'm praying for something that is a) atypical compared to many of our prayers, and b) atypical compared to what many of us say when someone asks us "how can I pray for you?".
I've wondered why this is over the years, and specifically why it's this way with me much of the time, and I believe it's because most of the time I truly think that my greatest need is for (fill in the blank) to happen, with the 'fill-in-the-blank' not usually having anything to do with being brought up under the glory of God. As the Holy Spirit, by God's grace alone, has brought this realization to the forefront of my mind, I've been both convicted and humbled to know that even in my prayer requests, I'm missing the mark of God's holiness.
In the famous part of Acts 9 that tells of Saul's (later Paul) conversion, the part that always made me skeptical that this was just a fairy-tale Sunday school/VBS story was the fact that he was blinded until eventually some fish scales fell from his eyes (9:18). What? Why would fish-scales fall from his eyes?, I've asked in reserved skepticism. At best this is surely an add-in from the author to make the story more palatable to children who need images in order to stay engaged to the story...if the story is even TRUE, I've stated.
This of course, until I realize what has just happened to Saul. As a hardcore Jewish Pharisee who persecutes and murders those men and women who proclaim that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth rose from death because He's God like He said He was, the idea that he would eventually become one of them seems like the silliest and most far-fetched idea Luke's Acts narrative could possibly have happen next.
But then it happened. Saul is on his way to Damascus to persecute and kill more Christians who profess that Jesus is Lord, when he is suddenly struck to the ground, and this Jesus Himself asks him "Saul, why do you persecute me?" (9:4). Interestingly, Jesus doesn't ask why Saul persecutes Jesus' followers, or why he persecutes Jesus' people. He asks him why he persecutes Him. Why? Because Jesus' resurrected body is now in two places: at God's right hand in Heaven(Matthew 26:64, Hebrews 8:1), and in the Church on Earth (Ephesians 1:22-23, 5:22). Apparently, in hurting and murdering Christians, Saul had been hurting and murdering Jesus. But since Saul clearly doesn't trust in or have regard for the faith the Christians have, this wouldn't strike Saul if just anyone said it.
But it was Jesus that said it. And right on the spot, Saul calls Jesus "Lord" (9:5). Now Saul asks Him who He is, so we can clearly deduce that he isn't aware that the obvious 'Lord' he was talking to was Jesus Himself. Many people, even those who knew Jesus personally, didn't recognize His resurrected body, and Saul was no exception. But then Jesus tells Saul who it really is, and the story doesn't have Saul saying anything more after that. All we see is Saul being blinded by the light, and sent into the city, where he will await further instructions.
We then find out in 9:10 that a man of God named Ananias was called to reach out to Saul, explain to him that he's a chosen instrument of Jesus the Risen Lord, and Ananias has to put his hands on Saul so that he'll receive the Holy Spirit. Ananias, eager to be used by God, uses the same phrase Isaiah did when God called him, "Here I am, Lord", and he does it. As Ananias prays over Saul, the scales fall from his eyes and he receives the Holy Spirit which, just like with the Christians in Acts 2, causes him to start making much of the glory of God in the face of Jesus for all to see and hear, no matter who they are.
You may wonder, "Okay, but what about the scales? That's still wierd." Granted, it is. But what's wierder: the Living God converting a man who hated Jesus into a man who worships Jesus, or that man having 'something LIKE' fish-scales fall from his eyes? Or what about the fact that Saul was blind in the first place after he saw Jesus? Why was Saul blinded?
Because God does whatever it takes to make one of His sons or daughters trust in Him totally.
Repeatedly throughout the Bible, the case is the same: Abraham has to be willing to sacrifice his own son on an altar before he realizes he can truly trust in God. Jacob wrestles with God and suffers an injury so that his stubbornness will finally be tamed enough to trust God. Isaiah had to be confronted with his own sinfulness before he trusted God's goodness enough to be sent out to minister. Jesus' disciples have to spend three years following Jesus around and learning the Gospel, failing in faith continually, before they finally trust in God enough to be Gospel ministers who Jesus uses to build His Church (Peter even denies Jesus the night before He's crucified...Peter was a failure to the end, but Jesus loved him to the end (John 13:1). And it doesn't stop with them. Now, Saul, proud of his Jewish heritage (as he should be) and satisfied of his own great and wonderful accomplishments, had to be stopped dead in his tracks, and blinded and immobilized for three days before he was ready to go out and minister. Then he immediately begins preaching the Deity of Jesus: Acts 9:20-21--"and immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, 'He is the Son of God'. And all who heard him were amazed and said, 'Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name (Jesus)?'"
If you're a Christian who truly trusts in Christ for everything in your life from first to last, you know that it takes a lot for God to truly get your heart. You also know that many of your earlier times "being a Christian" weren't times when God truly had your heart, but rather were times where you felt you had GOD'S heart, and you self-righteously still lived to worship yourself, as you assumed God worshiped you, too.
I'm convinced that if Saul would have jumped up and began preaching right there on the spot of seeing Jesus, he would have hung onto his self-righteousness as he preached the Gospel, which would have probably made for him not preaching the REAL Gospel ever. Of course, we know the story that Saul's name was changed to Paul, he planted churches everywhere, mentored pastors and elders like Timothy and Titus, and wrote almost half of the books of the New Testament. So what happened, and why was he always so zealous for the Name of Jesus Christ and so unconcerned for his own name, like he had been before?
It's because he saw the risen Christ who died for his sins when he saw the risen Christ who is Creator and Sustainer of all things, and this risen Christ in His glorious goodness and power will take someone's eyesight if it means humbling them for the ministry of proclaiming His glory. That's why Paul famously said in Philippians 3:8-9, "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." He said it because it's infinitely better to live with Jesus on your horizon, than with anything else on the horizon, and Paul knows, because he's been to both extremes.
All people worship something--whatever it is that gets you out of bed in the morning, and whatever thought or hope it is that keeps you working THIS job or living in THIS house or studying THIS topic, we all worship SOMETHING. Paul worshiped himself. But when he encountered Jesus, he began worshiping Jesus. And the necessary first step was for him to be immobilized and shown how un-powerful he really was.
