AAC Blog

Getting Salvation and Obedience in the Right Order (Brian Dainsberg)

2012-02-24T16:12:59+00:00

"I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery" (Exodus 20:2).

These are the words the people of Israel hear immediately before they are given a very extensive law governing their conduct with God and each other. One of the most pervasive problems within Christianity has more to do with order than content. We live in and insist upon obedience before salvation. This leads to multitudinous problems in our theology and our lived out lives.

For example, if I live according to the "obedience before salvation" paradigm, I might get angry with God when I see good and decent people suffering. I might impose upon my children performance demands that are prerequisites to my approval of them. I may hang on to grudges harboring bitterness, but never reaching the sweet land of forgiveness.

We treat others this way. We won't like them, hang out with them, love them, approve of them, praise them, or forgive them unless they perform to our standards. Thank God He doesn't treat us this way. He saves us first. He pours out his grace on us first. He approves us first before making demands of us. God says to a sinful, wicked, rebellious people, "I love you so much, even though you have no merit of your own, I'm going to save you."

Let's get this order right. Salvation before obedience; grace before performance.

Government Invades Your Conscience (Brian Dainsberg)

2012-02-21T15:59:16+00:00

There's a reason I rarely discuss political issues in my blog: many of them are gray. However, the recent and much publicized contraceptive-abortifacient mandate from the Obama administration is not gray. It's a heinous overreach that, if left unchecked, will have far reaching implications ultimately devastating to the living out of biblical Christianity. Hundreds of religious leaders, including Justin Taylor and Dr. D.A. Carson, across numerous denominational and faith lines have united to decry this mandate as unacceptable.

Below is testimony before the House Oversight Committee from Dr. C. Ben Mitchell, a former academic advisor of mine and current professor of moral philosophy at Union University. It's worth five minutes of your time.

If you'd like to know more about the contraceptive-abortifacient mandate and what it means for Christians and churches go here.

How to Love God More (Brian Dainsberg)

2012-02-16T16:00:11+00:00

"...no one gives himself freely and willingly to God's service unless, having tasted his fatherly love, he is drawn to love and worship him in return" (Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin)

The extent to which you have come face to face with the intensity of God's love for you, is the extent to which you'll love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He who has been loved little, will love little.

What Sets Your Heart on Fire? (Brian Dainsberg)

2012-02-14T21:00:39+00:00

"Holy affections are not heat without light; but evermore arise from some information of the understanding, some spiritual instruction that the mind receives, some light or actual knowledge. The child of God is graciously affected, because he sees and understands something more of divine things than he did before, more of God or Christ and of the glorious things exhibited in the gospel; he has some clearer and better view than he had before, when he was not affected: either he receives some understanding of divine things that is new to him; or has his former knowledge renewed after the view was decayed...Knowledge is the key that first opens the hard heart and enlarges the affections, and so opens the way for men into the kingdom of heaven" (Religious Affections, Jonathan Edwards).

What Edwards is discussing here is foundational for the life of the believer. God, Jesus, and the gospel are all inherently glorious, magnificient, and awe-inspiring. What fuels our worship, obedience, prayer-life, etc. is gazing upon them intently. The foundation of a vibrant spiritual life is continually setting before our soul's eyes the glory of God expressed in Jesus Christ revealed in the gospel.

The Shunammite Woman’s Life Changing Legacy of Hospitality (Judy Episcopo)

2012-02-13T13:08:18+00:00

LEGACY: To realize life is more than what I do in my lifetime. It’s what I leave behind so those who come after me can do greater things. I have a responsibility, to not just this generation, but also to future generations.

The story of the Shunammite woman is found in 2 Kings 4:8-36. Interestingly enough we are never told her name, but she leaves us an important legacy of hospitality and faith. Hospitality was a vital ministry during the life and time of the Shunammite woman. It could be a matter of life and death for people who traveled the wild Israeli countryside during the seventh century B.C.

Elisha was a quirky, bald headed prophet at the time and the Shunammite woman and her husband were wealthy and generous enough to provide him living quarters when he was in town. The Shunammite woman seemed to have everything life could offer; a loving husband and financial means to do well for themselves and Elisha. Yet there was one unspoken desire Elisha recognized–she was childless. From the text it doesn’t seem it was something she was concerned about. In fact, in a conversation with Elisha, she even downplays her longing, almost as if she is afraid to give into it. However, Elisha knew she deeply wanted and needed to be a mom. He was the kind of prophet who had the right connections, so to speak, and he was able to promise her a son. Her legacy of generous hospitality opened heaven’s blessings for her.

What joy she must have experienced at the birth of her son! Amazingly, it is not the end of the story. Later the child died of unknown causes. The Lord had given her a child, but then the Lord took the child away. Wow. Imagine for a moment, God answering your prayer with someone or something you have longed for and then taking it away. What was God doing? We can’t completely understand, but I believe one of things God might have been doing was dramatically challenging her to face her fears and learn to trust Him and His goodness. Surely losing a child is one of the greatest fears a mom can face. As soon as she realizes her son is gone she immediately runs to the town where Elisha was at the time, grabs him fiercely and says, “Did I ask for a son? Did I not say ‘do not get my hopes up?’ I will not leave you until you use your ‘connections’ to make things right.” (Paraphrased from 2 Kings 4:27-30). Elijah returns home with her and miraculously raises her child from the dead.

