Never Alone

The Unburdened Nature of Life in the Spirit

2014-08-02T22:57:00.001-07:00

I just read a blog post* by a man I've never heard of, Garris Elkins, who wrote about a time when they returned from being missionaries in Europe. All they had at the time were the stuff in their suitcases, some books, and a chair in an attic...and as they stayed in the US their collection of stuff increased. But he recalled something they learned in the time when they had been so unburdened:

"Years ago we made a valuable discovery. We discovered that everything we would need to accomplish what God asks us to do we already carried within our hearts and spirit. This is what makes this life of faith so beautifully simple and yet profound. This life in the Spirit is not a cumbersome life. It requires no physical maintenance, storage or oil changes. The physical stuff that attaches itself to our lives is never greater in significance than the spiritual deposit each of us carries within our hearts."

It's a very freeing concept. And so true! How often I've thought of the people in primitive huts all over the world who can be happy with very little...and how much time I spend maintaining stuff, stuff and more stuff. One time when my husband's job loss put us in a very unsteady-seeming position (though God had it all in hand, but I have to admit that even though we'd been through that same thing many times before, and God had always proved Himself faithful, I was fretting more than ever otherwise in my life)...when all I could picture was us being without a home, without all our stuff. I didn't think of it as freeing then. All I could imagine was homelessness. If we were put into that position of losing our home, though, I hope we could look to God and see what He would have us do. After all, like Mr. Elkins says, "...everything we would need to accomplish what God asks us to do we already carried within our hearts and spirit." That is true of every believer, and in fact, the promise that tells us so is in 2 Peter 1:3-4:

"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire."

The beauty of what Mr. Elkins was saying is the free nature of a life in Christ, that we need not be hindered by much in the way of material possessions. (I say this with 25 fingers pointed back at me...well, 3 or so in reality, but if I had 30 fingers, at least 25 would be pointed back at me.) It makes me want to dive into our junk drawer...oh wait, that's a junk garage...and get rid of a good amount of really useless stuff. It's better than watching Hoarders!

But...that life is not maintenance free. It might not need anything in the way of painting, sorting, cleaning...but it does take maintenance. In fact, the passage that follows the above Scripture has something in the way of maintenance and building upon what God has started in you: 2 Peter 1:5-11:

"For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

That type of maintenance is the most rewarding kind...it is of an eternal, supernatural, attractive and beautiful nature, given by God, empowering the believer to better serve God. His ways are not burdensome...how beautiful is that! Well...I have a garage to clean...talk to you soon!

* http://www.prophetichorizons.com/2014/08/the-stuff.html

Applying Romans 3

2014-05-18T15:56:00.002-07:00

This Romans 3 passage has come up repeatedly in discussion and debate with a friend of mine; if I understand his perspective, he sees it as proof that we can’t really do well enough to please God, that everything we do is tainted by sin. I see it, taken in its context, as a description of how all apart from God are under sin and cause Him grief and alienate us from Him, the Jew and the Gentile together. The description here doesn’t seem to me to be intended to describe the abiding believer, but how the unbeliever is shut up into sin and alienated from God until he comes to Christ; there are many Bible verses that seem to indicate that our believing changes us through the grace of God in Jesus Christ so that we are now able to please Him and obey Him and the taintedness of sin is no longer an issue in the things we do in His strength.

Romans 3:10-18 ...as it is written,
“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
“Their feet are swift to shed blood,
Destruction and misery are in their paths,
And the path of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

We now have righteousness imputed to us as believers in Christ, even described later in that same chapter:

Romans 3:21-26 But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Philippians 3:8-10 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

So that portion has been provided for every believer.

Then “there is none who understands” is changed:

1 John 5:20 “And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.”

Regarding whether anyone seeks God, you know that people in fact do, only by the power of the Holy Spirit working in them;

Acts 17:24-28 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’”

Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”

Though as sinners we turned aside, God has brought us back, and reconciled us to Him through Jesus Christ:

1 Peter 2:25 For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”

He also causes believers to do His will:

Hebrews 13:20-21 “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Of course we don’t do any of this that God desires of us and created us to do, while we are dead to Christ or by our own strength, but only by the power of His Spirit working in us. So it’s essentially Him seeking us; imputing His righteousness to us; giving us understanding; enabling us to do His will.

And as I understand it, all of that is only active while we abide in Him (John 15); when we don’t, our ways default back for that period of time as if we were unbelievers…acting unrighteously or self-righteously; not seeming to understand or seek His ways; turning aside and becoming useless, not doing good; disregarding and disobeying what we have come to know and believe; and we grieve Him (Ephesians 4:17-32).

Here’s another verse that relates to quenching/grieving the Holy Spirit; just in case it is helpful:

1 Thess. 5:19-24a “Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”

If all the aspects of Romans 3:10-18 have countering passages for the believer elsewhere in the Bible, how can the passage be still true of us, as we abide in Him? There is no mention of sanctification in that chapter, so I don't think Paul was speaking of it in those terms; there are 8 versions of the word "just" or "justify." Romans 3:5-6 speak of God's wrath and condemnation, which applies only to the unbeliever (there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Rom. 8:1); Romans 3:9 talks about being under sin.

When we don't abide in Him, I think we default to being like the unbeliever as Romans 3:10-18 describe, when we're trying to do things in our own strength; but since we forever have His positional righteousness, even when we live like that, we are not under His wrath and condemnation but under His grace even though we grieve Him (I don't know what that looks like; I know His grace never breaks through to condemnation and wrath for the believer, but it's almost like we give it stretch marks; it clearly inflicts pain on Him).

Romans 3:20 talks about how by the works of the law no one will be justified in His sight. We know that the believer is justified because of Christ. So when we do works, abiding in Him, it is not with any hope of furthering justification or any change in righteousness or status in God's sight. We are free to obey without it seeming to God that we think we can earn His favor since we know we already have it. We are free to obey simply to show our love for Him.

Romans 3:21 talks about the righteousness of God through faith. I hold that our positional righteousness is perfect; because it is Jesus' perfect righteousness imputed to us, not dumbed down or defiled or changed in any way. That whole chapter is not about how we are worthless sinners, which we are, saved by grace; it is about how the need for Christ applies both to the Jew and the Gentile because apart from Christ, we all are not seeking, not righteous, not understanding, not doing good.

In response to Christ’s work, out of love for Him, it seems that every believer would want to live for Him, trying to please Him in all respects in our obedience to His truth:

Ephesians 5:6-10 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these thingsthe wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them; for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord.

Pilgrim reads the signs through Romans

2014-04-08T14:22:00.001-07:00

A picture comes to my mind as I read Romans, resurrecting the character “Pilgrim” from Pilgrim’s Progress. As he goes through the path of Romans, Pilgrim notices and reads a number of helpful signs, some of which are so small as to be barely noticeable; these signs, continually appearing through the Book of Romans, are vital indicators, though, because they emphasize transitions that draw attention and illuminate and direct the reader to the correct conclusion.

Road signs:

"Therefore": Because of what was just written—because of the indicative, an imperative is likely ahead of you.

Romans 1:18-25:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

"For": The stuff that was just written, a conclusive thought, possibly an imperative, was based at least in part on this thought, an indicative.

Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. ²⁵For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,who is blessed forever. Amen.

"For this reason": What was just written led to the following theological reality.

Romans 1:24-27:

Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator,who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

"But": What was said before might leave you swimming in a half-truth. There is another aspect that will complete the thought and rescue you.

Romans 2:1-11:

Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.

"What then?" Or, "What shall we say, then?" A question indicating a person might go one of two divergent directions based on the previous thought. The writer then brings up the worst predictable and natural conclusion, and negate it with further explanation of why it doesn’t work; because that wrong conclusion could really trip up your walk.

Romans 3:1-4:

Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision?Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written,

“That You may be justified in Your words,
And prevail when You are judged.”

"Now": Probably a thought that will bring the previous thought up a notch; the next step up on the ladder, or the next hill to climb to see things more clearly.

Romans 3:9-20:
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written,

“There is none righteous, not even one;
There is none who understands,
There is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”
“Their throat is an open grave,
With their tongues they keep deceiving,”
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”;
“Their feet are swift to shed blood,
Destruction and misery are in their paths,
And the path of peace they have not known.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

"But now," or "So then": Here’s a conclusion based on the previous thought, pretty much like therefore; it might well be new to you, so read it carefully and consider the changes that need to take place because of it.

Romans 3:19-25:

Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.

But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith.

Romans 5:17-18:

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.

"Even so": This one problem happened and as a counter to our desperate need, God brought this solution about. As you can see in this passage, it’s sort of an “On the other hand, in spite of what was just said, keep these things also in mind” thought; don’t despair when things seem beyond hope; God is in control and makes things as they should be, giving us a way out. It seems to follow the phrase “as [this bad thing happened],”

Romans 5:18-21:

So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

"Or do you not know": If you don’t believe what was just said, here’s another basic bit of theology that I thought would already have made this clear to you—another indicative.

Romans 6:1-3:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? ²May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? ³Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

"May it never be!" I saved my personal favorite for last. This statement, occurring 10 times in Romans, is Paul’s strong, passionate warning, an indicator that the previous statement or question is a faulty conclusion that the reader might assume. This statement is something like the railroad crossing road block, complete with bells ringing and flashing red lights – so you don’t get in the train wreck of disastrous theology. Read on in the passage, and you will find reasoning why this doesn’t work, and/or an explanation of what does work instead.

Romans 3:3-4:What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? ⁴May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written,“That You may be justified in Your words,And prevail when You are judged.”

Disclaimer: I am not a theologian, but I play one on my blog. Be like the believers in Acts 17:10-11: The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.

All passages of Scripture are quoted from New American Standard Bible (NASB)and the emphasis upon the words in italicized bold print, or underlined, is mine.

Strange Fire; Strange Disunity

2013-11-24T21:04:00.001-08:00

John MacArthur’s recent Strange Fire seminar defending cessationism against continuationism (whether or not the Holy Spirit’s miraculous gifts were only authenticating signs for Bible times and have ceased, or they continue in the present day) has brought a flurry of internet discussion. I’m sure it’s brought many to consider carefully what they believe about this issue. Some people agreed with him before the seminar started and probably still agree with him; some probably changed their minds to agree with him; but I think that most of those who had already come to disagree with him are not likely to be swayed by his seminar, especially since they probably did not attend it.

I haven't firmly planted myself on either side, but I'm tilted. For a few years, our family attended a cessationist church that so closely followed MacArthur’s model (naming many of its ministries the same names, and designing their bulletins identically) that the pastor even plagiarized MacArthur’s sermons every Sunday. It’s the only clearly cessationist church that I have attended, and with that being my only exposure, the nature of that church is part of the reason I’m skeptical about the cessationist stance. Thanks to that pastor's plagiarism, I have heard MacArthur’s arguments over a series of many, many weeks where the cessationist case was fully presented. A few issues cause my skepticism: 1) Once a church dismisses any work of the Holy Spirit as not being for today and camps on that issue, it is very tricky to maintain throughout the congregation that though the miraculous gifts [may have] ceased, all other works of the Holy Spirit should be vibrant and welcome. When I brought my discovery that the pastor was plagiarizing to his attention, first he vehemently denied it, lying to me that indeed he was not plagiarizing, and when I proved to him that I knew that he was, he yelled at me that it did not matter, it was okay for him to do so. Somewhere in that conversation, he actually said that he was not capable of writing a decent sermon and was plagiarizing in order to give the congregation the best material available. At that admission, by resorting to plagiarism, he dismissed the possibility that the Holy Spirit could have worked very well through his weakness. If he didn't know that the plagiarism was wrong, he wouldn't have denied it to begin with. 2) In that church, and in the recent on-line debates regarding the Strange Fire seminar, cessationists went so far as to dismiss the probability that continuationists were even saved. This is an assertion I don’t remember ever hearing from continuationists toward cessationists, and the audacity and pomposity of that assumption is divisive and disheartening. 3) Being convinced that continuationists are not saved, the cessationist church we attended refused to work together with such churches, disdainfully calling the practice ecumenicalism. The stifling nature of their fruit inclines me to believe that cessationism might be false. It might just be that it was a poorly run church, failing to embrace the other works of the Holy Spirit in all His fullness, but I can’t help but suspect there is a foundational flaw in their theology.

