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Cry Out to the Lord

2011-11-06T22:02:00.000-08:00

The book of Judges is not an easy book to go through. It is definitely not the most positive and uplifting book in the Bible. When you mention Judges to someone, the images that are conjured up are those of Israel’s failures. 12 judges; a period of about 400 years later, and we see that the Israelites have still not learned their lesson. The final verse in the book reads, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” So even after all that the Lord has done for His people – delivering them from Egypt, going before them in battle against the occupants of the promised land, rescuing them from oppression over and over again – the Israelites still turn away from their God to serve their own desires.

There is a common view in Christian circles that the God of the Old Testament is the God of wrath, while the God of the New Testament is the God of mercy. The book of Judges surely removes this notion, and displays how God is unchanging – Yes there is wrath against sin, but there is also mercy in the book of Judges as well.

We may find it easy to look at the book of Judges and view it as the Old Testament history of God’s people during this specific period of time. We may believe that it is far removed from us, and that its words are not relevant to us today. However there is a message of hope in its pages that we need to constantly remember. This morning, I would like to look at the cycle that is found in Judges and help us to see the message of hope as it applies to us here in the 21st century.

We are not that much different than the Israelite people. How many of you have seen God do mighty works in your life only to forget them in times of trouble? How many of you have been rescued from bondage only to return eagerly to the very thing you were once delivered from? We can be just as stiff-necked as the people were thousands of years ago.

In the opening chapters of Judges, we read about how the Israelites were unable to drive out all of the Canaanites from all of the areas of the land they were to inhabit. Therefore they lived among them, and as God warned, their gods became a snare to the Israelites. We read in verses 11-13:

And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals. And they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the LORD to anger. They abandoned the LORD and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. (Jdg 2:11-13).

God knew that if the other nations were not destroyed that His people would begin to integrate ways with the enemy. Instead of holding to His holy and right way, the Israelites began to adopt the practices of the nations that lived among them. They began to serve their gods, and abandoned the LORD who had done great deeds for them.

Is this not the situation that we find ourselves in? We are God’s people, and in almost all of our social interactions we find ourselves surrounded by those who don’t believe. This week it was announced that the population of the world has reached 7 billion people. Recent estimates say that about 33%, or 2.3 billion people or so adhere to the Christian faith. While Christianity may be the single belief system that has the most followers, that still means that there are 5 billion people with other beliefs that we share the planet with.

And we are just as vulnerable today to the snares of influence in the world as the Israelites were to the Canaanites thousands of years ago. Perhaps now more than ever. We invite other cultures and beliefs into our house every time we turn on the television or go on the internet. We are bombarded with hundreds of advertisements trying to convert us every day. And as far as religious beliefs go, the doctrine of relativism is the teaching of the day. Those who try to hold onto absolute truth are viewed as intolerant.

The people of Israel turned from their God to serve the Baals. So what did that look like then, and what does Baal worship look like in our world today? As it turns out, not much has changed. One author explains Old Testament Baal worship in this way: “Ritualistic Baal worship, [began with] adults gathering around the altar of Baal. Infants would then be burned alive as a sacrificial offering to the deity. Men and women alike would then engage in [sexual immorality]. The ritual of convenience was intended to produce economic prosperity by prompting Baal to bring rain for the fertility of "mother earth." This author goes on to say that these aspects of Baal worship manifest themselves in modern day liberalism. The worship of fertility has been replaced by “reproductive freedom” or “choice”; Children are now sacrificed in the womb by means of abortion; and sexual liberalism is widely promoted.

Have some of these practices found acceptance in the lives of Christians? Are we, like the Israelites, guilty of chasing after the gods of the nations that surround us? I don’t think that many of us here would say that we have gone the way of liberalism, that we would embrace these practices as described here. But perhaps some of these ideologies have gotten in, in varying degrees.

Maybe we aren’t sacrificing our children in fires or terminating pregnancies. Maybe what we are sacrificing with them is time. Are we spending enough time with our children, teaching them about God? Are we helping them to grow in their gifts and skills. Or are we too busy with our work, or other activities? When they come up to you and ask for your attention, do you shoo them away, or tell them “later?” In the first message in this series, Pastor Mike highlighted the importance of spending this time with our children – are we making it a priority?

Maybe we aren’t engaging in the lewd practices of sexual liberalism. But are we giving impropriety and licentiousness footholds in our lives? Are we being careful with the media that we watch to ensure purity in our minds, in our marriages? Are there other worldly gods that we serve?

These questions are important to us today, because, as it was in the book of Judges, along with disobedience comes consequences. We read in verses 14-15:

So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the LORD was against them for harm, as the LORD had warned, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress. (Jdg 2:14-15)

As the Lord had warned them, their disobedience in joining in the practices of their enemies resulted in harm and distress. A number of times we read that the Israelites are sold into the hands of their enemies. The Lord strengthens the hands of Eglon, and God’s people are forced into service to this King. They are severely oppressed, greatly afflicted, and crushed. These are but a few of the descriptions that we read of the way God handles the disobedience of His people.

The problem is not just disobedience. When they are turning to serve the Baals, they are forsaking, or abandoning God. God explains the gravity of this to the Israelites in chapter 10:10-14:

Then the sons of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, "We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have forsaken our God and served the Baals." The LORD said to the sons of Israel, "Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians, the Amorites, the sons of Ammon, and the Philistines? "Also when the Sidonians, the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hands. "Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods; therefore I will no longer deliver you. "Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your distress." (Jdg 10:10-14)

God reminds them of all of the things that He has done for them – deliverance from Egypt, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, and others. Despite all of this, they abandon their God and turn to serve other gods. I imagine that it would be like raising a child, feeding and clothing him, teaching him how to walk, loving him – and then when he turns 18 he moves out, saying, “I have a new mom and dad, I’m going to go live with them.”

Fractured relationships are what result from turning away, from forsaking someone who loves you. Whether it is the children you neglect, the spouse you are unfaithful to, or the friends that you alienate, sin gets in the way of right relationship. And even more so with God. Our sin makes it impossible to stand before Him. When we turn our backs on God, He allows us to go into the hands of our enemies. There we eventually begin to feel the weight of the sin upon us.

There comes a point when the crushing oppression becomes too much to bear. After many years of serving at the hands of their enemies, the Israelites finally remember the God who rescued them from the land of Egypt. We read over and over again, “the sons of Israel cried to the Lord.” This word ‘cried’ is defined as ‘a shriek of anguish or danger.’ There is a sense of desperation as the people long to be free of their bondage to their enemies.

And God’s response is one of grace and mercy – He raises up a judge to deliver them from those who are oppressing them. Verses 16-18 say:

Then the LORD raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them. Yet they did not listen to their judges, for they played the harlot after other gods and bowed themselves down to them. They turned aside quickly from the way in which their fathers had walked in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do as their fathers. When the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed and afflicted them. (Jdg 2:16-18)

In spite of the constant rebellion, in spite of the repeated forsaking of His way to turn to the gods of other nations, God hears the cry of His people, and sends deliverance. He turns away from His anger and wrath and responds with love, patience, forgiveness. And after the judge delivers the people from the oppressive enemy, the land has peace for a number of years.

We may not face oppression from our enemies in the same way that the ancient Israelites did, but we still feel the weight and burden of our sins. And we have probably all faced this cycle of sin at some point in our lives. Like the Israelites, when we cry out to God, when we call on His name, He will send deliverance to us. We too can receive the mercy and forgiveness that he repeatedly showed to the Israelites.

And here we have opportunity to do something differently than the Israelites did. They were quick to return to the false gods upon the deaths of the judges. They continued on in this cycle because they would not remember their God who rescued them from Egypt. We have a benefit that the Israelites did not have in the palms of our hands. The word of God passed down and preserved. We can clearly see the consequences of a life lived in opposition to God’s will. Therefore, let us strive not to make the same mistakes as the Israelites. Let us maintain our focus on the one true God, and remain obedient to His will. Let us not turn to the false gods that this world so fervently tries to get us to worship

Today, are you finding yourself in the place of the Israelites? Is there an area of your life where you have forsaken the Lord, and have turned to serve other gods? Are you feeling the oppressive consequences of sin in your life? Cry out to the Lord. Turn from your sins and remember your God who has delivered you from bondage and set you on a path to the Promised Land. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And let us strive to remember, and not to forget as the Israelites did.

Let’s pray. Father, I thank you for Your word. I thank you that you have shown us the story of the Israelites as an example of the way that you want us to live. It is awesome that, though they were stiff-necked and constantly turned from you, when they cried out to you, you received them back into your arms. Lord I pray for the people here today. You know where each and every one of them is at in their lives. Lord I pray that you would strengthen those who have cried out to you in their bondage and tasted your deliverance. Help them to hold fast to you. And Lord I pray for those who have turned, even partly, to serve the gods of the nations surrounding us. Lord would you draw them. Help them to feel the burden of their sin, that they too would cry to you and be delivered. Lord we thank you for making a way for us to enter into right relationship with you, and we pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen

Does God Create People With No Hope Of Salvation?

2011-05-23T21:50:00.000-07:00

Obviously this is a huge question. Behind this question lies the need for discussion on a variety of topics, such as the sovereignty of God and the depravity of man. I could happily point you towards some reading material that could better answer these other topics, one being The Potter’s Freedom by James White, the book from which I drew the insight for my status.

I will, however, attempt the beginnings of an answer by using an illustration from the Bible. The book of Exodus details the mighty working of God to free His people from the cruel bondage of the Egyptian Pharaoh. Before Moses has even set foot before Pharaoh, we read these words:

[Then the Lord said to Moses]…"But I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. "When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments. (Exo 7:3-4)

Then follow ten plagues, after each of which we read either that Pharaoh hardened his heart or that God hardened his heart. When Pharaoh ‘hardens his own heart’ we read “as the Lord had said” (7:13; 7:22; 8:15; 8:19). This should be taken to mean that God is the one doing the hardening, because He had said in advance that He would be the one to harden Pharaoh’s heart (7:3). (For an in-depth look at how this is so, check out this sermon by John Piper).

The climax of the Exodus story results in the deaths of all the firstborn sons of Egypt followed by the cataclysmic destruction of the Egyptian army and Pharaoh himself as God brings the waters of the Red Sea crashing down upon them, after the Israelites have safely crossed on dry land.

Does God create people with no hope of salvation? I believe the answer to that question is yes. Why do I say this? Consider Pharaoh – Can we read this story and believe that there was hope of salvation for him? Can we believe that there was any chance that he would repent of his sin and let the people of Israel go? I do not believe that this is so, and the reason is given to us:

"For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. "But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. (Exo 9:15-16)

God could have cut Pharaoh down at any moment. Yet He had a greater purpose in mind for him. His destruction showed the Israelites and the rest of the world God’s power, and caused them to fear His name. The destruction of Pharaoh resulted in the salvation of Rahab.

It is this verse in Exodus that Paul quotes in Romans 9 in response to a question that goes behind your own question: “There is no injustice with God, is there?” (Rom 9:14). Paul then goes on to explain the freedom of God, that being that "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION."

He goes on to say, “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. “(Rom 9:16). The “it” is referring back to verse 11, where this whole idea began, with God choosing Jacob over Esau – the “it” is referring to God’s purpose according to His choice, or according to His election. God is free to choose Jacob to be the heir and Esau not to be the heir.

Paul then follows with the verse concerning Pharaoh. God’s electing purpose displays His power, and also has evangelical implications – that His name would be proclaimed throughout the earth. He then says the same thing he said in verse 15 in the negative - So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires (Rom 9:18). To line them all up, God has mercy on whom He desires, He has compassion on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. God is free to act in whatever manner with His people that He desires.

Paul anticipates the objection that arises from such a teaching, thus he says, “You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" (Rom 9:19). If God willed the destruction of Pharaoh and so hardened his heart to the extent that he could not repent of his sinful behavior, then how can it be said that Pharaoh is at fault – after all, God was the one who hardened him to that end!

Paul response to this objection with possibly one of the most terse statements in all the Bible: On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? (9:20). In essence, Paul is saying that anyone, as a human, has no right or authority to question God and the way that He does things. God is God, and humans are not God, and therefore the attempt to accuse God of wrongdoing is invalid.

Then what follows is the key concept to the James White book I mentioned earlier. That is that God is the Potter, the sovereign creator of all things, including us humans. We are but clay in His hands, formed as He wishes to form us, for whatever purpose He wishes to form us for:

The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, (Rom 9:20b-23).

One thing is certain from this passage: God has created vessels of wrath which He has prepared for destruction. He has also created vessels of mercy which He has prepared for glory. How can this be taken any other way, than to say that some are created without the hope of salvation? If something has been purposefully created by God to be destroyed, what are we to say? We should note also that God does not create vessels of destruction without a purpose – these that are destroyed make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy. This is true of Pharaoh – His destruction, which was determined beforehand, was determined so that the riches of God’s glory would be known among the Israelites, as well as among the rest of the world.

This is where my status stemmed from. Because the question that often arises from this teaching is, “Why then should we evangelize? Why then should we pray for other people?” For if God has already determined who is going to be destroyed and who will see glory, then doesn’t that negate the usefulness of preaching the gospel to unbelievers? To which I give a heartfelt “No.” Quite the opposite – this should give us a greater zeal to preach the word to unbelievers. For we do not know whom the Lord will save. It is not our job to worry about who will be saved and who will not – it is our job to preach the word of truth in accordance with Scripture. Paul says in chapter 10:

...for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED." How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, "HOW BEAUTIFUL ARE THE FEET OF THOSE WHO BRING GOOD NEWS OF GOOD THINGS!" However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, "LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT?" So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. (Rom 10:13-17).

We are sent to speak the word of Christ to unbelievers. That is our role, to which we must be obedient. Whether they receive mercy or compassion or hardening is up to God.

What Love is This, Part 6 – Chapter 7

2010-08-07T23:08:00.001-07:00

The Disturbing Consequences

Sadly, the acceptance of this theory leads to a corollary that is even more unbiblical as well as contradictory to the innate sense of compassion that God has placed within even unregenerate man: that God could save all mankind but deliberately withholds from multitudes the salvation he gives to the elect. (p.122)

Hunt doesn’t give us any sort of explanation or definition for the word “elect”. So let us take a look at it for him.

The most common usage we have for this word today surrounds the world of politics. We live in a democracy in which the people choose the people who will govern the country. These leaders are decided by a process called election, in which multiple candidates run against each other and the people choose the one they feel will best represent their views.

Election in the Bible is a little different. In politics, the candidates themselves decide whether or not they will run. In the Bible, God decides the candidates. Hunt has not yet dealt with the passages in scripture that explain election clearly – such as Ephesians 1 and Romans 9.

Before we look at those, it is worth mentioning that Jesus speaks of the elect in Matthew 24:

"Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. "Then if anyone says to you, 'Behold, here is the Christ,' or 'There He is,' do not believe him. "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. (Mat 24:22-24, emphasis added)

"And He will send forth His angels with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. (Mat 24:31)

One of Hunt’s arguments in this section is that “God limits His mercy and grace to a select group.” Yet he fails to address the scriptures which point to the fact that there are two different groups of people – the elect and the non-elect. How does the Bible describe the elect?

…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. (Eph 1:4-6)

This is clear and unmistakeable – He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. This is the crux of the argument that Hunt has been trying to make – that all people have the ability to choose God. Yet Paul makes it clear that God has chosen us, and that before the foundation of the world.

Not only that, but He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself. Paul adds the concept of adoption to further show man’s inability to come to Christ. Does a person choose to be adopted? Is it the child that fills out the paperwork and does all the legwork to find suitable parents? No, it is the parents who do the work to adopt a child, not the other way around. So it is with our Heavenly Father.

Further Biblical support for election is found in Romans 9, where Paul uses the account of Jacob and Esau to illustrate God’s sovereign choice:

…for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, "THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER." Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." (Rom 9:11-13)

Before the children were born, before they had done a shred of work, God ordained that the older would serve the younger. This so that there would be no doubt that it was God who chose who would continue the line of David. God ordained it, and then He made it happen.

This verse in Romans also serves to eradicate the next argument that Hunt attempts to make:

Here we confront a major problem with Calvinism: its denial of God’s infinite love for all. That God, who repeatedly declares His love for all mankind, would choose to save only some and leave all others to suffer eternal damnation would be contrary to His very nature of infinite love and mercy as the Bible presents Him. (p.122)

Does God really have an infinite love for all people? This sounds like something dangerously close to universalism. Let’s see what the Bible says about God and hate:

The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. (Psa 5:5)

The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates. (Psa 11:5)

"I have loved you," says the LORD. But you say, "How have You loved us?" "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness." (Mal 1:2-3)

We cannot say that God does not hate. In order for Him to love, He must simultaneously hate. It is not often that we hear that God hates a specific person, such as in the example of Esau. But if God is to love something, He must also hate something.

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. (Rom 12:9)

In order for God to love good, He must hate evil. And what is more evil than for a person to turn away from the God who created them to worship the things that He made? Without the wrath to punish the sin, there is no gospel.

Even Sproul admits, “If some people are not elected unto salvation then it would seem that God is not all that loving toward them. Further, it seems that it would have been more loving of God not to have allowed them to be born. That may indeed be the case.” God’s love, however is infinite and perfect. It is therefore an oxymoron to suggest that God was ever toward anyone “not all that loving” and might “have been more loving.” (p.123)

I understand the conundrum that this kind of question poses. I have dealt with this kind of question personally – If God ordains that a person is not elect and therefore condemned, then what does that mean? Is God wrong for condemning someone to Hell?

By no means. I think that those who struggle with this question need to take a serious look at the words of Romans 9:

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, (Rom 9:14-23)

This is not an easy passage to digest by any means. And I’m sure that it was not an easy thing for Paul to write. But we cannot deny the authority of scripture. Anyone who struggles with the question of whether or not it is just for God to send someone to Hell should consider this – we are but a speck of dust. James says:

Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (Jas 4:14)

We give ourselves far too much credit in thinking that we deserve anything. When we consider the depravity of our hearts, we should be heavy hearted, realizing that the only thing that we deserve is to be cast into the fire, right here, right now. The reason? Because we do not ascribe to God the glory that He deserves.

We are a part of God’s creation. He formed each of us in the womb, He is the sustainer of life. He has the right to do with us whatever He pleases to do. If it is His purpose to raise someone up only to dash them against the rocks, that is His prerogative. And no one can question Him, because He is the almighty Creator.

Why does God bring destruction upon some? To make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory. We should not fault God for bringing His hand of wrath down upon some – for He does it to show his glory to those upon whom He has chosen to show mercy. We shouldn’t feel angry when God destroys a friend, a loved one, a stranger, who has turned away from Him. We should be awestruck, humbled, and thankful that He has shown His mercy to us who likewise deserved destruction.

What Love Is This, Part 5 - Chapter 7

2010-04-25T01:13:00.000-07:00

What Ability is Needed to Receive a Gift? Part 2

Just as no special ability is required on the part of the endangered person to be rescued from drowning or from a burning building, or on the part of the imprisoned criminal who is pardoned to accept his release, so no unusual ability is required of the person whom Christ rescues from eternal condemnation. Thus, Calvinism’s very foundation in its special definition of human depravity as inability is as unreasonable as it is unbiblical.

I have already spoken to this section’s accusation of being unbiblical and have shown how Hunt’s free-wheeling with scripture has lead to misunderstanding, quashing his claim that Total Depravity is unbiblical. Now I will address this section’s closing paragraph and its claim that the inability to which he refers is unreasonable.

Hunt has offered us three scenarios by which he claims that there is no special ability needed in order to be saved from danger. A person who is drowning doesn’t need a ‘special ability’ to be pulled from the water. A person in a burning building doesn’t bring anything to the table when they are lifted on some brave person’s shoulders and carried out of the smoky den.

He then compares these scenarios with the ‘rescuing’ power of Jesus, saying that there is no ability required of the person who is saved

But wait a minute – there is a non sequitur in his argument here. The scenarios that he has offered assume passivity – that is that these people do nothing and are saved. Then he says “no unusual ability is required of the person whom Christ rescues from eternal condemnation.” I had to read this a number of times and mull over it a bit – because it sure sounds like he is arguing for Calvinism here. ‘Nothing a person can do’, inability, ‘Christ rescues’, sovereign grace. I think he means to say that salvation in the eyes of Calvinism is passive, that is a person who has been chosen from before creation doesn’t really need to do anything, because God will save them when He sees fit. But that’s not the position that Hunt is arguing for. He is arguing for a position of salvation that is active; that we do have some ability that we can exercise when it comes to our salvation.

So let’s take these examples Hunt has given us and activate them.

Is there something that a drowning person can do to save themselves? Well for starters, before they get into the water they can take precautions to make sure that they are safe – wearing a life preserver or taking swimming lessons. But failing those things, if they find themselves flailing about in the water, is there still not something the person can do? Sure, they could calm themselves down enough and try to swim to the shore. The only way that a person in this example would be completely unable to help themselves, even somewhat, is if they didn’t have functioning limbs or were already unconscious when they hit the water

Is there something that a person in a burning building can do to save themselves? Again there could be some prior preparation – an escape route that has been preplanned, as well as supplies – masks, fire extinguishers, etc. Even if the fire is raging, if they are conscious they could still attempt to make an escape, keeping low to the ground, with a wet towel if they can manage. Again, the only way that a person would have to completely rely on another to save them is if they were knocked out on the ground.

The prisoner example made me laugh because it’s just so ridiculous. Hardened criminals who show no signs of rehabilitation of course are going to be denied parole (and any warden who grants such a person clemency should take their place). It is not without much effort on the part of a criminal to show that they are deserving of freedom do they even be considered for parole.

So in each of these examples, there is something that the person can or must do outside of themselves in order to better their situation. The point of scripture is to say that there is nothing that a man can do in order to warrant him salvation. Otherwise you have a works theology, and we know that salvation doesn’t come from works, but by faith that is received as a gift from God.

Hunt, it seems, has completely missed the point, even in his own examples. We are the people floating face down in the water; we are the people unconscious in our beds from smoke inhalation; we are the criminals that don’t seek rehabilitation. There is nothing that we can do to save ourselves – we are dead. We are unable to swim to shore, or crawl on the floor because the dead cannot do these things. This is why it must all come from Jesus’ sovereign hand – because we are dead and unable; and so that He gets the glory

What Love Is This, Part 4 - Chapter 7

2010-04-21T11:54:00.000-07:00

What Ability is Needed to Receive a Gift?

Hunt refers to Romans 5:18 (Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.) to say that salvation is received as a gift, and that the only ability needed in order to receive the gift is the ability to choose. He then continues on to say something that he has said many times before – Something is not found in the scriptures:

But not one of the many scriptures that describe man’s depravity state that he is impervious to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit – or no one could be saved. Nor does any scripture declare that God convicts and convinces only an elect group.(p.118)

Hunt often in this chapter has made such sweeping, absolute claims that there is no scripture to support something that supports Calvinism – remember this was how he opened the chapter – but he is wrong.

Not only that, but he butchers a portion of scripture to fit his point that contains just such an example! Hunt writes:

In 1 Corinthians 2:7-16, Paul refers to “the things of the Spirit of God [which] are spiritually discerned…the hidden wisdom [concerning] things of God…which the Holy Ghost teacheth [which] are spiritually discerned.” The Calvinist uses this passage to support his idea of “total depravity” – i.e., that only the elect who have been regenerated can understand and believe the gospel. (p.119)

No, Calvinists don’t use *this* severely edited passage for anything. This is the passage of scripture to which Hunt used to fabricate his scripture with:

(7) But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. (8) None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. (9) But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"-- (10) these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. (11) For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
(12) Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. (13) And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. (14) The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. (15) The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. (16) "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

When the passage is intact, we can in fact see why Hunt would claim that Calvinists use this passage to illustrate Total Depravity – because when scripture is allowed to mean what it says, it is undeniable. Let us look at the latter part of the passage from which Hunt does his craft time with scripture in its whole state.

Paul, in verse 12, points out that there are two spirits operating in the world – the spirit of the world and the Spirit who is from God. So right away we can see that Hunt’s second issue with this passage is falling apart already. This verse implies that some receive the spirit of the world while others receive the Spirit who is from God. So there are indeed two different groups of people – Spiritual and unspiritual. And there is a reason for the receipt of the Spirit from God – that we might understand the things freely given us by God. What are these things given freely by God? His Son was given freely to us, and also His grace was given freely to us.

So it follows then that those who are of the spirit of the world do not have the understanding of these things. Now, Hunt has been arguing that it is by believing the word that people are saved (p.115). But who believes the word? In verse 13, Paul explains that he is imparting words unto his readers that are not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit. So here he is making sure to point out that it is the Spirit who does the teaching, and not men. But it is the last part of this verse that is most crucial – we are taught by the Spirit who interprets spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. So here is a clear scripture that illustrates that some receive spiritual teaching while others do not. The Spirit does not interpret spiritual truths to those who are of the spirit of the world.

This is made even more plain in verse 14. The natural person – that is the person who has received the spirit of the world – does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. The contrast here is that where a person receives the Spirit of God there is understanding, but where a person is of the spirit of the world, there is not understanding of that which is spiritual. Now this is where the first part of Hunt’s argument above falls to pieces; and his sweeping claims that Calvinism is not supported in the scriptures are shown to be the lies that they are. (And I wonder, when he was writing this section, what was going through his mind as he omitted this part.)

…And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. There it is in plain English – man’s inability to understand that which is spiritual. Now let’s work backwards to see that neither of Hunt’s arguments have a leg to stand on. Man is not able to understand the things of the Spirit for they are spiritually discerned, and instead views them as foolishness. This is because the Spirit interprets the spiritual truths to those who are spiritual, not those who have been taught by the wisdom of men. Those who are spiritual have received this Spirit from God and have not received the spirit of the world.

Total Depravity. Clearly scriptural.

I would say that it is funny that Hunt has defeated himself in this case by using the very scripture that stands against his beliefs. I would say that it is funny if it were not so grievous an abuse of scripture. Friends when I am trying to make a point using scripture, I have a hard time limiting myself in the usage of the Word. I often find myself reading backwards and wanting to include more and more verses in my example, sometimes to the point where the whole chapter must be read in order to get a complete understanding. I look upon this butchery of the word of God with disgust, for it is abuses like this that are tearing down the unity of the church. How easy it is to make the Bible say what you want it to say when you don’t let the Bible say what it actually says.

"Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better"

2010-04-11T01:25:00.000-07:00

What is boasting?

Boasting is “to speak with exaggeration and excessive pride, especially about oneself.” Now, if you’re like me, whenever you hear someone boasting about themselves, it really turns you off. Maybe you’ve tried to have a conversation with a boaster and left it frustrated as everything you said turned into a story of how they did it better. Or perhaps you know someone who is always tooting their own horn.

Boasting should look unappealing to us because, as the definition points out, at the heart of a boast is pride. What is pride? A high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc. So, to a person who is full of pride, boasting is a way to increase that pride – because if you feel good about something, and other people affirm you in that thing, its going to make you feel even better.

Now we as Christians know that we are not supposed to boast. Let’s take a look at some biblical examples to see why. The first time that the word ‘boast’ appears in the Bible is in Judges 7. Some background – A group of people called the Midianites have risen against the people of Israel and Gideon is chosen from the Israelites to lead the people against the Midianites.

Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. The LORD said to Gideon, "The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.' Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, 'Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.'" Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. And the LORD said to Gideon, "The people are still too many. Take them down to the water, and I will test them for you there, and anyone of whom I say to you, 'This one shall go with you,' shall go with you, and anyone of whom I say to you, 'This one shall not go with you,' shall not go." So he brought the people down to the water. And the LORD said to Gideon, "Every one who laps the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set by himself. Likewise, every one who kneels down to drink." And the number of those who lapped, putting their hands to their mouths, was 300 men, but all the rest of the people knelt down to drink water. (Judges 7:1-6)

Now God’s concern here is plain: There are 33,000 men in this army that is to face Midian. God sees that if everyone were to go down to where the Midianites were, that the destruction would be total – and also that the temptation would be there to say, “Hey! We did this! We destroyed the Midianites by our own hands” God seeks to eliminate that factor from this equation completely, by making it unmistakable that He is the one who effected the victory. So He reduces the number of Israelites that will go down to the Midianite camp, and He does this sovereignly. 22,000 return home as they are too afraid to fight. God reduces the army to an even smaller number in a peculiar way. God separates 300 from the remaining 10,000 by having them get on all fours and lap the water up like dogs.

(And two more examples of God’s sovereignty in this chapter – God tells Gideon if he is afraid to go down to the camp where he will hear something that will strengthen him to fight; which he does and hears something, just as God had intended. And the battle of the Midianites itself – the 300 hid in the bushes with little more than a jars, torches, and trumpets. Not a sword was drawn, only a large rabble was made, turning the Midianite army to turn their own swords on themselves.)

All of this so that Israel couldn’t say “We smote the Midianites with our own hands.” There is no room for boasting in this example, except to boast that God has defeated the Midianites.

(If you haven't seen the “Good-o-Meter”, please watch and then continue.)

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." (1Co 1:26-31)

Let’s remember this video – These people think that they’re pretty good. The girl and the African American are genuinely surprised that they were deemed ‘not good enough’. Each of their responses to the angels is a boast`- I tried to live a good life; I did good things to balance out the bad things; ‘I devoted my whole life to helping others.’

But the last guy – he comes up to the front of the line sullen, head hung in shame carrying the biggest, reddest file of them all. He has nothing to say in his defense, and sheepishly hands the folder to the angel. And then something unexpected happens.

A hand holds out another folder; the angel, clearly flustered, fixes his tie and takes the folder from Jesus. Jesus has stepped in and, by His authority, takes the scale for the man. You can bet that when this man is talking about his salvation to others, he is not going to boast in himself. He won’t say “I lived a good life and did good things for others.” No, he’s going to say, “Jesus picked me – out of a room full of pretty good people, He chose me to sit next to Him – me! The chiefest of sinners!”

That is how salvation works – God chooses His people. As in the case of Gideon and the Midianites, God choosing the people who would serve to fight, God chooses those who will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Paul says it three times – God chose the foolish; God chose the weak; God chose the low and despised. Why? So that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

He continues, Because of Him you are in Christ Jesus. Note that the ‘Him’ is referring to God – it is because of God that anyone is in Jesus and subsequently the items referred to in the rest of the verse – Jesus becomes in us wisdom from God, righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. It is only because of God that we have any of these things, so that as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Now, once I heard someone talking about the authority of Jesus, and it was said that He has authority over all things in the universe. He spoke a fantastic truth – every facet and area of a person’s life is under the authority of Jesus. I gave an ‘amen’ in my heart when I heard that.

But then he said something that I don’t agree with because it didn’t fall in line with what he had just said about Jesus’ authority. He said that we must ‘invite Jesus into our hearts’. I disagree with this phrase, and the idea that we ‘invite’ Jesus into our hearts. Jesus has authority over my heart! Saying that we must invite Jesus in gives the impression that Jesus is standing at the door, knocking, powerless to do anything to save you – that is unless you invite Him into your heart. This isn’t a biblical phrase, nor is it consistent with scripture, based on another passage from Paul which illustrates why I disagree with the above statement:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
(Eph 2:1-9)

God's Will For My Will

2010-03-13T07:49:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago the question was asked to me, “If God predestines someone to have a hardened heart, can they still be saved?” I wanted to be sure I was giving the right answer, and so I took it home, and meditated on the word and prayed for the right words.

I think the answer to that question is, Yes; if it is God’s will that someone’s heart be hardened it will be so. Does this mean that this person is lost forever? Not necessarily. Sometimes God hardens a person for a time in order to humble them, only to lift them up again. Other times God may harden a person to their destruction.

I think that perhaps the wrong question was asked here. I think maybe the question that should have been asked was, “If it is God’s purpose that a person be doomed to destruction, is there any hope for that person? Is there anything I can do to save that person?” I think the answer to that question is, If it is God’s purpose that a person face destruction then it will be so.

Now I think that one of the reasons that there is concern about listening prayer is because it seems as though listening prayer is used as a way to discern the will of God. The one time that I saw it at my church, the person was asking us to listen to see if God put anything on our hearts to volunteer for the cause he brought forward; that is if anyone felt that it was God’s will for them to volunteer that they should do so.

I don’t think that it is a person’s place to seek to know the will of God in this way. I think that a person can get themselves into a lot of trouble in seeking to ‘know’ the will of God. But I don’t want to get into this today. Today I want to look at a biblical example of each of these situations, where God acts on the heart of a person.