The temptation for Christians often is to think that if they receive Christ or if they're baptized or if they read their Bibles or if they pray hard enough, God is OBLIGATED to do for them whatever it is they want Him to do. That's why many people get baptized or get zealous for God, and then fall off the radar of their church for months, years, or decades: because they thought God was supposed to give them what they wanted and make their lives easier.
But in Paul's case, as in the case of anyone in the Bible who was brought to God's feet, the person had to suffer some sort of debilitating or excruciating loss in order to be counted as "one of God's".
The reason for this is that, as John Calvin has rightly said, "the human heart is an idol factory" and our idols follow us into our conversion to Christianity, if God doesn't squash them. Not unlike cancer patients needing chemotherapy to kill many good cells so that the bad cells die, human beings need the part of their heart that worships idols killed in order for the worship of the idol to cease. This is a painful process, but a necessary one. Maybe you're going through it right now. Many people think that since they're a Christian, they shouldn't have to experience pain, so when the storm comes, they look up at God and say, "seriously?" They don't stop to think that perhaps they're STILL producing idols in their heart and worshiping them, even though Jesus is their Sunday or Wednesday Savior.
Paul knew this. That's why he wrote so adamantly against false worship and selfishness in his letters--because that's a sign of Christ not TRULY being Lord of your life.
Maybe that's why it hurts so bad right now for you. Maybe that's why it's so scary and dark and you don't feel like you'll make it.
But it certainly isn't because God doesn't know pain. At the Cross, God suffered the loss of His only Son who has shared eternity with Him. Where there needed to be a shedding of blood to atone for humanity's idolatry, He brought the blood.
Because God does whatever it takes to get you.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
To Love God and Neighbor, pt 2
This is part 2 of attempting to clarify "the Great Commandment", as Jesus spoke it in Matthew 22:37-29. Allow me to continue the last blog by diving right in:
-To become so concerned with 'loving God' that we forget to love our neighbors isn't as much to literally 'love God too much' as it is to not understand what it means to love God, because it's impossible to love God too much, but it IS possible to be so concerned with the personal and private striving after God's holiness and glory that we know our Bibles very well and know theology very well, but we hardly do ANY of the hard work of bringing the Gospel to people who don't have Christ. This plays itself out in churches where the preacher is on fire from the pulpit (not literally) and the people are 'amen'ing all over the place during his sermon, but the idea of ministering to the people with needs in their community is something that's not even in their vocabulary. They operate under a "come to us" ministry mentality (which is big-brother arrogance), assuming they have all the answers and the people with the needs need to take the initiative; this is opposite of a "go to them" ministry mentality (which is humbling and Christ-like) and assumes that since the people obviously can't get to God unless they have Christ, the only way that they can get to Christ is if those who have Christ bring Him to them. The former assumes that we have all the answers and they need to come to us, and the latter assumes that we don't have ALL the answers, but that since we have the only answers that matter, we can boldly and humbly take it to them, trusting that God is going to do the work of the Gospel through us. Nevertheless, the absence of this is a common problem in churches--we concern so much over 'loving God' that we forget that to truly love Him means to make much of Him for others who don't know Him, like the disciples did when they received the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, and like Paul indicts in Romans 10. This mindset is prevalent in many churches with predominantly older congregations. "We're successful if we have our Bible verses memorized and if people in church are acting right," is what they live by. Many of these churches are marked by a certain deepness in their theology, but a shallowness in their ministry.
-Conversely, to become so concerned with 'loving others' that we don't love God like we should is to assume that the chief end of Christian ministry is to meet needs and have a "church as a hospital" mindset, and completely neglect God's call for His people to be holy like He is holy. This plays itself out in predominantly younger congregations, many times in response to the older congregations that don't do anything for people with needs. But this is just as (if not more) sinful, because it makes man the chief end of ministry. "We're successful if we're filling the pews and if we're feeding people that are hungry and getting recognition by others in the community" is what they live by. Many of these churches are marked by a certain deepness in their ministry, but a shallowness in their theology.
Clearly, both sides are wrong and unfortunately if you had a coin in your hand where one side said "God-centered but man-neglecting" and the other side said "man-centered but God-neglecting", you could enter most churches in America and make a pretty accurate guess as to which side of the coin faces up in that church.
I think the Church isn't supposed to be a place where we either lean too heavily on the first Command that we neglect our neighbors, nor is it to be a place where we lean so heavily on the second Command that we neglect loving God with all we have. Clearly in the Great Commandment, Jesus calls His people to strive after God first, and in response to striving after Him, take care of and love your neighbor. This looks much more like a basketball than a coin, because a coin always lands on one side or the other, but a basketball lands however it's going to land, and you know that if it landed another way, it'd still look the same. This way, God remains on the throne where He belongs, and our ministry to our neighbors, friends, community, etc. happens in response to the fact that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And if the ball lands another way, it'd still look the same because the make-up of it is the same all over the surface.
Seeing it this way, we will always a) remain underneath the sovereignty and Lordship of God, and b) keep in mind what it is our neighbors really need, which is to hear of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. We'll stop assuming that if we have Scripture memorized we're doing all we need to do, and we'll also stop assuming that if we're meeting needs in the community, we're doing all we need to do.
I think the real reason why ministry's so hard isn't just because we work with people, nor is it just that we strive after the Holiness of God. It's because we lean too easy to one of those pursuits or the other:
-If we're tough-guys (or girls), we lean on Loving God but forget that to truly love Him means that we have a tenderness towards others (because tenderness goes against our personality!). That's why it so difficult for us to TRULY connect with people and get motivated to be priestly with them. We'd rather just be prophetic. Many Bible-thumpers AREN'T truly ministering out of Gospel-transformation.
-If we're more tender-hearted and compassionate, we lean on Loving Others but forget that to truly love them is to be sent to them from being up underneath the throne of God like Isaiah in Isaiah 6. So we tend to have gifts of caring for people and helping people, but we never read our Bibles or spend time in prayer, because it frightens us to have to come to grips with our unholiness, which happens to ALL people when they come to grips with God's holiness, like Isaiah did. We'd rather be priestly than prophetic. Many Christian activists also AREN'T truly ministering out of Gospel-transformation.