In the church we now attend, one of the first things our pastor did for my wrestling with this issue was to lend me a couple of books by Jack Deere, Surprised by the Power of the Spirit: Discovering How God Speaks and Heals Today and Surprised by the Voice of God: How God Speaks Today Through Prophecies, Dreams, and Visions. I have read articles online that blast Deere’s teachings, but after reading the books, I found them thorough and for the most part credible and realistic (and where they don't seem to be, I wonder whether the problem is with the accounts written, or with me...our God continually does amazing things at which scoffers scoff!), and the Scripture references were aptly presented to state Deere’s case. I came to think that if the gifts were not for today at all, they might not have been so clearly and thoroughly presented in the Scriptures, or there would have been clear and unmistakable instruction about when they would be in operation and when they would not. For example, 1 Corinthians 12 and 14 are clearly about the gifts, and to cessationists they would only pertain to Bible times; however right in the center of them is 1 Corinthians 13, the Love chapter, which both cessationists and continuationists accept enthusiastically! How is it that it would go from something that does not pertain to us, to something that pertains to all of us, and right back to something that does not? Maybe He does intend this very thing for some reason...but so much is written in the Scriptures as if to instruct us regarding His gifts for use for the duration of our time here. As Derek Rishmawy of the Gospel Coalition put it, "abuse does not take away use." Just because a doctrine has been badly abused, that abuse doesn't render the doctrine itself dangerous. What I have seen here in the U.S. is a grievous misrepresentation of His work that has provoked this disunity and distress. I am no educated theologian, a disability of which I'm painfully aware...still, I think the Love chapter pertains in some way to the expression of the Spirit's gifting since it is right there in the middle of those two chapters around it, maybe describing His love expressed through gifts manifested among His people throughout time. Wouldn't that make sense?

On the other hand, I understand why the miraculous gifts are an issue MacArthur feels compelled to address, though I think he’s basically preaching to his choir. I doubt that the people at whom he’s most directly leveling his charges are listening, or that they care whether they’re approved by MacArthur or not, and why. It’s not hard to see that the gifts are abused and misunderstood in a great many enthusiastic and emotional churches, often churches that misread the Scriptures in not just the gifts but in many other aspects, such as what the Bible says about giving and suffering and obedience and grace and salvation. Unfortunately I think many of these messed-up takes on theology have originated in the United States, and where they appear overseas, it’s usually an unfortunate spread from our shores to theirs. But so many missionaries around the world have long testified to the miraculous nature of the work of the Spirit, it makes me think that what most Americans see is a warped rendition; the reality is generally found in other countries where the Spirit’s work is less hindered by human preconceptions and more welcomed by the extreme need for miraculous intervention.

My confusion and grief over the division between these two distinct beliefs increases the more that I read what others write. There are people I respect in both camps, and I think we all have a hard time seeing things from any perspective but our own. While we take our stances, we need to continue loving and honoring those who believe these other doctrines, and accept their faith as long as they live for the glory of God and hold to the orthodox basics: Who Jesus is; why He came; how He came; what He did; what He’s doing; where He is; why we need Him to save us, from what, to what; where we’re going…I know there are some details that need filling in here, a few clear basics that must be adhered to and the rest being secondary. The Bible says so simply “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” Not, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and this doctrine and that doctrine and the one over there, and go to only this church, only use this Bible version, and you will be saved.” The gospel is understandable and within reach of the simple and the young; but our human nature is to complicate it to make it only apply to us and all who completely agree with us. As long as the Jesus we trust for salvation and live to obey is the Jesus of the Bible...don't we belong to Him? While we are called to understand all that we can of the Scriptures that God has given us, I do believe that salvation is truly that simple, and accepting that fact is much more conducive to God-glorifying unity among those who call themselves Christians!

I don't think that any one human has a monopoly on the truth. Seems that there’s a Spirit somewhere Who could be called upon to help straighten out the mess, give us wisdom and reunite the estranged and divided masses of believers.

High Voltage!

2013-10-24T05:17:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday Nate McGlinchy gave a sermon full of wonderful points and gave quick reference to the various scriptural consequences of sin…and just touched on how they are in so many ways faced by Jesus on the cross. I pondered this during the week when moments allowed; the cross is always worthy of meditation. The odd thing was, I knew the things he mentioned, individually. Never, though, had I put them together as a group of things that Jesus faced that were reflected in the Scripture as a package of so many various things every sinner would himself face as the price for his sin (payment for which is entirely beyond mere human capability). The grouping of these awesome and crushing problems that Jesus took upon Himself and fully dealt with at the cross seemed like a bunch of power cords all bundled together to make one super-power cord! I thought I’d list some verses re: what the sinner has looming, and what Jesus removes from the repentant believer. I expect there are more than I was able to find!

Adam and Eve, and all the human race, is under the curse of sin until turning to Christ:

Genesis 3:14-19:

¹⁴The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this,
    cursed are you above all livestock
    and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
    and dust you shall eat
    all the days of your life.
¹⁵I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.”

¹⁶To the woman he said,

“I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing;
    in pain you shall bring forth children.
Your desire shall be for your husband,
    and he shall rule over you.”

¹⁷And to Adam he said,
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

    and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
    ‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
    in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
¹⁸thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
    and you shall eat the plants of the field.
¹⁹By the sweat of your face
    you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
    for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
    and to dust you shall return.”

Jesus became a curse for us on the cross:

Galatians 3:13-14:
¹³Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— ¹⁴so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

Because we are born sinners, we are born under God’s wrath and destined for eternal punishment:

John 3:36:
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Jesus took God’s punishment for our sin upon Himself at the cross:

Isaiah 53:5-6:

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

    and with his wounds we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;

    we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

Sin brings separation between us and God:

Isaiah 59:2:

2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

Jesus was separated from God on the cross:

Matthew 27:46:
⁴⁶And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Death is the payment for our sins:

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

Jesus died on the cross for our sins:

Luke 23:46:
46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

Philippians 2:8:
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, we are reconciled to God:

2 Corinthians 5:17-19:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Mark 15:37-38:
37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

One difference between Jesus going through these things and us going through them was that though He was tempted, He never sinned; He didn't deserve the punishment that He willingly took on for our sake:

Hebrews 4:15:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

We deserve these things. He did not. He gave His life willingly for us, in obedience to God the Father. So though I knew of these things individually, and each one is packed with power, combined it was like taking some huge high-power electrical wires and binding them all together. High voltage! Of course they do nothing, they lay powerless, until you apply them and realize all that He did for you, and turn your life over to Him. Then they employ that power to give life to your spirit and transfer your citizenship right out of recorded time and clear into eternity.

The Log in Your Own Eye

2013-07-04T03:55:00.001-07:00

Tonight in our book study we were discussing The Cross of Christ, and the subject came up of dealing with a person who's down on himself. Some agreed that the person who's down on himself is sometimes more difficult to deal with (or at least tolerate) than a person who is high on himself. We discussed what you need in order to be ready to "deal with" him...to lift him out or get him to stop; that a person focusing on himself does not have his focus where it belongs: On Christ and others. The more I pondered it the more complicated this subject became, because there are a number of ways to be down on yourself, though all of them do take your focus off of Christ and onto yourself, which is fraught with problems.

A person might just be self-centered and focusing on their own inadequacies, the things that make him less "up to snuff" in the social arena...in which case there's really nothing better than to just snap out of it and realize that we all as humans share in that to some degree. A person might be dealing with an actual clinical depression that needs medical intervention. Or a person might be overwhelmed with personal problems and be dealing with a heavy load and perhaps depression on top of it. The solutions to any of these might be completely different: The first is a simple self-centeredness, and might be categorized as sin just for the focus being unnecessarily inward. The second is a complex focus on self that needs medical help and perhaps later a call to accountability if the medical help is not fully effective to lift the person back to functionality. The third might justifiably need someone to help shoulder the burdens of life that have become too heavy. It can be unclear to the outsider just which thing is going on without asking questions and seeking the root cause.

So in the discussion, I was pondering these things (being sensitive to it because I have been guilty of dwelling on my many inadequacies; I have dealt with depression, though never received medical help for it; and I have borne a load of difficulties that simultaneously limited my ability to function, also affecting my physical health, compounding the primary problems). I think of Job, whose friends are silent for a week, an admirable length of time in waiting to respond to Job in his pain. Their problem started, though, when they didn't know what to say. Like most of us, their solution to this was to start talking, and rather than lift Job out of his sorrow and grief, they add pain, false guilt, and the need to defend himself.

This subject made me see Jesus' illustration of getting the log out of your own eye in a new light. I've always seen the meaning of this as being that the one person who intended to get the splinter out of the second person's eye was trying to solve the perceived sin of the second person, and that the problem was that the log in his own eye was a greater sin that blinded him to the problem. Well, I no longer think that the log or the splinter in all cases represent sin. I think the log represents anything that obstructs your ability to help another person with an issue. If you don't know the details of the difficulty, you might, like Job's friends, assume the problem is their sin when in reality it might not be. If you work on their problem without clarifying your vision regarding the nature of what needs to be solved, you can't help them solve it, and you might cause further damage. The splinter can represent any personal difficulty that provokes others to want to help solve it. It might be sin; it might be depression or grief; and it might be any variety or bundle of personal problems.

So then there is the matter of how to get the log out of your eye. I think the baseline equipping that we have to do so is first Bible study and prayer. Not that we always have time to go to the Bible when we see a person in need, but our lives need to be equipped; we need to be faithful in these disciplines, so that, abiding in Christ, we are given the necessary discernment, wisdom, compassion, boldness, mercy, and fitting words that can bring healing and if necessary, repentance to the person in need of help. Unarmed with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing of spiritual value in our own strength. With Him, we can have the wisdom to ask questions, the discernment to realize the nature of the problem, and the attitude and words that can heal rather than add to the primary problem.

Oh to Have the Boldness of Luther!

2013-05-19T17:31:00.001-07:00

I am reading The Bondage of the Will, by Martin Luther. It isn't the first book I would have picked up to read; I probably would have passed over it until I was at least 120. But a friend, one of the elders in our church, gave it to me, not because he had read it; it was new and he hadn't. I'm not sure why he wanted me to read it. But I'm almost halfway through it and one thing I can say: It is easy to see Luther's God-given passion for that which he believes and of which he is convinced. He is assured, unflinching, adamant, passionate. Erasmus has written a book on behalf of the Catholic Church (who Luther so thoroughly offended with his 92 theses), urging Luther to make peace with the head honchos there, and essentially saying that these issues are not worth the division that they bring. The weird thing about this book is that Luther's passionately argumentative style does not remind me of any Christian I know; it reminds me of my sister, who went on and on for pages in a letter once because she thought that from a passing remark I made that I don't like animals. (I don't mind animals; I just am glad not to have any.) She could be so passionate and attack me for pages over such a trivial issue; we as Christians on the other hand are entrusted with the mystery of the Gospel and the responsibility to care for one another. We have all the more reason to be passionate, and yet the Church today is pitiful in its weak and cowering attitude toward any opposition the Gospel brings.

Luther's writings show me how much that passion has gone from our Christianity. We know the truth (thanks in great part to Luther and his passionate stand for Bible truth: "Here I stand; I can do no other"), but most of us at best would give a flimsy sentence or two to anyone who opposed an issue that was central to our faith. Those of us who say more can expect to be called intolerant troublemakers, and divisive. This is one harm in our American Christian culture that definitely needs to turn completely around: the indignant opposition to biblical correction, admonishment, or exhortation of believers; it will cause us to miss out on a huge potential for growth and strength in our walk. The Church as a result can only expect to be poorly equipped when times of real persecution actually come. We seem to think that it is only God who should have the privilege of correction and admonishment, but this view only confirms our biblical illiteracy. The Scriptures are replete with passages that clearly exhibit God's desire for us to correct and be corrected in matters of the faith.

