Centrality of Christ

Theologians often speak of the Centrality of Christ as referring to Jesus' necessary preeminence in every facet of Christianity, whether thought, word, or deed.  In this way, Christ Jesus is situated, rightly so, as the cornerstone, laid by God, of which the entirety of Christianity is built upon and stands.  As easy as it would be to simply ascend to this doctrine in passing, applying the theological spoils held within may more akin to setting up a child's toy: some assembly required.

At the onset it seems only appropriate to indicate that this doctrine is predicated upon the authority of Holy Scripture, meaning that Christology of this height and depth is dependent on the Word of God, the Bible.  While this may seem obvious, it needs to be stated to ensure that we form our theology from a certain authoritative source in order to protect us from unwarranted and potentially dangerous theological claims.  In a sense, the Holy Bible becomes the tool needed for the assembly of theology.  Add to this the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and we have a veritable toolbox ready to build good, grounded theology.

There are multiple aspects to the Centrality of Christ, however, the most important and foundational of these is Christ's role in salvation.  The doctrine of salvation is dense but, for the purposes of this discussion, it can be contracted into a single sentenced: Jesus' sinless life, atoning death, prophetic burial, and conquering resurrection overcame the power of sin and death while reconciling sinful man in relationship to the Holy Lord.  

This is the forms the very basis for the whole of Christianity.  And, although it may be oversimplified for this occasion, all Christianity is utterly reliant upon the assertion that by the broken body and spilled blood, mankind may enter into restored right relationship with God.  The Centrality of Christ, then, is the foundation of which all Christianity is built upon.

Now, let us take a brief, non-exhaustive look at how essential this theological postulation is to the breadth of Christian theology:

We have been saved by Christ Jesus and have eternal life based on that salvation which is by grace and appropriated to man through faith (Acts 4:12; cf. Rom. 10:9; Eph 2:8-10; Tit. 3:4-7)

Christian brotherhood and social-concern is based on Christ (Rom. 5:7-8; cf. 1 John 3:16, 4:9-12).  

Through Christ believers have become the children of God, inheritors of the promises of Abraham (Eph. 1:3-14; Heb. 6:13-20).

Truly, all Christian theology begins with our basic dependence upon Christ.  Therefore, we should always begin any endeavor with the remembrance of Christ Jesus, for He is the beginning and the end for all life.  In this regard, it is difficult to word this much better than the Apostle Paul in the introduction of his letter to the church in Colossae:


"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.  And He is the head of the body, the Church.  He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.  For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross (Col. 1:15-20)."

Improving Our Devotion

Occasionally, far more often than I'd care to admit, I would rather watch television than read the Word of God.  And from time to time, sadly all-too frequently, I prefer to check my emails instead of spending time in prayer.  And sometimes, perhaps more than some, I feel more like staying home and relaxing than going out and serving.  And sporadically, maybe more regularly than that, prayer is something that I can do later until later never comes.

Truly, humans are far-more apt to neglect God in favor of ourselves.  We are expert excusers that can reason themselves in and out of anything.  So, while my musings of indifference towards God may be slightly caricatured, perhaps we are all guilty of preferring things other than the Lord.  Many times we may be afraid of sounding "too spiritual" or "obsessed with God." When, instead, we should be far more afraid of being indifferent or lukewarm in our devotion.

To be sure, God and the things of God are worth more than anything this world could offer.  No gold or  silver or trinket or gadget or relationship is more valuable than knowing the Lord and being in His presence.  Simply a taste of the goodness of the Holy Lord is of such satiation that we would nare seek any other satisfying source but Him.

But there are at least three distinct enemies to our devotion, which lurk around to distract and to pull us away from the presence of the Lord Almighty.  The first is our own selfishness, our pride.  It is pride that hinders our humility.  Pride prevents us from service because it is constantly self-seeking instead of self-denying.  In this case, the remedy to such a malady as pride is a sincere and constant reverence in fear of the Lord.  For if we recognize our minuteness before His awesomeness, we cannot but help to be humble in response.

The second and oft-overemphasized adversary to our devotion is Satan.  Satan is but a fisher with a tackle box of lures to entice humans to sin.  And when they fall prey to his seductions, he plays the accuser who prosecutes and persecutes those who have sinned.  The power that Satan possesses is neither omnipotent or infinite.  His power is both finite and contingent.  He only has the power to entice us if we give him that power.  Let us then not fall prey to his adulterous and idolatrous seductions by recognizing that he has no power that is not given to him by God and by ourselves.

The third opponent to our devotion is perchance the most dangerous of the three: our own penchant for indifference.  It is our comfortability with lukewarm devotion that is the greatest devastating enemy of all.  In truth, it is our own allowances and excuses that keep us away from the ardent devotion that God asks of us.  This is a challenging hurdle for us to overcome.  However, if we are to become the Christians that God asks of us, we need to take more seriously the call towards wholehearted devotion.  Far be it for us to ever grow weary of seeking the presence of God!  Let us then seek to cast aside every weight of pride, of Satan's enticements, and our indifference so as to draw closer to the Holy Lord in faith!

Necessary Boldness for the Gospel

The story goes something like this:

Michael, a father of three, decides to take his kids to the County Fair for a good time.  Once there the family goes on a few rides, plays a couple of carnival games, sees the animal exhibits, and after awhile is ready to leave.  On the way out Michael and his family are walking next to a dad and his son.  The son is, presumably, misbehaving and the father seems to be reprimanding him for it.  As they continue walking the dad becomes increasingly physical with his son.  In fact, not after long the physicality has moved beyond a reasonable reprimand to something more akin to abuse.

Michael has been watching the scene unfold and can no longer sit idly by as this young boy is being beaten by his dad.  Michael walks over to the dad as he is reeling back for another swing at his son.  He grabs the dad's forearm and sternly says, "That's more than enough.  I'd thank you to stop doing that.  But if you have to hit someone to feel like a man, you're more than welcome to hit someone your own size, like me."  The father, in utter shock at the scenario, staggers back and sizes up Michael before yelling, "What makes you so bold to think that you have the right to tell me how to discipline my son?!"

The issue is boldness.  The question is: at what point do we, as believers, stand up and boldly proclaim, "Jesus is Lord!"?  Many evangelicals hold to a theology of evangelism that is so focused on living out the Christian lifestyle that it neglects the necessity of proclaiming the Gospel too.  Certainly, both things are important.  And we should not easily excuse ourselves from either of the two.  Nor should we so overvalue one that we neglect the other.

In this case, boldness refers to a dynamic proclamation of the truth of Christ Jesus that may make others uncomfortable.  Although this may strike some as obstructive or offensive, because it is our reliance on the Gospel that ensures our very life, we should be only-too eager to share the Gospel.  Therefore, if we truly love others we need to preach the Gospel to those who would otherwise never know of it.

The common response to such boldness is to make a case for living it out or walking the walk, as in, people will know the Gospel by the way we live.  And while there is merit to this proposition it is useless unless we accompany that lifestyle with a sincere Gospel presentation.  Consider that there are many unbelievers who live far more moral and far more Christian lifestyles than most Christians themselves do.  What is the difference then?  Although "walking the talk" is necessary and valuable, living like a Christian is not enough on its own to encourage others to learn about Christ.  Nor is the Christian lifestyle salvific in itself apart from the content of Christ.

In reality, the Gospel is not primarily a lifestyle.  It is a theology that encourages a lifestyle; it is a relationship with the Holy Lord who, by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, informs our lifestyle.  However, the lifestyle is not enough.  In truth, living the Christian lifestyle without holding on to Christ will end up in eternal damnation just as surely as living a sinner's lifestyle without Christ will too.  The Gospel is the good news about Christ Jesus, that He has, by His blood shed upon the cross, reconciled the severed relationship between God and man, and now, by faith, believers can enter into that restored relationship.

The content of the Gospel needs to be proclaimed.  Not just by those who may have the spiritual gift of evangelism but by every believers whose salvation is made sure and secure in the blood of the spotless lamb, Christ Jesus.  Paul, Jesus, and John all point to the necessity for believers to boldly proclaim the Gospel (Matt. 10:33, 28:18-20; Mark 8:38; Rom 1:16; 2 Tim 1:8-16; Heb 3:6, 11:16; 1 John 2:28).  This is not just a suggestion, this is a requirement of faith in Him.

Thinking back to the story of Michael.  It was not enough for him to be an example of a loving father, for when push came to shove he had to proclaim the truth to the abusive dad at the threat of being offensive.  In a similar manner, it is not enough to exemplify Christianity in lifestyle, we also need to be bold in declaring the reason for our confidence.  Let us then be bold in proclaiming Christ Jesus, because we know the goodness of the Lord is for all people to hear!

A Memorial for Memorial Day

Memorial Day, an American national holiday, is a day in which Americans remember the significant and costly sacrifices made by those who have fought for this great country.  It is a day when the nation pauses, like Veterans Day, to solemnly recall the great deeds of men and women of the past who, through their sacrifices, have secured America, past and future.

