Yep, time for something out of the ordinary. Feelin' silly on a Sunday, I guess. =)
As far as I know, Kid Rock does not appear in this video, nor is there a sample of Sweet Home Alabama.
(If you have to ask what that means, don't worry, you're really probably only one step further out of current pop culture than I am).
Warren Zevon - Werewolves of London
Grace Roots Blog
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Surrender to grace
Over at Idle Musings today, the title of James' post, "Be a Loser," reminded me of the old Steve Taylor song, "Jesus is for Losers." :) But that's not the point of this post.
James quotes from a Christianity Today article (incidentally written by a Canadian singer/songwriter who I haven't heard about in a long time, Carolyn Arends) that has to do with Jacob wrestling with God, and God dislocating Jacob's hip, and Jacob getting a blessing out of the ordeal. The article uses this story to talk about our need to stop "living in our own resources" and instead rest "in the middle of God's goodness, power and provision." For the full gist, see the article that is linked to in James' post.
What I personally wanted to highlight was James' "idle musing" about all of this:
Whereas in Christ we were supposed to have our heavy burdens lifted, and replaced with an easy yoke and a light burden, the experience of many is just the opposite. It seems that in their Christian experience they put on even heavier burdens than they had in the first place, and instead of relaxing in the yoke with Jesus, they're trying to pull the heavy load themselves.
We seem to leave Grace behind... thinking it was only for Day 1, when we were born again. My, how we've promoted a cheap and weak gospel! We've led people to God through grace, but after that it's seemingly all up to us!
Grace is the essence of the Christian life. Jesus is grace personified. You can't separate grace from Jesus. You can't have a "Christian life" in any way, shape or form apart from Jesus or apart from grace. When you were saved on Day 1 through nothing less than God's grace, that grace remained with you, and remains with you forever! His strength, His righteousness, His peace, His joy, His... everything... is yours by grace, and grace alone. Surrender to it.
James quotes from a Christianity Today article (incidentally written by a Canadian singer/songwriter who I haven't heard about in a long time, Carolyn Arends) that has to do with Jacob wrestling with God, and God dislocating Jacob's hip, and Jacob getting a blessing out of the ordeal. The article uses this story to talk about our need to stop "living in our own resources" and instead rest "in the middle of God's goodness, power and provision." For the full gist, see the article that is linked to in James' post.
What I personally wanted to highlight was James' "idle musing" about all of this:
Of course, my question is always, "Why are you depending on your own strength in the first place?" One of the basic tenets of Christianity is we can't do it, we need God to do it for us, so why do we continue to struggle and strive and generally exhaust ourselves for nothing? Why not just surrender and let God have his way with us from the start?As I read this I began thinking about how quickly Christians turn from grace, and God's strength, to their own strength and resources. Take these two hypothetical, pretend spiritual journal entries, that may just be more based in reality that we might think:
Day 1: I'm saved by the precious grace of God! I'm free! I was weak, and a sinner, but now in the Lord, and in Him alone, I find my strength, righteousness and peace! Woo hoo!The amount of days between those two entries will of course vary from person to person (perhaps for some it will be weeks, months or years), but the point is that somewhere between the first entry above, and the last one, some very important things changed. Grace seems to have disappeared from the picture. Dependence upon God's strength is gone. It's been replaced by self-dependence. It's been replaced by a fleshly struggle to try to maintain the Christian life.
...
Day 366: I'm tired. I feel so much guilt. What a heavy burden. I don't know how much longer I can do this.
Whereas in Christ we were supposed to have our heavy burdens lifted, and replaced with an easy yoke and a light burden, the experience of many is just the opposite. It seems that in their Christian experience they put on even heavier burdens than they had in the first place, and instead of relaxing in the yoke with Jesus, they're trying to pull the heavy load themselves.
We seem to leave Grace behind... thinking it was only for Day 1, when we were born again. My, how we've promoted a cheap and weak gospel! We've led people to God through grace, but after that it's seemingly all up to us!
Grace is the essence of the Christian life. Jesus is grace personified. You can't separate grace from Jesus. You can't have a "Christian life" in any way, shape or form apart from Jesus or apart from grace. When you were saved on Day 1 through nothing less than God's grace, that grace remained with you, and remains with you forever! His strength, His righteousness, His peace, His joy, His... everything... is yours by grace, and grace alone. Surrender to it.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Big Difference 7 - Guilty of ALL vs. Innocent and justified
Rom 3:19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
James 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
Yep, that's what happened under the law. However...
Col 2:13-14 When you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He took it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Rom 3:21-24 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...
Rom 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ...
JUSTIFIED: Greek word Dikaioo -
-to render righteous or such he ought to be
-to show, exhibit, evince, one to be righteous, such as he is and wishes himself to be considered
-to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be
-to render as just or innocent
What guilt? The law made everyone guilty. But by faith in Christ we are now JUSTIFIED - declared to be righteous, rendered righteous and innocent!
*For an explanation of this Big Difference series, see the original post.*
James 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
Yep, that's what happened under the law. However...
Col 2:13-14 When you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He took it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
Rom 3:21-24 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus...
Rom 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ...
JUSTIFIED: Greek word Dikaioo -
-to render righteous or such he ought to be
-to show, exhibit, evince, one to be righteous, such as he is and wishes himself to be considered
-to declare, pronounce, one to be just, righteous, or such as he ought to be
-to render as just or innocent
What guilt? The law made everyone guilty. But by faith in Christ we are now JUSTIFIED - declared to be righteous, rendered righteous and innocent!
*For an explanation of this Big Difference series, see the original post.*
Thanks!
Thanks, EVERYONE, for your comments in the last post, and for your prayers and helpful thoughts... as well as for the kicks in the butt that I needed! I've also received some emails that have provided much help and encouragement, and I just want to say that all of this is providing a tremendous boost in my heart and soul.
I look back, and the timing has never been right. I used to get very frustrated, but throughout the process I've really learned to trust more and more in my Father, and in waiting upon Him, and trusting in His timing and in His moving and working in me to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Each time I've thought the time might be right, various things have happened, or haven't happened, and I've grown to understood in my heart that it's ok. There's no hurry. Just as with anyone else who has ever tasted of the genuine, sweet, juicy, tasty fruit that God produces through His children, and has also tasted the fake, sour, unripe fruit that comes from mere human, religious effort, I want the genuine stuff that takes time and care and much grace, rather than the rushed product that falls apart and doesn't last.
At the current time, I see nothing standing in the way of this dream, other than simply sitting down and doing it! As some of you have encouraged me with... when the time is right, it's a matter of jumping in and just doing it! So I'm jumping in, and I'm excited to see what happens.
I value the friendship of all of you, and that's why I brought this up on the blog. I feel kind of vulnerable doing this, because I'm showing you my genuine weaknesses that I really do deal with. But with this kind of exposure of weakness, the body gets a chance to work together and encourage one another. I'm taking all of your thoughts and tips to heart, and I'm weighing them out and seeing what fits and what will work. I truly appreciate everything, especially your friendship and your prayers.
I look back, and the timing has never been right. I used to get very frustrated, but throughout the process I've really learned to trust more and more in my Father, and in waiting upon Him, and trusting in His timing and in His moving and working in me to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Each time I've thought the time might be right, various things have happened, or haven't happened, and I've grown to understood in my heart that it's ok. There's no hurry. Just as with anyone else who has ever tasted of the genuine, sweet, juicy, tasty fruit that God produces through His children, and has also tasted the fake, sour, unripe fruit that comes from mere human, religious effort, I want the genuine stuff that takes time and care and much grace, rather than the rushed product that falls apart and doesn't last.
