It Is Finished!

On A Scale From 1 to 10.....

2010-09-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

Do you follow the commands found in the Bible? How are you doing with that? Let's look at a just love and see how it's going.

"Loving your neighbor as yourself." On a scale of 1 to 10
"Loving your enemies.". On a scale of 1 to 10

Read 1 Corinthians 13 On a scale of 1 to 10.

How did you grade yourself? Pretty low? What is the solution? Try harder? No! If Christ is in you, you should have scored yourself a 10 on all of them. Jesus did them all perfectly. And if He lives in you, then His perfect actions are credited to you as if you did them alone. That way, when you find yourself loving your enemies you can be sure it's the Christ within you and when you aren't, you know it's you!

Remember, it's what you've been declared that matters, not how you think you are doing.

When A Child Understands the Gospel

2010-05-04T22:19:00.001-07:00

Tonight my son delivered to me one of the greatest sermons I've ever heard. For a six year old, he preached what most "seasoned" pastors can't seem to do from their own pulpits week after week. He was frightened tonight thinking about scary things. I told him to think of fun things fom the day or of Bible stories or verses he liked. I suggested, in a very elementary way, John 3:16. He interrupted with his own verse - John 15:5. Then he said verbatim: "I am the vine. You are the branches. If any man abides in Me and I in him, he will bare much fruit." In that moment, I was silenced to tears. This sweet, scared little boy summed up the Gospel from memory - a memory I didn't even know he had - so beautifully and timely. Instead of me coming to his comfort, he came to mine and reminded me that our Savior abides in us and produces every good work. He reminded me that Christ's only requirement of me is to rest in His vine-ness and He will take care of everything else. Thank you son for understanding a truth that gives us life and is our only hope unto salvation. Thank you Lord for my son as I am thankful for yours. Amen.

- Laboriously typed from my iPhone!

QUICK SERMON REVIEW

2010-04-25T19:49:00.000-07:00

Here's what I heard today at a church I visited in a nutshell. I've added my thoughts to the pastors statements in parenthesis: You cannot work your way to heaven. (Yep, that's right.) There isn't a list of things you can do to earn salvation. (Uh huh! That's true!) You have to believe the Gospel and trust the righteousness of Christ. (Yes! Keep it comin'!) You have to live the Gospel. (Ok, where is this going?) What does your life look like? What changes can you make in your life to set you apart from the world so that it is evident that you believe in the Gospel? (Oh well, it started off good.)

If you aren't listening carefully, you'll miss it! He says, there isn't a list of things to earn salvation. Then he tells us we have to "live" the Gospel and asks if our lives look any different than the unsaved. Well, how do you do that without looking at a list of behaviors? This is a contradictory message. Instead of telling us to trust Christ for HIS VERY OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS, he tells us to trust Christ and THEN strive to do different things in your life to look "set apart" from others. This is subtle but it's so profound! If Christ lives in you and you trust Him for every good work, you won't LOOK different you WILL BE DIFFERENT. You ARE changed. You don't need to do the changing. He HAS DONE it for you! Stop trying to be different and start trusting that you are different.

What Else Do You Need?

2010-04-20T08:22:00.001-07:00

I love being visited by various religous groups at my door. I once talked to two young LDS fellows so long that they actually looked at their watches and said they had an appointment to get to. I was just visited by a lovely Jehova's Witness couple who I wish I had more time to talk wirh but this time I had the appointment. But I invited them to come back and I'm sure they will. Anytime someone comes to my door I focus solely on Jesus. I don't let it stray into doctrines and practices. This is frustrating for them because while they say they agree about Christ's sacrifice, they have something else to offer. This thought process isn't limited to those front door evangelists. We find this in our churches and denominations at an alarming volume. It's the "Jesus Plus" Gospel. It goes like this: Yeah, yeah. Jesus did a good thing for us and it is soooo important....BUT (and this is where it goes awry) we are here to tell you about His Kingdom...or we must listen to more modern prophets with another testament of JC...or
we want to teach you about end times events...or tithing...or doing good...or quiet time...or tongues and spiritual gifts get you closer to God...or, or, or. These are all modern inventions and have nothing to do with the Gospel. My response is only this: If I have the Creator of the universe - that very Jesus who died and rose again - THE Alpha and Omega living in me....then what else could I possibly need? What do you have to offer me outside of that truth? I say you have nothing for me. I always ask Paul's question to the Galatians when someone brings up a plus to Jesus: You foolish people! Who has bewitched you into a different Gospel which is in fact, NO Gospel at all! We need to ask this question of our pastors, evangelists at the door and any who claim to be Christians: what else do I need besides Christ? What could you possibly have to offer me that is better than Christ Himself living in me? If they answer that question with something other than "nothing", I believe you have found the bewitching kind.

- Laboriously typed from my iPhone!

LIMITED BY THE LAW

2010-03-18T22:25:00.000-07:00

We will never be able to keep the Law to it's full extent. We break one, we break them all. However, many Christians still try and pursue the 10 commandments, straining their best attempts to do it. Now Christ, He did the Law perfectly. No mistakes. And now that we have Him living within us, He passes this righteousness on to us as if we had done it alone. Could Christ only do 10 good things? Is He limited in His goodness? Surely Jesus could do 10 million laws and more. Christ within us will move us to show His goodness to others and He will animate our lives to manifest His total goodness. He won't limit it to 10 commandments or 600 commandments. If we are living by a few commandments then we are limited by that law. If our goal is to complete a small list of law, we will never experience the true boundless righteousness that God offers us in His Son. The law is a tiny fraction of what Christ accomplishes. So why yoke yourself with that limitation especially when knowing full well that you can never do it anyway? Instead, rest in Christ and let Him pour through you all the possible righteousness He promised you which is all of it, perfectly!

PROOF

2010-03-09T16:11:00.001-08:00

Most atheists insist that if God would just appear to them they would believe. If He could just stand before them they could finally put to rest all of their doubts and truly bury the question "Does God exist." It's very easy to empathize with this. Wouldn't it be much easier if God would just appear before unbelievers and convince them once and for all that He was real? Wouldn't that make trying to convince them easier? At first this may seem like a good possibility but then the reality sets in as you begin to ponder back through Scripture. You could go back to Moses when he received the big ten from God Himself and no sooner was he gone, conversing with God with a multitude of witnesses below, were those witnesses constructing a giant golden calf to worship. There they stood with some kind of vision of the Lord, although veiled to some degree, and didn't believe and arrogantly making their preferred idol. Skip forward to the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke. The rich man, in torment, asks if Lazarus, who was carried away in death by angels, could come to him and dip his finger in water to cool the flame. When this isn't a possibility, the rich man pleads for Lazarus to go to his five brothers and warn them to not go to this place of torment. But he is told they have heard Moses and the prophets so they should know already. But the rich man insists that if they see a man raised from the dead come and tell them, they will surely be convinced. However, the parable states that if they aren't convinced by the words of Scripture, not even a man raised from the dead and speaking directly to them could do it. How could this be? I would think that would be the most convincing evidence possible! But another remembrance comes to mind - the very people that walked with the physical Jesus could not even recognize His resurrected body!
I think the human nature of self-righteousness rears it's ugly head here. We actually think enough of ourselves that by seeing Him we would believe. If you can't recognize Him in Scripture, you would look right past Him even if He stood directly in front of you. Scripture shows this time and time again. If you can't look at the wonders of His creation in your children or in the beauty of nature that surrounds you, His physical appearance will do nothing to you.
This offers no comfort to the atheist because they MUST see to believe. But you'll never see Christ if you first don't see your need for Him. You need no proof if you are good enough as you are. Christ doesn't seek the good, He seeks the sinner. You'll never see Him if you are good. I have all the proof I require for the existence of God - me and my clothes of unrighteousness, the flesh.

