Easter: Today and Beyond

Easter is a sacred day for the Christians around the world.  It is a day, really the day, when all around the world considers this historical man, Jesus of Nazarene, and the remarkable events that surrounded His life, His death by the hands of Pontius Pilate, and the strange events of His post-death life.  It is the day when, around the world, people who would rather never consider the reality of the events of Jesus of Nazarene.

But for Christians, this is a day of remembrance of a different sort.  For Christians, this is a day marked on the calendar not merely as a remembrance of what Christ Jesus did in His life, in His horrid death, and by His resurrection; it is also a day of particular importance because we remember, more particularly, what Jesus has done for us.

Today's blog, therefore, is one meant especially for those who would come to Christ in faith.  Today, on this very day, I exhort you to consider all that God has done for you in Christ Jesus, and to set as a mark upon your foreheads your commitment in faith to Christ Jesus for the remainder of this year.  Use this day in concert with the rest of your days as a podium to herald the King and to sing of His praise.  It is, of course, not merely a day like any other for it is a day of supreme testimony by which we recognize the sin offering and propitiation that Christ has won on our behalf.  AMEN!

Pointing to Isaiah on Easter

Easter is fast upon us.  It is a marvelous day by which the Christian commemorates the death and resurrection of Christ.  On this day, more than any other day of the year, the Christian is exhorted to truly consider the weight of sin placed on the whipped shoulders of Christ as He breathed His last breath splayed upon the cross.

Because of the sheer exuberant heaviness hereof, it seems sufficient a study today to read the two passages of Scripture that seems most appropriate at this time: Isaiah 53 and John 19-20.  As an obedience of love and faith, let us commit ourselves to study and contemplation today.

Good Friday and Easter Weekend

Although Christmas has a special place in the Christian calendar, it is the final week of Christ' life, the Passion week, that takes the supreme place in our year.  To be sure, the events surrounding Jesus' death are of such pinnacle importance to all Christianity that they warrant observance and remembrance throughout the year.  However, for this week, this Easter week, we have the unique opportunity to consider at length the obedient suffering reckoned by our Lord Jesus by which He was crucified and died to pay the penalty for sin.  Because of Christ's great misery unto the cross, we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin, and have become sons and daughters of God by virtue of our rebirth in Jesus, which is made sure by His blood shed at the cross.

Because of all this, my exhortation today is to spend some time in prayer and in study, remembering the precious blood willingly spilt for our sin and iniquity.

1 Timothy 2:5-6: One God and One Mediator

1 Timothy 2:5-6: "For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave Himself up as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time."

While this verse is brimming with sufficient theological wealth to satiate even the most zealous lover of God, I want to point out the emphasis of this passage: there is one mediator...who gave Himself up as a ransom for all.  It is this point that strikes the heart, stiffens the neck, and excites the blood because it is this point that forms one of the fundamental blocks of Christian faith.

Jesus, the man from Nazareth who performed miracles along the Palestinian countryside of the first century AD and claimed to be God, is the one mediator between God and men.  What is remarkable to consider is that Jesus alone performs all the exigencies of the justification necessary for Him to become the "ransom for all."

It was because of who Jesus is as the very begotten Son of God that qualified Him to become our sole mediator, that singular bridge to God Himself.  We can only marvel at this reality with an awe that God would, in His divine wisdom, has crossed the great chasm uncrossable by man so that all man may cross it to reach the Lord.  Praise God for this great joy!

Psalm 62:7: On God Rests my Glory

Psalm 62:7: "On God rests my glory and my salvation; my mighty rock, my refuge is God."

This is one verse among many in the Psalms that convey this one clear point: God is my refuge and He alone is my salvation.  In fact, it could be said that this simple statement forms the whole theological backdrop of Scripture.  But this is no parrot-talk.  It is the truth for the faithful.  It is fundamental to the covenant keepers whose hope is made sure and whose life is sustained in Christ Jesus and He alone.  Let us then remember on whom our glory rests as it is to form the backbone for our lives.

Philippians 1:29-30: The Joy of Suffering

Philippians 1:29-30: "For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had now and how hear that I still have."