Christianity that is lived out elsewhere or which is historically evident and biblically prescribed differs so much from our American version. The differences are striking: Christians in other countries and throughout history have endured much more persecution and difficulty than we generally do; they face a very real possibility of dying for this faith that requires a clear and unflinching witness; because of these things, their Christianity is more surely authentic and their growth in faith and faithfulness is probably a far less gradual thing than here as a rule. I expect that people in other places and times grasp the harder lessons of the faith and have the passion to live a life of pleasing God and denying self. Part of this comes from the Scriptures, where people sold their property and gave the money and other belongings to the church so that no one had any lack (Acts 4:32-37), or sang when imprisoned (Acts 16:25), or shared the Gospel as soon as they were free (Acts 4:19-20, 5:42); where the witness of Christians results in thousands turning to Christ in one event (Acts 2:41). I know that wherever a believer lives, the struggle with sin and self-protection continues regardless of nationality. But persecution sifts the wheat from the chaff. Who is going to live casually or inauthentically for Christ in a hostile culture if living for Christ quite possibly means dying for Him?

Even though the American Christian doesn't generally have to fear much persecution, we are immersed in a narcissistic, private, self-protective, individualistic culture. So we don't readily welcome any inquiry or correction about ourselves, our sin nature (even though we all have it; that's one universal trait we have in common) and how we live our lives. Suggest to an American Christian that there's something amiss in their lives and their indignation and pushback is almost guaranteed. This isn't how the Scriptures paint the right response to correction. We are urged to address sin in others who claim Christ as their own; we are urged to welcome correction--both because speaking the truth can save a person from greater error and from wandering from the faith. I wish this were taught and encouraged more in the church. I wish it were expected and embraced among believers. It isn't, from my experience, and that will be to our harm and if it were possible, to diminish the glory that we are equipped to bring to Jesus Christ.

It appears in Ephesians that God put vocal people in the church to build it up, to raise new believers to maturity, to help put aside deception. We are to speak the truth to one another in love in order that the Church may grow into a functional whole:

Ephesians 4:11-15 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, ¹²to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, ¹⁴so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.¹⁵Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

It isn't just the pastor's job, or the Holy Spirit's job, to speak into the lives of the believers around us:

Hebrews 3:12-14 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.¹³But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.

If we say something to someone that might turn him around in repentance, or correct a misconception about the faith, the results can be huge. This is definitely prescribed in the Scriptures:

James 5:19-20 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, ²⁰let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

It takes courage to speak up, especially in this culture. Courage and boldness are basic requirements for effective ministry. We need to pray that like Luther, we all are courageous and bold; pray for your friends and have them pray for you, so that the truth might be addressed in your times of fellowship, so that the Church as a whole might grow strong and true, as God intended.

We Live in a World of Supernatural Wonder!

2012-04-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

I watched a video of an interview between Doug Wilson, a cessationist, and Mark Driscoll, a more charismatic preacher. It was a charming discussion regarding how they differ on how and whether the Holy Spirit is active today. By the end, my impression was that they agreed far more than they would have originally thought, and I loved how they remained friendly and funny all the way through, not becoming tense. That easy, friendly attitude comes more readily and you can allow for differences if you know that the basics of faith in who Christ is, and what He has done, are firmly in place in all parties of your discussion. Then you know that you still converse with a brother or sister in the faith, and the differences are just grounds for iron sharpening iron, a good and productive practice of fellowship in Christ.

Our family used to go to a cessationist church. Soon after we started there, the pastor started on a sermon series that ran about 20 or 30 sermons long on how the gifts of the Holy Spirit had ceased. At the time I believed him entirely and thought I had received a thorough and scholarly rendering of the subject. Later we started at another church, where our pastor lent me a couple of books by Jack Deere that came at it from the opposite point of view. I don't remember whether I thoroughly agreed with him by the time I finished reading his works, but I do remember re-reading 1 Corinthians 12-14 and realizing the Love chapter was nestled in like the pull-out corsage that was nestled in the midst of my bridal bouquet...the only problem being that most people pull it out and forget the bouquet surrounding it, all about the spiritual gifts. Why would God have so much in the New Testament about His supernatural works and what to do with them, if they were not going to be present for His church after the canon was closed?

I know that my kneejerk response to these books would have been to never even read them if I had received them in the wrong timing. By the time I got them, though, I had come to realize how stifling the power of the Holy Spirit in the first church had brought about the series of events that had caused us to eventually leave: We had found that the pastor was plagiarizing sermons because he said emphatically that he was "not capable of writing a decent sermon." He had been working as a pastor for years, and had not been writing any of his own sermons in the process. Where is the power of the Holy Spirit? Could he not access His inspiration to come alongside and equip him for this vital work of service? No--he'd already established that the Holy Spirit is not very active in the present day, and he would not have even considered that possibility.

There was one observation that Doug Wilson stated, that our world is a strange and magical place. I avoid the flippant use of the word "magic," but in this use it is well-stated. His stance is that the Holy Spirit is not so fully active as many Christians claim; but he knows that many supernatural things occur that no man can explain. Many of these are evil, and those fall into the category of magic, Satan's activity that is often a counterfeit of God's use of power; sometimes it is just sheer evil activity without so much reference to God as opposition to His work. Wilson acknowledged a few supernatural nudgings of the Holy Spirit that bring a Christian response, or that bring an unbeliever to salvation, but other than that he didn't really have much to say about whether God works miracles in these days.

I think that if a person would acknowledge that we live in a strange and magical place, but wouldn't acknowledge that God is doing anything supernatural, they would be saying that Satan is doing more to communicate with the people here than God is. I believe the opposite is true. Hopefully the Scriptures illustrate just how much the Holy Spirit is an essential worker in helping us to see God's divine hand. Our very understanding of the Scriptures is His doing, or it would come across as foolishness. Our initial response to God, our salvation, is His doing. Psalm 19:1 says that the heavens declare the glory of God, the skies proclaim the works of His hands. But without the Holy Spirit drawing us in that direction, our hearts would never see God in it.

The Holy Spirit is more active than just that, too. Probably not so much in our United States as overseas, probably not in the ways that are practiced in far too many churches, that undisciplined, out-of-control, disorderly and self-glorifying way....no, but don't you hear story after story of how He works in the lands where Christianity is illegal, or persecuted, or otherwise stifled? Where the Word of God is hardly present, where people have no natural contact with His Church, there are stories of people hearing a voice, having a dream, being directed to a place where they hadn't intended to go, making some supernatural discovery that leads them to salvation in Christ. If you read the writings by or about missionaries, these stories are plentiful in their world. I am thankful that our world is not limited to the things we can sense as the natural world; I am thankful that God has left the supernatural impact present. There's a war going on in that realm, and sometimes we feel its presence. There's a spiritual realm that sometimes breaks through the natural world and makes itself known. I'm glad to know even that the evil is there, so I can appeal to my God to help me; I'm glad to know that our good and holy God is there, acting and speaking to me in the present day, coming alongside as my Paraklete, my Help, my Comforter. Where would I be without Him? I would be doomed, hopeless, blind and separated from my Creator. Hallelujah! He is an active, ever-present, supernatural help in all my life (John 14:16-17).

My Mind Instructs me in the Night

2011-11-02T08:01:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a project that has become something of an obsession. The general idea is to create an online store. But I don't know how to make a website (yet) and I don't want to rely on one of those ready-made ones that you can get for really an amazing low price. I have a feeling that eventually the price would rise and kill my idea...or that their limitations would hamper what I'm doing. Maybe not. But first I wanted to learn everything I could about websites.

In the process I have learned an incredible amount about the amazing resources available online, and realize just how easy this whole thing will be. I've checked out some books. I didn't know that you can build a webpage on Microsoft Word! Wow. And I have, last I checked, 17 pages of links that have to do with starting a business, building a website, or finding work online. I think I could blog forever about this! But not today.

The fantastic thing about this is that even though in this obsession, I've felt that I haven't been as deep into God's Word as I want to be, as I usually am (though I haven't neglected it, it just hasn't been as much at the forefront), I woke up this morning with some terrific ideas about this business idea. I know they're from God. I know that I can use them in setting up my business to His glory.

One thing is that I can put a percentage of what it makes toward a cause my Katie woke me up to, the sex slave trade. Her church did a seminar about it, and she went to Nepal lately on a missions trip to see how her church could make a hole in it there. They worked through the organization, She is Safe. Katie learned a lot before and during her trip and inspired me, but I was thinking, "What can one (pretty broke) person do?" I felt helpless to do much for her cause, though I cared about it. But without my even thinking I was building this business idea for that purpose, God connected the dots for me.

Then He also showed me, also in my sleep, the other ways this could glorify Him. I could have a blog connected with the business that could help others see the way to build their own online shop; therefore once I get my feet more or less on the ground with this, I could help others out of financial hopelessness. That's so exciting to me!

The icing on the cake? I even have a name for my business now, and I didn't strain my brain to find it; it was in my head when I woke up. I'm not telling what it is until the business is unveiled. But I'm excited. I tried finding a website with it online. There wasn't one; chances are it's available. Is God not amazing? Yes, we knew that!

Psalm 16:7 I will bless the LORD who has counseled me; Indeed, my mind instructs me in the night.

Casting Pearls

2011-05-10T14:15:00.000-07:00

Just recently I was in an online theological discussion with a number of others with a variety of takes on biblical truth. The more we talked the more differences appeared. At first it seemed like a discussion, but the more differences appeared, the more it became a debate, an argument; the tone started changing from one with various perspectives to one of hanging onto personal status quo. At that point discussion is no longer productive, and I signed off. In the meantime, however, a lot of wildly different beliefs were shown and each would produce a Bible verse or a non-scriptural mantra.

One of the first confusions I encountered: The two words, "with favor" left out of the verse Habakkuk 1:13a, Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You can not look on wickedness with favor seemed to confound the conversation. Even when it was pointed out that the verse has those words, people argued about the inconsistency about God not being able to look upon sin, that if He couldn't, how could Jesus come to earth and walk and eat with tax collectors and sinners? They asked where in the Bible it said that God couldn't look upon sin. The problem in showing that...is that the Bible doesn't say that. They didn't want to hear the whole of Habakkkuk 1:13, that proved just an annoyance to their (s)train of thought.

Then the definition of sin became an issue. One woman asked why God doesn't like sin...which I thought would be easy to clarify, since sin is defined by whatever offends His holiness...that anything apart from faith is sin (Rom. 14:23). But it wasn't that easy. She told me to think, that God gave me a brain, and that my thinking was circular. Well, since my thinking is circular and hers is clearly not, we had a communication gap that I did not know how to bridge. I thought about it later, and I imagine that her definition of sin is more cultural, that to her way of thinking, sin is anything that offends people morally...which is a very vague, changeable, arguable, and powerless definition. Sin defined by culture can vary greatly, even in the same culture over a short period of years, as we've seen here in the United States. Sin defined by biblical truth, by God's holiness, is a constant, a standard, sure and fast, compelling those who fear God to live in obedience to Him. If I were just accountable to the culture I wouldn't feel compelled not to sin, but only to hide that which would bring unwanted human condemnation. If I didn't care what people thought, I would have no controls in my life at all...which is just how I think many, if not most, people live.

There are times when you can think that a conversation is going to be workable, that the people you are discussing things with will be receptive to biblical truth. When that goes out the window, it's time to move on. In this case it seemed that if they are destined to come to know Christ, the time was not then, and the messenger was not me. But I hope I "put a rock in their shoe" as an elder in our church would call it. When excitement turns to exasperation, it's likely that you're casting your pearls before swine and you might as well save your breath. But God's word does not come back to Him void; I hope I may have given her one in a string of pearly biblical truths that she may have to go collecting, a little here, a little there, that may someday come together and become a cohesive thing of beauty.

Bin Laden's Death and the Variety of Christian Responses

2011-05-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

Each person’s reaction to Bin Laden’s death tells something about how we align ourselves with God, or about what aspect of God we perceive, and relate to, most vividly. I expect that we can find scriptural backing for any reaction that we express, assuming therefore that it reflects the very character of God. In Bin Laden’s death, I realize that the military did what was right as far as I can tell, and for any reduction in terrorism, we can rejoice; still, our personal reaction to Bin Laden’s death itself is, I think, an opportunity for self-examination, that we might be aligned with God’s will for such lost people. The fact that there is such a vast variety of responses to his death even among Christians is stunning, when since we have the mind of Christ, I would think we would be fairly like-minded. This variety tells me that we all view a different emphasis of Scripture truth applied to the life and death of Bin Laden (and perhaps any unbeliever).

