Linkage: How Should the Church Relate to Those with Same-Sex Attraction?

Homosexuality is becoming a bigger and bigger challenge for the Church.  Part of the reason is because of the increased tolerance of homosexuality at large and how gay rights has become such a hot button political issue.  One of the realities that Christians need to remember is that Jesus came to save everyone and when we erect walls that prevent people from coming to Jesus we are being unfaithful to the call that God has given to us.

I appreciate these thoughts from Mark Moore on this subject.

Individuals with same-sex attraction make up as much as 6 percent of the male population and 4.5 percent of females (though some studies estimate half that). Those are not insignificant numbers, especially when same-sex attraction involves you or someone you love. 

The church traditionally has not been particularly welcoming of such individuals, and a number of Scriptures have been cited to validate responses that are sometimes violent—verbally, emotionally, occasionally even physically. 

Because I am a follower of Jesus Christ, it is unconscionable for me to reject in the body of Christ some of the most spiritually sensitive and emotionally/socially vulnerable individuals in our society. Consider that during Jesus’ earthly ministry, he never got angry with sinners. Rather, Jesus’ most vituperative responses were reserved for his own disciples when they rejected children (Mark 10:14), the Pharisees when they rejected healing on the Sabbath (Mark 3:5), and the Sadducees when they debarred the poor and foreigners from the temple through their economic structures (Mark 11:15-18).

Continue reading How Should the Church Relate to Those with Same-Sex Attraction?

Daily Thought: Bringing Clarity to Life

A great many arguments about God—God's existence, God's nature, God's actions in the world—run the risk of being like pointing a flashlight toward the sky to see if the sun is shining.  It is all too easy to make the mistake of speaking and thinking as though God (if there is a God) might be a being, an entity, within our world, accessible to our interested study in the same sort of way we might study music or mathematics, open to our investigation by the same sort of techniques we use for objects and entities within our world...The difficulty is that speaking of God in anything like the Christian sense is like staring into the sun.  It's dazzling. It's easier, actually, to look away from the sun itself and enjoy the fact that, once it's well and truly risen, you can see everything else clearly.

N. T. Wright, Simply Christian, HarperOne (2006), p. 56

Video: Jesus and Wisdom

Daily Thought: Freewill is Necessary for Love

God created things which had free will.  That means creatures which can go either wrong or right.  Some people think they can imagine a creature which was free but had no possibility of going wrong; I cannot.  If a thing is free to be good it is also free to be bad.  And free will is what made evil possible.  Why, then, did God give them free will?  Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having.  A world of automata—of creatures that worked like machines—would hardly be worth creating.  The happiness which God designs for  His higher creatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarily united to Him and to each other in an ecstasy of love and delight compared with which the most rapturous love between a man and a woman on this earth is mere milk and water.  And for that they must be free.

C. S. Lewis, A Year With C. S. Lewis, HarperSanFrancisco (2003), p. 57

Set a Good Example

 {2 Timothy 3:10; ESV}

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness...

One of the fundamental truths of my life is; "how we live our lives reflect what we truly believe." That is why faith is more than what we confess with our lips, but it also involves what we do with our hands.

Abraham, the great example of faith, was credited with righteousness because his belief in God was made real by the way he trusted God with his life. We can say we believe in God, but if that belief isn’t manifested into action then we really don’t have faith. The simple definition of faith I like to share with people is "life influenced by belief."

Faith is about applying what we believe to the way we live. That is why James writes: "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead" (James 2:26; ESV). Belief is the seed and roots of faith, but our works (the way we live) is the actual plant of faith.

A life which is faithfully following Jesus provides an example for others to follow. The apostle Paul’s life, the way he loved and obeyed God, gave Timothy an example which he could follow. I imagine that Paul was very aware of the reality that he was an example of what it meant to be a follower of Christ Jesus, and he did his best to provide a good example for people to follow.

In the Gospels we discover a group of people who were not interested in providing a good example for people, rather they were interested in making a good impression. The Pharisees were the religious teachers of Jesus’ day. They interpreted Scripture for the people and taught them how it applied to their lives. Yet they missed a key component in their teaching-they didn’t live it out in their lives. People were impressed by their religious piety, but the people were also discouraged because they knew they couldn’t achieve that level of “spiritual” maturity. It was at this point that Jesus confronts the Pharisees.

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:

"The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger" (Matthew 23:1-4; ESV) 

The underlying theology that the Pharisees taught was not the issue. What was the issue was the fact that the Pharisees kept burdening the people with laws upon laws instead of providing the people with examples of what faithful living actually looked like. Jesus told the crowd that the Pharisees had bad faith, not that they had bad theology. So Jesus urged the crowd to listen to the Pharisees teaching, but discouraged them from following their example.

We need to keep in mind that there are two parts to effective teaching-relating ideas and letting those ideas be seen in your life. When our lives do not reflect the Truth of the Gospel people will wonder whether or not it is really the truth. The best evidence for the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are the faithful lives lived by His followers. When we live faithful lives we make the teachings of Jesus real and accessible to the people around us. Without our example Jesus’ teachings remain simply a philosophy rather than a way of life.