In case you misread, pardon me to paraphrase in context of Paul's theology: not only has God graced you with faith, but even more so He has graced you with the reality of suffering.  Suffering is, in fact, a gift of God on par with the gifts of faith and repentance.  But, you may ask, how is suffering a gift?  Why would God love us so much to have us suffer for His sake?

This is a difficult question and to understand it pushes the bounds of language.  Two analogies will thus be employed to answer this difficult question.  Neither of them is perfect but thought of together they may, hopefully, serve to help us understand how and why Paul could say that God grants us to suffer for the sake of Christ.

The first is a pearl.  A pearl begins as an irritant; a small grain of sand.  In the shell of the oyster, the pearl is formed through the overwhelming pressure applied by the oyster.  Imagine for a second the extreme irritation and conceivable suffering endured by the oyster during that process.  Yet it is because of that suffering, as a result of that pain that a pearl is formed.

The second analogy is that of weight lifting.  Imagine you went to the gym and saw a man standing before the mirror with doing basic bicep curls.  In one arm he was lifting a 40 lbs. weight while in the other he was lifting a 5 lbs. weight.  Now which arm would you assume to be the stronger?  We understand that it is the muscle that is forced to lift the heavier weight that becomes stronger by virtue of  of the suffering endured during exercise.  In fact, it is the weight itself that causes the muscular growth.

Taken together perhaps we can begin to see the reason Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, can say that God has granted us the gift of suffering for the sake of Christ.  The pearl of character, the muscles of virtue are formed using the resources of suffering for the sake of Christ.  Let us then find great joy that God has blessed us in this most wonderful way: that He would build character in us through the suffering akin to His Son!

1 John 1:9: God is Just and Faithful

1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

This verse is prone to misconception because it appears as a conditional statement, as in, God is only faithful if we confess our sins.  But this cannot be the case: God is faithful apart from any confession on our part.  However, throughout all this, John is clear that God is faithful to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness as a by-product of the confession of sin.

But it needs to be stated that confession of sin is but a function of repentance and belief.  When we come to Christ in repentance, we do so confessing our sin believing that God truly is faithful and just to forgive us from sin and cleanse us from sin; it's a package deal.  This is a wholly beautiful scenario, and we should never forget that God is in control and He is always faithful to complete all that He has promised.  Praise God!

Rom. 6:23: The Free Gift of God

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

Death is certain for all humans.  It is a 1-to-1 ratio: 100% of all humans die.  It is the inescapable reality of life, that it ends in death.  All creation follows this same, seemingly intrinsic property and process of reality.  However, we should not begin to think that death is the way that life should be.  Sin and its effects should never be diminished in the equation.

It is sin that reckons all creation for death.  It is because of sin that we will die.  But in this death we find true love in Christ Jesus.  Because of Jesus' life, His death, and His resurrection has done for humanity what no man could do for himself: He saved us from sin.  Needless to say, there is far more to this than the scope of this blog but suffice to say that because Jesus has died, we have been blessed with life eternal through faith in Him.

Now the death we do die is but a shadow of death while the life we live is but a precursor for eternity.  But consider the contrary for those who do not come to Christ in faith: the life lived is but a shadow of life while the physical death is but a precursor for the death that will be eternal.  In the end, there is no greater gift to creation that Christ Jesus, for salvation from the reality of sin is found and made secure in no one else.

Dignity of Man

Much of human life is a matter dignity.  From from income to recreation and all the spots in between, we humans spend must of our lives dealing either with the maintenance or exaltation of human dignity; more specifically, our own dignity.  We have an innate sense, an underlying recognition that we possess a certain level of dignity.  To posit that all humanity possess this same sort of dignity is an extension of that thought.

When the attempt is made, however, to trace that dignity to its source is when we run into all sorts of different and competing ideas.  Some feel that dignity is based on action, as in, someone becomes dignified when it does some action or obtains some vague status/position.  Others assume this dignity to be a feature of one or more of our components (intellect, emotion, spirituality, talent, et al).