The answer and solution?: Go to our knees and pray honestly for the Lord to reveal which side we've been guilty of landing on. Do you study Scripture all the time but don't ever bring the Gospel to people who don't have Christ, and thus make void the faith that you profess to have (see James 2)? Or do you minister to people all the time, but never actually spend time in the Word or in prayer, and never actually share the GOSPEL with the people you're ministering to, making your work no different than secular humanitarians (see Revelation 3:15-16)? Whatever side you're on, it's time for the Church to look much more like a sphere than a coin. It's time that our gospel be THE Gospel, and it's time that we be reconciled to God first, so that we can work to reconcile our neighbors second. In the Kingdom, it doesn't work one way or the other. It ONLY works if both sides are embodied. It starts with answering the first question: Do you love Him with all you have? If not, maybe you should take a step back from ministering for a while. But if you DO love Him with all you have, are you bringing it to those who need it? If not, you should pray long and hard.
Pray for Hazelwood Christian Church as we seek to live the Gospel in our Church family, and as we seek to live the Gospel in our community. I'll pray that you do, too. Thanks for reading.
-To become so concerned with 'loving God' that we forget to love our neighbors isn't as much to literally 'love God too much' as it is to not understand what it means to love God, because it's impossible to love God too much, but it IS possible to be so concerned with the personal and private striving after God's holiness and glory that we know our Bibles very well and know theology very well, but we hardly do ANY of the hard work of bringing the Gospel to people who don't have Christ. This plays itself out in churches where the preacher is on fire from the pulpit (not literally) and the people are 'amen'ing all over the place during his sermon, but the idea of ministering to the people with needs in their community is something that's not even in their vocabulary. They operate under a "come to us" ministry mentality (which is big-brother arrogance), assuming they have all the answers and the people with the needs need to take the initiative; this is opposite of a "go to them" ministry mentality (which is humbling and Christ-like) and assumes that since the people obviously can't get to God unless they have Christ, the only way that they can get to Christ is if those who have Christ bring Him to them. The former assumes that we have all the answers and they need to come to us, and the latter assumes that we don't have ALL the answers, but that since we have the only answers that matter, we can boldly and humbly take it to them, trusting that God is going to do the work of the Gospel through us. Nevertheless, the absence of this is a common problem in churches--we concern so much over 'loving God' that we forget that to truly love Him means to make much of Him for others who don't know Him, like the disciples did when they received the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, and like Paul indicts in Romans 10. This mindset is prevalent in many churches with predominantly older congregations. "We're successful if we have our Bible verses memorized and if people in church are acting right," is what they live by. Many of these churches are marked by a certain deepness in their theology, but a shallowness in their ministry.
-Conversely, to become so concerned with 'loving others' that we don't love God like we should is to assume that the chief end of Christian ministry is to meet needs and have a "church as a hospital" mindset, and completely neglect God's call for His people to be holy like He is holy. This plays itself out in predominantly younger congregations, many times in response to the older congregations that don't do anything for people with needs. But this is just as (if not more) sinful, because it makes man the chief end of ministry. "We're successful if we're filling the pews and if we're feeding people that are hungry and getting recognition by others in the community" is what they live by. Many of these churches are marked by a certain deepness in their ministry, but a shallowness in their theology.
Clearly, both sides are wrong and unfortunately if you had a coin in your hand where one side said "God-centered but man-neglecting" and the other side said "man-centered but God-neglecting", you could enter most churches in America and make a pretty accurate guess as to which side of the coin faces up in that church.
I think the Church isn't supposed to be a place where we either lean too heavily on the first Command that we neglect our neighbors, nor is it to be a place where we lean so heavily on the second Command that we neglect loving God with all we have. Clearly in the Great Commandment, Jesus calls His people to strive after God first, and in response to striving after Him, take care of and love your neighbor. This looks much more like a basketball than a coin, because a coin always lands on one side or the other, but a basketball lands however it's going to land, and you know that if it landed another way, it'd still look the same. This way, God remains on the throne where He belongs, and our ministry to our neighbors, friends, community, etc. happens in response to the fact that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And if the ball lands another way, it'd still look the same because the make-up of it is the same all over the surface.
Seeing it this way, we will always a) remain underneath the sovereignty and Lordship of God, and b) keep in mind what it is our neighbors really need, which is to hear of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. We'll stop assuming that if we have Scripture memorized we're doing all we need to do, and we'll also stop assuming that if we're meeting needs in the community, we're doing all we need to do.
I think the real reason why ministry's so hard isn't just because we work with people, nor is it just that we strive after the Holiness of God. It's because we lean too easy to one of those pursuits or the other:
-If we're tough-guys (or girls), we lean on Loving God but forget that to truly love Him means that we have a tenderness towards others (because tenderness goes against our personality!). That's why it so difficult for us to TRULY connect with people and get motivated to be priestly with them. We'd rather just be prophetic. Many Bible-thumpers AREN'T truly ministering out of Gospel-transformation.
-If we're more tender-hearted and compassionate, we lean on Loving Others but forget that to truly love them is to be sent to them from being up underneath the throne of God like Isaiah in Isaiah 6. So we tend to have gifts of caring for people and helping people, but we never read our Bibles or spend time in prayer, because it frightens us to have to come to grips with our unholiness, which happens to ALL people when they come to grips with God's holiness, like Isaiah did. We'd rather be priestly than prophetic. Many Christian activists also AREN'T truly ministering out of Gospel-transformation.
The answer and solution?: Go to our knees and pray honestly for the Lord to reveal which side we've been guilty of landing on. Do you study Scripture all the time but don't ever bring the Gospel to people who don't have Christ, and thus make void the faith that you profess to have (see James 2)? Or do you minister to people all the time, but never actually spend time in the Word or in prayer, and never actually share the GOSPEL with the people you're ministering to, making your work no different than secular humanitarians (see Revelation 3:15-16)? Whatever side you're on, it's time for the Church to look much more like a sphere than a coin. It's time that our gospel be THE Gospel, and it's time that we be reconciled to God first, so that we can work to reconcile our neighbors second. In the Kingdom, it doesn't work one way or the other. It ONLY works if both sides are embodied. It starts with answering the first question: Do you love Him with all you have? If not, maybe you should take a step back from ministering for a while. But if you DO love Him with all you have, are you bringing it to those who need it? If not, you should pray long and hard.
Pray for Hazelwood Christian Church as we seek to live the Gospel in our Church family, and as we seek to live the Gospel in our community. I'll pray that you do, too. Thanks for reading.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
To Love God and Neighbor
Hey everyone,
Well I'm ripping this blog off of part of my sermon this past Sunday, so any HCC people, you'll recognize it and probably fall asleep (lol--ok I didn't really 'lol', nor did i chuckle).