The first example is King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4. The King has a dream, and Daniel is summoned to interpret the dream for him. Daniel says,

This is the interpretation, O king: It is a decree of the Most High, which has come upon my lord the king, that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. You shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and you shall be wet with the dew of heaven, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, till you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will. And as it was commanded to leave the stump of the roots of the tree, your kingdom shall be confirmed for you from the time that you know that Heaven rules. Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity." (Daniel 4:24-27)

So God reveals exactly what He is going to do to the King. That he shall dwell with the beasts of the field and will eat the grass like an ox, and that this will happen for seven years, “Until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” And Daniel counsels the King to repent and break off from his sins. But the king does not listen to Daniel:

At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, "Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?" While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, "O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will." Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws. (Daniel 4:29-33)

So God fulfills His promise to do what He said. The King does not turn from his sin – he proudly announces to himself about what he has built with his own mighty power and for the glory of his majesty. Then we read, “While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven.” So imagine this, he’s still speaking these words when God interrupts him, repeating the punishment He has set aside for the King. “Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar.” God speaks and things happen – in this case, man is reduced to beast, and this for seven years.

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?" (Daniel 4:34-35)

Then, when the time allotted for the hardness is over, God returned King’s reason to him, and finally received the praise due to him.

Secondly, we have the story of Pharaoh in Exodus.

So what is the common thread between these two stories? Why is it that God does these things? God acts in both of these stories because His glory is at stake. In King Nebuchadnezzar’s case, he was bent on glorifying himself, stealing glory from God. So God humbled the proud heart of the King. God states explicitly His reasons for Pharaoh’s demise: But for this purpose I have raised you up, to show you my power, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. (Exodus 9:16)

We know that God is very zealous for His name. Everything that God does, He does to bring glory to His name. Even when that means taking the lives of some people – it was God after all who caused the water to flow over the Egyptian army in pursuit of the Israelites.

So where does this leave us? Because I’m sure that all of us has someone who we are close to who is not close to Jesus. We all know someone who has rejected Him, and long for them to know Christ. What do we do about people like this?

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:43-45)

Who are our enemies? James 4:4 says, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” So anyone who loves the world and not God we can consider our enemies. So we must love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us. We must also pray that God’s elect from those whom He has hardened would be revealed. We should not lose hope trying to discern the will of God concerning these people, but to live in Hope that God will use them for His good pleasure to the glory of His name.

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
Romans 8:20-21

What Love is This, Part 3 - Chapter 7

2010-01-10T00:04:00.000-08:00

Total Depravity

Hunt opens the chapter by telling us what the Bible doesn’t say about TULIP. Several words that make up the words in the acronym TULIP don’t appear in the scriptures, and none of the terms represented by the acronym are found in the texts either. Hunt believes that this is cause to look at the doctrine with a critical eye, to discern whether it is biblical or not. He mentions that “trinity” is another term that is not mentioned in scripture, but it is excused because “it is clearly taught”. Calvin’s claim was always that he wanted his theology to be based on the scriptures, and believed it to be. So by Hunt’s logic, should we not also look as critically at the “Trinity” as we do Calvinism? Hunt here fails to mention that the term “free will” also does not occur in the Bible. While the Bible portrays a limited choice, it does not demonstrate a ‘free’ will.

Calvinism offers a special definition of human depravity: that depravity equals inability – and this special definition necessitates both Unconditional Election and Irresistible Grace. As the Canons of Dort declare, “Therefore all men…without the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit…are neither able nor willing to return to God…nor to dispose themselves to reformation.” That declaration expresses human opinion – it is never stated in the Bible.

Hunt is dead wrong in his statement. While that exact phrase isn’t verbatim in scripture its concept is clearly taught, and it comes straight from the mouth of Christ. He is debating with the Jews about this very thing:

Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." (John 6:35-40)

Jesus makes it plain how salvation works in verse 37 – All that the Father gives me will come to me. Can anyone argue with this statement that it is God that gives people over to Jesus? And whoever comes to me I will never cast out. Those people who come to Jesus who will not be cast out are given to Him by God. This shows eternal security, that if God calls someone to Himself that they cannot be drawn away.

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Is this not the most cutting statement to the Arminian stance? They stand so firmly that it is a human’s free will that determines salvation. Yet Jesus rejects his own will in favor of doing God’s will – Jesus empties himself of his own desires and allows Himself to be God’s instrument to carry out His will.

Now Jesus tells us what God’s will is – as you read, see if you notice the contrast:

And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

Jesus says twice what the will of the Father is, and in the most interesting way. This is the paradox that Hunt refers to as ‘contradictions’. Let us compare these sentences. Both begin by declaring that this is the will of the father, and both end with Jesus raising the people up on the last day. But it is the middle clause of both sentences that we must pay attention to.

First, Jesus says, “That I should lose nothing of all that He has given me.” Here Jesus repeats what he said earlier, that God gives the lost to Him, and that He will not lose any of whom He has been given. All of this points towards election in the vein of Ephesians 1:4. If we consider election, then those that God gives to Jesus would be the elect, predestined before the foundation of the world.

But then He seems to turn this on its head – “That everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life.” This almost sounds like ammunition for Arminianism – see! Anyone who looks upon the Son and believes will have eternal life!” But not so fast. Jesus is talking about something quite profound here, and it goes over the Jews’ heads:

So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'? (John 6:41-42)

The people don’t even seem to realize what Jesus has said, rather they have fixated on His claim to divinity, saying that He has come down from heaven. But Jesus doesn’t answer their question right away:

Jesus answered them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me-- not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:43-51)

Jesus reiterates what he said at first – No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. This is the biblical foundation for the statement from the Canons of Dort – “Therefore all men…without the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit…are neither able nor willing to return to God…nor to dispose themselves to reformation.” The statements are almost identical in meaning. The scripture clearly shows mans inability to come to God without the drawing of the Holy Spirit.

Who can come to Jesus? No one, unless the Spirit draws them. Does a man dictate the movement of the Holy Spirit? Of course not:

Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:5-8)

So man is unable to come to Jesus without the drawing of the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit “blows where it wishes…, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” What then do we do with the seemingly contradictory statements that Jesus made? How do we reconcile “That everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life,” which sounds very Arminian, with “That I should lose nothing of all that He has given me,” which sounds very Calvinist?

Stay tuned to find out.

What Love is This, Part 2

2010-01-05T23:29:00.000-08:00

Some Calvinists have criticized the first edition of this book for what they call my alleged “caricature of Calvin [and] adoring portrait of Arminius…” On the contrary, I have simply given the historic facts, which none of my critics have been able to refute. In Debating Calvinism, James White said he would “refute the calumnies [I] launched at…Calvin [and] Augustine.” I’m still waiting. It is unconscionable that Calvinists have swept under the rug Calvin’s un-Christlike conduct – and have refused to acknowledge the facts when confronted with them.

This paragraph (p. 90) caused me to pause, for in it I saw the whole of Hunt’s problem. He spells it out for us oh so clearly. I certainly agree that Hunt has gone out of his way to highlight all of the negative aspects of Calvin’s life. The whole of the book thus far has been to paint Calvin as a ruthless dictator who’s main directive is creating a society that honors God whether they wish to or not; a tyrant who puts an end to all dissension. Anything positive about Calvin is not included in this text.

And therein lies the problem. Hunt makes it abundantly clear over and over again that he has no grace for the wrongs of Calvin. To be true, I did not know anything about John Calvin before I began to read this book. The acts mentioned, if they are historically accurate, cannot be denied. If what Hunt says about Calvin is true, then yes – he did do some very ‘un-Christlike’ things.

But we must ask ourselves – are we not all guilty of some ‘un-Christlike’ behavior? Are we not all sinners as Romans 3:23 suggests? If Hunt is to be consistent, than the writings of anyone who acts in ‘un-Christlike’ ways should not be considered valid. After all, he has gone to great lengths to say to the reader, “Look at all of the terrible things that Calvin has done! Surely the doctrine upon which is affixed his name cannot be trusted!”

Can any writer be trusted then? Every man who penned a book in the bible has some black mark of sin on their hand. Paul, Moses, Peter, King David, Solomon. If we can defend the bible as being written by men inspired of God, then only the bible can be trusted as a reliable source, and all other authors should be read with a grain of salt because they are sinners and, according to Hunt’s logic, should not be given air to breathe.

It is unconscionable that Calvinists have swept under the rug Calvin’s un-Christlike conduct – and have refused to acknowledge the facts when confronted with them.

Let us dissect this sentence to see how Hunt undoes himself. We’ll start at the end – Hunt accuses Calvinists of ‘refusing to acknowledge the facts’. Well I’ve been presented with Hunt’s version of the facts. As I said before, we can’t deny them, if they are true. Perhaps James White has also come to this conclusion, and that is the explanation for his tardy reply.

Hunt is referring to Calvin’s ‘un-Christlike’ conduct, as in the authoritarian dictator-esque style that he uses to bring about his “City of God”. But we should ask ourselves what “Christlike” conduct is. Christ’s primary mission in coming to earth as a human was to become the sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins earmarked his ministry in Israel. There was no one beyond Jesus’ forgiveness; from the Samaritan woman at the well, to Zaccheus the tax collector, Peter for his denials, to the thief on the cross next to Jesus.

Yet the very thing that Hunt slams Calvinists for – ‘sweeping these wrongs under the rug’ – is essentially Christ’s directive on the earth. Not sweeping the wrongs under the rug as though to hide them, but to forgive them and to sweep the sins and their punishments into hell, while saving the person. This is the grace of God, a gift given by Him to whom He chooses (Rom 5:15).

And who is Hunt to say that Calvin and Augustine are less deserving of that grace than he himself is? Augustine has some bad theology and practice, and is cast by Hunt as the mortal enemy to all that is good and Holy. Calvin draws from the available materials, which include Augustine, and his association with Augustine alone seems to be evidence enough for Hunt that all of Calvin’s fruit is rotten.

Yet there are two things that cause me to doubt Hunt’s stance. His earlier acceptance of the heretic Servetus who “was right about some things” is the first. If in Hunt’s mind an outright heretic who Hunt readily admits combines Islam and Judaism with the teachings of Christ is able to be right about some things, it gives me hope that there could also be some things right about the teachings of Calvin, despite his actions.

The second thing that causes me to doubt Hunt’s position anti-Calvin position comes from the words of Arminius himself:

…Yet my opinion is not so widely different from [Calvin’s] as to prevent me from employing the signature of my own hand in subscribing to those things which he has delivered on this subject [of justification], in the third book of his Institutes; this I am prepared to do at any time, ant to give them my full approval. (p.92)

Arminius finds some good in Calvin, agreeing with him enough about his doctrine of justification that he would sign his name to it. So, it seems, there is some good that comes out of Calvin. The book of the Institutes, which Hunt has dedicated an entire chapter (3) to refuting, is not wholly in error. So I cannot agree with Hunt in his outright refusal to accept the works of Augustine and Calvin.

There are some other interesting things that come from Arminius. Some of the quotes that Hunt provides line up with some of the facets of TULIP. Arminius is quoted as saying, “That man is hopeless lost and bound by sin,” which is the point made by Total Depravity. “Arminius preached that salvation was entirely through Christ as a work of grace, which God alone could do in the heart,” sounds very much like Irresistible Grace. Arminius also “affirmed dogmatically that it is impossible for believers to decline from salvation,” which is indeed Irresistible Grace.

Hunt provides us with another interesting quote:

Though I here openly and ingenuously affirm, I never taught that a true believer can, either totally or finally fall away from the faith, and perish; yet I will not conceal, that there are passages of scripture which seem to me to wear this aspect; and those answers to them which I have been permitted to see, are not of such a kind as to approve themselves on all points to my understanding. (p.92)

In the question of whether or not a person can lose their salvation, Arminius admits that he doesn’t understand. He has never taught that a person can lose their salvation, yet he sees that there are some scriptures that say it can be possible (Mark 4:17, Luke 8:13, Heb 3:12). He has some questions he can’t answer because he has not ‘been permitted to see’ them’. He admits that his understanding is limited, and yet Hunt makes no mention of this; as he did for Calvin earlier when quoting about the attributing of things not understood about predestination to ‘mystery’. There is a double standard here which gives Arminius the grace to lack understanding, while withholding that same grace from Calvin.

By the end of chapter 6, Hunt has hammered the reader with his point – Calvin’s behavior as an enforcer of faith disqualifies the theology named for him. In fact, everything that has to do with Calvinism is considered to be tainted by corruption in Hunts eyes. Yet often his own fingers betray him by giving us glimpses into his tainted heart:

History clearly records that these were the men and the motives behind the established creeds and confessions. Unquestionably, their modus operandi followed in the footsteps of Constantine. Not a true Christian, and thus not interested in truth but in the “unity” of the empire, Constantine used “Christianity” to that end.

Hunt again amazes the reader with his gift of omniscience, apparently able to look into the hearts of men long in the grave. Hunt audaciously claims absolutely that Constantine was “not a true Christian,” somehow able to know if he had truly been saved by Christ or not. I would never dare to say that absolutely about anyone.

Coming soon will be a word on Chapter 7 – Total Depravity. Hunt finally delves into the meat of the issue, and from what I’ve seen so far, we’re in for a bumpy ride…

What Love is This, Part 1

2009-12-27T11:29:00.000-08:00

I am currently reading What Love is This, by Dave Hunt. The subtitle is Calvinism’s misrepresentation of God, implying that the teachings of Calvinism are grossly in error. One reviewer even went so far as to say that Calvinism borders on blasphemy. The following is my review of the first five chapters. I am writing a review now for reasons that will quickly become clear.

The author, Dave Hunt, has written this book with a specific purpose in mind – to portray the teachings of Calvinism as heretical and unbiblical. Yet in the first five chapters, very little has been made mention of Calvinism but much has been said of the man John Calvin.

Hunt’s tactic in the opening chapters of this book is essentially a character assault on the person of John Calvin. Attacking the credibility of a witness in court is an effective way of discrediting their version truth. You can see that Hunt is passionate about this – there is nothing good in his mind to be said of the Reformer. However, in his zeal, Hunt often turns to speculation, to which I object. Some examples:

After Calvin’s father was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, Calvin went to law school. Hunt muses, “This new pursuit (law school) became the young man’s passion and possibly laid some of the foundation for the legalism that was later to become so pervasive in the system of theology that he would thereafter develop.” (p. 40) This is a weak example – Hunt saves himself by use of the word ‘possibly’, but his comment still implies that he is speculating effect and cause.

Hunt continues to chip away at Calvin’s credibility. “Most of those today, including evangelical leaders who hold Calvin in great esteem, are not aware that they have been captivated by the writings of a devout Roman Catholic, newly converted to Luther’s Protestantism, who had broken with Rome only a year before.” (p. 42) Calvin left the Catholic church because of the corruption he saw within it. Therefore he set himself to writing his book, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, which he vowed would be on the authority of scripture. As though he had miraculous insight into the mind of Calvin, Hunt speculates, “At the time of writing his Institutes, Calvin, far from being an apostle like Paul, was at best a brand-new convert. Therefore, in writing the Institutes, Calvin sought, with his brilliant legal mind, to make up for what he lacked in spiritual maturity and guidance of the Holy Spirit.” Such a statement is not verifiable without input from Calvin himself, and I wonder how Hunt would have come to such a conclusion.

I think it’s funny though, in this example, that Hunt chooses Paul to compare Calvin to. First of all, before his conversion Paul murdered Christians and approved of their deaths. His writings now make up about a third of the New Testament. The book of Acts recounts how after his conversion, Paul became a vocal spokesperson for Christ. Nowhere in the book of Acts does it say that Paul, after his conversion, went to seminary school for a number of years and acquired much knowledge before he went and preached to people. He was a recent convert, yet his word was accepted. Yet Calvin as a recent convert, free from the bondage of the Catholic church, is to be made invalid. Now I understand it’s also true that the Apostle Paul had a direct connection with Jesus, through the appearance on the road to Damascus, which Calvin does not have. But it brings to mind some questions for Hunt – at what point in a new convert’s life does what they say begin to have any validity? Do people need to go to bible college in order to have the qualifications to teach others about Jesus? Is an M. Div. required before a person can be a pastor, or write a book on theology?

I ask this because I find it strange how inconsistent Hunt is about this. One of the arguments he makes in Chapter 2 is that Calvinism is difficult to understand. “How could something so complicated possibly come from that upon which every person is capable of meditating day and night? If the essential nourishment God’s Word provides is to be every man’s daily sustenance for spiritual life, could Calvinism really be the biblical gospel and biblical Christianity and yet be so difficult for the ordinary Christian to understand?” I find that this question leads to another – Does anyone sit down for a first reading of the bible and come to a complete understanding of it? Is there any doctrine for which we can say, “In this little 10-page pamphlet you will find complete understanding”? Here, Hunt seems to be demanding immediate understanding of doctrine. Yet, in line with Romans 11:33 – Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! – Calvinism, Arminianism, the Trinity, sovereignty, predestination, election, and many more, are all doctrines that will never be able to be fully understood by the human mind. Yet we should pour ourselves into the writings of God and seek His wisdom and knowledge, and that is why we have schools. Being educated about these things is important.

That being said, I don’t think we can discount the meditations and writings of new believers. I think back to the day that God opened my eyes to the reality of the scriptures. I began to see things in them that I didn’t see when I was reading as an unbeliever, because now I perceived it to be true. I believe that, as the first years are the formative years for the newborn who are seeing everything for the first time, that the same holds true for spiritual birth. That the scriptures become alive to the new believer in a way that is unlike anything else. The word is being seen with new eyes and the believer soaks them in, learning what the word has to say. Hunt has no grace for Calvin, however. His ‘new convert’ status automatically disqualifies his meditations on the word, his interpretation of scripture - attributing them instead to his “brilliant legal mind.” No, Hunt demands absolute understanding of doctrine, criticizing Calvin for alluding to “mystery”:

How sinful it is to insist on knowing the causes of the divine will, since it is itself, and justly ought to be, the cause of all that exists…Therefore, when it is asked why the Lord did so, we must answer, because he pleased… Of this no other cause can be adduced than reprobation, which is hidden in the secret counsel of God.

At the same time, Hunt offers no explanation for the hidden things of God. Thus we can only assume that he would aptly be able to explain the doctrine of predestination in such a way that there would be no further questions from anybody about it. Of course I’m being facetious, as this is impossible. I use it as an illustration to show how merciless Hunt is towards Calvin in his critique of this doctrine.

The gloves come off in chapter 4, and the character assassination continues. What better way to dissolve a witnesses credibility than to associate them with some villainous character. And there was no greater enemy to early Christianity than Augustine himself. At least, that’s the way that Hunt makes it sound. Hunt shows how Augustine greatly influenced the thinking of Calvin, offering a number of references from the Institutes where he is quoted or hailed. He does not hide his disdain for Augustine: to show that Calvin’s ideology stemmed from the corrupt Roman Catholic teachings that he left, he refers to Augustine as “the greatest Roman Catholic,” and “the ultimate Roman Catholic.” These childish tags made me shake my head. It really illustrated to me the rhetoric that Hunt is willing to fling around in order to make his case that Calvinism is the devil.

Chapter 5 details Calvin’s rise to power in the city of Geneva, and his attempt to impose his theological system upon it. Hunt paints it as a witch hunt, claiming that Calvin had such great authority over people that any who opposed him were banished or executed. Hunt calls Calvin a “totalitarian ruler.” Yet as I read, I see what might have been Calvin’s intention – following the commands of Deuteronomy (Deu 13:5; Deu 17:7; Deu 19:19; Deu 22:21; Deu 22:24; Deu 24:7), where for certain crimes the people were put to death. For what purpose? “So you shall purge the evil from your midst.” God commanded the destruction of those who violated the law in the Old Testament in order that the people might keep themselves holy and pure. The law was enforced this way to be a deterrent for many who knew the consequences of their actions. The greater the sin, the graver the consequences – people were aware of the laws, and kept them, or paid with their lives. This is the kind of system that Calvin brought to Geneva. While I agree with Hunt that coercion cannot be used to convert people, what I see in Calvin is a sincere, serious attempt at making a place where God is glorified and evil is put out. This is even commanded in 2 Timothy 3:2-5 - People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God — having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

Hunt contradicts himself frequently. He speaks of Servetus and calls him the “Arch Heretic”. “Unquestionably, he was a rank heretic whose ravings about Christ reflected a combination of Islam and Judaism, both of which intrigued him. He was, however, right about some things…” (p. 79) How strange! A ‘heretic’ who combines teachings of Christ with Islam and Judaism gets some things wrong, but Augustine and Calvin, who based their teachings on the bible, don’t get anything right at any point. In the chapter on Augustine, Hunt has a heading which reads Drawing from a polluted stream, referring to Calvin's drawing from the resources of Augustine, which were supposedly wrought with error. I subtitled the section or, Throwing the baby out with the bath water. I did so because Hunt has taken a stance that Calvin and Augustine can't be trusted because they have corrupt theology. Yet not everything that Augustine produced was incorrect, nor is the doctrine of Calvinism wholly incorrect. Hunt chooses to ignore any good that may have come out of these two bible followers while accepting some notions of a heretic.

I am thus far unconvinced by Hunt’s attempt to dismantle Calvinism. This could possibly be because Hunt has not even touched on the doctrine in the first five chapters. It has been all smear up to this point, and I am anxious to see what awaits. I will probably do this again soon, after another few chapters. There is just so much to say!

Bah Humbug!

2009-12-10T13:09:00.000-08:00

I have a very large problem with Christmas. I find around this time of year, I get cynical, angry, and have a real ‘Bah Humbug’ attitude in my heart. It wasn’t always this way – God entered my life on December 9, 2003. I was so filled with the spirit then that I abandoned my families planned ‘secret Santa’s’ twenty dollar limit. I bought everyone in my family gifts and wrapped them elegantly with ribbons and bows. Christmas was a wonderful time.

Now it is just not the same for me. As I’ve grown in Christ, I’ve come to see what the world has done to the celebration of His birth. The advent story of God is in a fierce competition with the world’s version of Christmas, and it appears to be a losing battle. Christ is being taken out of Christmas.

You’ve heard the stories about city hall calling it a ‘holiday tree’. You see the malls packed with people looking for the perfect gift – because you are there at the mall shopping yourself. You listen to the Christmas carols that give praise to Santa.

Christmas is not as it should be, and it weighs on my heart more and more with each passing year. It is hard for me to enjoy the season amidst the terrible abuse I see Christ endure from the world come November. Let me show you what I mean:

Santa Claus
Oh, Santa Claus, mortal enemy of the advent story. Santa is lifted up as the hero of Christmas, delivering toys to all of the good little girls and boys all over the world, in one night. This story, designed to inspire awe and imagination in children, robs qualities attributed to God and applies them to itself.

Santa Claus is apparently omniscient, according to a popular carol that tells children that “he knows when you are sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows when you’ve been bad or good.” He must be pretty close to omnipresent, in order to deliver around two billion gifts to all of the children in the world .

Essentially, to tell a child that Santa Claus is real is to lie to them. You may think that you are doing them a favor, getting them to behave for a few weeks so they’ll get what they want from Santa. But in the long run, I believe that it will do more harm than good. I remember that when I gave up my faith when I was 16, one of the things I reasoned about was, ‘if my parents told me that Santa was real, and the Easter bunny was real, and the tooth fairy was real, and they all turned out to not be real, well they’ve been telling me that God is real. Perhaps they’ve been lying to me about God too.”

Santa Claus is the idol that the world worships around Christmas time. Children bow down to him and pray that they will receive the present that they want in exchange for good works. I strongly believe that he has no place in the Christian home.

Commercialism
I think this may well be the one thing that I detest the most about the Christmas season. This is the most rampant, unstoppable force at Christmas – the push to get people into stores, spending lots of money, and buying people gifts at Christmas. I don’t even understand how this became the center of what Christmas is about in North America today.

I don’t see a biblical foundation for giving other people gifts to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Matthew 2:11 says, “And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh.” The wise men bow down and worship Jesus, because He is God. Then they give gifts to Him. They don’t give anything to Mary or Joseph, they give their gifts to Jesus.

Yet somehow, either by misinterpretation of scriptures, or perhaps under the influence of Santa Claus (or through his exploitation), Christmas has become synonymous with shopping. It is the season that retail outfits wait for all year, many getting so impatient in Canada that this year I saw Christmas decorations for sale before Halloween was even over. The Friday after Thanksgiving in the U.S. marks the official beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Stores opened at 3 a.m. this year, offering door crasher specials and severely slashed prices. Thousands rushed to malls and big box stores. They call it ‘Black Friday” because retailers know that it will be a profitable day.

And people, like suckers, buy into it every year. But how can they not? With the constant barrage of commercials telling your children that they need these toys, it’s no wonder people flock to the stores like sheep. The children ask and plead and beg their parents for the years hottest toy, because if they go back to school after winter break, and they aren’t wearing the hippest clothing, and sporting the newest gadgets, well then they might as well go jump off a cliff because all the kids will laugh at them!

And parents only want the best for their children. I’ve seen people defending themselves for spending thousands of dollars on credit so that their children can have all of the things that they as parents couldn’t have when they were young. What this is doing is creating a generation of spoiled children who feel that they are entitled to everything. I once heard a child say, “I finally got an iPod touch”, with an air of exasperation as though it was due to him and his parents weren’t fast enough in procuring the device.

There is a Wal-Mart commercial that is playing this year, and every time I see it, it makes my blood boil.

The children are happily unwrapping presents, hugging parents, enjoying toys. The mother says she got what they wanted and more because of the great savings at the store. The catchphrase at the end of the commercial is what really gets me – “Christmas costs less at Wal-Mart.”

Excuse me?? If you understand the true meaning of Christmas, this should make you furious. Does Wal-Mart even understand what Christmas cost God? Christmas cost God His one and only Son. And now Wal-Mart comes along and trivializes the most important part of Christmas. All so that you can save a few dollars.

And I see how pervasive this attitude is. It has infiltrated the Christian home. Christians too buy presents for family and friends. Sure, we can give it a positive spin, it’s a spirit of giving, whatever candy coating you want to put on it; but at the end of the day, it is just so worldly. Gathering in front of the tree to give each other a bunch of stuff – a toy you’ll be bored with in six months, a sweater you won’t wear again after winter is over, a book you’ll read once then set it on a shelf to collect dust for years to come.

It bothers me so much that buying gifts for Christmas is just giving money to these huge corporations who are trying to get you to forget about Jesus. I don’t want anything for Christmas unless it is something that brings glory to my King. Buying me a Wii game isn’t going to bring any glory to God. What I would like to see more of is people giving themselves – we can give a gift to Jesus by spending time with those who are less fortunate during the holiday season – delivering hampers to poor families, helping at a soup kitchen for the homeless, shoveling a neighbor’s driveway for them. Things that show love to God’s people, that they might be drawn to Him.

I like the idea behind Advent Conspiracy. It is an attitude towards reclaiming Christmas; making it be the way it should be. They have four principle ideas – worship fully, spend less, give more, and love all. We need to make Christmas be all about Jesus, and less about giving gifts to each other. I believe this to be in the spirit of Luke 14:12-14 :

When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just."

Exchanging gifts is nonsensical. I give you my $20 gift, you give me your $20 gift, and in the end, we could have just each bought ourselves what we wanted and forgotten the whole pointless exchange. Rather, as the verse suggests, we would be better off to take our $40, purchase something for someone who has no money food or clothing, and to share the gospel with them. That better displays the heart of Christmas. It is about worshipping God, not buying presents.

Political Correctness
The world doesn’t want to recognize that the reason we celebrate Christmas is because of Christ. It matters not that the name of the holiday that is celebrated by Christians and atheists alike bears His name. In fact some take offense at the name of Christ, and so they have taken steps to see Him removed from His own celebration.

A number of years ago, city hall in Winnipeg announced that the annual Christmas tree would now be referred to as the holiday tree – this to appease angry minority groups who felt that calling it a “Christmas” tree was offensive to their religion.

Along with removing the reciting of the Lord’s Prayer from public schools, a recent trend has been seen where there is no longer a Christmas concert, but a Winter concert, or some other name. Now, instead of the children replaying the nativity story, we have choirs singing fun songs about snow, and the holidays, and of course, Santa Claus.

At a Christmas party I attended in the last few years, instead of saying grace, a spiritual, non-denominational poem was read. There was no thanking of God, no mention of Jesus. Just a blessing of relativism.

Hypocrisy
Yet, amidst all of these and more attempts to rid Christmas of Christ, the world still celebrates this day. Even though on every calendar it is called Christmas, non-believers still celebrate. This is the one day of the year where every business closes its doors. This holy day for Christians is recognized by the entire country.

This also bothers me. Christmas belongs to Christians. That’s why it’s called Christmas, because it’s about Christ, and Christ is for His children. So why do non-Christians recognize this day as a holiday? After all, we don’t get time off for Hanukkah; work doesn’t stop for Ramadan; the nation doesn’t take a week off to celebrate Kwanzaa. Yet Christmas shuts everything down.

Christmas has been hijacked by the world. It has taken the beautiful story of the birth of Jesus Christ, and turned it into something ugly. A season that concentrates on spending and accumulation; a replacement of worship of Jesus with worship of Santa. My heart longs to see a change in the way that Christians celebrate Christmas. Yet this is very difficult, as these worldly traditions are deeply engrained in many of us.

This Christmas, remember why we celebrate. Remember the Christ that was born for the forgiveness of our sins. Remember the lamb who was slain. He is the reason we celebrate.

What is Prayer?

2009-11-21T23:50:00.000-08:00

A precursory foundation before a discussion on listening prayer

What we believe about prayer, the way we pray, what we pray – it’s all a major heart issue with Jesus. He wants to know that our hearts are in the right place when we communicate with God. Our prayer lives are a great indicator of where our hearts are at with God. Let us read through a few scriptures, and as we do, notice how Jesus is looking at the person’s heart.

“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. "But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:5-6)

I don’t think that this is as much of an issue today as it was in Jesus’ time. Here, Jesus is warning against external religiosity. The point here isn’t that when we pray we need to lock ourselves in our closets, but rather that we needn’t make a huge show of the fact that we are praying. At the heart of this verse is pride – the prideful man makes it known that he is pious and prays to God a lot, while the humble man prays in secret, keeping it between himself and God.

“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. "So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” (Matthew 6:7-8)

From my ESV study bible’s notes: “Pagans repeated the names of their gods or the same words over and over without thinking. Jesus is prohibiting mindless, mechanical repetition, not the earnest repetition that flows from the imploring heart.” When you were younger, say 5 or 6, and your parents told you to pray before you went to sleep, and it was the same prayer word for word, every night? Something like, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take, God bless mommy and daddy and my brothers and sisters and my friends and my family and me amen.”? A meaningless prayer, devoid of any relational communication whatsoever; just a rote incantation to ask God to fire some blessings around. That might be ok for 5-year olds, but that won’t cut it for the adult child of God.

(This should not be confused with the type of repetition referred to in the parable of the persistent widow:

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:1-8)

God wants us to bear our hearts out to Him in prayer, and if He should not grant us our request right away that we should continue to ask in hope of His promises. This is not the same as a scripted ‘prayer’ that is rattled off quickly so as to be done with it. This is a heartfelt request that we desire with earnest to see fulfilled, so much so that our hearts almost can’t resist but ask God to do it.)

Pray, then, in this way:
'Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
'Your kingdom come
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
'Give us this day our daily bread.
'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]' (Matthew 6:9-13)

Jesus then tells us in what manner we ought to pray. What I notice when I read this prayer is that it is saturated with worship. Every sentence is worded so that God is glorified in the prayer. What Jesus is doing here is showing us how our prayer should look.

First Jesus acknowledges God for who He is and ascribes to Him the greatness that He is worthy of. Hallowed be Your name; this phrase deserves a message of its own. There is great concern for the name of God throughout the entire Bible. To describe what I mean, let’s look at a passage in Exodus, atop Mount Sinai. The people have turned from God and have worshipped the golden calf:

"I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation."

But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: 'I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.' " Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. (Exodus 32:9-14)

Moses has a reverence for the name of God – He has promised to bring His people to the promised land. To destroy them here at Sinai before fulfilling that promise would give the Egyptians license to say, “Aha! The God of the Israelites brought them out to the mountain to kill them because He is evil! Why should we worship Him?” Moses asks for mercy, not for the sake of the people, but for His name sake. (More on that another time.)

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Here Jesus is praying for God’s sovereignty to be displayed. Jesus is privy to some inside details about the future - He knows that God’s kingdom is coming, and He prays for it to be done, and for God’s will to be done. In Heaven, God calls the shots - He speaks and things happen. The creation is proof of that. Yet here on the earth, we fight against that will, and we desire to call the shots. We are to pray that God’s will be done, and empty ourselves of our will, and what we think God should do

Give us this day our daily bread. This is the first petition of the prayer. In the face of the first lines of the prayer, with their reverence and awe, what follows is a heartfelt response. To humble ourselves and ask God to give us our daily bread – that which can sustain us until the next day. We shouldn’t come to God asking for him to bless us with more money, more things. Look around at all of the good things that God has already provided you with compared to the millions of people who don’t have anything. Jesus tells us that we should pray for what we need, not what we want.