On this day, a day of memorial, it seems ever more appropriate and fitting to remember the ultimate sacrifice that has secured, for all who confess and believe, eternal life in the holy presence of God Almighty: the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus.  While this holiday has been set apart for the purpose of remembering the offerings of Americans, it is right for us also and always to recall the great offering that Christ made upon the cross, taking the sin of all mankind in His flesh and nailing it to the cross.  

Now, we who come to Him in humble faith, may enter into the presence of God by the blood of the lamb.  This is the pinnacle sacrifice in all of history that has made sure our heavenly personhood, a national heritage of holiness and heavenly nature that is secured by Christ and He alone.  Therefore, on this Memorial Day let us take a solemn moment to pause in remembrance of Christ.  Praise be to God for bringing us close to Himself by His own sacrifice!

Rest from the Lord

On July 3, 1988, the USS Vincennes mistakenly fired missiles at a civilian flight, Iran Air Flight 655.  Not only was the attack unprovoked, but the jet airliner was no match for radar-guided missiles.  The flight fell out of the sky into the Indian Ocean; all 290 people aboard had been killed.  Officially, the crew who had authorized the missile launch said that the flight appeared on the radar to be descending like an F-14 Tomcat to attack the ship and they fired preemptively but mistakenly.

Following the tragic disaster, reports from the Vincennes began to surface that the operators of the Vincennes' high-tech Command Center had been stressed and fatigued, making the radar-reading mistake seem to be the result of a lack of sufficient rest.  Strangely, the event took place in the middle of the night.  Needless to say, the fatigue and lack of rest for the crew played a substantial factor in a highly-trained radar-reading naval crew misreading a relatively routine (daily in fact) commercial flight for an F-14.

Rest is an interesting endeavor in a culture such as ours.  For starters, most people think of rest either as recreation and hobby, or as a hindrance to work.  As a result of this misconception, rest is often polarizing, finding those whose seeking breeds sloth and others whose rest sounds considerably more like work.  Because of this, a biblical understanding of rest may be useful.

It is interesting that rest, in its most divine sense, is decreed in the very beginning of the Bible.  God, having created all of existence in a matter of days, looks back at the goodness of His creation and rests in response to the utter and complete perfection of His work (Gen. 2:1-3).  God, the omnipotent Creator of the whole of the universe, upon finishing His work, rested.  It would be incorrect to say that God was fatigued or weary, but rather, He was setting an example for us to follow, that in the completion of work we should rest for our efforts.  Therefore, as God rested from His work so too shall we.

Additionally, rest is something bestowed by the Lord (Psa. 91:1; 127:2).  Rest is one of the gifts that God presents to those who seek Him.  This flies in the face of the understanding that rest is merely what occurs between working.  Instead, rest is a presence, a state of being in Him.  Because rest requires the presence of God, obviously then, in order for us to truly be at rest we must be held in Him.  This is part of the promise: we have a promised eternal rest that is made perfect and secure in the work of Christ Jesus  (Heb. 4:9-10).

Rest is a necessary part of life.  Much like the crew of the Vincennes, if we do not rest but push our person to exhaustion, the mental, physical, and spiritual fatigue will cause poor decisions and mistakes.  Instead, we should seek the rest that comes down from above, knowing that it is only in Him that we truly receive the rest that matters.  Jesus describes in plain details that the rest from the Lord is the pursuit of Him (Matt. 11:38).  Let us then pursue the rest that comes from the Lord!

History Study for Bible Study

In the 4th Century B.C. the world was a disconnected collection of disparate city-state nations, separated by geography, language, culture, and history.  In reality, apart from limited long-distance trading, the far eastern part of the world in India barely knew of their western counterparts situated around the Mediterranean and vice versa.  At this time of disjointed humanity, a certain Macedonian prince rose to power in Greece.

The young prince seized his father's impressive military force at the age of twenty and began his lifelong campaign to conquer the world from one end to the other and to hold it under a single Greek banner.  He had a deep conviction to unite all peoples under Greek culture and spent the whole of his life for this task.  The prince was a remarkable general and tactician.  At numerous skirmishes, the prince's forces were dramatically outnumbered yet, by his decisively genius tactics, his army was victorious.  Moreover, he always rode his horse at the front of the battle, ensuring each of his dedicated soldiers that the prince would never put them into any danger that he himself would not be willing to accept.

As a result of his consistent willingness to set an intrepid example coupled with his constantly expert military strategies, his troops followed him with a worshipful fervor, believing their prince to be a descendant of the gods and heroes of old.  The prince succeeded in conquering land from the Mediterranean beyond the Hindu Kush mountain range.  Although the prince died mysteriously at the young age of 32, he was successful at making the Greek culture and language the standard in the world.  A feat that was nothing short of revolutionary that set the world on its path for the next several hundred years.  Because of his utter success, history has canonized him as great, Alexander the Great.

Understanding the significance of Alexander in reference to the Bible is a rich field manifold with grain relevant to biblical understanding.  For the brevity of this conversation, reducing the mixture to two main points of importance is in order: the historical account following Alexander's death, and the cultural significance of Hellenization in the spread of the Gospel.  The goal here is by no means exhaustive, just to offer a small sample of the usefulness of historical study to understanding the Bible better.

The history after Alexander's death is necessary information for properly understanding of the last part of the book of Daniel (Ch. 9-12).  Following Alexander's mysterious death, the massive geographical area of his empire was divided into four satrap kingdoms by the general, Perdiccas: the Ptolemaic, the Seleucid, the Pergamum, and the Macedonian.  Unless we recognize these four kingdoms, particularly the Ptolemaic, understanding Daniel's apocalyptic visions that close the book is made nearly impossible.

Secondly, the impact of Hellenization cannot be overstated.  Simply understood, Hellenization is the spread and standardization of Greek culture and language because of the work of Alexander.  This made Greek the language of commerce and trade, particularly across the Mediterranean world.  As a result, the Gospel was able to be presented to many diverse cultures, from Spain to India.  In fact, libraries of books have been written about the Gospel's dependance upon Hellenization for its spread.

While this dialogue has been information-laden but too-brief, the point has been to show the need of historical investigation for the purpose of shedding light on the Bible.  Forming a solid historical basis is a necessary endeavor in interpretation, for if we do not understand the context of the Scripture we are examining, our interpretations will be equally uninformed and ungrounded in reality.

Luckily, we are not without help in this as there are a vast number of resources available to the modern interpreter to help us overcome the time and distance between ourselves and the Bible.  L.P Hartley's saying is still appropriate today, "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there."  In essence, we should strive to come to the Bible as the anthology of ancient documents it is.  Let us then press on in discipline and diligence so as to better interpret the Word of God!

Sanctified Self-Control

Marianne pushed her grocery cart from aisle to aisle, marking every item off of her list as she placed it in the cart.  Her five-year-old boy, Bradley, was walking beside her, more interested in causing a scene than helping his mother shop for groceries.  In reality, Bradley was far too busy nocking boxes off the lower shelves, singing loudly to himself, and bombarding his mother with questions to help her out.  Needless to say, Marianne was losing her patience and her son's ploys for attention, though less-than positive, were working.

Bradley pulled a can of soup from the shelf and, with the finesse of a dancer, bowled the chowder down the aisle, hitting a display of crackers and knocking it across the tiled floor: strike.  Bradley hooped and hollered at his success.  Marianne had had enough. She grabbed her son's arm and pulled him to her so that she could yell at him under her breath, "Bradley! We are in public! Show some self-control!"  Bradley, acknowledging that his mother was mad, looked up at her and said sincerely, "But mom, I am in control!"

Perhaps Bradley's response is more appropriate than we could possibly conceive and it poses a question relevant to us all: at what point does the self lose control?  In a world that is marked by excess and hedonism, self-control seems like an antiquated ideal that is all the more challenging to live-by and promote.  But, which self do we put in control, the flesh? the Spirit?

Unequivocally, Christians are to be self-controlled in the Spirit.  Recall Paul's letter to the Colossians, where he exhorts believers to put to death that which is earthly so as to put on that which is godly and right (Col. 3:1-17).  In this way, we are to become self-controlled in the Spirit and compelled by Spirit to live lives of a worthy manner (Eph. 4:1-3).

Paul actually defines Spirit-led self-control as spiritual fruit, indicating that the truest form of self-control is gifted from the Lord, who trains us to live in such a way (Gal. 5:22-23; Tit. 2:11-14).  Paramount to the pursuit of self-control is then faith.  Only when we cling to Christ will we be equipped and able to live self-controlled in the godliest sense.  In truth, self-control is a misleading term.  For if we are to become self-controlled as God asks of us, then a more correct term would be God-controlled.  But praise be to God who we can always rely upon for guidance and direction!

Sin: A Matter of the Heart

An extremely wealthy man wakes up one sunny morning, picks up his coffee cup that's been poured by the maid, and steps outside onto his deck to read the paper and take in the morning.  The man sits and sips his coffee in supposed contentment, surveying the splendor of the day as he looks across his expertly-manicured lawn.  He should be at work but he felt like staying home to enjoy the splendor of a day like today.

