Some thoughts on the subject of duty and delight...
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
I remember talking to a new associate member (now a brother) of my fraternity, Theta Xi, probably about three years ago now. I remember him having some interesting views on how and when we ought to read our Bibles. For him, he said he did not want to read his Bible out of a sense of duty, but rather out of his love for God. It would be hypocritical of him to read the Bible when he didn't feel like it, like he wasn't being authentic or real or true to God and himself. To him - and I largely sympathize with this idea - God doesn't want our begrudging obedience and teeth-gritting submission - he wants our hearts and our affections! He wants us to want to read the Bible, not just to read the Bible!
So how do we navigate this mess? Do some people read the Bible with the wrong motives? Yes, almost certainly! I know that sometimes I have read the Bible simply to increase in knowledge. Sometimes I have placed myself over the Word, in a sense, trying to master it. But we ought to see ourselves as mastered by the Word, instead of vice versa. We aim to be humble and contrite, though we fail. I know I have come to the Word before without perfect humility - indeed I probably have never come with perfect humility. There is a tendency to walk like the pharisees who killed Jesus, for whom the law had been perverted from a great carrier of God's good purposes to a scorecard on the way to self-justification. Beware this tendency.
So what is the solution? Do I wait until my heart is right in order to do the right thing? Do I wait until I just feel like it in order to diligently study the Word? Do I wait for a peaceful heart so that I can read attentively without a heart in turmoil? Do I wait until I have cleaned up my act before I bring my heart and mind before the words of our spotless, clean, and altogether holy God? Dare I wait? (I have a suspicion that waiting in this way is a dishonest form of hiding.)
I trust that it is obvious to you that the answers to these questions cannot be yes. We will never attain the perfection that would have us just naturally run to the Word out of the goodness of our own hearts. (The entirety of the Bible attests that we are not good.) On the contrary, if we let our hearts run on cruise control, there are plenty of evil inclinations that would seek to keep us as far away from the cutting Sword of Truth as possible. And indeed, if such a perfection (or approach to it) were theoretically possible - that we would just naturally run to God's Word - what would be the means by which that habit of holiness is worked in us? How does our love for God and his Word grow? How would we come to be the sort of people for whom it is natural (or close to natural) to wake up in the morning and thirst after the Words of Life? I take it for granted that as a Christian you do actually want to become that sort of Christian, so it is a live and relevant question as to how that will happen in us, and I hope this post reawakens the urgency of that question for you.
It is my assertion that you should not wait until the right thing seems easy or appealing or natural or fitting with your plans before you actually do it because your inaction can be a sin when you know the right thing to do. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. (James 4:17) These words are blunt and comprehensive and cutting and clear. I sin when I don't do what I know I should.
I know I should regularly study the Word. When I don't, I am sinning against God. In what way? Am I hurting anyone? Yes! First, I am, maybe unwittingly, declaring God to be irrelevant and less important than the other things that I did instead. I have offended God, first and foremost. Second, I am cutting off the process of change and help that God has going on in me. Soaking myself in his Word is a primary means by which I am being changed into the person he is making me. He is making me into my true self, but a self that is far more like Christ than I am now. Third, I am hurting those to whom I would be able to give help if I gave myself more fully to the process of what God is doing in me. I am grieving God and hurting myself and other by neglecting his Word.
I certainly believe the Bible teaches us that our righteousness is as filthy rags and that God doesn't want us to just go through the motions. We can be sitting in Church - it is a good thing to go - and our hearts can be far from God. The Israelites made sacrifices, which God had instructed them to do, but they also neglected justice and were called out for it by the prophets. God wanted their obedience more than just their sacrifices, and in their sacrifices, true love of God and true repentance had been left behind. They were left with a shell of what the reality was supposed to be. Today, much of Christianity walks this way. God is a word that is used and abused, but the weightiness of his reality has not altogether come to settle on the Church. There is a semblance of love for God that is really a love for others things that have been baptized into Christian terminology. But oh, that we would forsake all the fakes and instead long - heart, soul, mind, and strength - for a true love of God that he must put into our hearts as a gift!
So we should read our Bibles. Period. Simple. That, I think, is the duty of the Christian if he is to live out 2 Timothy's exhortations. I do not intend to spell out a reading schedule and give rules for how it should look. Suffice it to say that I think you should do it, and not too infrequently. Do it so that you are actually growing in your knowledge of God. Do it in such a way that you will be competent with the Word, so that you will not be ashamed, so that you will be able to exhort and rebuke on its authority and not your own. Have an honest conversation with God about what that ought to look like.