FAITH

2010-02-16T16:53:00.000-08:00

Why does God require faith? It is the way we have relationship with Him. But what is faith? Faith is a living trust that you employ not only towards God but also in other relationships in your life. You trust that those around you truly love you even though you couldn't really know what they might think. The heart is beyond wicked and the mind is full of every nasty thing. There is no way to truly know the state of someone else's heart and there isn't a way to even know your own. It is a chameleon, changing with the times. The heart and mind both work together pulling one another into spirals of self. We start believing our heart and yet our mind knows what the heart is feeling. We have a refreshed mind but our heart is carrying us away leaving behind our good sense. What a ghastly trick this is. With our hearts and mind constantly ebbing and flowing, we can only have one thing and that is faith. Faith in our relationships keep hope alive that all is well. We certainly muster faith for our worldly relationships for we know that our hearts are deceitful but we know Christ's heart is all loving. Jesus doesn't want us to muster our own kind of faith for Him. We need His faith. This is a difficult concept to envision but allows a peaceful rest if we can begin to understand it. For every problem, He offers the solution. He gives us faith for Him.

We don't create faith. As all good gifts come from the Lord, He also provides us the faith that trusts Him and His goodness. Not ours. You see, God gives us everything we need in Christ. We need not pray for more of this or that. We already have it. I don't believe that God is a vending machine only giving us small portions here and there. I believe He's given it all in one complete work as we come to Him. Our problem is not realizing that we already HAVE IT. We don't believe this because we don't see our lives exhibiting these things. At least not consistently. This shouldn't lead us to believe that on the days we are patient or fully compassionate or slow to anger that we are in any different place than in Christ even on the days we aren't those things! Those things exist in us because of His gift to us. We have misplaced our trust when we are exhibiting these behaviors.

What shall we do then? We faithe. This is not even a word! But there is an active faith that we must employ. Yes, Christ has given us full capacity for faith. Perfect faith. Yet, we don't allow it to work every day. We live in this untrusting flesh. So we must faithe. We must remind ourselves of His righteousness in our life. We don't fall before Him humiliated that we blew it and ask Him to dole out another dose of something. We renew our minds and faithe, actively trusting Him that He has completed us. I've heard before - "God's not finished with me yet!" This usually means God is sculpting us into better Christians. I'm not so sure of this. I believe the Creator of the universe, the God man who dies for us and rises to give us life, HAS sculpted us into what He wants. We are just so much more interested in what He can do for us than what His Son already did. We are too fleshly to see it. We still see the unmolded clay, clumped around us instead of seeing the pot that is filled with Christ. But this must be what keeps our faith alive - our trust in hope. We would certainly fall prostrate to see the completeness of Christ's glory. We must rest in faith continually - faithing - so that we know our completeness is true even though we don't always see it.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

2010-01-25T16:51:00.000-08:00

I find it quite hard to live the Christian life. It's very demanding. It makes one tired. It makes one hopeless. To live the Christian life is to live a life of doing. To live a life perfecting yourself under the guise that you can become more like Christ. The Christian life is an endless pursuit towards holiness. This endless pursuit is exactly why the Christian bookstores keep the shelves stocked year after year with "how-to" books. Has anyone achieved this holiness yet? Have any of you reading this been able to see a marked improvement in becoming more and more like Christ? Do you really see a difference in your behavior as every year passes? Are you truly getting better? Is it consistent? Do you keep failing and trying again? That is what I've experienced. I try and fail. I try again and fail again. Each time striving harder. Each time doing more than I did the last. And each time failing miserably. Is this our real pursuit? Or should it be something else? I believe it is indeed to be something else. Read Colossians 2 for clarity on this. Most Christians live in a mixed covenant. A little bit of the old and a little bit of the new. But the new covenant has granted us something the old never could. It gave us righteousness. And not a righteousness we could ever possibly attain. But Christ's one, true righteousness. This is bestowed on us, because of Him, as if we did it ourselves. If we rest in this truth, remind ourselves of it everyday, we will learn to live the normal Christian life. Not the Christian life that pleads for us to do more and more to gain something. We must always know that we have already been given all. And all comes through Christ. If He is in you then you are perfected. It's OK to live in the tension of doing things wrong and still knowing you are righteous. If there is something in your life that is in the way, something that is hurting you or others; if it is keeping you from functioning, rid yourselves of it. It's easy to pick out sins we do that we need to stop but it may be, in fact, trying to live this so called Christian life that is in the way. I want to encourage you to treat others with love. To pursue Christ. Read His Word. Tell others about Him. But most importantly REST. When you think you can't, rest and know that He did. When you think you are going to fail, rest and know that He has lifted you up. And every mistake can become a place to say thanks to God our Father for giving us His Son and always seeing His righteousness in us when we are at our lowest. Be encouraged to rest. Be encouraged that instead of your vain attempts to become more like Christ, you have already been made like Him by Him. Wow. That is good news, friends. This is true branch living.

We Are Not The Initiators

2009-11-23T14:08:00.001-08:00

We played no part in the initiation of Creation. We did not initiate our salvation. We were never meant to initiate anything. Christ Jesus does all of this. He is the initiator. We need not ask Jesus to "come here and fill this place" or the Holy Spirit to "make His presence known." He's already here. How can you ask He who is omnipresent to be anywhere?Isn't He who is omnipresent everywhere? Certainly. We accept that He is already among us because He says He is! Now we can stop getting ourselves involved and move out of the way and rest. If we would just do that and take "us" out of the equation we would know His presence like He meant. Instead, we continually ask Him to do things He's already accomplished. Let the One True Initiator initiate.

I Won't Hold You Back Now

2009-11-10T10:50:00.001-08:00

Can we hold Jesus back? Can we keep Him from doing anything? Do we have the power to suppress His power or will? Does He not work if we don't let Him? Is Jesus waiting on us to say it's "ok"?

- Laboriously typed from my iPhone!

JESUS IS IRRELEVANT

2009-10-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

Modern Christians seem to always be in desperate search for relevancy. Grasping at anything to make what they believe somehow fit with current trends. This couldn't be a more daft pursuance. Christ's crucified, risen and substituted life for His people is in fact the most irrelevant event in all history. Here's what I mean: it is impossible to make this relevant to anyone in todays current thought process. Furthermore, Jesus has never been a relevant idea since the creation of the world. Everyone resists that truth. But truth doesn't have to be relevant. In all actuality, the most truly irrelevant thing is our corruption of making His Gospel less important than our church services, our giving, our various styles of worship, buildings, spiritual gifts and maybe most sadly, our behaviors. The list could go on and on. The church, overall, has gotten rid of preaching Christ centered messages in hopes that they can reach more people and create more community so that they can be relevant. Which really means they can have more numbers show up! Look around your church. If you see a large group of people, your pastor probably doesn't preach the Gospel every Sunday. Because if he did, there would be less of you there.