Suddenly a sight catches his eye.  Over his fence, through his neighbor's window, he sees a woman bathing.  She is stunning and steals his breath.  He tries to look away but her alluring beauty is intoxicating.  Before long he can stand it no longer.  The rich man asks his gardener who this woman is, knowing her to be his neighbor's wife, and has her summoned so as to covet her for her sex.

David and Bathsheba is the well-worn biblical story of adultery (2 Sam. 11).  David, a king of remarkable wealth and stature, covets the sight of Bathsheba and devises a heinous plot to seduce the woman, to cover up his adultery, and, ultimately, to covertly kill her husband.  And although David repented of his sin when confronted by Nathan (2 Sam. 12:1-13), the perennial question remains: at what point did David sin? when he saw Bathsheba and didn't turn away? When he beckoned for her? When they had sex? When he covered it up? When he had Uriah killed?

The core of the issue is sin, although it has often been reduced to a how-far-can-I-go-before-I-sin quandary.  There are two remarkable passages that shed light upon this challenging story.  The first is Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7).  Jesus says, "everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt. 5:28)."  Jesus is speaking about the state of a person's heart.  In this way, Christ indicates that the root of sin goes beyond mere external expressions, but in fact lies much deeper.

Secondly, Solomon writes in Proverbs, "Whoever plans to do evil will be called a schemer.  The devising of folly is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination of mankind (24:8-9)."  The point is that temptations abound in a world that is in the hand of the evil one, and guilt is not measured by whether we are tempted or not, but in how we react to those temptations.  If we scheme and plan to do evil, we have sinned in our heart already.  God wants more.

In reference to David, it was not a sin for him to see.  But at the moment of scheming, he sinned.  The moment that desire conceives to give birth to sin (James 1:13-15) is the moment of claiming that sin and devising of plans to make the desire a physical reality.  Sin then becomes a much more intimate, much more integral part of who we are.  Therefore, only when we really utterly on God, from every single moment to every single moment, will we be able to withstand the desires that lure us away.  Let us fix our eyes upon the Lord, so as to be freed from the enticements to sin!

Overcoming Temptations with the Word

There was nothing odd about this particular evening in the Davidson household.  Dad had worked a hard day at his job while Mommy had been home with their three children all day, doing the various things that three kids, ages 10 months to 5 years, demand.  It was dinner time and the couples' eldest, Jenna, was being naughty, throwing food across the table and hitting her little brother.  Finally, Mommy had had enough and sent Jenna to her room for the rest of the night, minus dessert.

A few hours later, well-after the dishes were done and the other children had been put to bed, Mommy went to tuck little Jenna in and kiss her goodnight.  Mommy walked into her five-year-old's room to see her daughter sobbing on her bed, looking sad and defeated.  Jenna looked up at Mommy and, with swollen eyes, asked: "Why do we do bad things, Mommy?"

Mommy, in as comforting tone as she could, answered, "Honey, the devil sometimes tells us to do the wrong things.  We need to listen to God to do the right things." To which a sobbing Jenna replied in tears, "But He just doesn't talk loud enough!"

Could we not all empathize with Jenna?  Often we know that what we are doing is wrong but the voice of the tempter, Satan, can seem so much louder than the voice of truth.  Temptations are something that is common to every human.  In fact, even our Lord and Savior, Jesus, faced severe temptations (Heb. 2:18, 4:15), as chronicled in Matt. 4:1-11, and Luke 4:1-13.

Jesus, following His baptism, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness.  After forty days of fasting and prayer, He is hungry but spiritually ready.  At this moment, Satan comes to Jesus and tempts Him thrice.  In each of Satan's ploys, he supports his temptations with Scripture, giving them the appearance of truth.  However, Jesus is not detoured, He overcomes everyone of Satan's temptations with Scripture that is applied expertly.  Two things stand out in this account that are instantly applicable to us.

The first is the need for recognition of interpretive heresy.  Satan supported his temptations with hermeneutical finesse that made each of his temptations seem not only acceptable but even condoned by the Word of God.  Notice, then, that Satan's voice sounds like truth though it is actually spurious lies.  Understanding and acknowledging the way that a counterfeit of Satan attempts to appear as a truth of the Lord is the first step to overcoming the temptations.

The second thing in this regard deals with Jesus' response to Satan's seductions.  Jesus counters with Scripture.  The difference between Jesus' usage and Satan's can be summarized as interpretive methodology.  While Satan pulled verses out of context to support his position, Jesus took the passages in context and applied from that context.  In this way, it can be easily concluded that Satan's application was wrong and Jesus' right, thus indicating that not every hermeneutic has the same worth. In fact, some interpretations may even be, dare we say, wrong.

Getting back to the sincere concern of Jenna, who fell to her temptations because, as she claimed, God doesn't speak loudly enough.  Jesus shows that hearing God's voice and responding to temptations in reliance upon His voice is directly related to how dependent we are on the Word and how committed we are to proper interpretive methodologies.  Needless to say, this requires disciplined and diligent study that is guided by a dedication to acceptable interpretations.  We should then work hard to interpret the Word the way it is intended to be, so that we can overcome every temptations of the enemy!

Hearing the Lord

A young girl timidly walked into the tiny studio for her second guitar lesson.  Her spry energy made her blonde pigtails bounce with each bounding step, and made me grin.  She pulled her guitar out of its case and sat down expectantly, smiling with the innocent joy of an nine-year-old.  The girl had brought some of her favorite songs and we were going to listen to them to start our lessons and to get a better understanding of what she liked about music and guitar.

I played the first song and pointed out the guitar line.  I asked her if she heard it and, with a confused look, she assured me that she could.  We played the second song, I repeated my previous extrapolations, asked her if she could hear it and, like before, she nodded, this time more confused than confident.  After a few more times of this, it was clear that the young girl was becoming increasingly frustrated.  Her joy had turned to bewilderment as the tears started to well her precious eyes and she looked up at me and, with sincerity, she quivered: "I don't know what you mean.  All I hear is music, I can't hear the guitar.  I don't know what it sounds like!"

In a spiritual sense, we are all like the bright-eyed, pigtailed nine-year-old girl.  We assume that we can hear the voice of God through the noise of this world.  However, when pressed, only when God gives us ears that can hear His voice are we able to hear Him speak.  Consider Jesus' consistent qualifier, "He who has ears, let him hear."

As for music, in order to pick apart the various tones and timbres of the different instruments, the listener must be trained to hear through the polyphony.  For instance, one would never be able to aurally deconstruct the assorted instruments of an orchestra without knowing already what the various instruments sound like.  In truth, one could never pull out the sound of the guitar if he/she had never heard what a guitar sounded like.

Similarly, we can never hear the piercing of God's voice through the cacophony of this world, if we have never known His voice.  In order for us to hear Him, we must know what He sounds like.  If we do not have that knowledge neither will we be able to hear Him nor be able to discern whether it is His voice or a counterfeit.

Consider the conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9).  Saul had been zealous for God, persecuting Christians because he felt that he was called by God to do it (as recounted in Acts 22:3-8).  Yet when Saul heard a thundering voice speak to him by name, he cried out, "Who are You, Lord?"  The point is that, though he thought he had been devoted and called by God, when the Lord actually spoke to Paul he did not recognize who it was.  

Often times we, like Paul, assume that we hear the voice of the Lord but when we are confronted with the truth we, like my frustrated guitar student, are humbled and saddened by our own prideful deficiencies.  Fortunately, we need not be wholly disillusioned that we do not hear His voice.  We have an advocate with the Holy Lord who indwells our hearts with His Holy Spirit so that we would hear the true voice of God.  

It is as if our hearts are radio receivers that, unless they are tuned into the correct frequency (His Son) we will not be able to receive the transmission.  In truth, though, God is the not only station trying to transmit to our hearts, however, He is the only True One!  As Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me (John 10:27)."  Let us then seek after Him fully in order that we might tune into His voice with the utmost clarity!

The Joy of God

Mariah was a beautiful young woman when her life was forever and dramatically changed.  She had been homecoming queen in high school, president of her sorority in college, and had been working her dream job for only a matter of weeks when the accident happened.  She was on her way home from work.  A normal drive, a normal day.  Suddenly, a semi-truck, whose driver had went into cardiac arrest while driving, smashed into Mariah's vehicle and pinned her car against the railing.  Her car rolled off the highway and she was crushed under its weight.

Before the wreckage was cleared entirely, Mariah was rushed to the emergency room to undergo extensive surgery to remove the shards of metal and glass from her body, most importantly her spine.  When she awoke, she found out that she had lost the ability to move her legs; she was paralyzed from the waist down.  She would have to go through years of rehabilitation to learn how to live a new life without the use of her legs.  The beautiful and able-bodied young woman was forced to accept that her life would never be the same and that she would need a wheelchair for the remainder of her life.

