Spiritual adultery

I snagged the following quotes off of the first part of an audio series simply called "Grace" by Rob Rufus that I downloaded quite a while ago from the Grace in Flood blog. I enjoy listening to the series from time to time.

In this part, Rob is talking about Christians who go back to their old marriage partner, The Law, to try to get themselves straightened out and whipped into shape so they can be presentable to their new Husband, Jesus. But the Law only condemns, the Law only kills, the Law only pronounces judgment. The Law is perfect and holy and good and just, but the Law is a terrible, terrible husband.

Rob says:

Now I believe that what Jesus does is He looks at the church that does that and I just think that tears come down His eyes. I think He just looks at us and goes, "Do you think I'm an insecure husband? Did you think I didn't know you'd have all these idiosyncrasies? I never had any illusions. I knew everything about you when I took you on and embraced you. I am the perfect husband to my bride. I'm the perfect bridegroom. I'm the perfect husband of all husbands.

And I can love you unconditionally because the integrity of heaven's high call of justice was fully satisfied by Me on the cross on your behalf...

And you think you're impressing Me by going back to him to make me happy? You break My heart. I'm not the one putting you under the laws, the rules and condemnation. I'm the one that redeems you from it so that 24 hours a day Father's love and acceptance may pour into your life."

Psalm 23:3

Psalm 23:3
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness
For His name's sake.


Isaiah 40:28-31
Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the LORD,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
29 He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
31 But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.


Rom 3:21-22
But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.


2 Tim 3:16-17
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.


Rom 4:5-8
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:
7 "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
8 Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin."


Titus 2:11-14
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.


2 Cor 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Introducing my alter ego - The Rev. J. Slick Breeze

I'm taking a big chance with this. I'm afraid it might be the end of my good reputation if I share this video. (I know, you're saying when did my good reputation start?) Anyway, the man in this video really embarrasses me. I recently came into contact with him through a rift that opened in the wall that normally separates us from a parallel universe. He looks like a desperate man who really needs attention, so at the risk of losing all credibility I thought I'd be nice to him and share his video with you. After all... he's family. Sort of.

Introducing my holier-than-thou twin-brother-from-another-mother-in-a-parallel-universe, The Rev. J. Slick Breeze. Seems as if he got the looks, I got the brains. Anyway, apparently he has a big ministry on the other side called "Grease Roots" (although he usually refers to it as "Greasy Roots"). He appears to be in big trouble. Maybe we could all chip in and help a brother out.

I left my burdens in Canada

The last time I was in Canada... was the only time I've been in Canada! It was 1993. I was 24 years old and single (although in a not-so-healthy relationship). A small group of people from my church (at the time) here in Waterloo, Iowa joined up with a few other small groups from around Iowa and Minnesota and took a trip up into the boundary waters of Ontario. Other than me, there were two men from my church and three women. The three women included the woman who would eventually be my wife, Tracey (who was also dating someone else at the time), as well as two of her best friends.

This was a trip in which God planted me in some fertile ground in which I began to trust Him more. For starters, during the final day before leaving, I was still short $20. At that time in my life, that was big money to me. I was trusting God to provide it if He wanted me to go on this trip and I asked people to pray for me. Well, in an unrelated spontaneous incident, I came up with the idea that I needed a book or two to take on the trip, so I dug through my book collection and found C.S. Lewis' book The Screwtape Letters that my mom had given me the previous year. I opened the book, and there was a twenty dollar bill tucked into it! NOBODY knew I would be looking through that book. I didn't even know I would be! I realized I could truly trust God to do what He wants to do, even if it looks impossible to me.

The trip itself turned out to be so much more than I bargained for, in a very good way. More on that towards the end. On the first day we drove up to Clear Lake, IA and Minneapolis, MN to pick up more people. We ended up with four vehicles hauling our total group of 25 people, along with two trailers loaded with canoes and all our supplies for the week. We stayed the first night in cabins in Grand Marais, MN.

The next day we headed into Canada and we drove for several hours on some old logging roads. Once on those logging roads, we didn't come across another person at all until we came back to the civilized world a week later. We took this trip under the leadership of a man named Dave who had done this same trip 19 years in a row, so we were in good hands. We had large coolers full of good food - ground beef, chicken, turkey, vegetables, Tang mix, etc, etc - and it was kept cold all week long with block ice.

In two places on one of the logging roads, the road had been washed out, and we could see that people had used trees/logs to patch things up. Two of our vehicles were large extended vans, each pulling one of the canoe trailers - and we had to get over these bad sections of the road! In both cases we emptied ourselves out of the vans and pretty much just prayed that the vans and trailers could make it over, and when they did make it over we prayed that they'd be able to make it over on the way back! We made it through, and we eventually arrived at a lake. We simply left the vehicles on the side of the road for the week. We unloaded the canoes and put them in the lake and unloaded all our supplies and put them in the canoes.