Sermon Sunday was on Ephesians 6:1-9, which is the section Paul uses to unpack now children are to relate to their parents and how workers (slaves in the original context) are to relate to their bosses (masters). Of course, the over-riding theme throughout the entire 5:22-6:9 section in Ephesians is the same over-riding theme prevalent all throughout the Scriptures: In view of God's holiness and mercy shown most through Christ Jesus' work, do this (whatever this is). A lot of people assume the Bible is just a list of rules by which to abide so that God won't punish us or be mean to us. Of course, there have been many Christians over the years who portrayed the Gospel in these terms, so I can't totally blame the people who wrongly assume that. It should also be understood that all of us, before we receive Christ, are in rebellion to God and actually are enemies of God. Paul says in Romans 5:10 that we who have Christ have been reconciled to God, even though we were enemies of God. He then goes on in Romans 8:7 to say that those who's minds are set on the flesh are hostile to God, since their mind "does not submit to God's law; indeed it can not." We could go on, but my point is that although some Christians have done a bad job at portraying the God of love, ALL non-Christians are in rebellion against God's holiness and even if Christians were to present the God of love better, portrayed most gloriously in the face of Jesus Christ, most non-Christians (if not all) would still find some reason to not believe--because they're in rebellion unless the Holy Spirit does the work of awakening their hearts to Christ (which we pray for and seek to model in our lives as ambassadors of reconciliation).
All this to say that the context in the Ephesians passage is that those of us who claim to have Christ, who "have learned Christ" (Eph. 4:20), have "put off the old self" (4:22), are "children of light" (5:8), and are working to "understand what the will of the Lord is" (5:17), don't just follow the rules because we want to appease an angry and vengeful God--we follow them because Christ already followed all the rules and went to the cross to make a final sacrifice for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God, and now we follow His rules because we WANT to. You can look all throughout Deuteronomy 6 to hear Moses talking about how all of God's laws are for our good, and are to be followed in response to His goodness and provision.
In closing the sermon Sunday, I felt it best to head back to Jesus' telling of "the Great Commandment" in Matthew 22:37-40. Jesus says it's to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength", and then He continues on with another command that is apparently to follow in succession, to "love your neighbor as yourself". When referring to 'the Great Commandment', people typically speak of both commandments, even though Jesus said the first is the greatest and the second is second. Nevertheless, the fact that He says both means that the second is to be critically understood and followed. This relates to the discussion at hand because at the end of the day, Paul's concern throughout Ephesians is that we treasure what God's done for us FIRST, and then act it out in our relationships with each other SECOND, which seems synonymous with what Jesus said.
The point of this blog post today is summed up in this one statement: The Great Commandment is sufficient to explain ALL that God wants from us (Jesus said it is), but in order to understand what it means to be ministers of the Gospel, we have to continually keep watch over our following of the WHOLE Commandment. What I mean is this: While we are to love God with the whole of our entire self, we clearly MUST have a love for our neighbor which flows from our love for God. At the same time, while we are to love our neighbor, our concern for them must never eclipse our concern for the holiness and glory of God.
It may sound like I'm speaking obvious things that don't need to be emphasized, but I don't think I am (obviously, I wouldn't be saying it otherwise). I'm convinced that one of the chief failures of city churches (I'm a pastor in a city church) is that they've either leaned too heavily on one half of the Great Commandment, or leaned too heavily on the other half.
What I mean is this: In seeking to do Gospel ministry, many people have become so concerned with God's holiness and following His rules, that they've neglected the work of loving their neighbor and caring for them. On the flip-side, many others have become so concerned with caring for and loving their neighbor, they aren't concerned in the least bit with God's holiness and truly loving Him with their whole being.
Since I don't want to write a blog as long as my last one for fear of having something that's so excruciatingly long-winded that people take one look and click 'x', I'll stop here for now as I've laid out the argument, and I'll unpack it in a blog later this week. Keep posted, and thank you all for reading.
Well I'm ripping this blog off of part of my sermon this past Sunday, so any HCC people, you'll recognize it and probably fall asleep (lol--ok I didn't really 'lol', nor did i chuckle).
Sermon Sunday was on Ephesians 6:1-9, which is the section Paul uses to unpack now children are to relate to their parents and how workers (slaves in the original context) are to relate to their bosses (masters). Of course, the over-riding theme throughout the entire 5:22-6:9 section in Ephesians is the same over-riding theme prevalent all throughout the Scriptures: In view of God's holiness and mercy shown most through Christ Jesus' work, do this (whatever this is). A lot of people assume the Bible is just a list of rules by which to abide so that God won't punish us or be mean to us. Of course, there have been many Christians over the years who portrayed the Gospel in these terms, so I can't totally blame the people who wrongly assume that. It should also be understood that all of us, before we receive Christ, are in rebellion to God and actually are enemies of God. Paul says in Romans 5:10 that we who have Christ have been reconciled to God, even though we were enemies of God. He then goes on in Romans 8:7 to say that those who's minds are set on the flesh are hostile to God, since their mind "does not submit to God's law; indeed it can not." We could go on, but my point is that although some Christians have done a bad job at portraying the God of love, ALL non-Christians are in rebellion against God's holiness and even if Christians were to present the God of love better, portrayed most gloriously in the face of Jesus Christ, most non-Christians (if not all) would still find some reason to not believe--because they're in rebellion unless the Holy Spirit does the work of awakening their hearts to Christ (which we pray for and seek to model in our lives as ambassadors of reconciliation).
All this to say that the context in the Ephesians passage is that those of us who claim to have Christ, who "have learned Christ" (Eph. 4:20), have "put off the old self" (4:22), are "children of light" (5:8), and are working to "understand what the will of the Lord is" (5:17), don't just follow the rules because we want to appease an angry and vengeful God--we follow them because Christ already followed all the rules and went to the cross to make a final sacrifice for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God, and now we follow His rules because we WANT to. You can look all throughout Deuteronomy 6 to hear Moses talking about how all of God's laws are for our good, and are to be followed in response to His goodness and provision.