During her years of therapy and rehab, though, the nurses and doctors whom Mariah had been working with witnessed a young woman who never lost her infectious smile and energetic spirit.  One day, after her session, as Mariah was preparing to leave, one of the doctors asked her a question that caught Mariah off guard, "Mariah, how do you always have so much joy?  You've been through so much and yet you always make everyone feel so happy that you're here."

Mariah turned her wheelchair toward the doctor, smiled and then answered, "Do you want to know what I do everyday?  I wake up every morning and cry to God that I don't have the strength to do it another day, and I pray that He would give me the strength I need to do it.  So when you see me smile with a joy that's overflowing, it is all God.  I ask Him to come and fill me because I am empty of any joy without His help."

If only each of us would rely on God with such dependence, remembering that only in Him alone is there any joy.  Scriptural joy is two-fold.  The first is the joy of being in God's presence which is done through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit which teaches us all things, especially the joy of His commandments and His Word (Psa. 16:11, 19:8; John 14:26, 15:9-11).  It is thus through reliance upon the Lord that we receive His joy.

The second part of the biblical concept of joy is dependent upon suffering.  In fact, Scripture says that it is through suffering that our joy is refined and made sure (Rom. 5:1-5; James 1:2).  This does not mean that we should seek trial and suffering, only that we should remember that it is through suffering that we become more dependent upon the Lord for our joy and strength.

Far from saying that suffering will be any less difficult, rather, we will understand that suffering serves eternal purposes that make us better Christians and, like the story of Mariah, better witnesses of the power of God.  Let us then look to the Lord, through the torn flesh of His Son Christ Jesus, so as to be filled with a perfect and holy, inexpressible joy!

Contentment Over Coveting

When Jeffrey was a child, Billy, his neighbor and best-friend, got a brand-new bike for his birthday.  Jeffrey was so jealous for Billy's bike that he spent the whole summer mowing lawns and pulling weeds to make enough money to by a new bike himself.  It was late fall before he had enough to buy the bike.  When he finally purchased it, he could only ride it once before he had to put it away for the winter.

When spring came and Jeffrey took out his new bike to ride, Billy whizzed down the street with a new go-kart.  The mere sight of that glistening red machine sent Jeffrey's heart a flutter and he vowed to get one for himself.  He spent the whole summer mowing lawns, picking weeds, walking dogs, and babysitting in order to buy a go-kart for himself.  He worked so hard that he barely rode his bike at all.

But, by the time the first snow began to fall, Jeffrey had his go-kart, that he parked next to his bike all winter long.  When spring came Jeffrey proudly pulled his go-kart out into the street.  But when he got it started, he saw Billy pull into the driveway with a new car.  And again, Jeffrey looked with envy upon what his friend possessed to the neglect of what he himself already had.

Consider this classic story: a reporter once asked John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest men ever, "How much money is enough?" Rockefeller looked at the reporter with a coy look and quickly answered, "Just one more dollar."

The theme is coveting, the desiring of what another possesses to the disregard of contentment and cultivation of what one already has.  Quite simply, covetousness is sin.  To desire the goods and gifts of another while neglecting how God has personally blessed us leaves us perniciously perched for sin.  The pertinent perspective to combat our proclivities towards covetousness is a matter of Christian contentment.

Jesus warns quites plainly, that we should "be on guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist of the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15)."  Christian contentment is based on our relationship with the Holy Lord Almighty.  If we feel malcontent, it is either because we do not know God personally, or we have not received the fullness of grace that He so freely gives to those who come to Him in faith.

To be sure, the world, which is in the power of the evil one, will always have new flashy objects and spectacles of fancy to garner our attention and energy.  These are but hollow distractions to take us away from His presence while we scramble for the newest gadget or next remodel.  This is not to say that to have new things is inherently evil, but to keep us on guard lest we fall prey to our own exaltations of accumulation.

Instead, let us remember the words of Paul, that with nothing we came into this world and with nothing will we leave, but let us be content with having enough food and clothing (1 Tim. 6:6-8).  The point that Paul is teaching Timothy (and us) is that contentment should not be dependent on how much or how many, but only on our status as adopted sons and daughter of the Holy Lord through the work of Christ.

The issue at heart is satisfaction.  For this we should take on the mind of Solomon, who writes in Ecclesiastes 6:9, "Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite," loosely paraphrased, enjoying what you have in front of you is far better than fretting over what you do not.  Let us then be satisfied in Him who provides!

Gleaning Wisdom from and before Failure

By the second decade of the twentieth century, the automobile industry was taking off.  However, there was one potential hiccup and major hurdle to the industry's growth: rubber.  At that time, synthetic rubbers were still in their infancy and would not be able to fill the demands.  In reaction to the growing need, in 1928, Henry Ford went to Brazil and purchased over 6,200 square miles of Amazon river, beachfront property.  Fordlandia was formed.

Ford sent some of his top engineers and managers who had streamlined his revolutionary mass-production Ford facilities.  The men went down to Fordlandia and, having hired local farmers to live and work in the city, planted hundreds of perfectly symmetrical rows of rubber trees along the banks of Rio Tapajos.

However, the managers and engineers that Ford sent down to Brazil had little to no knowledge of tropical agriculture.  And, not knowing anything about growing rubber trees or tropical farming at all, Fordlandia was a continual and repeated failure.  In 1945, when Ford's grandson took the company over, Fordlandia had incurred a slew of violent local uprisings, had been unsuccessfully relocated further down the Amazon, and was finally sold for a $20 million loss.

The point is that, while Henry Ford saw a need and formed a solution to solve it, because he lacked the information and expertise to accomplish his goals it was an utter failure.  Despite the fact that Ford dumped valuable resources of money and manpower, it was all for naught.  The project failed definitively for a whole litany of reasons, but the chief among them was Ford's own pride.  Henry believed that the skills and tactics that had made him an automobile baron would be equally useful in farming rubber trees.  He was wrong.

Often times we, like Henry Ford, will be faced with issues that we, like Ford, will choose to take on by our own wit or grit.  As Solomon writes, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall (Pro. 16:18)."  We need to always remember that while we may have our own plans and our own ways to deal with the scenarios that we are faced with, it is in the Lord that we are established (Pro. 16:9).

Consider the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21), who because the harvest had been so fruitfully plentiful, he tore down his barn to big a larger one to store all of his surplus. Yet before he can lay the first brick, the Lord calls him out, demanding his life that very night.  The primary point of the parable is that the man who stores up riches for himself has no riches in heaven.  However, a secondary and equally important point is that we cannot know when or what God has for us if we are continually making plans apart from His guidance and separated from His presence.

James, in his epistle, picks up on this theme when he says that we do not know what tomorrow may bring for we are but mists that are here today but vanish tomorrow.  Therefore, we should say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that (James 4:13-15)."  This hits a nerve at the heart of our culture that so heralds individualism, self-expression, and personal power.  But apart from the Lord blessing are very step and sustaining us from breath to breath, there is not a single thing that we are capable of doing.  

Therefore, we should seek His will not only to bless our plans, but also to help us determine them as well, remembering that God desires to guide our steps in order that we would walk in accordance with His will (Psa. 37:23-24; Pro. 20:24; Jer. 10:23).  So that we would not walk in the footsteps of Fordlandia, we should always strive to come to God in humility so that He would guide and equip us for every work that He has already prepared for us to do.  Praise be to God who directs and blesses!

Saved from the Flood

Rodney, an average, middle-aged man was sitting on his couch in his living room watching the television as the National Weather Service warnings of flash flooding in his area were blinking across the screen.  He heard a knock on his door that he would have rather ignored it if it weren't for its persistence.  He labored to the door to find his neighbor, Edna, asking him to join her family's car in getting out of town to safety.  Rodney simply nodded and gently said, "Thank you, Edna, but God will save me."

The floods came and Rodney made his way to the roof as the waters rose to his gutters.  He was sitting on top in relative peacefulness as he watched one of his neighbors, Ned, in a boat coming towards him.  Ned called out to Rodney, "Hey, Rodney! Jump in the boat; the floods are still rising.  The water will be over your house in no time!" Rodney calmly replied, "No thanks, Ned.  God will save me."

The waters continued to rise and, before long, Rodney could no longer touch his roof and was swimming above his house in the newly-formed lake that was once his neighborhood.  Rodney had been swimming for a while when a rescue helicopter came to him and was hovering overhead.  A man strapped onto a pulley stepped out of the helicopter and was lowered down to Rodney.  The man reached out to Rodney but Rodney refused his aid, shouting over the splashes, "I don't need your help, God's gonna save me."  The rescuer tried to save Rodney a couple more times to no avail before eventually giving up, returning to the helicopter that flew away, no doubt to save someone more willing to be saved.

At some point, not much later, Rodney became too-tired to swim any longer and he slowly sank into the water and passed on.  In heaven he came to God and asked pointedly, "God, where were You?  I thought you would save me but you never came!"  God looked gently at Rodney and then spoke with a thundering resonance, "Rodney, I did come to save you.  There were warnings on your television;   Edna, came to your house; Ned in his boat; and the rescue helicopter.  I tried to save you but you refused my help."

