Another Sleepless Night to Praise God?

I may have said this before but it's becoming more and more clear: I do not sleep well.  I average between 4 and 6 hours a day.  But every once and a while, less than once a week, however, I get the luxury of a good 8 hours.  It is a sweet release, a glorious loosing that occurs when I can actually sleep throughout the night and wake up refreshed, energized, and capable.

I spend most nights, though, laying in bed spinning around every conceivable thought until I finally fall asleep.  I pass the time by making the bed, bugging my sleeping wife, and going to the bathroom even though I don't have to go.   Lately my sleep system has been so strung out that I have that '2:30 feeling' by about 8 in the morning.  It's more like slogging through sludge than gliding on ice, as if every step was a labor through mud.  I am 29 years old.  Far too young to feel like this, right?

It is at these times, times like today when I feel like a mouth trying to speak while chewing peanut butter, that I am reminded of two fundamentals.  First, I remember that God is sovereign and good, always.  This fact alone keeps me sane and propels me onward while easing the path I'm on as well.  Recognizing the goodness and glory of God makes me feel like a cheetah on roller skates that's just found a large hill.

The other fundamental that comes to mind is this.  I remember that sin has so damaged creation and that this sort of tire and ache is one of the consequences (see Gen 3).  But, and this is a big one, this was not the way God intended the human condition to be (see Gen 2).  And that through Christ Jesus I have a great hope in the promises of God to be fulfilled in the last days.  Praise God!  That's all the knowledge I need to make it through another sleepless night and another dog-tired day!

Individualism: a false paradigm

There is a prevailing posture in western Christianity that values the personal experience of faith.  This valuing, though in theory a profitable recognition that each person needs to 'claim' Christ for themselves, has done much damage in devaluing the covenant community.

To consider the personal experience of faith as of such importance that the individual is thought of more valuable than the community is to neglect one of the fundamental truths of the human condition, namely, that the person does not own themselves for by nature they belong to God.

This means that the personal experience is but an outpouring of our status as creatures, implicitly reckoning that we do not, in fact, own our experiences. As it were, these experiences that we would claim as our own are as much gifted to us by God as is the air we breath.

Individualism, if by that term we mean the value of the individual experience, must find its root in the Creator God, who has both chosen to diversify and unify creation together in Himself. Any attempt to interpret an experience apart from God's necessary input would be tantamount to amputating the nexus between creature-Creator.

By nature all human persons are contingent, both on the precepts of nature but also and more so dependent in the person and nature of God Himself. This reckons the personal experience of the individual human more like a single brush stroke in a vast watercolor painting, too focused on the bark to see the whole tree.

The distinctions of individualism would think each person as separate, and unique by virtue of that separation. However, this conceives that the separation of Genesis 3 precedes the unified intentional intertwining of Genesis 1 and 2.

In truth, the quest for autonomy leads the autonomous to a life apart from the life-giving blood of Christ, which is conferred and flows in His Church.  The value of the individual is found in Christ.  Any valuation of the personal experience that neglects this fact is, in truth, not valuable at all.

Knowing God is Not a Means; It is the End

I've never been a great sleeper.  Most nights I wake up in the middle of the nights and struggle to get back to sleep.  Some nights, when this happens, I leave the bed and turn on the television to wind down or decompress.  Without fail there will be some evangelist or preacher selling tickets for God, promoting their brand of Christianity.

Generally speaking, this devolves into some sort of prosperity gospel, in which faith in God is equated to putting coinage into a vending machine.  This conception, to be sure, is a wrong one for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that it betrays the example and teachings of Jesus Himself.  And although this may seem an extreme thought, there is a much more subtle one that has crept into sound Christians too, namely, that knowing God is a means to a desired end.

Read that again: the misconception that knowing God is a means to a desired end.  This is such a common sentiment that perhaps it demands further articulation.  So let me try again: a relationship with God through faith is not the means to salvation and heaven.  

Hopefully the image is becoming more clear.  The fog is lifting.  How many of us, either purposely or latently, actually think this way?  Whether we know it or not, this misconception renders God as something less than God, as if He was merely a step unto that greater goal.  This is, quite bluntly, wrong.

Instead, God is the end.  A relationship with God firmly founded upon His Son Christ rendered in covenant through faith is the end that God has in mind.  To think that there is any perceived desire  greater than being in relationship to the Lord Almighty would be tantamount to outright idolatry. For in thinking as such we would be making that other thing mean more to us in our hearts than God Himself.

Even to think of heaven as the end that God has in mind would be a dangerous misconception.  Heaven, the divine place where we live in utter bliss in our perfect spirit bodies, is rendered worthless if not for the presence of God.  This presence is not some abstract, distant acknowledgement either; it is a deeply intimate relationship between God and mankind, as was always intended.

Because of this and more, we should be on guard against any theological or philosophical postulation that would consider God as but a means to a greater, more desirable end.  For God is our greatest desire and to be in intimate relationship with Him is the greatest joy for the human.  Let us never forget this!

Spirit & Truth: Requisites for Worship

Jesus says these words in John: "God is spirit and those who would worship Him must do it in spirit and in truth."  (John 4:24).

The context here is the scenario with Jesus at the well and the woman from Samaria.  Jesus has just convinced her that He is the Christ because He has told her about her life.  She is confused by this stranger but she marvels at His intimate knowledge of who she is.  She then makes the statement about places of worship, pointing to the reality that the Jews believed that only the Temple was the appropriate place to worship.  This statement has a whole host of connotation: not only is she referring to the place of worship, but she is also referring to the what of worship, namely, the ceremonial Law of Torah.

Jesus, though, indicates that a time is coming and has now arrived in Him that the worshipers of God will worship God purely, in spirit and in truth.  Jesus' statement is remarkable because it flies in the face of the presumptions of Judaism of His day, which saw the worship of God as an ethnically exclusive activity.  For anyone to truly worship they would have to become a Jew first.