Perhaps we want to implement God’s sense of justice (Deut. 16:20), and our main concern is gladness that justice has humanly been served.

Perhaps we want to express His hatred of sin (Hab. 1:13), and we are therefore glad that one less sinner is wreaking death and destruction on the planet. God can’t look on sin with favor, because He is holy; and it isn’t that we ought to look on the sin of men with favor, but because we aren’t entirely holy, and have experienced the guilt of sin, perhaps we can call to remembrance that darkness and an understanding of the unbeliever’s urgent need for salvation.

Perhaps we want to exact God’s vengeance (Romans 12:19), and so as Muslims celebrated 9-11, we might dance and celebrate in the streets at this victory, knowing that they may see it on their news reports half a world away. Though…we might in this forget, because of the emphasis placed on the three words, vengeance is Mine…that indeed, it is His alone, that in the same breath He says not to take our own vengeance. Vengeance is an attribute of God that clearly doesn’t belong to us.

Or perhaps it is sorrow, that Bin Laden never realized in all his earthly life the knowledge of God that would have transformed his thinking and his actions, that would have particularly made a huge difference in at least the last ten years of the world’s history (Ephesians 2:11-12) and in his personal eternity; he died to end a destructive, fruitless and hopeless life.

Or perhaps it is mourning, realizing that God’s desire is that none should perish, and that everyone should come to salvation (2 Peter 3:9). In light of this verse, I think that God is grieved that Bin Laden died still separated from Him and therefore condemned to an eternity in hell.

I’m sure I’ve missed some of the variety of responses, but this probably covers the bulk of them. I think our reaction may illuminate how we perceive our own salvation to have occurred. Did it occur because we were worthy, that God saw something good in us that made Him want to redeem us more than our unsaved neighbors? Did it occur because we would become something good so readily after being saved, and since God knew that, He chose us? Or did it occur in a way that would never make sense to us this side of heaven? It seems that Christians’ perceptions tend to fall into these three categories pretty clearly. In fact, I think I’ve fallen into all of these categories, especially at the beginning of my Christian walk; I probably still forget, too, in the present, just how only one of these categories truly fits. Nothing we have done contributes to our own salvation: it’s not by our works of righteousness; apart from Christ we have nothing to offer God (Titus 3:5; Rom. 3:10-18; Isa. 64:6). Even David didn’t claim righteousness of his own doing.

If we believe that we had something good in us that caused God to choose us, then we believe a blatant lie that has nothing to do with the Scriptures and we need to go back and re-examine them. I think that this stance is what brings us to hold and display the most prideful of attitudes toward unbelievers; we think that their inferiority is established by the fact that God has chosen us and has not deigned to choose them. Anything that comes from such a prideful perspective so muddles our witness that the love of God toward unbelievers becomes virtually obliterated and it’s no wonder that unbelievers come away with the view of Christians being hypocrites.

If we believe that God foresaw that we would become such a good and helpful addition soon after salvation that it caused Him to save us, then we are again dead wrong and we need to take another look at the Scriptures. At least in this instance a person could attribute that stance to the progress we make in our sanctification; but still, that is God working in and through us, not anything that is brought about by any of our goodness, so we’re still completely off base. This view is also likely to cause a distorted view of God’s love and salvation in our approach to unbelievers.

It is only God’s grace and mercy that has saved us (Ephesians 2:8); it was nothing in us before we were saved, and remains all His grace and mercy even now. We are, apart from Him, completely as unworthy and would be as completely unregenerate as the worst of sinners. Therefore even Hitler and Bin Laden were both as worthy as we are to receive salvation (which is, not worthy at all); we have no grounds to rejoice in their death.

We sing, “Lord, give me Your eyes for just one second, give me Your eyes so I can see everything that I keep missing, give me Your love for humanity,” and then spew violent reactions to the news of Bin Laden’s death. There are many traits of God that we will imitate and show to unbelievers; this incident makes me see all the more the truth of 1 Corinthians 13, a whole chapter devoted to God’s love shown through the believer…no chapter devoted to the goodness or superiority of the believer. If we show no other trait of God to anyone, we should show His love. We should put aside our assessment of the person’s worthiness, because all of humanity shares in that same need for the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ, including ourselves.

Cutting Expenses (First Edition)

2010-09-13T00:08:00.000-07:00

I originally posted this to my facebook account but thought more accessibility to more people might be in order. So here it is! I put this together out of concern for those who seem to be struggling financially but inexplicably--where both the husband and the wife work and they still barely get by, for example. I could tell stories of how our financial picture doesn't make sense...but that's not the point of this blog. God has been gracious to help me be a frugal sort, which has been very needed in my life, and I want to help others to have that mindset as well, especially in these times.

My area of financial skill is more in the area of knowing a bargain and getting by on the least possible. I’m not a financial guru or a budgeting fanatic, but I also enjoy compiling resources and I love getting the best deal possible; I hate wasting money. I don’t personally know the quality of each and every one of these resources. Use God’s wisdom and the common sense He gave you in how you use them, but generally I think they could do most of us a great deal of good!

Another note: How did I find this stuff? I looked in magazine articles (from magazines I’d already bought at the library for 25 cents each); I used google; and I checked out library books. When I reserved the library books, I was shocked at how fast ALL of them showed up on the holds shelf waiting for me. Apparently no one checks out books on saving money. I don’t know why, in this economy.

Please respond with any further information (including warnings about websites) that you would like to share...

CHRISTIAN FINANCIAL MINISTRIES:
Crown Financial Ministries, originated by Larry Burketthttp://www.crown.org/
Dave Ramseyhttp://www.daveramsey.com/
Sound Mind Investinghttp://www.soundmindinvesting.com/index1.php
Debt-Proof Living, originated by Mary Hunthttp://www.debtproofliving.com/
(has an optional $29 membership fee that enables you to use their repayment plan.)

GENERALLY LOWERING BILLS:
Tip Hero: Your Guide to Saving Money:http://www.tiphero.com/
190 Resources for Saving Money:http://www.wisebread.com/resources
168 Frugal Tips to Make Your Dollar Stretch:http://beingfrugal.net/2008/04/03/frugal-tips-to-survive-a-recession/
125 Tips to Save Money:http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/money/budget/125-tips-to-save-money
101 Ways to Cut Your Spending This Year:http://beingfrugal.net/2010/01/06/101-ways-to-save-money/
Compare low rates on monthly bills:http://lowermybills.com/
Frugal Living worksheets:http://frugalliving.about.com/od/frugalliving101/a/Frugal_Wkshts.htm
40+ Ways to Survive a Recession:http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/money/budget/survive-recession
How to Get out of Debt Fast:http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/money/budget/out-of-debt-aug05
16 Rules about choosing which debts to pay first:http://www.operationthreshold.org/Links/Sixteen%20Rules%20About%20Choosing%20Which%20Debts%20to%20Pay%20First.pdf
Woman’s Day Magazine articles on saving money (some by Mary Hunt; Look at “Debt Reduction” rather than their “Saving Money” articles):http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Money/Saving-Money/WD-Saves!.html
Miserly Moms:http://www.miserlymoms.com/
Rapid Debt Repayment Plan:http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/money/budget/debt-reduction-tips
Debt Management Resources:http://www.wisebread.com/debt

Check out these books at the library for free! http://www.sno-isle.org/:
Debt-Proof Living: the complete guide to living financially free, by Mary Hunt, 332.024 HUNT
The Complete Cheapskate, by Mary Hunt
Total Money Makeover, by Dave Ramsey
The Money Answer Book: quick answers to your everyday financial questions, by Dave Ramsey 332.024 RAMSEY
The financial peace planner: a step-by-step guide to restoring your family's financial health, by Dave Ramsey 332.024 RAMSEY
Pricele$$: Straight-shooting, No Frills Financial Wisdom, Dave Ramsey332.024 RAMSEY
Financial Peace Revisited, by Dave Ramsey 332.024 RAMSEY
More Than Enough: the ten keys to changing your financial destiny, by Dave Ramsey
Grow Your Money! by Jonathan Pond
Your Money, the Missing Manual, by J.D. Roth
The Power to Prosper: 21 Days to Financial Freedom
The Ultimate Cheapskate’s Roadmap to True Riches, by Jeff Yeager
The Sharing Solution: How to Save Money, Simplify Your Life, and Build Community, by Janelle Orsi & Emily Daskow
Money Talks and so can We, by Ron and Judy Blue (Christian)
The Little Book of Big Savings, by Ellie Kay
Living Rich for Less, by Ellie Kay
Half-Priced Living, by Ellie Kay
101 Small Business Ideas for Under $5,000,by Corey Sandler and Janice Keefe
Freedom of Simplicity: Finding Harmony in a Complex World, by Richard Foster
The Busy Family’s Guide to Money—USA Today, by Sandra Block, Kathy Chu, and John Waggoner

MONEY CRISES:
How to Handle a Money Crisis:http://www.christianity.com/Christian%20Living/Features/11546733/
How to Deal with a Financial Emergency—Coping with a Financial Crisis:http://financialplan.about.com/od/personalfinance/a/FinancialCrisis.htm
Why You Need an Emergency Fund:http://financialplan.about.com/od/savingmoney/a/emergencyfund.htm
Bankruptcy:
The Bankruptcy Dilemma:http://www.christianity.com/Christian%20Living/Features/11622661/

BANKING:
FNBODirect.comhttps://www.fnbodirect.com/01d/html/en/
E*Tradehttps://us.etrade.com/e/t/home/beta-c?PageName=hpcontrolg%3FPageName%3Dhp_beta
ING Directhttp://home.ingdirect.com/
HSBC Directhttp://www.us.hsbc.com/1/2/1

ATM FEES:
Find out which ATMs are free for your bank; avoid others; use point-of-sale machines (such as at grocery check-out) instead to access cash. Don’t use for-fee transaction machines at gas stations.

BUDGET:
The Best Budgeting Tools:http://beingfrugal.net/2008/03/07/best-budgeting-tools/
Budgeting 101: Everything You Need to Know About Budgets:http://financialplan.about.com/od/budgetingyourmoney/tp/budgeting-101.htm
Managing Money: Budget Basics:http://financialplan.about.com/od/budgetingyourmoney/a/BudgetBasics.htm
How to Create a Frugal Budget:http://frugalliving.about.com/od/frugalliving101/ht/Frugal_Budget.htm

GIVING:
ECFA: “Helping Christ-centered organizations earn public's trust through developing, maintaining accountability standards and God-honoring ethical practices.” You can find out a lot about charities through this website.http://www.ecfa.org/HomePage.aspx

EMPLOYMENT:http://www.monster.com/
http://www.careerbuilder.com/

FLEXIBLE EMPLOYMENT (I don't personally know these sites):http://www.momcorps.com/
Home-based Working Moms:http://www.hbwm.com/
http://www.alpineaccess.com/en/
http://liveops.com/
http://www.arise.com/
http://workingsolutions.com/
http://repsforrent.com/
http://acddirect.com/

FOOD:
Grocery shopping: Make sure you go to the least expensive stores: Winco, Walmart, Costco…
Even then, know your prices and only buy when the sales are good!
Locate Organic fruit and veggie co-ops:http://www.localharvest.org/
Couponing:http://www.cellfire.com/deals.php
http://www.couponcabin.com/
http://couponing.about.com/ - Type in “grocery stores that double coupons”http://www.couponmom.com/
http://mommysavesbig.com/
http://mygrocerydeals.com/
http://www.retailmenot.com/
http://shortcuts.com/
http://www.thegrocerygame.com/ (I don't know about the others, but this has a fee-based service; still, it might save you money.)https://www.angelfoodministries.com/ (This is a nationwide ministry.)http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/money/budget/supersaver-secrets-0907

Saving money on groceries:http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/for-the-home/11-tips-to-cut-grocery-bills/
Shave $150/week off your Grocery Bill:http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/20/pf/grocerybills_startmoney_0601/index.htm