So there's the duty.
But what about the delight? How do we guard against it becoming a hollow ritual? How do we connect our duty to the love? Let's listen to John for a minute.
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (John 14:15)
If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. (John 15:10,11)
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. (1 John 5:3)
This does not require a ton of elaboration, but our keeping Christ's commandments is wrapped up inextricably with loving Christ. From John 14:15, they do not seem to be identical. However, love for God is definitely the proper grounds for keeping his commandments. We do not love God when we do not obey. Right acts flow from a loving heart. Indeed, trying to keep the commandments of God from a heart that has never experienced the grace of Christ in the cross is futile, exhausting, and ultimately unfruitful.
I take it that the love of Christ will compel us to do what is right as we seek him. Therefore, the tendencies and thoughts of my heart that would take me away from doing what is right cannot be from a true love of God. Therefore, the thinking that says we should wait until conditions are perfect before we obey cannot be thinking that is grounded in a true love of God. Its natural effect is disobedience, if indeed I have correctly interpreted continued inaction as disobedience.
So we jettison this idea, but what do we replace it with? How do we guard against hypocrisy? I think grounding our love of Christ in the work of Christ and the commands of Christ is essential. First, my own working for Christ is not me trying to save myself. It is not me trying to perfect myself so that he will like me. This is definitely not the Gospel, and it is exhausting and unbiblical and offensive to God. Christ's completed work on the cross on my behalf while I was still a sinner must be seen as prior to and preeminent over anything I do as a Christian. I don't have to save myself. This is a freeing truth.
Second, a meditation on the longsuffering of Christ's love gives me patience in tribulation. As I think about the road Christ walked, the consistent tempations he withstood, and his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, two things happen. One, I fall more in love with this Savior. Two, the way I think about obedience is changed. Christ suffered and died and walked a long, hard road for the joy that was set before him. He did something that, in some sense, he didn't want to do - he asked the Father if there was another way - but he did it out of obedience to the Father because the long-term good and joy of it was exceedingly better than the short-term relief would have been. If Christ had been okay with the levels of inaction that we are often okay with, he might have never shouldered the cross, and we would have been rightfully damned. Let's praise his glorious grace!
Third, we must see Christ's words to us as loving. If God is love, he does not cease to be so when he speaks to us. God the Father is a good father. He knows how to give good gifts. He gives better gifts than we do. What God the Father purposes to give you is infinitely better than what you purpose to give yourself. You are just too blind to see things that way. I am most of the time. God is so good and loving, and he is good and loving in his words to us, including his commandments. They are meant for our good. They are meant for our joy. God wants us to be happy, but he knows that nothing will make us happier and more joyful than himself. God purposes to give us himself, but he will not do this apart from his holiness. We cannot divorce the goodness of God and his purposes of joy from his commandments. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. God's giving and our keeping of his commandments is love. Beg the Holy Spirit to awaken your heart to this life-changing reality.
Let me bring it all back to my original discussion. I think it is loving to God to set my heart toward a long term obedience in the daily opening of his Word, even on the days when I don't feel like it. On those difficult days, may our hearts mirror Jesus' cry - "not my will, but Yours". We may be doing it for the joy that is set before us, a joy that we know is real, even if we don't taste it immediately. We fight a difficult battle in an age of instant gratification and multiplied distractions. But we love God by fighting this battle.
And here is the good thing. It is only by perseverance in the Word that we will come to love the Word. It is only by perseverance in anything that we will come to be "natural" at it. Take piano playing. Nobody loves playing the piano the first day they try it because they don't know how to play yet. It is only by persistent hard work that the freedom comes of being able to sit down and let your fingers fly.
You are naive if you think you can glance the Bible over every once in awhile and listen to a few sermons and experience all God has for you in his Word. The Bible is both very clear and convicting but also a difficult book to read. There are all sorts of ideas and places and things that are foreign to us, but God put them in there for a reason. He put them in there so that we could devote ourselves to figuring it out. We will never figure it all out. Parts will always remain hard. But daily getting in there is worth it, and our delight in it will grow over time. The more you read the Bible, the more you enjoy it. The more you study God's Word, the more you enjoy it. The more you integrate yourself into the Church, the more you benefit. The more you invest, the more you get out. If you don't feel joy in it now, read diligently anyway, and ask God to work on your heart. Stick to that for three years, and tell me how you are doing then. I bet you that your heart will be singing of the goodness of God's Word then.