At the current time, I see nothing standing in the way of this dream, other than simply sitting down and doing it! As some of you have encouraged me with... when the time is right, it's a matter of jumping in and just doing it! So I'm jumping in, and I'm excited to see what happens.
I value the friendship of all of you, and that's why I brought this up on the blog. I feel kind of vulnerable doing this, because I'm showing you my genuine weaknesses that I really do deal with. But with this kind of exposure of weakness, the body gets a chance to work together and encourage one another. I'm taking all of your thoughts and tips to heart, and I'm weighing them out and seeing what fits and what will work. I truly appreciate everything, especially your friendship and your prayers.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Book?
Hi friends,
I've shared with a few people over the years that the Lord has given me a desire to write a book. I've also been encouraged by a few of you to do such a thing. I've been seeking the Lord and praying about this for some time now, waiting for the right time.
I'm at a point now where it may be the right time. I've grown a lot in the past few years, and I've become pretty solid on what the concept of the potential book would be. That was never fully the case before. Anyway, through a series of events I've come to where I've arrived now, thinking I'd really like to get started on this. A lot of the busyness of summer is over, and the kids are back in school. I don't go to work until 1pm everyday, so I have my mornings 'free.' I say 'free' loosely, because with my wife and I both working full time, I do my share of things around the house, such as laundry, dishes, etc. My mornings are also generally a time when I'm more able to communicate with the friends who live in my computer! :)
But anyway, without all the noise and the distractions of "dad, dad!" all morning long (which I do miss right now - you don't know what you've got till it's gone!), I've been thinking that this is an opportune time to try to get focused.
And so I bring to you these prayer requests!
I love writing - but I'm not a very disciplined writer unless I force myself to be. I blog kind of haphazardly - which is really ok with me because I'm not trying to be deeply intellectual or deeply theological. I'm just sharing what's on my heart. If it appears intellectual or theological, it's generally by mistake... LOL... or simply because it's what's truly on my heart at the time.
However, in writing a book, I don't want to be so haphazard. Yes, I want to share my heart, but I also want it to be something that will stand the test of time. I want it to flow, and to be an easy read, and to not be "too" theological or doctrinal, while at the same time not neglecting the truth of scripture for even an instant.
I also have to say that I have always written at my best when I've been under pressure. That is, when I've had a deadline. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know! I always got A's and B's on writing assignments in school - but I always waited until the very last possible moment to begin writing. For example, I took a Human Dynamics college course about a decade ago. At the beginning of the quarter, we received an assignment that would be due at the end of the quarter. A pretty big assignment. Well, it was the Friday before the Monday that it was due, and I hadn't so much as started working on it! I worked on it the entire weekend, and I got an A! Of course, at the time we had no kids and no other major responsibilities in life like we do now, so I'm sure that helped. ;)
Like I said, I'm not a disciplined writer unless I have to be! In writing 20 monthly articles for my church between 2005 and 2007, I worked well when I knew the articles were due. I say all this to say that as of right now, I don't have a "deadline" for writing a book. So... it's very easy for me, if I'm not feeling disciplined to write or concentrate for a length of time, to put it off till another time.
Also, one major difference between blogging and writing a book is that blogging generally involves one "topic" at a time. Same with writing an article. That makes it pretty easy for me to do. But with writing a book, there's a "bigger picture" involved, and all the individual paragraphs and chapters need to sort of flow to make up the big picture. Like I said, I have the big picture in mind, but breaking it down into sections and chapters, especially ones that make some sort of sense when they're put together, seems kind of overwhelming to me. My thought, and something my brother suggested to me a couple of months ago, is to come up with some sort general description of the book, and then a brief outline that breaks it all into sections/chapters.
I'm sure that will be of great help. I'll just say that I've always hated outlines! I see their purpose and benefit, but I hate doing them!
I think what I'm trying to say is that writing a full book involves a lot of planning and thinking... and of course, work, and I'm asking for your prayers in putting all of this together! Throughout all of this, I'm keeping in the forefront of my mind and heart that this is Father's work, not mine. It involves the physical and mental work and concentration of my body and mind, but it's Father who's doing it in and through me.
I would also ask that if anyone has any experience, advice, tips or suggestions that might help in this process, feel free to share them with me, either in the comments section or through email (my email address is on the side of the blog).
Thanks so much! The message of God's grace has obviously forever changed my life. I've learned a great deal, and I'm always continuing to learn, and my hope is to keep passing on the message of truth and grace that sets people free.
I've shared with a few people over the years that the Lord has given me a desire to write a book. I've also been encouraged by a few of you to do such a thing. I've been seeking the Lord and praying about this for some time now, waiting for the right time.
I'm at a point now where it may be the right time. I've grown a lot in the past few years, and I've become pretty solid on what the concept of the potential book would be. That was never fully the case before. Anyway, through a series of events I've come to where I've arrived now, thinking I'd really like to get started on this. A lot of the busyness of summer is over, and the kids are back in school. I don't go to work until 1pm everyday, so I have my mornings 'free.' I say 'free' loosely, because with my wife and I both working full time, I do my share of things around the house, such as laundry, dishes, etc. My mornings are also generally a time when I'm more able to communicate with the friends who live in my computer! :)
But anyway, without all the noise and the distractions of "dad, dad!" all morning long (which I do miss right now - you don't know what you've got till it's gone!), I've been thinking that this is an opportune time to try to get focused.
And so I bring to you these prayer requests!
I love writing - but I'm not a very disciplined writer unless I force myself to be. I blog kind of haphazardly - which is really ok with me because I'm not trying to be deeply intellectual or deeply theological. I'm just sharing what's on my heart. If it appears intellectual or theological, it's generally by mistake... LOL... or simply because it's what's truly on my heart at the time.
However, in writing a book, I don't want to be so haphazard. Yes, I want to share my heart, but I also want it to be something that will stand the test of time. I want it to flow, and to be an easy read, and to not be "too" theological or doctrinal, while at the same time not neglecting the truth of scripture for even an instant.
I also have to say that I have always written at my best when I've been under pressure. That is, when I've had a deadline. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know! I always got A's and B's on writing assignments in school - but I always waited until the very last possible moment to begin writing. For example, I took a Human Dynamics college course about a decade ago. At the beginning of the quarter, we received an assignment that would be due at the end of the quarter. A pretty big assignment. Well, it was the Friday before the Monday that it was due, and I hadn't so much as started working on it! I worked on it the entire weekend, and I got an A! Of course, at the time we had no kids and no other major responsibilities in life like we do now, so I'm sure that helped. ;)
Like I said, I'm not a disciplined writer unless I have to be! In writing 20 monthly articles for my church between 2005 and 2007, I worked well when I knew the articles were due. I say all this to say that as of right now, I don't have a "deadline" for writing a book. So... it's very easy for me, if I'm not feeling disciplined to write or concentrate for a length of time, to put it off till another time.
Also, one major difference between blogging and writing a book is that blogging generally involves one "topic" at a time. Same with writing an article. That makes it pretty easy for me to do. But with writing a book, there's a "bigger picture" involved, and all the individual paragraphs and chapters need to sort of flow to make up the big picture. Like I said, I have the big picture in mind, but breaking it down into sections and chapters, especially ones that make some sort of sense when they're put together, seems kind of overwhelming to me. My thought, and something my brother suggested to me a couple of months ago, is to come up with some sort general description of the book, and then a brief outline that breaks it all into sections/chapters.