COOKING:
Free Recipes:http://allrecipes.com/
Cheap recipes:http://www.miserlymoms.com/frugalrecipes_updated.html
Saturday Throwback: 65 Cheap, Healthy One-Dish Meals with Good Leftover Potentialhttp://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2010/09/saturday-throwback-65-cheap-healthy-one.html
20 Cheap, Healthy Dishes Made from 10 Pantry Staples:http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2008/07/20-cheap-healthy-dishes-made-from-10.html
Cheap, Healthy Salad Dressings: 102 Light Recipes:http://cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com/2008/04/cheap-healthy-salad-dressing-102-light.html
Find recipes that use ingredients that you already have at home:http://www.supercook.com/
Low-cost healthy recipes from the USDA:http://recipefinder.nal.usda.gov/
Once-a-Month Cooking, by Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg
The $5 Dinner Mom Cookbook, by Erin ChaseMORTGAGE:
Refinance for a lower rate, and a shorter term if feasible.
Best Financial Move: 15-year Mortgagehttp://financialplan.about.com/cs/mortgagesloans/a/15YrMortgages.htm
A 15-year Mortgage Isn’t for Everyonehttp://www.marketwatch.com/story/a-15-year-mortgage-isnt-for-everyone-2010-08-30

INCOME TAX:
Adjust withholdings?http://irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p919.pdf

DAYCARE:Does it pay for Mom to work outside of the home and put the kids in daycare? Snohomish County median childcare rates for school age children was 412/mo.; for infants to preschool, $758/mo.
Enter that into the following website:http://moneycentral.msn.com/personal-finance/calculators/Adding_a_second_income_calculator/home.aspx
You’re likely to find that even having one young child in daycare often causes the mom’s income to evaporate completely. If not, you’ll at least find out what your hourly earnings are coming out to. I quit working when my husband was earning $9.50 part-time. We never went on public support...and it was 1 1/2 years before he got a better job. I don't remember clearly, I imagine we were in debt by the time that was through...but we probably were to begin with, too! I do remember realizing how little difference it made in our finances that I wasn't working.

YOUR ACTUAL HOURLY WAGE:
http://www.justmommies.com/articles/hourly_wage.shtml

CREDIT COUNSELING:
Consumer Credit Counseling Service
800-388-2227http://www.consumercredit.com/
Debtors Anonymous:http://debtorsanonymous.org/
National Association of Personal Finance Advisors:http://napfa.org/

COMPARE CREDIT CARDS:
http://www.creditcards.com/
http://www.bankrate.com/
http://lookupcreditcards.com/
And never sign up for store credit cards for any one-time bonus! Their interest rates are sky-high, and they won’t do your credit rating any good.

BALANCE TRANSFER OPTIONS:
(Always read the fine print.)http://www.cardtrak.com/
http://www.indexcreditcards.com/

CREDIT REPORT:
Free credit reporthttps://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
FICO Score report with $16-50 fee:http://www.myfico.com/Default.aspx
Books:
Your Credit Score, Your Money, and What’s at Stake, by Liz Pulliam Weston

AUTOMATIC PAYMENTS:
Check your charge card statements and make sure each month that no automatic renewals are applied for things you don’t want any more.

INSURANCE:
If there is a stay-at-home mom or you work from home, see about getting “For Pleasure Only” car insurance coverage rather than the usual which covers commutes etc.
Don’t sign up for roadside assistance if you also have another program such as AAA.
Read this article for other ways to save.http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/money/budget/insurance-savings-may07
Various articles on saving money on insurance:http://www.wisebread.com/topic/personal-finance/insurance

HEALTH INSURANCE WEBSITES:http://www.medhealthinsurance.com/
http://www.gohealthinsurance.com/index.html
http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/

HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS:
Rate doctors, hospitals and nursing homes:http://www.healthgrades.com/
NIH re: Medical trials:http://clinicaltrials.gov/
Financing plan for Medical Care:
http://www.carecredit.com/
(payment over 90 days without interest)
Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs:http://www.consumerreports.org/health/best-buy-drugs/index.htm
Partnership for Prescription Assistance:http://www.pparx.org/
http://www.needymeds.org/
Books:
Healthcare for Less: Getting the Care You Need—Without Breaking the Bank, by Michelle Katz, MSN
99 Practical Ways to Save on Prescription Drugs, by Noel Magsino, 615.1

HOME ENERGY USE:
Home Energy Audit:http://hes.lbl.gov/
Energy-saving resources:http://www.blackenergy.com/
http://www.smarthomeusa.com/
Light Bulbs: Compact flourescents.
Lower your electric bill:http://www.smartmoney.com/spending/deals/13-simple-ways-to-lower-your-electric-bill-22933/
Tips for Saving Energy:http://www.otpco.com/SaveEnergyMoney/Tips4SavingEnergy.asp
http://www.fypower.org/res/tools/energy_tips.html
Low-income energy bill assistance:http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/liheap/
Save Money on Heating Costs:http://financialplan.about.com/od/savingmoney/a/HeatingCosts.htm
Save Money on Your Home Expenses:http://financialplan.about.com/cs/frugalliving/a/101YourHome.htm

GARBAGE:
Do you often have more garbage than you can fit in your trash can, and have to pay for extra pick-up? Make sure you’re recycling everything you can, especially if pickup of recycling is free; it will reduce the amount of trash pickup that you’re paying for.

FRUGAL BLOGS:http://www.wisebread.com/
http://www.centsible-sawyer.com/
http://beingfrugal.net/
http://www.5dollardinners.com/
The Simple Dollarhttp://www.thesimpledollar.com/
Five-Cent Nickelhttp://www.fivecentnickel.com/

REDUCE INPUT FROM MARKETERS:
Cancel Unwanted Catalogs:http://www.catalogchoice.org/
Do Not Call:www.donotcall.org
Avoid Junk Mail:
Mail Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
11 West 42nd St.
P.O. Box 3861
New York, NY 10163-3861
(Send them a postcard with “Take me off your mailing list” and with your address on it.)

FITNESS CLUBS:
If you don’t use them, cancel your memberships.

CHEAPEST GAS:http://gasbuddy.com/
http://gaspricewatch.com/new/default_V3.asp
http://fueleconomy.gov/

RESTAURANTS:
If you want Red Robin or other restaurant food where takeout is an option, you’ll save yourself the cost of a tip by taking it home with you rather than sitting there in the restaurant. You’ll also be less likely to buy the drinks that cost $4-10, or desserts, that you can provide at home for so much cheaper.
Restaurant Gift Certificates:http://www.restaurant.com/index.asp?Entertainment Coupon Books:http://www.entertainment.com/discount/home.shtml
http://www.valpak.com/coupons/home
http://www.valpak.com/coupons/home
http://www.rewardsnetwork.com/
http://www.upromise.com/welcome

BOOKS:
Trade with or borrow from friends. Go to the library or buy used at thrift shops.

NEWSPAPERS:
Cancel your newspaper and read news from various providers online.
Top 100 newspapers by circulation:http://newspapers.com/top100.html
World Magazine (Christian):http://www.worldmag.com/index.cfm
Fox News:http://www.foxnews.com/
Voice of the Martyrs:http://www.persecution.com/

TELEVISION, PHONE, and INTERNET:
Bundle onto one carrier. Make sure that you don’t pay for any services that you don’t need, such as call waiting and premium TV channels.
Maybe drop your land phone line and just use cell and Skype.
Get free TV online:http://www.hulu.com/
Free long distance:http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home
Free directory assistance:
800-FREE-411 (you have to listen to a brief ad first)

COMPARISON SHOPPING:http://mybargainbuddy.com/
http://slickdeals.net/
http://www.pricegrabber.com/
http://www.mysimon.com/
http://www.bizrate.com/http://www.shopzilla.com/

ONLINE SHOPPING:
Ten dos and don’ts of online shopping:http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Money/10-Dos-and-Don-ts-of-Online-Shopping.html

ONLINE REBATES:http://www.ebates.com/
http://www.upromise.com/welcome
HAIR SALONS:
Go to a beauty school or find out how to do your hair for yourself. Same with manicures, pedicures…http://frugalliving.about.com/od/beautyhealthcare/tp/Save_on_Haircuts.htm
How to Do Your Own Manicureshttp://www.ehow.com/how_5222073_do-own-manicure.html
How to Give Yourself a Pedicurehttp://www.ehow.com/how_2554_give-yourself-pedicure.html

MOVIES:
Buy them at thrift shops; trade with friends; rent from Redbox for $1/night; watch those that you’re already getting free with your cable channel; rent them on your cable channel; or if you go to Regal Cinemas theater, seehttp://www.corporateboxoffice.com/c-2-discount-movie-tickets.aspx to buy tickets in quantity and get a discount.http://www.entertainment.com/discount/home.shtml Buy a coupon book that has movie discount coupons.

COFFEE:
Make lattes at home and save $3/day, $15/week, $60/mo., $720/year!
Use a reusable metal filter to make coffee; then put the coffee in a thermos to keep it hot.
Bring your own mug to refill at your coffee shop if it provides a cheaper price.
Find specialty coffee recipes online.
How to Make Flavored Coffee Syrups:http://www.tiphero.com/tips_3203_how-to-make-flavored-coffee-syrups.html

HOUSEKEEPING:
Give your kids a job chart. Learn to make your own cleaning supplies using things such as vinegar and baking soda; but if you have a front-loading washer, don’t make your own laundry detergent like so many people are doing, thinking they’re saving so much money. You need “h-e” detergent (not a brand, a designation of low-sudsing detergent) or the suds will get into the mechanics and wreck the washer. That’s what happened to our last washer. If you hear it sounding like a plane taking off and you’ve been using ordinary or homemade detergent, it’s probably already on its way down. Ours sounded like that for a year or two and then just gave up. Homemade Cleaning Products:
http://www.tiphero.com/tips_3219_homemade-cleaning-products-for-all-your-cleaning-needs.html
http://www.care2.com/greenliving/make-your-own-non-toxic-cleaning-kit.html#http://www.greenyour.com/home/housekeeping/cleaning-products/tips/make-your-own-household-cleaning-supplies
http://www.inhabitots.com/2008/12/28/how-to-make-kid-safe-homemade-green-cleaning-supplies/

HOME REPAIR:
Become acquainted with doing things yourself. Chances are, with 90% of maintenance and repair, you can find out enough information and buy enough tools to accomplish a task without professional help. (I've fixed washing machines, a microwave, a dryer, ranges; replaced electrical outlets and plug-in cords, installed sinks...after a while it's a little frustrating not to have to hire someone, since you can do it yourself, when you really would rather not.) Find a website that can help you or if that fails, go to a hardware store and ask any store employee or even a friendly customer who might be able to answer your questions. Before you leave home, get all the necessary details: brand, measurements, etc.; maybe bring in some parts that you've taken out to replace. Appliance stores often sell appliance parts; you can't expect to find them at hardware stores.
eHowhttp://www.ehow.com/
Do It Yourselfhttp://www.doityourself.com/
Popular Mechanicshttp://www.popularmechanics.com/

YARD CARE:
I spend about $40/year on fertilizer; a mailer comes around with an estimate that they could fertilize our yard throughout the year for more than $400. Why would I pay them?
Gardening websites:http://gardening.about.com/
http://www.garden.org/
http://www.bhg.com/gardening/
http://www.gardenguides.com/
http://www.sunset.com/garden/
Lawn care:http://search.sunset.com/st-results.html?Ntt=lawn+care
Lawn and Garden Almanac (specific to your zip code):http://www.weather.com/activities/homeandgarden/garden/

LOCAL SIGHTSEEING:http://www.greaterseattleonthecheap.com/
http://www.seattleattractions.com/whattodo
http://www.citypass.com/seattle (sometimes available at Costco)
Entertainment Coupon Books:http://www.entertainment.com/discount/home.shtml

TRAVEL:
40 Most Useful Travel Websites that can Save you a Fortune:http://www.wisebread.com/travel-resources
http://www.costco.com/Home.aspx
http://www.samsclub.com/sams/homepage.jsp
http://www.travelzoo.com/ – sign up for “top 20”http://www.bookingbuddy.com/ (searches the other discount travel sites)http://www.bestfares.com/index.php
http://www.smartertravel.com/
http://www.reserveamerica.com/
http://moments-notice.com/
http://www.rvrental.com/
http://shawguides.com/
http://www.roadscholar.org/
http://www.acacamps.org/
http://www.wildernessvolunteers.org/

