Thy will be done...

I am re-reading the book, "The Reason for God," and my eyes are opened wider each time I read it. When I line this book up with scripture and modern thinking, I find it to be filled with truth from God. In the book, Tim Keller quotes C.S. Lewis and it really made me think. Lewis, in summary, says that there are really only two kind of people in the world. There are those that say, "Your will be done," to God. Then there are those to whom God says, "Your will be done." The atheists delusion is that if they glorified God, they would somehow lose power and freedom, but in a supreme and tragic irony, their choice ruins their own potential for greatness. Hell is, as CS Lewis says, "the greatest monument to human freedom." In the end, God gives people what they most want--whether that be their desires or Him.

God--The Maker

The Sun. The Moon. The Stars. The Skies. Did you or I create these things? The Mountains. The Forests. Rain. Wind. Did you or I create these things? The Animals that tread the land. The animals that swim in the seas and oceans. Man. Woman. Did you or I create these things? No we did not. If you are a follower of Christ, you believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and in six days (with a 7th day of rest) He created all of these other things. So, if YOU or I did not create these things, and we believe God created them, who gave us the right to tell God who He is? We have adopted this poisonous “My God. My Rules,” belief in the Church today.  We say things such as, “I don’t believe in that part of the Bible.” We continue on with things such as, “Well that part was just their culture and is not relevant for today.” We have fallen into this arrogant belief system that our culture has advanced so far that some things do not apply to us anymore. Let’s shift gears for a second. Some of us believe in this way, “This is the way it has been since I was a child, so it must be true,” or “This is what my parents believe, so it must be the truth.” We try to humanize the God of the Universe. We dismiss commandments of God as suggestions. When the Bible says “Go into all the world…” we say, “That’s for the missionaries.” When the Bible says, “Make disciples of all nations…baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit…” we say, “That’s for the Pastors.” When the Bible says to train up your children in the ways of Christ…in things such as prayer, we say “We need to vote so that the school’s can teach them how to pray.”
    When we take the word of God and cut away at some of it to fit into our mold we have rejected the ENTIRE word of God. The word of God comes as a package deal, not a plan with options. If you have taken bits and pieces of the word of God and applied them but dismissed others, I’d like to welcome you to the Gospel of Personal Preference. This is not the gospel of Christ. This is not belief in Christ. This is a selfish, prideful, arrogant belief system that is serving no one but the Enemy that demands repentance. These ideologies have spread like wildfire among young and old believers alike. People who claim that they are followers of the Way have begun to try and squeeze God into their mold. Last time I checked the word of God, we were made in His image, not vice versa. It was God who knew us even before we were in our mother’s womb. It is only God who is good and righteous, not us. The Bible says that “no one is righteous...not one.” Who are we to try and create God in our image. When has a clay pot ever molded the potter? When has a painting ever created an artist? When has a building ever drawn out the plans for an architect? When has anything created ever been able to limit their creator? Never. Not in the past. Not in present. Not in the future. God CANNOT fit into our self-righteous molds. To try to contain God is like a flea trying to hold back a lion…it can’t be done. To try to contain God is to place yourself on a pedestal higher than God. If you place yourself, your opinions, or your so-called beliefs, your comfort on this pedestal higher than God then you have just fallen into idolatry…and what a hard, painful fall it will be. Have no other gods before me. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Christianity and Peach Preserves

