Grace, Life, and Everything Else

Vision Nationals: Vision 2030

2010-11-23T01:17:00.005-05:00

If you've ever wondered, "How can I, an American, participate in God's global purposes to bring the gospel to all nations?". Here is one suggestion.

God's Spirit is on the move bringing the good news of Jesus to peoples all over the world. India is one area where the gospel is exploding and there's a fantastic organization over there called Vision Nationals raising up natives to plant churches all around the country. Right now, they're raising funds for their Vision 2030 campaign where they have 500 called and qualified church planters ready to go who are simply waiting for funding.

What's amazing is that it only costs $50/month to fully fund one of the rural church planters ($50 a month!) and $150/month to fully fund an urban planter. As of a few days ago, they have 41 of these men funded. My hunch is that if even a small percentage of the Christians in Seattle jumped on board with this initiative, all 500 of these men could go begin their full time work bringing the gospel to the staggering number of people in India who desperately need Jesus. As individuals and/or small groups, let's use our abundant funds to magnify His name for the eternal joy of the Indian peoples!

Here's a direct link to the giving page.

We're Going Home

2010-11-01T01:16:00.002-05:00

A sermon God was gracious to let me preach a few weeks ago:

Here's the link

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Bless the Lord, O My Soul

2009-07-31T18:36:00.003-05:00

God gave me another opportunity to preach His Word at First Baptist Bellevue. This time it was on the glorious Psalm 103. Again, thank you so much for your prayers. I could tell He was with me as I preached it on not very much sleep =P

Getting On The Pulpit

2009-03-30T16:18:00.005-05:00

God gave me a wonderful opportunity to preach His word yesterday morning at First Baptist of Bellevue. This marks my first time ever preaching at a Sunday church service, and I'm thankful to Pastor Marty for giving me this opportunity, to all who came out to hear me and, to everyone who supported me in prayer. Trust me, as I was up there preaching, I could certainly tell people had been praying for me! All of the support and emails leading up to this reminded me of God's love for me, and I'm thankful for how He showed His love for me through all of you.

The sermon was on Luke 15, and you can find the recording here:

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Hating Jesus

2009-02-16T04:58:00.001-05:00

I love that Jesus doesn’t mess around. He gets straight to the point. Listen to His words:

The world… hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil

John 7:7

That’s bold, Jesus. You claim the world hates You, and You give a startling reason why the world hates You. You say the world hates you because you testify about us that our works are evil. You’re a straight shooter.

Some people unashamedly proclaim their hatred towards Jesus. They know that He testifies that our deeds are evil, and they don’t like that. They’ll call Him narrow-minded, arrogant, and judgmental because He dares to call them evil. Jesus breeds division they say, and He and His followers cause all kinds of the societal ills we see. This certainly isn’t surprising considering the hard things He says. It’s natural to react to Him in this way because we don’t like being called evil.

Vocally proclaiming your hatred for Jesus is one way to react to Him calling you evil, but there’s another way to hate Jesus that’s far more subtle than that. This method of hating Jesus is hard to spot, and many of you reading this might be practicing it without even knowing it. It takes different forms, but at its core, it denies that He said anything like this at all. It denies that He testifies that the world is evil and in an effort to explain statements like John 7:7 away, it redefines Him. It recasts Jesus into a “new” or “fresh” light. It spouts off phrases like, “What Jesus really said”, or the “core” teachings of Jesus, or “Jesus is all about inclusion”. It will lump Him in with other religious figures like Mohammed and Buddha. He becomes another moral teacher or spiritual guru or good example. It will claim to love His teachings like the golden rule and turning the other cheek, but it will conveniently ignore John 7:7.

Its proponents might say they love Jesus, but because they’re changing or denying His testimony, they’re actually hating Him. Their language may be loving and flowery and peaceful, but it only conceals their hatred. They hate Him because He calls us evil, so they redefine who He is.

Jesus is not just good. He is God.

Jesus is not just teacher. He is Savior.

Jesus is not just gentle. He is Judge.

Jesus is not just moral. He is Master.

Jesus is not just kind. He is King.

And He’s no ordinary King. An earthly king that receives so much hatred would strike down His enemies. Not so with Jesus. He testifies that you and me and the world are evil. His testimony is true. But He doesn’t stop there. He deals with our evil. Jesus bore our hatred even unto death on a Roman cross. And He rose from the dead victoriously conquering all hatred and sin and death. He loves His haters by dying for them. When we see His love for us, our hatred melts into love for Him. In whatever way you hate Jesus, lay down your arms. Stop fighting Him. Follow Him.

e-Sword

2009-01-06T00:09:00.005-05:00

There are a lot of great, free Bible study resources available. I wanted to highlight one of my favorites, e-Sword. It’s not an online library – it’s actually full-featured study software, with loads of modules you can download and install. There are a variety of Bible translations available free, including the ESV, the KJV, and the KJV integrated with Strong’s (very helpful for looking at the original languages). There is no shortage of commentary modules either, with my favorite being Matthew Henry’s classic commentary on the whole Bible. In addition to commentaries and Bibles, there are also maps, dictionaries, and other materials available for download.

One of the things I like about e-Sword is that it provides a platform for integrating a customized library of study resources locally so there is no need to rely on an internet connection, which really opens up the options as far as mobile study goes (there is an internet version available now as well, though I haven’t used it). Using the software is also pretty straightforward. It’s easy to browse through the Bible, and the commentaries are very well integrated with the Bible reading experience. I’d encourage anyone interested in studying the Bible more effectively to give this software a try. It definitely hits a good price point.

Clarity

2009-01-02T02:14:00.001-05:00

What is this picture? If I had the opportunity to ask some of you what it is, I’d probably hear a variety of answers. Some would say a bird (see the beak and the featherish things?). Others would say a grassy knoll (those aren’t feathers, they’re blades of grass!). Still others would say something entirely different.

Now that we’re thoroughly confused, I’m going to give you a hint, but it will require you to scroll down a bit. I’ll meet you a few screens below!

Keep scrolling.

Almost there…

Just a little farther…

Hey there! I’m glad you decided to join me down here. Are you ready for your hint? Here goes:

Now do you know what the first picture is? Of course you do. It’s a cat looking at the sky! Some of you might have picked up on that right away, and if you did, feel free to gloat over all the rest of us. For the rest of you, endure the gloating, think about what just happened, and consider the following:

We can’t know for sure what Picture 1 is until we see Picture 2.
Even though we called Picture 1 a bird or knoll or something else, Picture 1 was a cat, is a cat, and always will be a cat.
Go back and look at Picture 1. You will not see a bird or a knoll. You will see a cat, and even if you try to see it as a bird or knoll, you just won’t be able to shake the cat.

This is a wonderful illustration on the nature of Reality. Think of Picture 2 as the Way Things Are, and Picture 1 as the Way We See Things. We see the world in a variety of different ways. To revisit the picture analogy, some see it as a bird, others see it as a grassy knoll, and still others as something entirely different. This manifests itself in dozens of worldviews ranging from atheism to Islam to Buddhism to postmodernism to new spirituality to Christianity. Knowing what each picture represents, let’s revisit the bullet points above

We can’t know for sure what Picture 1 is until we see Picture 2

Some called Picture 1 a bird. Others called it a grassy knoll. Still others called it something else. And maybe, some rightly called it a cat. Who is right? If all we have is Picture 1, we can’t know for sure. We must see Picture 2 before ever making a correct claim about Picture 1.

In the same way, the Way We See Things differs from person to person. One person’s an atheist. The next is a Muslim. And the next is a Christian. Who is right? If all we have is multiple Ways of Seeing Things, we can’t know for sure. We must see the Way Things Are before ever making a correct claim about the Way We See Things. Someone who knows the Way Things Are must reveal to us the Way Things Are, or we will be left to open speculation forever.

That Someone is God. Yahweh. The God of the Old and New Testaments who has revealed the Way Things Are through His Words written in the Bible and ultimately through His Son, Jesus Christ:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power

Hebrews 1:1-3

Even though we called Picture 1 a bird or knoll or something else, Picture 1 was a cat, is a cat, and always will be a cat

Everyone in the world could say Picture 1 is not a cat. But that doesn’t mean it is not a cat. We don’t define what Picture 1 is. Picture 1’s creator defines what it is.

In the same way, our interpretations of reality don’t define reality. I may see a bird in Picture 1, but that does not make it a bird. I can say my worldview is the Way Things Are, but that does not mean my worldview is the Way Things Are! There is only one Way Things Are, regardless of the Way We See Things.

Jesus said:

I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:6

and:

I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die

John 11:25-26

and:

Whoever drinks of the water that I will give himwill never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

John 4:14

These statements are true whether you believe them or not.

Go back and look at Picture 1. You will not see a bird or a knoll. You will see a cat, and even if you try to see it as a bird or knoll, you just won’t be able to shake the cat

Once you’ve seen the cat in Picture 2, Picture 1 is always a cat. When we see the true Way Things Are, the Way We See Things changes. We look around the world and say, “Of Course! It’s so obvious! It can’t be anything other than a cat!” Everything we see falls into place, and it all reflects the Way Things Are, and other Ways We See Things don’t make sense anymore. As C.S. Lewis says, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

May God grant you the eyes to see the true Way Things Are.

Trees

2008-12-22T21:31:00.007-05:00

Have you ever thought about why trees point upwards? What are they pointing to? God? If so, why would they point up? Does God dwell in the sky, and not down here? When Solomon asked King Hiram of Tyre for help in building God’s temple, he included this before his request: “But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?” (2 Chronicles 2:6 ESV)

So I suppose the trees can’t be pointing “at” God physically. If God is omnipresent, that means his presence is not limited to the sky or “heaven”. Maybe there’s something the sky can teach us about God, and that’s what they’re pointing to.

What can we see when we look at the sky? I see unlimited space - a representation of the vastness and greatness of God. I also see a reminder of how small (literally) we are. I see our utter helplessness in the face of the universe, and our absolute dependence on our loving God, the “Father of lights” (Jas 1:17), who knows each star by name and sent His son to die for us rebels even though we don't deserve it.

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The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.

Their measuring line goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.

In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.

Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

- Psalm 19:1-6 ESV

Who is He?

2008-12-18T04:00:00.001-05:00

When we consider the meaning of Christmas, we jump (as we should) to Jesus’ birth. Shortly after considering His birth, images from childhood Christmas plays and church nativity scenes fill our minds. We think of wise men, shepherds, sheep, stars, and a manger, and hopefully these images warm our hearts.

But sometimes we stop there. We stop at the images. We know what happens in the story, and similar to childhood memories of Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings, we categorize Christmas as a tale that inspires us, but still something that remains separated from reality. We’re focused on the What, but it doesn’t affect us because we forget about the Who.

Who is this baby Jesus? Let’s look at part of the story:

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem…After coming to the house they saw the Child with Mary His mother

Matthew 2:1,11

What did they do when they saw this child? Did they give it baby talk? Did they hold him? Let’s look:

and they fell to the ground and worshiped Him.

They worshiped Him! A helpless, probably crying, tiny baby child caused these men to fall on the ground in awe and praise. Who is this baby Jesus?

He is not only a moral teacher. He is not only a prophet. He is Immanuel. God with us. Let us remember this Who. God did not wait for us to come to Him, but freely came to us to rescue us from our sin, failures, rebellion, folly, shame, and hell. Let us join the wise men and fall to the ground and worship Him.

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining;
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth!
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope, the weary soul rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees, O hear the angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Common Comments

2008-12-18T00:44:00.001-05:00

Have you ever found yourself asking questions like, “Where did the time go?” Or, “How time flies!” Some of the most undeniable and common things like Time surprise us. Listen to how C.S. Lewis says it:

Notice how we are perpetually surprised at Time. ('How time flies! Fancy John being grown-up and married! I can hardly believe it!') In heaven's name, why? Unless, indeed, there is something about us that is not temporal.

Yes indeed, Mr. Lewis. There’s something in us that is not temporal:

[God] has also set eternity in the hearts of men

Ecclesiastes 3:11

We were born here, but we don’t belong here. We belong in eternity, and our common comments of surprise express our longing to return home.

Suffering and Evil

2008-12-17T12:51:00.004-05:00

I listened to this sermon by Dr. Tim Keller on suffering and evil recently, and it's one of the best treatments of the subject I've heard. The philosophical arguments on this topic have been going back and forth for years, but we so often miss the fact that the question is more than just an intellectual exercise. I'd encourage anyone who has wrestled with this issue to check it out.

You can find this sermon by Dr. Keller as well as others here.

You, Happier

2008-12-08T02:24:00.001-05:00

I was watching a Best Buy commercial today and was struck by their slogan: “You, Happier”. They seem to be suggesting that if you happen to be depressed, lonely, dissatisfied, or even just a little bit unhappy, the solution is to come and buy some new electronic component. Surely this can give someone a little happiness for a little while – but everyone runs into the same problem I had when I would get a new NES game as a kid: after a week, it’s just not as much fun. Then, inevitably, we have to run to the next thing in order to get that temporary rush of happiness, and the cycle repeats indefinitely.

If we’re uncomfortable, scared, alone, or depressed, it’s so easy to turn on some sort of media or do some sort of activity in order to distract ourselves from our real problems. Then, when the novelty has worn off, we have to find the next thing to distract us and numb us to reality – this distraction could even be found in the form of interaction, romantic or otherwise, with others.

Is this really a way we should be satisfied to live? Simply running from our problems and trying to pretend they aren’t there is to live in denial. We should face ourselves and realize something really is wrong, realize our attempts to satisfy our dissatisfaction repeatedly fail, and ask why. If we’re honest, we’ll realize the solution is not something we ourselves or even others are capable of delivering.

Let’s consider the words of Christ:

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock." Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
- John 4:10-14, ESV

Virgin Births

2008-12-04T04:21:00.002-05:00

Skeptics like Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher ridicule Christians for embracing the miraculous. One of their favorite punching bags is Jesus’ virgin birth. A virgin giving birth to a son is ridiculous, right? Isn’t that assertion alone enough to discredit all of Christianity?

Some Christian types will crumble to this argument and deny Jesus’ virgin birth happened -- or at least call it unessential. They will say we’ve learned a few things in the last 2,000 years. We’ve progressed beyond needing fairy tale stories about miracles. Let’s take the essentials from the Bible and move beyond the primitive stories that litter it. We might be able to stick to small miracles like a little healing here and a little coincidence there, but a virgin birth? That’s just over the top.

Both groups presuppose that virgin births are impossible. Therefore, when they see it in Luke, they immediately conclude that Luke is a liar, a fake, or taking desperate measures to continue a myth. My advice to both groups is to look at the story again. If they would look, they would find they share that presupposition with an unlikely person: Jesus’ mother. Notice what she says after Gabriel announces to her that she will conceive and bear a son:

And Mary said the the angel, ‘How will this be, since I am a virgin?’

Luke 1:34

One important thing to note here is that Mary’s not asking ”How will this be” in the sense that she doesn’t believe she will bear a son. She’s asking it in such a way that says, “Ok, I believe you that I will bear a son. But I need details here! What will be the events that happen for me to bear this son? After all, I’ve never been with a man!”

Mary, just like Dawkins, just like Maher, just like the “progressive” Christian types, just like you, and just like me, knows that babies don’t just appear in wombs. Up until this point, she would have called a virgin birth impossible. But after the angel tells Mary how she will give birth as a virgin, he tells her:

For nothing will be impossible with God

Luke 1:37

She then responds:

Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word

Luke 1:38

Now we see that Mary believes in virgin births, but it’s only after the angel tells her that it’s possible. The impossible became possible to Mary only after the she learned the impossible is possible. For all the world knew, virgin births were impossible. They only became possible when God intervened. Mary presupposed that virgin births were impossible, but after she found out that nothing is impossible with God, she took His word for it. Skeptics presuppose that virgin births are impossible, so when they hear that nothing is impossible with God, they say that God is impossible. But could it be possible that virgin births are impossible, except when God intervenes? Could it be possible that God reserved the virgin birth -- something so miraculous, so over the top, and so (dare I say) ridiculous -- for a once-in-a-universe opportunity? Mary thinks so. Christians think so. What do you think?

Evangelism and Love

2008-12-02T02:59:00.001-05:00

I have always had a nagging concern that the love Christians show to those who haven’t met Christ is in some way disingenuous, that our “love” exists solely for the purpose of conversion. I’m sure many of us (including myself) have fallen prey to seeking trophy converts for whatever reason – maybe it’s to look good in front of our Christian peers, or to legalistically attempt to satisfy God…or maybe for no other reason than to arrogantly paint another kill for Christ on our fuselage.

Lately, however, I’ve learned that our love for those who don’t believe doesn’t have to be disingenuous. When we know Christ as our Supreme Treasure, we will know that the greatest thing that can happen to any human being is to know Him. It follows that being used by the Holy Spirit to introduce someone to Him can be an act rooted in deep, genuine love. It is important that our motivation not be to love others in order to convert them, but to seek to convert them because we love them. Are we viewing people as a means to more spiritual brownie points, or as they truly are: fellow image-bearers of God who desperately need Him, just as we do?

Jesus, grant us the grace to have your heart for the people you created in your image, for our cities, our neighborhoods, our friends, our families.

Please welcome Eric to the blog!

2008-12-01T03:21:00.003-05:00

A friend from Seattle and I have been scheming the last week about blogging together, and after some thought we decided to bring him on to this blog as a contributer. Please welcome Eric Shoubridge!

Presidents and Princes

2008-11-27T04:26:00.002-05:00

I'm taking a risk in jumping into the realm of politics in this post, and this is grossly overdue considering all of the election hoopla happened over three weeks ago. But, the Lord has some timely words for us as the hoopla fades away:

Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God, the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—the LORD, who remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free, the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD.
Psalm 146:3-10

Whether you're hopeful in Obama's victory, or whether you're lamenting McCain's loss, let not your hope elevate the victor to the seat only God occupies, and let not your lament proclaim that His seat is empty.

I’m Ashamed of the Prosperity Gospel

2008-10-21T05:28:00.001-05:00

Paul says that he’s “not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). He’s not ashamed of the good news that Jesus came to save you and me through His life, death, and resurrection. We should all rejoice with Paul and love this news that God saves anyone who believes in Jesus.

Unfortunately, there are false gospels all over the place, and one of them shows up in this article. This American phenomenon called the prosperity gospel says that faith in Jesus gets you health, wealth, and a life filled with comfortable ease. We should not rejoice about messages like this. We should be ashamed. I could write a post speaking against it, but the video below speaks far better than any words I would write:

Public Relations

2008-10-09T03:13:00.002-05:00

In a previous post, we learned that adverbs are our friends. On my plane ride to Pittsburgh, God highlighted another adverb that is absolutely astonishing. We can find it in the New American Standard translation of Romans 3. We'll start with verse 23:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift of grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.
Romans 3:23-25a

Starting today, the new adverb of the month is "publicly" (see the note at the bottom of the post for some more info on the word). Why does publicly win this prestigious award?

Putting our grammar caps on, we know that this adverb is modifying something. What is it modifying? The word displayed. God displayed something publicly. What or whom did He display? God displayed Christ Jesus publicly. Now that you're bored about doing a grammar exercise, why is it so astonishing that God displayed Christ Jesus publicly? We'll answer that in two ways. The first is an observation, and the second is based on the Romans text above.

First, because God displayed Jesus publicly, we can have full confidence in who Jesus is. Jesus publicly grew up with brothers and sisters. He publicly worked as a carpenter in His hometown. As a child, He publicly demonstrated divine knowledge of the Scriptures at the temple. He publicly healed the sick, gave the blind their sight, cast out demons, and made the lame walk. He publicly preached to large crowds and publicly rebuked the self-righteous Pharisees. He publicly fed groups of over 5,000 people. He publicly rode a donkey into Jerusalem to the praise of many. He publicly lived and walked and worked and loved and served among thousands of people who all saw Him and knew Him and spoke of Him and watched Him. When God sent His Son into the world, He didn't keep it a secret. If you wanted to meet the Son of God, you could walk down the street and meet Him!