Having the truth doesn’t do us or anybody else any good if we don’t apply that truth to our lives. The life of faith is the life that is lived based on the truth that we know. Faith happens when we live our lives in the light of what we believe. A life that is lived by faith becomes a life that is an example for others to follow.

Point to Ponder: A life which is faithfully following Jesus provides an example for others to follow.
Questions to Consider: Is my life a true reflection of what I believe? If a person observed the way I live, could they see Jesus’ teachings illustrated in my actions? Who am I an example to?
Prayer to Pray: Father, the Author of life, I ask that You will fill me with the knowledge of Your will and spiritual wisdom and understand so that I am able to live a life that is a shining example of what it means to follow Christ Jesus...

Daily Thought: Defined by Our Hearts

People are defined by what happens in their hearts!  The condition of their hearts determines what they think, feel and do.  It shapes their relationships, commitments and purposes in life.  The heart makes the man and the woman what they are: good or bad, evil or righteous, godly or ungodly.

Gary Carpenter, What the Bible Says about the Heart, College Press (1990), p. 141

Linkage: Discipline-The Means to an End

Spiritual disciplines are essential for us to mature as followers of Jesus.  Speaking from my personal experience I was frustrated and my spiritual growth was stunted when I did not value spiritual disciplines in my life.  

Another reason I know that spiritual disciplines are essential for our spiritual development is become of the importance self-discipline is for life.  We cannot learn to do anything well without disciplining our selfs to set aside the time to do it, to learn the techniques, and to practice.  Discipline is the means to personal growth.  That is the point of this manvotional posted at The Art of Manliness.

From Self-Knowledge and Self-Discipline, 1916
By Basil William Maturin 

We do not endure [self-discipline] merely for its own sake, but for what lies beyond it. And we bear those acts of self-denial and self-restraint because we feel and know full well that through such acts alone can we regain the mastery over all our misused powers and learn to use them with a vigour and a joy such as we have never known before… 

It is as though one who had a great talent for music but had no technical training, and consequently could never produce the best results of his art, were to put himself under a great master. The first lessons he will have to learn will be, for the most part, to correct his mistakes, not to do this and not to do that; it will seem to him that he has lost all his former freedom of expression, that he is held back by all sorts of technical rules, that whenever he seeks to let himself go he is checked and hampered. And it is no doubt true. But he will soon begin to realise that as he learns more and suffers in the learning, possibilities of utterance reveal themselves which he has never dreamed of.

Continue reading Discipline-The Means to an End.

Daily Thought: Virtue Makes Us Stronger

And bear this in mind: Every temptation you overcome makes you stronger to overcome others, while every temptation that defeats you makes you weaker. You can become weaker and weaker, or you can become stronger and stronger. Sin takes the pith out of your sinews, but virtue makes you stronger.

Moody, Dwight Lyman (2011-03-24). The Overcoming Life and Other Sermons (Kindle Locations 324-326). Kindle Edition.

Sacrificing to Molech

Part of my Bible reading this morning included Leviticus 18.  This chapter basically deals with sinful sexual practices.  One particular thing caught my attention and that was verse 21; You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the LORD (ESV).

What made this verse stand out is because it is slipped in this section on sexual purity.  Verse 20 declares that sleeping with your neighbor's wife is a sin and verse 22 reveals homosexuality is a sin.  So I am wondering why place this restriction here rather than someplace else that talks about idolatry?  Without studying it I would offer up two guesses.  First, like most pagan worship the worship of Molech not only included child sacrifice but also deviant sexual practices.  Second, children are the result of sexual union.

We may not sacrifice to pagan gods anymore, but there is little doubt that the world celebrates sexual deviancy.  While God wants us to hold sex sacred in the context of marriage, the world says that it is good to explore your sexual urges.  Now it is true that in our culture there are still some bounds that that people are reluctant to cross, but with each passing year it seems those boundaries grow weaker and weaker.  The bottom line is that people want to enjoy themselves, but they don't want to suffer the consequences of their actions.  They want to have a pill to cure what every disease they might get from their "free loving" lifestyle.  Since many are not prepared for children they want the option to terminate any life that might have been conceived from having casual sex.  The result is that we still sacrifice our children.  It may not be on the alter of Molech, but it is on the alter of self-centeredness.

There is little doubt that the issue of abortion stems from the reality that people want to have sex without the consequences.  Men and women are willing to kill their children in the name of pleasure, education, career, and freedom.  What they don't understand is that in the process they are destroying their very souls, because they are revealing what they truly worship is not the Creator of the Universe, but themselves.  In the end a sexually loose lifestyle always leads people away from God and causes them to devalue life, including the life of their own children.