In closing the sermon Sunday, I felt it best to head back to Jesus' telling of "the Great Commandment" in Matthew 22:37-40. Jesus says it's to "love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength", and then He continues on with another command that is apparently to follow in succession, to "love your neighbor as yourself". When referring to 'the Great Commandment', people typically speak of both commandments, even though Jesus said the first is the greatest and the second is second. Nevertheless, the fact that He says both means that the second is to be critically understood and followed. This relates to the discussion at hand because at the end of the day, Paul's concern throughout Ephesians is that we treasure what God's done for us FIRST, and then act it out in our relationships with each other SECOND, which seems synonymous with what Jesus said.
The point of this blog post today is summed up in this one statement: The Great Commandment is sufficient to explain ALL that God wants from us (Jesus said it is), but in order to understand what it means to be ministers of the Gospel, we have to continually keep watch over our following of the WHOLE Commandment. What I mean is this: While we are to love God with the whole of our entire self, we clearly MUST have a love for our neighbor which flows from our love for God. At the same time, while we are to love our neighbor, our concern for them must never eclipse our concern for the holiness and glory of God.
It may sound like I'm speaking obvious things that don't need to be emphasized, but I don't think I am (obviously, I wouldn't be saying it otherwise). I'm convinced that one of the chief failures of city churches (I'm a pastor in a city church) is that they've either leaned too heavily on one half of the Great Commandment, or leaned too heavily on the other half.
What I mean is this: In seeking to do Gospel ministry, many people have become so concerned with God's holiness and following His rules, that they've neglected the work of loving their neighbor and caring for them. On the flip-side, many others have become so concerned with caring for and loving their neighbor, they aren't concerned in the least bit with God's holiness and truly loving Him with their whole being.
Since I don't want to write a blog as long as my last one for fear of having something that's so excruciatingly long-winded that people take one look and click 'x', I'll stop here for now as I've laid out the argument, and I'll unpack it in a blog later this week. Keep posted, and thank you all for reading.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Timothy's Charge
Hey everyone,
This is my new blog. My name's Scott (you probably already know me if you're reading this), and I've been meaning to start a blog that the people in my church can read, as well as any visitors that we get. I used to do notes on Facebook all the time, but I sort of got out of that, and this will be the new norm. Hopefully I'll keep up with it.
As a new Senior Pastor (in my third month) I've spent a lot of time contemplating what it means to be a Church in the city. I recently moved to Pittsburgh to preach at an inner-city church called Hazelwood Christian Church, and we're (my wife Kate, and I) having a blast. The people in the community we live in are wonderful and the people in our church are even more wonderful. I love it. Anyways, I've spent a lot of time contemplating what it means to be a Church in the city, and how I as a pastor fit in/assist in that call.
In a nutshell, here is where I've felt God moving me over the last year or so, regarding my calling: I've felt that the Holy Spirit, which has wrought salvation in my heart to draw me to God through the finished work of God's Son Jesus Christ, has been working on me to a) assist a church that needs help, b) work with and disciple that church's leadership, and c) proclaim the glory of God expressly revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. I believe that as I do this (and I'll be the first to tell you I have no idea what I'm doing), God is going to move.
Let me break down our church's identity as two-fold: First, we are a Christian Church, descended from the Stone-Campbell Movement. Secondly, we are an inner-city church, in a rough and poor community.
As regards the former, the Stone-Campbell Movement (named after Barton Stone and Thomas Campbell and his son Alex) was a movement of American churches in the 1800s that simply wanted to move away from any sort of denominational ties, and get back to being the New Testament Church, where creeds weren't depended upon, baptism by immersion is emphasized, and Christ is proclaimed as holy and glorious. Since it happened to "restore" the Church back to the NT Church, this has been called the Restoration Movement.
As regards the latter, we are part of the minority of inner-city churches in poor communities of big cities that are still alive, kicking, and proclaiming Christ. Many have closed, are still closing, and many will continue to close.
Now let me share with you the temptation both of those characteristics have to face:
--In the Restoration Churches, there is a growing sense of discontentment with the fact that churches are shrinking, closing, and people in the Church don't really seem to care. Thus, when books like Francis Chan's "Crazy Love", David Platt's "Radical", or Kyle Idleman's "Not a Fan", all of which emphasize that Christians are to leave their comfort zones (almost to fault, as leaving the comfort zone seems to be an ends to itself--but this isn't a book review blog; it should also be stated that there aren't many bigger David Platt fans than myself), pastors and preachers in Christian Churches snatch them up and say, "THIS is what we're all about, Church. Do THIS," which is 90% of the time met with closed ears. So the Restoration Churches, which has always prided itself on being theologically conservative, begin to preach the latest books instead of the Scriptures that Paul tells Timothy to preach from alone--we'll get to that later. ("Conservative" should probably be defined, but I'll save that for later--let me just say, many Christian churches aren't as conservative theologically as they like to think).
--Inner-city churches also have temptations. Typical of inner-city neighborhoods are problems with crime and violence, drugs, lack of resources, and lack of care from the city government and law enforcement. Thus, when a church considers itself to be primarily a meeter of needs (which many do), the church will give itself to events that promote stopping the violence (which they certainly should), recovery programs for those in drugs (which they should), programs to facilitate economy such as buying clubs (which they should), and campaigns to promote the goodness of the neighborhood for the city to see (which they should). Obviously, the common denominator in all of these is the fact that ALL of them are good, noble, and should be practiced. The temptation comes in when a church looks at all of those needs, and begins to give ALL of it's time, energy, and resources to fixing the problems, and neglects it's primary calling as a Church: to proclaim the Gospel and make much of Christ to the people who have not knowing Him as their REAL disparity.
As I've thought on these things, what I see is that those pursuits are NOT bad things. They arise from good motives, and typically yield good fruits. Pastors preaching against comfort?--Jesus did it. Churches in poor communities meeting needs for those who have nothing?--Jesus taught it. Of course these are necessary in the life of the Church.
But as I read the opening of Paul's letter to Timothy, I see something that is even more important.
1 Timothy 1:3-5--"As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so 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 stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." (ESV)
In a nutshell, Paul is telling Timothy that if anyone in the church is preaching messages that promote only speculations and cause divisions, do away with it. Of course, we don't have a problem with "genealogies" today. You won't typically visit a church and hear someone arguing, "Well my great-grandmother was a member of this church for 80 years, since the time the church was founded, and SHE wouldn't agree with what you're preaching, and neither would my mother who doesn't come because she can't walk but she STILL wouldn't believe in it, so I don't either!" Okay, never mind, maybe we still have a problem with genealogies in the church.