I'm sure that will be of great help. I'll just say that I've always hated outlines! I see their purpose and benefit, but I hate doing them!
I think what I'm trying to say is that writing a full book involves a lot of planning and thinking... and of course, work, and I'm asking for your prayers in putting all of this together! Throughout all of this, I'm keeping in the forefront of my mind and heart that this is Father's work, not mine. It involves the physical and mental work and concentration of my body and mind, but it's Father who's doing it in and through me.
I would also ask that if anyone has any experience, advice, tips or suggestions that might help in this process, feel free to share them with me, either in the comments section or through email (my email address is on the side of the blog).
Thanks so much! The message of God's grace has obviously forever changed my life. I've learned a great deal, and I'm always continuing to learn, and my hope is to keep passing on the message of truth and grace that sets people free.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Trust Him to keep you
Back in the day (really not too very long ago) I was involved in a lot of "Can a Christian lose their salvation?" discussions. The number of Christians who fear, at least a little (and sometimes a lot), about whether or not they'll remain "saved" is probably more than you can imagine.
While I haven't participated heavily in discussions like that in quite a while, and while it would take too long to share all of what was discussed in those discussions, I'll highlight one of the main questions I used to ask people who worried or feared about the "loss" of salvation: "What exactly is it that saves a person in the first place?"
Paul put it quite simply:
How much of that is your work? How much of it is "of yourselves?" None of it! It's "the gift of God, not by works..."
So then, once we're saved, does it suddenly become "of ourselves" to keep ourselves saved? For the many people who are so worried about Christians losing their salvation, it would seem that there's more than just an ounce of that type of thinking going around in their heads.
To lead up to where I'm going with this, let me relate that type of thinking to receiving some sort of gift that doesn't come with the batteries. Sure, the gift is free, but it's up to you to continuously provide the batteries to make sure the gift remains in working order.
But that's not the type of gift God has given us! God has not simply given us the gift of salvation, and then left us alone to try to maintain it our own. He has included Himself - His very Life - in the package!
It was His life that saved us, and it's His life that keeps us!
Unfortunately a very deficient "gospel" has been spread, and keeps on being spread, in which grace and salvation are depicted merely as a matter of our sins being forgiven. It's great that our sins have been forgiven, but if you are forgiven and yet remain in the same condition, what good is that? What's missing from the gospel message that's commonly taught is the issue of LIFE! We've not only been forgiven of all sin, but our sin has been taken away and we died to our old life in Adam, and we were raised up and made alive together with Christ Himself! Not only have we been forgiven, but our condition has changed! In Adam we were dead to God, but in Christ we are now fully alive to God.
Paul's words that follow the words quoted above say that we are God's workmanship. It's all of Him. Getting saved is of Him and not of us. Remaining saved is also of Him and not of us. If you couldn't get yourself saved, what can you do to keep yourself saved??? Trust Him to keep you.
"God... even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ..." (Eph 2:4-5). If He made you alive even when you were dead in your trespasses, do you think for a moment that He's going to not keep you alive when you sin now? While you can do nothing to keep yourself, He can and does continuously supply you with His very life, because as a branch is continuously sustained, not in and of itself but by the life of the vine, you are also continuously sustained by the very life of the One who calls Himself the Vine, Jesus.
While I haven't participated heavily in discussions like that in quite a while, and while it would take too long to share all of what was discussed in those discussions, I'll highlight one of the main questions I used to ask people who worried or feared about the "loss" of salvation: "What exactly is it that saves a person in the first place?"
Paul put it quite simply:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast (Eph 2:8-9)
How much of that is your work? How much of it is "of yourselves?" None of it! It's "the gift of God, not by works..."
So then, once we're saved, does it suddenly become "of ourselves" to keep ourselves saved? For the many people who are so worried about Christians losing their salvation, it would seem that there's more than just an ounce of that type of thinking going around in their heads.
To lead up to where I'm going with this, let me relate that type of thinking to receiving some sort of gift that doesn't come with the batteries. Sure, the gift is free, but it's up to you to continuously provide the batteries to make sure the gift remains in working order.
But that's not the type of gift God has given us! God has not simply given us the gift of salvation, and then left us alone to try to maintain it our own. He has included Himself - His very Life - in the package!
It was His life that saved us, and it's His life that keeps us!
Unfortunately a very deficient "gospel" has been spread, and keeps on being spread, in which grace and salvation are depicted merely as a matter of our sins being forgiven. It's great that our sins have been forgiven, but if you are forgiven and yet remain in the same condition, what good is that? What's missing from the gospel message that's commonly taught is the issue of LIFE! We've not only been forgiven of all sin, but our sin has been taken away and we died to our old life in Adam, and we were raised up and made alive together with Christ Himself! Not only have we been forgiven, but our condition has changed! In Adam we were dead to God, but in Christ we are now fully alive to God.
Paul's words that follow the words quoted above say that we are God's workmanship. It's all of Him. Getting saved is of Him and not of us. Remaining saved is also of Him and not of us. If you couldn't get yourself saved, what can you do to keep yourself saved??? Trust Him to keep you.
"God... even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ..." (Eph 2:4-5). If He made you alive even when you were dead in your trespasses, do you think for a moment that He's going to not keep you alive when you sin now? While you can do nothing to keep yourself, He can and does continuously supply you with His very life, because as a branch is continuously sustained, not in and of itself but by the life of the vine, you are also continuously sustained by the very life of the One who calls Himself the Vine, Jesus.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
He hasn't changed
There is a fun song that some of my friends and I used to sing to remind us of God's faithfulness and continuous presence in our lives. Sadly I really can't remember any of the verses, or even the tune, but the simple chorus remains with me, and it goes something like, "He's Still Here, He's Still Here..."
It reminds me of Psalm 46:1-7.
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Of course, the advantage we have over the people who would speak or sing the words of that Psalm is that God actually indwells us! He is truly ever-present in a deeper and more meaningful way - in fact He has become our very LIFE and He has joined Himself together with us forever in our spirits.
In my life, I've been shaken at times because of various people, circumstances, problems, thoughts, doctrines, etc. I'm essentially talking not about a physical shaking, but a shaking of the heart and mind (which, of course, often manifests itself in the physical realm). Sometimes the "shaking" has turned out to be a good thing, and at other times not. (I know I've also been the source of the shaking of other people during my lifetime, again, sometimes for the good and sometimes not). But no matter what, there has always been one constant. God remains the same! He remains a refuge and strength, an ever-present help. He hasn't changed.
At the age of 23, several months after I had begun a deeper walk with the Lord in 1992, I got a knock at my door that some of you may be familiar with. A man in his 40's and a boy, perhaps 12 or 13, stood there and asked if I was interested in talking about God. I let these two Jehovah's Witnesses in and we had a chat that, well, shook me up a little - or a LOT! They (mostly just the man) shared some things with me, right out of the Bible, and the way it was spun was pretty darn convincing! Well, I shared a few things that I knew from the scriptures, and they responded to every single thing I said with their own 'version' of the truth, again pretty convincingly. All I know is, if this was a debate, I certainly hadn't "won."
Probably perceiving that some of what he was saying might have a chance of getting through to me, the man asked if I minded if they came back again the next week. At the time I thought to myself what a great opportunity it would be for me to look up some scriptures to counteract what they were saying. So I did my homework - I mean I really dug into the scriptures with my Strong's Concordance coming heavily into play - and I prayed a lot, and in the end I was satisfied that I was "prepared," although nervous, for the next visit.