Daily Thought: Responding to God's Voice

What does it really mean to live by faith?  The response of faith is nothing more than obedience.  Faith begins with God speaking and materializes when we respond.  Somehow we've come to believe that faith removes ambiguity rather than calls us to live in it.  As mentioned earlier, we have primarily related to "faith" as a noun rather than a verb.  The church tends to live by "the faith" more than it lives by faith.  The goal has to make sure beliefs are doctrinally sound and people have a growing knowledge of the Bible, rather than to live in a dynamic, fluid relationship with God through which we learn to hear the voice of God and move in response to him.

Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force, Group Publishing (2001), p. 150

Linkage: How to Memorize Scripture

One of the disciplines that many of us who follow Jesus today lack is the discipline of Scripture memorization.  We see it as a good thing for children to do, so we have memorization contests at church camp and VBS, but many of us don't see the need to spend the time memorization Scripture.  Part of this is due to the fact that we have the Bible available to us.  Many of us have multiple versions of the Bible laying all around the house, we can access the Bible online from our computer, and we have a couple of versions of the Bible on our phones.  If we want to we can literally pull up a Bible verse from where ever we may be.  While technology has been wonderful in the way, and has given more people greater access to the Bible than ever before, it has also made us lazy in actually knowing Scripture, meditating on it, and hiding it in our hearts.

You and I can memorize Scripture, and it is something that we should discipline ourselves to do on a regular basis.  Professor Mark Moore from Ozark Christian College has a short essay which provides a few tips on how to memorize Scripture effectively.  I hope this proves helpful to you.

If you know your name, address and telephone number, then you can no longer say, "I just can't memorize." We memorize words to songs, important dates, and the names of new friends. We certainly can memorize Scripture. The real question is how long it will take. You can't expect to memorize a passage five minutes before class. For most people it will take about three consecutive days to put it into long-term memory. Plan on a schedule something like this: 

1. 10 minutes per verse to memorize it the first time.
2. 5 minute review right before bed, for three evenings (this allows your subconscience to work on it while you sleep).
3. 5 minute review the first thing in the morning, for three days.

Continue reading How to Memorize Scripture.

Daily Thought: A Christian is...

A Christian is, indeed, one whose views are enlightened, whose heart is renewed, whose relations to God and the moral universe are changed, and whose manner of life is according to righteousness and true holiness.

Alexander Campbell, The Christian System, Gospel Advocate Company (2001), p. 46

Daily Thought: God Comes First

While we ordinarily first bring our own needs to God in prayer, and then think of what belongs to God and His interests, the Master reverses the order. First, Thy name, Thy kingdom, Thy will; then, give us, forgive us, lead us, deliver us. The lesson is of more importance than we think. In true worship the Father must be first, must be all. The sooner I learn to forget myself in the desire that HE may be glorified, the richer will the blessing be that prayer will bring to myself. No one ever loses by what he sacrifices for the Father.

Murray, Andrew; New Century Books; 99 Cent Books (2010-04-28). With Christ in the School of Prayer - New Century Edition with DirectLink Technology (Kindle Locations 317-321). 99 Cent Books & New Century Books. Kindle Edition.

Prayer: Nothing to Offer

Matthew 5:3

Father in Heaven,

What can I offer that is worthy of Your love for me? You know that I struggle with sin as I live in this fallen and sin-filled world. There is nothing I can bring to You that is not tainted by sin.  I realize that I am totally dependent on Your grace and love for true and abundant life.  That is why I humbly offer my life and my love to You.  For You alone can rescue me from the kingdom and darkness and make me a part of Your glorious kingdom.  That is where I want to be!

Daily Thought: You have a Good Heart

The Resurrection affirms the promise Christ made.  For it was life he offered to give us: "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10).  We are saved by his life when we find that we are able to live the way we've always known we should live.  We are free to be what he meant when he meant us.  You have a new life—the life of Christ.  And you have a new heart.  Do you know what this means?  Your heart is good.

John Eldredge, Waking the Dead, Thomas Nelson Publishers (2003), p. 67

Linkage: The Importance of Mentors

One of the sites that I enjoy reading is The Art of Manliness.  It is refreshing to be reminded what masculinity is about.  As a Christian I believe that God created humans in His image.  Men, in our masculinity, reflect an image of God as do women in their femininity.  I think it is good to celebrate these differences and to remember that we can learn something about God from both.

While this post, The Importance of Mentors, is directed towards men, there is no doubt that it holds truth for women as well.  We all need older and wiser people in our lives who will take us under their wings and encourage us.  You and I need the benefit of other people's wisdom as we live our lives.  On the flip side of that, as we get older, we should be seeking younger people out that we can mentor.

When I was 15, I met a man who would have a profound impact on my life. His name was Andrew Lester. I first encountered Mr. Lester at church. He was the fun old guy that everyone liked being around. Despite being in his 8os, he had this boyish, mischievous look to him. He also made wearing a Breath-right nasal strip look cool. He wore them all the time. Mr. Lester was an artist by trade. His mother was a Cheyenne Indian, so his art focused on Native American motifs. A tribe called him the White Buffalo, and he made a really beautiful painting representing the name bestowed on him. I have print of it hanging up in my office. 