Blogging From the iPhone.

2009-09-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd try a blog post from the iPhone.

Now for a quick nugget.

Adam and Eve's sin was not that they did a wrong thing or a bad behavior. In fact, God had already called them good. They simply decided that God couldn't be trusted. And that is what we all do to this day. We want to call our bad behaviors sin when in actuality, we just don't trust God to make us right people. God is not waiting for us to choose between right and wrong. He desires our trust. He has already made us right.

P. S. This must be what it looks like blogging from the iPhones perspective. Plus I wanted to try the handy add a pic from this app!

- Laboriously typed from my iPhone!

DON'T WASH YOURSELF CLEAN

2009-09-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

I received an encouraging e-mail nugget today and wanted to expand the thought a little. This is adapted from an analogy by Hans R. Waldvogel, who is also the nugget of the week.

Let's say a woman was given a new washing machine but doesn't know what to do with it. She is so used to using an old washboard to clean her clothes that the only thing she can think to do with this new machine is to rub the dirty clothes against the insides of the drum to get them clean. Since this obviously doesn't work, she goes back to the old way of doing things and uses the "reliable" method; the old washboard. Finally, someone comes to her aid and gives her instructions on how to use the new washing machine and how easy it is. Instead of rubbing her knuckles bloody, she would simply put the dirty clothes in and add soap and the machine does all the work for her while she sits and relaxes.

Now imagine that someone offers to do your dirty laundry while you take it easy. You agree. But after a few moments you start to feel guilty that they are in there working and you are resting. So you get up and go help. This is exactly how modern Christians think. Even though they've been given this new "machine" they don't know what do with it and even if someone comes to do it for them they don't want it.

Here's what has happened: Instead of accepting the New Covenant that Christ gave, modern Christians are stuck using the Old Covenant methods of getting themselves right, or clean, before God! We are all guilty of this. But we can't continue this any longer. We have but one active participation in our relationship with Christ, only ONE! And that is to rest in His work. Our work is to NOT work. It is hard to do but it's what is required if we want to be alive in Christ!

We cannot mix the old with the new. The new has replaced the old. Get free'd up!

DOES ANYONE REALLY CARE?

2009-09-10T17:33:00.000-07:00

I've been stewing on these thoughts for a while and have finally gotten the chance to blog about them. (i.e. the kids aren't climbing all over me!) It's really a simple question: Does anyone really care about the Gospel? By that I mean, are we not so incredibly blown away by what Jesus has done for us that we can't keep quiet about it? I mentioned in an earlier post that I talk about Jesus with my non-Christian friends WAAAYYYYY more than my professed Christian - church going- Bible reading - praying friends. I find this so unbelievable. I mean, sure, I hear the occasional "I'll pray for you!" or "Praise God!" or something like that but come on! Is that what comes from the life of a Christian? Jargon? Convenient phrases that really say nothing? I don't think Paul or, say, Martin Luther were very silent long after they discovered the fullness of Christ's Gospel in their lives. I frankly can't believe it's not the ONLY thing we as Christian brothers can even talk about once we are together. Now, we obviously all have other personal interests. I like talking about astronomy or politics or music. There is obviously a place for that talk in our lives. But again, I'm always stunned at the lack of conversation we as brothers and sisters in Christ engage in outside of Bible studies or church. It's as if as soon as that's over there is almost a sigh of relief that it's over and you can now talk about something you really care about. Like your careers or what's on TV or recipes or something. Every few weeks I'll get a notification e-mail or a FaceBook post that let's me know that God has blessed somebody with something or a job or helped them do something or improved their life in some way. Or they'll be asking for prayer in regards to personal things in their lives and usually those requests involve some sort of improvement in their day to make life more convenient for them. That sounds harsh and it should because it's true. Truth should be offensive. There is no reason to not come together as Christians and support each other through prayer and comforting words. However, the very reason we can call ourselves Christians lies in the person and work of Jesus Christ. If we truly understood what He did and I don't think we all do, we could never be silent about it. It would be a part of our daily conversation. Not every now and again with updates on how good life is all the sudden and oh yeah Praise God! I mean having that deep understanding that we are completely deserving of nothing and we can proclaim boldly that He has already made us perfect and given us everything we need even if life around us doesn't look so. I'm not making a new law that says you aren't saved if you are not constantly talking about Jesus but I am saying that we don't do it. And that should concern each and everyone of you. Pause for a moment and think to yourself if you truly understand the depths of Christ's finished work. If not ask me. I'd love to talk about it! And talk, and talk and talk.........Thanks for reading.

A BAD ARGUMENT

2009-09-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've heard it said that it would take more faith to believe what atheists believe than what a Christian believes. How could this be? This is a crucially bad argument. What folly in this statement. It clearly takes ONLY faith to believe in the precepts of Christianity and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore it cannot take faith to believe in anything else, specifically evolution.

IT'S HARD TO CONVINCE AN ATHEIST

2009-09-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

I've discovered a lot about my faith by conversing with atheists. I have two dear friends who are atheists and I talk to them more about Christ than I do with most of my Christian brethren. (Look for a blog post about that soon!) Having these two friends has been very eye opening and thought provoking. I understand the "other side" better than I did. I had them pegged quite wrong. You won't get much help from most of today's Christian outlets on how to talk with an atheist. They are really missing the mark. They have a certain formula on how to deal with their objections and what your response in return should be. In other words, they teach you to "prove" your Jesus! But the atheists aren't buying it. None of us have any reason to believe what we believe as Christians. We come up with things to make us feel better about believing so that we don't actually appear crazy. But come on, this Jesus fella claimed some wild things and don't even get started on that crazy Old Testament God. If you sit back and start from the beginning and lay out what you believe about Creation all the way to Christ's life in you, it is apparent nonsense. However, we have been given the "secret ingredient" that others aren't - that is faith. Faith is the key - it is the gift that is necessary to have it all make sense. The reason an atheist isn't going to get what you're saying is that they have not received the gift of faith. We can talk and talk and talk and try and prove or convince them to no end. Until you realize they don't operate in faith, you will never get anywhere with them. That's not to say you throw in the towel and give up. I'm all for defending the faith and giving a reason for the hope that is within us. And that faith comes from hearing the Word. And what is that Word? It is none other than Jesus Himself! Until you truly hear Jesus you'll never have the faith to believe it all. Don't think for a second that you can muster that faith or by your brilliant apologetics that you'll be able to convince them to have faith in something so unreasonable to them. Only Christ can do that. But they must hear Him not you. At the end of the day, I agree with them that I have no reason to believe what I do; no proof exists for it. But I believe it as only one that has been given everything by Christ can believe it. I must look out of my mind to them. On that I will also agree with them. But by the grace of our Lord, He allows me to know Him according to His great will and purpose. On that I say, Amen!