This time around the twelve year old boy was absent, and in his place was another man. This man was actually someone I already knew. He had once been a member at my dad's church, but had converted to the Jehovah's Witness religion. Again we chatted about the scriptures, and I brought out all my "research," thinking I had all my bases covered. But again, everything I said was immediately counteracted with their well-prepared, time-tested false doctrines, and again as they left I was shaken, and not just a little scared as well.
But you see, here I am today, 16 years later, and as you can tell I'm not under the influence of any of that junk. During that time I prayed a lot! I searched the scriptures. I asked God for wisdom and truth, and for understanding. I did not get my answers right away, but over time I grew and I learned more and more of the truth. In fact, as I look back, I see how my understanding and perception of God and of who I am in Him has changed over the years. As I look back to just a year ago, or five years ago, or fifteen years ago, and even to 30+ years ago in my boyhood, I see how my understanding and perception has changed.
I'm saying all of this for a couple of reasons. First off, to point out how God is faithful and true, and will not leave us hanging but will lead and guide us, and teach us, even if we don't "get" it all. But secondly, and really what I was intending to lead up to here: Although my understanding and perceptions have changed, GOD hasn't changed. I've been through tugs-of-war in my heart and mind because of issues of doctrine, circumstances, problems, etc, but I can rest assured that in all of this God hasn't flinched, and His TRUTH hasn't changed a bit! People, including me, have all kinds of things to say about what is truth and what isn't truth, and I think it's true that He speaks His truth to us through each other, and it's natural for us to keep sharing the things we've learned with each other. I think it's also true that we can be totally wrong about things! But in the end, I know that HE knows the truth, because He IS the truth, and even when foreign doctrines come my way, or circumstances look way out of my control, or I'm uncertain about things, I can still rest in Him, and be at peace.
God is eternal, and a strong tower. We, in and of ourselves, are clay jars. My hope is not in being able to get everyone to accept my doctrines and my hope is not in dissuading others from believing falsehoods. Yes, I'll continue to share what I believe and I'll spend time trying to dissuade others from believing false doctrines! But my hope is the unchanging Christ in me, not the doctrines that I believe.
Heb 13:8-9
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace..."
Any thoughts?
It reminds me of Psalm 46:1-7.
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Of course, the advantage we have over the people who would speak or sing the words of that Psalm is that God actually indwells us! He is truly ever-present in a deeper and more meaningful way - in fact He has become our very LIFE and He has joined Himself together with us forever in our spirits.
In my life, I've been shaken at times because of various people, circumstances, problems, thoughts, doctrines, etc. I'm essentially talking not about a physical shaking, but a shaking of the heart and mind (which, of course, often manifests itself in the physical realm). Sometimes the "shaking" has turned out to be a good thing, and at other times not. (I know I've also been the source of the shaking of other people during my lifetime, again, sometimes for the good and sometimes not). But no matter what, there has always been one constant. God remains the same! He remains a refuge and strength, an ever-present help. He hasn't changed.
At the age of 23, several months after I had begun a deeper walk with the Lord in 1992, I got a knock at my door that some of you may be familiar with. A man in his 40's and a boy, perhaps 12 or 13, stood there and asked if I was interested in talking about God. I let these two Jehovah's Witnesses in and we had a chat that, well, shook me up a little - or a LOT! They (mostly just the man) shared some things with me, right out of the Bible, and the way it was spun was pretty darn convincing! Well, I shared a few things that I knew from the scriptures, and they responded to every single thing I said with their own 'version' of the truth, again pretty convincingly. All I know is, if this was a debate, I certainly hadn't "won."
Probably perceiving that some of what he was saying might have a chance of getting through to me, the man asked if I minded if they came back again the next week. At the time I thought to myself what a great opportunity it would be for me to look up some scriptures to counteract what they were saying. So I did my homework - I mean I really dug into the scriptures with my Strong's Concordance coming heavily into play - and I prayed a lot, and in the end I was satisfied that I was "prepared," although nervous, for the next visit.
This time around the twelve year old boy was absent, and in his place was another man. This man was actually someone I already knew. He had once been a member at my dad's church, but had converted to the Jehovah's Witness religion. Again we chatted about the scriptures, and I brought out all my "research," thinking I had all my bases covered. But again, everything I said was immediately counteracted with their well-prepared, time-tested false doctrines, and again as they left I was shaken, and not just a little scared as well.
But you see, here I am today, 16 years later, and as you can tell I'm not under the influence of any of that junk. During that time I prayed a lot! I searched the scriptures. I asked God for wisdom and truth, and for understanding. I did not get my answers right away, but over time I grew and I learned more and more of the truth. In fact, as I look back, I see how my understanding and perception of God and of who I am in Him has changed over the years. As I look back to just a year ago, or five years ago, or fifteen years ago, and even to 30+ years ago in my boyhood, I see how my understanding and perception has changed.
I'm saying all of this for a couple of reasons. First off, to point out how God is faithful and true, and will not leave us hanging but will lead and guide us, and teach us, even if we don't "get" it all. But secondly, and really what I was intending to lead up to here: Although my understanding and perceptions have changed, GOD hasn't changed. I've been through tugs-of-war in my heart and mind because of issues of doctrine, circumstances, problems, etc, but I can rest assured that in all of this God hasn't flinched, and His TRUTH hasn't changed a bit! People, including me, have all kinds of things to say about what is truth and what isn't truth, and I think it's true that He speaks His truth to us through each other, and it's natural for us to keep sharing the things we've learned with each other. I think it's also true that we can be totally wrong about things! But in the end, I know that HE knows the truth, because He IS the truth, and even when foreign doctrines come my way, or circumstances look way out of my control, or I'm uncertain about things, I can still rest in Him, and be at peace.
God is eternal, and a strong tower. We, in and of ourselves, are clay jars. My hope is not in being able to get everyone to accept my doctrines and my hope is not in dissuading others from believing falsehoods. Yes, I'll continue to share what I believe and I'll spend time trying to dissuade others from believing false doctrines! But my hope is the unchanging Christ in me, not the doctrines that I believe.
Heb 13:8-9
"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace..."
Any thoughts?
Minder / Dennis Waterman - I Could Be So Good For You
FYI, this post is waaaaay off topic here, and it probably won't be of any interest to most, if not all, people who read this blog!
I have no clue why this song came to my mind today. It's been years and years since I've heard it. I'm just wondering if perhaps it might ring a bell with any of my readers in England. As a boy I lived in Stockport, England, from 1977 to 1981. During our time there my mum and I took a liking to a comedy-drama programme on ITV called "Minder," starring Dennis Waterman, who also sang the title song, "I Could Be So Good For You."
Theme song, showing bits of the show.
I used to have this 45!
I have no clue why this song came to my mind today. It's been years and years since I've heard it. I'm just wondering if perhaps it might ring a bell with any of my readers in England. As a boy I lived in Stockport, England, from 1977 to 1981. During our time there my mum and I took a liking to a comedy-drama programme on ITV called "Minder," starring Dennis Waterman, who also sang the title song, "I Could Be So Good For You."
Theme song, showing bits of the show.
I used to have this 45!
Sunday, August 17, 2008
I Want To Break Free
A few weeks ago Meeting Of One posted this video in relation to the question of whether to O.R.E.C. or not to O.R.E.C. (Organized Religious Entertainment Centre). (I'm sure people who read this blog "get" it). ;) Going along with the fun, I posted this video.