While Mr. Lester dabbled in painting, his real skill was in sculpting clay. He sculpted mammoth busts of great people from history like Martin Luther King Jr., Jim Thorpe, and Western movie star Tom Mixx. When he wasn’t working in his studio, he volunteered in various community organizations aimed at helping underprivileged Native and African Americans. Mr. Lester was very active in the African-American community in Oklahoma and founded the Oklahoma African-American Museum Hall of Fame. 

When I first saw Mr. Lester at church, I never thought he would become a mentor and good friend to me. But by chance, I was asked to regularly visit him and his wife to help them out around their home. Little did I know the impact this man would have on my passage into manhood.

Continue reading The Importance of Mentors.

Daily Thought: Ushering in God's Promise

When you ignore problems, you relinquish a place of truth.  When you ignore obstacles, you communicate a lack of confidence that God can overcome obstacles that have debilitated or even paralyzed God's people.  Identifying the clear problems is not expressing pessimism or negativity.  It is not judgmentalism or condemnation. It is standing to face whatever Goliaths stand before God's people and speaking with confidence about a future gained after Goliath's defeat.  Identifying the clear problems is the beginning point of spiritual warfare in leadership.  It gives the spiritual leader an opportunity to call God's people to prayer and usher in the promises of God, promises of a future and a hope.

Erwin McManus, An Unstoppable Force, Thomas Nelson Publishers (2003), p. 191

Video: The Bible and Personal Experience

Daily Thought: Faith Needs Prayer

He must, out of sheer helplessness, stretch forth hands of faith. He must believe, where he cannot prove. In the ultimate issue, prayer is simply faith, claiming its natural yet marvelous prerogatives — faith taking possession of its illimitable inheritance. True godliness is just as true, steady, and persevering in the realm of faith as it is in the province of prayer. Moreover: when faith ceases to pray, it ceases to live.

Faith does the impossible because it brings God to undertake for us, and nothing is impossible with God. How great — without qualification or limitation — is the power of faith! If doubt be banished from the heart, and unbelief made stranger there, what we ask of God shall surely come to pass, and a believer hath vouchsafed to him “whatsoever he saith.”

Prayer projects faith on God, and God on the world. Only God can move mountains, but faith and prayer move God. In His cursing of the fig-tree our Lord demonstrated His power. Following that, He proceeded to declare, that large powers were committed to faith and prayer, not in order to kill but to make alive, not to blast but to bless.

E. M. Bounds, The Necessity of Prayer, Logos Bible Software Edition

Daily Thought: What is the World?

“The world” does not mean nature around us. God nowhere tells us that the material world is an enemy to be overcome. On the contrary, we read: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handywork.”

It means “human life and society as far as alienated from God, through being centered on material aims and objects, and thus opposed to God’s Spirit and kingdom.” Christ said: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated Me before it hated you . . . the world hath hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Love of the world means the forgetfulness of the eternal future by reason of love for passing things.

Moody, Dwight Lyman (2011-03-24). The Overcoming Life and Other Sermons (Kindle Locations 259-265). Kindle Edition.

Linkage: Speak the Truth

One of the realities about our identities in Christ is the fact that we are His ambassadors.  What this means is that everything we say and do is done as the representative of Jesus Christ.  That should be a sobering thought for each of us as we consider our actions and language and what they reveal about what we believe about Jesus.

That is why I think it is so important for us to ponder these words from Eleanor Daniel in this article published by the Christian Standard.

I have a confession to make. Some days I wonder why I even bother to teach the Word of God to others. I’m not sure they take it in very seriously. 

I’m not talking about teaching the Word to unbelievers. It often takes a long time and a lot of effort for them to come to belief in the Lord and to submit to him. Rather, I’m talking about good people who have been Christians for a long time and who, by all expectations, should demonstrate markedly different behavior than nonbelievers. Nor am I talking about gross sins. 

No, I’m thinking about those who profess to love others and often show it in practical ways, those who claim a deep commitment to Christ and yet gullibly swallow rumors, especially those on the Internet, without question. I’m referring in particular to those who pass along gossip and untruths on the basis of something they have seen on the Internet or on television, or heard on a talk show or other presentation—never once taking the time to check the veracity of the claims.

Continue to read Speak the Truth—Even on the Internet.

Daily Thought: Don't Neglect Spiritual Discipline

Any neglect of spiritual devotion must result in lukewarmness. Oh, how unreasonable is man and how easily the desires of the flesh deceive! If you neglected to water your garden, you would not wonder for a moment why it was drying up. Then, when you are neglecting to water the soul in vigorous, spiritual exercises, why do you wonder at your being so spiritually dull?

Orr, Charles Ebert (2004-11-01). How to Live a Holy Life (p. 47). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Prayer: Set My Mind

Colossians 3:1-4

Heavenly Father,

I humbly confess that I allow the things of this world to distract me from the life You have called me to live.  The distractions politics, entertainment, fun, and pleasure prevent me from truly setting my mind and my heart on those heavenly things which lead to life.