A LETTER TO THE POPE

2009-08-11T17:57:00.000-07:00

I found this very interesting while reading "Concerning Christian Liberty" by Martin Luther. He had many confrontations on paper with folks he disagreed with. Here are some profound things he said to this particular pope, Pope Leo X. What would happen if we were to write like this to our local Pastors who are preaching and teaching everything BUT the Gospel?

"Wherefore, most excellent Leo, I beseech you to accept my vindication, made in this letter, and to persuade yourself that I have never thought any evil concerning your person; further, that I am one who desires that eternal blessing may fall to your lot, and that I have no dispute with any man concerning morals, but only concerning the word of truth. For many years now, nothing else has overflowed from Rome into the world--as you are not ignorant--than the laying waste of goods, of bodies, and of souls, and the worst examples of all the worst things. And the Church of Rome has become the most lawless den of thieves, the most shameless of all brothels, the very kingdom of sin, death, and hell; so that not even antichrist, if he were to come, could devise any addition to its wickedness. Under the influence of these feelings, I have always grieved that you, most excellent Leo, who were worthy of a better age, have been made pontiff in this. For the Roman Court is not worthy of you and those like you, but of Satan himself, who in truth is more the ruler in that Babylon than you are. Therefore, Leo, beware of listening to those sirens who make you out to be not simply a man, but partly a god, so that you can command and require whatever you will. It will not happen so, nor will you prevail. You are the servant of servants, and more than any other man, in a most pitiable and perilous position. Let not those men deceive you who pretend that you are lord of the world; who will not allow any one to be a Christian without your authority; who babble of your having power over heaven, hell, and purgatory. These men are your enemies and are seeking your soul to destroy it. They are in error who attribute to you alone the right of interpreting Scripture. In brief, trust not in any who exalt you, but in those who humiliate you."

Matthew 23:12 - "And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted."

ABSOLUTE TRUTH

2009-05-13T02:31:00.000-07:00

This is something I left on a message board in response to someone complaining that Christianity was divisive as a religion. I wanted to set him straight that his comments were equally divisive.

We are all divisive. We are all segregational. All of our thoughts, speech, standards and actions are divisive. We only want what's best for us and therefore what's best for us MUST be best for others. Other views differing from our own are just simply incorrect or outside of reason or uninformed, etc. Don't fool yourself into thinking that you don't have this bias to what you adhere to. It' much easier for us to point out the folly in others thinking or beliefs than to find the giant holes in our own. Just don't pretend that you aren't divisive. The fact that you hold a specific belief in something divides you from someone who doesn't hold the same belief. Here's the real rub: both of you can't be right. One of you can't even be MORE right than the other. Something is either absolutely true or completely false. There's no grey area here. There is no way to believe "what might be right for them may not be right for me" because they may perceive they have a "right" to murder, pedophilia, theft, abortion, etc. You would then agree that you can't just do what you please. A majority of people can still be wrong even if they agree on any given subject. A majority of people may vote in a bad candidate for government. We are "side choosers" no matter how you look at it. Don't wade in the void of indecision. Don't be afraid of absolute truth. It exists with or without you.

THEN WHY CAN'T I PLAY LIKE BUDDY RICH?

2009-03-16T15:02:00.001-07:00

Are you searching for God's direction in your life? Are you looking to use your talent that He's given you? What is God's will for your life? Should you move? Should you take that job? What does He want? Where is He leading you? You may wonder some or all of these things. I have done so as well. Here's what I've learned. He doesn't care! What?!?! Here's what I mean. Your purpose in life is simple: preach the Gospel. You don't need 40 days to figure out your purpose. No matter what you are or where you go, tell people of Christ's complete work done on the Cross for them. Tell them of His Resurrection that now gives them life. If you want to take a new job, take it! If you want to live in a different city, go for it! If you have a talent, use it! That doesn't mean you have to use it only in church. Do what you want to do with the resources you have. Just take the saving message of the Gospel with you and proclaim it. Don't get caught up in how "God's blessed me with a great talent, I should use it for Him" or "God's called me to preach." God has commissioned all of us for preaching. If you are good at speaking, you may want to be a preacher. If you are good at greeting people, go greet people. If you are a good business man, start a business and become successful. Just proclaim the Gospel while you do it.
I am a professional drummer and maybe I'm pretty good at it. But I don't sit around and worry that I need to use my "God-given talent" for Him. As if He needs anything from me! My profession is secular and at my job, I proclaim the Gospel. It's a matter of changing your view from "God has given me a talent and I must use it" to "I have a talent that I enjoy doing and I will preach the Gospel wherever I do it." If God was in the business of giving out special talents for us then why didn't He make me better than Buddy Rich?!?!
God doesn't need to give us specific things in specific time frames to guide us here or there. We are here. We are where we are. We are where we are going. We are working where we're working. Go and do those things while proclaiming the Truth that has been given you. You will be doing God's will!! You can rest in that. Amen.

WHAT IS SUFFICIENT FOR YOU?

2009-01-13T16:14:00.000-08:00

Do you find yourself waiting on God to give you a sign? Maybe you would like Him to appear to you so you know that He is real. Or perhaps you would like Him to grant you a special spiritual gift that makes you feel closer to Him. You may think that any one of those things would be sufficient in God proving His faithfulness or realness to you. But you would miss the mark totally. God does not need to give you a huge obvious sign to make you believe anything. God simply shows us through His written word of what He has done for you and I through His Son Jesus. It is His gift of faith that He supplies to us that brings us to belief in that simple proclamation. We need nothing more. It is sufficient because He is sufficient. Amen.

PURPOSEFUL LAW

2008-12-09T10:52:00.000-08:00

The entire purpose of the Law is to show us how utterly devoid of good we are. It is a mirror we look in and see our real selves. If we look into the mirror and try to mask our bad with some good of our own, we will still see who is underneath. Just like an aging woman might be able to cover up some blemishes, she still sees the older woman in that morning mirror. When we look to God's Law to measure our behavior, we should see that we cannot live up to His ideal. So often, people try and follow the letter of the law but only end up frustrated. We have to understand that God intends His Law to be a crushing blow to our self-righteousness. He wants us to throw in our towels and proclaim that His right and holy Law is perfect and we are not. If we can get to this place we will realize our need for perfection. We will smell our depravity in being perfect. We will look to another to be perfection for us. You see, what God demands He also freely gives. That is a beautiful truth. He demands perfection yet knows we aren't. So He lovingly provides us a way, the Way. If we are caught up in our good works and self-righteousness we will never see His intent. We are bad - He makes us good. We are imperfect - He makes us perfect. We are self-righteous - He makes us righteous.
How does He do that? Not through any effort of our own. He does it through His Son Jesus. He sent Him to be that perfection for us. Jesus followed the Law perfectly. Therefore, if our trust, our faithing - or act of faith, is in Jesus then He gives us His robe of righteousness and covers us in perfection so that when God looks at us He sees His Son, not you and me. This gift is free. It is given by Him and sustained by Him. We receive it. We trust it. We faithe in it. We don't work for it, try harder or pray to get better at it. We rest in this gift. If someone pays your fine to get out of jail and you are set free, do you continue to try and get out of jail? Do you keep asking for more money to get out? No! You are FREE! Go! Live freely in the gift of God - being forgiven for every short coming and being raised from death, just as He was raised. This is His promise to us who trust Him. His Life is now in us and it motivates us and animates us and moves us to His will and away from our own. He truly has provided us a way out of our depravity. He demands and He fulfills. No other can do this. I am thankful that He doesn't leave it up to me to decide to do His will. He does it for me. He has always done it for us! He has done it. It is finished.