However, I'd have to say that the bigger "genealogy" right now is young Christians, myself included, looking at the Church which appears happy the way things are, then noticing empty pews, then noticing people in the world hating the church, and then speculating that EVERYTHING has to change.
Of course, the mother of invention is need, and many of these young Christians look around and see a need and say, "We need to do something about this." And they're right--we do.
But at the end of the day, if your "calling into question everything" leads to a division and argument that screams louder than the Gospel of Christ: justification by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone, as He died the final sacrifice for all sins because God is holy and just in wanting a final sacrifice, and the only person who's ever lived a holy life of perfect obedience before God is Jesus, who WAS God, so HE makes the final sacrifice because even though God is holy and SHOULD wipe us out for our disobedience and rebellion but He doesn't because He loves us anyways in spite of ourselves and this is cause for complete reckless abandon in worship of Him who is obviously worthy of worship and one day will GET worship from all people but until then humbly gives people chance after chance to come to Him through Christ--if your arguments end up being louder than THAT message, which is the Church's message all throughout the New Testament, then you need to sit down and be quiet. And on the same token, pastors, if your "stand" on comfort screams louder than the simple and profound and glorious message of Christ's atonement for sins, maybe you need to sit down, too. I'm only saying this because I love you and because I believe God HAS called you to proclaim the Gospel in His Church. Proclaim it. But if you're not going to proclaim it, don't proclaim anything.
At the same time, I believe the reason why many of the inner-city churches close down these days is not simply because their neighborhoods are bad and make it impossible to live there, as though God needed a good and affluent neighborhood to work, nor is it because they haven't worked hard to meet needs in the community. Rather, it's because they've allowed the felt and SEEABLE needs to come up in front of the greatest need, which is that people hear and believe on Christ. I pray daily that I wouldn't fall into temptation to put the community's felt needs first, but that I'd proclaim the message of Christ's work first, and THEN felt needs which flow from that. I'd ask you to pray for me in that endeavor as well.
Notice what Paul says at the end of verse 4, which he says is contrary to 'endless genealogies that promote speculations': "..rather than stewardship of God that is by faith." Going on in verse 5 he says that the aim of our charge is "love that issues from a pure heart and good conscience and sincere faith."
In a world where things make less and less sense each day, and in communities where kids are growing up as confused as I am when I try to think of ways to train my dog to stop pooping everywhere, they need to hear the Gospel, because it's the message of grace (which promotes undeserved forgiveness) and it's the message of God's sovereignty (which promotes trust in Him who is bigger than all of our problems). Paul says that when we hear this, we are to be good stewards of it by exercising faith in this Gospel in every area of our lives. Thus we won't make Christ's sacrifice void by continuing on in the sin He died for, and we won't make God's grace void, as we a use the freedom we've been given in Him to continue to worship ourselves. The opposite of speculations and arguments is living in light of the work of Christ, which humbles us and changes our hearts to make us want to worship Him, no matter what anyone does or says to us. This is because our identity is found in Him and Him alone. This is what we were created for. You could simply read Paul's letters to the Romans and Ephesians to see him carry out this idea practically even more.
Finally, Paul says the aim is simply love which is ONLY possible through having a pure heart which comes from having a good conscience and sincere faith. Ironically (and it's not ironic at all), these are all things that come through having faith in Christ's work on the Cross. HE purifies our hearts (Hebrews 1:3, 1 Peter 1:22-23--prophesied in Ezekiel 36) by humbling us up underneath God's Lordship as we see His glory and power, alongside His love for us. HE gives us a good conscience (Psalm 103:11-12, John 15:3-5, Hebrews 10:12-14). HE changes our hearts so that we have a sincere faith (1 Peter 3:18, 1 John 2:1-6).
At the end of the day, Paul's message to Timothy, a young church leader (like myself), who was entrusted with a ministry that was beyond himself (also like myself), to preach a Gospel that was beyond himself and his own understanding (like myself too), was simply to preach Christ. He says it famously in his second letter to Timothy, in 4:2, "I urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word." The Word is Jesus. Preach Jesus. God's Word is also Scripture. Preach Scripture.
Pastors (the few of you that have had time to read this--I know your busy guys doing God's work in the Church), set the latest "uncomfortable" book down, and preach the Word. Preach Christ. Preach the Scriptures. If it's uncomfortable because you feel inadequate to the task, then you're a Gospel preacher. God only truly uses those who realize that in and of themselves, they have nothing to offer. You don't, and we BOTH need to recognize daily that we are dust and worthless--but God deems us conquerors (and MORE than conquerors) (Romans 8:37), and how? Through Him who loved us. We're not just conquerors. We're conquerors IN HIM. Don't attempt to "conquer" your neighborhood or your church or whatever; instead, preach Him who has conquered the grave and conquered the world. That's the only way you become a conqueror. We mustn't pretend we can conquer or achieve anything as though the verse said, "We're more than conquerors" and that's it. The verse says we're more than conquerors IN HIM. Woe is us if we divorce it and make Him not be at the center of everything in our endeavors.
I've had a lot of this addressed at pastors and church leaders, and I don't even know how many of them will read this. Really, this message is for anyone, pastor or not, church leader or not. YOU need to trust in Christ, and when you do, YOU need to preach Christ, in both word and action so the people in your world see and hear it. I can't tell you how many people I talk to all the time that talk of how they've been "doing well" in their "spiritual life" and "prayer life". If at the end of the day, you're "doing well" but it's not causing you to proclaim the glories of God who is glorious, you're not doing as well as you think you are. You're reaping SOMETHING, but it's not fruit. It's just an illusion of fruit. God's Word reaps a worship of, zeal for, and humility toward Himself. And when we experience the blessing of His presence, our message isn't, "I've been reading and praying a lot better"; it's "God's been gracious and He's been drawing me to Himself."