Renew my heart and mind so I will desire heavenly things.  Strengthen my will so I can say no to the things of this world.  Give me eyes to see from an eternal perspective.  Empower me to live a life that glorifies you.  This is the true desire of my heart.  Help me Father to pursue You with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Amen.

Daily Thought: Christianity for Everyday

If I wanted to find out whether a Man was a Christian, I wouldn’t go to his minister. I would go and ask his wife. I tell you, we want more home piety just now. If a man doesn’t treat his wife right, I don’t want to hear him talk about Christianity. What is the use of his talking about salvation for the next life, if he has no salvation for this? We want a Christianity that goes into our homes and everyday lives. Some men’s religion just repels me. They put on a whining voice and a sort of a religious tone, and talk so sanctimoniously on Sunday that you would think they were wonderful saints. But on Monday they are quite different. They put their religion away with their clothes, and you don’t see any more of it until the next Sunday. You laugh, but let us look out that we don’t belong to that class. My friend, we have got to have a higher type of Christianity, or the Church is gone. It is wrong for a man or woman to profess what they don’t possess. If you are not overcoming temptations, the world is overcoming you. Just get on your knees and ask God to help you. My dear friends, let us go to God and ask Him to search us. Let us ask Him to wake us up, and let us not think that just because we are church members we are all right. We are all wrong if we are not getting victory over sin.

D. L. Moody (2011-03-24). The Overcoming Life and Other Sermons (Kindle Locations 112-121). Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: A Different Kind of Humanity

The first and most important step in the process of becoming genuinely authentic is to be once again authenticated by the original designer.  This is a part of the divine side of human change.  God desires to place within each of us a new heart, a heart that reflects him not only in action, but in desire.  The Scriptures speak of this transformation as a metamorphosis.  We are literally transformed into new creations, not a different kind of creature, but a different kind of humanity.

Erwin McManus, Uprising, Thomas Nelson (2003), p. 68

Video: Revelation Session #2

Revelation - Dr. Robert Lowery - November 13, 2009 Session 2 of 8 from NewLife Christian Church on Vimeo.

Linkage: Why I Know There is a God

Robert Murphy had this wonderful blog post, Why I know there is a God, on his blog, Free Advice, Sunday.  I think it is worth reading.

At first I had titled this post, “Why I Believe in God.” But as you’ll see, the reasons I will give, lead to the conclusion that I know there is a God. Now it’s true, it’s possible I could be wrong (as we’ll see), but by the same token, I might be mistaken when thinking I have a father. And yet, I don’t walk around saying, “Why I believe I have a father.” No, I know I have a father. 

The motivation for this post comes from frequent commentator “Major Freedom,” who wrote last week: “This is why I dislike the Sunday posts. It turns an economics blog that satisfyingly demolishes economic ignoramuses, into an idiotic festering stinkpile of contradictions and crap logic.” 

Now Major Freedom here touches on something–in his inimitable fashion–that plenty of other people have expressed over the months. These people just can’t understand why I am so logical and smart when it comes to views they agree with, and yet I am so illogical and stupid when I talk about spiritual matters.

Continue Reading Why I know there is a God.

Daily Thought: We are not Spare Parts!

This is not how God works.  He does not make spare parts.  You are not a spare part.  You have a purpose—a design that is central to God's dream for the human race.  We are, first of all, according to Scripture, called to know God, to receive his love and mercy, and to be his children.  We are called to live in the reality of his kingdom and to have Christ formed in us.

John Ortberg, If You Want to Walk on Water You've Got to Get Out of the Boat, Zondervan (2001), p. 58

Daily Thought: It is all God's Grace

Truly, we are saved by grace.  Heaven, we say, does certain things for us, and also proposes to us what we should do to inherit eternal life.  It is all for God; for he has sent his Son; he has sent his Spirit; and all that they have done, or shall do, is free favor; and the proposition concerning our justification and sanctification is equally divine and gracious as the mission of his Son.  We are only asked to accept a sacrifice which God has provided for our sins, and then the pardon of them, and to open the doors of our hearts, that the Spirit of God may come in and make its abode in us.

Alexander Campbell, The Christian System, The Gospel Advocate Company (2001), p. 21

Audio: The Fruit of Life

This is the audio of my sermon that I preached on January 15, 2012 at Bethlehem Free Methodist Church.

Video: How do we know which Old Testament rules still apply?

Daily Thought: Exploring Uncertain Territory

God seems to free the oppressed, end injustice, feed the hungry, bring victory, and do every good work through men and women who refuse to surrender to the problem. As we move ahead on our spiritual journey, we discover that we have once again become explorers. If you choose not to believe in God or even reject mystery in any form, maybe it would make sense to stop exploring things. However, if you are in a relationship with Jesus Christ, you are an explorer whether you like it or not. Once you are called out by God, you are called to move into mysterious, uncertain territories and to begin to live life filled with risk and fraught with challenges.