DIVISIVE LAW

2008-11-30T17:57:00.000-08:00

I'm going to continue this teaching on law. There's a lot to say about it and I want you to stay with me because hope is coming!! But in order to get to the great hope that is ever available we MUST understand the depths to which our corruptness descends. Until you understand your total depravity, you'll never fully 'get' the Gospel. It's important to spend a few posts on this to get down and dirty about who we really are.
One characteristic of the law is its divisiveness. Most importantly it divides us from God. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, divided themselves from God when they decided to break His law and decide for themselves. They were in perfect fellowship with Him until their desire to be God laid hold. In the same way now, instead of resting in Him for our daily lives, we try and work for God to fulfill His demands and fall short thereby being divided from Him.
A second way the law is divisive is relationally. In truth, law is holy but only if it's kept perfectly. If we think we keep the law perfectly (and we can't) or the best we can (and we can't) we will always hold up that standard to those around us, our loved ones. This will hurt relationships because you are asking them to do something neither of you can fulfill. Trying to follow the law will make you religious and religiousness masks itself as righteousness. You will only end up with a holier than thou attitude by thinking like the Pharisee in Luke 18 who actually thanked God that he was better than "REAL" sinners! You will feel superior to the other. This attitude mustn't be present in a loving relationship.
The end result of living your life by your works will do two things: it will give you a false sense of being a "good" person and it will also bring you insecurity. This will be a vicious cycle. On one hand you will feel a sense of security with God by thinking you are doing all the things you think will please Him. But on the other hand, you will have a shadow of insecurity following you telling you you aren't pleasing God and that you could be doing better. It will constantly coax you into doubting your salvation. And like a shadow, it will always be following you even if you don't notice it.
Stay tuned! Our final look into the law will tell us what the law is really supposed to do so that we can move into that promised hope. Thanks for reading.

LIFELESS LAW

2008-11-21T15:18:00.000-08:00

I want to distinguish between two kinds of law: the Law and law. The first kind, capital 'L' Law, would refer to the ceremonial Laws of the Old Testament, including but not limited to the big 10. The other is lowercase 'l' law and that would refer to any sort of thing that we come up with as a list of rules to follow or espouse. We have been surrounded by laws our entire lives. We have to live by them or face the consequences. Break one and you're in trouble. This happened in school, at home with our moms and dads and it happens in our civil lives. Punishment is always the end result of breaking the law. Could you imagine removing these laws from our lives and holding no one accountable to them anymore? Would that not create utmost chaos? Imagine taking away the speed limit on our national freeways. Think of drugs being legal. Try and wonder what it would be like if committing a violent crime was no longer against the law. We could most certainly agree for the most part that this would not be a great idea. The law's purpose is to order our lives. But as we move into spiritual matters, we cannot bring with us this notion of law keeping. This is not entirely easy to do. It is hard to retrain our minds to think differently in these matters. But I hope this post can help.
God's purpose in introducing law into our lives is precisely the opposite of why we keep it. We keep law so that we are not punished. Or we keep the law to please ourselves or others and in doing so show how good we are. However, God's intent with the law is to show us how completely and utterly BAD we all are and that all will be punished for not keeping it. Even the least of it. How ironic, then, that we try and keep the law for life when in reality the law brings death. Law is lifeless. It is the written code of what we can never achieve. It is God's standards that we will never, ever live up to.
Even further devastation from this comes when you realize that the law increases our bad deeds. It can't even encourage good ones! How can this be? My good friend J.D. Boreing (check out his post in the Blog Archive for May) illustrates this best. Imagine you walked your dog every day following the same path. Every day you pass by a tall wooden fence. You notice there is a fence there but not much more than that. You may notice a broken board one day or you might see that it may need some repairs. You may even notice that there are knotholes in the boards. But other than that it's just a fence you pass on your daily walk. Then, one day you pass this same fence you've barely given any thought to and you see that one of the knotholes has a bright red circle around it and a sign that says "Do NOT look through this knothole!" This changes everything. No longer is it just a fence you pass on your walk. It is now intriguing you to wonder what is on the other side that someone would put up that sign. You now burn with desire to do the exact opposite of the law of that sign. You want to look. And just the simple desire of wanting to look is enough sin to get you death. But you do better than that. You tie up your dog and smash your face up against the fence and peer through to satisfy your craving for knowledge!!
Don't think for a second that following the written code of the Bible will get you anything! Romans 7:5 tells us that our sinfulness is AROUSED by the law! What an incredible paradox this is. The very thing we try to follow to be good only brings out our true badness! And in Romans 7:6 we see another incredible paradox. The only way to live is to DIE to the written code. For the law is truly binding and there is no life to be found there. May the law increasingly make its way out of our lives! For life's sake.

Have You Fooled Yourself?

2008-10-14T10:03:00.000-07:00

How do you rate yourself as a person? Are you a good person? Are you a bad person? A little of both? I bet most will say that they are a good person. Most of us have been fooled in to believing that about ourselves. And why not? We watch ourselves help little old ladies cross the street. We say "hello" to strangers. We give a nice tip at the restaurant. We give of our time and resources to help the poor. We may even give generously to charities. Why wouldn't we see ourselves as good people if we were doing all that? But in fact, there lies the problem. Doing any one or all of those things doesn't make us good. We have certainly fooled ourselves if we think so. To truly understand that we are not good, we only need to look in the Bible. Jesus Himself said no one is good except God alone. What you will find in the Bible is twofold. Law and Gospel. The law is there to kill us. It shows us how bad we really are. We have to start there. Declare yourself bad. If you can understand your badness you will understand your need for goodness. This is where the second part, the Gospel, comes in. The Gospel tells us that Christ is good on our behalf. Moreover, he gives us His nature, His righteousness despite our badness. As we place our trust in Him we can move forward knowing that we are good but only because of Him. However, we must hold the tension in place that we are really both good and bad. We still have that bad nature and it rears its ugly head. We live as Saint and sinner daily. Yet we should be comforted in knowing that when good is coming from us it is really coming from Christ. The bad that we do just continues to push us towards Him and His forgiveness. Don't be fooled! We are bad. But don't also be fooled to think that you are anything less than what Christ declares you: righteous!!

READ THIS!!!!

2008-09-27T11:26:00.001-07:00

Click on the title above to link to an outside website and read Martin Luther's preface to his commentary on the book of Galatians. It is the best summary of the Gospel I've seen so far. Please take the time to read and re-read. It will be of such help and comfort.