This argument is parallel to relationships and marriage. Many today think that romantic love is the basis of marriage, but it's not. Covenant is. That doesn't mean that feelings of love are not important. It simply means that because of my covenant, I am called to perform actions of love whether or not I have feelings of love. And I believe over time that if you really give yourself to acting in love towards another, your feelings of affection for that other person will grow. This perspective, if taken seriously would save many marriages where spouses have fallen out of love, think that they're married to the wrong person, and think the solution is divorce. No, the solution is faithfulness to you're covenant. The solution is acting in love no matter how you're feeling.
To those who are considering divorce because they're out of love, to those who simply don't feel the urge to read the Word, to those in numerous other circumstances where you're heart is not in a thing, am I saying that you should just suck it up and obey? Yes, but I am also calling you to a perspective that would change your mind from thinking about it in that way. Doing the right thing is always preferable to the alternative, no matter how you're feeling, because God is doing something in you, and what he is doing is exceedingly good.
Whew. This has been a long blog entry. I pray that it will bear fruit in your obedience to Christ. I pray that God would get all the glory from that fruit.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
God, Math, and the Multiverse
I haven't finished watching this, but this is very interesting. Especially to me.
More on Brokenness
See the previous post.
Today we had trial. I will not go into the details of the actual case. However, I will draw a brief observation about the result of the case.
The case was a criminal case. The burden of proof was beyond a reasonable doubt. That is the highest burden in our court systems (as far as I know). In our deliberations we might have found the young man guilty if we were looking for a preponderance of the evidence... was it more likely than not that he did it? But instead, we were looking for beyond a reasonable doubt. We decided that the state did not fulfill its burden of proof, that there was reasonable doubt, and therefore we found the defendant not guilty.
Whether or not the young man really did it, he has gone through the ordeal of a trial and was staring down significant time in prison dependent upon our verdict. If he was really innocent, that definitely doesn't mean he wasn't sweating it out there. And if he really did do it, his conscience would have brought guilt upon him, and he would be staring down consequences that he did indeed deserve. No matter what, he was feeling tension, apprehension, perhaps fear over what was to come.
Then the verdict: not guilty.
The young man did not have an emotional breakdown or anything, but you could physically see relief course through his body. He shook his attorney's hand, looking him in the eye, and then he nodded over in our direction (the jury box). He didn't catch everyone's eye the first time, so he kept looking back and forth between the judge and the jury, giving nods of unmistakeable thankfulness. His hand went to his mouth, and you couldn't tell from across the room, but he may have even shed a tear. His was a true heart of thanksgiving.
I say this simply as a reminder that our daily walk should be one of thanksgiving. We have all been guilty of sin, treason, rebellion, and thousands of sins that have never even come to the light of day. We all have things to be ashamed of. We all deserve punishment, and we all were headed to hell. But on the basis of a righteousness that is not our own, on the basis of a substitutionary atonement that we could not have performed, we have been declared not guilty! Objectively so. Only necessary once. There is no mistrial when God speaks! And the rest of our lives into eternity should be lived in thankful awareness and dependence on that gracious verdict. God forgives!
This morning was a simple reminder of the beauty of grace. It is truly a wonder worthy of worship that in the face of our Savior Jesus we see both perfect justice and perfect grace, and these are both displayed most prominently in the greatest possible declaration of his perfect love: his cross that he painfully, joyfully shouldered for us and for his glory. Indeed, whose sins were nailed to the cross? Ours. Whose hands and feet were nailed to the cross? His.
Today we had trial. I will not go into the details of the actual case. However, I will draw a brief observation about the result of the case.
The case was a criminal case. The burden of proof was beyond a reasonable doubt. That is the highest burden in our court systems (as far as I know). In our deliberations we might have found the young man guilty if we were looking for a preponderance of the evidence... was it more likely than not that he did it? But instead, we were looking for beyond a reasonable doubt. We decided that the state did not fulfill its burden of proof, that there was reasonable doubt, and therefore we found the defendant not guilty.
Whether or not the young man really did it, he has gone through the ordeal of a trial and was staring down significant time in prison dependent upon our verdict. If he was really innocent, that definitely doesn't mean he wasn't sweating it out there. And if he really did do it, his conscience would have brought guilt upon him, and he would be staring down consequences that he did indeed deserve. No matter what, he was feeling tension, apprehension, perhaps fear over what was to come.