 Erwin McManus, Wide Awake, Thomas Nelson (2008), p. 46

Audio: A Surprise in a Valley

This is the audio of the sermon my wife preached on January 5, 2012 at Bethlehem Free Methodist Church. She did a wonderful job.

Daily Thought: Our Appreciation for Salvation

What are you going to do with the four gospels, Acts of the Apostles, twenty-one epistles, and the Revelation, which contain hundreds of commands, or rules for Christian living?  What you're going to do with them is reckon with them.  Figure out what they're there for.  It becomes immediately obvious that they're not there to ignore, or to treat as good advice or godly ideals.  Of course, you're going to use them for their intended purpose: to translate Christians' appreciation for salvation into appropriate and loving responses to God and man.  For sure, they're not there to justify us, for the same reason we've said several times now: justification is by grace, not works.

William Pile, What the Bible Says about Grace, College Press (1990); p. 151

Daily Thought: Christ Assisted Living

"Even the best Christian that ever lived is not acting on his own steam—he is only nourishing or protecting a life he could never have acquired by his own efforts.  And that has practical consequences.  As long as the natural life is in your body, it will do a lot towards repairing that body.  Cut it, and up to a point it will heal, as a dead body would not.  A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself.  In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble—because the Christ-life is inside of him, repairing him all the time, enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out."

C. S. Lewis, A Year with C. S. Lewis, HarperSanFransico (2003), p. 29

Video: Revelation Session #1

Revelation - Dr. Robert Lowery - November 13, 2009 Session 1 of 8 from NewLife Christian Church on Vimeo.

Repentance Requires Change

I think that many times when Christians talk about repentance what they mean is to confess to God that you feel sorry for your sins.  The result is that many of us remain stuck in sin, held back from living the full life God created us to live, because we are still trapped by sin's embrace.  Sure we feel sorrow for our sin, but real transformation in the way we live has escaped us.

Perhaps repentance means more than just telling God we are sorry for our sins.  Alexander Campbell wrote:

Repentance is an effect of faith: for who that believes not that God exists can have "repentance towards God"?  Repentance is sorrow for sins committed; but it is more.  It is a resolution to forsake them; but it is more.  It is actual 'ceasing to do evil, and learning to do well."  This is the "repentance unto life," or what is truly call reformation.  Such is the force of the command, "Repent, every one of you."  It is not merely, Be sorry for what you have done wrong; nor it it, Resolve to do better; nor even, Try to amend your ways: but it is actual amendment of life from the views and motives which the gospel of Christ exhibits (The Christian System, The Gospel Advocate Company, p. 38).

Our faith in Jesus Christ brings us to repentance.  Repentance consists of realizing that we have rebelled against God and have done unloving things to His Creation.  It consists of seeking forgiveness.  It requires the declaration that sin is evil and that it had no place in our lives.  It means that we begin to implement changes in our lives so that sin is no longer our lifestyle.  And it requires that we live our lives guided by the Spirit.

In Colossians 3 the apostle Paul teaches us to do four things we are to do in order to make repentance a reality in our lives.  First he tells us that we need to set our minds on the things above; Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (verse 2, ESV).  We do this by getting God's Word into our hearts and minds.  This means that we need read, study, meditate, discuss, and learn the Bible.  We can't change the way we live if we continue to put the same old lies of the World into our hearts.  It also means that we need to surrender to leading of the Spirit.  As Paul points out in Galatians 5 the true and abundant life Jesus promised is the fruit (singular) of the Spirit.  The life is characterized by love, gentleness, and self-control, but it is the result of the Spirit's transformation of our hearts.

Second, Paul says that we need to put to death the things of this world; Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry (verse 5; ESV).  I think this is where we get ourselves into trouble.  We justify the presence of evil in our lives, and thus it continues to have a place in our hearts.  Here is an example Super Bowl commercials. The Bible talks about the evil of greed, lust, and covetousness and yet we find nothing wrong with watching 30 second ads which cost 3.5 million to air, intended to cause us to covet things that we cannot afford, and often done "sex appeal."  It would seem like a radical suggestion to skip watching the Super Bowl because of this, but perhaps we cannot fully put to death things of this nature without doing something radical.  When Jesus told us that if our right hand causes us to sin we should cut it off, He was teaching us that to get rid of sin in our lives requires radical surgery on our part.

Third, Paul teaches that we need to clothe ourselves in love; And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony (verse 14; ESV).  Now the only way we can do this is to have a Spirit guided life, but there are certain intentional actions that we can do that help foster a life of love.  We need to give ourselves to praying for people, to being generous with what we have, to serving those who are in need, and forgive those who have wronged us.