Now to the second point. Jesus publicly died on a Roman cross. He was crucified on a hill in plain sight for all to see. When God sent His Son to die, He didn't keep it a secret. Crucifixion was the most public and most painful death in that time. One reason Jesus died so publicly and so painfully is to imprint in our minds an image that says: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. When God sends His Son to hang publicly on the cross, God loudly proclaims that sin is horrible. If you want to see God's hatred for sin, and specifically, if you want to see God's hatred for your sin, look no further than the public, tortured, mutilated body of Jesus hanging on the tree. Look what sin does to God's Perfect Son. Look upon His torn flesh, His bloody face, and His marred appearance. Listen to His screams of pain and His cries to His Father. As you watch and hear, know that your sin tore His flesh, your sin bloodied His face, and your sin marred His appearance. Jesus publicly hung on that tree to publicly show you the horror of your sin.

But that's not the only reason He hung there. Jesus publicly hung on the cross and publicly died and was publicly buried so that you would be justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Jesus publicly hung there so that you would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He brings you redemption. Paul continues that God displayed Jesus publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. Propitiation means that Jesus bore God's wrath on your behalf. Yes, God publicly crushed Jesus to show us our wickedness, but beyond that, God publicly crushed Jesus to offer us redemption. We've sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, but through Jesus' public life and public death and public resurrection, God redeems us. Believe in this Jesus, trust in this Jesus, give your sins to this Jesus, serve this Jesus, and love this Jesus. He's not hiding, and He's not obscure. God displayed Him publicly for all to see, and He displayed Him publicly for you to believe.

A Word on Discipline

2008-08-28T00:18:00.001-05:00

I've been reading the book The Celebration of Discipline by Richard J. Foster and found some wise words on the goal of spiritual disciplines:

Every Discipline has its corresponding freedom. If I have schooled myself in the art of rhetoric, I am free to deliver a moving speech when the occasion requires it. Demosthenes was free to be an orator only because he had gone through the discipline of speaking above the ocean roar with pebbles in his mouth. The purpose of the Disciplines is freedom. Our aim is the freedom, not the Discipline. The moment we make the Discipline our central focus, we turn it in to law and lose the corresponding freedom.

The Disciplines are for the purpose of realizing a greater good. In and of themselves they are of no value whatsoever. They have value only as a means of setting us before God so that he can give us the liberation we seek. The liberation is the end; the Disciplines are merely the means. They are not the answer; they only lead us to the Answer. We must clearly understand this limitation of the Disciplines if we are to avoid bondage. Not only must we understand, but we need to underscore it to ourselves again and again so severe is our temptation to center on the Disciplines. Let us forever center on Christ and view the Spiritual Disciplines as a way of drawing us closer to his heart.

Let us all be disciplined not for discipline's sake, but to know the freedom that comes with knowing the One who bore our sins and bought us with His blood.

From Guilt To God

2008-08-18T03:16:00.001-05:00

If we’re honest, we’ve all tasted guilt because we’ve sinned against God. For the Christian, you know that sinking feeling that comes the moments after you sin. You’ve heard His commands, you want to obey, and you genuinely love Jesus, but you still decided to rebel. You’ve grieved your wonderful Master, and you wonder how, as a Christian, could I continue sinning against the One I love? Why, when I know His commands are for my good, do I disobey? All He’s done is shown me mercy, and right know, I’ve spit right back in His face. Will He still love me? What will He do?

If you’re not a Christian, you don’t put your guilt in those terms, but you certainly are familiar with guilt. Something comes to your mind when I mention sinning against God, and you probably have a specific event replaying in your head. What have you done with that guilt? Do you ignore it? Do you take it out on other people? Have you harbored it inside of you all this time?

God is not silent on this issue, and He addresses it through a glorious passage starting in 1 Samuel 12:19. Before the timeframe of 1 Samuel, the nation of Israel did not have a king. Their society gathered around God Himself as their king, and they governed it accordingly. As we get into 1 Samuel, Israel starts to grumble and ask for an earthly king so they can be like other nations. God warns them against their desire, but ultimately He hands them over to their sinful wishes and appoints the prophet Samuel to anoint an earthly king for them. They eventually choose a man named Saul to be their king, and coming to 1 Samuel 12:18, God punishes them for their actions through sending thunder and rain during their wheat harvest.

Now, this sounds like history so far, and it sounds like it has nothing to do with our sin and guilt. To understand the connection, we need to understand why God was angry at Israel for choosing a king. 1 Samuel 10:18-19 gives us some insight:

This says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I brought Israel up from Egypt, and I delivered you from the hand of the Egyptians and from the power of all the kingdoms that were oppressing you.’ But you have today rejected your God, who delivers you from all your calamities and your distresses; yet you have said, ‘No, but set a king over us!’

God was angry because Israel rejected God in choosing a king. In light of all He had done for them, they rejected Him. He freed them from Egypt, delivered them from enemy nations, and lovingly shepherded them to their promised land. He delivered them from all their calamities and distress, yet they still boldly told Him through their actions, “We reject You”.

It’s the same for us when we sin. In light of all He’s done for us, in creating us, giving us food, health, shelter, and air to breathe, we reject Him. He even became a man and died for our sins on a cross, yet when we sin, we reject His great love. We prop up a different king called greed or sex or pride or entertainment or self, and in doing that we boldly tell God, “I reject You”. Sin is not only disobeying God’s commands. It’s not just treating other people poorly. It’s rejecting God as your King.

Going back to 1 Samuel, we can learn what to do when we sin from Israel’s reaction and Samuel’s preaching. As we said before, God sent thunder and rain on the people during the wheat harvest to exercise His judgment. He’s not pleased with their rebellion against Him. Notice how Israel responds:

Then all the people said to Samuel, ‘Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, so that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil by asking for ourselves a king’

1 Samuel 12:19

We see here that Israel admits their sin! In the midst of God’s thunder and rain, they see their own rebellion against God and confess it to Him. Most people today tell us to deny our sin or blame others or blame our upbringing or chalk our sin up to inescapable circumstances. That is not the proper way to deal with sin in the thick of it. The first step is admitting it. As John Piper says, “Guilt is to the mind as pain is to the body”. When we’re caught in the aftermath of our sin, guilt is a wonderful gift of God that reminds us that we’ve done something wrong. That guilt should move us towards honest confession.

But, confession is not the end. Even after we confess, our guilt lingers and eats away at our soul. Sometimes, the reason we’re so guilty is that we know the wrong we’ve done! If you’re a Christian, you may have even contemplated just giving up the whole fight. Why keep on striving? Why try to obey? God’s probably mad at us anyway, right? Our guilt tempts us to hide from God in shame. Adam and Eve did it in the garden, and we do the same today. We’re afraid to approach our Father because we’ve let Him down for the last time.

Or have we? Listen to Samuel’s response to Israel:

Samuel said to the people, ‘Do not fear’.

1 Samuel 12:20a

What? Do not fear? But, we’ve offended God haven’t we? Let’s keep reading.

You have committed all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.

1 Samuel 12:20b

First, Samuel’s honest. We’ve committed all this evil. Again, the message here is not to downplay what we’ve done. We’ve sinned against the Lord! We’ve done evil. But, acknowledging your sin, do not turn aside from following the Lord. Continue serving Him with all your heart! Samuel continues

You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things, which cannot profit or deliver, because they are futile.

1 Samuel 12:21

Even stronger, we must not turn aside from following the Lord! Even after we’ve sinned! Every other place to turn is futile. These places will not profit us or deliver us. They will kill us. Friends, the temptation in guilt is to run from God. But Samuel here tells us the opposite. He tells us to run towards God! When we’re in those moments after rejecting our King, we should not abandon Him. We should flee to Him for help and salvation. We should rest on the promise that He gives in Samuel’s next statement

For the Lord will not abandon His people on account of His great name, because the Lord has been pleased to make you a people for Himself

1 Samuel 12:22

If you’re a Christian, you are part of God’s people. God does not abandon His people. Even when they sin. He desires that His people do not sin, and He even disciplines them when they do, but He will not forsake them. When we find ourselves grieving over our sin, let us confess that sin, turn from that sin, and rest on our God who’s already called us His own.

We will close with the apostle John’s words in his first letter in the Bible:

And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins

1 John 1:1b-2a

Do you know this Jesus? Jesus is righteous. He’s perfect, and the Father is pleased with the perfect life He lived on earth. He did not sin while He lived, and He never felt any guilt wrought by His own hands. The only guilt He’s known is from our sins that He bore when He was murdered on a Roman cross. This is what that unfamiliar word propitiation means. He took God’s wrath intended for you and me and placed it upon Himself.

And now, after He gloriously rose from the dead, He now stands as an advocate between God the Father and all those who believe in Him. When we sin, He pleads our cause before God, showing God His own shed blood for sinners. When you find yourself guilty in your sin, do not run from Jesus. Go to your Advocate for help! If you do not know this Advocate, know Him today. He’s the only one who can deliver you from your sins, and He’s the only one who can absolve your guilt. All other false kings cannot profit or deliver.

The Invisible God

2008-07-15T03:01:00.001-05:00

The Lord reigns
Psalm 99:1a

When you read those three words, what is your reaction? Biblical phrases sometimes cause different reactions depending on your religious persuasion. In this case, however, we all might be in the same boat. Christians long not to ride this boat, but we too often find ourselves enjoying long cruises upon it. It freely sails through our culture, and most of its passengers ride it from the day they're born until they're six feet under. It's a boat called Numbness. Some like to call it Dullness or Indifference or Nothing.

There are all sorts of reasons we respond with numbness to Yahweh's sovereign, glorious reign over all existence. For some it's simple: they don't believe in Yahweh. Others of us reduce the phrase to a Christian cliche and our ears become dull to it. And still others of us are so satisfied in the world that the Lord's reign has no impact on our comfortable kingdoms. We could fill books with more reasons, but we're not here to write those books. We're here to rescue people out of the boat! Let's look at the whole verse:

The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble; He is enthroned above the cherubim, let the earth shake
Psalm 99:1

Surely these reactions are anything but numb! Let the peoples tremble! Let the earth shake! Let us respond to His reign with fear and awe and acceptance that He is God and we are not. We suppress this obvious truth, and whether we say it or do it, we live as if nobody reigns over us or any circumstances that befall us. Instead of trembling before Him, we mock God through strutting and walking in the arrogance that we have control over our destinies. Oh the arrogance! The Lord reigns, enthroned above the cherubim over all nature and events and politics and love and cancer and disaster and war and dreams and sports and every last detail of your life. This is not an intellectual idea. It's a reality that, if properly examined, will shake every fiber of your being.
The Psalmist continues:

The Lord is great in Zion, And He is exalted above all the peoples. Let them praise Your great and awesome name; Holy is He
Psalm 99:2-3

The Lord is great. He is exalted! Let us praise His great and awesome name! God calls all peoples to respond to Him in worship and praise. If you're a Christian, you hear these words, and your soul cries out, "Yes!" It is good and right and good when God calls us to exalt Him above all. It's a right, sure and wonderful calling! He's your Maker and He reigns and forgives and works for the afflicted. He extends grace to His enemies and, in His Son, He freely declares sinners to be saints and makes dead people live! God is King, and He deserves countless eons of heartfelt, joy-filled, soul-reaching praise!

If you're anything like me, you're probably not always feeling up to falling at God's feet in delightful worship. Some of you hate or avoid or want nothing to do with God. Others find yourselves longing to joyfully praise Him, but instead you battle indifference only to muster a trickle of response. How does Biblical praise happen? At what point do we change from numbness to happily exalting His name?

Nobody teaches us how to praise. We don't learn how to wonder, and we don't learn how to awe. We just do it! When we marvel at a sunset, we don't force ourselves to respond. We see the glorious array of color and what we see ignites wonder, and the wonder ignites praise. When we raise children, one of the few things we don't have to teach them is how to wonder. They'll find mundane objects and examine them for hours. They wonder at everything they see!

With God it's the same way. This might be exactly what Jesus meant when He said in Luke 18:17 "I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it". A child wonders at everything he sees, and we should wonder at God in the same way. But, as we've established, the path to wonder starts with seeing. We see, then we wonder, then we praise. If we are to praise God in the way He calls us, we must see God for who He is. He's infinitely more glorious than a thousand sunsets, so when we see Him, we will wonder at Him, and then we will praise Him. When we're not praising God as we ought, it means we're not seeing God.

How do we see God if He's invisible? Isn't that impossible? The best way to see God is to look at Jesus. Hebrews 1:3 calls Jesus "the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature". If you want to see God's nature, glory, character, and heart, look to Jesus. Consider Jesus and get to know Jesus. You can see God's hatred for your sin as you look at Jesus' bloody corpse on the cross. You continue your gaze, and your heart sings when it sees God, in His mercy and grace, placing your sin on perfect Jesus and freely giving you Jesus' righteousness. And then, when you see Jesus rise from death into His glorified self, you come right back to where we started: Jesus reigns over Satan, sin, and death! He reigns! And we tremble in thankful exaltation.

Today

2008-06-17T01:53:00.001-05:00

O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms

For the Lord is a great God And a great King above all gods

In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also,

The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us worship and bow down, Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker

For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.

Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts…

Psalm 95:1-8a

Mouths

2008-05-12T06:21:00.001-05:00

I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever; with my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations
Psalm 89:1

In this opening verse of Psalm 89, the psalmist outlines two actions that he wants to perform. First, he will sing. And second, he will make something known. He sings and he proclaims. Both of these actions are related because they both involve what the psalmist does with his mouth.

We don't think about it very often, but our mouths play an amazing role in our lives every day. Our mouths perform all kinds of functions including eating and speaking and kissing and cheering and singing. Most everyday activities involve our mouth in some way. When we hang out with friends, we speak in conversations. When we shop at the supermarket, we say thanks to the cashier. When we drive through Taco Bell at 2am, we eat our food before realizing we'll regret it later. Even when we're alone, we might hum or sing or talk to ourselves. What we do with our mouths has an impact on everything we do, and as the psalmist describes, what comes out of our mouths is more important than we think.

We say thousands of words every day, and a large percentage of these words have something in common. They may be about different topics, but they have similar goals. When you talk about Tiger Woods' domination on the golf course or when you retell the fun night at the bar over the weekend, or when you explain the thinness of the Macbook Air, what are you doing? What do these three topics have in common? In all of these, you're giving praise. You're exalting Tiger Woods for his golf abilities, you're magnifying your fun experience, and you're applauding Apple's ability to make a thin computer. Praise litters our everyday conversation. Without even knowing it, we're giving glory to all kinds of people and gadgets and wonders.

Why is this important? In Matthew 15:18, Jesus teaches, "the things that process out of the mouth come from the heart". Everything we say is an overflow of what's in our hearts. Therefore, what we praise the most is what is on our hearts the most. What lies on our hearts the most is what we worship. And who or what we worship is massively important. When a man asked Jesus what the greatest commandment is, He replied, "You shall love the Lord our God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and foremost commandment." (Matthew 22:37-38). Further, the first commandment of the Ten Commandments is to have no other gods before God (Exodus 20:3). Who or what we worship determines whether we're sinning against God. God demands that we worship Him above anything else, and to worship anything else is idolatry and punishable by death and hell. So, we should not take our praise lightly.

For clarification, I am not saying that praising good things is always idolatry. Good things should be acknowledged as good and received with thankfulness to God (1 Timothy 4:4). But I am saying that we should be wary of what we praise because what we praise the most often indicates what we worship in our hearts. And if that is true, we might start wondering why most of our praise is about Grey's Anatomy or Lebron James or Mark Driscoll or iPhones and not God. And then we might despair. If God demands all our heart, soul, and strength, we're certainly in a heap of trouble. We prostitute our praise away to anything that gives us the slightest delight, all the while ignoring the Creator of all delight. Keeping that in mind, let's go back to the psalmist's verse.

The psalmist certainly isn't despairing. He's singing! And he wants to proclaim God's faithfulness to all generations! What's he singing about? He sings of God's steadfast love. He's tasted God's steadfast love and faithfulness and the only response to this is worship. When we really understand the magnitude of God's love and faithfulness and mercy and grace and patience and kindness, we sing praises to Him forever! When we see that God became a man named Jesus to live a perfect life and die in our place for our idolatry, we see His love clearly demonstrated, and we respond with renouncing our idols and singing with praise. Our mouths start honoring God and therefore do what they were made to do!

What will your mouth praise? As you think about it, is this object of your worship worthy of your praise? Does Grey's Anatomy redeem you from hell? Did Tiger Woods create the universe? Did the Macbook Air conquer death? Did that drunken weekend give you everlasting joy? This is the funny thing about idolatry. When we place God next to our idols, our idols look pathetic. And more importantly, when we see God for who He is, we see incomparable glory worthy of praise for all eternity.

That Silly Question

2008-03-17T01:32:00.001-05:00

Think about the last time you met someone new. Got it in your head? Good. Now think about the first five minutes of conversation you had with them. Isn’t it funny how most conversations with new people are almost identical? You may ask their name, and then almost every time, The Question comes. This question comes early in every conversation between strangers, and it’s the Great Question we all ask for a variety of reasons. Can you guess what it is? Drumroll please….

“So what do you do?”

Or, if you’re in college:

“So what’s your major?”

Since “So what’s your major” is really just the college version of “So what do you do”, let’s treat them both as one in the same.

Like I mentioned, we all ask this for a variety of reasons. Some ask it hoping to open a door towards further conversation. Others ask it because they’re in MPM (Meet People Mode) and that’s what you do when you’re meeting people. Still others (hopefully not many) ask it to compare themselves with that person and feel some sort of vocational superiority. Regardless of the reasons, why do we ask this question? And more specifically, why do we ask it so early? Almost immediately after we ask someone’s name, we ask what they do. Why?

For whatever reason, in America we identify ourselves first by our name and next by our vocation. When we want to discover who somebody is, we ask about what they do. And then the rest of the conversation flows from that, all relating back to Bob the Carpenter or Jane the Professor or Karl the Pastor. Vocation plays a huge role in how we define ourselves, and that raises some fun questions.

If Bob decides to be a Farmer, does Bob cease to be Bob? If Jane gets sick of teaching and becomes a student, do you have to reintroduce yourself to her because she’s a new person? I hope you’re starting to see the problem here.

If our goal is to know somebody, then “so what do you do” is a weak question. What we do has little to do with who we are. There’s a better question out there. We need to trade the “What” in with a “Why” and ask, “I’m not that interested in what you do. Why do you do what you do?” For clarification, this isn’t the why that refers to past events (like saying “I’m at Georgia Tech because it’s the only place I applied”), but the why that is the motivation behind what you’re doing (like “I’m at Georgia Tech because I love learning”).

We’ve become so focused on what we do that we can go weeks, months, years, and even decades without asking why. We place great value on titles like Lawyer and Doctor and Pastor and Professor, and then we strive for these vocations as ends in themselves. Why am I in college? Why am I pursuing med school? Why am I working?

Maybe we avoid that question because it’s terrifying. It’s terrifying to ask because it could cause an awkward conversation. And it’s terrifying to receive because it makes us ponder ideas we rarely consider. It forces us to retreat from the daily grind and ask, “Why do I grind every day?” Our thoughts shift from our actions towards our goals, and we visit a place often shadowed by our daily decisions. We explore the land containing our convictions and dreams and desires, and we find out what’s driven us to where we are today.

For many of us, the answer is comfort. Whether it’s making money or retiring well or buying the latest toys, we build our lives around comfort. For others of us, the answer is prominence. We pursue our career or buy nice cars so that people will notice us. In comfort, we seek lives of ease, and in prominence, we seek man’s praise. You may wonder, does this matter? Can’t we make our own choices that make us happy? We can make these choices, but let’s take this into account:

Do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases

Psalm 49:16

If you notice, this verse mentions comfort and prominence. The man is comfortable in his riches and prominent in his house’s splendor. Normally, these things are something we admire and pursue. But the psalmist tells us something different. He says don’t be overawed. Why?