     I have been reading, quite literally all day, Bob George's "Classic Christianity." At the rate I am going, I should be done with the book by this weekend at which point I will give a complete review. However, I wanted to share one part of the book which has finally explained what I have been feeling about faith in a very simple and yet profound way. I have been feeling lately, as I study scripture, that we are giving an incomplete gospel to people when we merely preach accept Jesus and ask forgiveness. It seems that we may even be teaching believe Jesus and fix yourself. But the gospel is not simply about being forgiven and going to heaven. The gospel is about new life. George had this (in summary) to say about preaching a half-gospel...
     The process of canning is an excellent illustration of the two parts of the gospel. Let's say you are going to preserve some peaches, what is the first thing you have to do? Sterilize the jars. Imagine a husband walks into his home and his wife is boiling jars. He asks her what she is doing and she replies, "Sterilizing jars." He then asks what she plans to do with the sterilized jars and she replies, "Keep them clean." That does not make sense right? The only reason one would sterilize jars is to fill them with something. We would not expect a person to be apart of simply half of the canning process by only sterilizing jars. However, this is what we do with the gospel! We have separated God's sterilizing process--the cross--from His filling process--Christ coming to live in us through His resurrection. By separating the forgiveness of sin from the message of receiving the life of Christ, we have not only missed out on life, but also on the purpose of forgiveness in the first place. The reason one sterilizes a jar is to prevent spoiling in the preserves. The reason God had to deal with sin once and for all was so that we could be filled with Christ "without spoiling." As a matter of fact, there is one more step after sterilizing and filling--sealing. After sterilizing the jars and filling them with preserves they are sealed. Sealing keeps the good things inside and keep the bad things from entering. The scriptures say that having believed in Him, we have been marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. Cleansing, filling, and sealing is a wonderful picture of the full picture of salvation. Once we see that the whole purpose is not simply forgiveness, but bringing the dead to life, it is easy to see why Christ had to deal with sin issue once and for all.
     All throughout the Bible, from the Old to the New Testament, there is one theme that runs throughout and that is new life--restoration and resurrection. Don't miss out on the life Christ wants to live through you. 

When Creation Sings...

Lately, I have been spending a lot of time in my own personal sanctuary a.k.a my back porch that overlooks Cort's grandfather's pasture. I spend time reading and thinking, and then the sunset catches my eye. In moments like these my reading and thinking seems to move to the back of my mind and in the forefront it is replaced by a very simple, effortless worship. This morning (for clarification--mostly for my dad--I reflected on what I had seen the night before), I even wrote my own personal "psalm" about the beauty of God's creation and how it reflects the beauty of our great God, who created it all. One of the lines in the song is, "When creation sings it sets a mind to wandering. How can you have love for one like me?" In these sunset moments, I feel so small. When I think about the vastness of the stars and skies, the sun and moon, the entirety of the universe, I am overwhelmed with praise because God is still mindful of wretches like me. When creation sings, my heart echoes the song.

Moderately Christian

C.S. Lewis said, "Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important." The Scriptures address the issues of casual Christianity numerous times, and elaborate on the strong consequences of one who claims Christ but follows self. We see examples in Revelation in the letter written to the church at Laodicia, also in the Gospels when Christ presumably turns away potential followers on multiple occasions by making them count the cost of following Him. Now, think about Lewis' statement...there is no casual Christianity. To be casually Christian is to be fully hypocritical. This is the danger in selling Christianity like a high-pressure time-share. We offer this awesome vacation next to a crystal sea and golden roads if we will just 'accept Jesus right now'. I am a Southern Baptist, and this is a very hot topic right now. David Platt brought this to light, and I tend to agree with him for the most part. I fear we are selling people a faith built on sinking sand rather than a solid foundation. Let me summarize this post...IF YOU ARE CASUALLY CHRISTIAN...RETHINK YOUR SO-CALLED FAITH.

Content in Christ

A few years ago, a sunset was merely a sunset and nothing more. Tonight, I walked through my new yard hand in hand with my beautiful pregnant wife and looked at the sunset. In that brief moment, I did a quick reflection on my life. I used to think that like was about how many treasures I stored up here. It's funny how God works sometimes...this morning I taught 1 Timothy 5&6 in Sunday School. In 1 Timothy 6, the Word says...
     "But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
    But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness."

God has blessed me so richly in my life. I have a roof over my head, food to eat, and clothing. He has blessed me with an amazing Godly family and in-laws. I have been given a beautiful, loving wife and a beautiful soon-to-be born daughter. Most of all, I have been given the greatest gift of all--the grace that comes from Christ Jesus. Because it is God that has blessed me so much, I am going to pursue God.