STARTING YOUR OWN SMALL BUSINESS:
Business cards:http://vistaprint.com/
Small Business classes:http://sba.gov/
800-UASK-SBAwww.sba.gov/womeninbusiness
Small Business Planner:http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/index.html
“The Small Business Know-How Resource”:http://liraz.com/
The Entrepreneur Network:
800-468-8871
http://tenonline.org/
Website Creation:
http://www.snappages.com/
Serv-U FTP File Server:
http://serv-u.com/
(don’t ask me what this is…I found it categorized under starting your own business…)
Women Entrepreneurhttp://www.womenentrepreneur.com/
Top Ten Work-at-Home Scams:http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Money/Top-10-Work-at-Home-Scams.html
How to Make Money at Home:http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Money/How-to-Make-Money-at-Home.html
National Association of Women Business Owners
800-55-NAWBOwww.nawbo.org
Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE)
800-634-0245www.score.org
Smart Money and their Small Business page too:http://www.smartmoney.com/
http://www.smsmallbiz.com/
National Association for the Self-Employed
$120-$480/year; can get you group health insurance rateshttp://www.nase.org/Home.aspx
Work at Home Kit:http://workathomekit.com/
Moms Work at Home Site:http://momsworkathomesite.com/
http://hiremymom.com/

RETIREMENT:
Retire Rich: A Seven-Step Plan to Jump-Start Your Savings and Quit Work in Style:http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/money/budget/retire-rich-savings-aug06
Social Security benefits:http://ssa.gov/
How to Find a Job in Retirement:http://www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/retirement/how-to-find-a-job-in-retirement/
Books:
Retirement Breakthrough: The Safe, Secure Way to Guaranteed Income You Can't Outlive - In Any Economy, by Richard W. Duff 332.024
401(k) MATCH: Sign up to participate in whatever amount your company is willing to match. If a company matches 5% at $40,000/year, that gives you an extra $166/mo. income!

CHEAP OR EVEN FREE USED STUFF:
Craig’s List:
http://skagit.craigslist.org/
Freecycle:
http://www.freecycle.org/
Thrift Shop: Value Village (Bring a bag of castoffs in when you come, and get a coupon and a tax receipt in return.)
http://www.valuevillage.com/

FREEBIES:
Custom Online Radio:
http://www.pandora.com/Wi-Fi:
http://wififreespot.com/Sheetmusic:
http://www.mutopiaproject.org/Computer help:
http://www.protonic.com/index.php
Foreign Language instruction:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/Free Photo Organizer:
http://picasa.google.com/

The Value of Knowing God

2010-07-29T18:06:00.001-07:00

I am participating in a book study on Knowing God, by J.I. Packer. The thoughts that he presents are sometimes overwhelming, and I've heard people say that it's too hard to understand...and I go because these truths are too hard to understand, and as I kind of hope to be, I end up overwhelmed...and maybe I should be more overcome by that overwhelmedness than I am, at my own smallness of understanding. Instead I am overwhelmed by the very greatness of God who my smallness cannot encompass. It is a happy place to be, rather than to be comfortable with a God I think I can understand and that I might mistakenly hope to manage.
God has presented Himself in finite Scriptures even though He is infinite. It is a very wondrous thing, that He who is infinite has given us only a fairly small collection of writings from which to know Him--and none of us is fully wise enough to know Him well even through reading and re-reading the Scriptures over and over again. And every reading brings us to better knowledge; in every reading, God's Holy Spirit illuminates the Scriptures in a whole new way to our finite minds so that they are never old. So God has pulled a great trick here: He has given us something finite, reflecting an infinite God; and we can never plumb its depths because the Scripture is a living and active Word. It is finite and at the same time infinite in its application and its ability to judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
I go home from the study and the ideas of God's greatness stay with me, wafting around in my thoughts...and bringing me to worship as long as the thoughts remain. Why has He given us His finite but extensive display of who He is, in the Scriptures? It is because He wants us to know Him. He wants us to know Him well. Jesus said that the two greatest commandments are to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourself. He also tells us that we must worship Him in spirit and in truth; that is, with a proper attitude given through the power of the Holy Spirit; and in truth, having an accurate knowledge of who God is--as complete an accurate knowledge as we can assemble in our lifetimes. If we are satisfied with how much we know God, then our knowledge, our faith, and our worship will be puny. Our testimony of who He is and what He does will be limited if we don't stretch ourselves to understand more about Him, and we won't glorify Him as fully as we ought.
He has given us everything we need for life and godliness, in the Scriptures; and yet we lack the wisdom to understand them fully on our own. The writings are of an ancient culture, translated from Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, and giving sometimes deep theological truths that take some study and grappling to understand. So though the Scriptures in themselves are sufficient, our ability to comprehend and then properly apply their meaning is hindered by our ignorance of many things. Therefore it is useful to read what others have articulated after far better study than what we could accomplish on our own. Therefore I like the Packer study. I like it because the book is beyond my full comprehension, as the Scriptures are in so many ways beyond my comprehension. And I especially like it because it shows just how much God Himself will always be far beyond my comprehension. (At least someday I will see Him face to face, beholding His glory!) Meanwhile, I intend to continue to seek to plumb the depths that will always be too deep for me.
'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

The Gospel! A great many verses that cover what it is.

2010-05-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

And...tomorrow I intend to put up a post that covers the gospel, minimally but hopefully adequately, so that you can have a brief version to give to someone in a hurry. And it's late, so I'm not editing this, which I'm sure it needs, but I will...tomorrow...or so...Lord willing!
We are participating in a book study at our church on Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, by J.I. Packer. We discuss the gospel, the importance of the full presentation of it where possible, what all the elements of it are and what evangelism is and isn't. The thing is, I think we as Christians generally all know how to talk about the gospel from a variety of angles. The things we don't always seem so strong on are knowing exactly what the gospel is, and how to get to the point of sharing it. These are the crucial equipment for all of us, and their lack is perhaps the worst weakness many of us share.
The leader of our Bible study wears a bracelet on his wrist with colored beads: black, red, white, green, and yellow. They're not fancy, they're just little cheap plastic beads on a leather strip. But I know what they're about, and the value isn't commercial or showy. I have a Bible with a set of pages in the front. The pages have no words, just glossy plain colors: One page is black, one red, one white, one yellow, and one green. That section of that Bible is called the "Wordless Book." And it has essentially the same message as John's bracelet. There is a children's song that goes with the beads or the pages, and it tells the basic elements of the gospel. It goes like this: "My heart was black with sin, until the Savior came in. (That's the black bead.) His precious blood, I know (the red bead) has washed me white as snow (the white bead). And in His Word I'm told I'll walk the streets of gold (the yellow bead); I'll read my Bible and pray, and grow in Him every day (the green bead)." I prefer to tell the gospel using Bible verses that cover each element of the gospel, because there is supernatural power in God's word; Hebrews 4:12 "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Also Romans 10:17, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." Still, keeping the song in mind is a useful prompt for including all the necessary elements of the gospel.
As I go on in life, I gradually get the idea that there are softer versions of the gospel, and there are some that really get into the nitty gritty of just how great our need is, and the greatness of His provision of mercy and grace that matches that need. I think perhaps some fairly softer versions are adequate to save a person, but just how soft is too soft, I'm not sure. I think that expressing the gospel in the greatest fullness possible should be our ultimate goal, of course always tailoring it to the need and understanding of each audience we have. If we are talking to young children, we of course need to stick to the very basics; if talking to someone whose heart is obviously prepared and receptive, and time will allow, we need to share the fullest extent that we are able.
The sad thing is that some people who are so able to understand the deepest presentation of the gospel might never hear it--maybe the one evangelising them never really learned it, or lacked the courage or opportunity to share it in its magnificent fullness; perhaps because their church doesn't present it; perhaps because they have not succumbed to any urging of the Holy Spirit to investigate it for themselves.
I have tried to collect a rather thorough collection of verses that might cover the gospel in all its beauty. The difficult thing with that collection is trying to sort them or, once I have them, boiling down the collection again to the most basic verses to present the gospel in its most concise fullness. Every verse, providing a bit fuller color and understanding, seems essential when I consider it. So the list may not be useful for presenting the gospel each and every time, but the greatest use for this list might be to memorize the verses for the sake of letting the Holy Spirit guide the evangelist when the opportunity arises. After all, He knows better the need of the hearer, and if I have 60 or 80 salvation verses in my arsenal, He can custom-tailor my presentation of the gospel to the need of the hearer far better than if all I have are 5 or 10 verses. So I enjoy my collection but I never expect that I might share all of them at once with someone in need of salvation in Christ.
I welcome you, by the way, to copy this list of verses for the sake of memorization. Copy them to any word processing program and keep them in your computer; print them up and put them in a handy place; take your favorites and print them in small print to glue into the front of your Bible.
So the essentials of the gospel are covered pretty well in the following verses; if you read them, I think you'll see what I mean; there are some aspects that aren't covered in the song, which might be the more extraneous elements of the gospel, so I've put headers about them, but the song lines are done distinctly in colors (a little garish, but maybe useful:

GOD MADE US (His sovereign right over us for His glory):
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Psalm 139:13-14 For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.
Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD appeared to him from afar, saying, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.”

His Appeal to Us:
John 14:1 "Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.”
Hebrews 4:15-16 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
1 Peter 5:6-7 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.
Hebrews 9:27-28 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
Isaiah 12:3 Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation.
Isaiah 55:1 "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”
Isaiah 55:6 Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.
John 4:7-14 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." She said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?" Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
John 4:15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, so I will not be thirsty nor come all the way here to draw."
John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
Luke 1:37 "For nothing will be impossible with God."
Luke 23:34 But Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.
Luke 6:37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned.”
Matthew 16:19-25 "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was the Christ. From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You." But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's." Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.
Matthew 16:26 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Matthew 16:27 "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS.”
Matthew 19:23-26 And Jesus said to His disciples, "Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, "Then who can be saved?" And looking at them Jesus said to them, "With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
Matthew 5:48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Matthew 6:14-15 "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.”
Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Matthew 7:24-25 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.”
Philippians 3:8-12 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Psalm 139:17-18 How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand. When I awake, I am still with You.
Revelation 22:16-17 "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star." The Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.
Romans 10:12-13 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for "WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED."
Romans 14:12 So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.
Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Zechariah 9:11 As for you also, because of the blood of My covenant with you, I have set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

My heart was black with sin… (Black verses: Our pre-salvation condition of sinfulness; God’s wrath upon us; our need for Christ)
Born into sin:
Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Reality of Our Sin:
James 4:17 Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.
Romans 3:23 …for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he is guilty of all.

Our Ignorance of our Sin:
Psalm 19:12 Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults.
Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
Proverbs 16:25 There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
Proverbs 21:2 Every man's way is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts.
Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”

God’s Knowledge of our Sin:
1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his outer appearance, for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outer appearance, but God looks at the heart.”
Psalm 69:5 O God, it is You who knows my folly, and my wrongs are not hidden from You.
Luke 16:15 And He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.”

Wrath of God because of our Sin:
Exodus 22:24 "And My wrath shall wax hot and I will kill you with the sword and your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless."
Deuteronomy 21-22 "They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God, they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people, I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation for a fire is kindled in Mine anger and shall burn unto the lowest hell and shall consume the earth with her increase and set on fire the foundation of the mountains."
Joshua 23:16 "When you have transgressed the covenant of the Lord your God which He commanded you and have gone and served other gods and bowed yourself to them then shall the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which He hath given you."
2 Kings 22:13 "Go, inquire of the LORD for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the LORD that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us."
Psalm 7:11 God is a righteous judge, and a God who has indignation every day.
Isaiah 5:25 On this account the anger of the LORD has burned against His people, and He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down and the mountains quaked, and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets. For all this His anger is not spent, but His hand is still stretched out.
Isaiah 13:9 "The day of the Lord comes cruel with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it, therefore…
Isaiah 13:13 "I will shake the heavens and the earth shall remove out of her place and the wrath of the Lord of host and in the day of His fierce anger."
Nahum 1:2 A jealous and avenging God is the LORD; the LORD is avenging and wrathful. The LORD takes vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for His enemies.
Romans 1:18-19 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.
Romans 5:7-9 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
Ephesians 5: 6 "Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh the wrath of God on the children of disobedience."
Hebrews 10:31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Revelation l9. "Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword and with it He smites the nations and rules with a rod of iron and treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of almighty God."
Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”
Isaiah 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
Ecclesiastes 7:20 Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.
Luke 13:3 "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Isaiah 64:6 Isaiah 64:6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Romans 3:10-12 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."
2 Peter 2:4-17 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained in greed, accursed children; forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he received a rebuke for his own transgression, for a mute donkey, speaking with a voice of a man, restrained the madness of the prophet. These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.