For he will take nothing with him when he dies, his splendor will not descend with him. Though while he lived he counted himself blessed— and men praise you when you prosper- he will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light of life. A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

Psalm 49:17-20

We make a grave mistake when we spend our lives for comfort and man’s praise. Most tangibly, we don’t take them with us when we die. Comfort and riches stay on earth and man’s praise fades into history. Nothing that we have will follow us to the grave, so why do we stand in awe of people with great wealth and prominence? Don’t be overawed. Even kings go six feet under. We would be fools to live for things that don’t last.

With that in mind, the psalmist highlights something less tangible, but infinitely more important. Look at the fate of the man that lives for comfort and prominence:

He will join the generation of his fathers, who will never see the light of life. A man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

Psalm 49:19-20

He will never see the light of life! He will perish like the beasts because he lacks understanding. Now, what do these mean? What is the light of life? And what is understanding? Let’s turn to Jesus:

Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

John 6:27

Comfort is food that spoils. Man’s praise is food that spoils. But Jesus will give you eternal life free of charge! Connecting this back to the Psalm, the man without understanding is one who looks eternal life in the face, but still chooses to labor for rotten bread. This man will never see the light of life. He’s eaten his full of mold and now it damns him to hell. This is the great tragedy of our day. We’re so infatuated with the temporal that we neglect the eternal.

Ladies and gentlemen, as Good Friday and Easter approach, contemplate the grace of God in the murdered and risen Christ. He pardons all of our neglect and worldly pursuits through Jesus’ death and conquers the grisly end of death through Jesus’ resurrection. Eternal life stands waiting. Trust in Christ, and understand why you do everything in your life – to honor and serve and love and thank Him for His finished work on your behalf.

Kings and Things

2008-01-24T04:54:00.001-05:00

If one were to ask you, "describe God's character", what would you say? There are many wonderful things we could say, because there are many wonderful things about God! But there's one that we're about to talk about that many of us unfortunately neglect. What is it, you ask? Good question!

We'll start with a verse from Psalm 10:

The Lord is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land

Psalm 10:16

Given that fabulous sentence, you might guess that we're about to talk about God's unending, unshakable reign over all things. We're going to touch on it, but we're actually going to use it to shed light on something glorious. First, let's start with talking about kings.

If we were to judge a king's fitness to be king, we'd probably judge two things. First, we'd judge their ability. Their resources are limited and their rule will eventually end, so their ability is what determines their effectiveness. We don't want a king that has no skills because it's a waste of a throne. Second, we'd judge their character. Character defines what the king wants to do with his ability. A king can have superior ability, but if the king is wicked, that ability becomes terrifying. Ideally, we'd want a king that has unlimited ability and excellent character. A king with unlimited ability but no character is frightening and a king with no ability but excellent character is maybe a nice guy, but he can't get anything done.

So, when we read Psalm 10:16 about God, we've settled one half of the equation. God is king forever and ever, and the nations perish from his land. He holds all things in His hands and holds them for all time. Nothing can thwart His ways, and He can do whatever He wants. That means all things rest not upon what God can do, but who God is. When His ability is infinite, the only thing that we can hope is that He has excellent character. So, the question is, does God have excellent character?

O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted, you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed

Psalm 10:16-18a

These words leave you speechless when you realize that the King of all things inclines His ear to do justice to the afflicted. We love a God that could choose whatever He wants, and He chooses to love the poor! He delights in binding the broken-hearted and serving the forgotten. He is a voice for those who have none.

So, if we're Christians, we must consider this about God's heart and then consider our own heart. Do we love the poor like God loves the poor? Or are we largely ignoring them like the rest of the world? Do the poor turn to Christians for help or do they turn elsewhere? These are the questions we must answer. Then by His grace, we'll join with God and delight in loving the unloved.

Praise Immanuel!

2007-12-25T02:12:00.001-05:00

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel
Isaiah 7:14

Immanuel. Literally, God with us. Has this name passed through our heads so many times that we've lost its significance?

God. With. Us. And not with us in some form that we can't comprehend or appreciate. He emptied Himself and came in human likeness. God came as a baby! The all-powerful Creator of the Universe came as a baby. Remarkable.

But why? Why is it so remarkable? And why is it easy to read that previous paragraph and not immediately fall to our knees praising our God for sending Jesus? Why can we hear the Christmas story every year for dozens of years and yawn in reply?

Maybe one reason is we don't think about the form God didn't take when He came into the world. Or, more specifically, maybe we don't think about the form God in His justice should have taken when He came. See, we're wicked you and I. Wicked beyond what we'll ever know. Listen to these statements about us:

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for imaged resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles
Romans 1:21-23

They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator
Romans 1:25

And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strive, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors, of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Romans 1:28-32

No one is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God
Romans 3:10-11

We are sinners and we like sinning. What's worse, when we read sentences like these, we want to object to them! The case against us is insurmountable and God's punishments of death and hell are just. When God came as Jesus on that first Christmas morning, He could have come as our Great Condemner, wiping us out and sending us to hell. And He would have been perfectly just in doing so. God could have come as Judge.

But He didn't!

God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him
John 3:17

The glory of Christmas is that Jesus did not come to judge us, but to save us! He did not come as an exalted King, executing His wrath that we all deserve. He came as a humble baby, eventually growing to serve and love and redeem. He can identify with our struggles and pain and temptations because He experienced them. And remarkably, He came not to Judge but to be judged. He had no sins, yet He bore our sins. He deserved no punishment, yet He bore God's wrath intended for us. He became a curse as He bled and died on that cross, thus removing the curse our sins deserve. Our God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love!

Yes, Immanuel deserves all the praise in the Universe! Because He is God with us, not God against us.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God

2 Corinthians 5:21

Life

2007-12-03T11:11:00.000-05:00

Take a moment to think about the following words:

"As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more"
Psalm 103:15-16

These are some sobering words. Do we really understand them?

Do we realize that our days are like grass? Grass doesn't live very long. Neither do we. Life is short.

Do we know that a mere gust of wind can come and our lives will end? One accident, one disaster, or one disease later and our lives will be over. Life is fragile.

Do we accept that after we're gone, our place will know us no more? Our world is forgetful. A handful of people are remembered past a few decades, and even those quickly fade. We are insignificant.

It's easy to gloss over these truths in our culture. We like to assume that tomorrow will always be here. We like to pretend that we'll be remembered forever. If we take an honest look, we'll realize these assumptions are overwhelmingly false. Worse, we don't like them to be false. We desire longevity and permanence, but right now we're faced with the stark reality that this life is neither long nor permanent. We do a million things to alleviate or avoid or deny this fate. And we may start to wonder, why do we desire permanence while in the midst of impermanence? Why do the brevity and fragility of life bother us so much? Shouldn't we just own up to our fate and stop trying to prolong everything?

The psalmist gives us a resounding no:

But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him
Psalm 103:17

God is eternal and His love is forever. We desire forever because God made us to desire Him. It's proper that we don't like death because death is not natural. It's proper that we desire significance because God made us to love us. Life is not supposed to be short or fragile. We were not meant to die apart from God's love. His love is steadfast and forever! We should want that above all else!

Now there are two roads to go from here. One is for the people that fear, love, and trust Jesus, and the other is for everyone else.

To the Christian, praise God that you do taste God's steadfast and everlasting love! Use this short life to help others know Jesus. There is far too little time to do otherwise.

To the non-Christian, you realize there's a problem here. Life is short and fragile. People do die apart from God's love. Why? We are the problem. If you notice the last part of this verse, you'll see that God's love is forever for a specific group of people: those who fear him. From Adam until today, we all don't fear or love or worship God as we ought. We trade an eternal, glorious, and perfect love for silly things in this world. Therefore, God in His justice cursed our world with death and impermanence. Now we're faced with a terrible fate that we all deserve, but none of us want. We're deprived of enjoying the love of the Lord from everlasting to everlasting.

But that's not where it ends. Eternal life is not lost. In this short, fragile, and insignificant life, God gives you opportunities to know Him and love Him forever. When you hear the name Jesus and hear that He lived the perfect life you should have lived, died the death you deserve, and rose from the dead to conquer Death itself, God reaches down to you to grab you out of death into eternal life. Take His hand in faith. Give your sins to Jesus. Let Him be your God. Life's too short to reject Him.

Goodness

2007-11-12T03:26:00.001-05:00

Paul's devotion to the gospel in the face of all kinds of calamity is astonishing. Let's look at some of his words and maybe we can learn something.

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel..."
Romans 1:16a

How many times have you been ashamed of the gospel? I know I have more than I'd like to admit. Whether it's that conversation we should have had or that stand we should have made or those words we didn't speak, there are many moments in the Christian life where we don't share the gospel as we ought because we're ashamed of it. What's worse, shortly after these moments, we're more ashamed that we missed a moment to make Jesus known.

We can look at the lives of Paul, the other apostles, or countless other missionaries who died for this gospel. They were were so unashamed of the gospel that they laid down their lives for it! That begs the question to us, "What's different? Why am I ashamed of Jesus in the face of potential awkwardness or verbal persecution when these people would do anything to advance His name around the world?"

Before we get too down, what's encouraging to know is that nothing in the Bible was written in vain. God would not have written these words through Paul unless He knew that His people would sometimes be ashamed of the gospel. He gave us these words to encourage us when we're ashamed of Him. So, let's examine why Paul isn't ashamed of the gospel and hopefully we'll get somewhere:

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith..."
Romans 1:16-17

It's easy in our culture to miss the magnitude of this statement. When Paul said that the gospel provides salvation to everyone who believes, he's stating something absolutely revolutionary. Whether rich or poor or white or black or Greek or Jew or king or slave, God will save you if you simply believe in the person and work of Jesus! When he said anybody can have the righteousness of God by faith instead of works, he turned the world upside down. These truths are astounding if we think about them seriously. And that is why Paul is not ashamed: the message is too good.

The deepest longings of anyone's soul, whether it's manifested in longings for significance or love or purpose, are all screaming, "I need God". Unfortunately, because of man's sin, the root problem in all the world is that the gap between "I need God" and God Himself is insurmountable without God working on our behalf. That is why the gospel message is so great! God has bridged that gap as a free gift of grace! So why the heck are we ashamed of the greatest news in all the universe?

We forget that it's so great. The gospel literally means "good message" or "good news". Sometimes we (or maybe just I) get so caught up in the news that we minimize its goodness. We'll get so used to repeating a set of propositional truths about Christ (although propositional truths are important) that we'll forget that these truths speak of the real thing behind them: a restored relationship with our Creator. If we genuinely wrapped our heads around the miraculous idea that God became a man to die on our behalf and rose from the dead to bring us everlasting life, we'd never be ashamed of it. Instead, we'd want to tell the whole world!

So, let's remember how wonderful the good news really is. Then, by God's grace, we won't be ashamed!

Word Play

2007-10-15T22:58:00.001-05:00

Have you ever heard or read the words:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

John 1:1-2

That sounds pretty confusing, eh? What's weird here is that John's talking about Jesus. He's calling a Person the Word of God. How does that make sense? We'll answer that question later, but let's forget about the Word confusion and think about these two verses. If we replace "the Word" with Jesus, we see something that makes Jesus much more than just a religious teacher or moral man:

In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God. He was in the beginning with God.

Let's keep going with the passage:

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing that was made

John 1:3

Jesus has been around since the beginning of time! He's existed for all eternity having fellowship with the living, true God of the universe! He was there when God created the earth and He participating in creating it! When we deal with Jesus, we're not just dealing with the man that walked around the Middle East 2,000 years ago. We're dealing with God Himself!

Now, since replacing words in the Bible takes away from the original intent of the Bible, let's try to figure out this Word business. We'll do that by skipping down a few inches (or probably more in your Bible...mine's pretty small) in the chapter:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us

John 1:14

This same Jesus, the eternal, all-powerful, Creator God became flesh and dwelt among us sinners! But again, what's the whole deal with John calling Him the Word? It might go like this:

If God had something important to say to the human race, and then decided to embody those words into a person, we would get Jesus of Nazareth. All that Jesus does, whether it's serving the lowly, loving the lost, forgiving sinners, yelling at the Pharisees, or dying for our sins, is God speaking to us that He's a humble servant, full of love, quick to forgive, intolerant to self-righteouness, and willing to give His life for His rebellious children. Yes, Jesus absolutely is the Word of God. If we want to know God's wishes, pet peeves, or delights, we need to look no further than His Son. God spoke a glorious Word as He became flesh, dwelt among us, bore the wrath our sins deserve, and miraculously rose from the dead. He told us that His arm is mighty to save!

So, if you're looking for a word from God, look to Jesus. Through Christ, you will hear God's Word of forgiveness, grace, and mercy. I implore you to consider that gift.

All My Tears

2007-09-17T00:54:00.001-05:00

Check out the lyrics to this song:

When I go don't cry for me
In my father's arms I'll be
The wounds this world left on my soul
Will all be healed and I'll be whole

Sun and moon will be replaced
With the light of Jesus' face
And I will not be ashamed
For my savior knows my name

It don't matter where you bury me
I'll be home and I'll be free
It don't matter where I lay
All my tears be washed away

Gold and silver blind the eyes
Temporary riches lie
Come and eat from heaven's store
Come and drink and thirst no more

So weep not for me my friend
When my time below does end
For my life belongs to him
Who will raise the dead again

It don't matter where you bury me
I'll be home and I'll be free
It don't matter where I lay
All my tears be washed away

"All My Tears" by Julie Miller

Prayer Questions

2007-09-10T02:48:00.000-05:00

Have you ever asked yourself the question, "Why should we pray?" There are a lot of answers to that question, so let's narrow it down a little bit. Have you ever asked yourself the question, "If God is sovereign, why should we pray?" or , "If God is in control of all things, they're going to happen whether we pray or not, so what's the point?"

There are probably a few answers to that question too, but let's just look at one. Within His call to abide in Him, Jesus casts light on the issue in John 15 starting at verse 7:

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you
John 15:7

We could spend two or three additional blog posts examining this verse's teaching on prayer, but we're going to stay on topic and try to answer our question. Jesus tells us that if we abide in Him, we can ask whatever we wish and it will be done for us. What's more is that He doesn't just tell us to ask, he encourages it! So one answer to our question could simply be, "We pray because Jesus encourages it". After all, it's always a good thing to do the things that Jesus encourages, right? That's definitely true, but there's more to the answer than that. We can get closer to it if we rephrase the question to be, "Why does Jesus encourage us to ask for things that He will answer? Why would God work through this mysterious mechanism of prayer when He could easily just bypass the whole ordeal and accomplish His purposes without it?"

It's a good thing Jesus kept talking after verse 7:

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples
John 15:8

We see in verse 8 that God is glorified when Christians bear fruit and prove to be Jesus' disciples. But what does bearing fruit have to do with prayer and why does that give God glory? Jesus said verse 7 before verse 8 for a reason. Let's look at them together:

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples
John 15:7-8

First let's connect bearing fruit and prayer. When we're abiding in Jesus and letting His words abide in us, we're going to be asking for things that Jesus wants. One of the things He wants is for us to bear fruit. Bearing fruit can be lots of things. It can be overcoming sin, doing good works, or becoming more like Christ. Regardless of what the fruit is, we're going to pray for it when we're abiding in Jesus. And, as Jesus promises, God is going to answer those prayers! Now why does that bring God glory?

Imagine if He bore that fruit without our prayers. We might miss something. We might think we overcame that sin because of our efforts or did those good works because we're a good person. We might not give credit where credit is due. Now if we had been praying for bearing fruit, we'd only have one explanation for it: God did it! When we pray and God answers, we remember that God is the one working and praise Him for it, therefore giving Him more glory than if He worked without our prayers. So, we've discovered why Jesus encourages to pray to our God that doesn't need our prayers. When we pray and He answers, He gets glory! More glory than if He worked through some other means. God is a giver, and our prayers let us see how great a giver He is!

Funkytown

2007-09-04T02:36:00.000-05:00

God did a pretty big number on me this past month. Although it wasn't the most enjoyable experience in the world, I'm glad that through whatever means possible, He's looking to secure my eternal joy. It started with this statement from Jesus:

"Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you"
John 6:27

As I thought about this verse, my first reaction was, "Ok, so I probably shouldn't labor for things that won't last because they're ultimately going to perish. Instead, labor for that which will last forever". From that thought came the all-important question, "What is the food that endures to eternal life?"

So, I casually asked God to answer it and went on my merry way. It's funny how He will answer our casual and even half-hearted requests sometimes more dramatically than our earnest ones. Looking back, it's pretty foolish to ask that question half-heartedly. God's serious about eternity and He's serious about what food we're laboring for.

Back to the story, as the days and weeks went on, I descended into something that's hard to describe. You could call it multiple things (a mini depression, doubting God, burned out, homesick), but I don't know if any of them hit the spot. I guess the best description would be to say that I was in a funk. I was unaware at the time, but God was answering my prayer.

At the climax of my funk, I turned back to John 6 to revisit my original question about the food, "What is the food that endures to eternal life?" In my Bible, Christ's answer is about two inches below verse 27:

"I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst"
John 6:35

These glorious words rocked my world. Let me explain.

Through the funk, I realized I had been looking to many things for my satisfaction, but they were not the right things. You may expect me to say that these wrong things were working at Microsoft or sports or something tangible like that, but I don't think it was those. The perishing food that I'd been seeking was much more subtle. It was food like the praise of men and what people think of me. And even more subtle, it was food like my listening to sermons in the car or my listening to worship songs or even my reading the Bible every day (a quick side note: sermons and worship songs are great and reading the Bible every day is imperative to our relating to God. You'll understand what I mean as you keep reading).

See, none of these things are bad (and the sermons/songs/reading the Bible are quite good), but when we look to them by themselves for our satisfaction, we're prone to lose sight of Jesus, our bread of life. In other words, if we're standing on these things on their own for our joy, and not using them as a means of seeing, loving, relating to, and partaking in Jesus, we've become idolaters. We've elevated our own piety or discipline or religiosity above our Savior. God used my funk to strip away the perishing food in my life and turn me towards loving the Person of Jesus.

I'm not the slightest bit perfect, and it will take all eternity to love Jesus as I ought, but I'd like to ask you, what are you standing on? Where are you going for your food? Are you standing on the person and work of Jesus as your rock? Is He (not your church attendance, your career, your ministry, your relationships, your entertainment, your fun, your money, your piety, your morality, or your leisure) your bread of life? Nothing else will endure beyond this life, and nothing else will deliver lasting joy.

Tick Tock

2007-08-12T02:36:00.000-05:00

I've written on this passage before, but it's just too good to pass up again. We'll take a different approach to it this time. Keep in mind that these words are about Jesus:

"He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven, and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities..."
Colossians 1:15-16

For the astute Bible scholars out there, you'll know that I left some off of verse 16. We'll pick it up in a few mouse-wheel scrolls.

Anyways, we don't typically think about Jesus in this way. We normally think of Him as the man that humbly walked the earth and gloriously suffered for our sins. These things are beautiful and we should think about them every day! But here, we see Jesus as Creator. Jesus was there the day God spoke the universe into existence. He made everything you see and established every authority you've known. He conjured out of thin air all invisible things like ideas and wisdom and emotions. This man that set foot in Jerusalem made Jersualem! The man that saves souls made souls! Jesus is our God. Creator and all.

But it doesn't end there. We could fall into a trap here. We could say, "Alright, I admit that this universe must have had some divine beginning, but that's it. I think God's left it on its own. It's like He wound up a clock and then let it run its course". We could say that Jesus spoke and then let us be.

Now, let's finish the passage:

"...all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together"
Colossians 1:16-17

The first part repeats our conclusion that all things were created through Him, but then a startling little three-letter word appears that changes everything: for. Jesus had a goal in mind when He made all things: His glory! When He made everything we see, He made it for Him! When He establishes authorities, He made them for Him. He made Jerusalem for Him and saves our souls for Him. The universe isn't just an engineering project to start a clock and see how it turns out. It's a factory that makes glory for Jesus!