The last truth Paul teaches here about repentance is that we need to let Christ rule our lives; And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful (verse 15; ESV). The only way the peace of Christ will rule in our hearts is when we surrender our lives to Jesus as Lord.  So this means the repentance requires a declaration that we no longer want sin to have a part in our lives, we denounce it as a lifestyle, and it requires a declaration that Jesus is our Savior and Lord, that we proclaim that we are His.  Unless we do this we have never really repented of our sins and our lives will remain unchanged.

Daily Thought: A High and Holy Work

Though in its beginnings prayer is so simple that the feeblest child can pray, yet it is at the same time the highest and holiest work to which man can rise. It is fellowship with the Unseen and Most Holy One. The powers of the eternal world have been placed at its disposal. It is the very essence of true religion, the channel of all blessings, the secret of power and life. Not only for ourselves, but for others, for the Church, for the world, it is to prayer that God has given the right to take hold of Him and His strength. It is on prayer that the promises wait for their fulfilment, the kingdom for its coming, the glory of God for its full revelation.

Murray, Andrew; New Century Books; 99 Cent Books (2010-04-28). With Christ in the School of Prayer - New Century Edition with DirectLink Technology (Kindle Locations 69-74). Kindle Edition.

Video: Worldview and Reading Scripture

The Bitter Fruit of Poor Choices

This morning during my Bible reading I read Proverbs 1.  Starting with verse 20 Solomon personifies wisdom as a woman who is pleading with people to follow her, yet people did not listen to her.  Instead they followed their own desires.  Thus Solomon has Wisdom saying; "That is why they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way.  They must experience the full terror of the path they have chosen" (verse 31; NLT).

Our life experience has taught us that there are consequences to our actions.  There are both positive consequences and there are negative consequences.  We would love to live in a world where we would only experience the joy of the positive consequences while being insulated from the negative consequences of our choices.  I would would love to be able to eat whatever I want and enjoy the taste of good food and not have to deal with the negative consequences of heartburn and weight gain.  Choice always involves consequences.

There is a part of me that wonders why God doesn't save us from consequences of bad choices.  Let's face it our lives are vastly more complicated because of bad choices that were made, not only by ourselves, but also by other people.  We are not immuned from the "bitter fruit" of unwise living.  Part of the explanation for that is found here in Proverbs chapter, we need experience the full terror of the path that has been chosen.  That is the only way that we will come to realize that there is a better way to live, that the world is not what it should be, and that there is hope.

While we live in this world there is no escaping the "bitter fruit" of poor choices and unwise living, but there is a way to live with hope.  That requires us to follow Jesus and fight against that bitter fruit.  We seek to rescue people out of the darkness, to bring healing to their lives, and to help them discover the hope that is in Christ Jesus.  The bitter fruit doesn't have to be our main course, instead we can discover the delicious fruit of a Spirit led life, and that will make all the difference in our lives.

Daily Thought: Do Something with Purpose

Man is not designed for prayer and praise only; he is designed for service as well. His mission is twofold: he is to adore and praise his Creator and to serve his fellow men. Some have symbolized the two functions of man's life by the ascending and descending of the angels on the ladder that Jacob saw in his dream. They ascended to God and descended to man. Life should be spent in praising God and in serving man for God's sake.

There is something to do. There is much to do. There is too much to do for us to idle away one moment of time. A full and well-spent life is one which is spent in doing good out of pure love to God and man. When we shall have come down to the end of life's journey, how sweet it will be to know that we have done all we could to help other pilgrims make their journey in safety! There is a reward for every generous act. Heaven is faithful and will repay. What we do here will find an eternity of reward.

Let not, therefore, one day pass you by without your doing something purposely for God.

Orr, Charles Ebert (2004-11-01). How to Live a Holy Life (p. 44-45). Public Domain Books. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: There are Battles Before Us

If a man is not willing to go to heaven by the way of Calvary, he cannot go at all. Many men want a religion in which there is no cross, but they cannot enter heaven that way. If we are to be disciples of Jesus Christ, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. So let us sit down and count the cost. Do not think that you will have no battles if you follow the Nazarene, because many battles are before you. Yet if I had ten thousand lives, Jesus Christ should have every one of them. Men do not object to a battle if they are confident that they will have victory, and, thank God, every one of us may have the victory if we will.

Dwight Lyman Moody (2011-03-24). The Overcoming Life and Other Sermons (Kindle Locations 100-104). Kindle Edition.

Video: The Historical Resurrection of Christ

Daily Thought: The Need for Religion

"Religion, as the term imports, began after the Fall; for it indicates a previous apostasy.  A remedial system is for a diseased subject.  The primitive man could love, wonder, and adore as angels now do, without religion; but man, fallen and apostate, needs religion in order to his restoration to the love, and worship, and enjoyment of God.  Religion, then, is a system of means of reconciliation—an institution for bringing man back to God—something to bind man anew to love and delight in God"

Alexander Campbell, The Christian System, Gospel Advocate Company (2001), p. 20

Linkage: Is Christian Hope Speculation?

What does it mean to have hope?  In our culture that is a word that has some baggage to it.  President Obama promised "Hope and Change," by which he meant to say that the he wanted to give the United States a bright looking future again.