The first day we only canoed for about two hours. We ended up at a temporary campsite and spent the night there. In the morning we headed out again and canoed for several hours. This canoe trip included two portages, in which we had to unload the supplies and gear from the canoes, carry it all down a 1/4 mile path and a 1/2 mile trail and load up the canoes again. It was a lot of work! Finally we arrived at our main campsite for the week.

Over the years, Dave and others who had taken this trip had built up kind of a rough kitchen area, with a table, benches and a cooking area. He noted that it looked like no one had been in this area since they had been there a year ago. We were waaaay out in the boonies! Our toilet area was down a long path. It was simply a hole dug in the ground with some rocks build up around it with an actual toilet seat on top! To take a "bath," we would grab some soap and jump into the lake and start scrubbing!

The scenery was beautiful and untouched by man. The lake was clear. You could see bear claw markings on the trees alongside the lake. It was very peaceful, very beautiful. Occasionally we would see and hear loons on the lake.

Our days at the campsite had various times of activity and rest. There was always someone out fishing on the lake. One day we went cliff diving. Once or twice each day, I would grab a canoe and another person, and we would head out quite a distance from the shore with a huge container in which we would collect clean drinking water. The water near the shore was too contaminated with bacteria. We would then bring the water back in, along with one of our canoe oars. Into the huge water container went some of the Tang mixture, and we stirred it with... yep... the oar!

We had campfires, we sang songs, we rested in hammocks. We made meals on a huge "Texas skillet." Some of our meals included fish we had caught in the lake. It was an unbelievable week. The weather was perfect all week, and it wasn't until the last day that it got a little overcast and we had a few drops of rain.

When I came on this trip to Canada, I didn't feel like I was all that stressed out or anxious in life, but as the week progressed and I found myself living a very free and enjoyable life, I realized that there were several huge burdens that I had been carrying. I had no money. I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. I was in a bad relationship, and I didn't want to hurt the woman but yet I knew I had to get out of it, but didn't have the gumption to do it. And there were just lots of little things that added up to a huge weight on me.

The wonderful thing was that during this week on the lake, I was away from all of it. Even though I hadn't come on this trip to escape anything, I found that this was exactly what I needed. Being miles and miles away from civilization and from all my problems temporarily made it impossible for me to do anything fix any of my problems, and that was a good thing. During this time in which I was in such a peaceful situation, I realized that there's more to life than struggling to deal with "life." Without the pressure of having to deal with anything, I was able to finally see clearly and to see my problems from a different view. I can't explain what a huge release that week was for my soul! I was at peace. I was refreshed. I could breathe. My burdens melted away in Canada!

When we set out on our canoes at the end of the week, I first ended up in the catamaran. (Most of the canoes were powered by us and our oars, but there was also a catamaran - which was simply two parallel canoes joined together in a certain way, powered by a motor. We called it the Party Barge!). So anyway, instead of paddling hard I was able to relax on the first part of our trip out of the boundary waters. I looked all around me and I was overwhelmed by the love God had shown me and the release He had given me during the week. I didn't want to leave! I saw a bald eagle flying above. Behind my sunglasses, tears began to form in my eyes and then eventually they began to stream down my face. Tears of joy for the great experience I'd had and tears of sadness and apprehension because I would miss this place and because I didn't want to go back into the 'real world!'

I'll never forget my time in Canada. In fact, I go back there quite often in my mind. Not to try to re-live the experience, but as a way of reminding myself of the faithfulness of God and of how He takes my burdens... and how there is no need to carry all these burdens and worries in life.

Here are some pics from the trip. I know I have more somewhere, because I know for sure there's a picture of some of us standing underneath the Welcome To Ontario sign, as well as a few more pictures that I can't seem to find. If I find them, I'll add them to the slide show.

New Pagan Christianity interview

Frank Viola posted a link on his Myspace page to a new radio interview that he had with George Barna, discussing the book Pagan Christianity on a radio program called Today's Life Today. A while back I posted the link to their first interview and here is a link to their second one, in case anyone is interested. The first one is just over an hour long. The new one was an hour-long interview, but they cut out the breaks so it's about 35 mins.

Some quotes from this interview:

"Man, we have been given so much freedom in Christ and we've in many ways chosen to put ourselves back in chains. And we've got to get free from that."

"And this is one of the reasons why there are so many Christians - I'd say a mass exodus - who are leaving the institutional church in pursuit of something that is more authentic. I like what Reggie McNeal said... A growing number of people are leaving the institutional church for a new reason. They're not leaving because they have lost their faith. They're leaving their church to preserve their faith. I think that is arresting and true."
(From me... I can most certainly relate to those words).

Host: "Well, see, I've been involved in several churches that I've been kicked out of because I went and looked at the scriptures."

Perfection - Part 2 of 2 - The good news

I'll start this one off with some brief technicalities and then get on with it.

The words that are translated as "perfect" or "perfected" originate as two Greek words:

Teleios (Strong's 5046) is the adjective form of the word, and it's used more commonly. It means "brought to it's end, finished; wanting nothing necessary to completeness; perfect; that which is perfect."