Then the verdict: not guilty.
The young man did not have an emotional breakdown or anything, but you could physically see relief course through his body. He shook his attorney's hand, looking him in the eye, and then he nodded over in our direction (the jury box). He didn't catch everyone's eye the first time, so he kept looking back and forth between the judge and the jury, giving nods of unmistakeable thankfulness. His hand went to his mouth, and you couldn't tell from across the room, but he may have even shed a tear. His was a true heart of thanksgiving.
I say this simply as a reminder that our daily walk should be one of thanksgiving. We have all been guilty of sin, treason, rebellion, and thousands of sins that have never even come to the light of day. We all have things to be ashamed of. We all deserve punishment, and we all were headed to hell. But on the basis of a righteousness that is not our own, on the basis of a substitutionary atonement that we could not have performed, we have been declared not guilty! Objectively so. Only necessary once. There is no mistrial when God speaks! And the rest of our lives into eternity should be lived in thankful awareness and dependence on that gracious verdict. God forgives!
This morning was a simple reminder of the beauty of grace. It is truly a wonder worthy of worship that in the face of our Savior Jesus we see both perfect justice and perfect grace, and these are both displayed most prominently in the greatest possible declaration of his perfect love: his cross that he painfully, joyfully shouldered for us and for his glory. Indeed, whose sins were nailed to the cross? Ours. Whose hands and feet were nailed to the cross? His.
Monday, March 5, 2012
A Quick Thought on Brokenness
Today I was selected for jury duty. I am not supposed to discuss the case with anyone, so I am not going to give any sort of particulars. But I do want to remark briefly on what I was thinking sitting with the other potential jurors.
The day started with about a hundred potential jurors gathered into a large room. We all had to watch what looked like an early nineties version of what goes on in a trial, what the purpose is of the jury, and how things are supposed to go. It was actually very inspiring, and it connected the importance of jurors to the judicial process and how this is grounded in the "We the people" of the Constitution. While there are some unavoidable cases of injustice, I am grateful for the framework and process of justice that we have in our country.
We got separated into groups of twelve, and we went in to do "voir dire" in which the two sides of the case examine the potential jurors to decide if they want them excluded because of some sort of bias. They ask questions like: Are you related to the defendant? Do you feel you can listen to the case impartially? Has anyone in your family had run-ins with the law? Do you tend to think someone is guilty just because they have been arrested? Are you related to an officer? What is your profession? There are some others.
What got me are the answers to two specific questions. The first was asked of each individual. Where do you work? And where does your wife work? Out of our group of twelve, I think three people said they were formerly of some company and had been laid off. My heart went out to them upon hearing this. I suppose I am insulated from the unemployment situation because I do not run into too many people naturally for whom this is the case. And while statistically, I know in a sample of twelve it is possible to be a little off, it was still a shock to hear this multiple times from men sitting next to me.
The next question, asked to everyone at once, was, Have you or a close friend or family member ever been charged with a non-minor offense? Literally, three quarters of the people had to raise their hands and explain that they had done something or maybe a family member had gotten a DUI. This was a bit staggering to me. Again, I felt the grace of God upon my family that over the years we have escaped joblessness and legal trouble. My father and grandfathers have walked steadily in paths of righteousness from which our family has benefited greatly. And of course, I can't leave out my Mom and loving grandmothers either!
The process of getting jurors names is randomized. No one should know when a juror is going to be called until it happens. And generally, jurors come from pools of people like registered voters. This means that the group of people I was sitting with was, for the most part, a representative sample of my county. And how broken this county is! I feel like I am in a bubble world most of the time, and I work on becoming better, theologically smarter, holier, so that one day I will feel competent to minister to broken people in some other place in the world. Yet where I am right now there is such a need for the Kingdom of God. There is a need for reconciliation. There is a need for forgiveness. There is a need for healing from addiction. There is a need for the name of God to be hallowed.
If my group of friends and acquaintances does not somewhat resemble this representative sample, maybe I am insulating myself, living in a bubble, going to work and church. Maybe my circles don't include the brokenness. But probably the people I am around are also broken in different ways, maybe more subtle, and they don't know it or are good at hiding it. Who knows? All I know is I received a bit of conviction and humility this morning at the courthouse, and I wanted to pass it along.