Additionally, Jesus is taking the monopoly of worshiping God out of the hands of the Jews and giving it to the scope of humanity.  Now, anyone and everyone can worship by these requirements, as God had always intended: in spirit and in truth.  While this might seem, at first glance, to be enigmatic Jesus is saying that worship has a specific energy, the spirit, and a specific content, the truth.

This energy is the Holy Spirit.  He is the exciter, the comforter, the empower, and the initiator of worship.  He is the spirit of worship, and He is the One who initiates and activates the worshiper's heart for worship.

This content, the truth, is the Word of God.  It is the Word itself that forms the backbone for any and all worship.  If worship is not based on or does not come from the Word of God, then it is not worship.  There are a great many things that claim to be worship but lack the Word of God, that is, Christ.  Because of this, they cannot be worship.

In the end, the Spirit works in conjunction with the Word in the worshiper's worship of God.  If we desire to worship, then, we need only prayer for the Spirit and engage in His Word.  In this way, worship is made available for every human who calls on the name of the God, crying out that Jesus is Lord and King!

Obedience and blessing

We are blessed because of obedience, but our blessing is not on the basis of our obedience.  Obedience is a blessing in itself, meaning that obedience is a blessing on its own.    Remember God, by way of His covenants, demands obedience from His people.  Thus, obedience to God is not a burden, as it were, but is a reminder of who God is and what He has for us.  This is, to be sure, a beautiful thing, love in its finest.

On the other hand, our blessing is solely based on the graciousness of God Himself.  He in His infinite wisdom and mercy has seen fit to bestow His great riches upon us not because of anything we have done or because of anything in us, but only because of the goodness of God.  Remembering this truth will go along way in keeping our hearts fixed on God and not on His blessings.

Obedience, then, is not meritorious.  Obedience does not merit, as it were, any blessing.  Instead, obedience is a response to the covenant faithfulness of God Himself.  Our response to God's covenant faithfulness, which has been made full in Christ Jesus, is not meritorious unto salvation but is merely the most natural response to the profound grace and utter goodness of God.  Amen, then for obedience!

A Short Plea for Prayer

I have very little in the way of new theology or clever analogy today.  I do, however, have a request.  Today, as you wake up or go to bed, as you stop at the stoplight or taking a shower, I ask that you remember the Lord. God has done so much.  He has created all of creation.  He has redeemed mankind from sin and brokenness by sending His Son, Christ Jesus, to pay the price for sin in our place.

Additionally, God has shown and proven His steady love and faithfulness to such a degree that He has given us freedom to choose, if we so wish, not to worship Him or think about Him at all.  This is an amazing sacrifice of true love that God has made for us and it should not be taken lightly as anything less than pure, true love in the highest degree.

Because of this and all it means for us as humans, today's blog is a plea that you would take the time today to consider the Lord, to serve Him, to dwell on His awesomeness, and to love Him with your whole heart.

Counterfeit God's and Secret Service Christians

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." (Phil 4:8).

When Secret Service agents are training to sniff out counterfeit currency, they spend years studying, examining, and memorizing the real thing.  This way the agents can tell when currency is fishy simply by its feel, its weight, or the little red and blue fibers in the paper.  They've spent so much time with the real money that they can discern whether a bill is fake in a matter of moments.

This seems like a good and productive methodology to apply to spiritual matters.  Perhaps we, as believers in the Lord Jesus, should not spend so much time examining the counterfeit, the false, and the incorrect; and we should spend more time memorizing the good, the right, and the godly.

I think of my years as a musician.  My journey to become a guitar player forced me to spend less time listening to my paltry playing or my friends' meager attempts, no!  In order for me to learn what great guitar playing was I had to listen, to examine, and study greatness so that I would know it like I know my own hands.

The above verse is but a snippet, a snapshot taken from the photo album of Holy Scripture, but I think it is a good list to think of in these terms.  We should study and study these godly traits.  This means a dedicated pursuit of that which is of God.  In a real way, we need to invest the necessary time so that we will know the things of God so well that we can discern that which is not of God with ease (to be sure, this is done in partnership with the Holy Spirit).  Above all, this is an active endeavor, not a passive or latent growth.  Let us then set our minds to do these things not only so we will know God more but also so that we will see the fakes more clearly!

Minnesota Cold: a Philosophical Metaphor of Christianity

For the past week, those of us living in Minnesota have been dealing with tundra-esque cold.  It is a bitter cold, the kind so abrasive that to leave any bit of skin showing will, within moments, less like winter than being electrocuted by dozens of tiny exposed wires.  Cold.  It is so cold that it has sparked a metaphor for life as a Christian in a decidedly un-Christian world.

Cold is an interesting designation, as it were.  It seems insufficient to refer to something as 'cold' simply as a comment on it having the property of 'cold' as an attribute of its being.  This would be like calling today cold; the designation of today as it being cold is predicated not as much on the 'coldness' perceived as it is dependent on the lack of that which is un-cold, namely, heat.  This is to say that the more accurate way to speak of 'cold' is to say that it is an absence of heat.

Now considering that cold, in this regard, is no longer to be thought of as a possessed quality of the thing that is cold but is, rather,  a designation regarding the thing's absence of heat, we can begin to recognize more aptly how one thing may be cold versus another that is un-cold.

For a thing to be considered cold and the coldness is not to be thought of as an inherent property of the cold thing, then, there is something else at play determining whether such a thing is, in fact, cold.  This 'something else' that imprints itself upon a thing to make the thing cold is, to be sure, a manifold of factors.  However, as it pertains to physical cold the two most prominent factors that determine a thing's 'coldness' is distance and angle.  This is to say that a thing's coldness, in its status as being cold, is determined by the thing's distance and angle related to that which is un-cold, that is, hot.

The concept of distance is too obvious as to talk at length.  Simply think of the heat felt from a candle's flame at two feet away versus two inches.  As for the concept of the relevance of angle, this can be seen in the seasons of the earth.  Because the earth spins at a particular 23.5 degree angle, when the northern hemisphere tilts away from the sun the heat radiating from the sun hits the earth like a flashlight angled at a plane.  This renders the sufficient heat of the sun unable to heat the parts of the earth that are tilted away.  Hence, the cutting cold of Minnesota winter.