Man’s Sin Nature/Need for Christ:
Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
Isaiah 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
Isaiah 64:6 For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”
John 8:34 Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”
Romans 3:10-12 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."
Romans 3:23 …for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…
Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Romans 5:19 For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
Romans 5:6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:5-7 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.
Romans 7:4-8:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…
2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Galatians 1:3-5 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.
Ephesians 1:7-8a In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.
Ephesians 2:1-3 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
Philippians 2:5-8 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed--for our testimony to you was believed.
Hebrews 9:11-12 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.
Hebrews 9:22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
Hebrews 10:11-13 Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET.
Hebrews 10:1-4 For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins? But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
James 1:15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
1 Peter 1:17-19 If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit…
1 John 2:1-2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.
1 John 3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 5:12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

Judgment over unrepentant sin:
Ezekiel 5:5-11 "Thus says the Lord GOD, 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her at the center of the nations, with lands around her. But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations and against My statutes more than the lands which surround her; for they have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.' "Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Because you have more turmoil than the nations which surround you and have not walked in My statutes, nor observed My ordinances, nor observed the ordinances of the nations which surround you,' therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Behold, I, even I, am against you, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. And because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have not done, and the like of which I will never do again. Therefore, fathers will eat their sons among you, and sons will eat their fathers; for I will execute judgments on you and scatter all your remnant to every wind. So as I live,' declares the Lord GOD, 'surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and with all your abominations, therefore I will also withdraw, and My eye will have no pity and I will not spare.
Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
Numbers 15:30 But the person who does anything defiantly, whether he is native or an alien, that one is blaspheming the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from among his people.

Until the Savior came in. His precious blood, I know… (Red verses: Jesus’ coming and dying to save us)
John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
1 Corinthians 15:54-57 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Timothy 1:15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit…
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…
2 Corinthians 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
John 10:10 "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
2 Peter 1:2-3 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
Titus 3:5-7 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
1 Timothy 2:5-6 For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.
Isaiah 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
1 John 1:6-7 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Message going out evangelizing:
Ears to Hear:
Matthew 11:15 "He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Matthew 13:9 "He who has ears, let him hear."
Matthew 13:43 "Then THE RIGHTEOUS WILL SHINE FORTH AS THE SUN in the kingdom of their Father He who has ears, let him hear.”
Mark 4:8-9 "Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." And He was saying, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Luke 8:8 "Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great." As He said these things, He would call out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Luke 14:34-35 "Therefore, salt is good; but if even salt has become tasteless, with what will it be seasoned? It is useless either for the soil or for the manure pile; it is thrown out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

Has washed me white as snow…(White verses: Our acceptance of Christ and being made a new creation)
Matthew 11:28 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
John 6:37 "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
John 7:37-38 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'"
Acts 10:43 "Of Him all the prophets bear witness that through His name everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins."
Ephesians 2:5 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
1 Corinthians 15:35-37 But someone will say, "How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?" You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
John 6:40 "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day."
John 1:12-13 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?"
John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
1 John 1:6-7 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Isaiah 1:18 "Come now, and let us reason together," says the LORD, "Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they will be like wool."
John 10:9 "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”
Romans 10:8-10 But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
John 6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.”
Acts 16:31 They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

And in His Word I’m told I’ll walk the streets of Gold… (Gold or yellow verses, regarding our eternal future with God in heaven)
John 4:13-14 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
John 5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
1 Thessalonians 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

I’ll read my Bible and pray, and grow in Him every day! (Green verses, growth in Christ, prayer, Bible reading, sanctification, obedience):
Actually, I'm copping out on this. This is just a matter of reading the whole Bible, which is an integral part to our sanctification, and I can't cover it well in this space! So don't expect a few verses to cover it, I'm leaving it all to you!
God’s faithfulness to us:
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ…
1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jude 24-25 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

A New Personal Insight into Jesus' Taking our Sin on the Cross

2010-05-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

I have been reading two books by Henry Blackaby, Experiencing the Cross, and Experiencing the Resurrection. I find that even though they are simple books, the very simplicity of the truths they contain provides excellent material to stop and ponder. I am not reading quickly through, but (partially just because of the structure of my life) picking them up and reading in small chunks, which is ideal for some of the insights that he gives to sink in with meditation.
One such thing he gave in Experiencing the Resurrection was that one most meaningful verse for him was 2 Corinthians 5:21, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. He made it evident that he had comprehended that verse in more depth than I ever had: he said that he had prayed about that verse and that at times when he was pondering it in prayer, he would weep at the thought of it. I had never even approached that comprehension of the meaning of the verse. So I considered the meaning of it...sinless Jesus Christ, taking and becoming the sin of all the world (or all who would trust in Him, at least, depending on what type of atonement theology is accurate). I started mentally listing all the different kinds of sins I could imagine...the list was long but hardly exhaustive before I grew weary of the thought. Of course there are many types of sin that never occurred to me. Just pondering those that had, though, and all the times that they might have occurred in every life whose sin He took on Himself: all those in history; all those occurring just in the present, and all those which would occur ever in the future until He comes again...then from another angle, all those which I personally had ever knowingly or unknowingly committed. Either way, it was overwhelming.
Part of what helped me put any portion of Jesus' suffering for sin into human perspective was the remembrance of a time when I was accused of sins which I had not committed. Even in recent memory I dealt with this, and though it was a fairly isolated event with a limited focus of accusations, the injustice was difficult for me. But it gives me a tiny personal realization of what a weight it is to have condemnation for sins I had not committed even in the eyes of a mistaken human, a tiny sample of what Jesus did in love and innocence, intentionally adopting our actual guilt for such a multitude of sins in the eyes of an all-knowing God.
I don't think I would have made this connection if it had not been for Blackaby's book. It's an example of how the writings of another can help us to deepen our theological understanding in ways that would never happen on our own. It redeemed what I dealt with, in that my experience helped me to understand the sufferings of Christ; and I also pondered a significant and meaningful verse that I had only dealt with summarily before.

At the Cross You Beckon Me...

2010-05-05T06:56:00.000-07:00

Last week in Sunday school, as we were discussing J.I. Packer's book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, one of the ladies present was saying that she was done considering the cross; she'd understood as much as God let her understand about it, and now it was time for her to just study what Jesus taught about obedience. Thankfully, no one else in the room was supporting this point of view...it brought about a fairly lively discussion on whether this approach to faith was workable or to be recommended. I am afraid she felt rather beaten down as she left, which was not the intent of any of us. But it was a topic that excited us to discuss the vital importance of keeping the cross in front of us and continually central to our learning, meditation, and growth.
In all honesty, I'm very sure there has been a time, probably a long period of time, where I would have readily said the same thing. It's funny how that would have been my point of view more in the earlier years of my Christian walk, and now I feel more convinced that the cross in front of me is essential, that I hardly know enough about it. Its continual presence in my mind is crucial. When it's behind me, I think I have it figured out as much as is humanly possible, and that just knowing that I have been saved by it is enough. It's easier, then, to dismiss the horrific effect of sin, the penalty that was taken from me and laid upon Christ; the price that was paid in His suffering and death; the wonder, hope and joy that are effected by His resurrection. To try to learn obedience with the cross behind me instead of in front of me is to remove the very reason and reminder for my obedience from view, so that a little knowledge is a more dangerous thing. Who will obey well and joyfully because they know they simply ought to? But if I will not obey Christ while pondering His suffering and death on behalf of mankind, His willing obedience to the Father even unto death, then my understanding is puny, ineffectual, and unappreciative, and I am in need of a greater understanding, a greater examination and meditation upon the very essence of Christianity, the crux, the crucial thing, the cross. Paul said, For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. That was the essence of all our faith, the starting place on which everything hinges. At the foot of His cross is the place that enables and fuels our everyday walk of obedience.
And it isn't that I'm such a genius that I can continually understand more and more of it every day as I ponder it in my own thinking, though maybe on some days that might be slightly true. I need the input of those who have gone before, those who have discussed it and understood it in greater detail, who have read great writers and had thought-provoking influences expand their own minds...I need to hear daily from not only the Bible, though that is the vital starting place, but also from the great minds for whom it is the abiding joy to wrestle with God's salvific truth from every angle. It is iron sharpening iron; their iron that is better honed, sharpening mine that is duller. So I read books on the cross; I listen to sermons at church and online; and I listen to the words of Christian songs old and new that show the joy and amazement that overflow from the hearts who love Him because of His great sacrifice for us. And I am helped to better understand this ever-flowing life-giving act that He did that has changed me forever, that fountain of hope and joy and peace. The cross.

"The gospel can't be shared with the general public..."

2010-04-17T23:13:00.000-07:00

Years ago, Gary met a co-worker who is a churchgoer (I’ll call him Roger), and we and this man and his wife (call her Cheryl) have gotten together on various occasions. He considers himself a Christian, it’s plain, but we’ve noticed how often he is easily agitated and angered, and that one recurring aspect of his character made us wonder about how true his relationship with Christ could be.

Tonight we met Roger and Cheryl at a concert given by their church. I have to say, the music was God-glorifying; the pastor opened in prayer; all in all, it seemed like a very Christian presentation. It was intended for the community, and the pastor started out by saying that they were doing this concert so the community could just come and enjoy, with no obligation on their part, where no one had to stand, or to sing, or to do anything. I wondered just how far the lack of obligation would go, since when the gospel is given, it obligates the hearer to respond…

The music continued. The various church choirs sang their God-glorifying songs, or rang their bells in the bell choir to their God-glorifying songs, or played their violins or flutes or piano or organ to their God-glorifying songs…all good…it was beautiful and clearly took a great amount of practice and skill and organization and effort.

The end came, and the pastor thanked everyone for coming, thanked the musicians and choir members for their performance, and dismissed us. As we walked out of the sanctuary, Cheryl asked me how I liked it. I said to her, “It was a lot of talent; the music was terrific. But I don’t understand. Your church put out all this effort, and no one gave the gospel message? Why would they not do that?” Her response amazed me. “Well, this is a concert. The point is for people to come and enjoy the music. This is to the general public. You can’t do that.” We entered the narthex. She went off in another direction and her husband was close by, telling us how wonderful he thought the music was, but I gave him the same question. His anger rose quickly to the surface. “This is the public. If you want the gospel, come on a Sunday. Our minister preaches from the Bible.” He was very clearly vexed at my lack of appreciation, and said that he thought it was time that we needed to go, wasn’t it?

As you might suspect, I am more convinced than ever that this couple doesn’t know Christ. The possibility is that most of that congregation doesn’t know Christ. They may have been singing these songs because they know a lot about Jesus, they know He died on the cross, but do they know Him? Has He transformed their lives? Or is church just a social club, and are these songs just a reassurance that whatever this strange historical event, these singers feel helped by knowing it happened?

I wish I knew how to approach this subject without angering these people. I wish I were more circumspect in dealing with the gospel, as long as the message of it or the necessity of it wasn’t compromised. I know I have lots of room for growth in that regard…but I’d rather offend by bringing it up than never offend because I valued their friendship more. I wish more churches were ready to offend with the gospel in order to save the few who are ready to receive it, rather than just love and entertain everyone right into hell. What do they think the Bible means when it says, “Make the most of every opportunity”? Maybe grab all the cookies you can before you leave…

It makes me thankful for my church, where the gospel is shared. It makes me thankful for those who are bold with the gospel, and for the Holy Spirit who alone can come alongside to truly make the need for Jesus Christ known in the darkened human heart. It makes me thankful for knowing the truth and having the capacity and the urgency to share it where possible. And it devastates me that there are churches, and people, who are convinced that the opposite is true, that the gospel is some dirty offensive secret, and so many will assume that these churches are the real deal. I can only say, America’s churches need prayer…lots of prayer, for the Holy Spirit’s conviction and correction. Probably often for their leadership’s salvation.