The word that is used a little less often is Teleioo (Strong's 5048). It's the verb form of the word and it means "to make perfect, complete; to carry through completely, to accomplish, finish, bring to an end; to be found perfect; to bring to the end goal."

(The root word for both words is Telos (Strong's 5056), which, simply put, means "the end, the termination, the limit, the purpose, the end, the aim, the end to which all things relate.")

I bring all this up simply to give a bigger sense of what "perfect" means, but in short the words are all related and they have to do with being complete, finished, mature, lacking nothing, perfect, brought to the end goal.

In the first post I attempted to point out the "bad news" about man's lack of perfection. Jesus came as a masterful teacher of the law, and in case anyone thought they were doing ok in regards to being perfect or complete through keeping the law, Jesus made it perfectly clear that they fell far short. The rich young ruler, for example, after claiming to have kept certain laws since his youth, asked Jesus, "What do I still lack?" (In other words, "in what ways do I still fall short of perfection?"). Jesus answered him, "If you want to be perfect (teleios), go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." The man went away sorrowful.

Why?

I'll just cut to the chase. It's because it's impossible for sinful man to become perfected (complete, brought to the end goal, perfect) through anything he does (!) - no matter how well he thinks he has performed. We can pick on the rich young ruler for not wanting to give up his riches, but who among us could have a conversation with Jesus in which we bring to Him our mighty list of accomplishments and leave Him satisfied with our supposed state of perfection! To me, the whole purpose of the Sermon on the Mount was to get that point through to man's thick, self-righteous skulls!

But I said I was getting to the good news. :) Actually, I think Jesus gives the good news near the beginning of His Sermon, right before spelling out the bad news, and I think we zip right past it without realizing it. He says, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill" (Matt 5:17). That's an earth-shattering statement!

"Excuse me, Jesus. Did I hear you right? Did you say you've come to FULFILL the law?"

"Yup."

Jesus goes on, "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled" (Matt 5:18).

From that point on, He begins to lay out the bad news about the consequences for those whose righteousness does not "exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees."

"You will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven."

Those words, along with the rest of the bad news in Matthew 5-7, make the good news all the more clear: Jesus came to fulfill the law! I believe that one reason Jesus went on to spell out all the bad news was to show how extremely important it was that He came to fulfill the law!

When sinful man finally realizes the truth about his lack of completeness and lack of perfection and lack of true righteousness, he can see much more clearly that standing perfect before God can only come as a gift. He will finally see that he can never earn it or attain to it through anything he does. If the Sermon on the Mount, in addition to the Law, doesn't get that across to sinful man, I don't know what will.

The good news is that Jesus fulfilled the law! And the result of that, along with His sacrificial death and subsequent resurrection is that "He has perfected (teleioo) forever those who are being sanctified" (Heb 10:14). Everything that was lacking in sinful man was completed, accomplished, carried through completely, perfected... through Jesus and only through Jesus.

Col 2:9-10 says, "For in Him (Jesus) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power."

In Christ... and in Christ alone... we have been perfected and we are complete. We can't add to it or take away from it! This is our actual, factual standing before God. Perfect, complete, holy, justified, sanctified, righteous.

Of course there is another use of the word perfect/perfected. It can also mean to be mature or complete in the things we do, in how we live our lives. This, of course, is something that doesn't happen instantly, in the way that our perfect and complete standing in Christ did. This is a matter of a lifetime of being transformed on the outside to the reality of what is true on the inside. Now, if you think that following the Law or the Sermon on the Mount plays any part in this, please understand the true meaning and the true depths of the Law, and please read the Sermon on the Mount again... and again... and again... until you understand that Jesus is not talking about Christian growth and maturity!

But if you do find yourself truly growing in grace and growing in the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - not through your own efforts but through resting in Christ, who fulfilled the Law - you may just find your outward performance naturally lining up with some of what you see in the law and with the things Jesus said! If you truly find this happening, I can guarantee that you won't ever make the claim that it's all because you've followed the Law or the Sermon on the Mount. Either that, or you've deceived yourself into thinking you have!

I have been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in Me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in Christ. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness (or perfection!) comes through the law, then Christ died in vain (see Gal 2:20-21). This is good news!

(By the way, I'm soliciting all comments about any or all of this - whether negative or positive, or neutral. This is my personal take on things, and I'm open to hear what you have to say).

Special Day

My wife gets a two-for-one today! Of course it's Mother's Day... and it's also our 12th Wedding Anniversary today! We were married May 11, 1996, which happened to be the day before Mother's Day that year.

We celebrated BIG TIME today. I went to Walmart and picked up 8 pieces of fried chicken and a bucket of mashed potatoes and gravy. :D It's what SHE wanted!

Also, in a bit of irony, when I got to work this morning I realized I didn't have my wedding ring on! I rarely take it off, but I had removed it yesterday while forming some hamburger patties, and I forgot to put it back on.

Below is a slide show of 9 of our weddin' day pics.