Well, I know there are some who are still pondering the question, and there are those who have other things in their lives they perhaps are 'struggling' to break free from. Some of it may be quite serious. Spiritual abuse, religion, legalism, lies, bad relationships, a job, a coworker, a church, a church member, you name it. NOT to minimize any of the seriousness of any of those issues, but here's a lighthearted look at the struggle people may be going through, from the boys who call themselves Queen. I don't know about you, but I think this is quite hilarious. :) The actresses... um, actors... play their parts well! The rest of the stuff is, what... art?
I Want To Break Free
Well, I know there are some who are still pondering the question, and there are those who have other things in their lives they perhaps are 'struggling' to break free from. Some of it may be quite serious. Spiritual abuse, religion, legalism, lies, bad relationships, a job, a coworker, a church, a church member, you name it. NOT to minimize any of the seriousness of any of those issues, but here's a lighthearted look at the struggle people may be going through, from the boys who call themselves Queen. I don't know about you, but I think this is quite hilarious. :) The actresses... um, actors... play their parts well! The rest of the stuff is, what... art?
I Want To Break Free
Saturday, August 16, 2008
God doesn't need your good works - He produces them
The words of Paul that I shared in a post earlier this week from Titus 3:4-7 included these words: "He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done..."
That's something to cling on to and never forget! Our good works - our righteous deeds - play absolutely no part in getting us saved, (and if they play no part in getting us saved, they play no part in keeping us saved either - it's all by God's mercy and grace).
I suppose some could take this to mean that good works, or righteous deeds, are therefore irrelevant in the life of a Christian. Perhaps Paul had that thought in mind as he followed up those words about the wonderful gift of salvation in verses 4-7 with the words of verse 8:
He says:
In the passage from Titus, Paul says that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. Why? Because these things are good and profitable to people. You're not going to score any points with God, especially in regards to maintaining your right standing before Him, through any effort of your own! No amount of good works will help to maintain your acceptance by Him. It's all by His grace. Your good works are simply an outflow of His working in you, as the passage from Ephesians implies. You are God's workmanship (you are not your own workmanship). He Himself - His very life in you - is the very source of your good deeds. The good works that He works in and through you are good and profitable to people!
"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing," wrote the writer of Hebrews. Why? Was is so legalists could turn Sunday mornings and evenings, and Wednesday evenings, and whenever the church doors are open, into "service times" at a "building" that Christians should attend to maintain their good spiritual standing before God and man? It sure has been made out to be that way today, hasn't it? But rather, the real reason for the "good habit" of meeting together was simply to encourage one another and to spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25). It's pretty simply, really.
(By the way, have you ever looked at the surrounding context of Hebrews 10:24-25? Did the writer simply suddenly decide to add those two sentences out of the blue? What exactly was the "hope we profess" (vs. 23), that the writer had been writing about? I think it's worth spending some time with in order to understand how he led up to those words, and I encourage you to look at it on your own).
Good works are a fruit of our life in Christ. They are most certainly not the root by which our righteousness is established or maintained! Christ is the Vine. We are the branches of the vine. The LIFE is in the Vine, and the fruit grows not as the branches struggle and strive to produce fruit for the Vine, but as the LIFE of the vine flows into the branches as the branches abide - rest - in the Vine. The branches have no life in and of themselves to produce anything anyway! "Abide in Me," Jesus says, "and you will bear fruit."
In Christ, we have become one spirit with God (1 Cor 6:17). We have become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). It is God who works in us to will and to act according to His good purpose (Phil 2:13). All my evangelical life I've heard things like, "God's depending upon you to do His will." "God's counting on you to complete His work." Hold on a second! He's not depending upon us! He doesn't need us! He loves us and desires us, but AS IF He needed anything! We are jars of clay, fully dependent upon Him!
That's something to cling on to and never forget! Our good works - our righteous deeds - play absolutely no part in getting us saved, (and if they play no part in getting us saved, they play no part in keeping us saved either - it's all by God's mercy and grace).
I suppose some could take this to mean that good works, or righteous deeds, are therefore irrelevant in the life of a Christian. Perhaps Paul had that thought in mind as he followed up those words about the wonderful gift of salvation in verses 4-7 with the words of verse 8:
This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.In similar fashion, Paul also talks about good works in Ephesians 2:10, again, immediately after talking about how "by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast" (Eph 2:8-9).
He says:
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.I said all of the above to establish that "good works" are indeed a part of the life of the Christian. But unfortunately the error that legalists have made is to make "good works" out to be the root of the Christian life. That is, legalists say that good works are necessary to maintain salvation. In their eyes, the work of Christ is superseded by our good works that we do 'for' Him. But look at the two passages I just shared (and there are plenty more passages along this line) and notice two things. First, notice the purpose of good works. Second, notice the source of good works.
In the passage from Titus, Paul says that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. Why? Because these things are good and profitable to people. You're not going to score any points with God, especially in regards to maintaining your right standing before Him, through any effort of your own! No amount of good works will help to maintain your acceptance by Him. It's all by His grace. Your good works are simply an outflow of His working in you, as the passage from Ephesians implies. You are God's workmanship (you are not your own workmanship). He Himself - His very life in you - is the very source of your good deeds. The good works that He works in and through you are good and profitable to people!
"Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing," wrote the writer of Hebrews. Why? Was is so legalists could turn Sunday mornings and evenings, and Wednesday evenings, and whenever the church doors are open, into "service times" at a "building" that Christians should attend to maintain their good spiritual standing before God and man? It sure has been made out to be that way today, hasn't it? But rather, the real reason for the "good habit" of meeting together was simply to encourage one another and to spur one another on toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24-25). It's pretty simply, really.
(By the way, have you ever looked at the surrounding context of Hebrews 10:24-25? Did the writer simply suddenly decide to add those two sentences out of the blue? What exactly was the "hope we profess" (vs. 23), that the writer had been writing about? I think it's worth spending some time with in order to understand how he led up to those words, and I encourage you to look at it on your own).
Good works are a fruit of our life in Christ. They are most certainly not the root by which our righteousness is established or maintained! Christ is the Vine. We are the branches of the vine. The LIFE is in the Vine, and the fruit grows not as the branches struggle and strive to produce fruit for the Vine, but as the LIFE of the vine flows into the branches as the branches abide - rest - in the Vine. The branches have no life in and of themselves to produce anything anyway! "Abide in Me," Jesus says, "and you will bear fruit."
In Christ, we have become one spirit with God (1 Cor 6:17). We have become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). It is God who works in us to will and to act according to His good purpose (Phil 2:13). All my evangelical life I've heard things like, "God's depending upon you to do His will." "God's counting on you to complete His work." Hold on a second! He's not depending upon us! He doesn't need us! He loves us and desires us, but AS IF He needed anything! We are jars of clay, fully dependent upon Him!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
"So many times it happens too fast..."
...you trade your passion for glory."
I know I'm grabbing just one line out of a song, maybe even out of the context of the song as a whole (I'm not really sure) but it really stuck out to me the last few times I heard this song.
I know I'm grabbing just one line out of a song, maybe even out of the context of the song as a whole (I'm not really sure) but it really stuck out to me the last few times I heard this song.
Monday, August 11, 2008
How much of your work or effort is involved in this?