On Death

2008-09-25T14:50:00.001-07:00

I don't need to worry about dying. I'm already dead. I'm a walking dead man. I don't need to comfort myself that when I die I will finally be with Jesus. I'm with Him now! We fool ourselves into thinking we are really only alive here on earth. The only reason we are alive, truly alive, is because of Christ. He conquered death! So we can amen when we say "O death. where is your sting?" and "O grave, where is your victory?"

This Wouldn't Have Sold So Many Copies

2008-09-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

THE HOLY SPIRIT

2008-08-12T10:00:00.000-07:00

The goose bumps you feel during a "worship" song or that feeling you get down deep may not be the Holy Spirit. (I get goose bumps when I listen to rock music and I've been told that it is the devil's music!) I've also had those feelings down deep that tell me that I should do this or that. How can I tell if the Spirit is "moving" me or if it is really my own desires? Here's the answer: The Holy Spirit speaks Truth to us. He is the one moving us to Truth as we read God's Word. He is not a feeling or a 'hunch.' He is not the provider of emotion or special tricks (tongues, healing, predictions, etc..) He guides us into all Truth! The Holy Spirit will only lead us to Truth. We can only confirm the Truth that is in the Bible. The Holy Spirit will not lead us to anything but Christ. He is not a crystal ball we consult to tell our future or give us advice to help or improve our lives. We obliterate the true work of the Spirit when we selfishly use Him to confirm our feelings and motives. It is also an egregious offense to use the special tricks mentioned above to "prove" you have the Spirit or maybe sadder still, to prove to yourself that you have Him. If you trust in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you have the Spirit. You have been given it all! Don't look for it in the daily events of life, just know that you have it. You don't need to pray for it. You have it. It is in you. Moving your every step and thought into the life of Christ. Let me leave you with this thought: Don't be fooled by charlatans claiming a new work of the Holy Spirit. Don't get caught up by a new outpouring of the Spirit. There is no "fresh move" of the Holy Spirit. God is not doing a "nu thang!" He's doing what He's always done. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. Live and rest in that! Amen.

A Quick Plea

2008-07-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Don't use Old Testament stories as morality lessons for you or your children. Use Aesop's Fables or something else instead. Use the bible for its intended purpose, teaching the Gospel. All of the Old Testament stories are a foreshadowing of the Gospel, NOT a guide book for how we should act. Read to your kids the Old Testament and show them God's means of provision. Read to them with your Gospel glasses on so they can see Jesus in those wonderful events that show us to Christ! If we reduce the stories in the bible to morality lessons, then we equal them to any sort of fairy tales, undermining the message of God's redemption of man and cheapening the value of the preserved Scripture. Our kids need to know that the bible is set apart from their favorite story book. It contains something far different and far more meaningful than any other book in history. Don't let them confuse the law and the Gospel by using the bible to show them how to behave. They will appreciate it later!

What Is Frustrating You?

2008-07-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

Maybe you feel bogged down in your sins. Maybe you don't feel close to God. Maybe you're discouraged by hypocrites. Maybe you feel like a hypocrite. There are probably a lot of things that come at you every day like poison darts that discourage and frustrate you. The bad news is, it's all true. You are sinful. You are hypocritical. Your thoughts betray you and those around you. You do things you don't want to do no matter how hard you try not to. You are impatient and rude. You lie, cheat and steal. You murder. You are constantly engaged in activity that is in complete opposition to Jesus Christ. It's no wonder frustration takes hold.
But, here is the good news. You have the eternal God, creator of the universe living in you. The very same Jesus that on your behalf lived a perfectly sinless life. The same Jesus who took away your sin, obliterating it from existence and giving you His righteousness. He has brought you into fellowship with God by satisfying your debt to God. He has taken you, a poor miserable sinner and made you co-heir and saint with Him. That is wonderful news!
It would behoove you to continually live in the finished work of Jesus Christ. Realizing that He has already dealt with your sin. He didn't leave any leftovers. You are washed white as snow. He WILL NOT hold your sin against you! Sin is no longer an issue. You are now closer to God than the people who walked with Him physically! Only when He died and rose again could He come to live in them. They may have walked next to Him but He LIVES in you! You ARE close to God!
Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. That means He is at rest. You need to be at rest also. Believe His promises that He will never leave you or forsake you! Be confident that your sin is washed away. Trust that you are alive in Him. Abide in Him. Know that any good that comes from you is coming from Him. He produces the good in you. Believe that He has given you everything you need for life and godliness.
Take a quiet moment, stop talking, stop thinking, turn off the noises that surround you and simply listen to His Spirit. It is always there guiding you and speaking to you. Get out of the way. Be still and let Him work. Rest.

Christianity Makes A Terrible Religion

2008-07-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

I don't believe true Christianity deserves to be demoted to a religion. We all answer the question of what religion we belong to as Christianity, but it just isn't so. Making this distinction is so important because it is the basis for what we actually believe. If you look at Christianity as a religion then you haven't a clue of what Christianity is. If you understand Christianity then you realize that there is nothing you can do to gain acceptance from God. That is not religion. Religion is ceremony. It is tradition. It is a means to God. But Jesus taught us there is no means to God that we can accomplish. He said the only way to God is through Him. That is not religion, that is Christianity. That is so offensive to people. They don't want to believe that the means to God has been performed by Jesus Christ FOR them. Leaving NOTHING for them to do but accept that. To believe it. To trust it. People in general resist that and the result is an amalgamation of religions into Christianity. The lines get blurred and truth is out the window.

Sadly, if you look in most churches today, you will see this amalgamated Christianity. So much tradition is injected into the congregation that they have made a religion out of something that can't even be one. They believe in Jesus, mind you, but they hold on to practices that keep them involved in the process and allows them to "help" God. This makes Jesus' work incomplete and puts some of the burden back on their shoulders. It's our natural, read sinful, inclination. What we have to stop doing, as the body of Christ, is quit mixing in religion or pop-psychology into Christianity. Stop blending Oprah's pop psycho-ology into our thoughts. Stop thinking you are a good person apart from Christ. Stop thinking you have anything to offer to God. Stop believing Joel Osteen. Don't worry about what Rick Warren says your 'purpose' is. Quit looking for healing. Quit looking for prosperity. Quit the pursuit of anything that is not the fullness of the Gospel in Christ Jesus. Quit looking to fill your needs outside of Christ. Only believe in the one Truth we say we DO believe in. It is Jesus. Nothing else. No doctrine or religious practice or "Christian" book from the "Christian" bookstore or denomination or, or, or..... None of those things trump the power that the Gospel has injected into those of us who believe it. We have everything we keep searching for!! We have patience. We are prosperous. We are healed. We have a purpose. We may not have our best life now, at least by our standards, but we have the promise of our best life. We have been made ALIVE WITH CHRIST! Wake up to the truth that Jesus has accomplished these things! Trust that you have been given these things! Live in that rest and stop asking God for what He has already given you. If you can't do that, then Christianity is not for you. You would be better off doing religion. Christianity is a belief. It is a "done." Religion is a "do." I don't want to do. I want to rest in what is done.