The Christian, though, understands that the dignity of humanity is an inherent thing, the vital part of our God-given constitution actually.  The reality of mankind's dignity is reckoned, simply, in the simple assertion that man is made in the image of God.  It is the fact that we bear the image of God that warrants the entirety of man's dignity.  It is found no where else.  Once we recognize this basic truth, we will be much more equipped to handle the multifaceted challenges to the dignity of man in our world today by seeking after God in whose image we bear!

Ephesians and the Armor of God

Ephesians 6:10: "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil."

To be sure, this verse acts as a conclusion to Paul's letter to the church in Ephesus but, apart from a full-on interpretation of the entire book, a brief contextual note is a good place to start.  Ephesians is primarily about identity: who we are in Christ and what that means for the way we live our lives.  It is thus out of this identity that this passage comes to us.

Paul, carried by the Holy Spirit, is exhorting us to put on our armor and prepare for war.  And just as it is by and through are identity in Christ that this war is waged, it is also in Christ that we are armed and able to fend off the attacks of the enemy–and make no mistake, Satan will attack us.  But we are strong in Christ and we are made strong by faith in His power and His name.  Let us then put on the full armor of God by faith and prepare with diligence as soldiers for the battlefield.

A Statement About the Necessity of Rebirth

The Christian life should seem an outright oddity to any bystander examining it.  The oddity of the Christian life, the source of the indescribable to an outsider is that the Christian life is an internal ordeal that expresses itself, as all internal things do, externally.  The rub here is to misconstrue the good and necessary externals as the thing of Christianity itself and not merely the perceivable effects of the internal processes that are being undertaken.

For the most part, Christians seem to be the same as any other human person.  Yet for those who are actually living the Christian life we would have to assert that the Christian is something altogether other than the average.  However, the diference in the Christian, as has been already noted, is an internal one.  More concisely, the mark of the Christian is a constitutional one; the difference is foundational, in the very nature of the person.

This may seem all fine and good unless we begin to consider the external alterations that a Christian will incur as the change occurring.  It is not enough to say that the Christian lives right or has good morals or is virtuous.  Apart from the internal transformation, these external evidences are worthless.  It is the internal change that prompts and precedes everything.  To think otherwise would be to betray the very heart of the Christian message and thus forms the core of Christian life.

This would be akin to going to a funeral, walking to the coffin, and asking the dead man to try to live.  As preposterous as this sounds, this is exactly what I mean by focusing on the externals while disregarding the necessary internal transformation.  A dead man cannot do anything.  More than that, the dead man is not capable of coming alive–he needs a rebirth, a new life to be able to do anything other than being dead.

At this point, we run into the challenging reality that must be confronted: apart from direct relationship to He who is life, we are dead.  Sin relegates us to death because it separates us from the One who is life.  By virtue of that death, the human is by all rights dead only pretending to live.  Once we overcome this fact, then we are able to assess the process of rebirth, that by a renewed and reconciled relationship to God through Christ, we are made alive.  Recognizing this, we can begin to understand that Jesus is not spiritualizing when He tells Nicodemus that a man must be reborn.  Surely, we can now see that the Christian life is, at its core, a matter of a new nature that pours forth in new life style, new morality, and new virtues.

Made Alive from Death in Christ

Humanity is a creature fraught with contradiction.  We exhaust our lives' resource asserting our dominance of will and strength of personhood while we exert the majority of our expertise and skill to create lives of comfort in food and security, all the time devoting the majority of our intellect to the overwhelming task of defeating death.  It is a strange phenomena inherent to the human condition: always bettering life to never face death.

In truth, it is death itself that causes the distraction of this world; that creeping villain that lurks behind every human, awaiting his victory over the strings of our life.  Humanity exalts the latest advancements in science and medicine as far as those advancements make life longer or, at least, more pleasurable for the duration.  It is a funny business to spend life concerned with death.  This explains our utter fascination with temporal distraction.

However, despite our best efforts at delusion by distraction, we cannot escape the reality of the situation, what's really going on.  The truth, the heart-wrenching truth, is that we recognize the preciousness of life.  In our hearts, down to our depths we understand that life itself is miraculous.  It is not accidental nor is it flippant.  On the contrary, life is a true treasure.