Take a look at Titus 3:4-7 and tell me how much of YOUR effort/work is involved:
Here's what that looks like to me:
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.Better yet, don't tell ME! Rather, remind YOURSELF of the true source of all this! Perhaps go to your Bible, or print out this verse, or even just with your eyes on your monitor - highlight the words and phrases that show the source of all the work that has made it possible for us to become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Here's what that looks like to me:
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Paul's Testimony - I counted my own righteousness as loss
When you hear Christians give "testimonies," they're most often based upon "how I stopped doing bad things and started doing good things."While there's nothing wrong with being happy about positive changes in our lives, on our latest Growing in Grace program, Mike Kapler and I talk about the Apostle Paul's "testimony" in Philippians 3 that isn't based at all upon any change from bad behavior to good behavior.
In fact his testimony was that he once strove to be the best of the best of the righteous people, but he chucked it all aside and counted it all as loss so that he would be found in Christ and Christ alone!
Boast in your weakness
Why would I follow up my last post, "Be strong in the Lord," with a paradoxical statement like "boast in your weakness?" Be strong in the Lord and boast in your weakness. Hmm. "Paradox," of course means "a seemingly contradictory statement that may nonetheless be true." These statements, to some, may seem to be contradictory... but yet it all adds up!
In my last post, and in the links I provided for my previous posts that went along with that post, one thing that I was aiming at was showing how everything that has to do with us being "strong in the Lord" is the result of God's grace, and His gifts to us. In no way, shape or form is it our own human strength that we're relying upon. Our own strength, compared to the strength we have in the Lord, is really nothing more than weakness.
Which leads us to boasting in our weakness. Paul goes crazy with the word "boast" in his letters to the Corinthians (especially 2 Corinthians), as well as in a few other letters. What is it that he's boasting about? He's boasting about his own weakness and he's boasting about the Lord's strength. They go hand in hand.
I guess one could say that Paul is boasting in his humanness. Of course he's not "celebrating" how weak he is as a human in such a way as to say, "Look at me! I'm weak and I sin, and I'm "just human" and that's just the way I am, so Woo Hoo!" Now, the truth is that he is weak and he does sin and he is "just human" - in and of himself. And we could leave it right there and just think that's the end of the story.
But that's not the end of the story! Paul "boasts" in his weakness, in his humanness, because it means that he is rejecting the idea that in and of himself he is strong and powerful. In Philippians 3 he lists out his human strengths and righteous deeds that he formerly boasted in - and it's a pretty impressive list! But before there's any chance for any applause or adoration from his readers, he promptly says "I count it all as dung!" Why does he count it all as dung? So that he can be found in Christ alone, not having his own righteousness, but rather the only righteousness that counts - God's righteousness that is given freely as a gift.
We "boast" in our human weakness because letting go of our own sense of strength and righteousness opens up the door for the Lord's strength and righteousness. Paul says, "I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
Related: The Sufficiency of Grace
In my last post, and in the links I provided for my previous posts that went along with that post, one thing that I was aiming at was showing how everything that has to do with us being "strong in the Lord" is the result of God's grace, and His gifts to us. In no way, shape or form is it our own human strength that we're relying upon. Our own strength, compared to the strength we have in the Lord, is really nothing more than weakness.
Which leads us to boasting in our weakness. Paul goes crazy with the word "boast" in his letters to the Corinthians (especially 2 Corinthians), as well as in a few other letters. What is it that he's boasting about? He's boasting about his own weakness and he's boasting about the Lord's strength. They go hand in hand.
I guess one could say that Paul is boasting in his humanness. Of course he's not "celebrating" how weak he is as a human in such a way as to say, "Look at me! I'm weak and I sin, and I'm "just human" and that's just the way I am, so Woo Hoo!" Now, the truth is that he is weak and he does sin and he is "just human" - in and of himself. And we could leave it right there and just think that's the end of the story.
But that's not the end of the story! Paul "boasts" in his weakness, in his humanness, because it means that he is rejecting the idea that in and of himself he is strong and powerful. In Philippians 3 he lists out his human strengths and righteous deeds that he formerly boasted in - and it's a pretty impressive list! But before there's any chance for any applause or adoration from his readers, he promptly says "I count it all as dung!" Why does he count it all as dung? So that he can be found in Christ alone, not having his own righteousness, but rather the only righteousness that counts - God's righteousness that is given freely as a gift.
We "boast" in our human weakness because letting go of our own sense of strength and righteousness opens up the door for the Lord's strength and righteousness. Paul says, "I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
Related: The Sufficiency of Grace
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Be strong in the Lord
Eph 6:10-18
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
How do we take our stand against the devil's schemes (or "wiles of the devil" - KJV)?
13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
All of this is worth spending some time with and meditating upon. Not religiously, of course, but as part of our full-on relationship with the one who supplies us with the power in all this! Some people call this "spiritual warfare," I think mostly because of the imagery of armor and battle gear that Paul uses. But when it's all boiled down, it's simply a matter of a few basic truths that will help us overcome the evil one - who, as Peter says, is an adversary "who walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Peter goes on to say "resist him, steadfast in the faith..." And the "armor" Paul talks about in verses 14-17 of the above passage includes:
• Truth
• Righteousness
• The Gospel of Peace
• Faith
• Salvation
• The Word of God
Earlier this year, I broke some of this down in three separate posts, if you're interested in checking any of it out.
The Full Armor of God
God's armor 1-3
God's armor 4-6
And don't forget that in our relationship with God we have the wonderful privilege to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests" and we can "be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." :)
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
How do we take our stand against the devil's schemes (or "wiles of the devil" - KJV)?
13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
All of this is worth spending some time with and meditating upon. Not religiously, of course, but as part of our full-on relationship with the one who supplies us with the power in all this! Some people call this "spiritual warfare," I think mostly because of the imagery of armor and battle gear that Paul uses. But when it's all boiled down, it's simply a matter of a few basic truths that will help us overcome the evil one - who, as Peter says, is an adversary "who walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8). Peter goes on to say "resist him, steadfast in the faith..." And the "armor" Paul talks about in verses 14-17 of the above passage includes:
• Truth
• Righteousness
• The Gospel of Peace
• Faith
• Salvation
• The Word of God
Earlier this year, I broke some of this down in three separate posts, if you're interested in checking any of it out.
The Full Armor of God
God's armor 1-3
God's armor 4-6
And don't forget that in our relationship with God we have the wonderful privilege to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests" and we can "be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints." :)
Friday, August 08, 2008
Spiritual Bondage
What do you think of when you think of "spiritual bondage?" At one time in my life, I thought of spiritual bondage as all the sins that I was in "bondage" to. I thought of spiritual bondage as all the bad things I needed to overcome in order to maintain my right standing with God.
But if we look at what the Bible says about spiritual bondage, we get a completely different picture! While I was at work today, I randomly selected another message from my old pastor to listen to on my mp3 player, and again it was from 1995. I was amazed at how well this message really goes along perfectly with my post from the other day, "In order to be free, there's a certain thing you need to get out of your life...", along with the comments on that post.
This message gets into what bondage really is, as compared to true freedom in Christ. Again, we tend to think of bondage as "sin" and freedom as "living right." Of course, there are a lot of sinful things that we can be in bondage to. And it certainly wouldn't hurt if everybody would "live right." But again that's not what the Bible is talking about when it talks about bondage and freedom!
In Galatians 4, Paul says, "For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar — for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children — but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all."
What exactly came from Mount Sinai and gave birth to bondage? The Ten Commandments - that's what came from Mount Sinai and gave birth to bondage! The same Ten Commandments that Christians today think means freedom for them! But in fact, Paul not only called them bondage, but he also called them the ministry of death ("written and engraved on stones") and the ministry of condemnation (see 2 Cor 3:7-11).