The last part says in Him all things hold together. Jesus isn't just a Creator. He's a Sustainer. If the sun rises tomorrow, the only reason it will happen is because Jesus permitted the sun to rise. More personally, if you take a breath in the next 10 seconds, you're still breathing only because Jesus permitted it. If Jesus wasn't actively, lovingly, and powerfully holding this universe together, it would tear apart at the seams! So, this brings us to the all-important closing question the we all need to ask ourselves: Do we trust that Jesus is our great Sustainer?

As we eat our meals or study for exams or stress about work or watch TV, do we acknowledge that Christ is perfectly sustaining our lives? In the midst of tragedies like death or collapsing freeways or trapped miners, do we stand on Jesus our Rock? When we make plans, do we acknowledge that they will only come to fruition if Christ allows? As you stare at these words on your computer screen, do you understand that Christ may have you read this for a reason? Could it be that He wants you to realize that He sustains all things and made them (including you) for His glory?

Yes, Jesus is our Sustainer, Creator, and Savior. He's worthy of our lives. Nothing else comes close.

Adverbs Are Our Friends

2007-08-06T03:37:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about Isaiah 58:11 and I've come to an interesting conclusion. Here's the verse:

And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail
Isaiah 58:11

We're only going to focus on the first clause, so let's look at it by itself:

And the Lord will guide you continually

This verse has comforted me the last few weeks and the conclusion I came to is that adverbs are our friends. If you notice, the word "continually" makes a huge difference in this verse's meaning. To illustrate, let's look at the verse without the adverb:

And the Lord will guide you

On the surface, this sounds great. The Lord will guide you! But then questions surface in your head like, "Well, when will He guide me? Will He abandon me? What do I have to do to keep Him guiding me?" With no adverb, those questions go unanswered.

But, thanks be to God, He gave us an adverb! And not just any adverb, He gave us the word continually! Continually assures us that God will guide us always. It reminds us that He'll remain faithful even as we're faithless. It promises us that He'll never leave us or forsake us! Yes, the word continually is all important!

What's interesting here is that if you read all of chapter 58, God's placed a condition on this guidance. He's explaining this guidance as a benefit if the Israelites meet a certain requirement. Looking at the beginning of the chapter, it actually talks about fasting. The Israelites are fasting, praying, and seeking God's will, but they're frustrated because they aren't getting any answers (v. 1-3a). So, Isaiah, speaking on God's behalf, reminds them that their fasts are ineffective because they fast and pray while leaving sin unaddressed and disobeying God's heart for the poor and oppressed. God then reminds them that if they repent of their sin and obey His commands to care for the poor, He'll promise them all kinds of glorious blessings, including His unfailing guidance.

We stand in a similar situation. A question we should all be asking is, "How am I assured that God will guide me continually?". If we read chapter 58 at a surface level, we'd assume that we should "get good" and give to the poor so that God will accept us. But that's not what He's after in this passage or in our lives. He wants a humble heart that will repent of sin and seek His heart, including His heart for the poor. He's not after your behavior, He's after your heart.

Unfortunately, we're naturally inclined to resist giving Him our hearts. We're full of sin and we foolishly reject God's gift of Himself. We sin because we like it and we're indifferent towards the poor because it's convenient. This is why Jesus came. God knew that we'd spit in the face of His promise to guide us continually, so He let us spit in the face of His Son and murder Him on a cross. Little did we know, through this, Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and offers us new, repentant, and humble hearts if we simply trust Him. Give Jesus your heart, and He will guide you.......continually!

Fear is Wise

2007-06-17T01:31:00.000-05:00

Today's passage is only 10 words long, but the truth that it conveys turns our world upside down:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom
Psalm 111:10a

Let's think about what this says. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then that implies that apart from Him, wisdom doesn't exist. To illustrate the point, we can turn this verse to the negative and say, "You won't have wisdom unless you fear the Lord". That's a strong and slightly unsettling statement! Why is it unsettling?

It's unsettling because our definition of wisdom isn't what the psalmist is talking about. When we think of wisdom, we think of wordly things. In finances, we think of saving for retirement or buying life insurance. For safety, we think of living in the right neighborhood or wearing our seatbelt. In decision-making, we think of exploring different contingencies and seeking the advice of others. None of these things are necessarily bad, but they're not wisdom in the truest sense of the word. For the rest of this e-mail, we'll call this definition wordly wisdom.

The psalmist isn't talking about wordly wisdom. We certainly see God-denying people practice wordly wisdom, so this wisdom can't be what begins with the fear of God. So what is the psalmist talking about?

They're talking about real wisdom that goes beyond this world. Worldly wisdom thinks about a few years down the road. Real wisdom thinks about eternity. Worldly wisdom thinks about material things. Real wisdom thinks about spiritual things. Worldly wisdom hopes in this life. Real wisdom hopes in the next.

See, if God has given us the gift of worshiping Him forever through faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, it would only be wise to seek Him out! Fearing the invisible Lord (not only in the sense of being afraid, but honoring, cherishing, loving and revering Him) may seem foolish to the world, but because He is real, it's the beginning of wisdom. We need to live our lives not for the sake of retirement or safety or good decision making, but for the sake of eternity. Wordly wisdom is far too short-sighted. Be wise and fear the Lord!

Jesus is Glorious

2007-05-26T04:39:00.000-05:00

This was originally a response to the first comment on the previous post, but it got pretty long so I made it a new post. Now to the response:

God's not asking you to know that He exists. He's asking you to believe in Him. Belief is much more than knowledge. It says "God, I can't see you and I can't prove your existence, but I have faith you're there. I have faith that I will see you after I die on this earth. I trust you". So you ask, how is that possible? How do we get that belief?

First we'll start with why we don't believe:

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those are are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4

That's a pretty heavy couple of verses, so we'll break them down.

First, Paul's pointing out that the gospel is veiled to those who are perishing. He's mentioning that, as in your case, many hear the gospel and don't believe. On one hand, you don't believe because you are sinful and at enmity with God. Left in your state of unbelief, you will perish in hell. But, as Paul points out in the second sentence, there's more than just yourself keeping you from believing. The god of this world (i.e. Satan) blinds your mind from believing. More to the point, Satan wants you to perish, so he wants you to reject Christ.

Which brings me to the glorious Truth that I pray reaches your heart. You ask, "how do we know God exists?" and, "I want meaning in life, but does meaning really exist in life?" It's fantastic that you're asking these questions because they both ultimately lead to the same answer: Jesus Christ. How?

First, left to ourselves, we're going to doubt that God exists. We can search all we want through culture, science, literature, philosophy, and comparative religion, but we'll still come up short of authentic belief in God. He has to give us a new heart and a new mind to believe (1 Corinthians 2:14-16). That's where Jesus comes in:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17

When you behold and trust Christ for who He is (God as a man, perfect in every way, he suffered and died in your place, and then rose from the dead), God makes a new creation out of you. In this, God enables you to believe that He is real. When you trust Christ, God washes you clean of your sin and lifts the blinders that Satan has put on your mind. Then you can enjoy God for who He is!

In this enjoyment, you find the meaning of life: worshiping your Maker. God made you not for yourself, but for His glory. When you don't believe in God through Christ, you end up placing your God-given desire for worship towards something less (another faith, sex, success, money, family, friends, drunkenness, etc). That's why life's been so unsatisfying and meaningless for you.

So, as Paul pleaded: [I] impore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20). Trust Jesus as your Savior, Lord, and God. Then you will not only know that God exists, but you will know your God personally. He will give you the meaning you're looking for because He made you. And this will reach its culmination when your faith becomes sight and you meet Him face to face in heaven =D

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free
John 8:32

P.S. If you're looking for somewhere to read in the Bible, I'd read the gospel of John. Find out who Jesus is.

Stop Playing the Fool

2007-05-19T00:58:00.001-05:00

Last time we briefly talked about a remarkable verse in the Psalms:

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God"
Psalm 53:1a

Like we covered, this small sentence tells us that atheism is nothing new. It's been around for thousands of years! But that's not really the most important part of the verse. Now that your mind has had a chance to think, "Well, what is the most important part of the verse?", let's move on.

The most important part of Psalm 53:1 is that it unabashedly calls an atheist a fool. The title of fool is probably the worst one you can have in the Bible. It means you believe something or do something or think something even though you know better. The writer here is implying that declaring yourself an atheist is foolish. Period.

But, for the atheist or agnostic that's reading this, you're probably thinking, "It's the other way around! Christians are the fools! Where's the evidence for creation? Most of the wars in the world are started by religion! Why does God let evil happen? I mean come on, you say Jesus was born of a virgin and rose from the dead?!? Where's the empirical evidence for that? How dare you call me a fool! Look in the mirror!"

In other words, you probably say it's preposterous to believe in something that's obviously just fairy tales and bedtime stories. You'd like to tell the Christians in the world to stop playing the fool and get with the 21st century. After all, it's simply foolish to believe in some ancient book that contains a few stories about a man dying on a cross for people's sins, right?

We're not going to get into an argument or debate. But we will check out what the Bible says about this:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God
1 Corinthians 1:18

Let's focus on the first part for now:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing

Those who are perishing (i.e. those who don't believe in Jesus) think that the story of the cross is folly, foolish, and absurd. To the atheist, this verse tells you that your arguments that Jesus' death doesn't mean anything are nothing new and inventive. They're actually the status quo. It's the normal, sinful human reaction to think that belief in Jesus or salvation or the gospel or trusting God are foolish. To the believer in Jesus, this verse provides great hope that God addresses the issues of atheism and arguments against our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's move on to the second part:

but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God

See, for Christians, the gospel is not foolishness. It's actually quite the opposite: the power of God! God saves through the gospel. Anyone who believes in Christ believes because they've heard and embraced the word of the cross! What is foolish and stupid for many is precious and powerful for the rest.

Wrapping up, there are two messages here. First for the Christian:

Don't water down the gospel. Don't discount the word of the cross. It's by this that people are saved! It's not through bright lights or funny pastors or trendy music. So, preach the word of the cross. It's the power of God!

Now for the second message to the atheist:

You think the word of the cross is folly. What you don't realize is that the word of the cross is what saves you. The very thing you try and condemn is the very thing that saves you from condemnation. Stop playing the fool and contemplate Jesus. He really is God, He really did die for you, and He really can forgive you of all of your sin. He's asking you to see Him for who He is and to see yourself for who you are. You are a sinner, He is your Savior. Embrace Him. Seek Him. Find Him. He won't let you down.

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
1 Corinthians 1:20-21

The Ancient Religion of Atheism

2007-05-14T03:17:00.000-05:00

I could be wrong here, but it seems like there's a growing idea that says, "As civilization and societies advance, there's less of a need for God. People invented God and religion to explain the world around them, so as we make more scientific discoveries and technological advances, God becomes irrelevant. Science reveals the answers that religion once provided, so God probably isn't real".

In other words, as our confidence in science grows, atheism becomes more viable. Atheists tout it as the "wave of the future" or the "result of humanity's advancement". It's described as a recent phenomenon and a shiny new way of thinking. The more secular a society becomes, the more advanced it is. Any trust in God or any faith in Him is simply primitive. An atheist's plea to us is to get with the times, jump on the "reason + science = no God" bandwagon, and abandon the backwardness of religion.

I'm not here to get into the "science vs religion" debate (check this post for some thoughts on that), but I am here to say that atheism is nothing new. In fact, it's even addressed in the Old Testament! Check out this verse (really part of a verse):

The fool says in his heart, "There is no God"
Psalm 53:1a

This verse was written sometime between 2300 and 3500 years ago! This verse's existence in this time period tells us two things:

Atheists existed 2300-3500 years ago. If they didn't, this verse wouldn't exist.
Atheism existed in a period far more primitive, with far less explained, and far less secular than today.

Therefore, atheists aren't on to anything new or fresh. Science, secularism, technology, and reason are simply new banners for the ancient religion of thumbing our noses at God.

To be continued...

Thinking About Death is Profitable

2007-05-10T03:19:00.001-05:00

In light of my grandfather's funeral, it's only fitting that we talk about death. There are two verses in Ecclesiastes that sound strange at first, but have a lot of insight:

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart
Ecclesiastes 7:2

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth
Ecclesiastes 7:4

Don't these cause a double-take? After all, why would someone say it's better to go to a funeral instead of a feast? Why is it wise to spend time in a house of mourning and foolish to spend time in a house of laughter?

I think the answer lies at the end of 7:2, "for this [death] is the end of all mankind". All of us are destined to the same fate of death. If we spend our lives in houses of laughter, feasting, and mirth, we're going to fool ourselves into thinking that death is far away. On the other hand, if we're at a funeral, the reality sets in that death is real and inevitable. So, funerals bring us to think about death, but why is thinking about death wise?

For the wages of sin is death...
Romans 6:23a

Thinking about death is wise because it reminds us that sin is real. It reminds us that we're evil at heart and have no hope of standing in the presence of a holy and perfect God. It illuminates the great problem that all people face: the wages of sin is death and eternal separation from God ( i.e. hell).

Two reactions come from this: 1) indifference and 2) despair. To number 1, I encourage you to contemplate this further and move towards number 2. To number 2, I bring the greatest news in the history of the world. Let's finish the verse we started above:

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
Romans 6:23

See, God did something about our problem. He became a man named Jesus Christ who lived the perfect life that He demands and died an excruciating death that we deserve. To prove He was God, He rose from the dead! If anyone repents of their sin and believes that Christ's life, death, and resurrection are sufficient to bring us back to God, they will have eternal life! God's given us a free gift of salvation from sin and death in Christ, all we have to do is receive Him!

This is why many of us could experience joy at my grandfather's funeral. He believed these things, so death was not his end! He's alive and well today with Christ in heaven.

For those of you that don't believe in Christ, God has planned that you would sit in your chair, look at the pixels on your monitor, read these words, and respond to His invitation to eternal life. Life is not a pursuit of laughter and mirth. Life is a pursuit to know God. To know God, we must know Christ. So, please, take Him seriously and enter a life full of unending joy, everlasting peace, and eternal satisfaction.

What's This All About? (Final Part)

2007-04-08T02:51:00.000-05:00

So, we're not gonna go into the 1 Timothy passage like I promised a while ago (it's been a long time, eh?). We're gonna finish up Psalm 73 instead! Let's get right to work.

We left off realizing that those who put their hope and trust in riches and wealth and power and wickedness are destined for bad things. Really bad things. After the psalmist realizes this, he reflects on his previous attitude:

When my heart was greived and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
Psalm 73:21-22

How many times do we do that to God? We'll get worked up or bitter about something, and then we'll start complaining. We'll become senseless and ignorant and even like a brute beast towards God! Being senseless and ignorant aren't usually good things, especially when you're dealing with the God who defines sensibility and has zero ignorance. How should He react to our complaints? He should probably take us down a few pegs. Let's read on:

Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory
Psalm 23-24

Wha?! You mean, God will look past our ignorance and senselessness? He'll even guide us in His counsel and take us into glory? Even when we're brutish beasts? That's pretty remarkable. Here comes the zinger and (finally) the answer to the question, "What's this all about?"

Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever
Psalm 24-25

Wow. These words are in the Bible folks. Many times we think of the Bible as a book of rules and four steps to get your life in order. This in turn leads us to believe that Christianity is about things you have to do instead of things you want to do. Christianity sounds dreadful and therefore God sounds like the brute beast. In contrast, this psalmist sure doesn't sound like he's dreading God or his faith! He desires God with all he has! God fulfills his every need! Nothing on earth will satisfy him except God! Friends, this is what we're made for, and Christianity is about enjoying our Maker. Christians aren't Christians because they are forced to follow a few rules or because their parents believe or because they like voting Republican. Christians are Christians because they've caught a glimpse of the irresistable glory of God in Christ Jesus. Christians want to be Christians!

The psalmist continues with some sobering words:

Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you
Psalm 73:27

Those who are far from God will perish. Or, those who are close to God will not perish, but have everlasting life. How do we get close to God? Do we go to church every Sunday? Do we pray 3 times a day? Do we go feed the homeless? Do we meditate? I'm afraid the answer is no, no, no, and no. We can't get close to God on our own because we're all that brutish beast. We're all sinful and rebellious against God. We all desire things of this world far more than we desire Him. These things are deserving of death and eternal torture in hell. Left to ourselves, we're destined to perish.

Friends, I've said this a million times on this blog, but I can't stress it enough. The way we get close to God is to believe that Jesus took that punishment for us. He lived the perfect life we couldn't live then died the death that we deserve. He then gloriously rose from the dead to prove that He is who He said He is: God on earth, Forgiver of sins, and Savior of the world. We get close to God by repenting of our sin and believing these things. We must acknowledge that we're sinners and then put all of our trust in Christ as our Savior. This is called faith and faith is what saves us.

When we really get what Jesus did, we'll have a reaction much like verses 25 and 26. We will desire God above all things and praise His name. He will meet all of our needs!

And now for the closing:

But as for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds
Psalm 73:28

The psalmist knows it's good to be near God. And based on earlier, he knows it's life to be near God. He's cashed out and put all of his chips in the Lord. The Lord is his refuge and he will now tell of all that God has done. When God is our utmost desire, we will be happy to tell those around us.

God created us to enjoy Him. We in our sin refuse to enjoy Him. If we believe in Christ, His redemptive work on the cross and His resurrection will cleanse our sin and restore our desire for God. Then we'll understand what verses 25 and 26 are all about. We won't look at God as a burden. We'll embrace Him as our joy!

[Jesus said] These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full
John 15:11

What's this all about? Part 4

2007-01-14T03:13:00.000-05:00

So, last time we learned some pretty sobering news. Sometimes we can get so clouded by this world's pleasures that we can forget about God! We get so carefree that we stop caring about what (actually Who) really matters.

The psalmist describes this:

Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure; in vain have I washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been plagued; I have been punished every morning.
Psalm 73:13-14

He's saying, "Look at how carefree they are! I'm sitting here trying to do the right thing, but it doesn't matter! I'm not prospering, so all this innocence and purity has gone to waste! Why be good at all?"

He continues to agonize:

If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it was oppresive to me
Psalm 73:15-16

So, what do we usually do when we're faced with an issue like this? We're seeing the wicked prosper and we see them carefree. Do we join them? Do we agonize and give up? Where do we turn? This next part is incredible:

till I entered the sanctuary of God; then I understood their final destiny
Psalm 73:17

The writer's been asking why God hasn't been throwing him a bone in life and agonizing over why he should even follow God in the first place, but he still enters the sanctuary of God for answers! See, this guy realized something we all need to know. If we're ever mad at God, questioning God, or disowning God, the worst thing we can do is run away from God. The only way we'll ever find answers is to run towards God! Now, after asking God, he realized the destiny of these prosperous wicked...what is that destiny?

Surely you place them on slippery ground; you cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors! As a dream when one awakes, so when you arise, O Lord, you will despise them as fantasies."

Psalm 73: 18-20

Yeesh! That's pretty harsh! There's a good passage in 1 Timothy about this and a great explanation of it by John Piper that we'll examine next time.

To be continued...

What's This All About? (Part 3)

2007-01-10T01:10:00.000-05:00

Wow, so it's been a long and eventful time since the last post, but let's get right into it.

So...where did we leave off? Oh yeah, we've been talking about Psalm 73 and our journey through it has shown us what happens when people use wicked means to prosper. It also shows us what happens when we see the wicked prospering! We get jealous and wonder why God hasn't intervened.

The last post (verses 6-8) helped explain what happens to those that pursue wealth and comfort at any cost. They get prideful, arrogant, and violent! They scoff and threaten oppression! But that's not the worst of it. Check out verse 9:

"Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth"
Psalm 73:9

That's bold! Pride is such a nasty beast that left unfettered it will fool us into thinking we own the world. We'll lay claim to heaven and take possession of the earth! I guarantee you that you can think of somebody you know or somebody famous that reflects this attitude. The sad part is that we're all capable of it. Moving on...