Now think of this spiritually.  God is light, light being the very essence of heat.  The proximity and angle of anything to God, then, dictates whether it will be warmed or frigid.  For humanity, this means that if we are are nearness to God, a spatial analogy of our spiritual estate, is the determinant of whether the person is hot by their closeness to God or absent of heat by his/her distance.  Or, the person who lacks heat is due to their relative angle away from God.

But the metaphor goes on.  Coldness exposes that which is hot; think of the heat radiating off a fire or the condensation of warm breath in the cold winter air.  Spiritually, this is to say that the cold of spiritual darkness reveals most profoundly the heat of God's light.  For a Christian this is what it means to be "in the world but not of it."

But beware of the warning.  Things that are hot naturally devolve into things that are un-hot (think 2nd Law of Thermodynamics: the Law of Entropy).  This means that if something that is heated is separated from the source of its heat and put in a heat-less environment, it will lose its heat until it itself is cold.  Spiritually, this is the Christian who is lit in God's presence but when they leave God's closeness they lose their light and their affective heat.  The longer the believer stays in the cold world and away from the permeating heat of God's presence, he may actually cease being light and heat because he does not possess the heat in and of himself for his heat is derived from God.  Let us never forget this spiritual reality that creation speaks about!

Celebrity Morality a la Lance Armstrong

Athough being a musician throughout my childhood limited my athletic involvement, I have always been a sports enthusiast and a fan.  Before we got rid of cable I used to love watching ESPN for my daily dose of the sports world.  The abilities and physiques of the premier athletes simply astounds me and I am always quite rapt in my fandom.  I even, against my passenger's wishes, listen to sports talk radio to get my fix.

Over the course of the past couple of weeks, and really the past couple of years, one of the main storylines that has overrun the sports world has been the situation with Lance Armstrong.  Lance is a survivor of cancer, the founder of a huge cancer-fund non-profit, and , coincidentally, the winningest American racer in bicycle history.  His narrative is inspirational and mythic, that was, until the truth of his drug usage came to the forefront.

Recently, he has been stripped of his seven Tour de Frace titles and been banned for life from the professional cycling world for his use of PEDs, particularly blood-doping.  But what has been the proverbial nail-in-coffin for Armstrong has been his long-held vociferious defense that he did not and has never used these substances.  However, as the torrent has enscossed America in his situation, Armstrong did an interview with Oprah in which he finally laid aside the facade and admitted to cheating by drug usage as well as covering it up.

While Armstrong's case is unique because of his rank and status as a celebrity, it is not all that uncommon in the world of sports.  Would-be hall of fame Baseball players who've taken steroids and doping Olympians are but the tip of the iceberg.  However, if we cut through the particulars of the various scenarios, a deeper truth is revealed.

Humans, and Americans in particular, herald greatness.  We think of it as our American right and the very essence of what is great about America.  Be it athletic prowess, musical mastery, politcal power, or even intellectual stature, we are devoted to idols of the court, the stage, the process, and the book.  But we rarely take a look at the value of moral fortitude.  That is, until the celebrity that we've deified does something immoral.  Essentially, the moral integrity of the individual is struck up at the lack of moral fiber in the heralded celebrity.

I find this to be an interesting phenomenon for a number of reasons.  First, it is striking that morality is only ever under consideration when evil morals are under examination.  Consider the recent mass shootings, significant evidences for the presence of evil in the world, but it is only in hindsight and aftermath that the morality of life is ever considered.  This seems, at least to me, to be a lopsided dilemma, like only checking your tires after they've fallen off the axel.

Additionally, and stemming from the previous point, it is an odd thing to exalt a person for their faculties in one area but to judge them in another.  In the case of athletics, America would like to exalt the athlete for their athletic ability only to strike them for their moral failings.  This is like paying someone $10 for an hour's work only to charge them $100 for parking.

The issue at hand, then, is not of the corruption and corruptability of the celebrity it is, rather, a statement about value.  When push comes to shove, morality matters.  Good and evil are real concerns for humanity.  The exposures of the crimes of Nixon, of the betting of Pete Rose, or of the cheating of Lance Armstrong point not to the immorality of these men, although it does to be sure, it points to mankind's earnest inner yearnings for morality and truth.  A yearning that can only be satiated by God, the moral law Giver.

The Illuminator: the Holy Spirit

In one His final messages to His disciples, recorded in the Gospel of John, Jesus says:
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments.  And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him.  You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you."  (John 14:15-17).

"These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."  (John 14:25-26).

"But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me."  (John 15:26).

Clearly, the Holy Spirit is important for Jesus.  Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Helper, the Spirit of truth, sent by the Father to bear witness about Jesus to teach all that Jesus has said and taught them.  In this way, the Holy Spirit glorifies the Son, illuminating Him in the hearts of believers, and applying  Jesus to the believer by faith.

This illumination is a shadow of the inspiration of Scripture, that is to say that the same Holy Spirit that has divinely-inspired the writing of Scripture is illuminating that Scripture to the believer.  In other words, the inspiration of Scripture is echoed in the inspiration of the believer for that Scripture and unto salvation.  The reality of this truth is awesome and profound.  If it does not compel us to repentance and faith, then we are not considering the reality of who God actually is.

To limit this view would be akin to diminishing who we think God to be as it pertains to salvation.  Let us, then, strive to think rightly about God and His Holy Spirit, for it is His Holy Spirit that illuminates and glorifies Christ in the welling up of our hearts unto faith.

Thinking about God

A. W. Tozer, in his landmark Knowledge of the Holy, writes: "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."  He adds, "Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God.  For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like."

Understanding God is one of the great concerns of humanity.  It stretches the very bounds of languages and thought for man to endeavor to comprehend God.  To be sure, the vastness of the topic pushes the discussion into the realm of metaphor; we can only describe what God is like, never come to full comprehension of who He actually is.