True freedom comes when we STOP judging ourselves and condemning ourselves based upon rules and laws and how well we're performing in our Christian lives, and begin simply trusting in the truth that we are accepted in the Beloved by God's grace and nothing else!
Again I invite you to download and listen to this encouraging message. If you've got an sort of a religious mindset - I mean, even the tiniest inkling you may have that leans towards trying to live by law or judging yourself or others according to performance - then hold on tight and get ready for your foundation to be completely shaken and upheaved! And if you're searching for true freedom in Christ - really wanting to get out of religious bondage and have a wonderful, free relationship with Christ, based upon God's grace and upon His favor that is upon you due to nothing other than the finished work of Christ - then get ready to have your foundation in Christ strengthened and secured.
But if we look at what the Bible says about spiritual bondage, we get a completely different picture! While I was at work today, I randomly selected another message from my old pastor to listen to on my mp3 player, and again it was from 1995. I was amazed at how well this message really goes along perfectly with my post from the other day, "In order to be free, there's a certain thing you need to get out of your life...", along with the comments on that post.
This message gets into what bondage really is, as compared to true freedom in Christ. Again, we tend to think of bondage as "sin" and freedom as "living right." Of course, there are a lot of sinful things that we can be in bondage to. And it certainly wouldn't hurt if everybody would "live right." But again that's not what the Bible is talking about when it talks about bondage and freedom!
In Galatians 4, Paul says, "For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar — for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children — but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all."
What exactly came from Mount Sinai and gave birth to bondage? The Ten Commandments - that's what came from Mount Sinai and gave birth to bondage! The same Ten Commandments that Christians today think means freedom for them! But in fact, Paul not only called them bondage, but he also called them the ministry of death ("written and engraved on stones") and the ministry of condemnation (see 2 Cor 3:7-11).
True freedom comes when we STOP judging ourselves and condemning ourselves based upon rules and laws and how well we're performing in our Christian lives, and begin simply trusting in the truth that we are accepted in the Beloved by God's grace and nothing else!
Again I invite you to download and listen to this encouraging message. If you've got an sort of a religious mindset - I mean, even the tiniest inkling you may have that leans towards trying to live by law or judging yourself or others according to performance - then hold on tight and get ready for your foundation to be completely shaken and upheaved! And if you're searching for true freedom in Christ - really wanting to get out of religious bondage and have a wonderful, free relationship with Christ, based upon God's grace and upon His favor that is upon you due to nothing other than the finished work of Christ - then get ready to have your foundation in Christ strengthened and secured.
Gene Simmons - When You Wish Upon A Star
And now for something absolutely, positively, completely different...
Don't ask how I found this video. All the members of Kiss recorded solo albums in the late 70's. Of course I had all of those albums. Gene Simmons' solo album ended with this recording of the Disney classic, "When You Wish Upon A Star." Someone has put the song to a My Little Pony video.
Like I said... something completely different!
Don't ask how I found this video. All the members of Kiss recorded solo albums in the late 70's. Of course I had all of those albums. Gene Simmons' solo album ended with this recording of the Disney classic, "When You Wish Upon A Star." Someone has put the song to a My Little Pony video.
Like I said... something completely different!
Thursday, August 07, 2008
It's not "me." It's "Christ in me!"
In Christ, I am righteous, I am holy (set apart), I am justified, and I am a whole lot more as well!
Why is it that I'm righteous, holy and justified, and a whole lot more?
Because it's not just "me." It's Christ in me! The old "me" died and I am now a new "me." Literally. I'm not an "improved" me, or a "better person."
I'm a brand new creation. The old me has not simply been "improved" upon. The old me is dead and gone. I've now been made alive together with Christ.
I just realized I've written about this before. Check out "New, or Improved?" from a year ago.
I don't live by faith in myself, or in becoming a better person. I live by faith in the Person who indwells me!
Gal 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
2 Cor 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Col 3:2-4
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
I don't live a life that is separate from Christ... ever! It's not a matter of "my" life sometimes and "my life in Christ" other times. My life is Christ in me, all the time!
Why is it that I'm righteous, holy and justified, and a whole lot more?
Because it's not just "me." It's Christ in me! The old "me" died and I am now a new "me." Literally. I'm not an "improved" me, or a "better person."
I'm a brand new creation. The old me has not simply been "improved" upon. The old me is dead and gone. I've now been made alive together with Christ.
I just realized I've written about this before. Check out "New, or Improved?" from a year ago.
I don't live by faith in myself, or in becoming a better person. I live by faith in the Person who indwells me!
Gal 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
2 Cor 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Col 3:2-4
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
I don't live a life that is separate from Christ... ever! It's not a matter of "my" life sometimes and "my life in Christ" other times. My life is Christ in me, all the time!
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
The Root of the Righteous
In a recent post from Aida, "Where is the still small voice,"a book from A.W. Tozer was mentioned. The book is called The Root of the Righteous. Following Aida's link to Amazon.com, I decided that the book was right up my alley, and I went ahead and ordered it. The book arrived promptly, and I began to read it right away.
The book isn't really divided into chapters, but into short writings, or essays by A.W. Tozer. I'll just say that a lot of the book isn't what I thought it would be and there are several things that I don't agree with in the book. But the very first section, which is self-titled (after the name of the book), really did strike me as being right up my alley!
One thing that completely revolutionized my life had to do with changing my focus in my life in Christ from the fruit to the root. So much of what you hear preached today is focused on a product, a final result. In your Christian life, you need to be like "this" or you need to conform to "that." So much focus is placed on the doing, and the results, that the root - Jesus Christ Himself - is very often missed and completely ignored. The focus of our life in Christ is... Christ... not results. Jesus said that if we abide in HIM, we will bear fruit. It's not the other way around! We have a free, loving relationship with Him, and in the long run the relationship bears good fruit. But if we remain focused on bearing fruit, oddly enough we get neither Christ nor the fruit!
Some quotes from the section of the book called The Root of the Righteous:
The book isn't really divided into chapters, but into short writings, or essays by A.W. Tozer. I'll just say that a lot of the book isn't what I thought it would be and there are several things that I don't agree with in the book. But the very first section, which is self-titled (after the name of the book), really did strike me as being right up my alley!
One thing that completely revolutionized my life had to do with changing my focus in my life in Christ from the fruit to the root. So much of what you hear preached today is focused on a product, a final result. In your Christian life, you need to be like "this" or you need to conform to "that." So much focus is placed on the doing, and the results, that the root - Jesus Christ Himself - is very often missed and completely ignored. The focus of our life in Christ is... Christ... not results. Jesus said that if we abide in HIM, we will bear fruit. It's not the other way around! We have a free, loving relationship with Him, and in the long run the relationship bears good fruit. But if we remain focused on bearing fruit, oddly enough we get neither Christ nor the fruit!
Some quotes from the section of the book called The Root of the Righteous:
One marked difference between the faith of our fathers as conceived by the fathers and the same faith as understood and lived by their children is that the fathers were concerned with the root of the matter, while their present-day descendants seem concerned only with the fruit...And finally...
...Our fathers looked well to the root of the tree and were willing to wait with patience for the fruit to appear. We demand the fruit immediately even though the root may be weak or knobby or missing altogether...
...The bough that breaks off from the tree in a storm may bloom briefly and give to the unthinking passer-by the impression that it is a healthy and fruitful branch, but its tender blossoms will soon perish and the bough itself wither and die. There is no lasting life apart from the root...