'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.’ This we should do daily. We are sinners all day long, and only God is able to take those sins and forgive them. Thus we should do the same with those who sin against us. Jesus is getting at the heart again here – we know we need to be forgiven, so we need to receive God’s love, which wells up in our hearts like a fountain, so that God’s ways become our ways. Thus we learn to forgive quickly, as we have much to be forgiven for.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Again Jesus is pointing to God’s sovereign hand. God’s hands guide us, and we pray that He would guide us away from evil.

For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Jesus tops the prayer off with another acknowledgement of God’s greatness. He is the ruler, and the Earth belongs to Him, and all power, and all glory. Forever.

So this whole prayer is about being God-centered. John 3:30 – He must become greater, I must become less – Jesus is giving us a pattern of how we should pray; in worship and reverence to God, not asking for wealth and benefit for ourselves, but rather in humility to ask for what we need. Lifting up the name of God should be the focus of all of our prayers.

He's Supernatural! (Part 1)

2009-10-25T00:56:00.000-07:00

I am currently reading Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ, in which he goes to the scholars and asks the hard questions about the validity of the bible. In one chapter he speaks with Greg Boyd. They are discussing the fundamentalist left-wing group the Jesus Seminar. Boyd explains that this group believes in the naturalist approach – that everything happens as a result of some natural occurrence. They “rule out the possibility of the supernatural from the beginning”.

Boyd himself takes a center stance: ”I would grant that you shouldn’t appeal to the supernatural until you have to. Yes, first look for a natural explanation. I do that in my own life. A tree falls – ok, maybe there were termites. Now could an angel have pushed it over? Well, I wouldn’t go to that conclusion until there was definite evidence for it.” (pg 120)

Now let’s see what the bible says: I wonder how Boyd can justify his statement ‘first look for a natural explanation’ in light of Psalm 104. The entire chapter negates such a notion. Verse 2 starts by saying that God is the creator of heaven, stretching it out like a tent curtain. The clouds are His chariots – He directs them where to go. He sends out winds as messengers; fire is His servant; The soil appeared where God commanded it to; He covered the land with water that flees from Him as He commands with His thunderous voice. It goes on:

God is bringing water to nourish the creatures He has made. The earth is satisfied with the fruit of His works (v. 13) The cattle are fed by God, as are men. Trees are satisfied by the Lord, and birds build their homes in them. The moon and seasons are ordained by God – The sun knows the place of its setting – because God has told it where to set. He appoints darkness where He feeds the creatures who prey at night.

What does this all say about the ‘naturalist’ view? Only that the only natural thing is that God commands everything on the planet as He so desires. Not a blade of grass grows but where God would have it grow. Thus, of his example of a tree falling: maybe there were termites. Those termites would have been decreed to exist for the destruction of the tree because He is in control of His creation. Things don’t just simply happen for no reason.

Psalm 104:1-23
1 Bless the LORD, O my soul!
O LORD my God, You are very great;
You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
2 Covering Yourself with light as with a cloak,
Stretching out heaven like a tent curtain.
3 He lays the beams of His upper chambers in thewaters;
He makes the clouds His chariot;
He walks upon the wings of the wind;
4 He makes the winds His messengers,
Flaming fire His ministers.
5 He established the earth upon its foundations,
So that it will not totter forever and ever.
6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
The waters were standing above the mountains.
7 At Your rebuke they fled,
At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away.
8 The mountains rose; the valleys sank down
To the place which You established for them.
9 You set a boundary that they may not pass over,
So that they will not return to cover the earth.
10 He sends forth springs in the valleys;
They flow between the mountains;
11 They give drink to every beast of the field;
The wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
They lift up their voices among the branches.
13 He waters the mountains from His upper chambers;
The earth is satisfied with the fruit of His works.
14 He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,
And vegetation for the labor of man,
So that he may bring forth food from the earth,
15 And wine which makes man's heart glad,
So that he may make his face glisten with oil,
And food which sustains man's heart.
16 The trees of the LORD drink their fill,
The cedars of Lebanon which He planted,
17 Where the birds build their nests,
And the stork, whose home is the fir trees.
18 The high mountains are for the wild goats;
The cliffs are a refuge for the shephanim.
19 He made the moon for the seasons;
The sun knows the place of its setting.
20 You appoint darkness and it becomes night,
In which all the beasts of the forest prowl about.
21 The young lions roar after their prey
And seek their food from God.
22 When the sun rises they withdraw
And lie down in their dens.
23 Man goes forth to his work
And to his labor until evening.

Self Vs. God

2009-09-27T01:08:00.000-07:00

The first part in the Sunday School Series, Do Not Be Conformed

Imagine that you are a character in a story. You’re just going about your day minding your own business when BAM! Some plot advancing event happens to you. Let’s say for sake of example that you get hit by a car. Instantly you are aware of the incredible pain that you feel. Perhaps the first thoughts that enter your mind are, “Why is this happening to me? If only I’d been paying attention as I crossed the street, or if I had stopped to help that lady with directions instead of blasting by her!”

As you lay in the street waiting for medical help to arrive, you realize that you are unable to move your legs. “I’m paralyzed!” you think. You begin to think about all of the different things about your life that are going to change now. “I’m going to be in rehab for who knows how long! I won’t be able to do my job anymore! And I was days away from finishing that big proposal! My life is ruined!”

This is usually the way that people think when some terrible thing happens to them. The focus turns on them and all of the hard times they are facing. Very rarely in today’s society do we hear God’s name being mentioned in tragedy unless He is being blamed for it.

Take for example this news story that I watched on September 21st. It was about flooding in the states. Many people have lost their homes or had them flooded. A man stood outside his home and choked, “Everything I’ve ever worked for – gone.”

This is a symptom of someone who doesn’t have God as their center. To someone who doesn’t believe, or to a lackadaisical believer it can be very difficult to understand why some things happen. This is because they are not looking at the very reason why things happen – because of God at work in the situation.

There is a battle that is being waged every day, between the self and God. The spoils are glory. Both God and the self are zealous for glory and seek to attain it. Now, there is a tension here because God will always achieve His glory, whereas the self will not. In fact, all glory belongs to God, and when the self seeks glory it is stealing glory from God.

How is the self stealing glory from God? Col 1:16-17 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. What does this verse tell us about God?

This verse tells us that God owns all things in the universe – physical things, thrones and dominions. God has created rulers and authorities and installed them. What does it mean that all things were created ‘for Him’? It means that all things have been created so that He can use them according to His sovereign purpose in order to bring glory to Himself.

So let’s take this verse and apply it to our character in our earlier story: God created you and has authority over you. He also created the city that you live in, and the job that you were walking towards before you were struck by the car. God also created the car that struck you, and the driver of the car and has authority over them. He created the destination that the driver was heading towards and orchestrated millions upon millions of tiny events that got him into his car at the exact time that would bring him to the very place that you were standing in order to hit you.

Now lets take a quick look at the your reaction to this event. As a seeker of glory, some tragic event has occurred that will be a great hindrance to you. You become aware of the facts that your life will never be the same – and you’re jarred. Your plans have been frustrated, your life has been ruined, you, you, you.

The more you try to make the situation about you, the more you are stealing glory from God. The harder you try to fight to gain glory for yourself, the worse you make it for yourself, because in the end God will get the glory.

Rather, we need to se the truth in these situations – that God is at the center of it all. We need to see that God is working in all things at all times, just as He has been for thousands of years. The Bible is filled with examples that show this battle for glory and what happens when people decide to let the self get the glory.

Genesis 3 – Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve are in the garden with God, enjoying His glory. Along comes the serpent and tells them that they can be like God if they eat from the tree. Self comes along inside Adam and Eve and they eat, desiring to share in the glory with God. As a result, God curses the humanity He has created.

Genesis 11 – City of Babel. Men all have a common speech and decide that to make a name for themselves that they will build a massive city and a tower that will reach into heaven. Such a venture is sure to show the world that they are worthy of much glory. Instead, God takes His glory back by confusing the languages and spreading people out over the face of the earth.

Genesis 15 – Abram is promised many descendants. Already old at this point, God promises that Abram will have a son and that he will be the father of many nations. Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness (v. 6). This is what my ESV Study bible says about this verse: Faith in God is something that everyone in the Bible was expected to exercise. It entails trust in or confident reliance on God, based on the truthfulness of His words, and it will lead to obeying His commands. This is an example of how we should live our lives, in confident reliance on God. Abram had suffered many years of childlessness already, and rather than relying on his self to produce a child, he emptied his self and filled up on reliance on God.

Genesis 16 – But not for long. Abram’s wife Sarai also desired to have children. However, her barrenness and old age left her desperate. Therefore she tells Abram to sleep with her maid that she might build her household through her. And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai (v. 2). Very quickly does the human heart return to self. Perhaps he thought that this was how God intended to give him a son. He does have a son with Hagar, but it is not the son that will become the descendants of Abram that God promised.

Genesis 18 – God promises the birth of Isaac. Abraham is now 99 years old, Sarah is now 90 years old. There is little doubt in their minds that they will die childless. Yet God comes to Abraham and tells him that his wife will bear a son in her old age. This is done so that there will be no doubt in anyone’s mind that God is the one who brought this child into being. People who are in their nineties don’t have babies – but God can make that happen.

Genesis 24 – A bride is chosen for Issac. This whole chapter deals with the servant of Abraham who is sent to the country from where Abraham came to find a wife for his son. Notice how he lets God take control:

Then he prayed, "O LORD, God of my master Abraham, give me success today, and show kindness to my master Abraham. See, I am standing beside this spring, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. May it be that when I say to a girl, 'Please let down your jar that I may have a drink,' and she says, 'Drink, and I'll water your camels too'-let her be the one you have chosen for your servant Isaac. By this I will know that you have shown kindness to my master."(vv. 12-14)

And so it happens just as it was requested, and God receives the glory.

Genesis 37-50 – The Story of Joseph. This whole story is wrought with examples of Joseph trusting God. Joseph submits to his brothers; he is a good steward of all he is given in Potiphar’s household – including his wife: Genesis 39:9 – There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God? Joseph is more concerned about his relationship with God than he is about satisfying his own selfish desires, or his position within Potiphar’s household. Joseph submits to Potiphar when he is thrown in prison for something that didn’t happen.

40:8b – When Joseph is asked by the baker and chief cupbearer to interpret their dreams for them, Joseph gives God his proper credit: Do not interpretations belong to God? Even the interpretations that he gives he glorifies God for receiving the interpretations from Him. Joseph submits to an additional two years in prison.

41 – Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream. Joseph mentions three times in his interpretation of Pharaoh’s dream that God is going to bring about the things that he is saying – the seven good years and the seven years of famine. He is very careful to make sure that only God receives credit for the interpretation of the dream, and the events that will follow because God is bringing them to pass.

50 – Joseph forgives his brothers. The final story in the book of Genesis shows both God and self in stark contrast:

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!" So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, "Your father charged before he died, saying, 'Thus you shall say to Joseph, "Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong."' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. (vv. 15-20)

Joseph’s brothers are so concerned for their own well being that they are afraid of him. Notice what it doesn’t say here: What if Joseph bears a grudge against us? They are not worried about whether or not God bears a grudge against them, rather whether or not Joseph bears a grudge against them. This drives the brothers to fabricate a lie to Joseph about their father in addition to all of the wrongs they have already committed against him.

Joseph reminds them gently of the truth: Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. Joseph tells them that despite all things that God was at work, using Joseph to write His great story. That while the brothers were concerned about themselves, Joseph saw that God was the bigger player.

And this is just the book of Genesis. There is Moses in the Exodus, Joshua trusting God, King David, Nebuchadnezzar and many more in the Old Testament. Not to mention the twelve apostles, Paul, and many others in the New Testament. God has written to show us what happens when we rely on ourselves and love ourselves more than God.

We can also see this in our lives today. Do you love yourself? When someone wrongs you, do you not feel hot at your violation. When you receive blessing, do you credit yourself? And when you receive punishment, do you blame God? We all are guilty of this to some extent. We can take from the cast of the Bible that when we trust in ourselves, things don’t always go so well for us. But when we place our whole heart of trust in God, we can always be sure that what is happening is because God wants it to be that way.

We can have peace in our hearts because we don’t need to be worried about what tomorrow will bring. We can be thankful because we know that all of the good things that we have in our life have come from God. And we also rejoice in our suffering because we have a savior who has shared in our suffering.

Who Needs the Law When We Have a Charter?

2009-09-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090923/bountiful_charges_090923/20090923?hub=Canada

There has been another failure of justice in our country. Two men accused of polygamy have had the charges against them dropped. Now they are released back to the town of Bountiful, BC to resume their illegal and immoral lifestyle of multiple wives, many decades younger than themselves.

And there is nothing that we can do about it. While this practice of polygamy is illegal in Canada, it has never been tested in a court of law. No prosecutor will touch such a case out of fear that it would not hold up against a Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenge.

Further proof that this evil document is eroding morality in our country. For the lawmakers and judges of today are completely powerless against a document that essentially makes any practice right in the eyes of the law providing it is founded in a person’s religion

The following two clauses from the Charter indicate the power it gives to those who would wish to create their own laws in order to satisfy their desires:

2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
(a) freedom of conscience and religion;
(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;

15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.
(http://www.efc.ca/pages/law/charter/charter.text.html)

So let’s break down what these clauses mean for Canadians. Clause 2 says that everyone has freedom of conscience and religion. This means that everyone is free to think what they want to think and to believe what they want to believe, and that whatever they believe in their own eyes is right. Furthermore, whatever that person believes they are free to announce to the world through the media, and whatever way they choose to express themselves. Clause 15 says that everyone should be treated equally in respect to the law, effectively erasing all borders that separate race, origination, color, religion, gender, age or ability.

These two clauses combine to provide Canadians with a powerful weapon that when yielded will force the laws of the land to crumble. They essentially give a person a power to say ‘I believe this is right and no law can tell me that I am wrong.’

It has been used in this way before. In 2005, Paul Martin’s Liberal government forced same-sex legislation through the house of commons: “A draft of what would become Bill C-38 was released on July 17, 2003, by the Minister of Justice, Martin Cauchon. Prior to its introduction, he submitted the bill as a reference to the Supreme Court, asking the court to rule on whether limiting marriage to heterosexual couples is consistent with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and if same-sex civil unions are an acceptable alternative. On December 9, 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the marriage of same-sex couples is constitutional, that the federal government has the sole authority to amend the definition of marriage, and the Charter's protection of freedom of religion grants religious institutions the right not to perform the marriage ceremonies of same-sex couples if they so choose.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Canada#Overview)

After this happened, I was certain that we would see the Charter be used in the same way to legalize polygamy. Now I see that such a legal battle is wholly unnecessary – why go through a legal battle when you have a case in your favor already that no lawyer would defend against. This, as in the case of abortion, is something that lawyers and politicians are content to simply allow to happen in the background, refusing to enforce the law where they know it can’t be defended.

This gross miscarriage of justice disgusts me, as it should all Canadians. It’s bad enough that we have such weak ‘punishments’ for those guilty of defensible crimes, such as murder and rape. Now also we must deal with those who are supposed to enforce the law turning a blind eye to it, allowing crime to happen underneath their noses while pretending it doesn’t happen.

It distresses me, this Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That such a document is attached to the constitution of Canada, and that it can be used in such a way angers me greatly. The thing that makes me the most angry is the very first line of the Charter. It reads as follows:

Whereas Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God and the rule of law.

Such a statement should grieve any true Christian. How can we say that Canada is founded upon principles that recognize the supremacy of God when the document that follows gives license to people to make into law things that abolish the supremacy of God? Homosexuality, polygamy; these are lifestyle choices that run contrary to the teaching of God in the bible.

If the Charter states that it recognizes the supremacy (supreme and final authority) of God, should it not be used in a way that upholds the commandments and decrees of God? One would think so. Instead, the Charter ignores God completely and gives supreme authority to humans who seek to fulfill their evil desires rather than to submit to God.

This is a great travesty in our time. It should remind us of the story found in Judges where each person did what they thought was right in their own eyes. Such a stance led to God turning His back on His people, and allowing them to fall into the hands of their enemies. This is the situation that we find ourselves in today. Each person wants to do what they think is right in their own eyes. Even more so, some desire to do what they think is right so badly that they will use whatever means necessary to make it possible; even if it means bringing the government to court.

What is stopping someone from creating a religion that allows murder? Such a thing could be possible! If it is within a person’s rights to believe what they want to, and if they believe that murder is right according to their religion, then who is the government to say that it isn’t? After all, polygamy is illegal in Canada – yet out of fear it is not challenged in court because they know it can’t be won against.

It is a sad day for Canada. The ruling authorities have confirmed that not even they are able to adequately punish wrongdoing in their own country because of this Charter. God’s supremacy continues to be shelved in order to allow the citizens of this country to shed more and more morality. God would be wholly in His rights to destroy this country as He did to Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Abram.

Only a Leaf Tossed by the Wind

2009-08-24T12:34:00.001-07:00

A warning to anyone who’s ever said “I prayed a prayer and asked Jesus to come into my heart,” or “I accept Jesus as my personal savior”: You might not want to read this. Because there is a problem in such statements, one that is hard to ignore, yet is rampant in the church today.

Let me ask a question: How does one become saved? Are we saved by sovereign grace? Or do we choose to let Jesus into our hearts? Who is the active party here? This is a very important question because I have heard many answers, yet I know that there can only be one right answer. I can’t be saved by grace and choose to be saved at the same time. To be saved by grace is something that only God can do, offering forgiveness of sins on the back of His Son. To choose on my own is exactly that – something that I do on my own apart from grace.

So it is frustrating to me when I hear a message that seems to indicate that both at the same time are the case. For example, when someone preaches through John 3:5-8 - "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit," and then proceeds to proclaim how we must make a choice.

How clear is John 3 in indicating that to be born of the Spirit is beyond a human choice! Flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit – what does this mean other than only the Spirit can give rebirth to a person. The flesh can only give birth to flesh – without the Spirit acting sovereignly upon the flesh, the flesh will only give birth to more flesh.

Let’s also consider the wind. It blows wherever it pleases. Is this not true? When you are standing outside, do you tell the wind where to blow? No, it blows upon you, sometimes from this direction, sometimes from that direction. You feel it, you hear it, you can see it acting upon the things around you – but you don’t choose for the wind to blow upon you.

So, in light of these verses, how can a person say, “I’m born again because I accepted Jesus. Someone presented the facts to me and I accept them to be true and believe.” Such a statement is contrary to the words of Jesus. Why?

It all boils down to the glory of God. If a person is saved by the sovereign grace of God, God gets all the glory. I was not in a position to be able to save myself, sinner as I was. Yet God was gracious and merciful and "He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand."

Yet the person who has made the choice to believe in Jesus, they will say “I made the choice to climb out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; I set my feet on a rock, I chose a firm place to stand. When a person says that they made the choice to believe in Jesus, they then have grounds to boast! What are we to boast in? Not of the works of our own hands, but only of the cross of Jesus Christ. It is not by our power that we are saved, but only by the power of the one who has all authority.

For we are called by Christ – those He chooses are called to be followers. Did He not call his Apostles? They did not choose to be called. And when they were called, did they not follow? No one who is called chooses not to follow; they obey by the power of the Spirit. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit! The Spirit chooses whoever He pleases, and is not someone who can be called upon for salvation.

Consider also John 3: 21 - But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God. It is so plain! Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light; who lives by the truth but someone who has been called by the Spirit to will and to act according to His good purpose; and this is made plain so that there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that what that person does is done through God. How is this made plain? The Spirit often blows upon those whom the world viewed as hopeless candidates for God’s kingdom.

Such as Paul – persecutor of the church, jailing believers in Jesus, giving approval to their deaths. Paul makes no qualms about his dedication to the Jewish way. When the Spirit calls to him, and he is changed there is no question that some awesome thing has taken place in his heart! And who could do such a thing but God?

Could Paul take credit for his own conversion? Could he have said, “The Spirit of God blinded me and humbled me, and so I decided to believe in His Son Jesus”? If he could have, it would have been a robbery of glory from the Father. But I don’t believe he even could have.

If salvation depended on a human’s choice to choose God, no one would be saved. No one ever chooses God. Humans haven’t ever chosen God, even since the Garden of Eden. Did Adam and Eve choose God when they ate from the tree they had been commanded not to? Even in the presence of their God, they still chose themselves over God.

Rather, we need to restore glory to God where it belongs. We do not choose to believe in God. God chooses us to believe in Him. He must become greater in all things in my life, and I must become less. I must become so much less that I cannot take credit for anything in my life. Did I by my own power wake up this morning? No, but by the grace of God did I wake up this morning.

And if I cannot take credit for even that, how much less should I desire to take credit for the most important thing in life – salvation through forgiveness of sins? It is the work of the Spirit blowing upon those He chooses.

Response to a stance on Capital Punishment

2009-08-03T16:52:00.000-07:00

The following is a response to an ongoing debate regarding Capital punishment between myself and a friend. The friendly debate began on Facebook

How do you suppose turning the other cheek is in reference to insults when you take it in context of what Jesus says in Matt 5: 38-41? "You have heard it said "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." a reference to Leviticus 24:19-20 - "If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him." Pretty clear that is a reference to physical violence. Jesus continues: "But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also." Jesus says, 'this is what you heard in the old law, according to the letter. But *I* say to you – I who brings the new covenant (because the old one is completed in His death) – I say to you that there is an even higher standard to which you are called. A standard that doesn’t say “You deserve an equal punishment for the crime you have committed against me”, but rather in the face of being slapped on the cheek there is no retaliation, but instead the other cheek is offered up to be slapped.

“If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.” What interpretation can this possibly have, except for what it says? If you have been taken to court and someone is demanding a price from you, does this verse not say that we should give what is being asked, and then some?

“Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.” Again, does this not indicate that when someone is pulling you against your will that you not resist, and go even further than they ask?

Jesus is commanding a major heart position change. Don’t be people who want payback right now, but be humble, and be wronged. Is this not what Paul says in 1 Cor 6? “Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.” Does this verse not mean that to take a person to court is to lose? Because we are taking them to the world’s court, governed by unrighteous people whose judgements are not always sound. Then he tells us that we should rather be wronged? That we should prefer to be defrauded? Does this make sense to you? And to make sure that you wouldn’t judge that Paul was talking about disputes solely between believers, he mentions that we do this even to our brethren, indicating possibly that the large majority of these lawsuits are between believers and unbelievers

Now, why should we rather be wronged and defrauded instead of seeking punishment to the wrongdoers? I believe Paul gives an answer in Romans 12:17-21 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Let’s break this down: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil.” This falls in line with Jesus’ command to turn the other cheek – no more eye for eye or tooth for tooth. If someone does wrong to you, do not do wrong back to them. “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Now obviously Paul here allows for some circumstance, given that he gives this command ‘if it is possible, as far as it depends on you’. But again he is driving at a heart response that is different from the world – live at peace with everyone. Last time I checked, everyone meant *everyone*. People you like, people you don’t like, people who do bad things by you. Peace, everyone. Can one be commanded by the inspired scripture of God to be at peace with everyone, and still not be a pacifist?

Then, I think the next verse is the key to it all: “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.” Why should we allow ourselves to be wronged and defrauded as Paul suggests? Because we need to allow God to avenge the wrongs that are done to His children. He is the just judge who will deliver the sentence that the criminal deserves. If we seek to take revenge on a person, we are becoming the judge, and we are not righteous enough to make such judgements. God has promised that He will avenge us for the wrongs that have been done, and He will repay (and what a promise that would be to one who had a loved one stolen from them!)

On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." So be wronged! And then give the person who wronged you a loaf of bread. Be defrauded! And then give the person who defrauded you something to drink when he is thirsty. How is this going to make the perpetrator feel? When instead of receiving punishment, he receives mercy and kindness? Will it not bring them to shame? And if it does not lead them to repentance, will you not be justified by the wrath of God against the evildoer? Such a radical heart change is required to believe this! But obedience to such a heart will be rewarded by the Lord, as this reference to Proverbs 25:21-22 promises.

What is this act other than loving our enemies? Jesus again tells us: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous.” (Matt 5:43-45) It would not be a stretch, would it, to say that someone who murdered your loved one could be considered an enemy? Is this not, then, a clear command to love that person who has done such a terrible thing to you? Are we not commanded to pray for this person who has persecuted us? We are called to love our enemies because we were and are all enemies of God, yet He has loved us. Bore us with patience and longsuffering, providing for our needs while we turn our backs on Him, day after day. We are called to love our enemies in this very same way – to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect.

Now, in all of this, I don’t want to AT ALL give the impression that I feel that those who break the law should not face a trial for their offence. Absolutely, those who commit crimes must face the penalties due to them for their crimes. Earthly justice must be fulfilled, in order that Romans 12:18 be fulfilled - Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. You will not hear me ever claiming to say such a thing, for too, Romans 13, submitting to governing authorities must also be obeyed. We need to seek justice against those who do wrong. But worldly justice will always be insufficient. There are a few cases in which the punishment fits the crime, but for the large majority, especially surrounding murder, the courts seem to favor the criminal rather than the victims.

By all means, let us sentenced those who commit crimes to prison. Let them serve life sentences without parole. And while they are there, we need to love them and pray for their souls, that they too might find repentance. Murderers are sinners, as is everyone else. There is no one that is beyond salvation, for nothing is impossible for God.

One thing that is almost impossible for us humans is to forgive when we have been wronged so terribly. This is so central in a case like that of Vince Li. What I hear all over the place is how Li is a monster and should be put to death for what he did. What I don’t hear is Christians standing up and saying that Li is also a human being; broken, sinner, just like the rest of us; that he needs a saviour, just like the rest of us; that can find forgiveness in the arms of Christ, just like the rest of us.

Consider this question: Who are we to take any life, if we are all created in the image of God? Sometimes even murderers are not sentenced to death by God. In fact, the very first murderer of another human being was treated with love and mercy: Genesis 4:9-15 –

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" And he said, "I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?" He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to Me from the ground. "Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. "When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth." Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is too great to bear! "Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." So the LORD said to him, "Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him sevenfold " And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain, so that no one finding him would slay him.

God confronts Cain about the first murder, his brother’s blood in the ground a witness for God. Instead of striking him dead, God curses him to be a wandering beggar. Fearing for his life, Cain pleas to God to spare him. In God’s loving compassion he is merciful to Cain and applies a sign upon him so that he would not be murdered or killed as he had done to his brother. God graciously protects him from the very punishment that he deserves.

If God Himself can spare the life of a murderer, can we not also spare another human’s life? Of what use is a dead man to God? Could not a man bring more glory to God through his life? A murderer having the gospel preached to them, and they repent and are forgiven. If they are born again and dedicate the rest of their life in prison to ministering to other inmates about Jesus – would there not be more celebration in heaven over the repentance of the one sinner than there would be to his death? Does God celebrate the death of one of His children? Is He pleased to send His child to hell? Would He not rather forgive sins?

That is why the call for the death penalty for Vince Li alarms me. Where is love and forgiveness in seeking his death? If it did so happen that Li received the death penalty, would it really ease the hearts of the family of the McLean family, if they have not forgiven Li? Without forgiveness, bitterness will remain in their hearts. The hatred will fester and grow and continue to consume them. It will not bring their son back from the grave. Most importantly, it will exclude them from the forgiveness that is given to us. Matt 6:14-15 says, “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” I don’t know the hearts of the McLean family, but from seeing them on the news, seeing how the mother has reacted throughout the trial and afterwards, I don’t sense that there is forgiveness in her heart. And that so much more distresses me than the fate of Vince Li – How are their sins to be forgiven if they are unable to forgive Li?

Jesus also says in Matt 5:21-24, "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” Jesus ramps up the radical love we are to live with once again in telling us that a person living in sustained anger against another is subject to judgement; anyone who says “You fool!” is in danger of the fire of hell. So we are responsible for the reactions of our hearts – if we harbour bitterness and anger, we are subject to judgement. Notice then how Jesus instructs us to handle such a situation. “First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” Jesus tells us to be the ones to go and be reconciled, that we are to go to our enemies and offer up the olive branch

In the same way, is there forgiveness in the heart of the person who is seeking the death penalty? There is a strong desire for justice in such a penalty. But is it as loving as a desire to see a person brought to salvation? Is it as loving as allowing God to execute His justice against evildoers? There is a higher justice that has been completed for us. Jesus has paid the price for every sin. He has died the death that every person deserves. He became sin for us so that God could execute His wrath, causing Jesus to pay the penalty for all who believe in Him. All sins are covered, from the sin of Adam and Eve to the last sin on the day of Jesus’ return.

Would it not be better to see the sins of one like Vince Li also covered on the cross of Jesus Christ than to take his life and forego him that opportunity? For he is as one of us who falls short of the glory of God due to sin. Jesus paid the price for his sin on the cross, just as He did for you and me.

Therefore I conclude that justice from a worldly standpoint must be sought; according to the law must a criminal be punished. Canada is not a country where the death penalty is warranted, however moral it may seem. Therefore we must be obedient to the ruling authorities and accept the ruling against Vince Li. Should the issue arise in the future, based on the commands of Jesus to love our neighbors and our enemies, should Christians not rather seek mercy and love and forgiveness as opposed to death? Let the world deal worldly justice to its foes, be it the death penalty or life in prison. But let the Christian wield the gospel against their enemies, that the Father in heaven might be glorified through their repentance by faith. It is a radical heart-stance to take, but I believe it is biblical, and it is right. To let God avenge the wrongs done to His children, and for Christians to live in the continuing debt of love to one another.

He's Unbelievable!

2009-07-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

Present an atheist with all of your arguments about God, and you’ll probably receive a standard answer – “I don’t believe it.” Give him all of your factual evidence, quote scripture till you’re blue in the face, tell her everything that God has done in your life, and they simply shake their head.

Can you really blame them sometimes? I mean, when you look at the bible, have you ever heard of such things as:

The universe being spoken into existance?
A flood that covers the highest point of the earth under twenty feet of water?
A couple in their nineties having a baby?
A spirit that kills the firstborn of every family including livestock?
A body of water parting to allow people walk through on dry land?
The walls of a city collapsing because people walked around it and blew a trumpet?
A man who had great strength when his hair was long, and none when it was cut?
People being thrown into a furnace and coming out without even a singed thread on their clothes?
A man who had been swallowed by a large fish for three days, and spat out alive?
A man thrown into an arena with a hungry lion who survived untouched?
That the God of the universe came to earth as a man?
That that man lived a perfect, sinless life?
That He healed people of their illnesses and disabilities and even brought people back from death?
That out of love He went to the cross to die for sinners?
That hundreds of years before all of these things happened they were predicted with 100% accuracy in over 400 places?

Anyone with a logical mind might look at this list of things and find it easy to say “I don’t believe it.” It’s no wonder that many people consider the bible to be a book of fairy tales – these things just don’t happen in real life, they’re unbelievable!

And I think that’s exactly why God did these things the way He did. God is sovereign, and He can do whatever He pleases. He did things that were unbelievable so that the world would know that He is God. Sure God could have done it all the easy way. But then the bible would be really boring, because who would want to worship a God that wasn’t unbelievably amazing?

How can I believe in such an unbelievable God? It takes a blind faith; one that says ‘I don’t always understand how such things could have possibly come to pass, but I believe with all my heart that they did.’ Such a faith is impossible for a person to perform on their own – the logical brain will always kick in and turn that off.

No, it takes a faith that is given by God. God empowers believers by giving them the faith they need to believe in all of the utterly unbelievable things in the bible! “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Eph 2:8 That says a lot about the love that God has for His people – that by grace He calls those He loves and freely gives them the faith to believe in Him. And that is why I love our God.

He’s unbelievable!

Glory to God in the Highest!

2009-06-24T15:23:00.000-07:00

What was the first thing that you thought about when you woke up this morning? Was it, by chance, reveling in God’s glory? Did you think about the glory of God when you went to work, or sat down to lunch? How about when you got home, and spent time with the wife and kids? Or when you lay your head down on your pillow at night?

If you’re like me the chances are that you didn’t. In fact, you probably didn’t think about the glory of God much at all today, or yesterday, or ever. As Paul says in Romans 3:23, ”for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. How true a statement! In fact, I would wager to say that ‘falling short’ is far, far too lenient an expression to describe the gap in where we stand in relation to the glory of God!