"Therefore their people turn to them and drink up waters in abundance"
Psalm 73:10

This tells us something funny about us. What would you do if someone told you they owned the world? You'd say they're crazy, right?! Well, unfortunately, we don't do that! We run into people whose mouths lay claim to heaven and earth all the time. But we don't tell them they're crazy. We end up following them! They're so prosperous that we start drinking the waters of their abundance. We trade in the living water from Christ for the murky, toxic, and deadly water of the world.

Now here's the zinger:

"They say, 'How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?"
Psalm 73:11

They are so blind, so secure, and so trusting in their wordly prosperity that they start doubting the One who provides real prosperity. Do you see why pursuing wealth at any cost and taking credit for God's gifts are so dangerous? They cause us to forget about God! And then the cycle continues:

"This is what the wicked are like--always carefree, they increase in wealth"
Psalm 73:12

Carefree. Comfortable. Fat and happy. These are dangerous places to be.

To be continued...

What's this all about? Part 2

2006-12-01T18:14:00.000-05:00

So, after a brief hiatus let’s get on with part two of our journey through Psalm 73.

Last time (verses 1-5), the psalmist began to tell us how he almost stumbled. He said he “envied the arrogant when he saw the prosperity of the wicked”. He had seen wicked (the Hebrew for wicked means “hostile to God”) people prosper, and he saw how their prosperity brought them freedom from suffering, struggles, and illness. As he noticed these things, he did what we all do when we see these them. He envied.

We do the same thing. When we see a jerk succeed, a womanizer charm women, a cheater not get caught, or anything along those lines, we’ll do what the psalmist did and say, “Man! I would never do something like that, but they’re way ahead of me!” Sometimes we’ll look up to heaven and say, “God, don’t you see what’s going on here? Where’s my share? I’ve been good!” I bet God laughs when we try and give Him information. As if He doesn’t already know!

See, but a lot of times we don’t stop at just getting jealous. Sometimes we’ll act on that jealousy. We see that this whole wickedness thing seems to produce results, so we start compromising. Do any of these phrases sound familiar?

All my competitors practice these shady business practices.

Everyone else copies the homework in that class.

The IRS will never figure out that I fudged my taxes.

We’ll latch onto this quest for comfort and prosperity and pursue it by any means possible. What’s the result of that? The psalmist has some bad news.

"Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence"
Psalm 73:6

Huh? But we’re just trying to get ahead in life! Sure, we bended a few rules to get there, but pride is our necklace? We clothe ourselves in violence?

See, when wealth and comfort at any cost becomes our life, some terrible things start to happen. As we achieve, we buy into one of the most dangerous beliefs that exists: belief in ourselves. We start taking credit for our prosperity. Our comfort and lack of worry place us in a mindset that we’ve built a kingdom and that we’re the king. So, pride becomes our necklace.

Alright, alright, so the pride thing makes sense, but violence? Surely not. Think again:

"From their callous hearts comes iniquity; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.'
Psalm 73:7

As king of our kingdom, we get a callous heart. We’re in control, so obviously we’re more important than other people. They’re just in the way of our goals! So, treating them poorly (violence) ensues. He’s still not done.

"They scoff, and speak with malice; in their arrogance they threaten oppression"
Psalm 73:8

Hmm…

We’ve all seen this before. We’ve seen outwardly beautiful people who seem to have it all that are vicious on the inside. Scoffing, malice, and oppression spring from their words and deeds. So, is it so hard to believe that we could head there too?

This all sounds pretty rough. But as bad as this is, it only gets worse!

To be continued…

What's this all about? Part 1

2006-11-11T23:46:00.000-05:00

If someone asked you the question, “What is Christianity all about?”, what would you say? The answers would be all over the place. They may look like one of the following:

“It’s about being good and not being bad”

“It’s about voting for Republicans”

“It’s about intolerance”

“It’s about judging people”

“It’s about Christian concerts and T-shirts!”

“It’s about going to church and praying”

“It’s about a relationship with Jesus”

“It’s about loving people”

“It’s about duping yourself so that you can explain the unexplainable”

Regardless of how you responded, isn’t it interesting that there are so many different responses? Isn’t it crazy that you can get “It’s about judging people”, and about “It’s about loving people” when describing the same thing? I’m not sure if you’re a Christian, if you’ve sworn Christianity off, if you’ve been burned by Christians in your past, or if you’re curious, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a clear answer to the question, “What is Christianity all about?” Wouldn’t it be fantastic to wade through all the emotion associated with that question and find out what’s really going on?

Well, I’m way out of my league in trying to accurately answer that question, but there’s a chapter in Pslams that can lead us in the right direction. Psalm 73 was written thousands of years ago, but it’s as relevant today as it could ever be. We’re going to go slowly through the chapter (probably 4 blog posts), and we’re going to jump around to other parts of the Bible as we go, but hopefully by the end we’ll have a good idea of what Christianity (and even life!) is all about.

So, I guess we’ll do what one normally would do when reading something and start with the first verse:

Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart”
Psalm 73:1 (NIV)

First, while Israel in this passage refers to God’s chosen nation in the Old Testament, we need to realize that since Christ came to die for the world, Israel can be extended to mean God’s people. When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, He extended the opportunity to be God’s child to anyone who believes in Him. So today, “God’s people” refers to all people that have put their faith in Christ as their Savior.

So let’s see it again:

Surely God is good to [His people], to those who are pure in heart

Now, it’s easy to look at this verse and think, “Wait a second, does that mean we have to be pure in heart for God to be good to us? Do we have to earn His affection?” The answer is an overwhelming No. For God so loved the world [That includes all of us! Regardless of what we’ve done] that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). God proved His love for all of us when He sent His Son.

What Psalm 73:1 means is that God delights in goodness and purity in heart. We’ll see later on why the psalmist mentioned this. With that said, let’s move on.

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold.
Psalm 73:2 (NIV)

So, the psalmist is saying that he goofed. What did he do that was not pure in heart?

For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked
Psalm 73:3 (NIV)

Hmm, I think we’ve all been here. Have you ever seen someone that’s doing wicked things, but they are prospering? Have you ever seen someone that cheats in school and makes great grades without getting caught? Have you ever looked at that jerk guy and wondered why so many girls like him? Have you seen somebody with shady business practices living a lavish lifestyle with seemingly no remorse?

We see stuff like this all the time in our culture. And what’s worse: we all can remember a time where we’ve done something wicked to land that big promotion, get that big score, increase our reputation, make people like us, or make some money.

The psalmist takes an interesting turn:

They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. They are free from the burdens common to man; they are not plagued by human ills.
Psalm 73:4-5

Have you ever looked at someone who’s doing the wrong thing, noticed their prosperity, and been jealous? We get jealous because it looks like they’re well off! Like the psalmist says, they’re healthy and strong! They don’t have burdens and worries like we do. They are not plagued by what the rest of us have to deal with. We end up saying what the psalmist said in verse 1: “Surely God is good to His people! Surely He’s good to people who are people that are pure in heart. So why do the wicked prosper? God, couldn’t we get a blessing here? After all, we’re the ones that are your people! Throw us a bone here!”

Yup, we get envious. We question why we should even try to do the right thing. These people that are controlled by their greed, their lust, and power seem to go through life without a care! It seems like they’re set!

Sometimes we do something worse. We look at this worldly prosperity and chase after it. We dedicate our lives to that career, that wild lifestyle, or satisfying our lustful desires so that we can “have no struggles”. As we will see, this can have dangerous consequences.

To be continued…

My Story (part 2)

2006-10-22T17:57:00.000-05:00

In my mind, I honestly thought Christians suffered from a mass delusion. Looking back, I know my Christian friends (especially my twin brother Greg, his girlfriend at the time Lindsay, my girlfriend at the time, Sarah, and my best friend Brad) could see right through my fake beliefs. Brad was always nice and gave me the benefit of the doubt, but I think he knew what was really going on in my heart. I always got nervous around them because I knew they wanted me to believe in Jesus wholeheartedly.

Before I knew it, college started at Georgia Tech. My friends told me to join a Christian organization on campus, but I had no desire to join one. I didn’t want to go to church either. College was finally a time for freedom. I could finally hang out with people without having to talk about God!

Thank God for Greg and Lindsay. They encouraged me to go to church, and I started to go to a church called Buckhead Church. I only went a few times my freshman year, but when I went I usually liked it. This place was completely different than my home church. They talked about the Bible like you could actually apply it to your life. They talked about God like you could actually know Him.

This trend continued through fall semester of my second year. I would go to Buckhead Church irregularly, and I usually enjoyed it, but God still wasn’t real in my life. Brad and I were living together at this point, and that definitely planted seeds for later, but God was still an abstract concept to me.

At some point during that semester, Greg invited Brad and me to go to this conference over Winter Break in Nashville, TN called Passion. It was some gathering of Christian college students from all over the country. I’m not even sure why I did, but I said yes.

I had never seen anything like this before. We had 12,000 college students in a building singing worship songs to God. Many of you will probably scoff and say I was caught up in the moment, but this was the first time I ever sang a worship song and felt like I meant it. God was in that building.

I heard several messages over those few days, but two of them stick out in my mind: one from John Piper, and one from Louie Giglio. Piper said the following statement:

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”

That was huge for me. I had never heard about pursuing God as your satisfaction. That whole conference was about pursuing Christ as your happiness, joy, and fulfillment. I had never thought that was possible. Most of the Christians I had met up until that point always seemed joyless, not joyful.

Louie’s talk had more of a personal impact on me. Oops, I forgot to mention something. From the beginning of high school to this conference, I struggled deeply with lust. I’m not going to go into details, but that sin had its grip on me. This lust chained me down in guilt and I thought God hated me for it.

Back to Louie’s talk, it turns out that on the last night, he (amazingly!) talked about struggling with sin in our lives. He mentioned this “rededication process we go through when we do something wrong. It goes something like this:

1) We sin

2) We feel bad, so we apologize profusely to God, vowing never to do it again

3) Things go alright for a while

4) We mess up and do the same wrong thing again

5) Goto 2

Essentially, we always try to do good. We promise God that we’ll never sin again. Unfortunately, in this process we need to realize that living the Christian life is impossible on our own!

For all you church people out there, you’ve probably heard Romans 3:23:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

As Louie pointed out, we usually stick a period at the end of that verse. But in the text, that verse is followed by a comma with the following statement:

and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus

Yeah, we’re sinners. And yeah, we can never ever measure up to God’s glory. But by God’s grace, He redeemed us through Jesus Christ! Because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we become saints! We like to call ourselves sinners saved by grace, but through Jesus, we are saints who happen to sin!

He didn’t stop there. Below is Colossians 1:25-26. This is Paul speaking to a church in Colossae about what his job is:

I have become its [the church’s] by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness – the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints

So Paul’s been commissioned to proclaim a mystery. It’s a mystery that’s been hidden for ages, but now it’s been revealed! What is this mystery? This is huge (Colossians 1:27):

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles [that’s anyone that’s not a Jew…which means us!] the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory

This mystery is amazing. Why, you ask? Let’s go back to what we were talking about earlier. Like we mentioned, we like to play the I-promise-to-never-do-wrong-again game with God. But we have to realize that we can’t stop sinning on our own! It takes something else. It takes us giving up, and giving control to the One who can. It takes us surrendering to Christ, and letting Him dwell within us so that He can live our lives for us. As long as we try, we are going to fail. When we give the reigns to our Lord Jesus, He makes anything possible. So, in order to stop a struggle with sin, we can’t tell God, “I’ll try harder next time!” We should tell Him, “God, I can’t do this. Only you can!”

That was incredibly freeing to me. For me it was always: try to be good, try not to sin, try, try, try, try, try. But what I really needed to be doing was surrendering to Jesus.

Well, that talk set the stage for the last part of that night. We ended the night with some really powerful worship, and at some point we sang the song “Wonderful Cross”. I completely broke down and started bawling. But these weren’t tears of sadness…they were tears of joy! I could see Jesus in my mind hanging on the cross. Jesus was no longer a story, and He was no longer a historical figure. I realized that this man left footprints in the earth when He walked. He had flesh and blood. He actually did the things the Bible says He did.

And for the first time in my life, I could see He was hanging on the cross for me! He was there for my pride, my arrogance, my atheism, my lust, and all of the other crap I’ve done and ever will do. He loves me so much that He hung where I should have been hanging!

From that point on, my life has never been the same. Even though I still sin, I know that Christ has freed me from sin. Even though I’m going to die, I know that won’t be the end for me. That night, Jesus Christ became my Lord. God became real. He revealed Himself to me, and the grace He gave me through His Son now drives everything I do.

Now, I know some of you may say, “Great story! It’s cool that you’ve found something that works for you!” I’m here to tell you that Jesus Christ did not come to this earth so that people could find something that “works” for them. He came so that we can stop running around like chickens with our heads cut off looking to lust, pride, arrogance, alcohol, sex, drugs, and all that other junk for our satisfaction. He came to restore the rift between us and our Creator. He came to save us.

Well, that about wraps things up! I'd like to thank all those in my life who didn't give up on me. Especially Greg and Brad. I'm eternally grateful to both of you for all of your prayers and encouragements through the years.

Stay tuned for the Psalm 73 series!

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life

John 3:16

My Story

2006-10-14T19:35:00.000-05:00

So it’s been a ridonkulously long time since the last post. Hopefully someone actually reads this one!

This post is actually the first part of a two-part introduction to a multi-part series (confused? =D). In the series, we’re going to examine Psalm 73 and hopefully discover that it speaks just as powerfully today as it did when it was written so many years ago. If you don’t believe in this whole Bible thing, or if you’d rather have me blog about random junk that happened in my day, I’d encourage you to keep reading. There’s some stuff in this Psalm that you really don’t want to miss (plus you don’t want to stop procrastinating on studying, do you? =D). But before we dive into it, I’d like to take this moment to tell you my story.

Have you ever heard someone talk about their “relationship with God”, or their “walk with Christ”, or something of that nature? Or have you heard people say, “God’s in control, it’s going to be ok”, or “Jesus is my best friend!”? Well, to be perfectly honest, not too long ago, I always thought those phrases were hogwash. They made me uncomfortable and sometimes even hostile! Let me explain.

The following sentences may seem like bragging, but they have a purpose, so please bear with me. I’ve always done well in school. I’ve always had nearly the highest grades in my classes, and I’ve hardly struggled with understanding subject matter.

As I grew up excelling in academics, my family attended a traditional church for as long as I can remember. We faithfully attended church every Sunday. Probably like many of you, when I woke up on Sunday mornings, I always hoped there was a way we didn’t have to go to church. Sleeping was always a better option than going to be bored every week! Yeah, I had a few friends in Sunday School, but I think shared boredom was the depth of our friendship.

Anyways, much to my disappointment (and my dad’s yelling!), I usually ended up at church Sunday mornings. Like my academic classes, I did well with answering the Sunday School and Confirmation teachers’ questions. Since I attended church each Sunday and could regurgitate answers about God, Jesus, and other churchy things, I “made the grade”. As far as I could tell, I could appease my parents and other church folk, and then go on my merry way the rest of the week. For me, God was confined to church and Sunday morning (I guess you could throw a few holidays in there too). Just like math or science, He was an abstract concept.

Well, it only deteriorated from there. By middle school, this whole being smart thing was pretty sweet. I could figure most things out on my own. So, at some point, I examined my situation.

Church is really boring
Why do all these people go to church anyway? None of them seem happy. They seem to do it out of obligation
Hmmmm, maybe they're just not smart.
Yup, they just made God up to explain the unexplainable
God doesn't exist!

So, I became an atheist. This lasted for a few years, but it was strange because I didn’t tell that many people. I think I was scared of what they would say.

Unfortunately, these middle school years were probably my worst. At some point, I discovered that you could make people laugh by making fun of people. Since I was a geek and in band, this was an enjoyable way to get attention. So, (as some of you may remember) by 8th grade I became known for making a few people’s lives miserable. I was a jerk. Period. On top of this, up until this point I had always done well at everything I did (except sports…which is probably why I quit). So, whenever something didn’t go my way, I would throw a tantrum. If people criticized me, I would snap back in defense. My temper was horrible. I probably should have seen a counselor.

Then high school rolled around. I was still an atheist, but since high school was a new environment, I did what I always do in new environments: become shy and quiet. This lasted for a little while, but since I was in band, I met a few people that I’m still friends with today. It turns out that a lot of these people were Christians, so I quickly had to evaluate how I would swing this whole atheist thing. I decided to be as non-confrontational as possible and pretend that I believed in God. These people were pretty cool, so I would sit through youth group and things like that so I could hang out with them.

Meanwhile, I continued to excel in school. This smart thing had gone on for quite a while, so it became more than pretty sweet. It really got to my head. I had tons of pride and arrogance (and I still struggle with this today!). I would ridicule people in class that didn’t understand things. I would look around at my classmates and honestly say to myself, “Ha, I’m smarter than them”. This calmed down as I got older and into college, but I always considered myself better than the people around me because of my mind. Pretty horrendous, eh? I hope you guys will forgive me.

So, high school was a weird mix of arrogance and pseudo-belief in God. When I would hear my Christian friends say phrases like “relationship with God”, or “walk with Christ”, I would scoff inside. I would think, “These are just things Christians say to each other. It’s just a crutch.” I couldn’t stand when people talked about God like they knew Him. People would sing songs talking about how God is their happiness, how Jesus died for them, and how they’re so committed to this guy named Jesus. I thought it was all garbage.

To be continued…

Listen

2006-09-05T00:25:00.000-05:00

Listen

P.S. To whoever left the poll comment, I'm not sure what you mean. But if anyone wants to suggest a topic for future posts, just go ahead and comment on this post.

Priorities

2006-08-13T22:28:00.000-05:00

Living in America is nuts.

On each day, we wake up and we’re bombarded with seemingly thousands of things to take care of: house, job, friends, girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, kids, car, health, school, pets, and many more. If we’re a little younger, we might not have all of those things, but we replace those with parties, TV shows, movies, shopping, sports, and other fun things. Once we’re exhausted dealing with all this day-to-day stuff, we’re left to deal with scary things like: happiness, dreams, ambitions, plans, goals, and all that jazz. And, if we’re somewhat spiritual, we might throw God and church in that list.

See? Totally nuts. So much to do. So little time. How do we deal with all of it?

Priorities. We’re all about priorities. Even if we’ve never thought about or written down our priorities, we still have them. They’re the only way we can survive! We can’t possibly handle all of those things, so we rank them. We put all of our tasks side-by-side and determine which are expendable and which are precious. This eventually becomes our priority list and it permeates every decision we make.

A lot of times our priorities get us in trouble. We’ll go after one for a while (for example, work), but then that harms our other ones (like our kids). So we’ll reshuffle and reconfigure our priorities to something else (for example, our kids). But then other stuff suffers (like our marriage). So we’ll go around moving and shifting and reconfiguring what’s important to us looking for the perfect fit.

So what should be at the top of our lists? Fun? Family? School? Our job? If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you’re probably expecting me to say, “God should be at the top of your priorities”. I could say that, and it probably would be helpful, but that isn’t where God wants to be in our lives.

Eh? What should go above Him? Where on our priority list should He be?

Before we move on, if you’re not sure about God or Christianity or any of that stuff, this may seem completely irrelevant to your life. After all, if God isn’t an issue in your life, then why should He be on your priority list? That’s understandable, but I ask that you keep reading because you may be wondering why all the priority configurations you’ve tried haven’t seemed to work. And more importantly, the Bible gives us a configuration that does work. Check out this passage from Colossians talking about Jesus:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:15-17 (ESV)

Wow.

So what the heck does that have to do with our priorities?

Look at the bolded sections. By Christ all things were created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together! Hmm, let’s take some time to think about what all things implies.

After careful thought and examination, I think all things implies: all things. House, job, friends, girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, kids, car, health, school, pets, and many more. Parties, TV shows, movies, shopping, sports, and other fun things. Happiness, dreams, ambitions, plans, goals, and all that jazz. And everything else.

He created all things, He holds them together, and it’s all there for Him! So again, what the heck does that have to do with our priorities?