The day started with about a hundred potential jurors gathered into a large room. We all had to watch what looked like an early nineties version of what goes on in a trial, what the purpose is of the jury, and how things are supposed to go. It was actually very inspiring, and it connected the importance of jurors to the judicial process and how this is grounded in the "We the people" of the Constitution. While there are some unavoidable cases of injustice, I am grateful for the framework and process of justice that we have in our country.
We got separated into groups of twelve, and we went in to do "voir dire" in which the two sides of the case examine the potential jurors to decide if they want them excluded because of some sort of bias. They ask questions like: Are you related to the defendant? Do you feel you can listen to the case impartially? Has anyone in your family had run-ins with the law? Do you tend to think someone is guilty just because they have been arrested? Are you related to an officer? What is your profession? There are some others.
What got me are the answers to two specific questions. The first was asked of each individual. Where do you work? And where does your wife work? Out of our group of twelve, I think three people said they were formerly of some company and had been laid off. My heart went out to them upon hearing this. I suppose I am insulated from the unemployment situation because I do not run into too many people naturally for whom this is the case. And while statistically, I know in a sample of twelve it is possible to be a little off, it was still a shock to hear this multiple times from men sitting next to me.
The next question, asked to everyone at once, was, Have you or a close friend or family member ever been charged with a non-minor offense? Literally, three quarters of the people had to raise their hands and explain that they had done something or maybe a family member had gotten a DUI. This was a bit staggering to me. Again, I felt the grace of God upon my family that over the years we have escaped joblessness and legal trouble. My father and grandfathers have walked steadily in paths of righteousness from which our family has benefited greatly. And of course, I can't leave out my Mom and loving grandmothers either!
The process of getting jurors names is randomized. No one should know when a juror is going to be called until it happens. And generally, jurors come from pools of people like registered voters. This means that the group of people I was sitting with was, for the most part, a representative sample of my county. And how broken this county is! I feel like I am in a bubble world most of the time, and I work on becoming better, theologically smarter, holier, so that one day I will feel competent to minister to broken people in some other place in the world. Yet where I am right now there is such a need for the Kingdom of God. There is a need for reconciliation. There is a need for forgiveness. There is a need for healing from addiction. There is a need for the name of God to be hallowed.
If my group of friends and acquaintances does not somewhat resemble this representative sample, maybe I am insulating myself, living in a bubble, going to work and church. Maybe my circles don't include the brokenness. But probably the people I am around are also broken in different ways, maybe more subtle, and they don't know it or are good at hiding it. Who knows? All I know is I received a bit of conviction and humility this morning at the courthouse, and I wanted to pass it along.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Some Favorite Facebook Statuses
These are a sampling of different facebook statuses I have had over the last year or so. Especially when I am too busy to blog much, I try to express shorter thoughts. Here are a lot of them compiled...
It is the Gospel that gives freedom. The Gospel is rooted in true facts about what God has accomplished in history for us. Love and acts of love should permeate every facet of our lives, but if we simply do good without giving testimony of the only One who really is good, we simply load people down with moralism looking to us as an example. It is hard to speak truth with humility, but indeed it is a road we must walk if we are to be anything other than vague, nice people.
Love for others that only remains an emotion, that does not make it to concrete action, is a constipated and useless love, theoretical and dead. Similarly, love that is only action but no affection is merely mechanical, robotic, and dishonoring to the one for whom the action is being made. Both! We need both.
Imagine standing on the golden shores of eternity, the water from a distant sea splashing on your resurrected toes, the sky painted a thousand brilliant colors you have not yet seen, like our sunsets here except new, and feeling a song - old and yet new and beautiful - rising and enveloping you, like the very heartbeat of the place, a song of freedom about a Lamb. And you know - this place is not about me, but banish the thought that I'd ever want to be anywhere else. All the pain from before is real, not forgotten, but so tiny in the immensity of this moment, as you are embraced by the hands of love that bear the unmistakable scars. You are wrapped in an embrace planned from eternity past, before time and space and stars and people. Loved before time. Glory. Rest. Home in Jesus.
Rules may modify behavior and minimize certain kinds of destruction. But they do not have the power to change the heart. Rules may be helpful en route to a heart change, but they are but a means to an end, the structure merely surrounding what is really supposed to be going on.
Who are you trying harder to find? Yourself or God? Your true self lies on the other side of an encounter with the God who made you, knows all your sins, and will fully forgive you at the cost of his Son's life.
You give glory to the things you lean on most.