There is also a fundamental obstacle to humanity understanding God.  This obstacle is based on the limitations of man as they meet the unlimited infinitude of God.  The equation is uneven; finitude cannot ascend to know infinitude because all of the categories of finite thought are incapable to address that which lies outside of its own faculties.  The only way for finite man to know anything about the Infinite One is for Him to initiate that knowledge, to reveal Himself willingly.  

In this sense, the revelation of God is a self-revelatory, as in, it is God's revelation of His self.  And considering that God does not need to reveal Himself to Himself, this self-revelation is intentional, for the purpose of God revealing Himself to man.  This is what revelation is all about; and God has revealed Himself: in the nature of creation, in His Holy Word of Scripture, and, ultimately, in the incarnation of His Son Jesus.

Faith, as it were, is not at the onset concerned with the content of that revelation but more that the revelation has taken place at all.  That is to say that the need for introductory faith is only in as much as humanity believes that God exists in Himself and that in order for us to know anything about Him at all, He is the one who must reveal that message.  We rely on Him for any information about Him.  

So even in the exercise of our cognitive faculties in the pursuit of Him the human is, in fact, a revelation of God unto himself.  This recognition that the abilities of reason and of thought are, in themselves, a revelation of God unto mankind is but an introduction, a beginning in the reception of God's self-revelation to mankind, which culminates in the person of Jesus.  But praise be to God that He has revealed Himself at all!

Our Future Kids

A couple nights per week the same thing happens: my wife wants to cuddle and I have to tell her that I can't until my blog is written.  I've made a commitment to writing a daily blog and I try to remain disciplined to that responsibility.  However, it has not always been easy.  Not only is it difficult to turn down the affections of my wife but figuring out what to write about everyday is an exercise in itself.  If what I'm currently reading does not spark an idea, I sometimes resort to asking my wife for suggestions.  Today is one of those times.  She was pretty adamant about writing about our future children.

At the onset, it must be stated clearly: she is not pregnant.  There are no babies on the way, though we do talk about it quite a bit.  It is an important thing for us in the future and we're both excited for the day that she comes in to tell me that she's pregnant.  As of the writing of this blog, she hasn't told me any surprises like that yet.  Continuing...

Both of us, my wife and I, have made it our life's pursuit to be obedient to God and to His holy Word.  This means that we strive to have His Word permeate every facet of our lives that we may continue to grow in sanctification and to become the people that God desires for us to be.  Additionally, this means that we endeavor to hold every decision up to the light of Scripture in devotion and prayer.

As it comes to our future kids, this posture of obedience and praise will be put to the test.  We both have friends and family that have young children, and while the kids always seem so fun to spend time with in small doses, it seems to be clear that children are exhausting, taxing, and parenting will test everything we have.  I only need to think about how I was as a child and I rejoice that my parents didn't quietly kill me in my sleep.

But with all this, my wife and I have seen that the parents who keep a level head and who strive to teach their kids the Word of God seem to be the most effective parents.  This excites and convicts us.  Our goal is to raise the best children we possibly can, adhering to the Bible as closely as possible.  In thirty years, I hope to show this blog to our future kids to see how we did.

To our future kids: we prayed, we read, and we tried our best.  If you're still alive and you know that Jesus is Lord, then we did alright.  Please forgive us for when we lacked patience and when we considered cutting off your air supply in your sleep.  We love you and we are blessed to know you.

What Do You Think This Says?

Have you ever been in a situation like this: a group of Christians get together for a Bible study.  A passage is chosen somewhere in the New Testament.  Someone in the group steps into the role of leader (usually the one who likes to talk).  The leader prays and gets the study going.  Every person turns to the passage and it is read aloud.  Then the leader asks: "What do you think this says?  What does this passage mean to you?"

Unfortunately, this is an all-too familiar scenario.  Many of us have experienced more of these sorts of Bible studies than any other, where the focus is on what the Bible is saying to me personally.  In this way, the Bible is seen as something that needs to be applied to the individual.  The interpretive method of this kind would say that interpretation is 'up for grabs' in the sense that it is only as relevant as my imaginative interpretations can make.

This methodology, however clever the interpretations it garners may be, betrays two fundamental truths about Scripture.

In the first place, all Scripture is about God.  Let me say this again: Scripture is not about what we can get out of it; it is about Christ Jesus.  This means that any time we read ourselves into Scripture we are, in fact, not meeting Scripture on Scripture's terms.  We are trying to make Scripture fit our terms.  This, clearly, is not biblical.  The Bible interprets itself and changes us, we should not try to change it to get it to interpret us.

Secondly, the Bible is a message from God.  It is self-revelation to mankind.  It is redemptive, meaning that it serves the purposes that God has laid out.  This means, fundamentally, that the Bible meets humans from God's perspective with God's thoughts, and it is our duty, as interpreters, to think those thoughts and to see that perspective.  The Bible is not about what we see it is about what God has put there for us to see.

Quickly, it can be seen that interpreting the Word of God is no small activity and it demands no small amount of effort.  Striving to garner the most accurate interpretation is not about trying to make every verse fit our lives personally wherever we are; it is about trying our best to understand why God has put this verse there at that point in history, written that way, for that purpose as it relates to Christ Jesus.  This is how Scripture works and we need to meet it on its own terms.

Perception of Love is not the Same as Love

I have had many a friend claim to be in love.  The scene goes something like this: boy meets girl, girl likes boy.  The two of them begin communicating and spending time with one another, mostly fun stuff to get to know each other better.  After some measure of time, the seriousness of their affections for one another began to crystallize until finally, often unexpectedly, one of the couple says those three words: I love you.  To which the reply is a reciprocation, a return of that affection by the same words.

Not in any way to discredit the reality of the situation, it needs to be said that this act is one of emotionality and is prone to passing as emotions do.   Without fail, this sentiment transforms over time and shifts in a variety of ways.  The initial excitement fades, the enthusiasm dissipates, and the enthrall at the other slumps under the hands of regularity.  What was once new and fashionable becomes old and out of style.  This, of course, is not to diminish the affections but to say that they have been altered over the course of time.