I want to look at some of the definitions of “glory” as found on dictionary.com to show what I mean:
-noun
1. very great praise, honor, or distinction bestowed by common consent; renown
2. something that is a source of honor, fame, or admiration; a distinguished ornament or an object of pride
3. adoring praise or worshipful thanksgiving.
–verb
10.to exult with triumph; rejoice proudly

Now let’s think of Jesus with these definitions in mind. In everything that Jesus said and did, he gave very great praise and honor to the Father – At that time Jesus said, "I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants”. (Matt 11:25) God is the source of Jesus’ honor - And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. (Mark 10:18) Jesus is always praising and thanking God – Jesus then took the loaves, and having given thanks, He distributed to those who were seated; likewise also of the fish as much as they wanted. (John 6:11), So they removed the stone Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. (John:11:41), And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. (Matt 26:27)

Jesus, before the world was, was in the full glory of God. He alone has understood and given to the Father the glory that He deserves as a Holy, perfect God.

And then we were created in the image of God. We were created to be reflections of the glory of God. Instead, we exchanged the glory of the almighty God to give glory to ourselves. Rather than imaging forth the goodness and glory of God, we have chosen to show the world how great we are. We have forsaken His good and Holy word to make our own decisions as to what is right. All sin stems from exchanging the glory of God for the desires of the self.

We are all guilty of this sin. Think of the above definition of glory, and compare yourself to Jesus. Are you praising God for everything? When you wake up in the morning, drink your coffee and eat your breakfast, when you arrive safely at work, and have a job to go to, when you interact with your friends and coworkers, when you spend time with your family, when you lay down at night – are you thinking about God and his glory? Do you not agree that you sin and fall short of this glory?

And as a Holy and just judge, He must punish sin. We are all deserving of the death that Jesus faced on the cross – that death was yours to die! An eternity in hell is all that we sinners deserve for not glorifying God as we should.

And I am so thankful that Jesus Christ, Lord and savior of my life, was the one who did give God the perfect glory that I am wholly unable to do, and that He willingly gave His life in place of mine, facing the death that I deserve, taking the punishment for my sin that should rightfully be mine!

This thought spurs in my heart the desire to give the glory to God that He so rightfully deserves. I know that I will never be perfect, but my heart is opened to this! Glory to God in the highest!

An Exhortation to Parents

2009-06-17T03:06:00.000-07:00

At our communion service a few weeks ago, a member of our church told a story. It was a story of a little boy that she taught piano lessons to. She could tell that this boy was struggling, and so she would pray for him. Years later this boy, then a man, was baptized and became a member at Prairie Rose. A few years after that, this man preached to her. That man of whom she was speaking was me.

The telling of this story reminded me of what it was like to grow up in Landmark. She was very right – I was struggling in school. Not with grades, but socially. From the day that I entered kindergarten, 8 months into the year, I found it difficult to make friends. I always felt on the outside of all of the social groups. Maybe not so much in the earlier, elementary years, but definitely in junior and senior high.

Perhaps I was an awkward child that repelled others away from me. I know that I was sexualized around the age of 13, being exposed to pornography then, and I am aware that that manifested itself in perverse speech and actions. Surely this turned some away from me. I remember my mother telling me that some parents didn’t really like me either, and so kept their children away from me.

It is so very true that I struggled in school as a social outcast. One of the places that I should have been able to find solace and friends were in church events. I attended boy’s club, and Sunday school on my own after my parents stopped taking us. I remember asking a fellow student to teach me how to pray. It wasn’t that I wasn’t trying to find some way to fit in.

But where I should have met with open arms and acceptance, I found myself running headlong into hypocrisy. Quite often during the church events I was treated just as poorly as when I was in school. I remember this one time at some event at the church we were planning a 30 hour famine. I was excited to participate, however some of the boys were making fun of me and throwing things at me. I got so frustrated, I ripped up my pledge form and walked home.

I know that part of the reason that I gave up my faith when I was 16 was because the Christian kids that I interacted with were far from acting like they should. I didn’t need to believe in God to act like them. To act like the world.

The story told by the member in our church and the devotion that I gave got me thinking. Christians should not act this way, and neither should our children. Should we let the world dictate how our children interact socially with other children? The world operates on popularity – ‘cool’ kids are accepted, while ‘nerdy, geeky, awkward’ kids are not. This kind of social dichotomy should not exist in Christian families.

We need to teach our children as Jesus taught through the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man falls into the hands of robbers, is beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest and a Levite both pass him by on the other side of the road, while a Samaritan – one marginalized by the people of Jesus’ time – went out of his way to help the man. We need to teach our children that status or “popularity” should have no bearing on the value of a person. Jesus loved the people that the world looked down on – the poor, lepers, prostitutes, sinners. We need to do likewise, and in doing so teach our children to also do likewise.

I am always encouraged when someone tells me that they were praying for me when I strayed from the Lord. When I hear this, part of me also wonders, “Why didn’t you say something to me?” When I turned from my sinful lifestyle, I can’t tell you how many people said to me things like, “I always thought he was bad for you”, or “I wanted to tell you that I thought your lifestyle was wrong.” I almost wish that they had said something to me – surely I would have rejected their ‘helpful’ advice at the time. But things like that have a way of sticking in the heart of a person.

Could the member from our church have done more to intervene in my life? Possibly, but I don’t want to speculate on things past. God used these things in my life to bring me to where I am today, and today I have a message on my heart – We must learn from the mistakes of the past. I know that (and forgive me if this sounds somewhat ideological) there are many things I want to do as a parent that are far different from the things my parents did when they were raising us. God wasn’t at the core of my family life growing up, but He will be at the core with us now.

And one of the things that I want Aidan to know is to love the kids who are pushed off into the margins. We as parents know who these kids are – the member saw the struggle in me and thought to pray for me – we are not blind to this fact. We need to encourage our children to love these marginalized kids. And we as parents should do our part to love them also, troubled as they may be.

The longing of each person’s heart is to be loved. Sometimes even the smallest gesture, such as telling that person that you are praying for them, can mean the world to a person. When I think of boy’s club now, I think of Kevin Plett, and how he often went out of his way to make sure that he said hi to me, or to pat me on the back. Let us all look for these struggling children and keep them in our prayers, but also to reach out to them and let them know that they are loved.

Now, I realize that all of you have been parents longer than I have, and I want you to know that I am not intending this to be an indictment to any of you. I preach this to myself first of all, and expect to be held accountable, that I might do as I tell others to do. Father I pray that this word would land on the parents who read it and that Your Spirit would write it on their hearts.

Baptism and Communion Devotion

2009-05-31T21:08:00.000-07:00

This morning we were witness to the newest members of our church being baptized. These brave people stood up here in front of you all, confessed their sins, and shared with you how God has been acting in their lives, drawing them closer to Him. In this they have obeyed the command of Peter in Acts 2:38 – “Peter said to them, "Repent and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Tonight we will take part in the Lord’s Supper, His communion. We will partake in the bread and blood of the new covenant, and remember what Jesus did for us on the cross. Tonight, these new members will be able to do this for the first time.

But what does this all mean? Why is it that Christians participate in these ceremonies? Why do we baptize, and why do we take communion? For, we know that baptism does not save a person. What you witnessed this morning was not a dramatic, miraculous conversion – all that happened was they had some water poured on their heads. What you will experience tonight is nothing miraculous either. You will eat your piece of bread and drink your thimble of juice, and all that will be changed is you will be a little more full than you were.

I think that most of us know that in and of them selves, baptism and communion do not produce salvation, but rather that they are symbols of miraculous events that point to something else. There are two main ways in which people are baptized: by pouring, which we saw this morning. This is a symbol of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, as in Acts 2. The other is baptism by immersion, where a person goes completely under the water. This is a symbol of a person being buried like Jesus, going down a dead sinner, and raising as a new creation.

Paul confirms this in Romans 6:3-4 “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”

Communion too is a symbol, as Jesus explains in Luke 23:19-20 - And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.”

So we celebrate these symbolic gestures in a Christian’s life. Baptism when a person wants to outwardly show their transformation in Jesus Christ. Communion as a way of remembering what it is that Christ did for us on the cross.

But the real question is, what is going to happen when we walk out of these doors after the service tonight? What difference are these symbols going to make tomorrow, when you go back to school, or head into work. Are the events that took place under this roof today going to matter to each of you individually, and to the world around you tomorrow?

Because it is so easy for us to walk out these sanctuary doors, and to simply forget about what these symbols mean. Maybe not instantly, as though you walk out the door and forget where you’ve just been. But gradually, as the weeks go by, as the months and seasons change. Eventually your baptism becomes just another day in the distant past, and your remembering turns into forgetting.

I’ve seen it happen before and perhaps so have you. A new Christian is born again, and their hunger for the knowledge of God’s word sees them making giant leaps and bounds very quickly. They study the word and become very familiar with its power. Great change is seen in their lives as they rid themselves of their former sinful habits, replacing them with works of faith.

Non-Christian friends of this person raise their eyebrows when they pass by – they are definitely not the same person that they were before! When asked why the change, the person credits God for doing a great work in them, and this causes their friends to sneer. Their old, non-Christians friends are slowly replaced with Christian ones. To the Christian, everything is going just as it should be – they are in love with God and His ways, and their life shows it.

Then years later, you look at this Christian and see that the world has crept back into their life. Compromise after compromise has the person looking much like the pre-baptism dead person that once lived. The realization that being dead to sin doesn’t quite mean that sin won’t come hits home, and the Christian gets discouraged often. The Christian has backslidden into their old ways.

Brothers and sisters, we must not let this happen, to ourselves, and to our newest members! For those of you who feel that you are backslidden, or are heading in that direction, do not despair! But know also that you cannot stay in that state.

So what can we do in order to make sure that this doesn’t happen to us? Or if it has happened, what can we do to get out of this situation? In the book of Romans Paul exhorts us with a powerful command, and anyone who is serious about their faith should listen, and hear. This command can be found in Romans 12, verses 1 and 2:

Paul tells us that we are to be living and holy sacrifices, offering our own bodies to God. Paul is saying this in contrast to the Old Testament sacrificial system which was also loaded with symbols – Placing the hands on the head of a goat and transferring the sins from the people to the animal which was then killed on an altar; a bloody system that pointed to the final sacrifice in Jesus.

Now we are called to be living sacrifices, and the means by which we are commanded to do this is by not being conformed to the pattern of this world. We are to live our lives set apart from the world according to the words that God has commanded us. This means that we are to live our lives in such a way that is so unlike the world that non-Christians will look at us and see something different and beautiful – that they will see God in the way that we live, and they will want it! We are to live our lives as symbols that represent Jesus.

This is nothing new. In Genesis when God looks at the wicked people of the earth and decides to wipe them out, he spares Noah because he is righteous and blameless among the people of his time (Gen 6:9). He obeys God when he is told to build an ark while the rest of the world continues on eating and drinking and being married, up until the day of the flood.

When God gives Abraham the covenant of circumcision, He tells Abraham that this physical sign will distinguish the Israelites as God’s people over the rest of the world

When God gives Moses the law, He is telling the people that they are to live according to this law, forsaking the practices of the people groups around them because their practices are wicked, and the word of God is Holy.

And that is what it means to be Holy, to be set apart in a righteous way. And that is how Paul tells us that we should live. But this is no easy task right? After all, we live in the world, and it is the world around us that shapes much of our daily lives.

Well, we can live in the world and not be conformed to the world. So we need to take a look at what it means to be conformed to the world. The definition of conform is to act in accordance with the prevailing standards, attitudes, and practices of society or a group; or to be or become similar in form, nature, or character. So to conform to the world is to act the way the world acts, and to think the way that the world thinks.

And this is so dangerous, because the world at large doesn’t think and act in Godly ways most of the time! We live in a society that tells you every day that you need to live for yourself – make yourself more comfortable, make yourself more financially secure, make yourself more entertained, make yourself happier, life is all about you!

We also live in a very relativistic society, one that says ‘whatever I believe in is right for me, and whatever you believe in is right for you, and we can live in harmony as long as neither of us tells the other that what they believe is wrong.’

So it isn’t very hard to see why Paul tells us that we should not be conformed to the world – because the world hates God. Many will look at the bible and see it as a book that limits happiness – In this world you will have suffering, or trouble, Jesus says in John 16:33 – The world says, “I don’t want suffering and trouble!” Matthew 19:21, Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." The world says, “Sell all my possessions and give to the poor? Then I’ll be poor and I won’t have any possessions!” John 14:6, Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The world says, “Jesus is the only way to heaven? Well I don’t believe that, and you are standing here and telling me that I am wrong? How dare you!”

Brothers and sisters, we cannot allow ourselves to align our thoughts with the thoughts of the world. James 4:4 says, You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Rather we need to align our thoughts with the thoughts of God, and not be conformed to the world. We need to be transformed by the renewal of our minds. I believe that this means that we need to look radically different than the world, in every aspect

First, we need to love God. Mark 12:29-30 says, "Jesus answered, "The most important [commandment]is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' We Christians are all here today because we were called by God (Rom 6:1), and God has revealed to us the beauty of Christ’s death and touched us with His love, and for this we must be eternally thankful. We need to make loving God the most important thing that defines our lives.

Secondly, in order to love God, we need to know God, and the only way that we are to know God is to know His Word. 2 Timothy 3:14-17 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. God wrote this book so that we would know the right way to live. Use this book to teach yourself, to rebuke yourself, to correct yourself and to train yourself in righteousness

Third, we need to obey God. James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Jesus also says in Luke 6:46-49, Why do you call me, 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete."

By grounding ourselves in the word and putting the commands we hear in the word into practice, we are building on the strong foundations that God has laid down. When the storm hits – when the trouble and suffering come, or when temptation strikes us – we will be unshaken because of our deep roots in the love of God, and the obedience that comes from faith. The alternative is very clear – hearing the word of God and not doing what it says will lead to complete destruction when the storm comes.

Finally, we need to reflect the glory of God. We were created in the image of God, and as such we are to look like God. When you love God, when you know God, and when you obey God, you will begin to look very different to the world. As you are drawn deeper and deeper into the love of God, you will begin to be less like the world, you will love what God loves and hate what God hates. And people will definitely look differently at you. When they ask you, “why are you doing this? Why are you acting this way?” be sure to tell them that it is God working in you

You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matt 5:14-16

In summary, consider the symbolism of this day. Baptism candidates: this morning you were baptized, an outward symbol of your faith in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Tonight, all baptized believers are invited to take place in communion, a reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice for us, the bread symbolizing His body, and the juice symbolizing His precious blood.

And as we leave here today, let our lives be a symbol to the world of the goodness and glory of God by loving, and knowing, and being obedient to God. Let us be salt and light to the world, so they will look upon us and see, and desperately want what their hearts long for: the eternal love of the Father in Heaven

At the Doctor's Office

2009-05-19T16:51:00.000-07:00

So I’m sitting here at the doctor's office waiting for our doctor to show up so we can find out whether or not Holly will be induced in the near future. She told me this morning that she is a bit scared, thinking that we will be having a baby very soon. How much are our lives going to change, with lazy weekends soon to be replaced by busy baby-chasing weekends, and get-up-and-go replaced with get-the-car-seat-and-make-sure-we-have-everything-in-the-diaper-bag-and-don't-forget-the-baby.

I don't feel exactly the same way that Holly does. I am definitely less scared and overall worried than she is. True I don't have to push the baby out, but that is only a small part in comparison. I know that in the past I have told Holly to take comfort in Matthew 6, where Jesus tells us not to worry about our lives. I think that this section of scripture has been a great help to me since we became pregnant. Jesus tells us not to worry about how we will feed and clothe ourselves because God is good and will provide for us.

Part of the reason that Jesus tells us not to worry is because there is so much in this world that is beyond our control - and isn't that what so many people worry about? No one worries about things that they have complete control over. But there are just so many things in this world that a person can lose themselves worrying over.

Hence the other part of the reason that Jesus tells us not to worry. God is watching over us, feeding the birds of the air and clothing the fields of the land. If God is able and willing to feed and clothe these, how much more will he provide for us? He knows that we need these things. Jesus tells us that we are to "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to [us] as well"

God doesn't want us to waste any time worrying about things that are beyond our control. Rather, we need to seek God, and His kingdom and His righteousness, and those things that we are worried about will be taken care of by Him. After all, He is in control.

Therefore, when you are finding yourself stuck in the cyclical trap of worry, take that concern and forward it on to God. Let Him worry about what the future brings, and receive from Him the peace that surpasses all understanding.

"Why do you call me good?"

2009-04-20T00:17:00.000-07:00

If you were to ask a number of people, “What must a person do in order to get to Heaven?” you will probably come across the answer, “All you need to do is be a good person – be good to others and to yourself.” I’ve heard this kind of answer from non-Christians and Christians alike.

Now I can understand why such a sentiment could be rather popular – no one wants to go around thinking “I’m a terrible person,” all the time. Such a thought is bad for the self-esteem. And, as long as you aren’t killing people and stealing from them, that pretty much makes you a ‘good person’ right? After all, there are so many worse people in this world, as long as you are better than them you should be ok, right?

For the true Christian, such an answer should never pass from their lips. There are two major reasons I feel this way. First of all, God doesn’t expect goodness from us. Aiming for goodness is far too low for the Christian. Rather, Jesus commands us in Matthew 5:48, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” I would say that there is a bit of a gap between goodness and perfection.

In fact, this standard of perfection set forth by the bible brings to light the spectrum upon which ‘goodness’ can be found. If perfection is the absolute best that a person could be, then one can infer that there is a bottom point, as well as a seemingly infinite middle area upon which ‘goodness’ can be measured. The question then becomes, how does a person define the parameters that declare their position on this scale of goodness? Does performing a certain number of good deeds move you up on the scale, while doing bad things (or not doing good things) slides you down?

The second reason I disagree with such a mindset is very simple – I don’t understand how any Christian can hold such a view in the light of Jesus’ own words in Mark 10:17-18 : As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God.”

How can anyone believe that there is a spot in Heaven for “good people” when Jesus Himself rejects that notion about Himself. If Jesus Christ did not allow Himself to be called good, how can anyone else say of themselves, “I am a good person”?

People often try to tell me that I am a good person, but I know in my heart that I am not. Sure, I may be a nice guy, and sometimes I do good things for other people. But in my heart I am a wicked sinner. People see a rosy exterior, but if they saw into the window of my heart, they would run from me. I may climb a few rungs on the ladder of goodness, but when I sin against God, I fall right down to the bottom. No, I am not a good person.

And as Jesus says, no one is good except God. That is why I reject the notion that a person who is good merits an eternal place in Heaven. If that were the case, only God would reside in Heaven. No, the true Christian will acknowledge the word of God when answering a question like the one posed above. They will answer with the words of Jesus – that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and that no one comes to the father but through Him. That it is by grace alone that a person is saved – that no good deed will ever be “good” enough. That it’s all about God, and not about you.

A Walk With the Mormons

2009-04-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

I see them often, wandering the lonely streets of Old St. Vital. Often, because they live in the building across the street from me. I’ve always wanted to take the opportunity that they throw themselves into on a daily basis to probe them, and try to understand them. The other night I got my chance.

Holly and I were just leaving to go for a walk when they approached us. The two of them in their nice shirts and ties, and the nice black jackets they had on. One of them had a nametag that indicated that he was an elder, and below the name – “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”.

Yes I was about to get to know the Mormons for the first time, and to be able to test them to see if their doctrine was biblically sound. I let them talk first – they clearly had a monologue prepared – telling us how they were missionaries and how it was their great pleasure to be able to share a message that can make a real difference in a person’s life. The following are the points that they made, and what I said to them in response, to the best of my recollection.

Jesus Christ came to the Americas after His resurrection to spread the Gospel there
According to the Mormons, when Jesus spoke of the “sheep which are not of this fold” (John 10:16) He was referring to the people of the Americas. I asked them, “How did Jesus manage to cross the ocean, spread the gospel there, return to Jerusalem, and do all of the things mentioned in the bible when there were only forty days between His resurrection and His ascension?” Considering how long it may have taken by boat to cross the ocean, if such a thing were even possible in Jesus’ time – I mean, Paul had a heck of a time getting from Caeserea to Rome, a journey which by the sounds of it took maybe a month or two, and the distance is far less than that of the Atlantic Ocean.

I was told that Jesus ascended into heaven, and then descended back into the Americas. “But,” I said, “that isn’t what scripture says.” My bible says that Jesus ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. He said “It is finished” as he hung dying on the cross – His work was finished, why did He need to continue to spread the gospel Himself? Had he not commissioned us to be the ones who were to go to all the unreached people in all the ends of the earth?

They had no answer.

The gospel contained within the book of Mormon was written on gold plates and buried in the ground because the people who preached this word were not well received, and faced persecution for their testimony.
Two questions sprung from this statement – why would God desire for His word to be written on plates of gold? Gold is valuable here on earth, but to God, gold has about as much worth as dirt – the streets of heaven are paved with gold.

Gold, they explained, was a very malleable metal, which made the embossing of the word very easy. They also said that it was a better material because it could withstand the test of time, whereas paper deteriorated. True – except that early manuscripts of the bible were written on parchment, the skins of animals, and they survived time quite well, undisturbed. The location of the plates today? They were taken away by the Lord as their purpose on the earth had been fulfilled.

Secondly, how can the testimony of the Mormons be trusted when you consider the difference in responses? The Mormons receive their word from God and preach it in the area, and their message is rejected. Because their message is rejected, and they are facing persecution, their message is hidden away, buried underground, forgotten for 2000 years. On the other hand, the apostles of Jesus preached their message and their message is often rejected, and they too face persecution. Only the apostles continue to preach their message, each and every one of them unto death.

Why did they bury their testimony? If they knew that it was true, should they not have preached it unto death also? Were they ashamed of the message they preached? I felt the response I got was a bit of a cop out – no one knows the will of God, and why He decided that this was the way He chose to do it. The people of the Americas weren’t ready for that message, and so they were buried until God decided that they were.

Our unborn child is free from sin, and should he die shortly after birth, he will go to heaven
I agree with part of this statement, that if our baby, heaven forbid, should die as an infant that he will go to heaven. Not because he is free from sin – the bible states that infants are not: Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. (Psalm 51:5) It’s pretty clear that David didn’t believe that he was free from sin as an infant. I believe that infants that die go to heaven because of their lack of understanding of right and wrong, and we could debate what the age of accountability would be. But I know that my little baby growing inside my wife has a sinful nature just like me

We are responsible for working out our own salvation
I asked them what their thoughts were on predestination, quoting Ephesians 1:4: “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love.” At first they didn’t seem to know what I was talking about, so I spelled it out for them. According to this verse, before God said “Let there be light,” God was planning the lives of all the people He would create, saying this person will be in my kingdom, this person will not. After saying this they made the above statement, to which I responded, “so you are more of a works leading to salvation kind of church?”

The junior responded, ‘Faith without works is dead.”
“Yes”, I said, “faith without works is dead, but works that are a product of faith are the works that that verse is referring to. What you are talking about is works of faith that lead to salvation. How many people do you need to save in order to be allowed entrance into heaven?”
“Only ourselves,” they said.
“But you can’t even save yourselves, only God can save a person.” They agreed.

The only true way to heaven is to accept the authority of the Book of Mormon as the completion of the gospel.
I noticed their desire to push this book as part of their message harder than anything. Their claim was that they had read it and that they accept that it is the authoritative word of God. Their desire for us was that we too would read the book and accept it as the authority of God.

Holly asked them the greatest question – “So are you saying that if we don’t accept the book of Mormon as true, then we’re not going to heaven?” They were very careful to say that God was the one who decided who went to heaven or hell, but that essentially, yes if we didn’t accept the book of Mormon then we weren’t believing in the one true way.

“So you are putting yourself in the same boat as the pope who claimed that Catholicism is the only true way to heaven because they recognize the primacy of the pope. We don’t worship the pope, we don’t worship a book – we worship Jesus Christ – and He said the He was the way, and the truth, and the life, and the only way to the father. What if you are wrong about your book?” I asked.

“Then we are wrong,” was their only response. At this point they decided that it was nice to talk to us, and if we knew anyone else who might be interested in chatting with them. We declined and went on our separate ways.

I was glad to have the opportunity to speak with these people. It makes me glad that God brought scripture to mind at the right time. The elder admitted that he didn’t have a great understanding of the bible. I am thankful that I have read the whole New Testament, and have listened to the whole bible on my iPod several times over.

Please pray for the Mormons, especially these two. Pray that the seeds that were sown would sprout into true faith!

To you I lift up our Holy Bible, the word of the Lord. Cherish its words, and read them always! Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defence to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence (1 Peter 3:15)

God of the Economy

2009-03-24T11:02:00.000-07:00

Last night I was watching the news and a thought struck me. President Obama has come up with a 1 trillion dollar bailout plan to buy up all of the bad debt that the banks are saddled with, in hopes that such a move will spur the banks on to new lending and that consumers will begin to spend again, pulling our economies out of recession.

Thinking about this reminded me of the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another's speech."

So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

I know, I know, how does the economy have anything to do with the Tower of Babel? Well here’s what I thought. The intent of the people was to build a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven so they could make a name for themselves. This must have been quite the city plan – all of the world’s people spoke the same language and used the same words. This would definitely have made the foreman’s job easy – everyone would be in understanding of what needed to be done. And in order that they might not be scattered about the earth, they would have all needed houses to live in. I imagine a huge undertaking, the whole population of the earth at the time teeming in this one area, building a massive city. As people finished their houses, they joined in the building of the massive tower that stood at the city center.

Now let’s think about towers. How tall might a tower have been to reach into heaven? The distance between the ground and space is roughly 80 kilometres. That’s quite the distance, if that is what they considered heaven. The world’s tallest free standing structure today is the Burj Dubai, standing at 818 Meters, less than 1 kilometer. What are the greatest fears of those who build such tall structures? Either that the weight of the building will collapse in on itself from above, or that the building will topple in the wind as it rises higher and higher.

I see the economy in kind of the same way. As people amass assets and equity, they are in a sense building themself a tower. The more money they have, the more security they have, and of course, the greater their name is. Surely anyone can name who the ‘richest’ man in the world is – Bill Gates. Gates has a very tall and sturdy tower, with a solid base

Debt also works in the same way – as in people with much debt are also building towers. These towers are not as strong as asset towers, but they often grow just as fast. They are weak, lean towers with poor bases. As they continue to grow and grow, they are in danger of toppling over. Asset towers are just as vulnerable – they are susceptible to corruption from within, and may collapse at any time

Enter God. God sees the large city and tower that is being erected against Him. We know that our God is a jealous God (Ex 20:25, Ex 34:13, Deut 4:24, Josh 24:19, etc), and a city built to make a name for humans is an insult to our mighty God. God works in order to humble the people of the world, by scattering them, and confusing their language. God takes control of the situation and does what He needs to do in order to make Himself more glorified.

And in our time of economic turmoil, we mustn’t forget that God is at work here too. The western world has surely made a name for itself, and God has allowed the erection of many towering skyscrapers that reach towards heaven. It should come as no surprise to the Christian then that God is bringing the world to its knees with this recession. God has confused many people with a market that is on a roller coaster – up one day and way down the next. Yet people continue to turn to themselves to find the right answer to the problem.

I believe that there is a biblical answer to the problem of the economy. I know that it will never ever fly, but I believe with all my heart that should this method be used, that the entire world economy would rebound. Obama’s trillion dollar debt bailout is getting close, but not nearly close enough.

What Obama should do, starting in his own country (the biggest economy, they could be the greatest role models) is to announce a year of Jubilee. This year, described in Leviticus 25:8-55, was a year in which all debts were erased, slaves were freed, and the wealthy took care of the poor. This year was ordained by God to occur every fifty years – yet not once after it’s command in Leviticus 25 is it ever recorded to have happened. And why would any business want this to happen? The credit card companies would have a fit if this were ever proposed!

But can you imagine? All of those debt towers would be wiped clean – and I do mean all of them, from personal bank accounts to the deficit of the country. How many people think that if they could just get enough money to be out of debt how free they would be – can you imagine what it would be like for the whole world, or even just a whole country, to get a chance to start over again?

Obama’s bad debt purchase is a step in the right direction. But we should see some debt forgiveness! That will really spur consumers to spending, because they will have more money, money that they aren’t putting away to pay their creditors.

All this being said, the only way to survive this economic whirlpool is to keep God in the spotlight. This is His story, and He is writing it. Trying to explain this downturn without God is getting economists into big trouble – they are like double-minded people, one says it is getting better, another says it is getting worse. I say, it is only as bad as God wants it to be – and praise Him for it!

Story (Pt. 2)

2009-03-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

This is a response to Matt's blog post. I encourage you to read it first.

Thank you for this post Matt! This is the exact thing that I have been trying to work through since I started my series on sovereignty. How can God be sovereign, yet still ask of us obedience? How can God do what He wants including using humans in whatever way He sees fit, and at the same time hold us responsible for our actions?

Because I understand the sovereignty part – it is all over the Bible! God clearly is doing what He wants to do, telling His story in whatever way he wants to in order to bring Himself glory.

And I remember our discussion about my post on the will of God in the account of Exodus. How can God be hardening Pharaoh’s heart, and causing things to happen – and yet be free of sin?

Now I won’t be so naïve as to claim that I understand it all. But I totally agree with what you are saying when you say that it is both – both God’s sovereign reign and man’s free will. Now I look at my post on Exodus and I must answer the question – How does God do all these things, and not sin in the process? The best that I can come up with begins with a Romans 9 defence:

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? (14-22)

Imagine if you will for a moment this situation – God has created a race of people who He wants to love Him. He knows that the greatest climax of His story will be His Son dying in place of these people for sin. But they haven’t sinned yet. So, as you alluded, God creates a law – for, where there is no law, there is no sin. And He allows the crafty serpent He created into the garden where he surely knows that it will speak to Adam and Eve.

As far as I can tell, God is making the fall happen – He needs it to happen so that His climax can come to fruition. So, is God sinning for creating a situation where He causes others to sin? I don’t believe so. Consider that God is an author, writing His story. That is a great explanation to His sovereignty. If we are all characters in this grand story that God is writing, He is not wrong to write in plot twists that make Him look like a bad guy.

Because (and here’s where it gets a bit confusing) it’s a bit of a dynamic story. When most authors write a story, the characters just do what the author says, and nothing more. In God’s case, He has created characters who have a will of their own. And maybe that’s the catch – God creates us as creatures who have our own decisive wills so that when He the author wants us to behave in a way that might make Him look like the bad guy, the onus and responsibility falls on us.

‘Now wait a minute!’ I can hear the cries from my faithful readers. “God makes us responsible for something that He causes us to do? Why then does he still blame us? Because if that is what He is willing for me to do, how am I to stop it?” Perhaps this example helps to make Romans 9 make sense. If this is the case – and I don’t want to say that it is the case, because this is just my mind trying to make sense of something that is almost impossible to make sense of – then why do we question God’s work? If, by God’s sovereign will, He decided to create a world in which every word out of every person’s mouth from Adam in Genesis 1 to Jesus at the end of the age in Revelation 21 was scripted to the letter (based on the extremely broad and vague Proverbs 16:1 - …but the answer of the tongue belongs to the Lord) – who would you be, little character in God’s big play, to say to God “Why did You make me this way?”

Consider also the account of Job. Did God not create satan, and does God not allow satan to wander to and fro in the earth? Did God not ask satan to consider Job, seemingly egging him on to his request? Did God not allow satan to destroy everything that Job owned – livestock, land, and human life – to prove a point? Yet God is innocent despite all of this? Why? Because of the character that God created – satan – and because God puts the responsibility of all of this on his shoulders. Because He is God, and He is sovereign, and He can do whatever He wants, and we are not to question His ways. Because He is just, because He is righteous, because He is holy, because He is the author and the creator.

We dance around this truth without wanting to accept it, yet we sing about it every Sunday. “Take my will, conform it” (Sonicflood – Holiness); “Take me, mould me, use me, fill me. I give my life to the Potter's hand” (Darlene Zschech - The Potter's Hand); All of my ambitions, hopes and plans, I surrender these into Your hands. For it's only in Your will that I am free” (unknown – All for Jesus)

So now I’m sure you’ll ask me, if we are just characters in this story, and God is writing it, how do we use our free will? And I answer, Give it to Jesus. Let God use you how He wants to. Allow Him to be sovereign. Work with Him instead of against Him. Die to yourself and let Him live in you and through you. “Yet not My will, but Yours be done”.

Living in God’s will is truly the only way to be truly free.

Keep it to Yourself

2009-03-03T10:20:00.001-08:00

I just got off the phone with a good friend of mine. She was upset with me because last week, one of her friends posted a note on facebook; the random 25. One of her random points was that she didn’t know where she stood with religion. She said she believed in God, but felt that ‘religion needs to be modernized to adapt to the 21st century.’ I decided to send her an email explaining why I felt such an attitude towards religion is very dangerous. Rather than responding to me, she went to my friend, who in turn spoke to me.