One final thought that has been on my mind lately. This isn't going to be easy. I hear a lot of people say that they are or were a Christian. They either still believe or they don't anymore. What I like to find out is what they actually believe or believed. Only then can a real assessment be made on what they believe the Gospel is and therefore if they actually are or were a Christian. If you believe Jesus died for your sins, attend church and read your Bible, you may not be a Christian. What? Yes. I said it. Yes I'm making a judgement. The people that have said to me that they used to be a Christian have made the statement of belief above. Maybe more unbelievably, that is the same answer I get when I ask a self proclaimed Christian what he believes! But is that the Gospel? No! Here's the undeniable test to see whether or not you are a true Christian. First, come to an understanding of your absolute depravity. You are NOT a good person and you only do evil continuously. You have NOTHING to offer God. If you understand this, you are ready for number two. Second, know that in spite of your horrid state as a person, Jesus Christ completely forgave ALL your sins and offers you life in Himself. He is not looking to change you. He is actually taking your place! It is substitution. It is total replacement. If that is the cool drink of water you needed, then move on to number three. Third, rest. Rest in that Truth.

If you say you are a Christian but don't hold to what has just been said then you are not a Christian. If you claim you were a Christian but didn't believe what has just been said then you never were a Christian. If you DO believe these things about yourself and Jesus then you are or, at least, should be at rest in your life. You know that when God looks at you, He sees His Son. He doesn't see a sinful you that needs to be better, or richer, or wiser, or more spirit-filled! He sees, absolutely, the fullness of His Son IN YOU! This allows you to rest, not work! This takes away the religion that has made its way into our churches. Don't think for a minute that God is waiting for you to do something. He is not waiting for you to offer anything. He has already offered His only Son. Who then lives in and through us. Now you ARE a good person. You don't become one. You are a saint. Co-heirs to the throne. Is that not amazing? If you believe this then you will start telling everyone you know these truths! Whether they say they are a Christian or not. When you are searching for the lost, you may actually have to start at your local church.

I Love Devotionals!!!

2008-07-12T16:59:00.000-07:00

Potential Life On Mars...and yes! I'll make it about the Gospel!

2008-06-22T00:38:00.000-07:00

They found ice on Mars! They hope to find the compounds in the water that are the building blocks for life. I wanted to make a quick and simple statement about this. First off, if you believe that original life came from water, then finding water on another planet would be quite exciting. I would submit that the building blocks for life already existed on Mars before they found the ice. Mars is covered in dirt. God made Adam from dirt. Therefore, the presence of dirt already on Mars is all that is needed for there to be the potential for life. However, potential for life and actual life are two different things. We know that the only One who gives life is Jesus Christ. In fact, if you are living without Christ, then you are in reality dead. You are a DNA-filled, skin covered, breathing, walking dead man wether you think man evolved or was created. We are only made truly alive in Christ. Without Him, we only have the potential for life. Trust Him to make you alive and you will live forever! Amen.

Keeping The Gospel at the Forefront

2008-06-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

There are always going to be disagreements among Christians. I for one love to debate with others over our disagreements. It is a self-serving desire that I have and it does nothing to progress the Gospel but I find myself in the trap all the time. Thankfully I stumbled across 1 Corinthians 4. Take some time to read it. (Click on the title above.) Paul is reminding us of how we are not to be puffed up against each other. A battle for words leads nowhere. The kingdom of God is not in words but power. That power is the Gospel. Our arrogance shows when we are more concerned with winning an argument rather than presenting the Gospel. We will never be satisfied "winning" an argument if it is not centered on the Truth of the Gospel. We should certainly expose error when and where needed, but as the ending of this passage says, with love and gentleness, not a rod of iron. Keeping the Gospel at the forefront of our discussions is doing exactly what the Apostles did. They knew the transforming Truth it contained and the importance of teaching that every where they went. Let us be imitators of Paul and preach the Gospel throughout our lives. It IS the winning argument!

CONSUMER CHRISTIANITY by J.D. Boreing

2008-05-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

The Christian Church has long been plagued by ever-occurring epidemics of trendy thought. Indeed, a commentator could spend a lifetime honing in on specific examples without ever looking past their own generation. The sheer magnitude of outbreaks is overwhelming, the modern Christian (read: any Christian at any time in all of the history of the Church) may feel too overwhelmed to even begin an examination of these issues, but it is a sorry warrior who never examines their enemy’s tactics, and so some examination of these trends must be made.

One of the specific thoughts, or perhaps more accurately, attitudes, that seems to be afflicting the Body at present, here at the birth of the twenty-first century, is what might be a uniquely American creation, Consumer Christianity. It can be defined as the selfish consumption of spiritual and emotional resources and stimuli with no thought what-so-ever to moderation, preservation, or personal responsibility, and it seems to permeate every facet of the American Church. Members of this community, though that term is grossly inappropriate since the sheer volume of self-consumption required to find yourself numbered among them negates even the most remote possibility of coherent, communal organization, seem to believe that the Church itself, and this is a reference to not only the institution, but the greater Body of Believers itself, exists primarily to serve their emotional/spiritual needs. Like vast swarms of self-aggrandizing locusts, they swarm and buzz and devour all of the energies of the Body, not so much for their own nourishment as to feed their own insatiable religious gluttony. Never satisfied, never at rest, they ravage any kernel of potential in their path, never replenishing any of what they have ingested.

One of the hallmarks of this hive is their propensity for church hopping. A common theme in their conversation is to inform the listener that they, rather than being satisfied with any particular fellowship, find themselves ‘called’ to many different services. Perhaps they enjoy the music at one congregation, but prefer the teaching at another. Sometimes they like to ‘get lost in worship’ at the charismatic conclave, but others, they appreciate ‘digging into the meat’ at a more expository teaching. Still other weeks they ‘appreciate the fellowship’ at the small service down the street from where they live. Each Sunday, the Consumer Christian takes a personal inventory to determine which of their competing appetites is in most urgent need of feeding before determining which community’s supplies they will diminish for their own ends. After all, the church is there to service them, is it not?

The Consumer Christian loves the sense of satisfaction and sacrifice that accompanies tithing, though they may not actually do it themselves. When asked which of the many services they regularly attend they support financially, because they inevitably believe God still requires ten-percent from His flock, one might expect to hear that they divide their gifts (if legally required religious taxes can be called gifts) between the various gatherings they frequent, but this is never actually the case. To the Consumer Christian, actually replenishing the supplies that they themselves digest, or supporting the ministries that they profit from is a completely foreign idea. No, when the Consumer Christian does give, they prefer to give just like they get, to whatever organization might best satisfy their personal emotional/spiritual cravings. A good African charity or politically charged social issue is far more likely to merit their contribution than the actual organizations that serve them. The five churches they attend don’t need their money, they assume. It feels far more compassionate (read: personally gratifying) to give to the poor. Actually supporting the groups that support them is nowhere in their thoughts. Rather, they simply feed on the efforts and loyalty and gifts and works of other, less selfish believers to ensure that the worship band they like, or the great teacher they occasionally enjoy stays afloat. Ministry, to the Consumer Christian, is far more about the personal blessing experienced than the public good done.