Sometimes, perhaps more often than humans would care to admit, as the previous passion dissolves and the couple starts to see one another in new lights that conflict with their original affections, the pair began to question what they really meant by I love you.

The truth is that there is a distinct difference between love and the perception of love.  Love is a deep activity that stems from the core.  It is a submission and a sacrifice as much as it is a desire for the other.  It is an output that does not demand the reciprocal.  Love does expect to receive it nonetheless, but not as a merit of love poured out more as a latent realization that love is a loop, like playing playing catch in such a way that you are simultaneously throwing and catching.

Being in love, though, is but a perception of love.  It is but a shadow left under love's light.  Considering the complexity of love as it is, any reception of love requires an interpretation of that love, as in, when someone loves another, the other must perceive that love.  Coincidentally, the perception of love is, then, not love much as smelling a cologne is not the same as the cologne itself.  It would not be inaccurate to paint this perception as somewhat elusive apart from clearly defined understandings of what love is, indicating at the same time what love is not.

Love is defined in Jesus.  He is the measurement of love.  It is how He fulfilled the promises of God in His life, His death at the hands of His accusers, and His resurrection that define love in the ultimate sense.  It is in Christ Jesus that we see true love in all its convicting glory and utter awesomeness.  Faith is the only appropriate response to that revelation, faith in the love that has been shown by God Himself.

Faith that love has occurred and is occurring in the relationship between God and man is the perception of that love.  It should be a reminder to us in all of our relationship that any fickleness or skepticism is not to be pressed on love, as it were, but should be blamed upon on anemic, Christ-less definitions of love.  Remembering the ultimate love that is Christ Himself will protect us in all our perceptions in life, not the least of which being in the area of love.

The Discriminating Factor in My Life

When I became a Christian, that is, when I gave my life over to Christ Jesus as my Savior and Lord, my attitude towards the Bible changed drastically.  What was once an ancient history book of myths became a lively, vibrant, powerful revelation of God.  I read the Word as if I found a jug of water in the desert; I became obsessed.

This obsession led to a diet of Scripture and prayer which forced me to a major turning point, an unmissable fork in my life's road.  As I read the Scriptures and I began to see more and more of God in Christ, this grace and love spoke to me in my core and convicted me with a choice.

I had to make a serious decision that would have certain ramifications for my life: I was either going to trust God and to trust His revelatory Word which is the Bible or I wouldn't.  There was no middle ground here.  If God actually did speak to mankind through the Bible and through His Son Jesus, either this would be the foundation of my life or I would force myself to ignore it.

It became clear after reading the Scriptures that I couldn't ignore it: God had revealed Himself to mankind and this mattered to my life.  There was no escaping the reality that God's Word, because of its nature it forced me to address it with sobriety and seriousness.  At the final analysis, I determined to make the Bible the foundation for my life.

This could seem like a nice Christian sentiment or a platitude of dogmatism, however, making the decision to live in submission to Holy Writ has ramifications.  Not only would every category of thought and life need to be dramatically transformed by the revelation of Scripture but, and this is where it hits the road, I had to submit to the Word of God especially when I did not want to.

What I knew about the Bible was that it does not discriminate: all people are made in the image of God and have turned away from Him in sin, no amount of effort will overcome that sin, and, ultimately, only God can save from sin because only He sees it as it truly is.  This all points to the cross of Christ, where God took on Himself the sin of the world and showed grace and love.  But this love is not cheap and is not free; it demands my very life.

Now, every decision, every thought, and every element of my whole life must be held captive in submission to Christ.  And there is no middle ground; this submission is exclusive, it's discriminating.  But I know, as I have known from the moment I repented and turned to God in faith, that God has made me for Him and I would not be complete if I neglected this truth.

Learning From Pain & Suffering?

The question of suffering is one of the most sincere and present concerns of the human experience.  Suffering and pain are, quite simply, realities of life.  Nearly everyday is met with some trouble or another that leaves us beaten, tangled, and, at the very least, wondering about what it all means.  But does suffering have meaning?  Is there purpose to pain?  Coming to grips with this discussion is not merely a "thought-experiment" but it is an intensely experiential, profoundly practical endeavor.

The intro to this conversation may be best begun at the inverse, pleasure.  Suffering and pain, being contrary to these things, denies pleasure and renders the human disabled.  But while pleasure is often used for the purpose of covering up suffering and masking pain, the purpose of suffering is something deeper, something more important: growth.

Suffering is the fertile ground of character's growth.  It is through the tension that growth and blessing is found upon that tension's release.  Consider labor: a exceedingly painful activity that leads to the beautiful blessing of an infant.  This is such a direct example of what is at hand: suffering grows the human.

Think of a pearl.  It is created when the pearl oyster takes into its mouth grains of sand.  Through an intense process of pressing and coating, the sand it transformed into a pearl.  I submit that this transformation is anything if not painful, a long-suffering process that rewards with a pearl.  This is an analogy of the purpose of suffering in our own lives.  This should be a source of comfort in times of distress, always remembering that God has purposes for us in our suffering.  Let us never lose sight of this reality!

Same Old Story Never Outdated

When I came of age I desired to shed myself of all that was old in an effort to discover for myself what this life was all about.  I was excited to do life for myself.  The process endeavored to rid me of the traditions that had moored me to the docks and, I assumed, limited my scope to see reality 'as it was.'  This was a conscience undertaking in which I tore down the values and morals that I was raised with while I was feeding on the assumption that these things were but fences that kept me confined and shackles that prevented me from life.

Fully embracing the relativism around me I begin to construct a life and developing a lifestyle that echoed my newly-formed worldview.  Hedonism became my status quo.  I felt the need to build my own new traditions steeped in pleasure and full of relative concepts of truth, namely, if it was exciting and usable then it was true.