“She doesn’t want to hear it! She has her own beliefs and you have yours. You always stick your nose into other people’s business when they start to talk about religion. You feel like you need to fix people.”

I am less bothered by this kind of reaction than I used to be. I appreciate the concern of my friend. She, however, believes that my actions were wrong. She is trying to tell me that it is wrong for me to talk to people who are confused about God, or who have wrong ideas about God – unless they come to me and ask first.

The problem is that I can count the number of times on one hand someone has come up to me and said, “Sean, I have this question about God, can you help me?” The problem is that nine times out of ten people are more comfortable to not talk about their issues than to face them. People, it seems, prefer ignorance to knowledge.

After all, addressing a potent question about God might mean that you could possibly have to change some of your behavior, because the answer to that question might (gasp) convict you of some sin! And any elementary student knows that God hates sin. However, many adults choose to sin, and they do so because they enjoy their sin. More often than not it is just easier to not think about the hard questions and to continue to choose their sin than to work towards God’s standards. I know that sometimes I am also guilty of this.

I am a little blown away by the hypocrisy of this situation. She posts her random 25 with this statement of her beliefs. A statement which many will read and some may be influenced by. No one is sending her emails saying, “Stop forcing your beliefs on everyone else!” Then I respond with a focussed email to only her that contains a statement of my beliefs. Now all of a sudden I become Public Enemy No. 1, and it’s oh so wrong of me! Stop forcing what you believe on everyone else!

So, what to do? Do I obey my Jesus and instruct the sick of this world as I am led based on His teachings? Or do I hide in shame and uphold the status quo in order that no one becomes offended? Do I tell my friend the truth, or do I allow them to careen towards death?

God's Will for the Exodus

2009-02-25T00:20:00.000-08:00

An in-depth study on the sovereignty of God in the account of the Exodus

It's long. And I'm not sorry for that. So grab a coffee and dive in. Take a break if you need to, then come back and finish

Anyone who knows me and my work knows that when I start to talk about will, I inevitably reference Exodus, and the account of Pharaoh. And with good reason: I believe you will be hard-pressed to find another story in the bible that shows God’s sovereignty over human will than this. God is so active in this story, and not just over Pharaoh – over Moses and Aaron and the people of Egypt as well. God is working all over these chapters in Exodus, showing us how He is in control. Allow me to show you just how God is working in this book.

We begin in Chapter 7 of the book of Exodus. God is speaking to Moses and Aaron:

Then the LORD said to Moses, "See, I make you as God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet. You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. When Pharaoh does not listen to you, then I will lay My hand on Egypt and bring out My hosts, My people the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt by great judgments. The Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand on Egypt and bring out the sons of Israel from their midst.” So Moses and Aaron did it; as the LORD commanded them, thus they did. (Exodus 7:1-7)

Two things struck me as I read this passage. First of all, God says to Moses, “You shall speak all that I command you.” Let’s define the word ‘shall’. Dictionary.com offers a progressively narrow definition:

1. plan to, intend to, or expect to
2. will have to, is determined to, or definitely will
3. must; is or are obliged to

Given the context, I think we can definitely rule out definition 1 as Moses’ objective. God is telling Moses what he will say (I am reminded of Proverbs 16:1 - The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. A passage which deserves its own message). This isn’t some kind of ‘say whatever you want’ kind of command. Replace ‘shall’ with any of its definitions – you will have to; you are determined to; you must; you are obliged to; speak all that I command you – to get the full meaning of what God is saying here.

Secondly, (and glaringly obvious) God says, “But I will harden Pharaoh's heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” Let’s deconstruct this sentence: God says, “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart”. What does this mean? Does it mean that Pharaoh is in control of the hardening of his own heart? Or does it mean that God will do the hardening. I think that plain English dictates the latter as the correct interpretation.

Why this cancellation of free will? Why this apparent theft of that which we hold dear to ourselves; our ability to make our own decisions? “That I (God, not you) may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” It is not wrong for God to usurp our free will in order for His name to be glorified.

Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “When Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, 'Work a miracle,' then you shall say to Aaron, 'Take your staff and throw it down before Pharaoh, that it may become a serpent.'" So Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, and thus they did just as the LORD had commanded; and Aaron threw his staff down before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. For each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents. But Aaron's staff swallowed up their staffs. Yet Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said. (Exodus 7:8-13)

At first glance, one might be ready to say that Pharaoh is in control here. This verse is a bit ambiguous in its wording – Pharaoh’s heart was hardened… As the Lord had said. By whom? Was it hardened by God, or by Pharaoh? In this instance, it could be either, really. I believe that the line "As the Lord had said," here and in subsequent passages holds a clue into the answer.

Then God instructs Moses to plague the Nile, which he does with his staff, turning the water of the river into blood, killing the fish that swam in it and making it undrinkable. Not to be outdone:

But the magicians of Egypt did the same with their secret arts; and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said. Then Pharaoh turned and went into his house with no concern even for this.(Exodus 7:22-23)

Again Pharaoh’s heart is hardened, and again it does not explicitly say by whom. It could be that Pharaoh is hardening his own heart, and it could be that God is hardening it. One might argue that in these first two instances that it is Pharaoh hardening his own heart. After all, his magicians were able to perform the same ‘miracles’ that Moses was able to do. Pharaoh’s faith in Moses’ God was likely very small at this point.

The third plague is the plague of frogs. God covers the nation in frogs, and the magicians do the same. After asking Moses to pray to his God that the frogs be removed and they are:

But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not listen to them, as the LORD had said.(ch. 8 v.15)

Now this is a very natural reaction. Pharaoh has a big problem on his hands here with the frogs. He is very motivated to seek action, and he will do whatever it takes to get rid of the frogs, even if it means letting the people go. The frogs disappear, and so does Pharaoh’s problem – so why would he want to let the people go now? The problem is gone, and so is the motivation to do what was promised.

Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, 'Stretch out your staff and strike the dust of the earth, that it may become gnats through all the land of Egypt.'" They did so; and Aaron stretched out his hand with his staff, and struck the dust of the earth, and there were gnats on man and beast. All the dust of the earth became gnats through all the land of Egypt. The magicians tried with their secret arts to bring forth gnats, but they could not; so there were gnats on man and beast. Then the magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said. (v. 16-19)

Here we come to a turning point in the story. Up until now, the magicians and sorcerers have been able to recreate the plagues. They are unable to do so with the gnats and at this point they become afraid, telling Pharaoh that God is at work here. Again Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. We also see something different in the next plague. Perhaps the magicians inability to reproduce the plagues and their telling him that God is working has done something to Pharaoh in order to persuade him.

God instructs Moses that He will send flies to destroy the land of Egypt, but will spare the land of Goshen where the Israelites reside (a tactical change); and He does so. Then:

Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, "Go, sacrifice to your God within the land.” (v. 25)

Pharaoh shows the first signs of relenting. This gives much support to the notion that it is Pharaoh who is hardening his own heart. Especially when you consider verse 32, after the flies depart:

But Pharaoh hardened his heart this time also, and he did not let the people go.

Does this mean that Pharaoh is hardening his heart? Because that’s what this verse says. Perhaps. But let’s keep moving forward.

God destroys all of the cattle in Egypt, and spares those belonging to the Israelites. “But the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.” (ch. 9 v.7). Then is the plague of boils. “And the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses.” (v. 12)

Now this is a twist. For the first time we see that the Lord is hardening Pharaoh’s heart. This of course begs the question, with the wording the way it is throughout this story, is it Pharaoh hardening his heart, or is God hardening his heart? Or is there a third option – sometimes God does the hardening, and sometimes Pharaoh does the hardening?

I believe that question is answered back in Chapter 7, where God says “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart,” (does it really get any clearer??) and is reaffirmed in the following verses:

'Thus says the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me. For this time I will send all My plagues on you and your servants and your people, so that you may know that there is no one like Me in all the earth. For if by now I had put forth My hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, you would then have been cut off from the earth. But, indeed, for this reason I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth. Still you exalt yourself against My people by not letting them go.” (v. 13b – 17)

Here, God lets Pharaoh in on what it is that He is doing. He promises more plagues, indicating that there is more suffering to be done that has already occurred. He tells Pharaoh that He could have already removed him from power, and gives a reason as to why He has not done so – so that Pharaoh and his people will be witnesses to the power of a sovereign God, and that they will proclaim His name in the earth.

Then comes the plague of hail, during which Pharaoh begs Moses to pray to God to remove the hail. “But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not let the sons of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses” (v. 34 – 35)

God continues to explain his sovereign control over Pharaoh: Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I may perform these signs of Mine among them, and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the LORD." (ch. 10 v. 1 – 2)

The last few plagues. Locusts: But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go. (v. 20) Darkness: But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he was not willing to let them go. (v. 27)

After the final plague, the Passover, God “gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians,” (ch. 11 v. 3) and had the Israelites ask for articles of silver and gold. Now it is not only Pharaoh whom God is acting on, but all the people of Egypt: “…and the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have their request. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.” (ch.12 v. 36)

God finally allows Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to leave, but only for a time. “The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out boldly.” (ch.14 v. 8) After allowing the Israelites to pass through the Red Sea on dry land, and Pharaoh and his army follow, God finishes it all with a bang:

At the morning watch, the LORD looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion. He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from Israel, for the LORD is fighting for them against the Egyptians." Then the LORD said to Moses, "Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen." So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even Pharaoh's entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained.” (v. 24 – 28)

The bible makes it so clear that God is in control over this whole situation. Imagine how differently it may have played out, after the first time the magicians were unable to reproduce the plague that Moses brought. Pharaoh was ready to let them go and worship by that point. The story would not have come to the dramatic, climactic ending, and more importantly, the glory that God deserves would not have come to fruition.

God is the creator of the universe. He made everything that we know, and everyone that exists and has ever existed. Yet we want to place limits around God, to say that He can’t touch our free will, that He can’t make me do something that I don’t want to do. We want to make God less sovereign, and ourselves more sovereign.

But in the light of the scriptures, we must accept the fact that God is in control, and even over our will. God is writing His story for His glory, and He is using us to do it. Rather than fight against His will, we need to allow God to be God, and submit to Him. The Bible is full of examples of people who fight against God’s will too, and God always wins in the end.

Do not hold on to the notion that your free will is your own, brothers and sisters. You are beings created by a Holy God. His will is the only truly free will. Grace and Peace to you.

Lenten Prayer

2009-02-23T13:33:00.000-08:00

Father God, exalted Creator of all that I see and know, Who formed me in my mother’s womb and made me who I am today; I thank You that You are God. I thank You for the Son that You sent to die for me.

I know that I am wholly undeserving of the gift that You have given to me. You called me to repentance from my life of sin, and gave me ears to hear Your call. By Your grace was I able to turn from my past towards You, and to fully know love for the first time in my life.

Yet while my former guilt has been washed away, I know that I continue to be weak, powerless against the flaming arrows of the devil. My heart is full with lust for the things of the world. Sometimes I feel completely unable to stop myself as I plunge headlong into sin. Your still small voice beckons me to purity and righteousness, and I turn my back on you to revel in evil.

Though You are standing next to me, I am far from You. You try to draw me close, but I push You away. You desire to have me, and I desire to please myself.

Lord, I need you so desperately! I need you to remove my heart of stone, and to replace it with a heart of flesh. I cannot escape my sinful nature without Your love. I need You to move in me, to stir my heart to obedience to Your word. I need you to help me to die.

Take away from me, God, my selfishness. Remove the lustful desires that I have for the flesh. Cut me off from sin and evil.

Give me the strength I need, Jesus, as we enter this Lenten season, to give up things that I enjoy. Help me to thirst for you when I crave a glass of Pepsi. Help me to hunger for you as I replace my evening meal with a small serving of rice. Cause me to praise you when my flesh cries out in rebellion. Change me, Lord, to be your disciple, so the world will look upon me and see You.

Draw me to Yourself, Father.

In the all powerful name of the Holy Son, Jesus Christ,
Amen

Story (Pt. 1)

2009-02-16T14:04:00.000-08:00

Everyone enjoys a great story. Hollywood has capitalized on this, making the film industry one of the most profitable industries on the planet. Hundreds will flock to a movie theatre and spend $20 - $30 on admission, popcorn and a drink for an hour and a half of entertainment.

In 1965, The Greatest Story Ever Told was released to the theatres, an epic retelling of the story of Jesus Christ from the nativity to the resurrection. While the movie was less than successful, the story remains one of the most widely known in the world. Since then, many have undertaken their own attempts at retelling the story of Jesus, such as Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and Catherine Hardwicke’s The Nativity Story, as well as the well known, The Gospel of John

Surely the story contained in the Bible is one of the most amazing stories ever known to man. But what makes it such a good story? What are the elements it contains that makes it so good? Allow me to break it down for you:

First, a bit of speculation. Feel free to disagree with this. Before any writer starts a novel there must first be a bit of reflection that occurs. One does not simply sit down with pen in hand and begin to write (now, this may be the plan of attack of some writers, but I would wager not many begin a novel this way). There are so many things that must be decided before jumping in and getting down to work. Given that we don’t have any pre-creation record of what happened in God’s mind, other than He was enjoying glory with the Son, I’d like to assume that God was planning all the things He was going to do on the earth, all the people, and all the events. God was writing His story before He set to work.

And in Genesis 1:1, we receive the first crucial element of a good story – a setting. In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the earth. Every story needs somewhere to take place! A story can’t happen nowhere, there has to be some where for it to happen in. The first chapter of the Bible sets that up for us, God creating the world for His story to happen in.

The next element needed for a good story are of course characters. Setting is all well and good, but setting doesn’t interact with anything. It is a static entity that on its own is just boring. Any story worth telling has characters, characters with unique personalities. It’s the interactions of the characters with each other and their environment that makes a story a story.

That’s where Genesis 1:2 comes in, and we are introduced to the first of many characters who appear in the Bible. There’s Adam, the first man, whom God assigns to name the animals He’s created, and Eve, whom God also creates in order to be Adam’s helper. At the end of chapter 2, we have our first characters, and all is well.

(A quick note on characters and story. A good writer will sit and imagine all the characters of his story before writing. Knowing who is going to interact with whom, and when and where their interactions will occur is crucial to avoiding spastic introductions to characters not seen before. I can’t imagine writing a novel and creating characters on the fly.)

Now a writer runs into their first problem. If we just left the story as it was, it would get boring pretty quick. Adam and Eve walked with God in the garden, and everything was happy and very good. The end? Unfortunately not. The story needs something to spice it up, to get the characters moving in such a way that will keep the reader interested. Our brains bore easily so we need to see some ‘action’ in the character’s interaction.

Enter conflict. A conflict is to come into collision or disagreement about some thing. Put two people into conflict or disagreement about some issue and you are bound to see some fireworks. Every story ever written has some element of conflict in it. Conflict drives the characters to action, either verbally or physically, and the greater the tension caused by the conflict, the greater the actions and reactions of the characters.

The great conflict of the Bible is found in Genesis chapter 3. Playing off the command of God in chapter 2 (”From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”) the serpent appears and introduces disagreement: The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die!” He also introduces a contradictory thought: "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." The contradiction? That rather than letting God be your God, you can be your own god!

Then there is the collision: “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.” The command of God crashes head first into the lie of the serpent – and we have conflict. There was a breach of trust – God’s command has been ignored; and for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Rejection of the promise of eternal peace with God is replaced with an eternal struggle as sin enters the mix.

Sin, the great conflict of the Bible and of our lives today. What better way to make a story than for there to be a monster that never ceases to exist? Like a disease that effects every person – differently for each person, but everyone nonetheless. And by this framework, there is actually an infinite number of stories to be told within the main body of the story, as each person relates to God and is separated from Him by their sin. ‘Will Sally be able to walk with God? Will her sins be forgiven?’

As the story moves forward, percolating with conflict, it must all come to a breaking point. A story can’t be one of constant, unending conflict, lest the reader become discouraged and not finish the book! One of the last crucial elements of a good story is one of the most important – the climax.

Any story that you read will operate in this way. The characters and their conflicts all build up to some event that will determine the outcome of the story – will the good guys emerge victorious or will the enemy prevail? That question is answered when that event occurs, often the most gripping scene of the story. What happens in this scene will answer all of the questions that the reader has amassed up until that point.

The Bible leaves no question as to what the climax of the story is – it reiterates it four times. The Old Testament acts as the set up for the gospels in the New Testament. Readers of the Old Testament have many questions, the major one being ‘how to solve the sin problem’. The four hundred years of silence before the climax is an amazing lead in, showing just how awesome this climax is going to be.

And Jesus comes and solves the sin problem, by dying on a cross for all who would believe in Him. Right is restored in the world, and everyone lived happily ever after. Right?

Unfortunately, the final element of a good story seems to not be what it seems in the case of the Bible, and in life. Normally, the denouement (or resolution) sees the tying off of all the loose ends that were created by the climax, finishing the story neatly and leaving the reader satisfied.

Is there a resolution for the Bible? Because we had this amazing climax in Jesus, and He answered the lingering questions from the Old Testament. We know that Jesus defeated sin, and that He came to set us free from it. Then why do we still sin? Why is it 2009 years later and we are still fighting the same enemy as before?

It’s a bit like the surprise that readers of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy got at the end of book 5. The ring was destroyed, Sauron had been defeated, and his army was no more. Yet, upon return to the shire, the Hobbits found themselves returning to battle. The story wasn’t quite over yet.

And it is the same with the Bible. While the book has been written and is finished, the story is not yet completed. It seems as though God is using a seldom used, and often dangerous writing tactic: the double climax.

Have you ever read a book, or watched a movie with a double climax? If you have, then perhaps you experienced what I did when watching Training Day. The climax occurred, and the screen faded to black. I thought the movie was over. The next scene started, and I thought, ok, now to wrap up the loose ends, roll credits and we can go.

But the scene didn’t end. It carried on, taking the characters to a completely different place. The scene culminated in a second climactic event, after which the movie ended.

This second climax ruined the movie for me. It seemed almost to be added as an afterthought, perhaps as an idea for a scene that was omitted originally. I was satisfied at the end of the first climax, only to leave with more questions after the second. The danger of using a second climax is that often your audience will be wrapping up after the first, and their attention will start to wane as the plotline continues.

We know that Jesus will return one day, and that will be the final climax of His story. Are we now in that wane, winding down as we have already seen the climax? Is there more to this story than meets the eye?

(To Be Continued...)

A Few Thoughts on Depravity

2009-02-04T11:27:00.000-08:00

While studying on the sovereignty of God, and the doctrine of unconditional election, I came across these wise words: I challenge those who don't like this doctrine - go back and consider what the Bible teaches about your depravity. If you still don't like the amazing grace of God's election, go back and meditate on your depravity again. If you still don't like it, meditate on you depravity some more.

And meditate I have done. Not because I dislike the doctrine, but because I realize how total my depravity is. I understand that people don’t like to think that there is something that is inherently wrong with them. I have spoken with non-believers who will vehemently deny that there is something that is ‘broken’ about themselves. But as I go about my day, I am constantly reminded of how utterly broken I am.

I often hear the argument, “going to Heaven or hell shouldn’t be contingent on belief in God, just be a good person and that should be all you need.” When I ask what qualifies being a ‘good person’ I often hear variations of the Golden Rule – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

And sure, we all try to do that don’t we? We hold the door open for people when we get the chance, maybe we’ll stand up when an older person gets on a bus. Sometimes I bring food to street people in the downtown area. But do all of these little random acts of kindness make a person ‘good’?

I do not believe that I am a ‘good person’. Holly tries to tell me that I am all the time, but I refuse to admit that I am. I know that I’m good to her, because she’s my wife and I love her. But again, being good to my wife doesn’t make me a ‘good person’.

Because I know the dark depravity of my heart. It’s like this thing inside of me that screams at me, and leads me into temptation to sin. It happens all the time: at home, at work, on the street. My eyes act out of all control, my mind flails about like the Kraken. When I’m at home, alone, and some temptation hits me, what do I do? Do I reach for my sword to slay the dragon? Do I raise my defences against the enemy? No. Time and time again I throw myself onto the flaming arrows, willingly, faithfully. I taste the pleasures that sin affords me and blindly obey it’s call.

I am not a good person. I am a sinner through and through. I am broken. I am unable to defeat the sin within me on my own power. I am helpless and weak. I am the stuff that scum eats.

I know that I am not the only human who suffers with total depravity: we all do. And yet, people will still try to claim that they are good people. I wonder what people do then with Jesus, when the rich young ruler comes to Him and calls Him “Good Teacher” and Jesus rebukes the man saying, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

Not even Jesus considered Himself to be ‘good’. How can it be that the sinless, blameless Savior of the world does not allow Himself to be called ‘good’? How then can any sinner, in the light of what Jesus says about Himself, with a clear conscience consider themselves to be a ‘good person’?

Brothers and Sisters, consider your depravity. If you don’t believe that you are saddled in depravity, consider your depravity some more. Do not let yourself be consumed by the lie that you are a good person. Allow yourself to come to grips with the fact that you are broken and helpless. And then take comfort in the fact that ‘it isn’t the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick’.

God is in Control - Of Salvation (Revisited)

2009-01-28T11:18:00.000-08:00

The second half of the second part of the third in a four-part series on the sovereignty of God

(And I don't think that we're done with this yet :S there's so much to say that two halves just aren't going to cut it. I'm posting this so you sovereignty hungry people will have some meat to chew on as I hash out the rest. Enjoy!)

Now I need to make something absolutely clear here: It doesn’t matter how much someone dislikes something, if that thing is true, then that will never change (circumstances withholding). I could for example say that I don’t like that Stephen Harper didn’t win a majority. No matter how much I don’t like that fact, it will not change that it is true that Stephen Harper didn’t win a majority.

Or, I could say that I don’t like that the sky is blue. Given that it is true that the sky is blue, I could loath and detest that fact, but that will never stop the sky from being blue or change that it to another color.

That being said, it really doesn’t matter how much someone dislikes the fact Ephesians 1:4 says that God “chose us in Him before the creation of the world.” No matter how much someone dislikes Ephesians 1:4, that doesn’t change the fact that God predestined each and every saved Christian before Genesis 1:1 had transpired because, as I argued previously, all scripture is inspired by God, therefore God is the author of the bible, and because God is incapable of lying, Ephesians 1:4 is TRUE!

I have to tell you why I’m belaboring this point so much. One thing that my studies on this topic have taught me is that I need to have a more God-centered theology. We want so much for this to be our story, to have a man-centered way of thinking. Remember when I was talking about lifting our will up, and how that brings God’s will down? And also when I said that the reason that God created us was so that His name would be glorified? These things have caused me to think of my own salvation.

I think I mentioned before that I was glad that I wasn’t the one who was responsible for my own salvation. Let’s think for a moment what my baptism testimony might have sounded like if I had: When I was sixteen I decided to walk away from God and became an atheist, and eventually ended up making dark lifestyle choices. A few years later I decided that this lifestyle wasn’t right for me. I started making changes in the way that I was living, started reading the bible, and decided that that was the kind of life that I wanted for myself. I accepted Jesus as my personal savior and continue to aspire to live according to His ways.

How is God glorified in this kind of testimony? Because that kind of testimony says, ‘it’s all about me!’ And I know that just isn’t the way that things happened. I know that God formed me in the womb, and made me with a propensity towards sin, and that God guided people into my life that caused me to make certain choices, that God caused the changes in my way of thinking, that God gave me the desire to seek Him, that God spoke into my mind causing me believe in Him, and that God continues to work in me and to shape me. That’s a God glorifying testimony!

And when we read the bible with God-centeredness in mind, it makes understanding some of the difficult passages much easier to grasp. Let’s take a look at a few of these verses:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Eph 2:1-10)

This verse makes it unmistakably clear that being saved has nothing to do with anything that we would will. Rather, we were dead because of our sins, because of our nature as children of wrath. We as rebellious sinners were condemned to an eternity in Hell. Then, possibly the two most beautiful words in the Bible: But God.

It was God who made us alive together with Christ, it was God who raised us up with Him, it was God who has seated us with Him in the heavenly places – not us at all! It doesn’t have anything to do with us, because we are prideful human beings, and as verse 9 says we would boast about ourselves ("The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.' Luke 18:10-11).

God did this so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So, after doing His gracious and loving act of redemption and salvation in me, that I would boast about God and what He did in my life and that He would get the glory for what He has done. What do you think will draw people to God more fully: if I boast of the surpassing riches of God’s grace in kindness towards me, or if I boast of my works that have earned me a place in Heaven?

God is in Control - Of Salvation (Revisited)

2009-01-21T02:24:00.000-08:00

The first half of the second part of the third in a four-part series on the sovereignty of God

One of the arguments that I heard after ‘God is in Control – Of Salvation’ was, “I don’t like to think that I don’t have a choice when it comes to salvation.” I felt lead of the Spirit to not move on quite so quickly to my final topic in this series. So we’re going to take another look at God’s sovereign control of salvation, in two (hopefully only) parts.

It seems that I need to take a look at some fundamental questions, based on the reasons I heard for people disagreeing with what I said last time. The main question is, “What does it mean to be a Christian?” That is, if you say about yourself, “I am a Christian”, what can people know for sure to be true about you?

Well, for starters, one who calls themselves a “Christian” must believe in the existence of Jesus Christ, that is that He was a real person who actually walked on this planet. Moreover, one who calls themselves a “Christian” must also believe that this Jesus is in fact the Messiah, the Christ sent by God to be the savior of His people. Said Christian would believe this to be true based on the testimonies found in the Bible.

Which also suggests that the one who calls themselves a “Christian” must also believe that the Bible is the Holy word of God. That is, as Paul says in 2 Tim 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness.” One who accepts this interprets “inspired by God” to mean “written by God”. If one can say with assurance that they believe that God is the author of the Word, then one must also accept some other truths about the Bible.

Paul says in Hebrews 6:18 that it is impossible for God to lie. If one can believe that truth about God, then we can logically determine that if it is impossible for God to lie, and God is the author of the Bible, than the words of the Bible are true and without error. If we can agree that the Bible is inerrant, than we must cherish the words contained inside because of the amazing things they say.

For let’s consider the ‘Christian’ who doesn’t believe these fundamental things are true. There are people who consider themselves Christians while maintaining that the bible is inconsistent, that it contradicts itself, that it was written by men who changed the message to suit their desires. But if the Bible contradicts itself, then God is a liar for saying one thing over here is true, and then saying that the opposite is true over there. And if God is a liar, then how can we have any faith in any of what the Bible says? For surely if we can’t believe that what the Bible says is true, then how can we accept that Jesus is our savior? If we can’t trust that Jesus is the savior, then how do we get saved?

So a person who calls themselves a Christian, but argues with the authority of scripture will certainly find themselves in a troubling position sooner or later. For the bible is filled with difficult passages of scripture that many people would sooner not think about, let alone apply to their lives at the cost of their feelings or comfort. Let’s consider Matthew 10:39 - Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Wait a second, isn’t that what our earthly lives are all about? Finding our own lives, making our lives better for ourselves? The bible is telling us that if we find that in our lives that we’ll lose it? And the only way to find our lives is to lose our lives for the sake of Jesus? Who wants to do that? Who wants to give up the house, the car, the toys, the family, to live in suffering until we die – all for Jesus’ sake? If you’re really honest, you aren’t raising your hand right now.

So we have a problem. There are people who profess that Jesus is their savior, fully believing in their hearts that they are saved; yet everything else they believe is completely unbiblical. Let’s take a look at some statistics I found:
-Only 39% of Christians believe that the bible is the literal word of God,
-18% of Christians think that it’s just a book written by men and not the word of God at all.
-70% of Americans said that they believed religions other than theirs could lead to eternal life.

How could this have happened? How can it be that evangelical Christians, whose beliefs stem from this very book, have been enticed into believing that the Bible is not true, that it was not written by God? I believe that the cause stems from the point I made earlier, and that is that the Bible says some very hard things that people would rather ignore than understand.

Moreover, Western society is also partly to blame. Canada has become what it boasted about when I was in high school: a cultural melting pot. Immigration was highly promoted; the offer of a new life in a free country very appealing to many foreigners who faced persecution or poverty in their own country. The end result is a country in which everyone demands the right to believe that their beliefs are right and true, and anytime someone steps on their religious toes they can scream ‘INEQUALITY!’ and whip out their charter of rights and freedoms and fight in court to have their beliefs upheld. Now a country that had one dominant religion is competing with many others that are fundamentally different.

When you get one religion that says something like “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14:6)” that flies in the face of every other religion known to man, you will come up against strong opposition. Chances are that few will come to your rescue. Given that we often seek the path of least resistance, it comes as little surprise then that strong belief quickly gives way to softness and relativism.

(Aside) As I have been reflecting on this a thought struck me. Numerous times in the Old Testament, before the Israelites enter the promised land, they are given a stern warning. The first such warning is found in Exodus 23:31-33

"I will fix your boundary from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the River Euphrates; for I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you will drive them out before you. You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. They shall not live in your land, because they will make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you."

God is poised to give the Israelite people the promised land, yet here, in Deuteronomy, and also in Joshua and Judges, God gives the reason for His desired eradication of the current inhabitants of the land – the service of their gods will become a snare to the people.

Logically this makes sense – segregate a community of people who believe only one thing, and that belief will hold strong. Start mixing in other beliefs, and you will certainly end up diluting the original belief. Such is what has happened in Canada – a diluting, an erosion of doctrinal Christian belief by the slow current of opposing religious beliefs. (/aside)

Now, you may be wondering how all of this ties into the notions of salvation and predestination. In that message I talked about Ephesians 1, specifically verse 4: For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. The opposition that I received was centered around this concern: I don’t like a doctrine of predestination that removes my ability to choose whether or not I am saved.

Here, in the face of a sound, clear, biblical statement (He, that being God, chose us, that being Christians (real ones, not fake ones), ...before the creation of the world – that not being anytime after the creation of the world), people are in disagreement because they don’t like what the scripture says.

In the next post I will continue to show how such thinking is in error, and not the holy scriptures of God, and how indeed, God is in control of salvation.