To put it another way, may we use Paul's words for the young preacher Timothy, that we have love that issues from our pure heart and good conscience and sincere faith. These only come from coming up underneath the Gospel and letting God do the work HE wants to do. Don't set goals in your spiritual life, but rather let Christ ALONE be the goal. May you echo Paul in Philippians 3 when he says he counts his past life as rubbish for the sake of KNOWING Christ. Too often, we read that passage and focus on the fact that Paul has been transformed. "See? Paul's been transformed!" We forget that the point isn't that he's been transformed. The point is what he's been transformed to. Knowing Christ Jesus. Do you understand? Honestly, most don't. I'm the one typing it and I don't even understand. But praise be to God, He justifies me, sanctifies me, and one day will glorify me. It's all through the Word (John 17:17). Let the Word do it's work, and let God define the goals and take you there. THIS is how a Restoration Church in the inner-city is to do the ministry of Christ: Preach the Word. This is how ALL Restoration churches are to do ministry, and ALL inner-city churches are to do ministry. Let's preach the Word, and let's have pure hearts and sincere faith, issuing from Christ's glorious work on the work on the Cross and out of the Tomb. Praise be to Him, Amen.
This is my new blog. My name's Scott (you probably already know me if you're reading this), and I've been meaning to start a blog that the people in my church can read, as well as any visitors that we get. I used to do notes on Facebook all the time, but I sort of got out of that, and this will be the new norm. Hopefully I'll keep up with it.
As a new Senior Pastor (in my third month) I've spent a lot of time contemplating what it means to be a Church in the city. I recently moved to Pittsburgh to preach at an inner-city church called Hazelwood Christian Church, and we're (my wife Kate, and I) having a blast. The people in the community we live in are wonderful and the people in our church are even more wonderful. I love it. Anyways, I've spent a lot of time contemplating what it means to be a Church in the city, and how I as a pastor fit in/assist in that call.
In a nutshell, here is where I've felt God moving me over the last year or so, regarding my calling: I've felt that the Holy Spirit, which has wrought salvation in my heart to draw me to God through the finished work of God's Son Jesus Christ, has been working on me to a) assist a church that needs help, b) work with and disciple that church's leadership, and c) proclaim the glory of God expressly revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. I believe that as I do this (and I'll be the first to tell you I have no idea what I'm doing), God is going to move.
Let me break down our church's identity as two-fold: First, we are a Christian Church, descended from the Stone-Campbell Movement. Secondly, we are an inner-city church, in a rough and poor community.
As regards the former, the Stone-Campbell Movement (named after Barton Stone and Thomas Campbell and his son Alex) was a movement of American churches in the 1800s that simply wanted to move away from any sort of denominational ties, and get back to being the New Testament Church, where creeds weren't depended upon, baptism by immersion is emphasized, and Christ is proclaimed as holy and glorious. Since it happened to "restore" the Church back to the NT Church, this has been called the Restoration Movement.
As regards the latter, we are part of the minority of inner-city churches in poor communities of big cities that are still alive, kicking, and proclaiming Christ. Many have closed, are still closing, and many will continue to close.
Now let me share with you the temptation both of those characteristics have to face:
--In the Restoration Churches, there is a growing sense of discontentment with the fact that churches are shrinking, closing, and people in the Church don't really seem to care. Thus, when books like Francis Chan's "Crazy Love", David Platt's "Radical", or Kyle Idleman's "Not a Fan", all of which emphasize that Christians are to leave their comfort zones (almost to fault, as leaving the comfort zone seems to be an ends to itself--but this isn't a book review blog; it should also be stated that there aren't many bigger David Platt fans than myself), pastors and preachers in Christian Churches snatch them up and say, "THIS is what we're all about, Church. Do THIS," which is 90% of the time met with closed ears. So the Restoration Churches, which has always prided itself on being theologically conservative, begin to preach the latest books instead of the Scriptures that Paul tells Timothy to preach from alone--we'll get to that later. ("Conservative" should probably be defined, but I'll save that for later--let me just say, many Christian churches aren't as conservative theologically as they like to think).
--Inner-city churches also have temptations. Typical of inner-city neighborhoods are problems with crime and violence, drugs, lack of resources, and lack of care from the city government and law enforcement. Thus, when a church considers itself to be primarily a meeter of needs (which many do), the church will give itself to events that promote stopping the violence (which they certainly should), recovery programs for those in drugs (which they should), programs to facilitate economy such as buying clubs (which they should), and campaigns to promote the goodness of the neighborhood for the city to see (which they should). Obviously, the common denominator in all of these is the fact that ALL of them are good, noble, and should be practiced. The temptation comes in when a church looks at all of those needs, and begins to give ALL of it's time, energy, and resources to fixing the problems, and neglects it's primary calling as a Church: to proclaim the Gospel and make much of Christ to the people who have not knowing Him as their REAL disparity.
As I've thought on these things, what I see is that those pursuits are NOT bad things. They arise from good motives, and typically yield good fruits. Pastors preaching against comfort?--Jesus did it. Churches in poor communities meeting needs for those who have nothing?--Jesus taught it. Of course these are necessary in the life of the Church.
But as I read the opening of Paul's letter to Timothy, I see something that is even more important.
1 Timothy 1:3-5--"As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so 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 stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." (ESV)
In a nutshell, Paul is telling Timothy that if anyone in the church is preaching messages that promote only speculations and cause divisions, do away with it. Of course, we don't have a problem with "genealogies" today. You won't typically visit a church and hear someone arguing, "Well my great-grandmother was a member of this church for 80 years, since the time the church was founded, and SHE wouldn't agree with what you're preaching, and neither would my mother who doesn't come because she can't walk but she STILL wouldn't believe in it, so I don't either!" Okay, never mind, maybe we still have a problem with genealogies in the church.
However, I'd have to say that the bigger "genealogy" right now is young Christians, myself included, looking at the Church which appears happy the way things are, then noticing empty pews, then noticing people in the world hating the church, and then speculating that EVERYTHING has to change.
Of course, the mother of invention is need, and many of these young Christians look around and see a need and say, "We need to do something about this." And they're right--we do.