My major assumption, and my downfall, was that tradition and truth that was not new or relative was, in some way, more valid.  My assumptions proved false under testing.  Truth begin to rise to the surface in my heart in the form that I had already discredited and thought illegitimate: Christianity, more directly, Christ Jesus Himself.

I had discounted the value of Christianity because of its oldness.  I thought that because traditional religion and Christianity was old that then it was also tired, outdated, and irrelevant.  I had attributed the value of Christ to the ancient age of the beliefs and, in effect, found it wanting for that.  My bias, however, betrayed the basic reality of truth, particularly that truth is by nature true and true agelessly.

God, in a sense, hit me in the heart and I was devastated at my own desolation.  My response was to pray and read.  I prayed and read Scripture like a famished dog lapping up water.  I could not get it enough.  At some point, not a point per se but a moment in the process, I realized the profoundness that had so eluded me before.  God is and He has revealed Himself to mankind by His Word and through His Son Jesus Christ.  

When I finally discovered it for myself, what I thought was old and cold theology was vibrant and energizing.  The reality was that the truth of God did apply.  I realized that it stood the test of time not because it was passed on to successive generations (though surely it was), but the truth of Christ stood the test of time because it is true.  I had never understood that until I faced Christ myself.  At the final analysis, Jesus never goes out of style because truth is always true and Jesus is truth.

What's So "Christian" about Christianity?

At what point does something become "Christian?"  Is there a certain level of activity that once passed the activity then becomes a "Christian" one?  Or is there a critical-mass, a minimum number of Christians needed to be present in order to make any activity "Christian?"  Or, is Christianity merely a quality of any activity that Christians perform?  Is all music Christian or is there a specific genre to be called "Christian?"

While the above questions may seem tedious if not frivolous, the questions might not seem so ridiculous whence we consider how flippantly activities may be deemed "Christian."  But it is precisely this thing that many Christians find themselves trying to ask on a regularly basis.  It has practical ramifications, for the Christian is called to live out his/her Christianity in every aspect of that life.  So the question becomes real at the moment of turning belief into lifestyle.  How we answer this question, then, is important.

There is a propensity to consider any thing that a Christian does to be, by that regard, a "Christian" thing, as if the fact that a Christian was involved transforms one activity from a non-Christian one to a Christian one.  To belay the Christian-ness of any activity to the adherents of that activity would be to amputate Christianity from the very thing that makes the Christian Christian.  For that, one only needs to examine the prefix that predicates Christianity: Christ.

We should never forget this utterly irrevocable truth: Christ makes Christians.  It is Jesus of Nazarene as conferred by the Gospels that changes a person from non-Christian to Christian.  The determinant of Christianity is, as it were, Christ Jesus Himself.  So, to answer any of the aforementioned questions, it is at the very moment that Christ Jesus takes precedent and primacy that anything becomes Christian.  In the end, what makes anything "Christian" is its interaction with Christ.

If Christ is met with praise and penitence then it is, in fact, "Christian."  The involvement of Christians is rendered a moot consideration, for they do not make Christianity; Christians are entangled with Christianity only as Christians connect with Christ Himself.  This is it.  It should also compel us to think of what makes up Christianity in terms not concerned with Christians, it turns out, but Christianity is defined by its connection to Christ.

Christianity: Not just another Spiritual Philosophy

One of the great and forceful enemies to Christianity has, in recent decades, been the ever growing propensity to deem Christianity as merely another of the many possible and tenable philosophies that is offered to the modern world.  To think of Christianity categorically of the same kind as that of any other philosophical posture or spiritual idea is akin to amputate Christianity from, as it were, Christ.

On the contrary, Christianity is not and has not ever been a set of abstract philosophical postulations severed from any actual reality.  Christianity is and has always been a set of historical facts, actual space-time history that demands a verdict on the part of the listener: faith or not.

Christianity should not be allowed to devolve into mere postulations of theology as if abstract theological postulation could ever come close to the actual Christianity that is found in the person and resurrection of Jesus the Nazarene.  Theology, though good and necessary exercise, is grounded solely in Christ.  To sever Christianity from Jesus, the actual factual person of history, would be a travesty and would relish it impotent and irrelevant in the stream of spirituality.

Instead, Christianity is intimately and necessarily tied to the actual events of history, for it is in these events that God has stepped into creation and enacted His grace in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazarene.  These things should never leave our lips as we discuss Christianity and its power to transform lives for God!

Denying Self but not like Lot's Wife

In Luke 9, Jesus lays it all out: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself daily and take up his cross and follow me."

This is no mean task.  God is not mincing words, this is unequivocal language.  I think of the alternative: not denying self and not taking up the cross to follow Christ.  What would this mean?  Surely it would mean not only the utter lack of God's presence but, by extension, the cold reality of hell both in this physical state and unto eternity.

I think of the famous story of Lot's wife (Gen 19:23-26): turning back at the life she was leaving.  Not only did she not receive the blessings that God had intended for her family leaving Sodom, but she was turned to a pillar of salt for her disobedience and her lack of faith.  She was not willing to deny herself; the irony is that it cost her her life.

This begs the question: how have you done today at denying yourself?  Have you taken up your cross recently?  All the words of Scripture are all for not if they are not implanted into our hearts.  It is not enough to read them, to recite them, to memorize them; we need to live the words.  Christ's commands need to become the very way we live.  Let us strive for this very thing!

Jesus and the need for Two Natures

Suppose you were swimming in the river one afternoon.  As you entered the water, the current becomes stronger than you expected and you are quickly pulled under the water and swept down stream.  You struggle to catch your breath between your head bobbing up and down in the water.  Suddenly you feel a hand grab your arm and pull you towards the bank.  As you reach the side, you recognize that the man saving you has one foot on the bank and one foot in the river, he is simultaneously in and out of the water, holding your arm and pulling you out of the water.