Not every earnest prayer is answered this quickly and dramatically. Most do not receive back their dead, but God promises to answer the desperate prayer of faith of any woman–no matter what her name may be. The legacy of this woman’s faith and determined prayer led to a resurrected life.

It is interesting to note this “no named” woman appears twice in the book of Kings. Four chapters later she again pops up as if God wants to use her life and legacy to underline an important lesson. By now her husband has left her a widow and famine has wracked the land. She has to leave the country. Just as God gave and took away and then restored her son; He does the same thing with her wealth. While she was gone the king of Israel took away her land. After the famine she has to approach the king and ask for it back. The king is not about to grant her request until someone recognizes her and tells the king about how her son died and came back to life. Because of this, the king appointed her case to an official saying, “Restore all that was hers from the day that she left.”

I believe God is underlining is His sovereign goodness to those who trust in Him. I think the legacy of her story speaks of what it is like to face her worst fears and “discover that God is sufficient to give, sovereign in taking away, and gracious to restore.”*

I like the fact that this woman is not given a name. She is a “nobody” on one hand, but in another way she can be anyone one of us. More importantly, God knows her name. Her experience of God at work in her life can be our experience if we choose. It all began for her when she took hold of the opportunity to offer the gift of hospitality.

*Quoted from Five Aspects of Woman by Barbara K. Mouser.

Pride (Brian Dainsberg)

2012-02-10T15:00:50+00:00

"Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind. The more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others. The point is that each person’s pride is in competition with everyone else’s pride. It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise" (Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis).

Sorrow for Sin (Brian Dainsberg)

2012-02-06T21:47:02+00:00

"It is sorrow for the offence rather than for the punishment. God's law has been infringed, his love abused. This melts the soul in tears. A man be sorry, yet not repent, as a thief is sorry when he is taken, not because he stole, but because he has to pay the penalty. Hypocrites grieve only for the bitter consequence of sin...Godly sorrow shows itself to be ingenuous because when a Christian knows that he is out of the gun-shot of hell and shall never be damned, yet still he grieves for sinning against that free grace which has pardoned him" (Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance).

Suffering: From a Good God to a Needy People (Brian Dainsberg)

2012-02-02T20:25:07+00:00

"He [Jesus] drank off the the full cup of unmixed wrath for us; shall we then refuse to taste of the cup of affliction at his appointment, especially when his wisdom and love prepare it for us, and proportion every circumstance to our strength; when He put it into our hands, not in anger but in tender mercy, to do us good, to bring us near to himself..." (Letters of John Newton).

Daughters of Eve (Judy Episcopo)

2012-02-02T15:08:55+00:00

She was the last act of creation recorded in the Genesis account. God’s work was not complete (Genesis 2:18) and He did not rest until Eve was created. She was the “final touch,” the “finish with a flourish,” so to speak. Eve not only completes the picture, but her name means “life giver,” implying her role is to be an important part of passing on the vitality of what God has created. As daughters of Eve, her legacy helps define our purpose and value as a woman. We too, are created to be helpers, companions, completers and life givers to our husbands, families, friends, and communities.

Eve lived in a paradise and for a time she was perfect; not knowing the shame, pain or discord we deal with – until she chose to believe the lies of the enemy of her soul. They were lies that encouraged her to doubt God’s Word and His love. Now we live with the results of her choice. Like Eve, we have this amazing potential, but we are also vulnerable to the lies of the enemy. His lies sound like this:
“You will never be accepted.”
“You can’t accomplish anything.”
“It’s just a little sin. It doesn’t really matter.”
“God isn’t listening.”
“He doesn’t’ care all that much...you are a failure anyway.”
They keep coming at us until the lies drown out the truth and our life is crippled with guilt, fear, and despair.

I am always astonished when reading about the deception and rebellion of Adam and Eve. How easy it would have been for God to start all over, but he didn’t. He pursued them and spoke over Eve a promise – for you and me. Imagine that! The very same person who first gave the enemy a foothold, is told it is through her a Savior will come!

God does not give up on us either. He seeks us out and speaks over us a promise – the promise of a Savior we know as Jesus Christ. We don’t have to stay trapped in lies. We can choose to believe in God’s Word, His love, and His promises. Jesus redeems us and often uses the very failures and miseries of our life as stepping-stones to greater victory in Him. Through Jesus we can live with confidence as Eve’s daughters and reclaim the legacy that was lost. We can “finish with a flourish” all God purposed for us.

This is the Day (Judy Episcopo)

2012-01-30T14:38:06+00:00

There are no bad days in God's economy. "This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24) Does the day appear wide open, full of promise? Or maybe it doesn’t from your vantage point. Maybe you see land mines, potential disaster, and difficult choices. It leaves you with the question, “How should the day be navigated?” The Bible says, "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5-8)

As you acknowledge Him as LORD, submitting to His Word and Spirit, you will find Him a true and faithful Guide. He will redeem the day for you no matter what awaits. This day was planned before you were even born (Psalm 139:16) and He planned for you to be a part of it. Take some time and lay before Him your concerns, your hopes, and fears (Psalm 68:19). He is God and is more than able to "guard what (you) have entrusted to Him." (II Timothy 1:12)