While this is a fictitious story, it aptly describes how some people view salvation.  All humanity is in desperate need of salvation from our sin, from our flesh.  And God, in His infinite mercy, paid the price for our sin by concentrating it into the flesh of His very own Son, Jesus.  Now, upon confession and belief in the work of Christ, we are saved.  This all being true, many people still have a skewed perspective of salvation.  So, as God holds out Christ for our sake, we refuse Him either because we do not believe we are in need of salvation or because we think of salvation other than what it is, that it will come in a different form.  Both of these misperceptions are flawed and dangerous.  Therefore, let us cling to Christ in faith knowing that He alone can save us from the deluge of this sinful world!

Generosity of God

Ernest Shackleton, a principal of the early expeditions of Antarctica, was one of the first explorers to make his way nearly all the way to the south pole.  In 1908, on one such journey, his party, having reached as far as they could, found themselves struggling in a life-threatening fight against starvation to return to their ship, barely surviving on less-than a half-ration a day diet.

At some point, the expedition seemed hopelessly doomed when the party reached the end of their rations as one last hardtrack, a dried biscuit, was given to each man.  Some of the men ate their biscuit upon reception while others simply packed it away to tide them over for the remainder of their arduous journey.  Needless to say, the party's morale was abysmally low and one man in particular was nearing death by starvation.

On a certain evening, while most of the party was asleep in their hooch tents, one of the explorers was awoken by a noise.  He looked across the dark of the tent over his sleeping companions to see Shackleton looking through someone else's things.  The man recognized that it was the starving man's bag that Shackleton was rummaging through and he nearly gasped in disbelief and disappointment.  But to the man's surprise, Shackleton pulled the biscuit out of his own pack and put it in the starving man's.  

Shackleton sacrificed his own ration for the good of another, not knowing when or even if he would have enough for himself.  In the end, the expedition made it back to their ship and, ultimately, back to England, where Shackleton was promptly knighted for his valor and fortitude.  Shackleton became a national hero for his efforts, but it was his sacrificial leadership in giving that is most remarkable.

We should take on the same sort of attitude in giving as generously and without reservation as Shackleton did.  Scripture says that "God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor. 9:7)" and, "A generous man will prosper (Pro. 11:25)" and, "A generous man himself will be blessed (Pro. 22:9)."  Generosity will be met with blessings form the Lord, which should remind us that God gives to us all we need.  As if this was not evidence enough to support a certain biblical ethic of generosity, consider the words of Christ Himself:

" Jesus said, 'Give, and it will be given to you.  Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.  For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you (Luke 6:38).'"

God desires for us to be His acting agents of compassion and generosity.  Therefore, we need to make every effort to be supernaturally generous.  This is not to overlook the natural challenges to generosity, namely our flesh and selfishness.  Rather, it should prompt us to become more reliant on God to grant us the strength to open our hands in generosity instead of closing our fists to clench on to what we think is ours.  The principle can be simply summarized in, the more freely we give to others in love the more we will receive from God, who blessed those who give generously.

For God does and will provide for us beyond our dreams if we would give to others with a generosity that is overflowing.  And, like Shackleton, we should seek to give for the good of others in the denial of ourselves.  Let us then look to Christ so as to give generously with no mind for repayment but only to love God by loving those whom He loves!

Harmony Achieved Through Christ

Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor in the sixteenth century A.D. was fascinated with clocks and had a collection of them.  When he stepped down from the throne in 1556, he had been spending almost all of his time in Spain, in his mansion.  He had six particular clocks in his home and he was fixated on getting them each to run simultaneously, and to chime in harmony.  However, no matter how hard he tried, he was unsuccessful in achieving the harmony he had sought.  At his retirement, he equated his six dissonant clocks to the six disparate nations of the Empire, concluding that it was utterly impossible to get harmony out of such discord.

In the modern world, achieving harmonious synchronicity has become a relatively easy endeavor thanks to a standard time being set, Greenwich Mean Time.  In essence, it is the common standard that clocks are set to that creates harmony.  Similarly, although Christians may often disagree about certain things and may even argue over what being a Christian entails, we should never forget that, like setting our clocks to the standard time, what brings harmony is each of us separately and jointly aligning with the perfect standard of Christ.

Harmony is a musical term that refers to the simultaneous sounding of various intervallic frequencies that create consonance or aural pleasure.  In this, it is important to assert that harmony requires difference; harmony cannot happen unless there are different notes ringing out simultaneously.  This is a beautiful metaphor for the Church, that our differences are what makes complex harmony possible.

As Paul confirms in his first letter to the church in Corinth, "For the body does not consist of one member, but many (1 Cor. 12:14)."  Paul is talking about spiritual gifts, exhorting the Corinthians that God has blessed people with differences by His will and for His purposes.  And that these differences should not be ignored but celebrated for it is by His design that one should be gifted in teaching and another in service, or one in prophecy while another in wisdom.  We need only to remember that Christ alone is what fosters harmony, for we are all equally supported and sustained by His Spirit (1 Cor. 1-11).

Dissension and dissonance arises when believers neglect their root and connection in the blood of Christ.  When believers focus on their common inheritance that is made secure by Christ Jesus, we will not overvalue our own understandings and we will not think of ourselves higher than we ought (Rom 12:3-8).  Only in fixing our gaze on Christ can we overcome our selfishness and proclivities toward dissonance and reach holy harmony that God has intended for His children.  Let us then fix our eyes upon Jesus who leads us, His choir, in a holy song of praise to the Father!

The Sting of Death

Death is a mirror that reveals our mortality.  To gaze into its depths we would truly see that we are but mists of a storm, here today but swept away like the lightest of feathers that is lifted abroad by the gusts of the western wind.  We can choose to ignore the mirror and thus disregard how we like blades of grass will whither, but inevitably the prevalence of death will pervade through the shells of all our haughtiness and cut like the iciest of winter storms to the bones of man disclosing the facade of our pride and removing the masks we wear to prevent us from remembering the stark truth that death will come.

It is a sad but honest truth that some barely consider their mortality until a death strikes.  Yet at that moment the same questions that have perplexed mankind for all the centuries enter their minds just as they do our own: why? what is this life for? is this the end or is there more? These questions are sincere and important but should be understood for their roots.  Truly, the mortal coil is as tender and breakable as the slightest of threads.  Death reminds us of this fact.  Evenmore so, death presents us with a reality that many would just as soon never have to know: that ultimately, in the end, we are not in control.

As Christians, death has no victory over us, no fatal sting to destroy.  For Christians, death is but a transition from this imperfect perishable world to an imperishable perfect one in the presence of the Holy Lord Almighty.  For Christians, whose hope is firmly fixed and made secure in Christ, death is but a departure to be with the Lord, a far better state than any this world could offer (Phil. 1:23).  Yet, because of the ever-present fear of death in a world that would rather go on without it, many people think of death as a bee that is lurking around, waiting for its opportune moment to sting.

There's a classic story to this regard: a father and son are driving through the countryside on a summer's day.  It's warm and the air conditioning isn't doing its job, so the pair has the windows down.  At some point a bee flies into the cab of the truck and buzzes around.  The young boy, who is deathly allergic to bee stings, starts to panic.  The father watches the bee, pauses, and with the swiftness of a cheetah he grabs the bee and clenches it in his fist.  After some time, the boy again sees the bee and clams up in fright.  The father noticing his son's fear, holds out his palm for the son to see the stinger and says, "don't worry, I took the stinger. It can't hurt you now."

In a similar way, our Heavenly Father has taken the sting out of death through the victory won by Christ Jesus on the cross (1 Cor. 15:54-57).  Therefore, we who believe on Him shall not perish in death but have an immovable and perfect eternity with our Holy Lord by the blood of Christ Jesus.  Therefore, death should be thought of a the sweet nectar of departure from this sinful world to an arrival into the holy throne room.

And while this should excite us who believe upon the Lord for our salvation and entry in God's presence for all eternity, it should also be taken with a bit of sobriety at the responsibility we have to preach the Good News to those who are perishing and whose departure from this world is an entrance into eternal damnation.

There is an old and appropriate adage that goes like this: for some, this world is as close as they get to heaven.  For others, this world is as close as they get to hell.  Let us pray to be of the latter.  Praise be to God who has taken the power of the grave upon His own flesh to save us and bring us into His holy presence!

Christ Forsaken

Consider the scene: a son, having been ever-obedient to his father and in the most intimate of relationships with him, is asked by his father to give up his very life.  Moreover, the father tells his son that in giving up his life for a specific taks of his father's he will be scorned by man, be beaten, and murdered in a horrific and painful death.  Add to this, then, that in the moment of sacrifice the father tells his son that the son will become totally separated from his father for that moment in time as a result of the task the father has set for him.

This is the radical nature of Christ.  Having been in perfect divine-community with the Father for all eternity passed, He was disavowed from His Father at the moment of His greatest passion on the cross.  Jesus' physical suffering paled in comparison to His spiritual agony at being separated from His Holy Father for the first and only time in all of eternity.  As Jesus cried out in utter anguish, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?"