This scenario is kind of like Jesus.  The river is unrepentant human life, pulling every person down stream to eternal death.  The bank is godliness and eternal salvation.  The man grabbing your arm is Jesus.  Being fully man, He had one foot in the river of human life.  But being fully God, He also had one foot firmly in perfection.  It is this fact of His nature which makes salvation possible at all.

Only a man can submit and repent from sin.  But because of man's sinful nature, this is the very action that man is incapable of making.  On the other hand, God never has to submit because He is omnipotent and He never has to repent because He is morally perfect, yet it is only God who has the ability to repent.  Therefore, the only way man can repent is if God actually empowers the repentance.

Enter Jesus.  Jesus, being both God and man, is the bridge that connects the finite sinfulness of man to the infinite perfection of God.  Jesus was sinful because of His God-ness, but it was His human nature that made His experience applicable to humans through faith.  Jesus, by way of His very nature, overcomes the chasm of human sin.  Jesus laid down His attributes and suffered a horrendous death to bridge this gap.  We should always keep this in our hearts as it is the definition of grace.

The Source of True Hope

In the most recent Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, the villain, Bane, sets out to torture Batman by confining him to an underground prison while he terrorizes Gotham.  The key to Batman's agony, as told us by Bane, is that this prison is holed several stories beneath surface, totally subterranean save for a skylight, a small opening in the cave-like prison that offers the inmates the slightest hope of escape.  It is this hope that causes the true despair for the inmates of this prison, and it is this hope that is used to torment Batman.

The hope that Bane refers to is a hope of escaping that, barring an incredible physical act of utter will, will never come to fruition.  The chance of hope that strengthens today to crush tomorrow because it fails to followthrough.  This is the sort of hope that can break hearts, ruin relationships, and destroy lives.  But there is another sort of hope, another source for hope, that is sure and true: the Lord God Almighty.

The Lord is a sure hope not because of what He offers (though He does offer hope), rather the Lord is by His very nature, a source of true hope.  God is infinite, omnipotent, wise beyond measure, and limitlessly good.  The reason He is the ultimate source of all hope is because of who He is.  Any source of hope is but a lowly counterfeit compared to the Lord by way of nature.

Hope promises.  The trueness of any particular source of hope is based on whether that hope can deliver on its promises.  For this, only God can fulfill hope's requirements, because only God can actually and definitively fulfill His promises.  It is because of this that we should place our hope in Him and only Him.

Can't Get Out of Work and Why Would You?

We live in a world that is obsessed with the search for comfort and ease.  Consequently, laziness and sloth are at endemic levels as no longer, as it has been in the past, do people reward their hard work with relaxation.  Instead, serenity is considered a sort of birthright, an entitled dispensation.  It is as if work has been deemed evil as laziness has been exalted as good.  

Scripture, however, has another way of dealing with work altogether.  For Scripture, particularly for Solomon, work is not just the drudge of daily life but it is one of the true joys of life (Ecc 5:12, 18).  The reason that work is a joy has far less to do with the what of work than with the why.  The why of work is that God has given us the joy of using our senses and exercising our dignity in the reception of the goods that come from work, i.e. wage, satisfaction, et al.

This is not to say that work and the provision that work affords should ever be allowed to eclipse God either in exaltation or in faith.  Instead, work is to be rightly considered as a component of the grace that God has given to humanity.  Our work is but a medium for God's grace to be conveyed to us.  Let us then take great joy in work and to always give God praise for that joy!

Phil. 4:11-13: Contentment found in Christ

One of my favorite verses penned by the apostle Paul reads: "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.  In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me." (Phil 4:11-13).

Life full of undulations, waves both of plenty and of little, of happiness and of sadness, and of health and of sickness.  Solomon writes that there is a time for everything in the introduction to Ecclesiastes. This reality can lead to a sense of vertigo, to be sure, but God has provided us the ultimate source of stability regardless of circumstance: Himself.

Believers have been given the ultimate gift of grace that is access to the presence of God through faith in Christ.  His presence is an ever-present comfort, a constant stabilizing companionship, and the only source of true contentment under any condition.  This is more than a nice sentiment; it is a reality that should compel how we live and handle the tempests and deserts of the human life.  Let us always take joy and comfort from this reality and let it seep into the depth of our hearts!

Time's Role in Growth based on My Love of Cooking

I like to cook.  Actually, I love to cook.  There is something so rewarding about making a good meal and sharing the table with family and friends.  It is one of the truly great joys of life.  I have cooked many meals, but my favorite thing to cook without a doubt is meat.  And whether its bacon, a burger, a steak, ribs, chops, or meatloaf, the key to great meat is still the same: time.

The best meat takes time.  Whenever you try to rush cooking the meat, you run the risk of overcooking, burning, or rendering it too tough and dry to be fit for use as anything other than a doorstop, let alone for human consumption.  Strangely enough, sanctification and godly character require the same sort of patience, the same kind of focused endurance.

Time is often the primary ingredient in sanctification.  True, focused prayer and Bible study are also necessary components but there is a definite reason that overseers need to be elders.  It is the passage of time, paired with the consistent pursuit of Christ that produces sanctification and growth.  This is what James is talking about when he says that we should let steadfastness have its full effect, meaning that only once perseverance has been met with the passage of time will it serve its intended sanctifying purposes (James 1:2-4).

This is one of those truths of life, that the passage of time is one of the primary ingredients in all good growth, be it the flowers of the garden, the braising of a short rib, or the maturation of spiritual character.  Let us then strive to remain steadfast over time so as to let perseverance fulfill its work so that we may be drawn closer and closer to God through Christ!

Consider again the words of James: "Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming.  See how the farmer waits fro the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains.  You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near." (James 5:7-8).

All But a Mist

James writes: "What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." (James 4:14b).

Or consider the psalmist who writes: "For my days pass away like smoke, and my bones burn like a furnace." (Psa 102:3).

The preciousness of human life is but a vapor that appears to be blown away by the wind.  Solomon calls it but a vanity of vanities, a truly fleeting thing.  But this has never stopped humans from delusions of grandeur, from exalting our paltry lives to the heights of the created order.  We constantly and continually attempt to own, to conquer, to claim, and to name all that is within our reach.  But, in the end, mist cannot keep the time, vapor cannot hold anything.