Earlier, we said that God doesn’t want to be on top of our priority lists. That seems odd, because if He created all things for Himself, then doesn’t He belong at the top? Well, we could put Him at the top. But that wouldn’t be high enough!

Since God created all things for Himself, then He also created our priorities for Himself. A lot of times, we will say things like, “Ok, 2:30 is God time. Then, 4:00 is family time. Then, 6:00 will be friends time.” When we think that way, God becomes on par with all the things on our lists instead of above them. God becomes a compartment in our lives. He desires to be much, much more than that.

What we should be saying is, “In my family time, how can I reflect God’s glory? When I’m at work, how can He work through me? When I’m at the baseball game, how can God shine through me?” We should not be determining where to place God on our priority lists. We should submit our priority lists to Him. We should allow Him to invade every aspect of our life! Only then can we find rest, peace, and joy.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)

Super Man

2006-07-31T22:38:00.000-05:00

Disclaimer: The following views are not trying to speak for or interpret the intent of Superman’s original creators. They are just a strange guy’s attempt to wrap his head around something unfathomable.

Alright, with that out of the way, let’s talk about Superman. First, we’ll list some facts about him:

-- He’s so super that “superhero” doesn’t fully describe his domination. He should have a word all to himself.

-- He really doesn’t need anyone’s help.

-- He would dominate Chuck Norris (debatable, I know, but let’s be honest here…roundhouse kick vs. a flying man of steel? There’s no question)

-- He can pretty much do anything and help anyone in any situation as long as there is no kryptonite

I think you get the point. Superman rocks. Period. But why does Superman rock? Why is there something more special about him than the “more vulnerable” superheroes like Batman and The Flash and Captain America? It can be refreshing to have a superhero that’s more like us, but someone as ridiculously awesome as Superman lights up something inside of us that the other guys just can’t match. What makes someone as powerful as Superman so lovable?

Our original thought is to say, “We all love Superman because he is so powerful. After all, he can fly, repel bullets, shoot laser beams out of his eyes, fly back in time, etc, etc”. All of these things are true, but they stop short of the true reason we love him. If Superman used all of his power for destruction and forced us all to submit to him, we would hate him. If he flaunted his power around without harming anybody we still wouldn’t like him. So there’s more than his power alone that’s lovable. What is it?

Let’s describe a typical interaction between Superman and the people of Metropolis (we’ll pretend we’re Metropolites (Metropolans? I give up):

Superman has all this power.
We don’t.
We get in trouble.
Superman helps us.
We are out of trouble and happy.
We praise Superman.

Superman doesn’t need us. He doesn’t need to help us. He doesn’t even need to be on earth. In spite of these things, he still helps us poor Metropolites. Even though he has more power than we can imagine, he chooses to serve us. Instead of ruling over us, he puts our needs before his own.

To bring this further, take a look at the last line of that description. When Superman humbles himself for our sake, we don’t ridicule him. We praise him! He becomes the superest (if you’ve read any previous posts, you’ll realize that made-up words are encouraged) of all superheroes. In other words, we love Superman so much because in all his glory and splendor, he chooses to serve us.

Now comes the “ughh, here comes the Christianity stuff that I’m going to read just because I’ve read a few pages of text already and I’m obligated to finish” part.

Imagine a Superman that has no weakness with kryptonite. Imagine a Superman that can do all things at all places at all times with nothing holding Him back. If your head is not hurting, you haven’t imagined enough. Once your head starts hurting, then you’re beginning to imagine what an ounce of God is like.

So, like Superman (only better), God can do whatever He wants to anyone He wants wherever He wants whenever He wants with nobody’s help. Now imagine if this God came to earth as a man. This man is Jesus Christ. The real Super Man.

God didn’t come to earth for a vacation. He came for a reason. He came to deal with once and for all the rebellious, ungrateful, and self-centered human race. We have rejected Him since Adam and Eve, so how should He have dealt with us? Unfortunately, we deserved to be wiped out!

But we all know the Christmas story. Jesus didn’t come riding to earth unleashing His wrath on humanity. He came in a stable. As a baby. Later, He could have rocked us all with His incomprehensible power. Instead, He served the people around Him. He healed the sick, raised the dead, allowed the blind to see, fed the hungry, and made the deaf hear. Then He performed the Most Glorious Act in history: He died for us, then rose from the dead! This same Jesus that could do whatever He wanted instead put our needs above His own. He paved the road back to life with our Maker.

So let’s look at this in a similar way we looked at Superman:

God has all this power.
We spit in His face.
We get in deep trouble.
Jesus saves us.
We are free! We have life as it was meant to be!
what’s the last line?

Check out the following passage:

“[Jesus], being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”

Phillipians 2:6-11

That first line is a little confusing. In other words: Jesus, with the power of God at His disposal, could have used that for His advantage. But He chose not to. Instead (like Superman), he served us. He humbled Himself for our sake. So what is the result of that? (Note: the bolded therefore is a hint)

Jesus becomes Great! Greater than all things! Superman became the best superhero because he served us in a mighty way. In the same manner, Jesus became deserving of all praise because He (in all of His power, glory, splendor, might, and strength) laid down His life for us.

So now you ask, “where do I fit into all of this?”

Well, where do Metropolites fit into the story of Superman? When they need help, they call on Superman’s name. When he helps, they praise him! They trust him.

In the same manner, Jesus did infinitely more for us than Superman ever could. So we should treasure Him! We should call on His name in times of need! We should live lives so that every breath we take honors Him! We should stop trusting the promises of our world and our culture and live the lives that God made us to live. He will provide!

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:17

Missing Out

2006-07-24T17:07:00.000-05:00

Let's play a game. You are about to see a few phrases. For each phrase, nod your head if you have heard it before. Shake your head if you haven't. Of course, since you're most likely reading this by yourself, you probably won't nod or shake your head. Oh well, let's move on to the game:

“You only live once!”

“Come do ______ with us. You don’t want to miss out!”

“Seize the day!”

“Live it up!”

“Make the most of every opportunity!”

After reading these quotes, you either: a) played the game and nodded your head five times, or most likely b) didn’t play the game and nodded your head zero times. In either case, 99.9% percent of you have heard all five of these phrases. Overused phrases and clichés like these litter our culture. Why?

For starters, they’re true! One of the few things we all agree on is that some day, we’re headed to a nice nap in the dirt. Or, to put it more bluntly: someday we’re all gonna be dead. After that it’s over. Done. Finito. We all only live once, so logically we should make the most of each day. We should take advantage of once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. We should “live it up”! We could probably end this post right now and get something good out of it.

But ending it there would be really dangerous, so we won’t. Why dangerous? These phrases only give us half of the answer! They tell us that every day is precious, but they don’t tell us how to make them precious. They tell us to make the most of every opportunity, but they don’t tell us what a good opportunity is. They tell us to not miss out on X, but X may be worth missing for Y. Let’s clarify.

This may seem unrelated, but bear with me. Think of Christians you know. If we’re all honest here, a lot of times Christians can be really lame. They like to follow rules. They talk funny. They’ll spend time with their families instead of pushing their career farther. They go to Christianish events when they could be out partying. They try not to swear or ogle at attractive women or put down their friends. They look at things that could possibly give them pleasure or success or fun or thrills and say no. In other words, they seem to be going against the clichés that we discussed. Opportunities pass them by. Days are wasted. Christians are missing out.

Why would they choose such a lifestyle? Because they think they are better than everyone else? While it could be perceived that way, that isn’t the case. So what is the case? I forgot to mention another characteristic of the same lame Christians that we described. They don’t seem to miss the things they give up. While it looks like they are missing out, they go on as if they are happier. What is going on? To get some insight, let’s read the following parable from Jesus:

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” Matthew 13:44

We’ll explain the parable in a second, but before that, imagine if we’ve completely misunderstood what it means to “live it up”. We think making the most of every opportunity means to jump at the first thrill we see and run with it, so we go out and get drunk or break a few laws or hook up with that guy or make fun of the ugly girl. What if we’ve got it completely backwards? What if trying not to miss out on life makes us really miss out on life? The parable explains this far better than I can.

First, we must know what the kingdom of heaven is. Put simply, it is God’s great, magnificent, and perfect plan. Involved in that plan is Jesus Christ. He is God on earth, put here to die for us so that we can re-enter community with the One True God. If we believe that He died for us and rose from the dead, we can enter the most Glorious Thing possible: everlasting life with our Creator. Life after our little dirt nap. Life as it was meant to be.

Jesus likened this eternal life to a treasure. Since He provided the way from death to life, He is the treasure. Now the man in the parable discovered this amazing fact. What did he do once he found the treasure? He sold everything he had to obtain it! What does this mean for us?

Christ is that treasure in the field. His value surpasses all things because He is the way to true life. Therefore, He is better than all the little thrills we can get by trying to “seize the day”. He is so Great that we should be willing to give up worldly pleasures to gain Him. “Living it up” now becomes living in Him. Making the most of every opportunity becomes making the most of His opportunity.

Yup, taking this to heart may involve becoming lame. But being lame is a good thing. In fact, it's not really lame at all. Once you follow Christ, you enter into a life where each day becomes what it was meant to be. You can finally see every opportunity as part of the most magnificent plan and purpose you could imagine. Sure, embracing Christ causes you to "miss out" on some things, but in the end you gain everything. Like the man in the parable, we could lose everything we have, but by losing those things we actually come out on top. So, I urge you to “seize Christ”. “Live in Him”. “Make the most of His opportunity”. After all, you only live once =D

“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” Philippians 3:7-8

The Wall

2006-06-25T12:42:00.000-05:00

There once was a certain ocean. This ocean was like any other ocean, except for one thing. Its seas were so rough everywhere that no man could possibly sail upon it or swim in it.

There once was a certain island in this ocean. Among other ordinary islandish things that made this island an island, this island contained three things that make it worth telling a story about an island.

First, on the west side of the island, a massive volcano made its home. When I say massive, you may not know how that relates to the island, so if you want to replace massive with would-destroy-the-entire-west-side-of-the-island-if-it-erupted, you can. To make things clear, we can now say: On the west side of the island, a would-destroy-the-entire-west-side-of-the-island-if-it-erupted volcano made its home (the hyphen is a beautiful thing).

The second thing on this island was an indigenous tribe of people. This tribe flourished on this island. They knew how to cultivate crops, build huts, and utilize the island’s resources for their benefit. All of this sounds encouraging, but unfortunately this tribe had one major problem: they lived on the west side of the island! The volcano would surely destroy them if it erupted.

So now you’re asking, “The volcano only destroys the west side of the island, so why can’t they just move to the east side?” Good question. This brings us to the third thing. Unfortunately, an unfathomably large wall divided this island into its east and west sides. It seemed to rise as high as the sky. Let’s hope the volcano never erupted!

Done hoping? Good, because of course, the volcano began erupting on a certain day. Since they could not swim or sail, the tribe did the only thing they could do: head east! They eventually reached the wall and were met with despair. The only way they could survive this disaster was to be on the other side of that wall. What should they do?

After loads of bickering and panicking, a few men from the tribe emerged with some ideas.

The first man said, “We will build a giant ladder to get over the wall! Go, cut down as many trees as we can and we will start building!” So the tribe began cutting and sawing and building and constructing until they had the largest ladder you could imagine. Confident that they had solved their problem, they leaned the ladder up against the wall. Short. Way short. The wall was entirely too high.

So the tribe regrouped and a second man came forward saying, “We will break down the wall! Let’s get all that wood we used for the ladder and build a battering ram!” So the tribe again began cutting and sawing and building and constructing until they had the largest battering ram you could imagine. Again confident that their worries were over, they smacked the ram against the wall. They smacked the wall again. And again. And again. And again…until SMASH! Some tribesman began cheering because they thought they had broken through, but to their dismay, the wall destroyed the battering ram.

Once again, the tribe regrouped. A third man said, “Enough of this! I know of a beautiful garden southwest of here. We will go there and enjoy ourselves. If we die, we die.” So he took some (but not all) of the tribe to the garden. They relaxed, had fun, and enjoyed themselves until the lava consumed them.

Going back to the remaining people in the tribe, a fourth man said, “I know a shortcut around the wall. We can go all the way to the north and swim around it! All those stories about the ocean being too dangerous are hogwash.” So he took some (but not all) of the tribe north, and they tried to swim around the wall. And sure enough, they all drowned in the sea.

Going back once again to the tribe, a fifth man said, “I know what we can do! We will go back to the volcano and plug up the hole at the top! Then we will never have to worry about this volcano or this wall anymore!” So he took some (but not all) of the tribe back to the volcano. They deftly avoided much of the lava and reached the top of the volcano. They began plugging the hole and they even began to see results! It seemed that they were going to succeed. Suddenly, the volcano began to shake and roar and spew like never before. In a spectacular display, it destroyed all of the tribesmen on the volcano and their progress towards plugging the hole.

Now, only a fraction of the tribe remained at the wall. They had run out of ideas and hope. They knew they were finished. Then something remarkable happened. One man in the tribe heard something above them. He looked up to the top of the wall and saw something. It was a man! He was shouting something to them. The tribesman told the rest of the tribe to quiet down and listen. He looked up and heard the man on the wall yell, “Can you hear me?”

The tribesman responded, “Yes! I can! Who are you?”

The man replied, “I can get you over this wall. Have you not heard me? I’ve been shouting at your tribe the whole time! Just stand at the base of the wall and I will lower a bucket. All of you get inside the bucket and I will raise you over this wall.”

So the tribe got in the bucket, the man raised them over the wall, and they were finally safe from the volcano.

Now that the story is finally over, we can hopefully learn a few things. What is this volcano? Who is the tribe? What is that wall? Why did the five men fail? And who is that man on the wall?

As always, it’s metaphor time.

The island is our time here on earth, and the tribe is us. What about the volcano and the wall? And why are we stuck on the wrong side of the wall?

We’ve discussed this before, but we need to take a look at Eden to understand this. When Adam and Eve ate the apple, they directly rejected their Creator. As a completely perfect, holy, and righteous God, He must punish any act of disobedience (including a seemingly insignificant act like eating from a tree). The way He punished us was condemning us to death and eternal separation from Him (eek!).

Going back to the island world, the wall creates that separation. The east side of the island is where we are right with God. There we can have community and intimacy with Him. Unfortunately, we have disobeyed Him, so we are stuck on the west side. The impenetrable wall keeps us from God and the volcano is our punishment. We used to be able to walk the whole island with Him (and no volcano), but our sin brought the wall and the punishment of the volcano.

Sounds pretty bleak doesn’t it? Well, if we look at the five men and their efforts, it doesn’t get much better.

MAN 1

The first man suggested building a ladder to get over the wall. This suggestion represents our effort to earn our way to be right with our Creator. In this mindset, we have to follow a set of X rules, pray X times per day, give X% of our income, help X people out, do X good deeds, go to church every Sunday, or anything of that sort. God will accept us if we please Him enough. If we build a ladder high enough, we can overcome the separation between us and Him.

Just like the tribe, it turns out that we can’t build a ladder high enough. We can’t measure up to God because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). We could cut down every tree on the island to build a ladder, but it still wouldn’t be high enough.

MAN 2

The second man suggested building a battering ram to break through the wall. This represents when we get angry at God. We blame Him for our sufferings, our pain, and our sorrow, so we try to fight back. We want nothing to do with Christians or Christianity, or even religion at all because we can’t accept an island where we are on the wrong side of a giant wall. We can’t accept that we can’t measure up to God. We call Him unfair, uncompassionate, and unmerciful.

So we fight. We turn to atheism or freethinking or agnosticism or whatever you want to call it. We look at the heavens and shake our fist at God. We blame religion for the world’s problems. We hate anything and everything that has to do with Him. We even try to evangelize people to stop thinking about Him. We belittle and condemn those who are stupid enough to believe that there is a God. We disobey His commands for no other reason than to disobey. We build a battering ram and start attacking God.

There is a very, very big problem when we try this. We are trying to fight against the One who gave us the ability to fight. We are trying to logically destroy the One who gave us logic. God has the perfect response to this:

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!”Job 38:4-5

Just like Job, it’s completely futile for us to fight against God. All we will do is end up destroying our battering ram. And the wall will still stand. And the volcano will still erupt.

MAN 3

The third man brought some tribe members to the garden so they could enjoy themselves. We do this all the time. We chase after a successful career. We party all the time. We go for the “time of our life”. We go after New Age thinking that makes us feel good. After all, we only live once! The volcano’s coming, so let’s enjoy all this while we can!

This garden is incredibly dangerous. It makes us forget that there was a wall in the first place. We become so content with the garden that the lava comes and takes us by surprise. As CS Lewis says, “we are content to go on making mud pies in the slums because we cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.” We trade the diamond of everlasting life with God for the coal of a temporary thrill.

As expected, the volcano erupted, and the thrills of the garden were over.

MAN 4

The fourth man tried to swim around the wall. He understood that we needed to be on the other side of the wall, but he decided to do it his own way. We do this a lot too. We know how to get right with God, and even say we are. We say we love Him, but then we act like we don’t. We are lukewarm. We want to experience all the rewards of overcoming the wall without obeying the One who made it. We try to take a shortcut to the east side of the island even though we know we will drown swimming.

Jesus says, “because you are lukewarm—neither hot or cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16). He would rather have us follow Him wholeheartedly or reject Him wholeheartedly than hang out in the middle ground.

MAN 5

The fifth man tried the brave endeavor to plug the volcano’s hole. He knew if he did this, he could go back to life without the volcano or the wall. We do this when we try to deny our rebellious nature. We say, “all people are inherently good”, or “I can’t accept that God would punish us”, or “there is no such thing as good and evil”. We marginalize the severity of our broken condition. We try to deny that a volcano is about to overcome us even though it is about to overcome us.

Believing this is just like trying to plug up a volcano. We will not succeed if we try to gloss over what we have done to the God of the universe. We are “by nature objects of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). The volcano is going to erupt. And worse, we deserve it.

Wow. If you’re not feeling horrendous after reading all of that, I sure am. It’s terrifying. Just like the remaining tribesmen, it seems that there is no hope. We can’t earn our way back, we can’t fight against God, we can’t enjoy pleasures on our own forever, we can’t take a shortcut, and we can’t deny that we’re broken. It seems that a life with God, a life that we were made to live, is impossible. How the heck do we get over that wall?

It is true that left on our own, living an abundant life forever with God really is impossible. We cannot get over that wall with our own efforts. It would require outside help…

And that is exactly what the tribe got. The man on top of the wall lowered the basket and lifted them over it. He saved them! The volcano would no longer harm them! They could live on the east side!

In the same manner, God amazingly gave us help. He gave us Jesus. Jesus is different than what the other five guys thought. They all talked about how to get over the wall, but Jesus gave us the who to get over the wall. Jesus did not teach the tribe a method to get over the wall. Jesus lifted them over the wall. We do not receive life by doing stuff. We receive life by following someone.

Imagine now that Jesus went farther than the man on the wall. Imagine if Jesus had to jump down and take the volcano's destruction so that the tribe could go free. He achieved this in the cross. God would not let sin go unpunished, so He still erupted the volcano. But instead of erupting it on us, He placed it on someone who didn't deserve it. He placed it on His Son.

Remember what we said earlier? We deserve the volcano. But Jesus took the volcano for us! We can try to earn our way back, but He’s earned it for us! We can try to fight Him, but instead He willingly gave Himself to us! We can go for temporary pleasures, but He is forever satisfying! We can take shortcuts, but He is the only road! We can deny we need to be punished, but He already took the punishment! The victory is won!

If you recall, the man on the wall said he had been shouting to the tribe the whole time to get their attention. It was only when the tribe listened that they realized there was a way over the wall. Jesus is calling. He wants to save us. We need to stop trying to save ourselves and listen so He can lift us over the wall.

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:6”

Life is a bathtub

2006-06-10T17:39:00.000-05:00

It's been a little while, so let's recap the previous post. We learned from Romans 5:8 that Christ died for us while we were enemies of God. Being broken, we deserved death, but He fixed us and brought us life. Therefore, we are no longer sinners, but saints!