The moment cannot be overstated for the profound tragedy of what happened: Jesus, the very radiance of the glory of God the Father, was sacrificed upon the cross as the sin of mankind was concentrated in His body and atoned for in His death.  And, as He breathed His last breath, He was separated from the Father.

In truth, because the Holy Lord God cannot be in the presence of sin, when Jesus took on the whole weight on mankind's sin focused in His flesh, God had to turn away from His own Son in judgment.  This is the apex of love, which God has lavished upon us.  Having punished Jesus for the sin that was so rightfully due each of us, God made a way for our sin to be paid for and for us to enter into His divine presence.  The truest love of all was then God denying Himself in punishing His Son so as to glorify Himself at Christ's exaltation (resurrection).

Now, upon confession and belief in the work of Christ Jesus, we can take part in the wonderful love of God through His Son because Jesus took the sin of all mankind in our stay.  Let us then praise God for the perfect sacrifice He has made in destroying His Son!

Education's Kingdom Purpose

In 1925, John Scopes, a high school science teacher, was held on trial for teaching evolution.  It was a national spectacle as the whole country witnessed a trial not focused on the laws of Tennessee, but rather the center stage was set for a vociferous debate between evolution and creationism.  And while Scopes was convicted, the trial having been won by the creationists, the war has been decisively won by evolutionists.  In truth, this battle had been fought and continually won for several decades before Scopes' historic trial as the modernists made headways at the academies and universities, and Christians continually retreated into fundamentalist anti-intellectualism.

Fast-forward to today when more of the population than ever is educated beyond high school and yet we live in a society that is wholly morally bankrupt.  The fear of the anti-intellectual fundamentalists was based on protecting the believing community from "giving in" to the pride and idolatry of modernism.  And while we fight a similar battle today, our enemy is of a different slightly different kind.  We fight against the pride, conceit, self-exaltation, and self-reliance that is espoused by the pursuit of education.

Because education instills a sense of personal confidence and self-reliance, an entire generation of educated peoples have come to feel that they have no need of God and no reason to depend on Him.  Needless to say, this is beyond disappointing, it is thoroughly sad.  In truth, what has occurred is a widespread misconception of the value and usefulness of education.  Education and the pursuit thereof are neither a substitute for reliance on God, nor an outlet for rampant self-exaltation.

Instead, education is meant to serve His purposes.  We become educated and we pursue education for the purposes of growing in our usefulness in His will.  The goal of education, from a Christian perspective, is to equip us to best serve the Lord and His will in our lives.  We should thus not fear formal education and the growth of intellectualism.  Instead, we should be on guard against pride instilled by the educational institution.  Additionally, higher education is not to ever be favored over sincere reliance on the Lord, but is to compliment our faith by equipping us for service in the Kingdom.  Let us praise God at all times and remember Him in all thankfulness!

Courage in Christ

On a cold early spring day, April 19th, a relatively small band of poorly outfitted militiamen stood behind their worn muskets, facing nearly 1000 well-armed, well-trained Red Coats.  This moment in 1775 would mark the beginning of a war revolutionary for its struggle for freedom from the imposed tyranny taxation without representation and over personal human rights so refused by a detached aristocracy.  Even though the scraggly militia was nearly untrained and badly armed, they stood strong with courage.

The militia men were victorious with their worn muskets and ample courage.  But their victory fades in comparison with the victory we have have through Christ.  This victory is perfect and eternal.  We have merely to come to Christ in faith to draw from His courage stores in order that we may be perfectly courageous in any circumstance.

The biblical model of courage relies on the Lord alone as our source.  For instance, the book of Psalms says that we are to be strong and take heart when we are afraid and to place our strength in the Lord (Psa. 27:1, 31:24, 56:3-4). It is then clear that a christian's courage is derived, not in and of something from within ourselves, but is to be taken from the infinite and eternal well which is our Holy Lord.

Paul in his letter to the Ephesians reminds us that we are like the militiamen at Concord and Lexington facing down our enemy.  But unlike the poorly armed and poorly trained militiamen, we have perfectly formed armor and weapons to fight a battle which is not of the flesh but is if the Spirit.  Therefore, our courage is made sure and secure by Jesus who through the power of the Holy Spirit indwelling in our hearts arms us for every ploy of the evil one.  Let us then draw closer to Him so as to be equipped and courageous for any attack through faith in Christ Jesus!

Acceptable Sacrifice and Worship

Worship is a full-person ordeal.  It requires conviction in love and Spirit.  Additionally, because worship is, in its basest form, stepping into the presence of the Holy Lord and because He cannot be in the presence of sin, we must put on Christ and strive to keep in Christ for the purpose of worship.  Because of the gravity inherent to worship, to relegate it to brief liturgy, hymn singing, or a time of prayer is far less than what God asks of us.

The Old Testament has some revealing things to say about the true nature of worship.  The first instance of worship is in regards to Cain and Abel.  We may remember the end of the story with Cain murdering Abel and God banishing Cain, but we should never forget the beginning of the story and why Cain killed his little brother.

Gen. 4 tells us that at some point Cain and Abel brought sacrifices to God, Cain of the field and Abel of the flock.  Both brought a sacrifice of praise and worship, yet God disregarded Cain's in favor of Abel's. It was God's determination of the value of their sacrifices that roused Cain's jealousy and caused him to murder his brother.  Both brothers sought to worship God with sacrifices of praise, God considered Abel's worthy and Cain's less-than.  The pertinent question is why?

There are two reasons that God favored Abel's sacrifice over Cain's.  The first is the sacrifice itself: Abel brought the firstborn of his flock.  While it could never be said that farming isn't a toilsome lot, the sheer value of animals cannot be overrated.  The firstborn was the most valuable thing anyone could offer.  Abel's sacrifice cost him more than Cain's.  The measurement of worship is how much it costs the worshiper, not how it stacks up against other worshipers (Mark 12:41-44).

Secondly, Abel's heart of sacrifice was not out of obligation, it was out of love.  The content and state of the worshiper's heart is the measurement of worship.  Abel offered worship out of his sincere love and reverence for the Lord.  Because of this, God found Abel's sacrifice acceptable.  This should prompt us to have the same mind among us in worship.

At the final analysis, God wants our worship to be sincere, reverent, and costly.  While most Christians would agree with the first two, the last should not ever be eschewed in favor of more comfortable worship.  We need to give Him our very best.  Only when we give Him the very best of ourselves will we be offering Him acceptable and pleasing sacrifices and worship.  As Paul says, we need to offer our very bodies fully to Him as our sacrifice of worship (Rom. 12:1).  Let us then commit to worship that which may be pleasing in His sight!

Praise God Who is Near

During the so-called Age of Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries, a great many thinkers and philosophers began to exalt the limits and capacities of human, especially reason and empiricism.  As reason and the perfectibility of man were heralded, a new stream of pseudo-Christianity arose that had a huge affect on how the world, particularly the leaders of a certain fledgling North American nation, thought about God.  This ideal has been called Deism and while their are very few who would still call themselves Deists, the philosophies of this heresy are still in play today.

Deism, very simply, is the idea that God the Father created creation and then left it alone.  A common word-picture used to describe Deism is to think that God wound the clock of creation and then closed it within a glass case ne'er to be touched or interrupted or tinkered with.  In its essence, Deism would say that God is transcendent over creation in that He is the creator but He is not imminent in that He has never and will never become involved with creation.  It can quickly be seen that this type of spiritual philosophy is still widespread today in the vast numbers of people who think of God as some far away being who is either too busy or too disinterested to become involved in our petty human affairs.

To be sure, this is blatantly false and grossly heretical.  For starters, Christ, the Son of God sent by the Father God to atone for the sin of mankind, is clear evidence of God's intimate involvement with and in the world.  Moreover, God is immensely near.  In fact, the Bible is direct and unified in expressing how ever-present God always is, particularly to those who call on Him and the brokenhearted (Deut. 31:6; Psa. 16:8, 34:18, 46:1, 145:18).  This should always be on our minds and be the reliable source of our constant comfort, security, and hope.  For God is always near.  His omnipresence deems that He is always everywhere.  Wherever we are, there He is.  This should be more than comforting, it should be overwhelming.  To consider that the Holy Lord, who is infinite and without need, is here with us for us should rock us with love to our very cores.  Let us praise the Lord for who He is and for being near us to love us!  Praise God!

Christian Contentment in a Consumer World

There's an old story that goes something like this:

A mother and her son were walking through the woods one day when a storm fell upon them.  Within minutes the two were being bombarded by blasting wind and pelting rain within a tempest.  Suddenly a funnel cloud began swirling around them.  The mother clung to a tree while her son was clinging to her.  The woman was holding to the tree so tightly that she barely noticed when her son was swept away by the tornado.  She began to cry out to God, saying in a loud voice, "Oh Lord, please bring me back my son!  If You bring Him back I'll never ask for anything and I'll worship you for the rest of my life!  Please Lord! Please."  Immediately her son fell to the ground as the storm subsided.  He was unharmed as the mother ran to him to comfort him.  She kissed her son's face and hugged him tightly.  Abruptly, she withdrew from her son and looked him over before looking back up to the sky and said, "He had a hat, Lord. Could we get that too?"