God is in Control - Of Salvation

2009-01-07T01:45:00.001-08:00

The third in a four-part series on the sovereignty of God

Imagine if you can for a moment the time when God entered your life. Were you raised in a Christian home with Christian values, and you decided one time that you agreed with what you knew, and that was your moment? Or did you have more of a slap-in-the-head kind of moment when the Spirit of God suddenly rushed upon you in some epiphany?
I know that my experience followed the latter pattern. I still remember it like it was yesterday – one doesn’t easily forget such an experience! December 9th, 2003, 2230. I was sitting at my computer retelling certain events that had transpired that day, relating to a friend that I had a falling out with. We had reconciled our differences that very evening. As I was talking with my friend, a voice spoke in my head, “God gave your brother back to you”.
At that very moment, I saw a bright flash, and in my mind played 7 years of history between my friend and me. Only where God was absent before, His involvement in my life was therefore inserted, and for the first time in my life, everything made sense to me. I started to cry, and said aloud, “I believe in You, God”, and the rest is history.
Now, when I think about this event, and the months prior to this fantastic day, and the changes that were taking place inside of me, I realize that very little was of my own conscious doing. My being a Christian is solely due to the fact that God was working in my life, shaping my behaviour, guiding people into my life, and as I mentioned earlier, speaking directly into my mind.
I have come to realize that I am a Christian because God chose me. God created me at just the right time, put other people in my life when they needed to be there, and caused situations that needed to happen in order that on December 9th, 2003 I would call on His name, and be a changed person. I was predestined to become a child of God.
What is predestination? Let’s look at some verses that speak of predestination:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. (Eph 1:3-12)

From these verses we can see that we were chosen to be Christians before the foundation of the world. That means that in the beginning, before God created the heavens and the earth, He was formulating His plan of salvation for all Christians. The sum of that plan is of course Jesus, and what He did for us on the cross.
I argued in Freedom from Freedom that there were two ways that you could view the foreknowledge of God. One is that He created the universe and set things in motion, unaware of whether or not humans would reject Him. This view of God holds that salvation is a response to the actions of humans – that is humans reject God by sinning, and now God must come up with a way to save them; to restore right relations with Him.
The other way to see it is that God knew that humans would reject him before He created us. Seeing it that way begs the question, “If God knew that we would sin, then why did he create us?” The answer to which is because God already knew how He was going to fix our sin problem. The sacrifice of Jesus isn’t some afterthought, some reaction to sin. Rather it was carefully thought out, planned, maybe even scripted – all before God said “Let there be light.”
Therefore, we can say based on Ephesians 1 that those who are saved have been predestined since before the foundation of the world. Now, if you’re paying attention you’ll have a very valid question floating in your mind. “If God predestines Christians for salvation, does that mean that God also predestines others for damnation?”
The short answer to that question is, yes He does. Logically one must conclude that if God predestines those who are saved that he must also predestine those who are not saved. Thankfully God does not leave us without a clear answer to this question. I just want to point out at this juncture that this is a concept of predestination that comes up against opposition. People don’t want to think that God is responsible for sentencing people to Hell, or more importantly, that they don’t have any choice in whether or not they will go to Hell. However, the bible doesn’t say that everyone is going to go to Heaven – which is universalism. On the contrary, Jesus himself says more about people going to Hell than any other person in the New Testament. The bible is very clear in this, and doesn’t leave any wiggle room. That being said, let’s look at Romans 9:

And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, "THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER." Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." (Romans 9:10-13)

Paul uses the sons of Isaac in order to make a point about the predestination of God. God tells Rebekah that the older will serve the younger, choosing Jacob over Esau. Why? “So that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand.” It is clear then that God chose Jacob and not Esau. It is also important to point out that Jacob was not chosen because of works, but because of Him who calls – illustrating that God is sovereign. Paul next raises the obvious question:

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. (14-18)

Paul anticipates that people will be saying at this point, “Hey! Isn’t God wrong to be choosing one over another? Is He playing favorites?” And Paul says, No! God Himself says He will have mercy and compassion on whoever He chooses. What does that statement say? I am sovereign! God says ‘I will do whatever I want!’ Paul solidifies this by referring to the story of Pharaoh. Think of it this way – Moses I loved, and Pharaoh I hated. It was God’s choosing to bring Moses across the Red Sea, and to bury Pharaoh and his army underneath it? Was God wrong to do so? Of course not! And God answers why it was done, “for this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth”.
I hope now that you are all convinced that God’s sovereignty is just. If you aren’t however, Paul continues with some very cutting words, the kind of thing that some might not want to refer to when discussing a biblical topic that they don’t like:

One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' " Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? (19-21)

Paul essentially shuts down any remaining opposition with this statement. There are those who wish to justify themselves, when what they really need to be doing is falling in humility. You could say that the question that this ‘one’ asks is valid – if God is in control, then why are we at fault for our sins? Paul says you could ask that question, but how dare you if you do. Don’t question the sovereign power of God.
For, everything has a purpose, and while we may not be able to see it, God is working, and He will bring things to pass just as He wills them to:

What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. (22-25)

If one is prepared for destruction, it is for God’s glory should God bring the destruction to pass. If the one prepared for destruction is spared, it is for God’s glory. So consider your own situation right now. You are where you are because that is where God wants you to be. The end situation, whatever God wills it to be, will be for His glory – and God is just to whatever end He chooses.
I think of my own salvation. The ‘one’ asked a right question – Who can resist His will? The answer to that is ‘no one’. If God wills something, it will happen, and no one will be able to stop it. Jesus says in John 6:44, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” Again this illustrates that it isn’t a man’s will that draws him to God. Before December 9th, I was reading the bible, but I didn’t believe until God showed up that night. When He moved, I was unable to stop it, and to prevent the change from being permanent.
God saved me that night, because He had decided that I would be saved before He created the world. He knew everything that I needed in order to bring me to that point of salvation. He continues to work in me, and in others; bringing some to salvation, and others enduring with much patience. The end of which, only God knows.

This lesson inspired some spirited debate from my students. I feel led to say a bit more about this difficult topic, and so I will probably add a second part to this in the coming week. Any feedback is welcome and appreciated.

God is in Control - When Bad Things Happen

2009-01-02T02:06:00.000-08:00

The second in a four-part series on the sovereignty of God

Question: What do you need to know in order to understand why car A drives by a certain point, and then 8 seconds later car B drives by that same point?
Let’s start with car A. First you need to know where they are going, what speed they are going, how many stop signs and red lights they have passed on the way that have brought them to this point. You also need to know what time that person woke up in the morning, and the things that they did in order to get ready for work, and what time they walked out the door, and started their car and began to drive. You also need to know that for car B.
Then you need also to know about all that for all the other cars on the road, to determine why they were where they were at the time they were there as car A and car B proceeded down the road. It may also help to know what these people did the previous day, in case something that happened then had any bearing on why they are where they are today.
For that matter, you would need to know what each person did the previous weeks months, years prior to car A driving by this certain point, because it all has bearing on car A driving by and 8 seconds later car B driving by. Essentially, you would need to know the entire history of the entire planet to know exactly why car A and car B pass by the same point 8 seconds apart

What is the point of this exercise? To illustrate that God knows all of this. And depending on your view of God to illustrate that God is the reason behind why car A and car B pass by this point 8 seconds apart. I hope that by the end of this you will agree that God is indeed behind this.
I’m sure that everyone here has heard this question at one point or another in their Christian walk – “Why does God let bad things happen to good people?” It’s a valid question isn’t it? Why does a ‘supposedly’ all-knowing, all-loving God allow evil things to happen in this world? Why doesn’t He just put a stop to evil? Isn’t it unjust or wrong of Him to allow these things to happen? Is He not paying attention to what’s happening on Earth that He just allows people to suffer?
The answers to these questions depend on the way that you view God. Do evil things just kind of happen, and God is just watching, powerless to do anything? Or is there something else going on here? I have 4 illustrations from the bible that I hope will answer these questions.
In Genesis 1, God creates the heavens and the earth. He creates all living beings, from the fish in the seas to the birds in the air, and the beasts of the land. Then we read in Genesis 3:1, Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?"
Now, one has to ask themselves this question – Did God not know that the serpent that He created was more crafty than the other beasts of the field? I mean, He did create it after all. You can even take it a step further and ask why God even created the serpent at all. Consider before the creation when God is planning what He will make. This kind of reflects on what I was talking about last week: How much foreknowledge does God have. Is He sitting there before creation thinking ‘I’m going to create humans, and I will give them free will to be able to choose me or to not choose me.” Don’t you think that at this point it would have been a good idea for God to decide to not create the crafty serpent? That would have possibly ensured that they wouldn’t have been enticed into eating from the tree they had been forbidden from eating from.
But God did create the serpent, and He did create it to be more crafty than the other beasts. Thus the serpent convinces Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and sin is introduced into the world.
Let’s leave that thought for now, and consider the story of Joseph later on in Genesis. Here’s a quick overview: Joseph is one of 12 brothers of Israel, the one that is loved most by his father. Joseph has two dreams which he interprets as being that his brothers and mother and father will bow down to him. His brothers despise him for his dreams and his father’s love, and so they sell him into slavery. It so happens that Joseph is made the servant of the captain of the guard in Egypt. Things are looking not so bad, until the captain’s wife tries to have Joseph sleep with her. In his attempt to run away, he leaves behind his cloak, which the wife uses to tell her husband that Joseph tried to make sport of her. Joseph is then thrown into jail. There he meets the Pharoah’s cupbearer and baker. They both have dreams which Joseph interprets for them. In the end, the others make it out of prison, but Joseph is forgotten and remains there.
Joseph’s story is full of hardship and trouble. He’s trying to do the right thing, and at every turn it seems that there are enemies that only want to do him wrong. His own brothers, Potipher’s wife, the forgetful cupbearer. Did God not create all of these people? Could God not have intervened at some point and saved Joseph from his hardship? What about these dreams that he had? How could God let all these bad things happen?
Let’s leave that thought for now also, and consider finally Job.

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, "Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually.

So we see that Job was a devout, God-fearing man. The Bible calls him ‘blameless’, meaning he is not at fault. He offered burnt offerings for each of his children and prayed for them in case they had sinned during their feasts. You’ll be hard-pressed to find another man like Job in the Old Testament. Then we read a very curious and difficult passage:

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" Then Satan answered the LORD and said, "From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it." The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." Then Satan answered the LORD, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face." Then the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him." So Satan departed from the presence of the LORD.

This is quite the curious passage of scripture. Keep that in your mind for now, I’ll come back. For now, let’s continue on in Job, and as I read, I want to interject some things that Job might have thought as all this was happening to him.

Now on the day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans attacked and took them. They also slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

Perhaps Job thought about the loss that he had suffered. ‘At least I still have my sheep and camels.’ Perhaps he felt a twinge of fear as he saw the second servant running towards him.

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

‘The fire of God?’ Perhaps Job sent up a prayer, ‘forgive me God, for whatever sin I have committed that You have brought this calamity upon me.’ Another twinge of fear:

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

By now Job must have been in such a state of shock, perhaps he may have thought ‘my children… Lord have they sinned? Forgive them and spare them!’ His heart sinks as he sees another servant:

While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, and behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you."

What a loss for one day, for one five minute period! Think about how you might have reacted in this situation. I know how I would have reacted. That’s why Job’s reaction is so surprising:

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said,
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
And naked I shall return there
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD."
Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.

How many people, on receiving such terrible news, feel like falling down and worshipping God? The truth is that many people, when things turn out bad for them, end up blaming God for the things that have happened to them. I looked up the definition of blame, and there were two main definitions – to hold responsible for something, and to find fault for something.
I think that in Job’s case, when the writer says that Job did not sin nor did he blame God, that he is referring to Job not finding God at fault for what happened. I say this because Job’s response clearly does not really indicate that he didn’t say that God wasn’t responsible for what happened.
Now I want to be really careful when I say the word responsible. I realize that it can carry some negative connotations. But let’s look at what Job says: the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Remember the second servant’s words, the fire of God fell from heaven.
And then we have to deal with the whole conversation between God and satan. Because the whole thing contradicts what Job says. In verse 8, God takes control of the situation from the beginning, asking satan where he’s been. Satan replies that he’s been roaming the earth, looking over the people, walking around. And out of all the people in the world, God chooses Job as the person by which His purpose would be shown. This opens it up for satan to challenge God, to test him by claiming that Job only worships
God because he has been blessed by God and that to prove that, God should remove his blessing from Job, to test his faith.
And God grants satan his request! Only, when all is said and done, Job doesn’t blame satan for what has happened, he credits it to God – Blessed be the name of the Lord.
So what does this all mean? Is satan responsible for the bad things that happen to us or is God? I think that the account of Job illustrates that while satan may be the perpetrator behind these things, that is to say that it is his hand that does the terrible things, that God has the final say on whether these things happen at all or not.
Does this mean that God is behind all evil things? Because God cannot commit evil acts as such deeds go against the very nature of who God is. I suppose that if you consider these deeds as to be evil then it would be very difficult to comprehend Job’s story, or Joseph’s story, or even our own stories.
But consider what Paul says in Romans 8:28 - And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Reading the stories of Job and Joseph, one won’t have any difficulty determining that these men love God. Both of these men face great trials, great suffering, great loss. They also hold fast to their love for God, and in the end what Paul says of God’s love for us is shown.

The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold. Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the LORD had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold.
The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. He had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land no women were found so fair as Job's daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. And Job died, an old man and full of days. (Job 42:10-17)

Job is so blessed by God that he receives twice the livestock that he had prior to his suffering, as many sons and daughters as he had before, and lived 140 years.
Joseph also received great blessing following his hardships. After being sold into slavery by his own brothers, accused of trying to sleep with his boss, being thrown into prison and forgotten there after helping the pharaoh’s cupbearer, Joseph is made into Egypt’s second in command. Pharaoh says to Joseph in Genesis 41:40, “You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.”
Joseph realizes the purpose that God had for him when he tells his brothers, "Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.” (Gen 45:5) Notice again how God is credited for the ‘bad things’ that happened in his life!
Finally Adam and Eve’s story. It doesn’t have a happy ending, at least not in Genesis. The reason is because Adam and Eve’s story is only the bigger of the larger story the bible presents to us, the climax of which, the working for good in all things for those who love God is the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. Just as God is the root cause of car A and car B passing by the same point 8 seconds apart, He is also in control when Adam and Eve fall into sin, and when Jesus is hung on a cross to pay for those sins.

God is in Control - Freedom from Freedom

2008-12-31T01:25:00.000-08:00

The first in a four-part series on the sovereignty of God

We are very fortunate to live in a country like Canada. We live in one of the richest nations in the world. There is ample opportunity for work, and with a job comes a paycheck, and with a paycheck comes the ability to pay for any of the countless things that make our lives easy. Comfort, food, entertainment. We have these things in large part because we live in a free country. Canada is a place where many people have come to escape persecution in their own country and to start a new life here. Part of what draws people to our country is the knowledge that when they come here they will have the freedom to live their life as they choose.

Freedom is a very good thing. I want to make sure that I say that, because I’m about to come down pretty hard on freedom. At least the version of freedom that society has created. Let’s define freedom: personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery.

I like this definition, because it accurately describes the point I want to make. I chuckled a bit when I read it, because I found it to be an oxymoron. See if you can follow my logic here. Personal liberty, or freedom, is defined here as the opposite of bondage or slavery. Let’s define slavery: a state of subjection like that of a slave; severe toil; drudgery.

As a slave, you are put under subjection, usually to a master who tells you what to do. You don’t have any say of your own. Freedom on the other hand removes that master, and in essence puts you in the place of the master. Under personal liberty, you are the one who makes the rules, you dictate what happens with your life, what you do, where you go, who you hang out with. No one tells you what to do except for you.
I hope that you can see the problem. Our society has so elevated freedom (or personal liberty) as the most important thing that an individual can have. Test this the next time that you watch TV. When the commercials come on, instead of running to grab something from the kitchen, listen to what the messages are telling you. Count the number of times you hear the words “you” or “your” in the context in which they are talking about you personally. Advertisers are appealing to your freedom as consumers, petitioning you to purchase their products as opposed to their competitors. It’s all about you.

As society has a habit of doing, its influence has infiltrated the church. (I’m going to switch terms on you here now, favoring ‘free will’ over freedom – free will being defined as “free and independent choice” which is I’m sure you’ll agree essentially the same as ‘freedom’) There are teachings out there that elevate free will, even above God’s will. Some even seem to disregard God’s will altogether in order to uphold their views on free will.

One example of this is the concept of open theism, which I’m sure some of you may remember me talking about before. Open theism is a doctrine that states that God cannot know the future exhaustively, that is completely, because the future has not happened yet and therefore, God cannot know what will be. The example I use is that you are standing at a fork in the road, and God will not know whether you will go left or right until you make the decision to go left or right. Open theism claims that God knows the ‘possibilities’ that you could choose, and the outcomes of both choices, but will not know what will happen until *you* make the final decision.

I hope that you can see the fundamental flaws in such a doctrine! This god is clearly not a god who is in control of its creation, but rather is at the mercy of the creation, waiting expectantly for people to decide so that he can make his next move. This is not the God that my bible portrays!

That still leaves us with a problem, and that is what to make of the notion of free will. We are obviously beings that have the ability to choose, and this is a God-given trait we share. The question is, how much credence do we give to the free will we have? In relation to God, how important is our free will? Let’s look at some verses of scripture to see what God has to say about freedom

Galatians 5:1 – It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

13 – For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

1 Peter 2:16 Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God.

Acts 13:38-39 – Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.

What are we free from? Each of these verses makes it plain that God has set us free from sin. Each of these verses also contains a contrast: You are free – so stand firm; you are free – so don’t sin and serve one another; you are free – so don’t use that freedom for evil; you are free – so stay in Christ and not in the Law

I hope that one word jumps out and hits you in the face here, and that is the word ‘bondslaves’ I hope that when you read that, something inside of you said ‘Hey! I thought He said we were free!’ Because he did! He said to act as free men, and to use your freedom as bondslaves of God. How does that work? How can we be free and slaves?

Like I said before, our concept of freedom is skewed. Freedom to us means we are slaves to no one. I wonder if anyone caught on to the oxymoron I mentioned earlier. Personal liberty, as opposed to bondage or slavery. In our ‘freedom’ in which we seek our personal liberty, and we make our own rules, we are in turn slaves to ourselves! We make rules, and then we need to ensure that we govern ourselves according to our rules.

I have an example of this that I saw on an episode of ‘Friends’. Phoebe is a vegetarian, however she is pregnant and ‘the baby wants meat’. She has used her freedom to say that meat is murder and that she will not eat meat. As soon as she does this, she slaps herself into bondage with herself. If she eats, she will be condemned by her conscience. And so, when the sandwich is put in front of her she fights with herself, bound like a slave by the oath she took in her freedom.

So we have to answer this question: Are we slaves or are we free? Here is how I would answer that question. We are free to choose to be slaves. I have two scriptures that will help me to illustrate this.

1 Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

Paul here is illustrating a great point. ‘All things are lawful for me’ – What do you think he is trying to say? You are free! You can do whatever you want – but not all things that you can do are good, or profitable. There are things that you can choose to do that are bad things. We can all agree on this. Then he says it again – All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. I like the King James version of this verse better, it goes “I will not be brought under the power of any.” Here Paul is saying that, although all things are lawful, that is although he is free to do what he wants, he will not let these things that are lawful for him take control of him, to become his master. He is choosing not to be a slave to sin. The second passage is Romans 6:16-23

16 Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This passage makes clear our choice to be slaves. We can choose to be slaves to sin, or slaves to righteousness. Think of this – temptation hits you: do you give in to your temptation, thus being obedient to sin, or do you resist, being obedient to God, and hence, righteousness?

This is the battle that we face as Christians every day. The world throws itself at us every day, and we must choose whether we will follow God’s ways in obedience which lead to sanctification, or whether we will choose to be disobedient and follow sin, which leads to death. Every day we must choose whether we will serve God or our sin.

Now you may be asking how this fits into my series for the rest of the month. This is to prepare you for the rest of the messages that I have prepared. It’s important to understand that we are slaves to set us up for the big truth – that God is sovereign over us. The bible teaches us, and shows us, that God is the only truly sovereign being in the universe. You and I will always be subject, but God is never subject to anyone. No one tells God what to do in authority.

The thing is that the idea that we aren’t in control of our lives often doesn’t sit well with people. We like to think that our will matters, that our choices make a difference. We don’t like to think that we are puppets, or pawns that God controls. We want to justify ourselves by saying “God gave us free will, therefore it must be important that we make our own choices!”, and to be sure it is. We only need to be careful that we approach the understanding of our free will according to the teaching of the bible

The bible is full of verses that show God’s sovereignty. I want to leave you with a few, some of which I will pick up and explain more in the weeks to come. I hope that you are encouraged by these verses. Before that though, I just want to mention one more thing.

Belief in a sovereign God is one of the most freeing things that I have experienced. It really helps the bible to make more sense. Consider the beatitudes, where Jesus is telling us not to worry about our lives. God feeds the birds, and clothes the fields, and He will provide for us also. If we believe that God is actively working and taking care of business here on Earth, we don’t need to worry about our lives.

Genesis 1:1 – In the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth.

Isaiah 46:9-10 – Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things which have not been done, saying “My purpose will be established, and I will accomplish all My good pleasure

Daniel 2:21 - 21"It is He who changes the times and the epochs;
He removes kings and establishes kings;
He gives wisdom to wise men
And knowledge to men of understanding

Proverbs 16:1 – The plans of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.

Proverbs 16:4 – The LORD has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Proverbs 16:9 – The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps

Proverbs 16:33 – The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD.

Sex! Lies! ... Sorry, No Chocolate

2008-10-17T01:20:00.000-07:00

I felt compelled to writing after sitting down to watch the news on the internet, when the obligatory advertisement was such: cartoony type tweeny girls saying things that they would rather do (ie. Stick my head in my brother’s hockey bag or give up ice cream forever, eat five pounds of raw liver, or have their diary posted on facebook *shudder!*) then to get a needle.
Then, the ‘voice of reason’ pipes up – “Actually, I’d rather get a needle than get HPV.”
Ah, there’s the rub. It’s another commercial promoting the HPV vaccination to our young daughters; another commercial with a terribly misleading message.
The girl continues with valid facts. For those of you who don’t know, HPV, or the Human Papillomavirus, is the leading cause of cervical cancer. This girl’s states that 3 out of 4 girls will get HPV though she doesn’t state how or when. She concludes with this statement: “Protect yourself – get the vaccine at school.”
The other commercials that have seen much airtime in recent months I have often seen on television. A (considerably older than this internet commercial) young woman’s face masked by a red line through her eyes begins to talk about HPV, all true things. Then she claims that she ‘will do everything she can’ to prevent herself from getting HPV.
These commercials make me so angry because they are deceiving millions of young women. They leave out crucial facts, and don’t go far enough to causing awareness. What crucial facts? Neither of these commercials bothers to mention that HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection (in the United States). Most of the other ones I have seen don’t mention that the vaccine only guards against 4 types of HPV – 4 out of about 130 that are known to exist.
These commercials can give girls the false impression that just because they have gotten this shot that they are immune to HPV and that they need not be afraid to have sexual relations. I would even venture to say that its subtle message promotes sexual activity in young women.
Now you may think that that’s going a step too far – but what else is missing from these commercials? Well that can be seen very evidently in the television commercial, and a little less evidently in the internet commercial.
“What would I do to prevent myself from getting HPV? Everything I can.”
Everything?
Really?
Really everything? Really??
I wonder if that ‘everything’ ever included not having sex. I mean, everything is such an all encompassing word, and to say that you would do ‘everything’ that you can to prevent yourself from getting HPV – but not including abstinence – is a bold faced lie.
Let’s face it – what is the message these commercials are trying to promote? HPV is out there, and if you get it, you’ll get cervical cancer and probably die. The easiest way to catch it is by having sex – and you don’t want to NOT have sex, because sex is fun and if you have it, boys will like you. So get this vaccine and you’ll never have to worry about it again – have all the sex you like! You won’t surely die!
Here’s a thought: if you really want to protect yourself from the Human Papillomavirus – and for that matter, HIV, AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea, crabs, hepatitis, and let’s not forget the unwanted teenage pregnancy – DON’T HAVE SEX! Abstinence until marriage – for both boys and girls – is a guaranteed protection from all sexually transmitted diseases.
Perhaps I’m being idealistic in thinking that such a message would hold any sway in the world of today. But I see these commercials that are lying to young women across North America every day, and I am compelled to writing. Perhaps one girl will read this and think, “I want to do ‘everything’ I can to prevent infection”. If so, it will all have been worth it.

You Do All Things Well

2008-08-14T11:32:00.000-07:00

Judges 21:25 - In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Last night I was struck with a profound thought. But before I get to that, I’ll give you some background information. Last Sunday I went out with Matt for coffee. We found it necessary to get together because I have been struggling with some things in the last few weeks. In the course of our conversation, we touched upon the topic of Vince Li, the man who killed Tim McLean.
Now, I had just returned from our trip to Grand Rapids where we put on the DVBS for the kids there when I heard of this story. It was like going from a spiritual high, plunging into a vortex of question, asking the same question as everyone else – “Why?”
Of course we were unable to answer that question, but Matt brought up a very interesting point. It is clear from scripture that God allows satan to carry out some evil things. He lets out satan’s leash to destroy the family and possessions of Job, but is prevented from touching Job himself. Later, satan is given Job’s body, but his life is withheld from the evil one.
The point as Matt made it was that God also suppresses evil. If God didn’t suppress evil, one would think that we would see Vince Li’s every minute of every day. If evil reigned in this world, the amount of evil deeds this world sees in a month would happen every second.
So the question of God’s sovereignty has wafted in and out of my mind these last few weeks, the question of “how much power does God have over events in the world?” How sovereign is God.
That question draws me to Judges 21:25. Canada is a country in which there is no king. We have a prime minister, but he does not have absolute authority over the country. Jesus has been rejected by the majority of the Canadian people as their king. We very much live in a society where everyone does what is right in their own eyes. Look at almost any news story to see this simple truth.
Yet, while we do what is right in our own eyes, I believe that we don’t do everything that is right in our own eyes, due to the suppression of evil by the sovereign will of the Father. Why do I believe this? Well, with the case of Li, I was inevitably asked the question, “Why didn’t God stop this, if He could have?” The answer of course is that I don’t know. But I also think that that is a wrong question to be asking.
I hear this question often, and have often been lack of a proper answer to it. “Why doesn’t God stop evil things from happening to people?” I think that now, when I’m asked that question, I will respond, “How do you know that He’s not?” How do you know that evil things have been coming after YOU all day, yet none of them reached you because God was at work, suppressing the evil and protecting you.
How sovereign is God? Completely, 100%. Yes, God allowed the heinous murder of Tim McLean. But He also that day sustained the lives of billions of others, protecting them from harm, evil, and death. Try to imagine if you can a world in which God is completely withdrawn, and everyone does everything that is good in their own eyes.
Imagine taking the bus to work in a world of evil. You stand at the bus stop watching the traffic. No one is paying attention to traffic signs or speed limits, so cars are zooming by you. Your bus comes, the door opens, and out flies an elderly man, pushed hard from behind by a youth who didn’t want to wait for him. The bus is a chaos of activity: in the back, a racist is stabbing someone to death; on one side a woman is being raped, on the other side, a man is being raped; laying in the aisle is a man dying from an overdose, the needle still hanging from his arm. You move to sit down, and as you do, you feel something pressing hard into your back, a voice rasps in your ear, ‘give me your money.’ You begin to reach for your wallet, but the man shoots, and you fall to the ground.
Gruesome, maybe, but this one small paragraph probably doesn’t even begin to describe the horror of a world in which God is not actively suppressing evil from happening. I need to think about this more, when I step off the bus, that God has delivered me safely from home to work, suppressed the works of the devil and protected me.
‘Why doesn’t God stop evil from happening’ is the wrong question completely. If you find yourself asking that question, you should ask yourself, ‘What evil has God stopped from happening to me that He has brought me to this place in safety?’ Why didn’t God stop Vince Li? Only He knows that, but He has promised that He will work in all things for the good of those who love Him. Even out of this tragedy will some good come.
In the meantime, you should be constantly thanking God that He has shielded you from things that we don’t see, and may never even know that have been against us, seeking our lives. I know I need to be more thankful in this, thankful for His grace and mercy. For He is the author of life, and every second I live I owe to Him, and not to myself.
Thank You Lord Jesus for suppressing evil in this world that hates you. Thank You for sustaining life and bringing things to pass. It is You who gives and takes away, and we need to remember this and be thankful for this. Thank You for Your sovereign rule over the earth, from the grandest setting up of rulers to the smallest of things, helping me get to work. We don’t deserve Your unfailing Love, and yet You love us. Thank You God, thank You Jesus, thank You Holy Spirit.

Internet Evangelism

2008-07-02T01:58:00.000-07:00

I have found a new hobby! Infiltrating the lives of non-religious people by inserting scripture into their godless media! Let me explain: A friend of mine on facebook recently became a fan of a certain heavy metal band. The photo of the fangroup was a frightening looking man holding a bible with the word "LIES" scrawled across it. Curious, I entered the fangroup page to see what sort of band this was.
What I found was not encouraging. The names of many of their songs are disturbingly offensive to Christianity. In the name of research, I decided to seek out one of their videos on YouTube. Given that I couldn't understand what he was singing, I had the lyrics alongside the creepy video. Did I mention that it was disturbingly offensive to Christianity?
Thus I found myself typing a post to the video, which read, "*band* will wither and their songs will fade, BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD STANDS FOREVER"
You can imagine the responses I got! Most were one liners, insults, calling me crazy etc. But one person had so many questions that he sent me three replies! (500 character limit on posts) God, I figured was opening a door for me to respond to his questions. Before my fingers set to typing, I prayed that God would write this letter for me, that I would be removed from it completely, and that He would use me as his instrument to plant a seed. What follows is what came out of my fingers. I pray that God would use it.

Wow! That's quite the tall order you've given me there. I'm never one to shy away from answering legitimate questions about God. Hopefully I can put some understanding to the questions you’ve asked.

“if god really existed, why then does he care if people worship him or not? i would think an all pwoerful being beyond our level of udnerstandign would be free from an ego.”

I think that the core issue is a misunderstanding of who God really is. The bible says that “God is love (1 John 4:16),” and that Jesus existed together with God before the world began (John 17:15). Now, the love between the Father and the Son was complete without us, but it was like a fountain, overflowing with love. With so much love, it would be selfish for God not to have created other beings in order to share this overflow of love with. Hence, He created the earth and humans to love Him. Why does God care if people worship Him or not? Because, as the creator of all things, including you and me, He is worthy of praise. As the Being who spoke into being all that we know by His awesome power, he is deserving of worship. This isn’t hard to imagine once you realize how utterly insignificant you are in relation to time and space – imagine the vastness of space with its billions of galaxies, and within each galaxy billions of stars – and realize that earth is a speck of dust within all of space, and you are simply a molecule on that speck of dust. And imagine time – eternity that stretches an infinite number of years behind us, and an infinite number of years ahead of us. Now consider your life, maybe 75 years on this earth, a few more, a few less. What is that in the scope of eternity? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. (James 4:14) The question that you should ask yourself is “if God really does exist, and He did actually create the universe, is He not deserving of my worship?”
See the problem is not that God has an ego, but that humans have an ego. Rather than looking at what God has made and praising Him, they look at their own self and worship themselves as God, praising the works of their own hands. Humans are so wrapped up in their own earthly affairs that they fail to see the bigger picture.

“can you explain, why those who don't beleive in jesus are condemned? for beleiving what they want to beleive, and not lettign anyone else tell them otherwise? isnt that what you do? isnt that hypocritical? you really need to put some critical though into religion - not what someone else tells you it is.”

There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. (Proverbs 14:12) Our culture more than any other culture in history subscribes to relativism when it comes to theology. Relativism says that “whatever I believe is good for me, and whatever you believe is good for you, and as long as you don’t push what you believe on me we can get along.” Relativism states that no truth is absolute. However, the theory of relativism breaks down with that very statement – if there is no truth that is absolute, than the statement that there is no absolute truth (which is an absolute statement) is not valid. Let me put it to you this way – if I say that I believe 2+2=4, and you say that you believe 2+2=5, we can’t both be right, because the truth that 2+2=4 is absolute. Now you may say that that is all well and good for math, but that it doesn’t translate over to talk of God, but I think you’ll see that it does.
For we have the bible as evidence of the working of God in the lives of people before Jesus, during the life of Jesus, and after his death and resurrection. Now, if you have already thrown the bible away as lies without having read it, then you would also have to throw away every history book ever written, because your argument is likely that we can’t trust something that was written by people x-thousand years ago, or whatever. But all accounts of history anywhere are written by people after events happen – that’s the point of writing down history, so that it can be recorded as people experienced it, or have heard it having been experienced by others.
The fact is that the bible was written to show God’s plan for redemption of the people He created to love Him, through His interactions with people throughout history. All of the old testament is a foreshadowing of God’s plan to send His Son to earth in order to make a trade with us – our sin for His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Why are those who don’t believe in Jesus condemned? Let’s keep in mind the earlier question I had you ask yourself, and let’s say that you agree that God exists and created the world. Now, assume also that all of the things that happened in the old testament are indeed the events that happened, and the things foretold that would happen are fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ. There are several reasons why one who doesn’t believe in Jesus would be condemned.
First, because Jesus claims to be God - “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) Lack of belief in Jesus is also unbelief towards God. Second, because Jesus indicates that He is the only way to the Father – “Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”” (John 14:6) Jesus indicates that His way is hard - "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)
These are some biblical answers, but I realize that they don’t fully answer your question as to why people are condemned for believing what they want to believe, and not letting others tell them otherwise. Again, we have to go back to assuming that God created the universe. As beings made by an awesome Creator, we need to acknowledge the fact that God is indeed a powerful Being. If he can create the universe with a word, he is worthy of worship, and deserving of respect. Given that our planet is so perfectly placed in our solar system – if it were any closer to the sun we would burn to a crisp, if it were any further away from the sun we would freeze - God must have some insight on the physical workings of the universe. He also created humans - “But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.” (1 Corinthians 12:18) – and so, He also has some insight on the inner workings of human beings and their nature. This is why the Book of the Law was given to Moses in the old testament – that we might know what we must do in order to be holy in God’s eyes. God has written the book of ‘right and wrong’, and as the Creator of the universe, he has the right to do so and as the created, we are expected to be obedient.
Yet the law did little to help people to not sin. Rather,
But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment (Thou shall not covet), produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. (Romans 7:8-11)
The law was written to show how humans are utterly unable to keep the law. We are by nature, sinners – “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” (Romans 7:18) This reasoning comes to the conclusion that everyone is a sinner, and that everyone deserves to go to hell. This is a frightening, but true prospect!