Think of an infant.  As absurd as generalities may be, there may be no human being alive, that does not realize their worth.  To feel the newness of every moment that an infant experiences is one of the true joys of human life.  Even as the infant cries for her mother does she, unconsciously to be sure, defend her own vital and inherent worth.  And this preciousness is not lost on the imbecile either, I assure you.

It would appear that with all this marvel at life there runs a parallel fascination with the ever-present prospect of death.  There is perhaps no greater irony than to live a life in diversion to death, but yet no more accurate diagnosis of the human climate and condition.  Now think of how this reality runs square into the seemingly preposterous claims of Jesus the Christ, the One who claims to be the way, the truth, the life, and the the sole manner of obtaining eternal life by His grace received through faith.

Now in Christ the human's morbid fascination with death that overtakes our lives with distraction is transformed from a life lived dead to a reborn life made alive in Christ.  In Christ we are made new by His will and in His Word through faith in His work.  Thus the human is freed to live because of their death in Christ.  No longer are we obligated to the pall of life spent dealing with death, and we are now free in Christ to actually live for apart from His life-giving presence we are merely walking dead.  While there is much more to say about this dense topic, suffice to say the work of Christ has overcome what man could not: make alive what is by nature dead!

How Well are You Caring for the Fruits?

Galatians 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law."

I make no claims to be a great agricultural mind, however, in my limited experience and rudimentary research I have learned a few basic things about the process.  There is, it turns out, a very basic rule about growing anything desirable and it is this: there are only enough nutrients and space for one thing.  For instance, an oak and a daisy cannot be planted in the same spot.  Inevitably one of them will win out the fight for food and sunlight and the other will die.

You cannot have a healthy plant and a diseased plant in the same space.  You can, however, have diseased portions of healthy plants, in which case the diseased part must be cut off so that the host plant may be able to heal and become healthy again.  Additionally, in my experience (admittedly limited) the best soil is quite adept at growing the most voracious weeds; meaning that well-tilled,-well-watered soil is just as likely to grow weeds as it is to grow desirable flowers.

It takes an active hand on the part of the farmer or the gardener to prevent the weeds from sapping the nutrients from the healthy plant. It takes an intentional effort to ensure the health and prosperity of the fruit so that it may grow into its full, ripe state.  It cannot occur passively.  Think of how miraculous it seems to walk through an overgrown forest and find a desirable flower or raspberry bush; we would immediately discern that either a great biological oddity has taken place or an active agent has, in fact, planted and tilled that flower, protecting it from the overgrowth of the more resilient and capable plants.

This is what fruits of the Spirit are all about.  In Christ, the soil of our souls has been tilled, renewed by the restoration of Calvary; what was a lifeless soil has now been made alive and fertile in Christ.  But this soil is just as capable for growing great fruits of the Spirit as it is to grow despicable fruits of flesh and death.  The point is that we play an active role to encourage the growth of fruit in our lives as well as to preserve those fruits from the wickedness of the world.

To be sure, all of this is done by the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit but it is a joint partnership.  He works within us that we might work with Him in obedience to His will  in our own lives and, by extension, to affect the whole world.  Let us then take serious the call to farm the fruit of our souls with all the fervor and care of the most decorated blue-ribbon farmers!

Are You Hungry?

Being a human, in the most basic sense, demands adhering to three basic bodily responsibilities: intaking nourishment, expelling waste, and refreshment in sleep.  It behooves the human to schedule fulfilling these duties through the day.  Today, however, I neglected to eat.  Actually, by the time I got home from work, I was nearly swooning with hunger pains.  To be sure, it had only been half a day or so, but I was hungry.

Fortunately, my wife was given the day off and, as I made my hunger known to her, she was able to have dinner prepared for me when I arrived home.  But as I was changing out of my clothes before sitting down to eat, I contemplated my hunger and a verse was brought to my mind.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." (Matt 5:6).

Considering my bodily hunger led me to consider my spiritual hunger.  How hungry am I for righteousness?  Am I in pain in my thirst for Christ?  It seems an odd thing, but a good thing to take an inventory, to adjust our barometer to think of how much we desire God.  Let us then make a practice of considering the level of our hunger and our thirst for God and His goodness!