In a world that bases satisfaction on how much and how many, the biblical model of contentment seems even more relevant to understand and apply today.  Our understandings of contentment are so influenced by the consumer culture we liv in, that is inundated with planned-obsolescence and short-lived shelf life.  For Christians, though, God is the ultimate source of our satisfaction and contentment.  Once we claim this, it will not only change how we deal with consumerism, but also how we will deal with our own state of contentment.

God is the source of our contentment.  Because our contentment is based on an eternal and sovereign Lord, our contentment is always secure.  This flies in the face of the temporal contentment of the World.  Instead, we find our pleasure, our satisfaction, and our contentment in being in relationship with the Holy Lord.  Claiming this contentment requires that we draw closer to the Lord in praise and worship.  Remembering that we rely on a Holy Lord in all thankfulness is the essence of contentment.

While there are many Scripture passages that speak about contentment (Psa. 16:2; Pro. 15:15, 19:23; Job 1:21; Matt. 6:25-34; 1 Tim. 6:6; Heb. 13:5).  But the most important Scripture about contentment is Paul's exhortation in Philippians 4:11-13.  The point Paul makes, and that we should agree with, is that because God is the source of our contentment we should always be content in any circumstance void of abundance or poverty.  Let us then be content and thankful, praising God for His provision and grace!

Sanctification: Salvation Realized

Salvation begins with the repentance of self and turning to God in faith, believing in the work of Christ, who died on the cross to make the propitiation for our sins but rose again conquering the power of sin.  Now, through faith, believers are reborn to an inheritance into the family of God.  Unfortunately, many people's understanding of salvation ends there with conversion, which is a travesty because salvation is so much more. 

Not only is salvation about God applying the propitiation of Christ's atoning sacrifice to the debts of our sin by faith, called justification, but God also imputes His righteousness into our beings.  In truth, we are saved at the point of conversion, but we are continually being saved as we grow in the denial of self and God pours His Holy Spirit into our lives.

This is what sanctification is all about.  It is the continual process of salvation by which we, our very nature, is changed from our previously flesh self to our new Spirit self, and we are transferred, adopted into the heavenly family of God from the orphanage of this world.  To be sanctified, what was once unholy is made holy and what was once defiled is made clean for sacred use.

The essence of sanctification is renewal, taking something diseased and broken and renewing it to something holy and useful.  God, His Holy Spirit, is the motivator, the mover, and the facilitator of this change.  In its essence, it is a matter of worship.  As we are renewed, we grow in the likeness of Christ and we also grow in our ability to reflect God's glory (2 Cor. 3:18).

Sanctification, the process and pursuit of ever-growing holiness, is a major theme of the New Testament.  Paul in particular is consistent and focused in his exhortations to put off the old self, to pursue the new self, and to chase after righteousness with perseverance (Rom. 8:1-12; Phil. 3:12-16; Col. 3:1-17).  This should be enough to compel us to seek after God and to pursue Him in order to be sanctified.  

We need only to remember the immense value of knowing God and growing in relationship to Him.  If we do this, if we truly recognize who God is and what He is worth, it should only prompt us to desire Him more.  Additionally we should take comfort in that we are not alone in this process but we can and need to rely on God alone for our sanctification.  Let us then pursue Him so to become more like Him!

21st Century Paganism

The first-century world was rife with widespread paganism.  Across the mediterranean world, nearly every major port or city had its own patron deity and the various cultic activities that went along with it, including sacrificed food, temple worship, widespread sacred prostitution, and the sale of cultic artifacts and worship trinkets.  Needless to say, this was big business.

Now consider Christianity, which needs no external devices of worship; no trinkets, no sacrifices, and definitely no sacred prostitution.  Because of this difference, Christianity, as it made major inroads into the hearts of converts across the world, dramatically challenged and changed the religious landscape.  Additionally, because the sale of cultic paraphernalia was such a large industry, when the previously pagan consumers converted to Christianity in droves, the purveyors of the apparati of paganism lost their reliable sources of income and rose up in opposition to Christianity.

Consider the ordeal at Ephesus, chronicled by Luke in Acts 19:21-41, when a silversmith, Demetrius, riled up the craftsmen guilds in protest of the Christians who had so dented the major part of their respective industries, which was idol worship.  As a result of Demetrius' rabble rousing, whole city of Ephesus was stirred into a rioting mob, aimed squarely at the Christians who, because of their eschewing of idol worship, had decreased their bottom lines by converting their pagan-worshiping consumers.

This is one example of many.  It would seem that this was so widespread that nearly every New Testament book deals directly with the threat of paganism and syncretism (syncretism defined: when pagan worship practices are incorporated into Christianity to create an amalgam that supports Christianity with paganism).

As indicated above, the context of the first-century world was one of pervasive and prevalent paganism and idol worship.  So, as people repented of their paganism and converted to Christianity, idol worship and paganism also decreased.  In truth, the 21st-century world is not altogether different in this regard to the first century.

There is still widespread paganism, extensive idol worship, and continued syncretism.  All of these elements are especially prevalent in America today.  From shows about musical idols, 24-hour sports worship, and the syncretism of materialism, believers need to be aware of the risk of falling prey to syncretistic idolatry.

In a very real sense, believers' idol radars require continual sharpening and Spirit-led alignment in order to protect us from the continual bombardment of paganism and syncretism.  When we repent of our previous pagan, unbelieving, idolatrous self, we turn to God in faith desiring to worship God alone.  God is jealous for our worship; the first and greatest commandment is still in play today as much as it was in the time of Moses.

Jesus' teaching in John's Gospel (15:19) and the exhortations of Peter (1 Pet. 4:1-5) seem quite applicable and appropriate to this dialogue.  God wants us wholly, every single nook and crevice of us is to be dedicated to the Lord.  If and when we commit to this kind of focused and singular devotion, it will look odd and obsessive to the world, because the world cannot understand the true value of God.  In response to the oddity of our obsessive love for God, the world will persecute us because when we highlight God, the world is condemned for its sin.  This should come as no shock but should compel us to press on in faith and perseverance.

Paganism and idolatry is subversive and subtle in this world but it is also widespread.  Moreover, no matter form it may take, it is still sin that draws away from God.  We need to be aware and on guard against such as this so that we would not disqualify ourselves from our intended fruit-bearing potential.  Let us then pursue the Lord in full and abandon the world for its worthless idols!

Sanctification Described

God loves.  More directly, God loves us.  He loves us so much that He condescended to the form of a man who lived a perfect, sinless life and took on the sin of mankind by dying a horrific, sacrificial atoning death upon a cross to be raised again on the third day.  Now, by confession and belief in the work of Christ Jesus, we may enter into relationship with the Holy Lord Almighty through faith, known simply as conversion.  While this is the entrance into the Christian life, there is much more.

While there are many post-conversion components to the Christian life, the most important is continual sanctification.  Sanctification refers to the lifelong process of growth and repentance by which believers grow to be more in the image of Christ.  At the onset, it must be asserted that sanctification is an endeavor that requires both the prompting of God and the intentionality worship of the believer.

As for the God part in sanctification, He provides believers with every good and necessary thing for us to grow in maturity to all godliness and faith (2 Pet. 1:3-4).  This is called equipping. God equips us with every item needed to grow in righteousness.  This means that believers have, already in their possession, all of the necessary elements required for sanctification.  The challenge is that many believers either do not accept what they have or they simply do not know how to wield the tools of sanctification.

In the first sense, believers not accepting or believing that they already possess the tools for sanctification is a matter of faith.  When we have faith that God has truly saved us and we have faith that He provides with everything needed to grow in maturity, we will overcome our doubt and grow in sanctification beyond our plateaued stagnation.

The second sense, not knowing how to wield the tools of sanctification, is a different deal altogether and is what sanctification is all about.  The tools of sanctification can be summarized into four basic components: prayer, Bible study, fellowship, and service.  Each of these things need to be done with intentionality by the Spirit in truth, love, and faith but they are all necessary for true and continued growth in sanctification.  Many people become very good at doing one or two of these things and, because of that, they reach plateaus in growth.  Therefore, in order for us to continue growing, once we become adept at wielding one element of sanctification we should strive in pursuit of the others.

To be sure, sanctification is process that is both difficult and lifelong.  It is not without joy, the joy of growing in and to the Holy Lord is a beautiful proposition and a worthy pursuit.  Therefore, we should all seek Him first and pursue, in faith, to become more like Him in Him.  Luckily, God has already provided us with everything we need to pursue Him.  Let us then run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us!

Making Decisions in Light of the Lord

Decision making is a necessary part of life.  One can scarcely go a single day without having to make significant if not life-altering decisions.  Because choices abound and overwhelm, having a system in place for making godly and wise decisions is of great importance.  Luckily, we are not without guidance in this regard as the Bible offers clear teaching to help us.