But at the end of the day, if your "calling into question everything" leads to a division and argument that screams louder than the Gospel of Christ: justification by faith alone, through grace alone, in Christ alone, as He died the final sacrifice for all sins because God is holy and just in wanting a final sacrifice, and the only person who's ever lived a holy life of perfect obedience before God is Jesus, who WAS God, so HE makes the final sacrifice because even though God is holy and SHOULD wipe us out for our disobedience and rebellion but He doesn't because He loves us anyways in spite of ourselves and this is cause for complete reckless abandon in worship of Him who is obviously worthy of worship and one day will GET worship from all people but until then humbly gives people chance after chance to come to Him through Christ--if your arguments end up being louder than THAT message, which is the Church's message all throughout the New Testament, then you need to sit down and be quiet. And on the same token, pastors, if your "stand" on comfort screams louder than the simple and profound and glorious message of Christ's atonement for sins, maybe you need to sit down, too. I'm only saying this because I love you and because I believe God HAS called you to proclaim the Gospel in His Church. Proclaim it. But if you're not going to proclaim it, don't proclaim anything.
At the same time, I believe the reason why many of the inner-city churches close down these days is not simply because their neighborhoods are bad and make it impossible to live there, as though God needed a good and affluent neighborhood to work, nor is it because they haven't worked hard to meet needs in the community. Rather, it's because they've allowed the felt and SEEABLE needs to come up in front of the greatest need, which is that people hear and believe on Christ. I pray daily that I wouldn't fall into temptation to put the community's felt needs first, but that I'd proclaim the message of Christ's work first, and THEN felt needs which flow from that. I'd ask you to pray for me in that endeavor as well.
Notice what Paul says at the end of verse 4, which he says is contrary to 'endless genealogies that promote speculations': "..rather than stewardship of God that is by faith." Going on in verse 5 he says that the aim of our charge is "love that issues from a pure heart and good conscience and sincere faith."
In a world where things make less and less sense each day, and in communities where kids are growing up as confused as I am when I try to think of ways to train my dog to stop pooping everywhere, they need to hear the Gospel, because it's the message of grace (which promotes undeserved forgiveness) and it's the message of God's sovereignty (which promotes trust in Him who is bigger than all of our problems). Paul says that when we hear this, we are to be good stewards of it by exercising faith in this Gospel in every area of our lives. Thus we won't make Christ's sacrifice void by continuing on in the sin He died for, and we won't make God's grace void, as we a use the freedom we've been given in Him to continue to worship ourselves. The opposite of speculations and arguments is living in light of the work of Christ, which humbles us and changes our hearts to make us want to worship Him, no matter what anyone does or says to us. This is because our identity is found in Him and Him alone. This is what we were created for. You could simply read Paul's letters to the Romans and Ephesians to see him carry out this idea practically even more.
Finally, Paul says the aim is simply love which is ONLY possible through having a pure heart which comes from having a good conscience and sincere faith. Ironically (and it's not ironic at all), these are all things that come through having faith in Christ's work on the Cross. HE purifies our hearts (Hebrews 1:3, 1 Peter 1:22-23--prophesied in Ezekiel 36) by humbling us up underneath God's Lordship as we see His glory and power, alongside His love for us. HE gives us a good conscience (Psalm 103:11-12, John 15:3-5, Hebrews 10:12-14). HE changes our hearts so that we have a sincere faith (1 Peter 3:18, 1 John 2:1-6).
At the end of the day, Paul's message to Timothy, a young church leader (like myself), who was entrusted with a ministry that was beyond himself (also like myself), to preach a Gospel that was beyond himself and his own understanding (like myself too), was simply to preach Christ. He says it famously in his second letter to Timothy, in 4:2, "I urge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word." The Word is Jesus. Preach Jesus. God's Word is also Scripture. Preach Scripture.
Pastors (the few of you that have had time to read this--I know your busy guys doing God's work in the Church), set the latest "uncomfortable" book down, and preach the Word. Preach Christ. Preach the Scriptures. If it's uncomfortable because you feel inadequate to the task, then you're a Gospel preacher. God only truly uses those who realize that in and of themselves, they have nothing to offer. You don't, and we BOTH need to recognize daily that we are dust and worthless--but God deems us conquerors (and MORE than conquerors) (Romans 8:37), and how? Through Him who loved us. We're not just conquerors. We're conquerors IN HIM. Don't attempt to "conquer" your neighborhood or your church or whatever; instead, preach Him who has conquered the grave and conquered the world. That's the only way you become a conqueror. We mustn't pretend we can conquer or achieve anything as though the verse said, "We're more than conquerors" and that's it. The verse says we're more than conquerors IN HIM. Woe is us if we divorce it and make Him not be at the center of everything in our endeavors.
I've had a lot of this addressed at pastors and church leaders, and I don't even know how many of them will read this. Really, this message is for anyone, pastor or not, church leader or not. YOU need to trust in Christ, and when you do, YOU need to preach Christ, in both word and action so the people in your world see and hear it. I can't tell you how many people I talk to all the time that talk of how they've been "doing well" in their "spiritual life" and "prayer life". If at the end of the day, you're "doing well" but it's not causing you to proclaim the glories of God who is glorious, you're not doing as well as you think you are. You're reaping SOMETHING, but it's not fruit. It's just an illusion of fruit. God's Word reaps a worship of, zeal for, and humility toward Himself. And when we experience the blessing of His presence, our message isn't, "I've been reading and praying a lot better"; it's "God's been gracious and He's been drawing me to Himself."
To put it another way, may we use Paul's words for the young preacher Timothy, that we have love that issues from our pure heart and good conscience and sincere faith. These only come from coming up underneath the Gospel and letting God do the work HE wants to do. Don't set goals in your spiritual life, but rather let Christ ALONE be the goal. May you echo Paul in Philippians 3 when he says he counts his past life as rubbish for the sake of KNOWING Christ. Too often, we read that passage and focus on the fact that Paul has been transformed. "See? Paul's been transformed!" We forget that the point isn't that he's been transformed. The point is what he's been transformed to. Knowing Christ Jesus. Do you understand? Honestly, most don't. I'm the one typing it and I don't even understand. But praise be to God, He justifies me, sanctifies me, and one day will glorify me. It's all through the Word (John 17:17). Let the Word do it's work, and let God define the goals and take you there. THIS is how a Restoration Church in the inner-city is to do the ministry of Christ: Preach the Word. This is how ALL Restoration churches are to do ministry, and ALL inner-city churches are to do ministry. Let's preach the Word, and let's have pure hearts and sincere faith, issuing from Christ's glorious work on the work on the Cross and out of the Tomb. Praise be to Him, Amen.
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