God is not in love with some future version of you. He's not sitting around waiting on you to get your act together. The cross is the loudest declaration possible that God already knows we're screw-ups. He knows! And he still loves us!
When our obedience to God is not joyful, it is because we think we would be happier pursuing some other course. We think we know ourselves better than God, and we think we could plot out a better plan. That is pride. May we repent and seek a simple obedience, letting our each breath be one of Thanksgiving to our God.
We ought to give total control of our lives over to God, but how can we give him that when we refuse to aggressively fight the other things that control us?
Each culture has developed deeply entrenched sinful blindspots, and when we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, we will awaken to a countercultural impulse at exactly those points within our culture. And for the glory of Christ, we become holy rebels.
Is there much of a difference between disbelieving something and believing it but acting as if it wasn't true?
What would the world look like if we pursued loving others with the same passion and time and energy that we pursue entertainment?
Other religions attempt an ascent to God by contemplation or action or enlightenment; Christianity instead stresses the need for a mediator. If we ever happened upon God through some means of ascent and found him as he is in his very essence, we would be destroyed by his glory, unable to stand the consuming fire that is his presence. Christianity accepts Christ by faith as our necessary mediator, whose shed blood shields us from God's righteous wrath, as we come to know him as he means to be known.
Christ was sacrificial, kind, patient, selfless, forgiving, and joyful in his loving death for us. And knowing that love changes us into something new, serves as example, and motivates our love for others. Is Christ's love at the bottom of your other loves? Does your love look anything like his?
Suffering exists so that in grace Jesus could be glorified through suffering for us.
In Christ we see the perfect marriage of mind and heart. Ultimately thinking exists for the sake of feeling. We use our minds to drink deeply from truths in order to fire our hearts' love and affection for Christ.
Joyless submission to Christ is impossible when at the heart of his commands is a call to find joy in him.
For the sake of Jesus and his Gospel, may we be an exceedingly merry band of half blind amputees with beautiful feet giving away Good News and cups of cold water. (Matthew 5:29-30, Romans 10:15, Philippians 1:27)
The record of your life - not your good intentions - is the measure of your real priorities.
This life is an exercise in giving back to God things that he was just letting me borrow in the first place: my time, my money, my talents, my energy, my relationships, my past, my present, my future, my life.
Jesus was homeless. He was born in a barn. He had no place to lay his head. No mansion. No wife or family. No money in the bank. He was tempted but resisted. He had friends, but among them he was betrayed, denied, and disbelieved. He was mocked, spit on, beaten, bloodied, and brutally crucified. He bore the wrath of God against mankind's sin. Yet, the joy of Jesus exceeds all men at all times put together.
Oh, to live life with a patient urgency and a broken-hearted boldness and an enemy-love!
The truth sets us free. The Bible is the clearest, fullest, deepest source of truth - the standard by which all other truth is judged. Therefore, to the degree we ignore Scripture, we make ourselves slaves to the lies and half-truths (which are really lies) that society, our families, and our own dark hearts tell us. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
It is mighty presumptuous to rule God out of hand a priori, and if its possible he exists, what could be more important than finding out who he is, what he is like, and what he requires of us? And what thing in your heart keeps you from this search and submission? For the sake of your soul, would you kill that thing to find God?
God is bigger than the elephant in the room. Actually, he made the room... and the elephant.
A relationship with Jesus and good theology go together. You are inevitably a theologian... the question is whether you are a good one. You have thoughts about God... the question is whether you have true thoughts. God is not honored by our indifference toward the truth he has revealed about himself, and insofar as I build my life on lies and comfortable half-"truths", I have wasted it.
It is the Gospel that gives freedom. The Gospel is rooted in true facts about what God has accomplished in history for us. Love and acts of love should permeate every facet of our lives, but if we simply do good without giving testimony of the only One who really is good, we simply load people down with moralism looking to us as an example. It is hard to speak truth with humility, but indeed it is a road we must walk if we are to be anything other than vague, nice people.
Love for others that only remains an emotion, that does not make it to concrete action, is a constipated and useless love, theoretical and dead. Similarly, love that is only action but no affection is merely mechanical, robotic, and dishonoring to the one for whom the action is being made. Both! We need both.