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)

Jesus has come to bring hope to a hopeless people! In coming to earth and living as one of us, yet being without sin, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15), He became for us the unblemished sacrifice that was sufficient for God to pour His wrath on. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, (2 Corinthians 5:21) in order that He would punish sin as opposed to punishing humans. Why would God punish His Son rather than us? For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16) This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:22-24)
Now you need to ask yourself about Jesus. Can you really doubt that He existed, or that He was who he said He was? I believe that to come to that conclusion without having read the evidence towards this in the gospels of the bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) is to commit a fatal error. This error I committed when I was 16, giving up any remnant of faith in God that I had, the result of which you can read in my baptism testimony. You said that I needed to do some critical thinking about what I believe, and let me tell you that indeed I have done so. This is why I am so convicted that God is real, and that Jesus is the only way to salvation – I’ve been on the other side, I’ve experienced death, and now I am free from the bondage I was in, by the grace of God.
Your statement, “And if jesus really lvoed everyone, he wouldn't care if you accepted him as yoru savior or not,” is in error. It is precisely because Jesus loves everyone that He wants everyone to accept Him as Savior. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) The God of love doesn’t wish to see any of His children whom He has created to see death or hell, which is why He waits in longsuffering for us to come back to Him.
And that is the crux of your last argument: every action has an opposite and equal reaction.. thus based one what happens, its possible to detirmine what happens next. Every time you're given a choice, based on all previous actions, its possible to detirmine the choice, the reaction. If god gives you free will, essentially ge gives the choice to go to heaven or hell. every action has an opposite and equal reaction, you end up doomed to whichever one to end up in. isnt it hypcritical that you can go to hell for the choice he gave you?
It isn’t hypocritical at all. Here God has presented you with the basics of what you need to know about His love for you. You are very right in that you have a choice – do you fall on your face and worship the one true God? Or do you stick your nose in the air and turn your back on Him? Will you allow God to be God, or will you continue to be your own god?
God knows the purpose He has in store for you, whether you will continue to rebel or whether you will turn and be saved. I have prayed over this letter to you, that some seed might plant itself in your heart, and that God might send someone to water that seed, and cause it to grow in you. It is my prayer that you would choose to worship a God of love.
May the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His light to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.

The Parable of the Wealthy Man

2008-04-17T00:39:00.001-07:00

There was a rich man who had wealth beyond imagination. He decided that he wanted to give his riches away as an inheritance, so he sent messengers throughout the world with this message: “Since I have no children of my own, I wish to adopt all the children of the world that they may share in my infinite inheritance. Any who wish to have a part in my inheritance need only to love me as their father, and to be obedient to me.” The man sent with the messengers a book that detailed in what way they were to show their love for their father in obedience.
The book and the message made its way around the globe, being spread to all people of all nations. Many were found who rejected the message, saying, ‘Where is this man and his inheritance? Let me see it!’ For the man had left many years ago saying that he would return to share his inheritance personally, and they didn’t believe him.
Others were found who joyfully accepted the message at first, but found that there were many things in the book that were not to their liking. They began to argue amongst themselves and with others as to the meaning of the words in the book, which they found to be ambiguous. Their disputes caused them to move away from others who disagreed, in order that they might live their lives in accordance with their interpretation of the book.
Others were found who accepted the message, but didn’t like the book at all, and so they wrote their own book, in order that they might live their lives based on what seemed good to them.
Still others were found that had the message passed down to them from their parents, and they accepted it. The book, however, they never knew nor did they read it, and so they simply lived their lives.
Yet some were found who joyfully accepted the message, and took the book; reading it daily, conforming their lives to it in order to be in full obedience to the words inside.
So many did not believe in the promise of the man, and many did believe. All who accepted the message believed that they would share in the inheritance of the wealthy man.
The time came when the rich man returned, and all the peoples of the earth lined up to see him. Those who didn’t accept his message he turned away, saying, “If only you had believed, you would have benefited from my inheritance.”
Then the people who had accepted the message came to him, and he said to them all, “Show me how you have loved me, and kept to the words in the book that I provided you.”
Some came to him and said to him, “See! Here is what we have done for you!” But the man replied, “What is this? This is not what I wrote for you! Be gone from me!”
Some came to him and said to him, “See! Here is what we have made for you!” But the man replied, “What is this? These are not the words I gave to you! Be gone from me!”
Some came to him and said to him, “See! We are here for the inheritance you promised us.” But the man replied, “What is this? Did you not receive the book I gave, that you would know what my inheritance would require? I never knew you! Be gone from me!”
And some came to him and said to him, “See, father! We have done all that you have asked of us!” And the man replied, “To you I will give my inheritance.”
I tell you the truth: Only those who accept the word of God, and are obedient to His words will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven

To the Members at Prairie Rose EMC

2008-04-08T23:14:00.000-07:00

On April 8, 2008, I attended my first membership meeting, and by the end of it I felt much like our moderator did – I was wishing that I had stayed at home. The issue on the plate was the extension of the term of our pastor. The problem is that our church is at the tail end of a tumultuous few years that have left many people hurting and angry. And when you mix hurting and angry people with a vote of this nature it calls into question the motive behind their decisions.
I won’t go into too much detail about the issues our church has been facing except to say that the issues have been extremely divisive to the body, and that much of the blame has been placed on the heads of the leadership.
I saw firsthand how this issue has affected some people, and the fracture of relationships, and it made me sad to see the anger from some of these people spill out in ways that I think are just shameful to see in a church. I saw actions that were absent of love towards neighbors, a reaction to the anger inside.
All day before the meeting I set my mind to prayer, and a verse was given to me by the Spirit:

"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:21-24)

I felt led to share my thoughts on the situation, encouraging the membership to vote on the proposed postponement of the renewal in order that we might use the time to become reconciled to each other; that we might be in obedience to the word of God. It was however decided that the membership should move ahead with the voting on the renewal at the next membership meeting in May.
Given that this is a mere month away, I urge my brothers and sisters of Prairie Rose EMC to be in prayer about this situation. I pray that they would heed the words of Jesus, and to examine their own hearts before attending the next meeting. In that time, it would be good to discern if there is a brother or sister that they are angry with, and that they take steps in order to be reconciled with them, especially in regards to the current situation.
I would wager to say that the reason that we are to be reconciled with our brothers before presenting our offering is that an offering made under such a circumstance is unacceptable to God. And it is no wonder – Jesus says in Matthew 6:15 “But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Unforgiveness takes us out of right relationship with God, and I believe that a vote made under such circumstances will be driven more by personal feelings than by the Holy Spirit.
That is why that I encourage everyone to be in prayer about this all month. Ask God to help you to die to yourself, and allow the Spirit to lead you in the ways of righteousness. Ask for forgiveness, and ask that you would be able to give forgiveness. Ask for love! That you would be able to love your enemies, that you would be led in love to the next vote.
I also want to clarify that I am not trying to say that a vote in love is exclusively a vote to renew, in order to sway you one way or another. I am merely asking that you would come to the vote with a pure heart that is not hardened by bitterness or anger
And I wish you all peace with this – I was not given to worry this day as I waited for the meeting to come and the vote to take place, and I am not worried about the vote in May. Our sovereign God already knows the outcome, whether the term will be renewed, or if it will not be, and if it is not He knows who the new pastor will be. These are details which we need not be concerned about.
What we need to be concerned about is loving our neighbor, loving our enemies, loving those who persecute us, and above all loving our Creator. I wish that my first experience at a membership meeting could have been one that had been filled with love instead of anger. I pray that our church will be reconciled, that we can find forgiveness in our hearts, and that we could be a church that is so in love with Christ that we spill over in love for each other

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

2008-03-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

I am writing to you today because I want to share with you and spiritual journey that I have been on in the last couple of months. To tell the truth, I have been walking in a valley in my spiritual walk. I’m writing this as a warning to you in love. For those of you determined to walk down the narrow path that leads the life, you likely already know that there are many paths that lead from the narrow path to the wide road that leads the destruction. Some of these paths are cleverly disguised to look as though they are part of the narrow path, and will try to lure you down them.
I found myself running headfirst down one of these paths a couple of months ago. What led me down this path, however, seemed innocent enough at first – a desire to learn more about God. What I didn’t know was that this desire to learn more would suck me into a wormhole of confusion that only by God’s grace was I saved from.
This whole process started a number of years ago when I was a new Christian. I had bought myself an iPod in order to immerse myself in God’s word. I began to download sermons from a church that I’ve heard about from Donald Miller’s book “Blue Like Jazz". The church, Imago Dei based out of Portland Oregon, spoke about Jesus in a way that I had never heard before. The messages were always full of love and Jesus-centered, and I devoured four years worth of sermons in a matter of months.
Having finished them, my heart yearned for more. In the summer of 2007, CNN aired a series of documentaries by Christiane Amanpour entitled “God’s Warriors”. The third and final documentary was on God’s Christian warriors. The main concept of this documentary was to point out that Christian evangelists in the United States are moving towards using political power in order to advance some of the Christian precepts in which they believe.
Amanpour interviewed a Baptist pastor from Minneapolis who had been labelled a heretic for preaching a series in 2006 in which he teaches a separation of the cross from the sword. His premise was to say that these fundamentalist Christians are using the power of the sword in politics in order to force others to adhere to their beliefs while Jesus clearly teaches us that the use of the sword is not the way of the kingdom of God. Jesus teaches us that we are to have power under people by living a cross like faith and to avoid having power over people by using the sword. I completely agreed with what he said in the documentary, and having never heard of this pastor before, I hurried to the Internet to research him.
His name was Greg Boyd, senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church since 1992. I downloaded his series on the cross and the sword, and instantly fell in love with him. These messages on the cross and the sword cause about 1000 people of his 5000 member congregation to find other places to call their church. I loved how his messages were in your face and Jesus-centered. I had decided after listening to those sermons that I wanted to hear the rest of what he had to say. And so I embarked on the arduous task of listing to over 15 years of sermons.
Being a Baptist church, I was quite unprepared for some of the things that I heard. I was not used to the audience are erupting in applause nearly every sermon when Boyd would get excited about something. Boyd also did his best in the early days to train his church to be an “amening” church. He also spoke a lot about the gifts of the spirit, such as speaking in tongues, holy laughter, and as such, none of which I have experienced or seen in my life. Needless to say, listening to these sermons took some getting used to.
But for the most part, I enjoyed with Boyd had to say. He loved Jesus, and in the end that was all that really mattered. He did many excellent series, and quite often would take a book of the Bible, and go through it verse by verse, extracting every little nugget of information that he could out of it. During a study in the book of Romans, he parked on three verses for over three months. I could tell that he took the word of God seriously.
Then, in November 2007, a friend of mine alerted me to something that I did not previously know about Greg Boyd. My friend informed me that Boyd was a proponent of open theism. My friend didn't give me much information about open theism, and I had never heard of that before. So at the first opportunity, I went to research what open theism was, and was greatly perplexed at what I learned.
The doctrine of open theism holds that the future cannot be known by God. This is because we are all free will beings, and the future is subject to choices we have not yet made. For example, imagine yourself standing in a fork in the road. You can go left, or right, but until you make the decision to go left or right, God cannot know whether you will go left or right. Therefore, God cannot know the future exhaustively, because free will beings have not made certain choices that would allow the future to be known.
Is your head spinning yet? Because mine certainly was after learning of this doctrine. For the first time since I became a Christian, are really started to question some of the fundamentals of my beliefs. Was it possible for the future to be open? Could it be that God didn’t have all the answers to what would happen in the future?
For quite some time, I struggled with this. Though I knew in my heart that it couldn't be true. I knew that, in my case anyway, if God didn’t have complete control over every aspect of my life, then my coming to faith in him was of my own doing, and I knew from experience that this was not true. It was God that revealed himself to me, and I can’t take credit for any of that. But…
Boyd had written a book on this topic of open theism, which I got a copy of, and began to read. In his book, Boyd explains how there were things about the foreknowledge of God that he didn’t understand. So he went through the bible to make note of the verses that explained whether the future was exhaustively known or whether it was partially open-ended. He came to the conclusion that the future could not be exhaustively known, and concluded that anyone who thought otherwise was mistaken.
Only, as I read through his book, and the passages to which he derived his theology from, the number of the gaping holes only increased with each passing page. I found myself getting more and more angry as I read through his book. And yet, I didn’t stop listening to his sermons. I reasoned to myself, “How can someone who preaches the love of Jesus so well be so wrong in this area of theology?”
The biggest problem that I had with the concept of open theism was found in the passages in scripture describing Peter’s denials of Jesus. To better show you the problem that I had, let’s look at what the scriptures say. In Luke 22:34, Jesus says, "I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me." Later, Luke 22: 54 – 62 states:

“Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. But when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, "This man was with him." But he denied it. "Woman, I don't know him," he said. A little later someone else saw him and said, "You also are one of them." "Man, I am not!" Peter replied. About an hour later another asserted, "Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean." Peter replied, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about!" Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: "Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.”

I pondered long and hard about these verses, and their relation to the concept of open theism. Boyd’s talks about the example in his book, and I also found a forum on the Internet that also spoke of this verse. What open theism says about Peter’s denials is that it can be explained in one of two ways.
The first way is that God knows Peter's character. Jesus understands that Peter will not be able to stand up to persecution, and so he makes the comment that Peter will deny him, understanding the possibility that this could be so.
This is understandable, given that we can see Peter's character throughout the gospels. I could believe the open theistic argument had Jesus simply said, “you will disown me.” But Jesus doesn’t say that, in fact he is more specific, saying that Peter will deny him three times. Not only does Jesus say that Peter will deny him three times, but Jesus also says that these denials will occur before rooster crows today. The open theism argument does not explain how Jesus knew such specific details of this event.
In fact, Boyd contradicts himself in his own book on this fact. He emphasizes the importance of the free will of free will beings, and then goes on to say that God could easily orchestrate the circumstances that are suggested. And so confusion arises – are we free will beings or is God controlling things? And then the notion that God orchestrated this situation serves to raise other questions. Did God have to do this because Jesus said that Peter would deny him three times? What if God didn’t orchestrate the opportunities for Peter to deny Jesus?
Sorry for the aside here, but the notion of open theism paints a picture of God that I just can’t accept. Let me explain this to clarify the above example. Imagine God before creation deciding that he wants to create beings to love him. The God of open theism knows that it is possible that humans will turn away from him, but cannot be sure unless it happens. Yet he creates humans anyway, and they do indeed turn away from him. Where his original plan was for humans to love him and not to sin, humans do sin, and so God must revise his plan. I see the God of open theism as a God who is constantly chasing after humans having to clean up their messes. It is a God of reaction rather than definitive action.
Which makes this God very weak. Does this God have to orchestrate things because Jesus said something? In this example, does it not make more sense to say that Jesus knows without a doubt that Peter that will deny him, and therefore he tells Peter what it is that he knows? For if Peter had denied Jesus only oncee or twice or four times, then Jesus would have been wrong, and that just cannot be. Unless we know that Jesus knew for sure that Peter would deny him three times, then for Jesus to say that Peter would deny him three times is only a guess. And Jesus Christ did not guess about anything.
The second, and even more damning argument, is what open theism select a call “conditional prophecy”. Conditional prophecy states that fulfillment about prophecy is based on certain conditions. In this case the argument is that if Peter were to have called upon God for strength during that time of his testing, then he would have been given strength by God to resist the temptation to deny Jesus.
Of course, had Peter prayed to God and ask for strength, and not denied Jesus three times, than Jesus would’ve been a liar. Because Jesus didn’t say “Peter you will deny me three times, unless you pray to God and ask for strength; in which case you’ll be given the strength and will not deny me and all.” Jesus says, “you will deny me three times.” In order for Jesus to be a perfect sacrifice for us, he must be free of sin. And for Jesus to lie would be sin. Therefore we must always assume that when Jesus says something, he means what he says.
So, conditional prophecy in this case cannot be used at all, for had conditions been any different they would compromise the integrity of Jesus Christ. We can also see that Peter's denials cannot be explained away by character alone, due to the specifics of the comments made by Jesus. Therefore the only plausible explanation for Peter's denials is that Jesus knew before it happened that Peter would deny him three times before rooster crowed, hence why he said exactly that.
This argument I presented twice to Greg Boyd by email. Twice I received non-answers from him. He has avoided responding to this argument at all costs. In his last response to me he states “[I have] already had many many people point out the deep flaws in my theology, and I've read every book written against Open Theism... and yet I'm still convinced.” Does anyone else find it odd that he acknowledges the ‘deep flaws’ in his theology, and yet he remains in his folly?
Brothers and sisters, it is my hope that my foray into the cancerous depths of open theism will help you to avoid this poisonous teaching. This is the argument that I have had with this teaching, and now I must share with you some of what this did to me spiritually.
In a very short period of time, I went from being full of the Holy Spirit, feeling Him work within me, to full of cloud, feeling lost and unsure. I know that the existence of God was never in question, but a few times I definitely felt the enemy trying to convince me in that direction. I felt as though God’s power was at question though. I understand why, because the God of open theism is powerless, really, at the mercy of the choices his created beings make.
This whole theory also caused me to question God’s sovereignty, because the God of open theism doesn’t really have complete sovereignty. Rather, it is us humans who have sovereignty over him. While I knew that this just couldn’t be true, and I fought it every step of the way, the enemy used this false teaching in order to get me to question things about God that I knew had to be true.
During this whole ordeal, I found myself caught up in a pattern of sin that I very much regret. I can’t fully explain how I think this can to be except to say that this teaching that caused me to question greatly clouded my judgment in other areas as well. I was in bondage all over the place: spiritually and physically.
It wasn’t until I sought the accountability of a good friend of mine and a pastor that I was finally able to break free of this pattern of sin. It was not easy. What was so easy to fall into took a great deal of struggle to get rid of. I am happy to inform you that as the days go by the struggles get easier, and as I starve sin in my life, its hold on me fades.
I consider all of this to be a lesson in discernment. While I thought that I was receiving good teaching, I obviously was not. Needless to say I have stopped listening to Boyd’s teachings, and on the advice of my pastor and friend, I have begun to listen to other sermons from pastors who teach proper theology. Since I have made the switch to such pastors as John Piper and Charles Swindoll, I have felt the Holy Spirit moving in my life once again. My heart is at ease and I once again feel that God is able to use me. I have begun to rely on God in a way that I hadn’t since I began listing to Boyd, and he has given the strength to resist sin in my life.
I have also been motivated to write this paper form, and the hopes that I could issue you warning: to beware of those who seek to preach the word of God in a way that seems right to them, but in the end leads to death. I have experienced enough pain and suffering in this, and I do not wish it upon anyone. The words of Jesus Christ explain it better than anyone. He says in Matthew 7:

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them”

It is my prayer that the bad fruit that was produced in my life by this teaching will be enough for you to avoid it. In the coming days and weeks I hope to continue writing fervently for God, writing papers that contain good doctrine, and display the love of Jesus Christ as the Lord leads me. I would encourage everyone to read these, and supply me with feedback, that I might know whether or not the words that I write on encouragement to you. The love and joy that feel for Jesus Christ I want nothing more than two share with all of you, as I am commanded to.

Urgent Warning!

2008-03-11T23:01:00.000-07:00

To all people of the world:

I am writing to you today with a strong warning. I want to discourage people from getting married. Why, you ask? Because I have come to the conclusion that it doesn't mean anything to be married, and that people should really just not bother.
'What about you', you ask. Yes, it is true; I did get married in July of 2006. It is too late for me now, I’ll admit. Perhaps then, I should do as the world does.
I was watching TV late one night when a commercial came on. The commercial depicts a man and a woman kissing passionately. Text appears on the screen that states "This couple is married". The woman gives the camera a sultry look, and then, "But not to each other." A website address is then displayed. The commercial was disturbing enough, but out of curiosity, I decided to visit the website to see what it was trying to sell. My heart fell out of my chest when I saw what it was that this website was about.
The title of the page reads, "Married Dating: Affairs: Married Women: Extramarital Affair". The concept is this: you are in a relationship, but want to have an affair. you sign up to the website in order to meet other people who are in relationships, and also want to cheat. This website promotes adultery by acting as a forum for those who are seeking to be unfaithful to their partner.
I find this completely outrageous. I've seen other personals commercials in the late night hours, but nothing I have ever seen has been so blatant in its message. What is our society coming to when such a scandalous, hurtful activity is being sold as being an ok thing to do?
This just makes me so angry, because it does a great deal of damage to the concept of marriage in society. As it is, marriage is mostly a formality to many, a contract to say “I’ll be with you and take care of you now, with an escape clause that says I can back out if the need arises.” To some, there is no sanctity in marriage.
And many wonder why the world is such a screwed up place. Broken families litter the streets, and crime and drug use is increasing. Here are some statistics:

85% of youths in prison come from fatherless homes
85% of children who show behavior problems come from fatherless homes
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes

Why are all these statistics about fatherless homes? Because the result of having an affair is often divorce. Sadly, this crucial piece of information is left out of the advertisement, which promises satisfaction now. As long as the initial need is met, long-term consequences are rarely taken into consideration. By using the website, you are inviting the possibility of losing everything should you be caught.
The website glamorizes an exciting rendezvous with a stranger, and minimizes the institution of marriage. It lifts up the physical aspects of the affair while giving no second thought for the relationship it will ultimately destroy.
And if it has gotten to the point where television ads are presenting us with such a concept, that when a marital relationship gets stale your best option is to look elsewhere, then I can only offer one piece of advice to everyone.
Don’t get married!
After all, what is the point of getting married anyway? Why do people get married? Because they love each other and want have kids, a house and a dog, and to spend the rest of their lives together. And everyone tells you that when that happens, what you do is you get married. The proposal, the planning, the big wedding, the sparkling jewelry.
But you don’t need all that hassle and don’t have to spend all the money on a wedding in order to live together and have kids and a house and a dog. Why go through all the trouble? Just live together! That way, if anything goes wrong, you can just leave. You can just take what’s yours and start over, find someone else, or live on your own.
Or why not just not even bother with relationships at all? Let’s face it, us humans get bored with things very quickly. Our tastes change like the direction of the wind. Today, your fiancée is beautiful, but wait – what will she look like in 20 – 30 years, after she’s had a couple of kids? Things won’t look like this forever. You might as well just keep your options open.
Now I can hear you saying, ‘What about you? You’re married, how can you tell us not to get married?’
Yes, it is true. I know it seems hypocritical to be telling you not to do as I have done. You must understand though that I am doing this brothers and sisters because I love you! I want to warn you before you make a terrible mistake! You see, one of the things that you might not know about marriage is very troubling. I really wish that more people understood this before they got married.
Marriage is hard work! Not only that, but having and maintaining a happy marriage is incredibly hard work! No matter what anyone else tells you about it, this is the gospel truth. Think about it – you are in a relationship with the same person for the rest of your lives. Every morning you will wake up with her, every night you will go to sleep with him. You also have to work at keep each other happy, which can be very difficult when you get two people together with any amount of differences in opinion together. And in between working full time and going to school, and getting kids off to school, and worrying about retirement savings and bill payments and mortgages, and social life and infinite running around you barely find time to talk to each other. Then when the kids are all gone to college you feel like you hardly even know each other anymore.
And keeping the flames in the bedroom alive is lots of work. After all, you’ll be with the same person for the rest of your lives, and that’s not a whole lot of variety. Or maybe one person will have more needs than the other can fulfill. There’s only so much rejection a person can take before they are bound to find a way to seek satisfaction elsewhere.
Now I can hear you saying, “Give me a break – You haven’t even been married for two years. What do you know?”
Well my friends, I’m not saying this to brag but I have a happy marriage. Honeymoon period? Maybe, but I can say that I really don’t believe that this period is going to be ending anytime soon. Naiveté? No. Let me tell you something – I have discovered the secret to having a happy marriage.
I will tell you the secret, but first I have a warning. As I have already said, this is very hard work. If you want to have a happy marriage, you have to be prepared to make some difficult decisions, and huge sacrifices. If you’re ok with that then read ahead.
There are two things that must happen for a couple to have a long lasting, happy marriage. The first requires a change in your point of view. Ask yourself what it means to be married. Marriage is either a contract or a covenant. If marriage to you is just a formality, a title, nothing more than a statement to say ‘I have pledged myself to be with you for now unless something happens between us and I want to leave in which case I will’, then it would be better for you not to get married.
Rather, marriage should be something that is not entered into lightly. Careful consideration should be taken into understanding that the relationship is permanent, not to be ended at any time; a promise made to one another to say ‘when you need me, I will be there,’ and to follow through on that promise every day for the rest of your life.
As long as a marriage is considered as a contract, a temporary binding that can be broken if the need arises, true happiness cannot be found. When things go bad, a person will think on that option, and as things get worse and worse between the spouses, there will come a time when that option could be exercised. When a person views the marriage as being a covenant; an eternal promise never to be broken without the option for exiting, then when hard times hit, they will be more likely to seek options to rebuild broken areas of the marriage instead of running from them.
So to alter your view of marriage is the first step, and in comparison to the second, this is easy like pie. Men, listen up, because this part is primarily focused on you. In order to achieve and maintain a happy marriage, you must listen to the words of Paul in Ephesians 5: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.
That’s it. That’s the secret. While it is easy to say, it is much more difficult to do, and to do well. Because the natural question that arises from is “How did Christ love the church?” And the answer to that question can be a hard pill to swallow when applied to this question of marriage.
How did Christ love the church? He loved the church by serving others. He lived as a homeless carpenter to wander around the desert healing the sick, giving hope to the lost and performing miracles. Above all that, he loved the church by dying for it. He put aside all selfish thoughts and desires to live and die for all of us.
And that is how husbands should love their wives. Die to self and serve her wholeheartedly. Give top importance to her needs, above whatever it is that you desire.
If she asks you to do something, you should consider doing it as soon as possible. Even if you are in the middle of doing something for yourself, think about abandoning it and doing what it is that she has asked you. I know that in my life, when Holly asks me, “Can you do me a favour?” my immediate response is typically, “Anything for you, my love.” While this may sound cheesy, it is incredibly effective in maintaining the happiness of my wife. When I jump to her service, it tells her that her needs are more important than my needs. It shows her, in a way, just how much I love her.
Now I am not saying that we need to become robots, answering to every beck and call of our wives. Obviously there is some limit to this. What I am saying, is that we need to make our goal to serve our wives, just as Jesus served the church. This is what Jesus meant for us to do by giving us the example of washing the apostle’s feet.
Husbands, listen carefully to your wives. This is something that I am not perfect at, but am definitely learning. One of the things that I’ve learned about Holly is that she likes a clean apartment. Something that I know that makes her very happy is when she comes home from school or work to clean apartment, or at the very least a clean kitchen. There’s nothing that she hates more than having to come home from a hard day only to have to face a mountain of dishes or an extremely cluttered living room. Given that most mornings I am home, there’s really no excuse for her to have to come home to a mess. I know that she is extremely grateful when she comes home to a clean apartment, because it shows that I sacrificed some of my time in order to do something so that she wouldn’t have to.
I think that one of the greatest difficulties about living this way is denying the self. Let’s face it, we’re men. We often get focused on what is in front of us, and want to do nothing more. I know how easy it is for myself to get caught up in playing a video game, not wanting to tell myself away from it. Meanwhile, Holly will want to spend some time with me. And so I’m faced with a choice: do I continue to do what I want to do, in playing my video game; or do I quit, and spend time with my wife?
Taking our eyes off of ourselves can be one of the greatest challenges in a marriage. We seem to forget that two people have now become one. I think that the greatest problem facing marriage today is selfishness. We go most of our lives, until the point that we get married, living for ourselves. Then, when we get married, we constantly need to remember the other person that is now forever part of our lives. Even as I’m writing this I’m asking myself, “do people really not understand this?” because it sounds like such a simple truth. We get married because we want to spend the rest of our lives with this person. And yet, time and time again, we see relationships falling apart because one or both people doesn’t want to acknowledge the fact that their living for someone else.
And a website like AshleyMadison.com goes to prove the extent to which selfishness has infested the marriage relationship. What does Ashley Madison promote? It gives an avenue for those were dissatisfied in a relationship to pursue their selfish desires. It gives people a method to serve themselves instead of the other person in the marriage relationship, and all of this to the detriment of the concept of marriage as a whole.
If you think I’m making this up, then you need only to look at society today. 25 out of 1000 marriages in Canada will end before the fourth year of marriage. Almost 38% of marriages in Canada will end in divorce before the 30th year. According to the 2006 census, 16% of Canadians have been divorced. That’s over five million people in Canada alone. When you consider the sorry state of the United States, added to that of Canada, we have a divorce epidemic going on.
Men, we need to wake up to what’s going on in the state of marriage today. We need to reclaim something that once was viewed as sacred that now has become frivolity. The sad reality is that the only way that this will be is if we individually make the choice to say that marriage is forever, and not just a contract that could be backed out of at any time. This applies to those who are already married, as well as those who are thinking about getting married. Give this matter serious thought. Because if you don’t, everyone suffers.
Women, this of course applies to you also. I hope you didn’t think that I was going to let you off so easily, because the bible has commands for you as well. It is just as important for women to value the integrity of the marriage as it is for men. If you didn’t gather that from what I previously wrote, then I will spell it out for you also.
Paul says in the book of Ephesians, “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”
Now I know that this verse is often the cause of great strife to women. In our society today we don’t like to hear the word “submit”. After all, we live in a country that promotes freedom, and the idea of submitting to someone else just doesn’t sit well with us. Not only that, this verse has been abused by men throughout the ages, being misinterpreted as that women are to be the slaves of the husbands. What the man says goes, and the woman is supposed to know her place.
I just want to assure you women, that this is not with this verse implies. And for those who have been offended by this verse in the past, I would just like to apologize to you. It saddens me to see and here how the word of God is often twisted in order for some to get their way. When we understand what it is that this verse has to say, we will see what it beautiful meaning that it has.
The thing about these verses, is that men will often take the first sentence, and stop there. They will fail to see what the rest of the verse says, and what also implies. Paul says, “For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which she is the Savior.” Here, he is comparing the relationship between a husband and wife with the relationship between Christ and the church.
I think that the parallel that men often miss is that we are to be in submission to Christ. And so, there is a greater hierarchy to these relationships that is often ignored when it comes to this verse. Wives, if your husband is more of a dictator a lover, then there are obvious problems with that situation. Because Christ was not a dictator to us. He guided us in love, and was loving throughout. And so, when your husbands are acting in love, it is good to be obedient to them. In doing so, you will be showing them respect. This is a godly attribute.
What about when your husband is not acting in love? Are you supposed to go along with everything they say, allowing yourself to be abused? Let me give you an example from my own life. I never claimed to be perfect, and Holly can attest to that. Without her, I would not be the man that I am now. Often times during our relationship, when we were dating and after we got married, I was not acting like a godly man. I am a sinner, and I never claim to be free from sin. There have been times when I have stubbornly, and knowingly, lived in sin, and Holly has always been there to correct me when I have been wrong.
You see, she is to me my helper. Just as God created Eve for Adam to be a helper for him, she is my helper. If I didn’t have her to continuously point out areas in my life in which I am not following in God’s will or His way, then I would not be the man that I am today. I believe that the purpose that God had in calling Eve Adam’s helper stems from God’s comment “it is not good for men to be alone”. Why is it not good for man to be alone? Because, quite frankly, men are pretty stupid. As a man, are readily admit that I’m stupid. My wife has helped me to become a more godly man, and without her I can safely say that I would not be who I am today.
A book that I read before we got married called “Every Man’s Marriage” by Fred Stoeker and Stephen Arteruburn described the relationship between a man and a woman perfectly. A woman is to be “iron sharpening iron” to her husband. Note here that a man and a woman are both considered to be iron. When the one metal rounds up against the other metal, they sharpen each other. A good picture example of this is when a chef is ready to carve something if you will often see him running two knives together. This action sharpens both blades, so that they’re both will cut with precision.
In the same way, a wife that is being a good helper to her husband is away from sharpens him and his skills as a Christian. This same book has a chapter in it which was to holly’s delight. The name of this chapter was “It Is Her Job To Nag You”. For those of you men who have wives who you feel are constantly nagging you – good! Then she is doing her job as a wife. Because obviously there is something that you are doing that is selfish. If you were dying to yourself and serving your wife as a husband should, then she would have no reason to nag you for anything.
This of course, has broken away a bit from what Paul has said, because he has said that wives should submit to their husbands. And I would like to point out that the contrast that I noted earlier was between the relationship between a man and wife and the relationship between Christ and the church. Two relationships that are to be loving. I have pointed out a response that a woman should take if her husband is not acting in godly, loving way. If a woman’s husband is acting in the way that he should, then there should be no difficulty in submitting to him.
That’s being said I don’t want you to take this as that you need to be a doormat. Because a husband that is acting as a dictator, not giving any consideration to his wife, is not acting in the way that Jesus Christ commands a husband to be. And surely, if his ignorance is leaving him to act in a way that is abusive to you, then proper steps need to be taken. A husband that is abusing a wife is not being faithful to her. A wife in such a situation should seek counsel from someone outside of the marriage relationship.
When a husband and wife consciously make efforts to live in accordance to the verses above, the result should be a relationship that is full of love. I know this to be true in my relationship with Holly. Of course, as with any relationship, it has been a learning experience for both of us. Through it all, I believe that we have both learned much from each other, and this learning is still happening. With each passing day, I see her love for me, and it causes me to love her even more. In the same way, she has told me that my loving her causes her to love me even more. We will often revert to the state of infatuation were couple will say “I love you”, “I love you more”, “no, I love you more”, “no, I love you more”, ad nauseam. This is the kind of love that I believe that God has in store for all of us.
All of this takes a lot of work and dedication. One other thing that it takes is a lot of grace. Holly has been so gracious to me during our time together, this she has shown me an aspect of the love of God that I might not have known without her. I often feel as though I don’t deserve her, and yet she remains with me. Every day this boggles my mind. I look at her and see that she is, almost unconsciously, being the wife that Paul has said that she should be. And she is this way because I, to the best of my ability, am the husband the Paul says that I should be.
Being married has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. It is also easily one of the most challenging. However, when I love Holly as God commands me to, it strengthens our relationship. It also makes it easier for Holly to love me as God commands her to.
I have so much more to say on this topic! The concept of dying to oneself requires more than just a single blog, and this has already been such a long time in coming, that I have decided to post what I have. If anyone is interested in hearing more, I will write more on this topic later. As it is, I have a number of other things I would like to write on, but don’t want to leave one unfinished writing as I start several others. So look forward to more writings! :D

Get Behind Me, Satan!