And these aren’t the only ways that this particular plight manifests itself. When the Consumer Christian enters a room, they can only assume their own edification is the primary purpose of the forum. The smaller the group, the more likely the Consumer Christian is to interrupt the proceeding with their own questions, observations, antidotes, or needs. If they dominate the time exercising their own tongues while others are made to sit and watch helplessly, that is of no concern to them. After all, they can’t be expected to listen rather than speak, or give careful consideration to a fully-formed thought process. The only mental stimulation satisfactory to the Consumer Christian is agreement, domination, and sound bite theology that can be repeated for their own advancement at the next group they happen to hop into.

And in the event that one of the bottomless voids that make up the Consumer Christian’s gullet is ever momentarily satiated, one can expect to never see them in that particular setting again. Why would they ever return to a field they have already decimated? The Consumer Christian may readily volunteer to help with the new building project at one of the churches they sporadically attend. They will delight in putting on the costume of the service-minded Believer, they’ve been saving that tattered pair of designer jeans for just this occasion. So too they will relish feeling their muscles burn under the strain of knocking down the old chapel, the camaraderie of the team as it works in unison to destroy the old building, the emotional prayer over the remains of the place hundreds of committed brothers and sisters called home. Oh yes, all of their many emotional/spiritual needs will be filled that day. The only problem is that the next morning, when the team arrives to start laying the foundation of the new building, the Consumer Christian isn’t there. They have already moved on to suckle on the next bit of ‘sanctification’ they can find. And so, short-handed, the actual invested believer who understands that the Gospel isn’t about them anyway, will be left to do twice the work, knowing they won’t want for the Consumer Christian’s company for long. They’ll return as soon as the band starts playing again in the new sanctuary.

CONTEXT IS KING (click on title for more!)

2008-04-17T11:23:00.000-07:00

The only proper way to understand Biblical doctrine is to read in context. Single verses can get right to the point, but the fullness of the passage is realized when we read the verses surrounding it. In fact, reading the chapter is best. Further still, reading the entire book is the only way to grasp the true concepts. You can avoid supposed contradictions by employing this strategy. If you "verse pick" you run the risk of confusion. You may be reading later in a book that has spent time in the beginning building a doctrinal foundation that you miss by looking ahead. You will find yourself second guessing what it is saying or applying burdens to yourself that you shouldn't be carrying.
Context is just so important. Most cults and branches of denominations miss this crucial technique. Context runs beyond the chapter and book. It really is the entire Bible. You should understand the Old Testament (Law) so that you can need the New Testament (Gospel). You can also understand the O.T. better when you understand the N.T. God has not limited His way of speaking to us His Truths. Better still, the thread that runs through all of the books of the Bible is Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit confirms this in our study. He is the context! You can't read Genesis without seeing Him. You can't read the prophets and not know He fulfills it. And through to Revelation, if Christ is not at the center of every doctrinal issue, you can know that you've read it wrong! Think of it as "Context is THE King!" Jesus is our theology. He fits the purpose. He fulfills it. He accomplished it all. Amen.

TRUTH VS. FEELINGS

2008-04-11T08:35:00.000-07:00

Feelings can lead us into all sorts of directions. Some good directions, some bad. Feelings are so fickle, though, that sometimes it's hard to know which direction we happen to be going. It's just that we are addicted to feelings. We can't get enough! We look for our happiness within them. We are told to "trust" our feelings. "Do what you feel is right." "If it doesn't feel good, don't do it." "How does that make you feel?" Those words careen at us everyday. Our feelings are there for a reason but they can't be trusted at all times. So what are we to do with them?

Our only ally in any of this is truth. We can always count on the truth. Despite our feelings. We may not like what the truth says but truth trumps feelings at every turn. It is a foundational need for us as humans. Otherwise, we are all driven by selfish desires to do what we feel is right for us. Truth reminds us who we really are and that our hearts are "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jeremiah 17:9 KJV)

One Person knows our hearts and its wicked state. That same Person, Jesus Christ, took our hearts and gave us new ones. His Truths reside there. He's also given us His Word to remind us of those Truths, lest we begin to listen to that old heart of our old Adam.

Our feelings are only worth anything when they are based in Truth. Truth only comes from God and His perfect Gospel. That's where our feet have been planted. If we trust our feelings only, we blow like a leaf in the wind. But His Truths transform us and calm us beyond what any feeling could ever do. Truth lasts from age to age. What is true is always true. Feelings come and go, blowing us in every direction. Let us hold fast to the Truth of Christ's life in us. If THAT gives you a good feeling, it should! It does me!

DRAWING LINES

2008-04-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

Everyone draws lines. All stand guilty. The line I am talking about is the line of good and evil. Where do you put yourself usually? On the "good" side of the line or the "bad" side? Where do you place others usually? On the "good" side or "bad" side? Let's face it, we will always put ourselves on the "good" side and place others on the "bad" or "evil" side. What might we say when we delineate in this way? "It's not my fault!"
We can look back to Adam and Eve to illustrate this. They went out of their way to place themselves on the "good" side and everyone else on the "bad." The woman blames the serpent. The man blames the woman. ("It's not my fault!") But if you read for yourself in Genesis 3:12, there is one important person placed on the "evil" side of the line....... God Himself! Did you catch that? Adam tells God that it was the woman who gave him the fruit but he ultimately blames God because He was the one that GAVE him the woman! That little hidden gem has eluded my thoughts in relation to the Garden story. It never dawned on me that it's not just people that we place on either side of that line. We are quick to put God there. Where? Our mouths say, "God goes on the good side, cause He is good!" But in reality we are quick to place Him on the "evil" side.
Why, though? Because it is our nature to find righteousness in ourselves and not in someone else. It's way easier to blame others and for us to wallow in our "rightness." It's the inherited problem of self-righteousness. (Thanks Mama Eve and Daddy Adam. Oops, I drew a line.) It was the Pharisees problem and it is our problem.
What then makes a Christian righteous? Is it our faithfulness? Is it our theology or doctrine? Is it our constant striving to do the right thing? Following the big 10? Not going to an R-rated movie? Stopping ourselves from sinning? I really hope not! If the answer is 'yes,' then we are delineating "us" from "them." The "good" from the "evil." Who's job is that? Who has already made that decision? And who can we trust to put US on the truly good side? Christ Jesus! Because until you understand how truly evil you are, you will never understand the Gospel to its fullness. Even as a Christian who understands the Gospel to that level, my "old Adam" is alive and well in my person! He (i.e. me) is forever leading me fully into sin. My flesh loves the stuff! It is one of the wonderful paradoxes that are present in our Salvation. Somehow, through Christ, we are sinner and saint at the same time!
Why is that little device still in effect if Jesus accomplished what He did? So that we cling to His Truths and walk confidently in His righteousness knowing that it is not OUR performance that God is looking for but that when God looks at us, despite our sin, He sees His Son and His finished work in imparting to us His righteousness. Amen!

WELCOME!

2008-04-07T15:23:00.000-07:00

Hello and welcome to my new blog! I hope this site can become a frequently visited resource for all who read it. I've been wanting to do this for a while and I am excited to get started. Look for links to great sites on theology and apologetics as well as funny videos or content. Also, check out the Nuggets section. You will find many gems there! I hope to involve other friends, pastors and teachers to supply content form time to time. Look out for that as well. That way you don't have to only read my posts. A little variety I'd say. Thanks in advance!