Imagine standing on the golden shores of eternity, the water from a distant sea splashing on your resurrected toes, the sky painted a thousand brilliant colors you have not yet seen, like our sunsets here except new, and feeling a song - old and yet new and beautiful - rising and enveloping you, like the very heartbeat of the place, a song of freedom about a Lamb. And you know - this place is not about me, but banish the thought that I'd ever want to be anywhere else. All the pain from before is real, not forgotten, but so tiny in the immensity of this moment, as you are embraced by the hands of love that bear the unmistakable scars. You are wrapped in an embrace planned from eternity past, before time and space and stars and people. Loved before time. Glory. Rest. Home in Jesus.
Rules may modify behavior and minimize certain kinds of destruction. But they do not have the power to change the heart. Rules may be helpful en route to a heart change, but they are but a means to an end, the structure merely surrounding what is really supposed to be going on.
Who are you trying harder to find? Yourself or God? Your true self lies on the other side of an encounter with the God who made you, knows all your sins, and will fully forgive you at the cost of his Son's life.
You give glory to the things you lean on most.
God is not in love with some future version of you. He's not sitting around waiting on you to get your act together. The cross is the loudest declaration possible that God already knows we're screw-ups. He knows! And he still loves us!
When our obedience to God is not joyful, it is because we think we would be happier pursuing some other course. We think we know ourselves better than God, and we think we could plot out a better plan. That is pride. May we repent and seek a simple obedience, letting our each breath be one of Thanksgiving to our God.
We ought to give total control of our lives over to God, but how can we give him that when we refuse to aggressively fight the other things that control us?
Each culture has developed deeply entrenched sinful blindspots, and when we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, we will awaken to a countercultural impulse at exactly those points within our culture. And for the glory of Christ, we become holy rebels.
Is there much of a difference between disbelieving something and believing it but acting as if it wasn't true?
What would the world look like if we pursued loving others with the same passion and time and energy that we pursue entertainment?
Other religions attempt an ascent to God by contemplation or action or enlightenment; Christianity instead stresses the need for a mediator. If we ever happened upon God through some means of ascent and found him as he is in his very essence, we would be destroyed by his glory, unable to stand the consuming fire that is his presence. Christianity accepts Christ by faith as our necessary mediator, whose shed blood shields us from God's righteous wrath, as we come to know him as he means to be known.
Christ was sacrificial, kind, patient, selfless, forgiving, and joyful in his loving death for us. And knowing that love changes us into something new, serves as example, and motivates our love for others. Is Christ's love at the bottom of your other loves? Does your love look anything like his?
Suffering exists so that in grace Jesus could be glorified through suffering for us.
In Christ we see the perfect marriage of mind and heart. Ultimately thinking exists for the sake of feeling. We use our minds to drink deeply from truths in order to fire our hearts' love and affection for Christ.
Joyless submission to Christ is impossible when at the heart of his commands is a call to find joy in him.
For the sake of Jesus and his Gospel, may we be an exceedingly merry band of half blind amputees with beautiful feet giving away Good News and cups of cold water. (Matthew 5:29-30, Romans 10:15, Philippians 1:27)
The record of your life - not your good intentions - is the measure of your real priorities.
This life is an exercise in giving back to God things that he was just letting me borrow in the first place: my time, my money, my talents, my energy, my relationships, my past, my present, my future, my life.
Jesus was homeless. He was born in a barn. He had no place to lay his head. No mansion. No wife or family. No money in the bank. He was tempted but resisted. He had friends, but among them he was betrayed, denied, and disbelieved. He was mocked, spit on, beaten, bloodied, and brutally crucified. He bore the wrath of God against mankind's sin. Yet, the joy of Jesus exceeds all men at all times put together.
Oh, to live life with a patient urgency and a broken-hearted boldness and an enemy-love!
The truth sets us free. The Bible is the clearest, fullest, deepest source of truth - the standard by which all other truth is judged. Therefore, to the degree we ignore Scripture, we make ourselves slaves to the lies and half-truths (which are really lies) that society, our families, and our own dark hearts tell us. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
It is mighty presumptuous to rule God out of hand a priori, and if its possible he exists, what could be more important than finding out who he is, what he is like, and what he requires of us? And what thing in your heart keeps you from this search and submission? For the sake of your soul, would you kill that thing to find God?
God is bigger than the elephant in the room. Actually, he made the room... and the elephant.
A relationship with Jesus and good theology go together. You are inevitably a theologian... the question is whether you are a good one. You have thoughts about God... the question is whether you have true thoughts. God is not honored by our indifference toward the truth he has revealed about himself, and insofar as I build my life on lies and comfortable half-"truths", I have wasted it.
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