...Preoccupation with appearances and a corresponding neglect of the out-of-sight root of the true spiritual life are prophetic signs which go unheeded. Immediate "results" are all that matter, quick proofs of present success without a thought of next week or next year. Religious pragmatism is running wild among the orthodox. Truth is whatever works. If it gets results it is good. There is but one test for the religious leader: success. Everything is forgiven him except failure...
With a happy disregard for consistency of metaphor the Apostle Paul exhorts us to look to our sources. "Rooted and grounded in love," he says in what is obviously a confusion of figure; and again he urges his readers to be "rooted and built up in him," which envisages the Christian both as a tree to be well rooted and as a temple to rise on a solid foundation.
Sunday, August 03, 2008
The gospel of change?
My grace roots teeth were cut in large part through the help of my former pastor, "Pastor Mark," in the last half of the 1990's. Pastor Mark had formerly been a Word of Faith pastor at a church called Life Christian Center here in Waterloo, Iowa, but went through his own grace revolution and began to preach what I believe is "the" gospel. It's known in the Bible as "the gospel of grace," "the gospel of Jesus Christ" and "the gospel of peace," among other terms. But no matter the term, it's one gospel. Romans 1:16-17 reveals that the gospel is a revelation of God's righteousness (not our own righteousness), and of course it's given to us as a gift (Romans 5:17), not by us performing in any way to earn it.
Mark preached for about an hour every week, digging deep into the glorious gospel, expounding upon the scriptures like I've never seen anyone do, before or since. My knowledge and understanding of who God is and who I am in Him really grew during the period of my life that I was able to hear him preach. In short, it all started sometime in 1995 when my friend Mike (who was the P.D. at the radio station I worked at back then, and with whom I record Growing in Grace) began sharing sermon tapes with me. I was blown away, and I began to experience freedom in the Lord like never before. Then in 1996, about 5 or 6 months after my wife and I were married, we left our church and began attending Life Christian Center, until the end of 1999 when we stopped meeting as a church (for various reasons), and the Lord sent us out to share the wonderful gospel of freedom in other places.
Well, I was listening to one of the old sermon tapes this morning, and I just had to share it! It's from 1995 and it's entitled "The Gospel to the Poor," based upon Jesus' reading of Isaiah's prophecy of Him, in Luke 4. Before getting into that, Mark spends a great deal of time talking about what the gospel isn't. Apparently in the Word of Faith church, various phrases had been coined, such as "the gospel of healing" and "the gospel of prosperity." Now, it's not that God doesn't heal, and it's not that a person can't be prosperous financially, but Mark makes the point that those things aren't the gospel.
But what really struck me back then, in 1995, and what has stuck with me all these years and is highlighted in this sermon, is how the church today has created its own "gospel of change." To many people, the gospel essentially means "I've changed the way I live." Our testimonies are nothing more than, "I used to do bad things, now I do good things." "I used to smoke dope; now I'm clean as a whistle." Again, it's not that changed behavior is bad! Those testimonies come from the wonderful work of God in the lives of people, and are well worth sharing. But... that's not the gospel! Those things may be a fruit - or a result - of the transformation that happens in a person's life because of the gospel, but as Mark often said, "the gospel isn't a gospel of change; it's a gospel of exchange." The gospel at its core means an exchange of our sin for Christ's righteousness (see for example 2 Corinthians 5:21), and of our life for Christ's life (see Galatians 2:20). That's good news!
I think many of you will enjoy Mark's sarcasm, humor, zeal and insight as he talks about all this and more. (He also talks about how many in the church have become separatists, worrying that we'll be contaminated by "sinners." He talks about how it's very easy for him to understand why people don't like church, or the church system. And if you've ever heard me share the story about my pastor who visited another church in which the pastor of that church pointed out the bartender in his congregation, that's in this sermon. It's an awesome story!). You can download the teaching here. If you can't listen to it now, why not download it for a later time.
It's 47 minutes long, and unfortunately it ends abruptly because the final part of the hour-long sermon was cut off, but you get a heavy dose of gospel freedom in those 47 minutes! (For some reason it was recorded onto the first side of a 90-minute tape, and the other side of the tape has something completely different on it). It's a 16MB download. Let me know if you have any troubles downloading/listening to it.
If interested, I've previously linked to a short snippet of another message from Mark here.
Mark preached for about an hour every week, digging deep into the glorious gospel, expounding upon the scriptures like I've never seen anyone do, before or since. My knowledge and understanding of who God is and who I am in Him really grew during the period of my life that I was able to hear him preach. In short, it all started sometime in 1995 when my friend Mike (who was the P.D. at the radio station I worked at back then, and with whom I record Growing in Grace) began sharing sermon tapes with me. I was blown away, and I began to experience freedom in the Lord like never before. Then in 1996, about 5 or 6 months after my wife and I were married, we left our church and began attending Life Christian Center, until the end of 1999 when we stopped meeting as a church (for various reasons), and the Lord sent us out to share the wonderful gospel of freedom in other places.
Well, I was listening to one of the old sermon tapes this morning, and I just had to share it! It's from 1995 and it's entitled "The Gospel to the Poor," based upon Jesus' reading of Isaiah's prophecy of Him, in Luke 4. Before getting into that, Mark spends a great deal of time talking about what the gospel isn't. Apparently in the Word of Faith church, various phrases had been coined, such as "the gospel of healing" and "the gospel of prosperity." Now, it's not that God doesn't heal, and it's not that a person can't be prosperous financially, but Mark makes the point that those things aren't the gospel.
But what really struck me back then, in 1995, and what has stuck with me all these years and is highlighted in this sermon, is how the church today has created its own "gospel of change." To many people, the gospel essentially means "I've changed the way I live." Our testimonies are nothing more than, "I used to do bad things, now I do good things." "I used to smoke dope; now I'm clean as a whistle." Again, it's not that changed behavior is bad! Those testimonies come from the wonderful work of God in the lives of people, and are well worth sharing. But... that's not the gospel! Those things may be a fruit - or a result - of the transformation that happens in a person's life because of the gospel, but as Mark often said, "the gospel isn't a gospel of change; it's a gospel of exchange." The gospel at its core means an exchange of our sin for Christ's righteousness (see for example 2 Corinthians 5:21), and of our life for Christ's life (see Galatians 2:20). That's good news!
I think many of you will enjoy Mark's sarcasm, humor, zeal and insight as he talks about all this and more. (He also talks about how many in the church have become separatists, worrying that we'll be contaminated by "sinners." He talks about how it's very easy for him to understand why people don't like church, or the church system. And if you've ever heard me share the story about my pastor who visited another church in which the pastor of that church pointed out the bartender in his congregation, that's in this sermon. It's an awesome story!). You can download the teaching here. If you can't listen to it now, why not download it for a later time.
It's 47 minutes long, and unfortunately it ends abruptly because the final part of the hour-long sermon was cut off, but you get a heavy dose of gospel freedom in those 47 minutes! (For some reason it was recorded onto the first side of a 90-minute tape, and the other side of the tape has something completely different on it). It's a 16MB download. Let me know if you have any troubles downloading/listening to it.
If interested, I've previously linked to a short snippet of another message from Mark here.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
In order to be free, there's a certain thing you need to get out of your life...
Gal 4:21-5:1
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar — for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children — but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written:
"Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband."
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman." So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage!
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the freewoman through promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar — for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children — but the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written:
"Rejoice, O barren,
You who do not bear!
Break forth and shout,
You who are not in labor!
For the desolate has many more children
Than she who has a husband."
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman." So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage!
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