Jesus Has Cleansed Creation Fully!

Our world is inundated with solvents, cleansers, and detergents.  Shampoos that wash, conditioners that cleanse, soaps that sterilize, and fresheners that, well, freshen.  But with all this attention and resource focused on cleansing and purification, I wonder if we've forgotten what needs to be cleansed, what is the real source of the disorder and chaos that ails the world, namely, sin.

Sin is that pervasive repugnancy, the ominous pall, and the supreme disease of creation.  It is repulsive, corrosive, and altogether disgusting.  The vicious malignancy of sin, however, is that until we are made alive through Jesus we do not see sin as it is, we will always think of it as something other than the utter  refuse and rubbish that it is, and we will be blind to the detritus it deposits in our lives.

Only Christ Jesus, by virtue of His sacrificially atoning death, redeems creation from sin.  Only by His grace applied to our lives through faith will our hearts and our minds be enlightened to allow for us to see unveiled the utter disgust that is sin and its effects in our lives.  This is why Jesus came, this is why He came, why He died, and why He rose again!  Amen that Christ Jesus has provided the ultimate solvent for the dirt and grime of our lives and for all creation!

Living by Faith in terms of Sweat Pants

Notwithstanding the fear of exposing my vanity I must confess that I have far-too many clothes.  It is more than a single dresser may hold and it bloats my closet, ties and slacks bursting through the doors.  Yet with all the variety that such a wardrobe affords, I still find myself wearing a relatively small rotation of garb.

Actually, I were to be completely honest, apart from socks and underwear, I could probably get by with little more than a couple of outfits.  To my discredit, there is one pair of pajamas, the grey ones, that I could wear nearly everyday.  Their comfort seems to call to me from the pile as soon as I walk through the door.  I find that I nearly always heed to its wooing and by the end of the night I am invariably wearing my grubby grey sweat pants.

But isn't life so like this, more specifically, isn't Christian virtue so like this.  We have all sorts of options to choose from: vanity, pride, humility, and charity, et al.  But we, more often than not, put on the same-old habits, those tired character traits and personality flaws that we've lived with for however long.  We hear the voices of vice court us and we fall prey to our own inhibitions and habitual deficiencies.

But there is another way.  Christ has made another way.  He has told us to shed ourselves of such rubbish as vice and to live new, reborn lives in Him, in His name, and by His strength.  It would seem not enough to say that we are called to live a 'life lived by faith.'  But this is just it.  It is as if every time I hear the voice of my sweat pants I wear to listen to the other voice reminding me that they were dirty and that there were another pair of sweat pants, clean and new, untarnished or soiled from my previous misadventures and escapades.

This is what being a fully-devoted follower of Christ is all about.  It is not merely theological affirmations or ascending to rites and rituals; no.  It is a full-on identity change.  Let us then choose to claim that identity change so that when the dirty laundry of our past days tries to infiltrate our sanctification we would be able bodied to choose the better way in Christ.

Acts 4:12: Salvation found in no one else

Acts 4:12: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved."

At the onset, it must be asserted that this verse is certainly taken semi-out of context but that being said it is one of the clearest, boldest affirmations about the supremacy of Christ in the salvation of man.  This is from Peter's sermon at Pentecost, in fact, it is the pinnacle point of his sermon.

Needless to say, there is more than a little theology in this assertion.  But it can be boiled down to this: Jesus saves.  Jesus alone saves.  Only by His name, only by His grace, and only through faith in Him.  In the end, we should never forget that salvation is found in Christ and Christ alone.  And we should always take joy and hope in that truth.

Supplementing Our Faith

2 Peter 1:5-8: "For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love,  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

This is one of my favorite passages of Scripture.  Peter speaks with a concision, but to supplement our faith?  Is Peter asking us as Christians to do something more than merely believe? (Sense the sarcasm).

In reality, Peter is clear that believers are to add these virtues to our faith in increasing measures, all purposed to the goal of love.  Under this sort of analysis, it is not enough merely to believe unless that belief is transformative and as Christ forms the basis for our identity we will be transformed by His Holy Spirit and by His love.  Let us then commit ourselves to the supreme task of growing in Christ, adding virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love to our faith!