2008-01-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

Picture this: it's New Year's Eve, and you're at work. You have a machine down and in a couple of hours, things are going to be a little crazy. You've been running around like a madman for the past 4 hours trying to get your work done. Your supervisor has gotten to work recently and is putting some work through on one of the remaining 2 machines.
A friend of yours who recently got engaged you stop to congratulate. To your left are two other employees chatting. Suddenly your supervisor walks into the area you are in, sees you chatting and says loud enough for everyone to hear, 'It would be a good idea for you to get your work done quickly, it's going to be busy tonight' He's not yelling, but you sense that he is annoyed, frustrated.
Embarrassed, you rush back to your work. You feel as though you have just been treated as a child would be, in front of other coworkers. You feel as though the situation could have been handled much differently. You send your supervisor the following email:

I just wanted to let you know that I was very disappointed with the way that I was treated on Monday. I'm referring to the way you told me to get back to work when you saw me talking with ******. It was very embarrassing to me to have to be yelled at in front of other co-workers like that.
I'm not saying that it was wrong of you to tell me to get back to work. If any employee understood more the importance of having things done in a timely fashion on Monday, it was me. And I understand that you are my supervisor, and telling me what to do is part of your job. I just wish that instead of the situation being handled the way it was, that you might have called me over by the itrans to say something to me there. It felt very demeaning to have to scurry back to my work after having been scolded. You know that I'm a good, fast employee, and i felt that I deserved a little better treatment than that.
I just wanted to let you know how i felt, because as my supervisor, i should be able to come to you when something is bothering me
Thanks

The day after New Years, when your supervisor reads the email, he is not happy. in fact, you can't remember a time you ever saw him so angry. 'What is this?' he asks, and before giving you a chance to reply, he says 'This is garbage! Garbage!' Everything just goes downhill from there.
Obviously, you is me in this case, and yes this actually happened. let me tell you that the only thing more demeaning than being embarrassed in front of coworkers is being told that your opinions and your feelings are garbage in the eyes of your supervisor. I was essentially told that, if i have a problem with anything, that it doesn't matter, and i should just keep my mouth shut.
Maybe that's what i should have done in the first place. I personally didn't think that there would be any harm in letting him know how i felt. I can honestly say that i didn't think that he would be so outraged by my email.
Anyway the night must go on, right? so i'm standing at my machine working, and all i can think about is what he said. "This is garbage. This is garbage." And i get to thinking, 'that was my opinion, how i felt about this situation... and he thinks its garbage.'
And the enemy likes to try to take situations like this and turn it from 'your opinions are garbage' to 'YOU are garbage' And i could feel myself slipping into a mental loop where i would only depreciate myself further.
Until I realized what was happening. I remembered the words of Jesus, "Get behind me satan!" and that he is the accuser who distorts our thoughts. Quickly i tuned my iPod into my worship music, and thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Soon i was hearing TRUTH - that I am LOVED by God, and that I have infinite WORTH to my creator! So now i'm near tears as i am silently worshipping God while working at my machine. Soon i have peace, and i look at my supervisor and pity him, for he is still seething in his anger. He doesn't speak at me, doesn't look at me, only speaks to me when i ask him what he wants me to do (which, praise the Lord, was to go home). It's very sad, actually.
So pray for him with me! He is a lost child of God who needs salvation! Pray that he might get life from God, not from his own life, his job, whatever! He needs Jesus big time!

Eloi! Eloi! Lama, sabachthani!

2007-10-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

for·sake –verb (used with object)
1. to quit or leave entirely; abandon; desert: She has forsaken her country for an island in the South Pacific.
2. to give up or renounce (a habit, way of life, etc.).

While listening to a sermon on my iPod the pastor brought up a very intriguing question. He was talking about why he believes that the bible is a real book, that its contents regarding the story of Jesus Christ are historically factual, not just some fairy tale made up by His followers in the first century.
The pastor points out that other historical stories, such as the lives of Socrates, and Alexander the Great are regarded to be accurate. This despite the fact that what we know about Socrates was written 20 - 30 years after his death, and what we know about Alexander the Great was written around four hundred years after the events. Not only that, but there is only one source of information for each.
Additionally he notes that there are some very odd details found in the four gospels that can only be explained by assuming that the events actually happened – names of people, the way the linen cloths were laid in the empty tomb, times and dates (Luke 3:1-2 is a quick example: In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar—when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene— during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.” – how precise and detailed can you get?), challenges to verify information given. It’s really very compelling evidence.
And then the question that he asked that really got my gears turning. If you’re a gospel writer and you’re trying to sell Christianity to people but you’re just making it up, why on earth would you have Jesus on a cross saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That doesn’t sound like the kind of religion that’s going to draw tons of followers if it was only made up. The only explanation for that line to be in the bible is that it actually happened that way.
(I highly recommend to anyone that has doubts about the validity of the bible or the life of Jesus to listen to this sermon. Boyd does a great job of systematically breaking down the arguments for and against whether or not these events actually happened. Listen to the sermon at http://media.whchurch.org/1996/1996-04-28_Boyd_The-Helmet-of-Salvation.mp3 )
Anyway, the question that I started thinking about wasn’t ‘did Jesus say that?’ but ‘why did Jesus say that?’ If we are to understand that Jesus is God in the flesh, then why would he ask God why He had abandoned him? What does it mean that God ‘abandoned’ Jesus?
I want to share the thoughts and ideas that have gone through my head as I’ve sought to understand this question. I have come up with a theory, which I will share with you. I want to make clear that this is just my brain working, and isn’t meant to be a teaching. I could be wrong, it could be heresy, and any comments are very welcome.
Why would Jesus say ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ In order to understand this, we need to understand what it is that Jesus did for us on the cross. Throughout history, the Jewish people offered animal sacrifices to God in order to atone for their sins. The blood of animals, however, could never fully atone for the sin of humans. This is why God sent Jesus to the earth, to be the perfect sacrifice that would forever atone for the sins of all people. How?
The Jewish people would lay their hands on the animal they were to sacrifice. In this way, they would put their sins on the head of the animal, and the death of the animal meant the death of the sin. In the same way, our sins were poured on Jesus, so that His sacrifice would release us from those sins. And so we have this exchange – Jesus becomes the sinner, and we become the innocent ones.
About sin, we need to understand what it does to us. In Genesis, after Adam and Eve sin, they are banished from Eden, and sent away from God. There is now a distance between us and God. Our sin separates us from God, making relationship with him difficult, if not impossible.
And so we come to Jesus on the cross. Jesus, God in the flesh, is hanging up on the cross. He is no longer free of sin, because our sin has been heaped upon Him. I have heard it explained that Jesus became sin, in order that God could punish sin.
So here is my theory as I have thought it out, in what seems to me a logical stream: Jesus is brought to Pilate to be sentenced. The charge against him is that he is the King of the Jews. Pilate gives the order that he be crucified. He is hung up on a cross to die. At some point, all of the sins of the world, past, present, and future are placed upon Jesus. God detests sin, and it separates us from Him, therefore at the point that He receives the sins, Jesus ceases to be God.
Now, before you come after me with your flaming torches, let me explain why I think this makes some sense: When he is being arrested, and Peter brings out the sword, we read:

"Put your sword back in its place," Jesus said to him, "for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" Matt 26:52-54

Jesus realizes that He could put an end to his punishment if He wanted to, by calling legions of angels to save Him. And I wonder if, as he was carrying his cross to Golgatha, if He ever considered doing it. And then, if he had become sin, then surely, every fiber of His body was screaming for him to call down angels to save him, because if it were you or I, there’s no way we would want to go to the cross if we had the power not to.
But He doesn’t do it. This is most likely because He understood the job he had to do, to do the will of the Father. But what if he couldn’t do it because he no longer had the power to do it? I imagine a great battle going on inside him, all the sins of the world swimming in his mind and body, desperately wanting to come down from the cross but unable to do so.
I imagine also, what would some of the thoughts of Jesus’ have been, as he carried the cross, as he was nailed to it, as he hung there for hours. Very little is said in scripture of conversation during this time. The discourse between the thieves, the asking for a drink, ‘forgive them father for they do not know what they are doing’, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?, ‘It is finished.’ There isn’t much more than that recorded.
I can picture him thinking about His life on earth, how close He had been to God all the time, always feeling his presence nearby. Now, being detestable to God, being sin, God feels far from Him, infinitely far. To someone who had lived in the spirit all his life, one can only imagine what it must have felt like to be abandoned by their father.
Now I say that God feels far from Jesus, only because truth declares that God never leaves us. Surely, Jesus had always known that God was always beside him, but in a purely human state with all the sin heaped on him, he probably would have felt an anguishing despair. We all go through this sometimes, especially when we are living in a way that we know is sinful, we feel as though God has turned his back to us.
Imagine the pain and suffering that Jesus must have felt in His heart in order to say, “My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me?” He must have felt truly abandoned. Maybe He even questioned God’s plan as he hung there.
A friend of mine suggested to me that, it could be that Jesus remained as God, but that he was separated from the community of the trinity. In both our illustrations, Jesus ceases to be one God in three parts. It seems as thought it doesn’t hold water either way. We both realize that this is all part of the mystery of God’s love for us, and praise Him for it!

Anyway, at this point I feel just completely overwhelmed by the scope of this topic I’ve laid out here. It’s been difficult to write, yet I felt that at the very least, I could get it out in the open, and people could offer their insights into this intriguing question. Please know, that I am not a heretic – I love Jesus, and without Him, my life would be in the toilet, so whatever happened up on that cross is irrelevant. That there is a cross is the most important thing.
Please write in with your comments, I’d love to hear what you have to say about this!

Unity ? and the Church

2007-09-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday while attending church, I learned about the deep division that has been marring our congregation for the last year. While i knew that things were going on, I was not aware of how bad and how deep things had gone.

It started out as a debate on whether or not women should be allowed to preach in church. This topic is obviously talked about in other denominations, and accepted in some. Our church, when faced with theological issues such as this consults the word of God, presents its case to the membership, and then is voted on by the membership (as is my understanding: if someone from my church finds fault in this statement, please let me know so that i can be educated and correct my error).

The leadership at my church took the stance from the beginning that allowing women to speak the morning message goes against biblical teaching, and therefore should not be allowed. this is a very divisive issue in the church as a whole, but our leadership was firm on where they stood. Again, as is my understanding, a vote was held in the membership on whether or not women should speak to the church. The consensus was that they shouldn't. Motion passed, end of story.

Except that it wasn't end of story for this group. Now they have set their eyes on the leadership, claiming that their power has gone to their heads, that the process they followed incorrectly, that they aren't to be trusted. Now, a crucial vote is to be held this Sunday to decide whether or not the congregation supports the current leadership. If it does, this issue will hopefully go away, and things can go back to normal. if it doesn't, then the leadership will step down and the way our church is led will be in question until the membership decides.

What a position for a church to be in! I've never experienced such a thing and am completely dumbfounded that this has gone this far. it has been on my mind since Sunday, and will not leave until the vote is completed this Sunday.

It is my plan to support the leadership. I will do so because i have not seen reason to doubt their authority. Let me explain why: As Christians, we are to believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. What we find written there, we are to accept as truth. If you don't want to follow it like a blind man, then put its words to the test in your life, and they will prove themselves to you.

The thing about the Bible is that it is a monumental work, and lots of the teachings inside can be difficult to accept. Nowhere in the Bible does it claim that following Jesus will be easy, in fact He ensures us that there will be suffering. The fact of the matter is that following in obedience is what is required of us as Christians.

Yet, some people like to pick and choose verses that they like and those they dislike. What they end up doing is mixing the word of the Gospel with the ideologies of the world. 'I love Jesus, but I want to sleep with my girlfriend. I want salvation, but I'm going to go get hammered with my friends. I want to help others, but as long as it doesn't cost me anything.'

Sometimes people have the best of intentions when choosing verses they would like to omit from the Bible. The women's issue would be a great example of that. We live in a time where gender equality has been fought for and won. And i don't disagree with gender equality - women should make the same wages as men do in certain positions in the workplace, should be equally able to get an education. After all, God made us male and female in his image.However, the Bible is clear in its stating the role of women in the church. Some view this as unfair, and say that it's an old-fashioned patriarchal mindset that should be modernized with society. And this is the danger of desiring such a change. Jesus calls us to be different than the society, just as God commanded the Israelites to be a holy nation - set apart from the rest of the nations of the world. The book of Judges outlines what happened to the nation of Israel when they disobeyed God's commands by not destroying the communities that were dwelling in the land God had given them. Their ways became a snare to the Israelites, turning them to other gods, and so God delivered them into the hands of their enemies.

I think that in our present situation, we are seeing on a smaller scale what happened in Judges. This group is in rebellion to the word of God. They have found something that they don't like, and are fighting against it. What it says is that they don't trust God. How can a fight for equality be interpreted as not trusting God? Well I believe that the bible is the truth. The words written there are God's instructions to us how to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to Him. Being the creator of the universe, i think that it is a sin to question God's authority. Paul confirms this in Romans 9 - 20 But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' "Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?
Now i just want to clarify what I and the leadership believe - this isn't a question of whether men are more valuable then women, or women less valuable then men. God loves us all, because He made us all. It's a question of obedience. Are we living in obedience to God's word when we are fighting about theolgical matters that are confirmed in scripture?

We can see the outcome of what happens when we play with scripture and make theology our own. Same-sex marriage has been a hot button topic in the last few years. Now the bible makes it clear that marriage is to be a covenant between one man and one woman. God places this boundary because He knows that it is what is best for us. Yet society has opened up to the homosexual minority and we live in a 'free country'. So the definition of marriage has been opened up to the union of two people. This in turn has caused more division in churches, those who choose to marry same sex couples, and those who don't. This comes about because one group decides what is right for them, instead of letting God's word speak for what is right for His church.
How does this get resolved? Well I would like to think that God's word would prevail. He already knows how this vote on Sunday will go down, and only He knows at this point. I can see that either way, there are going to be people hurt by the decision. We will all have to accept the outcome of the vote. I believe that in order for our church to remain healthy and strong, we need to remain in the word of God. As far as i can tell, our leadership has done well to maintain the integrity of our church, and it is my prayer that they will be able to continue to do so. In the meantime, pray for the vote on Sunday, and that God's will will be done

Innocence

2007-09-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

As many of you may know, I'm a freak when it comes to being in love with Jesus. Every now and then, I find myself led to do a bit of writing on certain topics. Sometimes I can hash out a paper in a number of hours, and even more rarely, I write something that I feel is worth sharing with others. The following is such a paper. I hope that many of you will read it with an open mind, and I hope that you will finish it, given that it is 6 pages long in Word. I think that for a starter paper on my blog that it isn't too cramming Jesus down your throat. I hope that you enjoy it, and please feel free to comment on it!
SB

in·no·cence (ĭn'ə-səns) Pronunciation Key
n.
1. The state, quality, or virtue of being innocent, as:
a) Freedom from sin, moral wrong, or guilt through lack of knowledge of evil.
b) Guiltlessness of a specific legal crime or offense.
c) Freedom from guile, cunning, or deceit; simplicity or artlessness.
d) Lack of worldliness or sophistication; naiveté.
e) Lack of knowledge or understanding; ignorance.
f) Freedom from harmfulness; inoffensiveness.
2. One that is innocent.

There’s something really beautiful about looking in the eyes of a young baby. I would often look into the faces of my nieces when they were just born, thinking ‘here’s a new creation, a clean slate’. Babies have an advantage in this world that many others don’t have. Their lives are pure, clean, undefiled by the bad things that surround this world. They are innocent by every definition of the word.
Surely no baby has ever committed a sin due to their lack of knowledge of evil. Babies aren’t filling up prisons because of their crimes. They aren’t consciously doing bad things because they don’t understand the difference between right and wrong. No, holding my baby nieces in my arms, I look at them and think ‘she’s perfect’. And in reality, perfection has no better description then a baby.
The almost unfortunate thing is that inevitably, these perfect babies will grow up. As they do, they begin to test the waters in everything, to see what they can get away with, especially after mastering the art of walking. I’ve watched my three year-old niece push that boundary with her mother countless times. When she does something that she’s not supposed to, she is gently corrected: Stay away from that, it’s dangerous. It isn’t nice to hit your sister.
Something happens though as children continue to grow. They are gradually exposed to things that aren’t right in the world. These things can be very subtle, and indirect, such as a close friend’s parents split up, or someone they know dies in an accident. If they keep up with current events at all, it won’t be long before they hear about the terrible things that people do to each other. Murder, rape, theft, the list goes on. Over time the exposure to these things eats away at the innocence of the once pure baby.
What happens when innocence is lost? We become accustomed to seeing things and pass them off as normal. I remember when I was growing up, the first time I saw movies like Alien and Terminator 2. Certain scenes frightened me so much that I had to leave the room and couldn’t finish watching the movie. Now I can watch these movies, and seeing people die on screen has little effect on me. Innocence has been lost.
I don’t know if anyone can remember the first time they ever said a bad word. Surely some of you had parents who threatened you with a bar of soap, or worse, used it because you said things you shouldn’t have. I like how Stephen King describes it in his book It. The seven kids are hanging out together swearing for the fun of it. The words are like firecrackers shooting out of their mouths. There’s something exciting about freely saying words that everyone says you aren’t supposed to. Innocence has been lost.
Guys, what about the first time you saw a picture of a naked woman? Perhaps someone brought a magazine to some event and shared its contents with you. Surely you remember how it made you feel, seeing it for the first time, how it made you want to see more. These days you don’t need to look very far in order to find what you are looking for. Sex can be found everywhere, in advertising, television, movies, even music is filled with innuendo. Innocence has been lost.
I think maybe, when we’re first going through these changes we may fight them a little, we may ask ourselves, ‘Is this right? Should I be watching this? Should I be listening to this? Should I be doing this?’ Something inside of us questions these things, perhaps that we even inherently know that they are wrong.
More often than not, we quash that voice and continue to do these things.
We live in a world where innocence is lost at a fairly young age. In fact, it is often encouraged that we kick off the innocence of youth to ‘grow up’ and be more adult. My little sister-in-law has been wearing makeup since she was nine, trying to be grown-up like her big sister.
Why is it like this? Why do we live in a world where we start out as innocent babies and turn into humanity? The answer can be found in Genesis.
After God creates man and woman, he sets them in the Garden of Eden. In essence, Adam and Eve are like newborn children, pure, innocent. They are free from sin because they have no knowledge of sin. Life is as it should be. Remember, God had just created it and called it very good.
I love how the bible says “The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.” Imagine, two perfect, innocent beings, together with only each other, completely unafraid of the fact that they are naked together. It is the ultimate example of what a married couple is supposed look like.
Until, as we read:

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.' "
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. (Genesis 3:1-7)

What’s happened here? God has commanded obedience from Adam and Eve that they don’t eat from the tree. He lays it all out in front of them, telling them that if they eat the fruit from that tree, they will die. Then, along comes the serpent and convinces Eve to eat the fruit. Now notice here, that Adam and Eve did not eat of the tree because of their own desires. God gives Adam the command not to eat the fruit in Genesis 2, before Eve was created for him. After He had given the command not to eat the fruit, he sends Adam out to name all of the animals on the earth that God has created. Surely this took a considerable amount of time, given the diversity of animals we see today. And in all that time, Adam obeyed God in his command to name the animals, and in not eating from the tree.
It is the serpent who comes in and convinces Eve. It convinces her to disobey what God has commanded, not only to disobey, but also that it is ok and even favorable to disobey because they will gain knowledge from the fruit of the tree. It is this outside force that causes Adam and Eve to sin.
And what happens to them after they sin?

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.

The bible says that ‘their eyes were opened.’ Suddenly, after having eaten from the tree, they gain the knowledge that they had desired, the likeness of God that they had wanted, and they understood good and evil. And the first thing that they do is they cover themselves up. Where before they were content to be naked together, now a husband and wife look at each other and they are ashamed. Ashamed of their nakedness, ashamed of their sin, the very first thing they do is they hide themselves from each other.
Innocence is lost…
As we have seen in this example, I’d like to offer this simple truth: sin destroys innocence. What does this mean to us today? How are we to live?
All hope for innocence is not lost for those of us who have lost our innocence. In fact, Jesus commands us to reclaim our innocence in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 18:1-4)

Listen to what Jesus says – “Unless you change…” Reclaiming innocence is not like flipping a switch. I can’t lie to you about that. It is going to require some heavy duty repair work to your heart. Those of us who have lost innocence, our hearts have become calloused to some things. Maybe that thing is watching violent movies. Maybe it’s using foul language. Maybe you’re addicted to pornography or drugs or alcohol. The first step to innocence is deciding that there are things in your life that have to go.
This is something that I had to come to grips with in the months leading up to my marriage. Before I met Holly, I was steeped in some bad sexual sin. While God had set me free from the lifestyle I had been living, some of the sins I enjoyed stayed behind like a residue. I knew that I would have to change some of my habits if I was ever to be truly free from their clutches.
Jesus continues, “…and become like little children.” Is there anything that sounds more impossible? Is there anything that sounds more ludicrous? Obviously we can’t go back to being 5 years old again. Time moves forward, not backward. And part of you is probably thinking, “Why would I want to be 5 years old again?” Surely no one wants to relive elementary or high school again. When you live in a society that tries to speed up childhood, it’s difficult to imagine what it would be like to stay there.
What does Jesus mean when He tells us to become like little children? Matthew doesn’t specify the age of the boy Jesus called to him. He only mentions that the child comes and stands by Jesus. This could mean that the child could be even as young as one- to two- years old. Let’s imagine that this is the age of the child Jesus is speaking about. What can we learn from a two-year old child? I think that there are two things.
The first is probably the most crucial, and that is ignorance about sin. Children this young aren’t really running around purposefully choosing to do things that they know are wrong. Why? Because they aren’t old enough to fully comprehend the concepts of right and wrong. At this stage of life, they understand yes and no, but can’t link it to right and wrong. If a child stops doing something that mom tells them ‘no’ to it’s probably because they are trying to avoid a punishment rather than realizing that what they’re doing is wrong.
As I think on this, I realize that it sounds very behaviorist. While I don’t think that we should all become ‘sin managers’, I think that this simplistic way of thinking can be a benefit when it comes to modifying a behavior. As adults, we can purposefully choose to do things that we know are wrong. One of the things we can’t choose however, are the consequences for our actions.
Real change is going to be motivated by conviction. In my case, I was enlightened to the fact that my actions were not matching what I believed in. I desired in my heart to change this thing inside of me that I knew was wrong. After being convicted, and making a conscious decision for change, a person’s failures and their aftermath become very salient. While we may not get our hands slapped like when we try to get a cookie out of the cookie jar, there are real consequences that follow sin.
Is there physical retribution for your sin? Before you decided to stop drinking, hangovers were just a part of the drinking and partying process. Now, it’s a head-splitting reminder of the sin you want to stop doing.
Is there spiritual harm caused by your shortcoming? Swear words used to fly from your lips like they were just another casual word. Now, you feel guilty and ashamed of yourself when you let one loose.
Is there relational damage caused by your failures? This one really hit home for me. When I would tell Holly of my failures, it was very upsetting to her. Seeing how much it hurt her gave me a thought – This must be how God reacts when I sin. It made me want to take control of this sin more than ever.
Being that, as adults, we have an understanding of sin, it is impossible for us to return to a point where we don’t have knowledge of sin. But we can become innocent of sin if we can eradicate those things that cause us to sin from our lives. To you, maybe that means getting rid of the violent, crass movies that you own and not watching them anymore; Maybe it means avoiding certain people or places because you know they will draw you to sin; Maybe it means installing software on your computer so that your friends can see the websites you’ve been to; Whatever it takes for you. It isn’t always going to be easy, but what you’ll find is that once you get rid of the strongholds the enemy has in these areas, the battle becomes much easier. The longer you work at it, the less effort it takes to say no to the things that once ensnared you.
One last thing to mention on this topic – two of the greatest weapons that you must add to your arsenal as you fight to change are prayer and community. In the last months before our wedding, I vowed that self-gratification was something I wanted to make a thing of the past. It just happened that the day I made this vow was the first day of lent, so it became the thing that I gave up. Not a day went by that I wasn’t tempted in some way, but with every temptation, I fell onto God in prayer to give me strength, and to take the temptation away. I was also in communication with Holly and my accountability partner every step of the way; when I felt weak, when I succeeded, when I felt like I wanted to quit. I am positive that without prayer and community that I probably wouldn’t have lasted a week.
The second thing we can learn from little children is wonder. As they grow, children are continuously experiencing the world around them, quite often experiencing things for the first time. They look with fascination on their faces as they lie in their cribs and stare at the mobiles moving above them. I remember my nieces ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ when she watched a fireworks display. Kids at the zoo are busy taking in all the different animals, and they’re just enamored by them.
It’s something that we lose as we get older. These things become same-old same-old. We get busy with our lives, our jobs, our schooling. We tend to focus on the things that are right in front of us that we miss the things that are all around us. When was the last time that you looked at the building you work at and thought, “all this is possible because God created the world”? Chances are you’ve never thought that, especially of the building you work at.
Living in awe of the creation helps us to live in awe of the Creator. When we take a step back from life and look at what God has made, it’s hard not to be struck by the beauty of His creation. It’s easy when we see something like a beautiful sunset: I had the fortune of seeing an amazing sunset while camping at St. Malo this summer, the setting sun shimmering on the lake made the water appear to dance.
It’s fine to realize that stuff as beautiful. But we should also see more often the beauty in the pinnacle of God’s creation – Humankind. Now I know what you’re thinking – “wait a minute, Humankind and beauty? Isn’t that some kind of oxymoron? There’s all this bad stuff going on in the world.” True. But when you lift the veil from your eyes, you can see beautiful things going on underneath. A woman gives birth to a child. In the wake of a tsunami or a hurricane, groups of people go over and help to rebuild the house of a total stranger. A man dies in a car accident and donates his heart to a sick girl who lives because he died. A single mom making minimum wage stops on the street to hand a homeless person a hamburger. A sinner repents of their former life, and turns to Jesus Christ, and helps the rest of his family to do the same.
There’s beauty all around us, and we can see it if we stop sometimes to look at it. And when you see it, you can be reminded that all this was done because God cared enough to create it, and to create us. And that in itself is beautiful.
Innocence is lost. But it doesn’t have to remain that way. Unless we change and become like little children, innocence will stay lost, and the kingdom of heaven will be out of reach. Paul sums this up quite nicely:

I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. (Romans 16:17-19)

Pride and Persecution

2007-08-20T18:11:00.000-07:00

It's really funny how life works sometimes. How things that happen to you can really change your perspective and how you handle things. Take for example the past few months in my life here in 2007. I got myself into a spiritual funk, discouraged by attempts at evangelism that utterly failed. That got me thinking about serving, bringing me to Grand Rapids where I enjoyed the best week of the summer working with the Nebraska girls, and spending time getting to know some of the kids in need there. I came back from there feeling refreshed and energized spirtually.

Only to be thrust into two of the worst weeks I've faced in a long time.

It began on the August long weekend, while camping with Jen and her family, along with some of her friends and their kids. As circumstances played out, I ended up sharing a bit of my faith with the ten year-old son. This wasn't received well by, well, anyone. I of course, didn't feel as though I had done anything wrong. I mean, if sharing my faith with others is wrong, then there's a huge problem in modern evangelism period.

The first day back from the long weekend, I get into an argument with my supervisor. She can be very verbose when it comes to things she feels passionately about, which is fine, I am the same way. On this occasion, however, she was being very passionate about something that I have the opposite view on. She being my supervisor, I took the wise road, and said nothing, not sharing my point of view on the matter. It seems though that she was not to be undone, and pursued me, continuing to tell me what she thought. After telling me that "praying to the Lord wasn't going to help anything", I was finished, and turned my back on her, doing my work, and saying what I could to make her go away.

She comes to me later and tells me lots of things I already know, like people don't all share the same opinions on things, and people can be very passionate about what they feel. She doesn't really need to be telling me these things. Then she says that I come across as 'holier than thou' on occasions, and i'm wondering to myself, in this situation how have i been that way? because i turned away and didn't want to hear her hating others? Because sometimes I share my faith with my co-workers, and they don't always like some of the things i have to say? Regardless, She had made herself very clear, but didn't take the time to hear what my feelings were in the situation.

Meanwhile, the week goes on, and I haven't heard anything from Jen since the 'incident'. I try to phone her, but she isn't answering calls. she writes me on facebook saying she wasn't feeling well and didnt' want to talk with anyone. and then she tells me how she felt about what had happened on the long weekend; how it was wrong of me to talk to someone else's kid about God, when i know that the parents don't believe. I got very defensive at this point, and long story short, things got very out of hand, and to the point where it looked as though Jen and I wouldn't be friends anymore.

As if that weren't enough, while at work, one of my coworkers asked me what another person did there. I didn't know, so the next day, i said that this person had asked what they did. the next day, that person mentioned to my coworker that she had been asking about what he did there. she got extremely embarrassed, and got very angry with me for using her name in a question that she doesn't even remember asking. 'you shouldn't use other peoples names like that. That isn't very Christian of you,' she says to me.

It was the last straw. How many more people were planning on attacking my Christian character? I dont' remember the last time that i was so angry. I had to bottle it all inside though, so as not to make anything worse. I didn't speak with her for the rest of the afternoon, my face hot, my mind reeling, my stomach churning. I was stressed enough about the Jen thing that this was definately the very last thing that i needed.

I looked at these things and truly felt as though i was being persecuted for my faith. Thrice bombed in two weeks, three arguments all about faith when i don't ever really argue with people unless i initiate touchy conversations with them. What on earth was going on?

God is constantly testing us, trying to shape us into the men and women He wants us to be. I believe that this whole mess was for that same purpose. What was God trying to teach me about in all of this?

Well I couldn't figure that out at first either. But after reading Jen's email to Holly, it began to become clearer to me - I had a pride issue. From the beginning, i never felt as though sharing my faith with this kid was wrong. I am not ashamed of the gospel, and of Jesus. His life is part of who I am, and it's something that I want everyone to know.

The problem is that not everyone wants to know, or to hear what I have to tell them. And something that i wasn't seeing was that it was making other people very upset and angry. Is sharing your faith with other people wrong? In and of itself, no it isn't. But if the act of sharing your faith with someone makes other people that you care about angry, then it is wrong. God wants to keep the peace with our brothers and sisters, and sometimes to do so, we need to humble ourselves before them, taking ourselves off the pedestals we stand on. And so i acknowledged my error to Jen and her friends, apologizing for the thing that i did that offended them.

As for the coworker, it was almost the same story. i felt as though she should apologize to me for what she said to me. Knowing her, i felt as though that might not happen unless i apologized first. I had been completely prepared to just be angry with her as long as i needed to be, but i realized that that wouldn't be right either. so as soon as she came in the next day, i confronted her, and we talked about what had happened. We patched things all up and now they're good as new.

It just seemed so bizarre to me to go from a low to a high, and right back to a low again. I think that one of the major differences is that i have learned that i need to lean on God more when the brown stuff hits the whirly thing. when we rely on ourselves to get out of hairy situations, we just end up getting burned, because let's face it.. we don't know what the heck we are doing most of the time. Pride is a terrible thing that will get us into trouble if we don't hold it in check.