Instead, all that we have has been given us by God.  We are but stewards to the grace that has been given.  This includes above all else the resource of time; we cannot own it our keep it but we are held accountable to how we use it.  We should never forget this reality, for how we use the precious little time that we've been blessed with is of the utmost importance.  Let us, then, never forget this truth but let it be the bedrock for our devotion and discipline to the Lord!

What Love is all About

Love is a wonderfully loaded word.  It can mean anything from gushy feelings, lustful passions, or those forbidden words.  It fills our greatest songs, is the content of the best films, and is the words of the finest greeting cards.  But when it comes down to defining love, another standard may be in order.

The Scripture speak of love definitively, leaving no question as to what love is and how we are to do it.  Th apostle and elder John wrote more on love than perhaps any other New Testament writer.  He writes this about love in his epistle:

"In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:10-11).

He also writes in his Gospel:

"Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.  And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." (John 14:21).

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:12-13).

These are but a snapshot of the Scripture's definition of love; but even so, it is clear that how God has loved us in sending His Son, Christ Jesus, as a sacrifice for our sins should compel us to love each other in a like manner.  This is what love is all about.  It is an action with intent.  It is a purpose with feeling that plays itself out in deeds that support word.  In the end, it is all about God, what He has done and what it means for us.

Philippians and Pressing On to the Prize

Philippians 3:13-14: "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it known.  But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

By the time Paul had wrote this, he had been stoned, beaten, imprisoned, slandered, shipwrecked, and been hurt by countless other ailments and infirmities.  But even through all of this, Paul was committed to staying the path that he had been called to and commissioned for.  That is to say that no matter the circumstance, Paul would not let himself be derailed from his purpose.

Today, as in the day before, I woke up to a full-bodied ache paired with a lovely fever.  Having had to call into work for the second day in a row, I crawled back to my bed and tried my best to fall asleep  past the cold sweats and hacking coughs.  The day was spent basically in and out of sleep and coughing fits.  And though my thoughts were, admittedly, quite hazy, I did manage to utter some simple praises and prayers for the gifts that He has and continually bestows.

To be certain, I do not mean to compare my flu-like health situation with Paul's struggles.  But I am trying to show how the principle applies to me personally in practical ways.  My earnest prayer is to always take time to praise the Lord no matter the circumstance.

Trained by Grace

Titus 2:11-14: "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce all ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives, in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself up for to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works."

This passage is, admittedly, more than a mere mouthful.  But beyond its density is an acute truth worth contemplating.  Paul is saying that God's grace actually trains us.  It is the grace of God that sanctifies and purifies.  This flies in the face of our human propensity towards meritorious Christianity, i.e. the harder one tries at devotion the more grace they will receive applied to his/her life.

The aforementioned passage warrants some meditative contemplation.  It would serve us well to spend some time with it, chew it, and, when we feel we can see its depth, we should read the whole chapter again for the richness of context.  This simple practice is the path for the Word of God taking root in our hearts so that it becomes the very core of our very lives.  It would behoove us all to take heed.

Sweet, Precious Time

Time is the most precious commodity.  It cannot be saved.  It cannot be purchased or bartered.  It cannot be kept.  Above all else, though, time is not an inherent right; it is a gift, the most precious of gifts.  Time is immaterial, yet real.  It is a passage of moments, a sequence of successive events.  Time is, at its heart, how we measure and quantify this phenomena.  Yet to think of time as merely a ruler for gauge the length of sequential moments would be to betray the fundamental nature of time: namely, that we only have so much of it.

Every human being is allotted the same 24-hour day.  We take this profound truth without much thought and little philosophizing.  In reality, we only ever consider the passage of time when its scarcity conflicts with our own convenience, or when our schedules seem "overstuffed" like pouring water into a full glass as it continues to overflow.

There is a rarity to time.  Because there will never be more now that there is.  No one can ever have two minutes in a single second or a year saved up for later use.  This is a simple and deep truth.  However, despite this reality, many people neglect the ramifications: if a person has only so much priceless time at his/her disposal, how he/she chooses to use that time is of the utmost importance.

This is what Paul means: "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil." (Eph 5:15-16).

Pair that with the psalmist: "O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!" (Psa 39:4).  And again, "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." (Psa 90:12).

In the end, there is no greater resource to any person than the resource of time.  It is necessary for all growth, for all healing, for all learning, for all relationships.  It could be said, with certainty, that without time--one of the great gracious gifts of God--no life could be, for it is in the confines of time that life occurs and is experienced.  Let us then never forget this startling truth, but let it burn within us an urgency to our devotion to the will of God!

New Year: New Creation

Paul writes this: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." (2 Cor 5:17).

2013 is here.  At this transitional time, people around the world look back at the past with a critical eye.  We all want to make this year progressively better than the last.  We want to lose weight while earning more cash, and be, generally, greater than this year compared to years past.  But, beyond that, all of want this year to be at the very least a good year.

For this, I want to make a proposal to Christians to claim our identity in Christ, to stop dwelling on who we were apart from Jesus and live as we are in Him.  Claiming this identity is key.  It means that we will no longer think of ourselves, but we will earnestly set our sights on discovering who we are in Christ Jesus.

"The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."  Christians run the risk of forgetting this basic fundamental reality.  We are creations in Christ.  Our task now is to discover who we are, not in ourselves or based on what we have been, but in Christ.  This requires a good deal of personal flexibility and a certain level of selflessness.  For God wishes to surprise us by challenging our preconceptions of ourselves.

Who we think we are is nothing compared to who we actually are in Christ.  This year my prayer is to continually be impressed by God's imprint upon my life as a new creation to Him.  To be sure, this is not a passive process but is an active endeavor; a pursuit of devotion as God reveals who we are as new creations in Christ.  With this as our focus, 2013 will be a great year.