No More Wishes

It may seem an odd thing to say but we do not wish upon God.  He is not our wishing well.  Rather, we rely upon God.  We depend upon Him in faith, as sure footings depend upon rungs of the ladder or as deep canyon rely upon a bridge to traverse.  In fact, our lives are contingent solely upon His sustaining grace and the power of His Word, for truly, in Him we live and move and have our being.

A wish is a longing for fulfillment or contentment in circumstances or materials.  To wish is to gaze at the future with an eye of discontent at the present.  When we wish we are simultaneously indicating that a present predicament of want.  We are admitting that we are not content currently but that if our wish be granted then we would be fulfilled.  Truly this is a lie.

Conversely, in Christ our wishes our transformed into expectant hope.  But this hope is not in the determent of perceived deficiencies in the current climate.  Rather, our hope is in the goodness of God, in His steadfast faithfulness and His dependable love.  As our hope in God ferments, we are met with fruit in our lives.  This fruit is God depositing Himself within us.

All of this, ultimately, comes down to faith.  And there can be no grey area, no neutral ground at this point.  Either we are trusting in God or we are trusting in something other than God.  This trust encompasses everything from fulfillment to security, from love to relationships; not the least of these being the whole ordeal of salvation.

Either we trust that God will be our hope or we do not.  Therefore, we do not bring wishes to God; we offer Him no wish.  To do so would be a disrespect to who He is and all that He has done.  Instead, we come to God in faith and in love, made possible because of Christ and empowered by His Holy Spirit.  Let us then think differently as we talk about desire and as we bring theology to bear upon all our lives!

Partakers in the nature of God

In 2 Peter, Peter writes that believers are 'partakers in the divine nature.'  This is a beautiful statement, profound both for its directness but also in its significance.  Perhaps there is no more important Christian doctrine than the fact that we are partakers not only in the Gospel of Christ but, by that virtue, we are also partakers in His divine nature too!

The reality of faith is that it is not merely a passive attitudinal change in reference to God.  No.  Faith is an actual change of person.  It is a constitutional transformation of character from a life of sin in the flesh to a life free of sin in the Spirit.  This means that the believer is not merely who they were before belief; rather, they are altered.

There is a metamorphosis that takes place in the person as a person turns from unbelief to faith.  The irony is that this change is not a change to something 'new' as much as it is a change to something meant to be.  The pervasiveness of sin has so marred humanity that our origins, our original constitution, have been damaged to such a degree that a complete overhaul is in order.  Enter Jesus.

It is thus not enough to speak of redemption from sin as merely a matter of cleansing.  Though this being wholly good and true, when we speak of redemption we must also consider that we are redeemed in restoration, mainly that we are restored, renewed in the image of our Creator in Christ Jesus.  In the end, we are partakers in the nature of God in the very sense that we belong to Him as He is our God.

Forgiveness as a Transaction

Forgiveness is not merely an attitude or a feeling of release felt towards another person.  On the contrary, this would be an anemic view of the breath and depth of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is a transaction.

This is to say that the one who forgives actual gives something to the one who is forgiven while the one who is forgiven, knowingly or not, actually gives something to the forgiver.  The 'thing' that is given, transacted upon forgiveness is love.  Quite simply, forgiveness is the love in the highest sense.

The one who forgives takes on te guilt and transgression of the one forgiven while the one forgiven releases the forgiver of any compulsion to revulsion or anger.  Truly, the purpose of forgiveness is the mending of relationships, reconciliation being the goal in view.

At the final analysis, forgiveness is not something to be viewed lightly or with any sort of flippancy for it is central to the meaning and purpose of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.  As Christ has forgiveness us, He has taken our guilt and shame upon Himself while absolving us from the same.  Let us then revive the seriousness of forgiveness in our minds so that we may most accurately understand what it means for our salvation and for our lives.

Are You Ready to Explain Jesus?