I think for many people hope comes to mean wishful thinking.  A young lady might say, "I hope to be married someday."  What she means is that her wish, her desire, is to married, even though at the moment the prospects of that happening are not the greatest.  So hope becomes this weak wish list of what one looks forward to happening in the future.  There is no firm evidence for what the future holds which means that hope is nothing more than speculation on our part.

This is the reason why a book like Heaven is for Real becomes such a popular book in Christian circles.  We are looking for evidence that what we speculate about, what we wish for, what we "hope" for is actually true. Whether or not it provides such evidence is a discussion for another day.

Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed started a discussion on the nature of hope. We need to have this conversation.  If hope is nothing more than our speculation about the future and if we need to have evidence to support of speculation than are we really trusting God?

One word that has come up a few times in the last year’s discussion about life after death, about heaven and hell, and about who goes where, is the word “speculation.” A number of folks have used it, but two notables who have pushed against traditionalists with that word are Rob Bell and Shane Hipps. Is the Christian hope in life after death, in “heaven” (however understood), in eternal life, speculation? I cringe when I hear “speculation” because I wonder how extensive such a view is. Is it all speculation? Just speculation? Or is just some of it speculation? What of the Big Four: return of Christ, last judgment, resurrection, and new creation? 

A simplistic reaction to the “it’s speculation, after all” claim is to affirm or assert or dig one’s ground on the doctrine of Scripture. There’s a better way, and it’s a deeper way. The Christian hope is not simply believing the Bible. I will say it with Greek words and then spell this out as we discuss Tony Thiselton’s Life after Death. Here it is: euangelion is epangelia. (Gospel is promise.)

Continue reading Is Christian Hope Speculation?

Video: Not A Fan Interview

Daily Thought: Engraved in Our Hearts

The new covenant was not written with ink. It is not a written code. It does not consist of the Gospels, the book of Acts, the epistles, and Revelation. Every one of these books was written with ink. John's epistles were written with paper and ink (2 John 12) and with pen and ink (3 John 13). These were written to a covenant people, but they are not part of the covenant. That covenant was engraved by the Spirit of God, "not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart."

Ketcherside, W. Carl (2010-08-05). The Death of the Custodian (Kindle Locations 722-725). SCM e-Prints. Kindle Edition.

Daily Thought: God will not Desert

Now many a young believer is discouraged and disheartened when he realizes this warfare. He begins to think that God has forsaken him, that Christianity is not all that it professes to be. But he should rather regard it as an encouraging sign. No sooner has a soul escaped from his snare than the great Adversary takes steps to ensnare it again. He puts forth all his power to recapture his lost prey. The fiercest attacks are made on the strongest forts, and the fiercer the battle the young believer is called on to wage, the surer evidence it is of the work of the Holy Spirit in his heart. God will not desert him in his time of need, any more than He deserted His people of old when they were hard pressed by their foes.

Dwight Lyman Moody (2011-03-24). The Overcoming Life and Other Sermons (Kindle Locations 48-52). Kindle Edition.

Linkage: Never Read a Bible Verse

Reading the Bible is one of the most important things we can do if we are committed to following Jesus.  The Bible is the foundation of our faith and God will never lead us to do something that goes against what He has already clearly revealed in Scripture.

When reading the Bible the context is very important.  Context is what gives shapes to what has been written.  Context includes the culture that the Bible passage was written in.  When it comes to studying the Bible it is useful to use commentaries and other books to give us a better understanding of the cultural context so we can properly know what is being said.  Equally important to the cultural context is the literary context.  This is something we can take note of without any special training or extra books because it simply involves taking a passage as a whole and not focusing on a single sentence or idea.

Greg Koukl explains why it is so important for us as we read the Bible to take not of the literary context of the passage we are reading.

If there was one bit of wisdom, one rule of thumb, one single skill I could impart, one useful tip I could leave that would serve you well the rest of your life, what would it be? What is the single most important practical skill I've ever learned as a Christian? 

Here it is: Never read a Bible verse. That's right, never read a Bible verse. Instead, always read a paragraph at least. 

My Radio Trick 

When I'm on the radio, I use this simple rule to help me answer the majority of Bible questions I'm asked, even when I'm totally unfamiliar with the verse. It's an amazingly effective technique you can use, too. 

I read the paragraph, not just the verse. I take stock of the relevant material above and below. Since the context frames the verse and gives it specific meaning, I let it tell me what's going on. 

This works because of a basic rule of all communication: Meaning always flows from the top down, from the larger units to the smaller units, not the other way around. The key to the meaning of any verse comes from the paragraph, not just from the individual words.

The numbers in front of the sentences give the illusion the verses stand alone in their meaning. They were not in the originals, though. Numbers were added hundreds of years later. Chapter and verse breaks sometimes pop up in unfortunate places, separating relevant material that should be grouped together.

Continue reading Never Read a Bible Verse