So now you're saying, "Hold up. I don't know about you, but all the Christians I know (especially the writer of this blog) sure aren't very saintly! Plus, why should we even try to be good? Doesn't this mean we can do whatever we want and God will forgive us at the end?"

Well, as it is a lot of times, it's story time:

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There once was a certain boy and his family lived on a large plot of land. The land contained fields and forests, so the boy (like most kids his age) loved to explore them and have imaginary adventures about knights, cowboys and indians, and all the things of that sort. One summer day, he was conquering France, but as he was rushing into battle the ground gave out from under him. He fell quite a long way, and after coming to his senses, he realized he had fallen into an old well.

At first, he scratched and clawed at the well's walls to climb out. He tried this for hours and night began to fall, but he did nothing except hurt his hands. Filled with despair, he wailed for help through the night. This pattern of climbing, failing, wailing, and crying continued for several days.

On the fourth day, the boy had become delirious. As he was contemplating how much longer he would live, he saw the light change in the well. He looked up to the well's opening and saw a black spot covering part of it. After staring at it, he gained his focus and noticed it was a man's face! The face's mouth was also moving. The boy began to listen to what the face was saying, "I'm going to lower a basket to you! When it gets down there, get inside of it and I will lift you up!" So, the man lowered a basket, the boy got in, the man lifted him out of the well, and the boy was free!

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Now most stories would end there. Yay, the boy is free! He's going to live happily after! He's out of the well! But we have to take a very important fact into consideration: the boy probably smelled really bad. On top of that, he was probably muddy, sweaty, dirty, and covered with things we probably don't want to think about. He was starving, thirsty, and on on the verge of fainting. The man that saved him from the well could have been having second thoughts about saving him! (Not really, just trying to make a lame joke)

So what would any sensible man saving that boy do after seeing him in that condition? Well, of course, he would wash him and feed him!

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So, the man first gave the boy a warm meal, and then gave him soap and allowed him to take a bath. The boy had a tough time getting some of the grime off, so the man offered a scrub that was pretty uncomfortable. The boy reluctantly used it, but after the grime was off, he was happy he used it. Once all this was done, the man gave the boy a fresh set of clothes.

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Now we can really say the boy lived happily ever after! Ok, so what the heck does this have to do with sin, sainthood, and all those weird Christian terms?

Let's say what you said earlier in the post:

"Hold up. I don't know about you, but all the Christians I know (especially the writer of this blog) sure aren't very saintly! Plus, why should we even try to be good? Doesn't this mean we can do whatever we want and God will forgive us at the end?"

Alright, so imagine that we're the boy, and when we're born, we're in that well. We have no hope, and the only way we're going to survive is if somebody comes and pulls us back to the surface. Who is that somebody? Christ! Like we said in last post, when Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead, He lowered the basket and brought us out of the well!

Before we move any further, we have to realize that at this point on, we are out of the well. We are saved! We are free! We are.....saints! But like the boy, when we get out of the well, we smell pretty bad. We're covered with bad habits like drug addictions, alcoholism, sexual impurity, and even more "normal" things like anger, jealousy, rage, fowl language, insert sin here.

When God saves us from the well through His Son, He's not done with you. In fact, He's really only getting started. He wants to give you a warm meal. He wants to make you smell good. He wants to clean all the grime off of you. He wants to make you......perfect. Jesus even tells us to "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48). You may ask, "Why?" But in the context of the story, I'm sure the boy didn't want to be dirty and smell bad. In the same manner, I'm sure we don't want want to suffer the consequences of sinning. God wants to make you perfect because He knows it's the best thing for you. Like the scrub the boy used, it may be uncomfortable as He shapes us, but once we are clean we realize that the discomfort was worth it. God does not make rules for us because that's how we measure up to Him; God makes rules for us because He has already saved us and really wants the best for us.

So, knowing all of this, we can respond to what was said earlier. To answer in reverse order, the reason we don't just keep on sinning to get forgiven again is simple: Once you are out of the well, it doesn't make any sense to get more dirty. Once Christ has saved us from our sin, we really have no option but to follow Him. Following Him involves listening to what He says, so that's why we want to be good.

And last, the reason every Christian you know doesn't seem very saintly is because we are all living somewhere in between getting lifted up out of the well and leaving the man's house. Until the day we die, God is going to keep washing us. He is going to keep molding us into His likeness. He is going to pry, reach, and clean the deepest and darkest places of our lives because He loves us. It may be uncomfortable, but after all, do you really want to smell bad? =D

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:1-2

Tense

2006-05-31T21:08:00.000-05:00

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us"
Romans 5:8

There are probably a few different reactions to this verse. For the non-Christian, you could be confused about what sin is, why Christ died, or how someone dying is a demonstration of God's love. That's fine and we could get into that, but that's for another day. A non-Christian could also look at that and think it's a bunch of mumbo-jumbo in some book that people put entirely too much faith in. That's fine too, and we could also get into that...but that's also for another day. Finally, the Christian reads this verse and probably thinks, "Duh! Why am I still reading this? I'm not learning anything!" So now I ask that you bear with me.

Now to be honest, at first glance this verse seems kinda dry and elementary. It's what we've learned since Sunday School and singing "Jesus loves me this I know". Anyone who's been around a church more than a couple times has probably heard something along those lines. With all that said, if you look at Romans 5:8 a second time, there is one word in there that makes it absolutely extraordinary. You can have a second to guess which one it is.

Alright, think you got it? The word is: were. Yup, were. And it's not so much the word (after all, any form of "to be" is as dry as it gets), it's the tense of the word. Let's look at the verse again:

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us

Let's go through a thought-process of analyzing this verse.

So God demonstrates His love for us. How? In this. What's this? This = "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us". Ok, so were is the past-tense of "to be". Who's "wereing"? We are (or were? =P). What were we? Sinners. What's a sinner? An enemy of God, deserving of an infinite punishment (Eesh!). And since the verse says "we", it means all of us were sinners.

With these thoughts, let's write the verse a little differently:

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While all of us were enemies of God, and deserved an infinite punishment, Christ died for us

Said that way, we start to appreciate the power of this verse. We were God's enemies! In Jesus, God said to us traitors, "Want a punishment? Here! I'll.....die for you. I'll take on what you deserved so you don't have to!" Amazing.

However, we're not done yet =D Now let's look at were. We said before it's the past-tense of "to be". So, we were enemies of God. That means we are something else. That means we are no longer enemies of God! How? Because God placed His punishment on Christ!

In other words we were sinners. We are now saints! We were dead. We are now alive! We were stained. We are now washed clean!

Many times, we live life thinking we have to measure up to God. We think we have to be good enough for Him to love us. When you think of that, think of Romans 5:8. Through Jesus, God took away the measuring stick. You are a saint!

To be continued...

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus"
Romans 8:1

Strandation

2006-05-09T18:20:00.000-05:00

Imagine you are stranded in a desert. With no food, water, or shelter, you figure it would be best to pick a direction to walk and hope for the best. You're walking....walking....walking.......walking.........and walking until you can walk no further. As you lay in misery realizing you are at the end, a figure comes into your blurred vision. You feel a cool liquid go down your throat and soon after you are standing up with more energy than you can ever remember. You no longer see the figure, but they whisper to you, "If you want more, go towards the twinkle on the horizon. You will see many oases on the way, but do not stop at them."

The voice stops, and you dart around looking for the figure, but you only see sand. You wonder about what just happened and soon think about what he told you. Scanning the horizon, you notice a small twinkle! With your newfound energy, you begin walking towards the twinkle with the hope that the figure was telling the truth. Your thoughts rest completely on the relief that the liquid gave you as you were dying.

Time passes and you notice an oasis. You really aren't that thirsty, and you remember the words, "do not stop at them". So, you keep your eyes fixed on the twinkle and continue.

More time passes and you feel kind of thirsty. You see two oases and really want to stop at them. You think, "I will only stop at this one on the left. I will keep the twinkle in my peripheral vision so I don't lose sight of it." Being careful to watch the twinkle, you veer from your path and head toward the oasis. After reaching the pool, you bend down to drink and you are refreshed. You look up, find the twinkle, and resume on your journey.

Again you become thirsty, but you don't see any oases. You keep following the twinkle, and finally an oasis comes into view on your left. With a parched mouth and knowing that the last one caused you no harm, you wonder why the figure warned you against them and head towards it. You bend down, refresh yourself, then you look up. In front of you are dozens of oases that extend to the horizon. You think to yourself, "Wow, this is a lot easier than going after the twinkle and getting thirsty. I will just follow these oases and I will look for the twinkle if I get in trouble."

So you keep going, stopping at an oasis when you get thirsty. You go for a while and notice the oases become more sparse. Your thirst becomes greater between each one, so you end up using a "first see, i go" policy, which means you go to the first oasis you see, drink, then go to the next oasis you see, drink, and so on. As you continue this policy, you notice it's taking a long time between stops. You walk, get thirsty, stop, see an oasis, walk, stop, drink, see an oasis, walk, stop, drink, and so on for a while, then you walk, stop and drink. Rising up to look for the next oasis, you scan the horizon. You can't find one! Not even the one you came from! As a last resort, you look for the twinkle. Nothing. You are once again stranded in the desert with no idea where to go. You figure it would be best to pick a direction to walk and hope for the best......

Now for the point of the narrative about you that never actually happened to you. Actually there is no point.

Just kidding =D

So imagine strandation (not a word, I know) in the desert is like us when we are unfulfilled. We don't really know what to do, so we just walk in some random direction seeking satisfaction. This direction could be a girlfriend, boyfriend, a job, school, success, or something along those lines. Since we usually like to screw up what we do, we eventually end up lying on the desert sand with no hope.

Now the figure comes along. He quenches your thirst and restores you with the liquid, and then gives you direction by telling you to follow the twinkle. This is Jesus Christ. He rescues us from death in the desert. He restores in us the ability to go in the right direction.

So now we follow His instructions. We start walking towards the twinkle because He told us there was more fulfillment there. In other words, we start seeking our Heavenly Father for satisfaction.

What's the deal with the oases? Why did He tell us to stay away from them? Imagine the oases as temptations to quench your thirst with something other than God. These could be your boyfriend, your girlfriend, random hookups, getting wasted, pornography, or even "smaller" things like your job, success, money, and your self-image. Following the story, we start out strong. We see the first oasis and avoid it. However, as we continue to walk and God challenges us, the oases start looking really tempting. We ignore the figure's warning and go drink from one, but we do keep the twinkle in sight. We succumb to the temptation, but we try to keep walking towards God soon after. The problem with this is that later on when we become more thirsty, we find it easier to go towards the oases. We say, "the previous one did no harm, so why would another visit harm us?"

That's where we get hooked. We go again to drink from an oasis, then we look up and see dozens of oases. We continue down this road, continually forgetting about the twinkle and increasingly turning to the oases. We get immediate gratification from something other than God, and we start seeking that instead of Him. Eventually we get so lost in this cycle and end up back where we started. Stranded in the desert. Unfulfilled and without direction. Thankfully God is merciful and will come pick us up again!

From birth, everything in our being wants instant satisfaction. We look, we want. We see, we need. As in the story, this usually gets us into trouble, and worse, it really doesn't satisfy us at all. We need to keep our eyes fixed on the twinkle. We need to seek Christ above all things. Even when He seems silent. Even when we're really thirsty. Even when His warnings seem silly. After all, He did rescue us from the desert =D

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart."
Psalm 37:4

Ack! Finals Week!

2006-04-29T02:21:00.000-05:00

There's a normal post coming shortly, but with here's a short word of encouragement for everyone about to spend next week studying and taking finals. If you're sitting in the library, sleeping on a book, stressing out, or drinking your 7th cup of coffee, remember that as huge as these tests may seem, they pale in comparison to the riches of God's grace. He is always with you, and even if you fail all of these tests, His Son has already made an A+ in what really matters by providing the way back to the One who created you.

Matthew 7:25 (modified slightly for this context =D)

"[Jesus said] Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food [and finals, and good grades, and your GPA], and the body more important than clothes?"

Risen!

2006-04-15T23:40:00.000-05:00

Today is it. Today is the day everything changed. Today one man did the unthinkable. Today a man rose Himself from the dead. Today all of His claims were validated.

He said He was God. He said He could forgive sins. He said we could now be reunited with our Maker. He was killed because He said these things. He proved these things were true when He rose from the tomb.

From this, a small band of followers could not contain themselves. They travelled around the known world not preaching a set of rules, not telling of a man's teachings, but proclaiming a man rose from the dead! Through persecution, death, torture, and pain, they would not be denied.

Today we stand nearly 2,000 years later proclaiming the same thing: that this same man, Jesus Christ, Redeemer of man, rose from the grave! Like those men in the past, we share in the hope that our sins our forgiven. We stand washed clean so that we can have fellowship with our Heavenly Father forever!

This Easter we praise God for this gift! Let us all leave this Easter with the same drive and passion as those men from 2,000 years ago.

"He is not here; He has risen! Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: 'The Son of Man muse be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again'"
Luke 24:6-7

Treasure

2006-04-14T00:28:00.000-05:00

An old man's family falls on hard times. His family has gone several days without food, so he turns to a last resort. Years earlier, a mysterious stranger gave him a map. The stranger told him the map would someday lead him to treasure beyond the man's wildest dreams. Although the man was skeptical when he received the map, his desperate situation leads him to his attic to retrieve it. In his old age, he cannot go on the journey, so he sends his two sons with the map and what little supplies they have left to find this treasure.

On this journey, the sons initially encounter great success. The map is extremely accurate, and every place they reach corresponds exactly to its directions. Filled with hope, they continue on their quest. As they reach more dangerous areas, a group of bandits attack the sons. The sons are left on the side of the road bloodied and robbed.

One son asks the other, "Why did we come out here? We never stood a chance of succeeding."

The other answers, "Beats me. We shouldn't have listened to dad's crazy ideas about treasure. These stories are just fairy tales. I bet the stranger that gave the map to him was one of these bandits."

As the second son speaks, the first son looks at the ground and sees a small piece of paper. Looking closer, he realizes it is the treasure map. He says, "Look! The map! The bandits must have overlooked it!"

The second son walks to the first and examines the map. Memories from the journey fill his mind and he remembers how successful it had been before the bandits. He remembers how the map never failed them, and realizes that there must be a real treasure. His brother realizes the same, and they once again set off on their journey. Sure enough, they reach the spot where the map designates the treasure, and they find more gold, treasure, and jewels than they ever could have imagined. They bring it back to their father and their family survives.

So now you ask, "what's the point?".

I don't know about you, but I've been in the situation those sons were in when they were attacked. On our journey of faith, we come to these moments where we experience failure, get persecuted, hear some really convincing counter-arguments to Christianity, or simply drift away. It doesn't matter how much God has done for us earlier (like the map had helped at the beginning of the story), this one moment brings our entire faith into question. Like the sons in the story, we begin to question, "Am I really sure about this whole God thing? Sometimes I wonder if I should just scrap the whole thing. After all, it's all just a bunch of fairy tales, right?" It's a scary time. The smallest things can create doubt, and that doubt starts threatening our entire belief system. What should we do in these times of doubt?

We do exactly what the sons did in the story. When the first son discovers their map in their time of doubt, he makes an important realization: they would not have had any hope at all if they had never seen this map. This map had been 100% accurate up until this point, so why would it not lead them to treasure?

So we do the same thing. We look to the Map that has been with us from the start: the Cross. No matter what we hear, what we experience, or what we feel, these things can never change that 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ hung on a tree. When you are doubting, step back and remember that no matter how much fog surrounds you, nothing can take away that the Son of God suffered, died and rose for you. You were once about to starve to death, but the Map brought you life!

On this Good Friday, remember that God became a man, did no wrong, and experienced pain, suffering, beatings, whips, humiliation, betrayal, desertion from his closest followers, and a slow and tortuous death. He did all these things because we deserve those things. He did them because we failed Him in our sin. He did them so you didn't have to. He did them because His love surpasses anything we can fathom.

"And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death -- even death on a cross!"
Philippians 2:8

Ignition

2006-04-03T00:22:00.000-05:00

(or Engines Part 2)

Quick Recap: Two posts ago we discovered that God created us in His image and with the capacity to be fulfilled. We did not figure out what fills up that capacity, so last post we discovered that we try to fill that gap with things of this world. This led us to find out that these efforts all turn out in vain, because God and only God can fill it. If we are cars designed by God, then He is the fuel that drives us.

I don't know your reaction, but after finding this out, some glaring thoughts came to my mind: If God is the gasoline that drives my engine, then why do I keep trying to run it on carrot juice?

In more detail, when we need refueling, we see two bottles on the shelf: a bottle of gasoline (God), and a bottle of carrot juice (wealth, success, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, approval from other people, the list could go on forever). We know we will only really run by fueling ourselves with God, but we still reach for the juice. We fill up, start the engine, drive a couple inches, and BAM! we sputter. Why the heck do we do that?

Essentially, we are defective. We know exactly what is best for us, yet we choose something else. We intentionally do something that harms us. We treat other people in ways we wouldn't treat ourselves. We sputter and drive around in circles looking for answers when the real answer sits on the shelf we left behind. We are broken. Busted. Cracked. How did we break? Did God make us this way? Did someone else break us? How would a creature created by the Perfect Being become imperfect?

Enter the garden of Eden. God makes man. God makes woman. Adam and Eve "were both naked, and they felt no shame" (Genesis 2:25). In other words, Adam and Eve were in perfect fellowship with each other, and more importantly with God. They walked with Him in the garden. Everything was perfect. There was only one rule: don't eat of the tree that brings knowledge of good and evil. The punishment for breaking this rule was that "when you eat of it, you will surely die." (2:25)

Quick side note: the fact that God gave Adam and Eve the choice to disobey Him demonstrates how much He loves and prizes us as His creation. We can get into this on another post.

Anyways, at this point Adam and Eve aren't defective. Death, suffering, anger, hate, lust, and all forms of sin don't exist. Adam and Eve recognize God as their Creator and their engines always run on Him. So what goes wrong? Unfortunately, Adam and Eve are tempted to eat of the tree. They are told eating of it will make them "like God, knowing good and evil" (3:5). So, they take a bite. Game over.

Before we move further, we need to realize how unfathomably evil this act was. If we move past the "Bibleishness" of this story of Adam and Eve and examine what eating this fruit actually means, we can figure out why we are defective today.

On one side we have God, who is infinitely holy, infinitely righteous, infinitely perfect in every way. He is in fact so perfect that any imperfection in His presence cannot survive. He is the Ultimate Satisfaction. Anything or anyone that says "No" to Him for something else must be punished.

On the other side we have Adam and Eve. They begin in perfect harmony with God. God loves them so much that He gives them the opportunity to say "No" to Him in the form of that tree. They eventually say "No" when they eat that fruit. This action essentially says, "No God. We are better than You. We don't need You." They betray God. Humanity becomes a race of traitors.

Now God, being like we've described Him, has no choice but to punish us. He curses the earth, introducing the idea of Death for the first time. All things bad here on earth come from this moment. Hurricane Katrinas, tsunamis, earthquakes, and all natural disasters come into play. Worse, man is changed forever. Every man or woman born ultimately descends from Adam and Eve, and they inherit the evil that they initiated. All hate, wars, death, cancer, anger, torture, pain, suffering, lust, jealousy, rage, and sin comes from this moment in the Garden. Man is now defective. They sputter, they crash, and they drive in circles searching for meaning because their engines can't run on God anymore. Man deserves to be wiped out forever.

Well now you say, "But God didn't wipe us out. I'm still here".

Good observation! Just as God is all those things we described earlier, He is also a merciful, loving, and compassionate God. He 1) loves us too much to wipe us out, and 2) being all knowing, He knew this would come. So being God, He engineers the ultimate solution.

It starts with a group of people in the Middle East. He chooses the Jews as His people. They live by a strict code of rules so they know how to not sin against God. He eventually forms the nation of Israel, and periodically chooses people to speak on His behalf. These prophets warn Israel when they go astray, but more importantly, they speak of a time in the future when everything will change. All the rules they have to keep will be thrown out, and God will establish a new agreement with mankind. He alludes to a man that will come and lead the nation of Israel as their new King. They call Him the Messiah.