There is an overwhelming narrative point to be made by the New Testament Church.  They were singularly focused on preaching the Gospel to all who would hear.  They were wholly committed to proclaiming the good news about Christ Jesus, first to Jerusalem then to the world.  This attitude, this mission is to be further carried out by Christians today as well.  Truly, we are not off the hook.

While there are numerous verses that testify to this regard, perhaps none is so direct as is the Great Commission spoken by Jesus Himself: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you."  (Matt 28:19-20).

It would be incorrect to think of this as merely a suggestion, like, if the moment suits you then say a bit or two about Christ Jesus.  God forbid!  This is a call, a commandment really.  This is a commandment to give our testimony "with gentleness and respect." (1 Pet 3:15).

Because of the seriousness of this call, we would do well to consider the Gospel; what is it? what does it mean to us?  how should we respond?  Not only would this simple exercise surly be an act of worship and praise but it will also prepare us to give the defense for the grace in which we stand.  This preparation is a good and right thing to do.  But praise be to God that He would use such vessels as us for His lovely grace and boundless majesty!

Car Trouble as an Analogy

Earlier this week, my car was not working properly.  More specifically, my heat was not working.  Now in the summer this would be entirely unimportant but seeing as I live in Minnesota and it is still winter, this is no small intrusion.  Fortunately, I have dealt wth this before and I had an inkling at what the issue may be.  I popped my hood at the gas station, remove the coolant-reservior cap and behold, I was out of coolant. After filling the reservior, letting the engine run for a while, and then checking to make sure that it was holding fluid, I was back on my way, heated and pleased.

Luckily, this was a minor ordeal and easily fixable.  But while I was driving later that day an analogy of humanity came to my mind.  I believe it was Clive Staples Lewis who uttered the analogy of man as a finely-tuned mechanical engine.  And man, being this engine, required a fuel source and that the only fuel source for man, the intended fuel source of man, is God Himself.  Remember: in Him we live, and move, adn have our being and that we live on every Word that flows from His mouth.

But this can be carried further.  There have been many times, daily it seems, that I know that my engine is not working properly.  We can all assess when something is not right; when the mood is depressing, the body feel achy, the relationships are strained, or the mind is just not as sharp as it should be.  Normally I would simply chalk this up to an 'off day.'  But I am beginning to be come to an agreement with Lewis that if I am out of sorts that it is first-and-foremost a theological issue.

And, like my car issue, I know how to deal with theological issues: repent, ask for forgiveness, come to Christ in faith, pray, worship, fellowship, and study His Word.  This is the prescription, but like all medicine it can be tough to swallow.  But if you (speaking to myself here too!) find that you are not running correctly, if your life seems out of sorts, I assure you that seeking after God is the path to healing, whatever the ailments may be!

A Call to Comfort whilst being Comforted

In the introduction to Paul's second letter to the church in Corinth, he writes: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God." (2 Cor 1:3-4).

There is a dynamic union between God and His people that we rarely talk about but the reality is that God has chosen in His divine wisdom to use us, His children, as His instruments of compassion and grace in this world.  Jesus has not only redeemed us from our sin, He has also saved us to be His hands and feet.  Think of the profundity of that!

God, in His will and design, uses human instruments to enact His grace, to live out His compassion, and to extend His mercy to the weary and downtrodden of this world.  This has within it a twofold commandment.  Not only are we to depend wholeheartedly upon God alone for our comfort but, even more so, we are to be that comfort for others whom God has placed in our lives.

This is no mean feat, no small task.  It takes an incredible amount of courage to be comforted and it takes an equally large degree of bravery to be the comforter.  It demands sincerity and vulnerabilty to fulfill this highest form of loving charity: to truly care for those who are careless while recognizing our utter feebleness to care for ourselves. 

Yet this is the manner that God has ordained and we would do well to commit in obedience to this call.  He desires to comfort the world in the love of Christ Jesus through His people.  And praise be to God who has in His good pleasure chosen us to be those vessels of love!  Amen!

Musings on God

There is nothing sweeter than to taste the goodness of the Lord.  He is glorious and majestic.  To say that He is loving would be to say that water is wet.  To comment upon His grace would be to say that the sun is hot and bright.  There is no greater joy for man than to utter the sincerest of praise to God.  Simply to contemplate upon the greatness of God is to consider the very depths of all that is life, all that is good, and all that is wonderful.  With every breath taken in I praise the Lord that He has sustained me and with every exhalation I praise Him for His continued preservation.