At the onset, the pertinent word in reference to decision making is dependence.  For our decision making to be godly, we must depend on God.  Decision making dependence happens before the decisions are made when we are sorting through possibilities and choices.  At this point, the pre-decision stage, we need to rely on the Lord to help us to discern the way that we should go.

The Lord, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah, has this to say, "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls (Jer. 6:16)."  The Lord says more, speaking through the prophet Haggai, "Give careful thought to your ways (Hag. 1:5)."  God wants us to be prudent and wise when facing decisions.  Evenmore, He helps us out by the indwelling of His Holy Spirit, who acts as our Counselor (John 14:16-17).

Because the Holy Spirit is to be our inner source of compulsion when facing choices, there is a devotional element to decision making.  In essence, our dependence on God at the front end of decision making comes down to relying on the Holy Spirit to guide our way and the faith that He will protect and keep us before and after our decisions have been made.

In the end, it is God who establishes our paths and keeps the sure (Pro. 16:9), which should cause us to trust in Him and commit to Him to secure our way (Pro. 3:5-6; Psa. 37:5).  The biblical account is unified and clear in this regard: before we make decisions we should depend on God for guidance and clarity to make wise and godly decisions while after we make decisions we should be faithful in depending upon the Lord to keep, straighten, and secure our paths.  Let us then seek the Lord for direction and depend on Him in faith to establish and secure every step we take!

The Necessity of Friends

Life is a constant challenge and can be an overwhelming adventure more akin to rowing a sinking boat than living a life.  But, like pushing a stalled truck up a hill, it can be manageable with the help of another person.  The other people who can continually help us in the labors of life are our friends and friendship is a powerful key to successful Christian living.  And, like much of life, friendship is an ordeal that should not be undertaken without intentionality and focus.

Naturally, there are two parts of friendship, offering friendship and receiving friendship.  Both parts are important and necessary in friendship.  At the onset, honesty and availability form the basis of quality friendship but the different expressions of friendship, offering or receiving, contain differences.  Understanding the various aspects of offering and receiving friendship is a fruitful endeavor in becoming good and effective friends.  Due to scope of this discussion, the elements that pertain to offering friendship will be examined.

Offering friendship requires care and the willingness to be direct.  Care is necessary during hardship.  As Solomon writes, "A friend loves at all times, but a brother is born for adversity (Pro. 17:17)," and continued, "If a friend falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up (Ecc. 4:9b-10)!"  Truly, it is in hardship that friends are weighed for their worth and in trials that true friends are found.

Additionally, being a friend requires a readiness to call the other person out.  We, as friends, have a responsibility to keep each other on the path by being direct in challenging one another when we may be straying.  Solomon writes about this too, "Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses (Pro. 17:6)" and again, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another (Pro. 27:16)."  This should not be overlooked or neglected for the fear of uncomfortability.

The value of friends is that they will have the merit in our lives to challenge us to live more for God.  We each have blindspots that can hinder our sanctification and fruit-bearing growth.  Because of this reality, we have a responsible obligation to help one another, with love and gentleness, to see the blindspots in order to grow more in Christ.  Let us strive to offer good and sincere friendship of care and of challenge as Christ works in us to work in our friends!

The Perfect Heavenly Security System

Across the world, particularly North America, the pursuit of security is a heralded and important virtue.  In fact, in America, security is massive industry.  But is our pursuit of security at odds with our Christianity? To put it more directly, does God want us to be seeking security apart from faith in Him?  The unequivocal answer is: NO.  God wants to be our source of security.

At the onset, in needs to be said that security refers to a sense, a feeling, a tenor, or an aura of safety.  Thus, when we speak of security we are discussing that which deals with safety, not the reality of safety, but the abstract of safety, the feeling of being safe.  The pertinent question to ask then is: what or where or who is the supposed to be believers' security?  The answer is God.  Plainly and simply, the Holy Lord Almighty is to be our source for security.

There is, then, a direct tie between dependence on the Lord which is worship and our proclivities towards personally ensuring security which is pride and unbelief.  The issue, at its root, is an issue of trust: do we trust the Lord to keep us secure?  After the trust issue is settled, the conversation the search for security stems from fear, a general fear or uneasiness that we wish to overcome by putting security measures in place.  If those security precautions are to protect that which is given from God, we might be taking authority away from the Lord and placing in something that is obviously less-than.  Perhaps some questions would serve to challenge our well-tread conceptions of security.

What makes us secure?  Where and what is the source of our security?  If it stems from physical means or temporal things, are we depending on someone or something other than God?   What are we afraid of?  If it is not God, is this fear serving God or ourselves? Is our fear outside of God's control? Does the rationality of our fear matter at all in light of God?

The point here is not to be provocative but challenging.  These are real and important questions to ask throughout our walk with the Lord.  In truth, we should only place our security in Him; He is to be our sole and only source of security in this world.  We will rely on Him and Him alone to provide but also to protect.  Moreover, any fear we could possibly have should always pale in comparison to the fear of the Lord, as in nothing is more fearful than not depending on God!  Let us then depend on the Lord!

Orthodoxologies

The New Testament is a wealth theology put forth in stunning literary beauty.  Among these gardens are a few immensely worshipful and poetic doxologies.  Doxologies are liturgical devices, brief in nature, generally put near or at the conclusion of an epistle, that serve as orthodox statements of praise to God meant to be read and repeated aloud in a congregational setting.

There are at least four doxology in the New Testament, written by three different authors that stand out for their theology, their Christology, and their poeticism (Rom. 16:25-27; Eph. 3:20-21; Heb. 13:20-21; Jude vv. 24-25).  Each of them has subtle differences in emphases and lyrical beauty, but they are all so strikingly similar that it seems most reasonable to consider them as echoing a first-century liturgical ideal that had the various congregational bodies worshiping together through orthodox recitation and reflection.

At the onset, it needs to be said that although the modern North American Evangelical Church has traditionally been generally averse to liturgy, Christianity has always had liturgical elements.  Historically, this has come about in response to cold orthodoxy and stale doctrines, but we should not let it taint the beautifulness of these passages of Scripture, not only for their poeticism in and of themselves, but also for their beauty in bringing people together in orthodoxy through reciting doxologies collectively.

Although each of these doxologies is unique, there are a few points that they each share.  The first is the praise element.  Each of these doxologies praise the Lord Jesus for who He is, what He has done, and what He will do.  This flows into the second similarity, that each acts as an exhortative prayer for God to equip and sanctify believers by His power and for His purposes.

Additionally, each of these doxologies focuses on ascribing glory to God through Christ Jesus. This, though lyrical and lovely, is dense with theological weight like grace, faith, salvation, trinity, etc.  The point here, and this should not be overlooked, is memorization.  The length and beauty of these passages lends themselves naturally to memorization.

Doxologies are useful and memorable bits of Scripture that are both poetic accessible and theologically rich with lyricism and beauty.  To read such lovely and sincere prayers and praises in His Word is like salve applied to the soul of a man.  Therefore, it seems fitting to end with such one as these from Ephesians 3:20-21:

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to Him be glory in the Church and in Jesus Christ throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

Praising the Lord

Loving God is a beautiful gift.  And although it is done through faith in His Son Christ Jesus, literally praising Him is an important expression of our sincere love for God.  As God's creation, we have such a distinct pleasure in offering up sincere praises to the Holy Lord Almighty.  We get to join with creation's choir in lifting up a sacred song of worship.  In fact, as the Psalms indicates, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork (Psa. 19:1)."

Or consider the four living creatures that sit around the throne and continually say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is to come (Rev. 4:8)!"  And the twenty-four elders cry out in response, "Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created (Rev. 4:11)."

Heaven is a continual and constant worship service of praise and adoration for the Holy Lord.  In reality,  God has no need of our praise and worship; He does not need it.  He does, however, command us to praise Him (1 Chron. 16:8; 1 Thess. 5:18; Heb. 13:15, et al).  Therefore, it stands to reason that God asks us to praise Him for our sake.

This should both convict and challenge us to rethink our preconceptions of worship.  Truthfully, if we can assert that God does not need our worship, we must conclude that we do and that worship serves us in loving Him, but how?  God wants us to worship Him because in worshiping Him, in loving Him through praise, we ascribe to Him what He deserves while simultaneously denying self-praise.

Additionally, and much more importantly, worshiping God through sincerely offering praises and exaltations, positions us into performing the exact role that each of us was made to.  In a sense, for us not to worship is like trying to drive a fishing boat along railroad tracks.  Not only will it damage the boat, but it will never be as effective as putting the boat into the lake to do what it was made to do.

One of the challenges to this is our limited understandings of what constitutes worship.  The scope of this dialogue does not allow much more than an in-exhaustive list of what constitutes worship--school, work, chores, music, prayer, Bible study--all of these can be worship when done to the glory of God.  The intent of our heart is the important part of worship.  Let us then pursue worshiping God so as to be the people He has made us to be and to love Him with thanksgiving and devotion!