Enter Jesus of Nazereth. A man unlike any other man. He heals the sick, gives blind men sight, helps the lame walk, raises the dead, and performs all kinds of miracles. This man makes outrageous claims to be sent from God and equal with God. He also claims He can forgive everbody's sins committed at every time. Some Jews believe Him, but many plot to kill Him because of these preposterous claims. Even though He has committed no sin, they eventually sentence Him to the one of the most excruciating deaths in human history. Death on a wooden cross, hanging only by nails in your hands and feet. His followers desert Him, and His killers think they have won. After He dies, He is placed in a tomb sealed by a stone.

Easter morning. He does something He said He would do all along. The tomb is empty. He raises Himself from the dead. All of His claims to be God and from God must now be true! Begin Christianity.

Now you're saying, "Thanks for the history lesson, but how does this relate to us being defective?". Ok, back to the Garden. God punished us for sin. Under this system, we die, then live defective forever separated from God. How does God fix this? For one, He can't just give us a clean slate. This would imply that He condones sin. He cannot do this. Being God, even one sin deserves an infinite punishment.

Back to Jesus. Jesus is God. Therefore, Jesus does not sin. Even knowing this, He still endures the death on the cross. We deserve death. Jesus does not. What if Jesus' death was a sacrifice to endure the punishment that we deserve? That means God sent Jesus to die in our place! He settled the score by sacrificing His perfect Son on our behalf! We can now re-enter life with God! Hallelujah!

So where does this leave us? We, being defective, now have to go to Christ to get an engine swap. We have to accept what He did for us so that our busted parts can be replaced by His perfect ones. When we do this, it's finally possible to fill that gap again. We can now look at the shelf and pick up the bottle of God to fuel our lives! We can drive with the joy that we were meant to have all along! Even though our sin still leads to our death here on earth, we now have a hope of an eternity spent with our Maker. Through Christ, the Ultimate Satisfaction can now satisfy us.

That, my friends, is how our defects are fixed. Fixed is actually a poor word choice. Replaced would be better. Our sputtering engines are completely replaced by Christ's Perfect Engine. Even though we may still screw up along the road, when God sees us mess up, He sees His perfect Son in our place. Redemption is a beautiful thing. Christianity is a beautiful thing.

"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21

Engines

2006-03-25T12:19:00.000-05:00

Inspired once again by CS Lewis

In our previous post, we had a discussion for another day. Well it turns out today is that day! We discovered that God created us with the capacity to fulfilled, but what fulfills us?

Well, I can't think of a good way to start this, so we'll start off with a statement to think about:

Our quest for fulfillment drives most (if not all) of our decisions, and most of the time, this quest brings us to places that ultimately can't fulfill us.

TIMEOUT

I know at this point you're probably skeptical. We don't make decisions with something in the back of our mind saying "this will fulfill me". For example, you realize that a partier doesn't say, "I'm going to get wasted tonight because I know it will fulfill me". And that is definitely true. We don't specifically say, "I'm going to do X for my fulfillment", but we do say, "I'm going to do X because it's fun!" Many of the things we do are in the name of fun, enjoyment, and happiness. In other words, many of the things we do are in the name of satisfaction. Uh oh, doesn't that mean many of the things we do are in the name of fulfillment?

With that said, let's ask a few questions. Why do some of us spend a weekend partying to get so drunk that we can't remember anything? Why do some of us eagerly await the next one night stand with a near stranger? More subtly, why do workaholics sacrifice their families in their drive for success? Why do guys watch a terrible TV show just to oggle at a hot actress? Why does Alice hinge all of her happiness on her relationship with Phil?

Yep, unfortunately the answer is we are looking for fulfillment. Whether we are experiencing the fun of a party, the "score" of a one night stand, the thrill of a promotion, lustful fantasies, a significant other, or any other thing of this world, we do most of what we do to satisfy ourselves.

Alright, so now that we do these things in search of satisfaction, we need to figure out if these things actually satisfy us. Well I'll ask a few more questions. Can Phil really meet all of Alice's needs 100% of the time? When the guys' TV show ends, do they desire seeing less of the actress or more? When the workaholic reaches vice president, do they stop or work more to attain president? Does a one night stand bring one to a satisfying relationship or a desire for more one night stands? Finally, does an awesome party leave one desiring a break or more awesome parties?

I think you see the point. The funny thing about all of these things is that pursuing them for fulfillment leads to pursuing them for more fulfillment. Life becomes a sea of dissatisfaction sprinkled with small pockets of temporary satisfaction.

Well crap. God created us with this gap, and we can't fill it. This could bring us to despair, but the amazing thing is that He's given us the answer. I could try to explain this, but CS Lewis explains it much better than any of my attempts:

"God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing."

In other words, trying to fulfill ourselves with something of this world is like trying to run an engine on carrot juice. God made us so that we will sputter and break down apart from Him. Even better, God made us so we will run immaculately when we pursue Him for satisfaction. Life now becomes a sea of fulfillment and peace.

Ah, so we've answered our original question! God fulfills us and nothing else.

To be continued...

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty..."
John 6:35

Imprints

2006-03-16T16:43:00.000-05:00

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:26-27

Whenever you hear the story about our creation, you hear, "We were created in God's image". Above is the reference to the Bible for that, but (for me at least) it's easy to read that and pass it by without fully understanding or appreciating what "God's image" actually means. So let's start out defining what image means:

image: A reproduction of the form of a person or object
or
image: One that closely or exactly resembles another

Hmm, so now applying this to "God's image" we get...A reproduction of the form of God? One that closely or exactly resembles God??!? Surely this can't be so...we're talking about the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving Creator of the Universe! Not to be harsh, but I don't think you or I have ever created a Universe. I know you and I don't know what's going to happen ten minutes from now, much less knowing everything that has happened, is happening, or will happen, to everyone that has existed, is existing, or will exist!

Alright, now that we all feel really tiny (it kind of feels good doesn't it?), let's move on. Our previous sobering moment reveals to us that "God's image" definitely does not mean we were created to be God. We aren't created to be replications of God, and we aren't created to be reproductions of the forms of God.

If you look carefully at the beginning Bible passage, you see the phrase "in our likeness". God is talking about Himself, so let's rephrase it to: "in God's likeness". Alright...so "God's image" == "God's likeness", what the heck does likeness mean?

likeness: The state, quality, or fact of being like; resemblance.
or
likeness: An imitative appearance; a semblance.

I think we're getting somewhere now...likeness implies "having qualities", so you created in God's likeness means you were created having qualities of God! Wow...let's figure out where that fits in your life.

God's image is what makes humanity so unique in this world. When God created you, He breathed into you the ability to experience joy, fall in love, enjoy sunsets, write poetry, sing songs, and create works of art. He gave you a mind that can reason, learn, and adapt. He instilled into you the drive to succeed, your hopes, and your dreams. He gave you the gift to not only live life, but to enjoy life!

Even further, He created us with the capacity to be fulfilled. Fulfilled on what? Well, that's a discussion for another day =D To wrap all this up, anytime you're down or questioning anything, remember that God imprinted a piece of Himself inside of you. Every time you hear, "You were created in God's image", think about what that really means!

I'm off to Spring Break! Hope everyone has a good week.

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well."
Psalm 139:14

Foreigners

2006-03-10T00:48:00.000-05:00

You are a comet. You are new at this whole comet thing, but in your travels you come across an average star holding nine planets in orbit. Eventually you arrive to a quaint little blue planet and you notice something remarkable. The previous planets you have seen have been beautiful, but they have been desolate, cold, and lifeless. This blue one falls into none of those categories.

You are stunned as you see vast oceans, lush forests, expansive deserts, and majestic mountain ranges. You marvel at herds of hulking elephants thundering below graceful flocks of birds. You are drawn to the swift creatures of the sea and the powerful beasts of the plains. This planet is alive.

Then you notice something quite peculiar. On this planet also resides animal-like creatures, but they behave quite differently than the rest of the planet's life. They know how to build buildings, drive cars, and they spend a lot of their time communicating about what seems to be nothing. All of the other life you have seen to this point seems content with their environment, but these animals are different. They seem to have some sort of control over their natural habitat and can manipulate their surroundings. Now you wonder, how can this happen?

You fly your comet self closer to the planet and come across some strange conversations. You hear some of these creatures talking of "When we evolved from animals" and other things of that sort. You become confused. You realize that these creatures are similar to many creatures of this planet in biological makeup, but your observations made them remarkably different than the rest of the animals.

Coming back to real life, I think this comet was onto something. If you take a hard look at nature around us, we share many traits with our fellow inhabitants of earth. On a rough level, we share bodily functions and methods of mobility with most animals on this planet. But as the comet noticed, any observations after that point place us humans as quite foreign to the world around us.

I freely admit I am no scientist, but have you noticed that most natural cycles occur with the intent of preserving nature itself? Photosysntesis is a good example. A plant consumes carbon dioxide, makes oxygen, then animals and people breath oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. On the same note, ecosystems have elaborate food webs and food chains that keep the ecosystem going.

Now when humans enter the picture, everything changes. Through the rise and fall of civilizations, humans have destroyed, modified, and utilized the natural environments around them. We cultivate crops, clear forests, and shape landscapes to meet our needs. That does not sound very natural at all. It sounds alien to nature's self-preserving goals. So, this brings us to the comet's dilemma: If man's goals are detrimental to nature's goals, then did man really come from nature? More specifically, if man seems a foreigner to this earth, then how could he evolve from it?

This leads us to the next questions: If man did not evolve, then was he created? And if he was created, where did this "alienness" come from?

These will be explored in future posts =D

Spring Break Katrina Relief

2006-03-02T16:44:00.000-05:00

A few friends of mine and I are going to New Orleans for Spring Break (March 18-24) to assist the Katrina relief effort. If you want to join us, please email me at brian.g AT gatech.edu. Please email me before you register so we can work out logistics and things like that.

It will cost $30 up until March 4th, then $50 after that. All housing, food, and tools will be provided for us by the organizers of the event (Campus Crusade for Christ). Now for how to register:

go to the site: http://www.katrinaspringbreak.com
Click on the registration link
Go to the New Orleans section, then click on the March 18-24 section
Fill out your information and pay the fee. When it asks for the group, put Brian Geihsler's Group.
For the arrival time, put 6PM.

After you have finished the registration, check out the site for more information about what things to bring. Make sure to print and fill out the legal forms and bring them when we leave on March 18th. We have tentatively planned to leave at 6 am on that Saturday morning and making a straight shot to New Orleans. Hope to see you there!

Ant Hills

2006-03-01T22:25:00.000-05:00

Today a friend of mine brought up a heated debate they've had with some of their friends. I never thought an argument would arise involving Bill Gates and Mother Theresa, but alas, I'm not right on many things. So if you want to know what this is all about, I ask that you read this small article.

In summary, the author states that Bill Gates has done more for humanity than Mother Theresa. He claims Bill Gates has had a bigger impact on this world because his massive profits and philanthropy efforts have had profound effects on the society around him. Now when we read something this controversal, we usually react both passionately and immediately. Some of us ring out in applause, and others of us squirm in anger. Whatever your reaction, I ask that you put it aside for a moment while we examine these statements and hopefully discover how much truth they contain.

Imagine we are all ants, and the ant piles we create are the wealth we earn, the money we make, the jobs we create, and the assistance we give to other people to earn wealth, make money, and create jobs. Living in our own little ant world, when we come across somebody like Mother Theresa, we probably won't see much of an ant pile. She chose to live a life of poverty in order to serve others in worse poverty. When we look at Bill Gates' pile, it would be enourmous. His efforts at Microsoft and philanthropy have produced countless jobs, charity donations, and unfathomable wealth. Bill Gates has built an ant pile so tall that we wouldn't see the top of it when standing next to it. We would probably have to build our antpiles so we could support his! So, when looking at this from our ant perspective, the author is 100% correct.

Now, let's imagine that our little ant world exists on a really large mountain. Let's also switch gears and pretend we are this mountain. Being enormous, we see each ant pile as basically the same. One really huge ant pile is so small compared to us that its size compared to other ant piles really doesn't matter. To us, Mother Theresa's ant pile looks really similar to Bill Gates' ant pile.

Bringing us back to real life...what if God is this mountain? Even though it is impossible, place yourself in His shoes. Think about seeing civilizations rise and fall as if they were houses of cards. Imagine being so vast that all the wealth, treasure, gold, and money in the world becomes dust. Even though Bill Gates' wealth and tangible contributions could be a bigger speck of dust than Mother Theresa's, it's still just a speck of dust. When you're standing at infinity, 1,000,000,000,000 and 1 become trivial. God is not interested in quantity.

If He is not interested in quantity, what is He interested in? Thankfully, Jesus addressed this issue many times while He walked the earth. I ask that you read Mark 12:41-44 before you continue.

As you can see from that passage, Jesus saw many people giving large sums of money. From our perspective, they contributed more than the woman. However, Jesus said the woman gave more. Why? God is not interested in how many dollars we give, how many jobs we create, or even how many people we help. God is interested in what is behind those things. God does not want our wealth. He wants our hearts and minds.

Only God is the judge of these things, but while Bill Gates has accumulated vast amounts of wealth and used it for the good of many people, Mother Theresa is like that poor woman who gave everything to God. When we reach the end of our lives, our ant piles will blow away in the wind and wash away in the rain. The mountain will stand for all time =D

"All men are like grass, and their glory is like the flowers in the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."

Isaiah 40:6-8

The Castle Called Earth

2006-02-28T03:46:00.000-05:00

inspired by a passage in Mere Christianity by CS Lewis

Have you ever heard (or spoken) phrases like “I don’t see how you can believe in God and believe in science”, or “Science is killing God”, or anything along the lines of “Christians need to wake up and smell the scientific coffee”? Have you ever struggled with accepting both scientific facts and a Being that created the world around us? Do you ever find yourself having to “pick sides” between religious beliefs and science?

This struggle is the source of many debates within ourselves and between individuals. It comes up all over the place in politics, church, casual debates, and in personal moments of thought. Worse, it seems that there is no definite answer to these questions. Some God-followers feel they must reject scientific thought, and some scientists feel they must reject God. Some God-followers love science, and some scientists love God. Who is right? Do we pick a side and hope for the best? Do we give up on God? Do we just stop caring and get on with our lives?

Now I could be grossly wrong here, but the basic premise of the “Christians need to wake up and smell the scientific coffee” idea is this: as we discover more about the world around us, the less we need an explanation about it. The less we need an explanation about it, the less we need God. The less we need God, the less He exists, and the less He exists, the less He created the universe.

Before we move further, let’s make sure we are all on the same page.

Science: The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena.

In more basic terms, science is observing things in order to explain those things. This brings us to a peculiar predicament as described earlier: When we increasingly discover more about our universe, we increasingly question whether God created it. The reason this is peculiar is because it does not make sense.

Time to play pretend (don’t read too much into this story…just for illustration purposes).

Imagine a far away land of kings, queens, swords, magic, and knights. In this land, there is a powerful king who built an enormous and elaborate castle. This castle was like nobody had ever seen, and the king poured everything he had into making it. After he finished the castle, he selected a group of people from his kingdom, cast a spell on them to make them forget their life in the kingdom, and then placed them inside his new masterpiece. When these people woke up, they first had no idea where they were or what to do. Over time, they discovered the castle’s walls were made of stone and the doors were made of wood. After more time, they discovered how to light candles in the darkness and raise and lower the drawbridge. After even more time, they start to make modifications and additions to the castle.

Now, as these people discover more about their dwelling place, does that change the fact that the king built the castle? Do their discoveries and modifications refute all the work the king put into it?

In the same manner, as we discover that the sun is a giant ball of gas, or that we can fertilize crops, does that change the fact that the sun is there, or that plants can grow from the earth? When man discovered how to harness fire, does that mean things did not burn before that? If God created rivers, do dams change that?

The problem with this whole debate is not that there are no definite answers. The problem is that we are asking the wrong questions. We cannot debate whether to choose the side of science or the side of God because these sides are not sides at all. If God really did create the universe, then science is our opportunity to marvel at His work. Science is a gift He gave us to adore His creativity, beauty, and power.

So next time you hear: “You need to wake up and smell the scientific coffee”, go ahead and answer: “I have. And it smells delicious!”

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands"

Psalm 19:1

Musings on an ice bucket

2006-02-25T02:12:00.000-05:00

Well let's get this blog show on the road! I'll start with some randomness =D

I don't know how technologically advanced any of your freezers are, but our freezer here in Center Street Apartments doesn't have an ice maker. Consequently, we are forced to use these crazy, stone age, out of date things called ice trays and ice buckets! Here's a refresher on them if you have no idea what I'm talking about (I'm sure you do know what these are...this is leading to something I promise).

The way this works is you have a couple trays that have 10-12 wells in them. When you want to make ice, you pour water into each little well and then stick the tray back into the freezer. After some time, the water magically turns into ice and you have 10-12 ice cubes! Now there are a few issues that occur with these trays. Having only 10-12 wells, one or two trays by themselves empty really fast with four people using the freezer. Since standard procedure requires that a refreshing glass of water or kool-aid must have at least four ice cubes, four guys will mercilessly empty those trays like it's going out of style.

To fix this issue, we use this really complicated tool called the ice bucket. It is a rectangular prism with five faces. No sixth face exists so that you can put things in it. Things like ice cubes! Ahh, so now we're faced with a dilemma every time we want ice cubes from the freezer. You can A) use the old approach by using cubes directly from the ice tray (which leads to the ice-shortage conundrum that I described earlier), or B) empty the whole ice tray into the bucket, use the cubes from the bucket for your glass, and then fill the ice tray with water to save up for later!

Now I'll admit, option A is a lot easier, but it always comes back to bite you in the end. One day you'll go to the freezer for ice cubes, but there will be nothing in the trays or the bucket! Option B solves this problem because each time you get cubes, you are storing extra in the bucket so you can make more. This quickly leads to a full ice bucket and refreshment all around!

Now, here's my point of describing all this madness. I warn you that this all might be some crazy, twisted stretch of an everyday situation, but it made sense in my head. Even if you're not a Christian, this coming analysis of the ice tray phenomenon can apply to you in regard to school, finances, whatever, so I ask that you keep reading.

God constantly provides us with "trays of ice". When we go to Him for our "refreshment" through reading His Word, prayer, fellowship, or ministry, He gives us ice cubes to equip us for dealing with this life and serving Him. Now these cubes can come in all kinds of forms: a passage from Scripture, a sermon, help to get out of debt, advice from a friend, fixing broken relationships, providing opportunities, etc. The question is what do we do with these fantastic gifts? Do we A) take them directly from the tray and end it there, or B) store them in our "ice bucket" so that the benefits can shape the rest of our lives?

Both options provide refreshment, but enough of option A will leave us with one day of opening the freezer and being out of ice cubes. What happened? Did God stop providing? By no means! Every time God gives us exactly what we need, but many times we (myself included) squander His gifts out of laziness, selfishness, or even ignorance. This leaves us with no ice cubes, and even leads us to blame Him for not providing! So then God mercifully bails us out with more gifts, we squander those, and the cycle continues as our relationship with Him becomes an up and down roller coaster.

God doesn't want our relationship with Him to be an up and down roller coaster. As the source of all blessings and refreshment, He wants us to learn to depend on Him for those things. Instead of squandering His provisions, we can take option B and store these blessings in our hearts and minds...our "ice buckets". We put the excess away for later so that we can deal with later situations, share God's love with others, and grow closer and more dependent on Him. Storing the ice cubes and not squandering them shows Him that we trust Him. Over time, it brings us peace. We know that we can open the freezer and we will be refreshed. We know that His provisions are more than enough.

So I encourage all of you: when God gives you your ice cubes, make the most of them. Trust Him that they are enough. Store them in your bucket so you will have ice later =D

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."
2 Corinthians 9:8