The Word of the Lord is sure and it is without flaw.  It is a salve for wounds and a level for my heart's home.  I will trust and obey the Word of the Lord for it is the life and light.  The Word of the Lord brings to life all that is dead and He sheds light upon all that is hidden in the darkness and cold of this world.

In Christ we are saved.  His grace has come to us in that while we were wretched sinnes, Christ died so that we could come to God in faith, be restored to Him in a redeemed relationship, and be renewed in the likeness of our Creator.  Praise the Lord for He is the keeper of covenant for a thousand generations. Praise the Lord for He loves and is faithful to His people and to the promises He has made to them.  Truly, there is nothing sweeter than the Lord!

Isaiah 25:1--Praise the Lord

Isaiah 25:1: "O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure."

I love this verse.  So clear and so direct.  Praise the Lord for all He has done for He is faithful and sure to fulfill His plans of old.  He is steadfast to keep His covenant promises for a thousand generations.  Therefore, because of all this, we praise His name!  To be sure, the Scripture speaks for itself, so I'll repeat:


"O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure."

Ten Commandments: a Refresher

#1: You shall have no other Gods but the Lord.

#2: You shall not make for yourself any idol of any sort.

#3: You shall not take the name of the Lord in vein.

#4: Observe the Sabbath.

#5: Honor your father and mother.

#6: You shall not murder.

#7: You shall not commit adultery.

#8: You shall not steal.

#9: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

#10: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or anything else that is your neighbor's.

These commandments form the backbone of God's Law, given to Israel through Moses.  Jesus commands us to live this Law too.  We have been given the Holy Spirit that we could fulfill the righteous requirements of the Law.  Therefore, we are still called to praise God by living lives that honor His goodness and His grace.  Let us then take heed to follow these commandments with joy and with love!

Be Strong & Courageous

Joshua 1:9: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go."

We humans are so prone to fear.  We have such an innate proclivity toward worry and anxiety, such a natural bent to be afraid.  Most of this, to be sure, comes from our desire to control our conditions but we are always powerless to the scenarios and circumstances of life.  But in Joshua, God speaks quite plainly, commanding us to trust fully in the Lord and rely upon Him for our strength, for our relief, and for our courage.  Ask yourself today: how well are you obeying this commandment?  Are you strong and courageous in the Lord?  If not, let us seek after Him for our courage and for our strength!

The Difference between Us and Him

Isaiah 55:8-9: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Humans continually try to assert ourselves as equal to God.  We claim great intellect or remarkable cleverness but these are but shadows of the glory of God.  We think morality makes us superior but we forget that 'our' was given us by God.  In the end, the only appropriate attitude is to remember who we are in light of who He is.  He is God!  How we think of God is the most important thing about us.  Let us then consider the Lord.

Waiting is the Hardest Part

Psalm 27:14: "Wait for the Lord; be strong , and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!"

There is perhaps nothing more challenging than the commandment to wait on the Lord.  Today, this evening, the Holy Spirit spoke to me a clear message to wait.  This message, to be sure, is met with a conflicting emotion within me not to wait.  But, luckily, the Spirit of the Lord is strong and I am overwhelmed to listen to His voice.  In the end, however, waiting is not a passive ordeal.  It is an active pursuit of God's will in prayer and Bible study.  So now, at this point, I am here waiting on Him.  Although this may not be an instructive blog as much as an informative one, this is where I am.  I am waiting.  I will keep everyone informed on the outcome for I know that God will guide my steps!

A Note to Self

As odd as it may seem, this particular blog is a note to myself.  I need to be reminded to read the Scripture everyday.  So, my very simple and straightforward note today is to read the Scripture, engage the Word of God, and seek after His guidance provided for us in His holy Word.  I have very little else to say, just an encouraging challenge that you (I mean the future me too) would set apart time today to look in the Bible and pray that God would reveal Himself by His Word.  That about covers it.  Amen!