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

This is the only way to live with perfect contentment.

Reflections of Romans- Chapter 1

 ROMANS 1

  Writer: Paul

Audience: The Believers in Rome

Things to Remember while reading: Paul was both Jewish and a Roman Citizen. 

Purpose in writing: He is longing to visit those believers in Rome because he has heard of their faith, so until that comes about, he writes them a letter reiterating their true faith.

Analysis: Here is a quick analysis/outline of Romans. You can break it down in two ways. The first way is in two parts. Verses 1-7 are considered the salutation, while 8-32 are the introduction to the entire book of Romans. You can also break chapter 1 down in three parts: 1-7 is WHY we tell, 8-15 is WHO we tell, and 16-32 is WHAT we tell.

EXPOSITION:

V1: "Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God..." 

     First of all, this is Paul we are talking about here. This is the same man that approx. 25 years earlier met Jesus on the road to Damascus while he was on his way to execute genocide on followers of the way. Paul thought that he was doing what God wanted him to do, but then he came face to face with the gospel that he was trying to silence. Jesus asked him, "Paul why do you persecute me?" Paul inquired, "Who are you, Lord?" That is when the truth was revealed to Paul and from that time on, he would serve God exclusively. 

     Paul calls himself a bondservant of Christ Jesus. What does this mean? If he is now free in Christ how, then, is he a bondservant or slave? Apart from Christ, we are slaves to our sinful passions and desires. Christ, with his blood, bought us for a price...we are no longer our own. We are free because, thanks to God's perfect atonement, we are no longer slaves to our sin.  

    Called to be an apostle. Apostle simply means "one who is sent, or missionary." Paul is called to be an instrument of the gospel. He is called to be set apart for the gospel. There is some interesting undertones in this phrase set apart. There is the obvious meaning of set apart, which is also the same meaning as Holy. We are called to be set apart from the world while we are here. Furthermore, set apart also has a literal definition meaning horizon. This could mean that he was called to have an entire field of view that radiates the gospel. 

V2: Christ is the focal point of prophecy, and has been since God promised it beforehand. Christ is God's plan for the restoration of His original relationship with man.

V3: This shows that Jesus was fully human since he was physically descended from David.

V4: This shows that Jesus was also fully God which is proved at the Resurrection which shows that the chief end of human life has no power over Him.

V5-6: It is Christ who has saved us and sent us for the sake of being obedient and spreading His name to the nations. (Matthew 28:19)

V7: Final Salutation to the Roman believers...

V8-10: This is a beautiful picture of how we should treat other believers. We should spend time in prayer for them, asking God to use them in a mighty way for His glory. Instead of trying to convince people to live another church to come to ours, we should be in prayer for them and that church, so that they may also further the Kingdom. Paul is longing to go to Rome.

V11-12: He is dying to visit the Romans, but he knows that it must be in God's timing. When he says, "I long to impart to you some spiritual gift...," this does not mean that he is trying to place a gift in them...in fact,he explains himself. He wants to encourage them and be mutually encouraged. 


V13: He reiterates his longing to visit the Romans. He wants to reap harvest among the Gentiles, which at this time was unusual and a pretty big deal. 


V14-15: The gospel is for ALL who will call on the name of Christ. So, Paul realizes the urgency of the gospel and the need for the discipleship of everyone we meet.


V16: This is the key verse of Romans in my personal opinion. This is the very definition of the gospel. It is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes. Notice, it is not simply for everyone. If one does not believe, then they do not reap the results of believing in Christ.The view that God gives everyone a second chance after death is not found in scripture.

V17: God calls us to be righteous.

V18-32: This will be a quick summary of this section. Basically, God has revealed what he requires of man in order to be saved. He also has established the law for the purpose of letting us know that we sin. Man rejected it, so he let man become slaves of the flesh. Therefore, man must recognize their helplessness, and that only God can save them. This will be a theme that is running all the way through that will be added onto.