I am Gladly a Fool for Christ

2010-04-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good. Psalm 14:1
Today I turn 50...and all my life people have had fun with the idea that my birthday is April Fool's Day. I have had times in my life when my foolishness would fit that above, maybe not such that I would have said that there was no God, but in living like there was none. But God reached down into my foolish heart and gave me a better kind of foolishness...He made me realize that apart from Him I have no wisdom that can help me escape the penalty for my sin...that I am foolish and weak. So, He has brought me to acknowledge that I need Him, that in Jesus Christ I have found forgiveness that is His gift to me, not because I have earned it in any way. Not because of any human will, or strength, or wisdom, but because of His grace. As it says in 1 Corinthians 4:10, we are fools for Christ's sake...and that sounds as if it were undesirable, but in fact it is desirable. It is the best thing to be, the only kind of fool that can be lifted out of our incapable and helpless circumstance of being sinful creatures. It is like we were sheep, lost, stuck in a muddy mire, caked and dirty, with no way to get ourselves out. And the Chief Shepherd came along and found us there and in His strength pulled us out, and is cleaning us up...training us...and promising us a bright future with Him. That foolishness that knows its need is not so foolish after all...because God has come alongside us and helped us, and with His help we are adequate for every good work, we are equipped, we have the mind of Christ. Fools for Christ are no fools at all with God's help, ...because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men, 1 Corinthians 1:25.
So if being a fool means I have to acknowledge that I am incapable of saving myself, and I need God, may I never cease to be that fool! If you think that is some poverty, think about how you would save yourself. Are you sure it will work? No, I can't imagine that you have that assurance. Look to Christ, who alone can save you. His promises are true, and He is mighty to save. As missionary Jim Elliot said, who gave his life to seek to save the lost, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

A New Intensity

2010-03-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it is the day after a long night...after leaving one church and starting at another...well, more accurately after the impact of leaving five churches and lately starting at another, I have been overcome by a sense of skepticism, of short roots, of a readiness to be transplanted yet again. My tendency is normally to want to dive in, and this time I dove in on the surface but kept holding back the sense of commitment...not yet...maybe not at all...wait and see... I wanted to see what the leadership here was like. The pastor is young, and I have a tendency to expect immaturity, and inaccuracy, and lack of depth. All I keep coming away with, though, is good surprises. He wants to hold the men of the church responsible for spiritual leadership in their families; that was a remarkable surprise to me that I had not seen elsewhere. I've been challenged by his teaching, which is in fact opposite some that I've heard before...and yet, it makes sense scripturally and I now am frustrated that for 20 years I haven't seen things in the Scriptures that were right there the whole time--familiar Scriptures that I practically have memorized, and yet didn't fully understand. His teaching on some thorny subjects has been careful and clear and good. He knows I've been burned and though any pastor wants to be trusted, he wasn't pushing me.
But a few days back I was talking with him in the hall and I can't remember exactly what we were talking about; but I used the word "yet" as in that they hadn't failed me...yet... And I didn't even notice that I'd said it, but he did. "Yet?" It was a bit of a gentle rebuke but a bit of injury too on his part. All this week I've been pondering what I was holding onto. Was it a stronger position to be poised to leave a church yet again if necessary, or was it stronger to dive in and participate, interacting fully and wanting to know and be known, help and be helped, love and be loved? I saw my hesitation that had been so solid before turning into a jelly mass. I was finding no substance in my defensiveness. No matter how many times people fail me, I have to participate fully, wholeheartedly in church. I have to; it's part of my worship. It's a substantial element of my joy. Having walls up and protecting oneself is akin to bitterness; it's not healthy. My walls are coming down.
I felt a delight at church last Sunday that I haven't felt for more than a year. Since then, at home, I've felt something deep and mellow and almost overwhelming. There's a fine line between incredible joy and depression...what a weird thing! In either you want to cry...I want to cry in relief. God is good. God is faithful. I will attend this church and expect great things. There will be trouble too; that's part of every church with any humanity in it. As long as these leaders follow Christ, I will follow them. I'm thankful for the good things in past churches as well. I've learned a lot of things from them that are part of my faith now, even though I've discarded things that haven't stood up to the light of truth. Even if God were to just have us spend short terms in each church that we attend, if we can do them some good and they can do us some good, that will be His will. I just want to be His willing, passionate, obedient servant. I want to wholeheartedly participate in church. I know it isn't all of faith; the Scriptures aren't all of faith. Jesus is my All in All. Church is where we find fellowship and where we build one another up to go and serve Him in the world--it is not all of what Jesus has for me, but it's a vital element for my equipping, and when I'm not all in it, then I'm withholding myself from the fullness of what God has for me.
I am joyful again. And I am blessed.

Whatever Motivated Paul Should Motivate all of us

2010-02-20T08:58:00.001-08:00

The church we attend has an online forum where they'll post a question of the week and then discuss it. I love that because it's thought-provoking; better than a blog, in that I receive the input of others rather than just mull over my own thoughts based perhaps on researching writings of others, but often just from personal meditation. One week I was brought to ponder--not as a direct answer to the question, but something of a rabbit trail--what motivated Paul to be such a strong, committed, continual servant of Christ. I had proposed that it was because he had been taken up into heaven, and seen something of what reward awaits us. I thought that was a sufficient reason, and yet since that time I have heard two other proposals. One of these was from a sermon I heard on sermonaudio.com, in which the pastor speaking attributed Paul's dedication to the powerful nature of his conversion. He had been a Jewish leader, a primary persecutor of the Christians, but Jesus saved him to be an Apostle. This would be such a 180-degree turn that if he only applied the passion that he had before, Paul would still be one of the strongest leaders the Christian Church would ever see...and yet the power of that conversion wasn't the only impact Jesus made to motivate Paul to serve Him so well.
The third possible explanation I found regarding Paul's motivation was in a book, Experiencing the Cross, by Henry Blackaby. The book is full of insights and I'm wanting to read more of his writings. Blackaby attributes Paul's passion to considering himself to have been personally crucified along with Christ...Galatians 2:19-20 "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." Paul stated this various ways which underscore the possibility of that being at least a powerful component of his motivation;
At any rate, seeing how Paul was motivated by any or all of these three things, we should be so motivated as well. He said, in 1 Corinthians 11:1, "Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." I am convinced that Paul knew many things that he could not put into words, but his actions spoke of the thoroughness of his convictions. Whatever it was that motivated him should motivate us, because the things that are true of him are true of us if we belong to Christ: 1) We have experienced a conversion; 2) We hope in things eternal (even though, unlike Paul, for us they are yet unseen) and we know of them because we have the mind of Christ and eternity is written on our hearts; 3) We too have been crucified with Christ to the Law and the power of sin and death. We should know no such thing as a lukewarm Christian. There should be none, we all should be passionate and plunging wholeheartedly into whatever work He has set before us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

A One-Kidney Pilgrim

2010-01-30T04:10:00.000-08:00

I never finished reading Pilgrim's Progress; never really got into allegory and so I just couldn't make myself complete that book. But that book has come to mind lately, because in traveling from church to church throughout my Christian walk, I am definitely feeling the pilgrim role personally.
The church we have been attending is having a membership class. We are intending to attend the class, but we agree that we aren't ready to commit to being members there. The church has no apparent flaws except, naturally, ourselves (though of course I fully realize that even apart from us, it is not perfect); the pastor seems solid, the people are friendly and engaging, there are plenty of ways to be involved, it is active in the community. Gary even likes the building. But I am not ready to attach there, and I'm not sure that even if we're there 20 years that I'll come to that place of attachment again.
In one church we attended, a woman came and spoke to the girls about purity. She compared attaching to boyfriends to the stickum on the back of a post-it note, that the more times it gets stuck to something, the less sticky it eventually becomes--that eventually even commitment to marriage seems like an option rather than the lifelong stand that it is. In some ways I connect that to the continuum of churches as well, but it is not a perfect picture. In most of our churches I've been glad for the end of our time there and looking forward to the next one; in this last one the inverse was true. I hated the concept of leaving, and in fact for the first time dreaded even thinking about the next church. While my heart has been given to Jesus, I feel that I left some other part of me--perhaps a kidney--under some stone in the churchyard at our last church.
So I feel like a pilgrim. Until recently I cringed at the history of our having gone from church to church; I've now come to accept that it's just where God has led us, and there wasn't much option but to go that route. In fact, that wandering may be sort of a more accurate picture--is it an allegory, or is it the actual aspect?--of our life on earth as strangers and aliens. I may put my backpack down while I busy myself in this new church; I won't withhold myself from being fully involved. But I'm keeping my pack in sight, and I'll be ready to pick it up if for any extended time I don't see the tracks of Jesus where the leadership's footprints go. God has made it clear to me too many times not to put my trust in man, but in Him; I will follow the leadership as they follow Christ. My backpack is handy, and I'm not ready to give up another kidney for some time.
"Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; do not be silent at my tears; for I am a stranger with You, a sojourner like all my fathers." Psalm 39:12
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

Disillusionment is a Sign of Misplaced Trust

2009-12-17T23:19:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year, I found myself disillusioned, and only had myself to blame. At the same time, though I knew that rejoicing in Jesus Christ is always possible, always desirable, and always justifiable, I had a hard time really experiencing that joy like I generally do. In the front of our church sanctuary, there were banners that had Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! on them, and I would ponder, "Am I experiencing joy? How do I rejoice always? How can God expect that from me even now?" Usually my faith is a supernatural high for me, but for that season, the high was nowhere. Joy was something I had to reach hard for. I don't think my struggle was at all unique to humanity, though it was unusually dark for me. Life is full of things that can drag us down, and of course the enemy is always aiming to do anything that will pull us down and keep us at our worst. In spite of this, we need to remember that our hope, our joy, and our strength is not in the things of this earth. Sometimes it is too easy to forget; it would be easy to suppose our hope, or our joy, or our strength might be in people, or money, or circumstances. We might think it's in acclaim, or other forms of human successes, or in merely being treated generally well. In all those cases, we would be wrong. God wants us to rejoice, no matter what our circumstances, our disappointments, our sadnesses. We are to be joyful in the midst of it, in spite of it. How can we do that? It's because all of what we rejoice in should not be here on earth, but we can rely on the promises of heaven that are so beyond our understanding and especially our deserving. They stand firm, they are sealed away for us. No human being can come between us and what Jesus has done for us. Our sadnesses and sorrows have nothing to do with any fault in the promises and truths of God; they are in a separate category, untouchably holy and perfect; His truths and promises are ever-reliable. We should rejoice and exult in the goodness of God; focusing on that instead can help to draw us out and away from present circumstances, and we can glorify Him even in the processing of our pain.
I don't often find these lows, but this year has been full of them. Though I've oftentimes been disappointed by people, usually that disappointment was from people in whom I never really had put too much trust, and so it didn't bother me so much. I think my problem this year was in trusting a human being too strongly, which God warns us against doing.
We could think that people who don't trust other people are cynical. I don't think this is true; I think when we don't trust people, and we do place all of our trust in God, we are walking in obedience. We tend to want to trust people because they are here where we can see them; we feel that we know them because they are so physically present to us. The Scriptures clearly and repeatedly tell us not to trust people, though, and I feel that God has been pounding that into my head just lately. There is actually more kindness in not putting our trust in a person; when a human being lets you down, it is just because it's the way our flesh is made; trusting in humanity puts too much responsibility and pressure on a person, and no human is infallible. The Scriptures say,
Psalm 40:4 How blessed is the man who has made the LORD his trust, And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood.
Psalm 116:11 I said in my alarm, "All men are liars."
Psalm 118:8-9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.
Psalm 146:3 Do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.
Proverbs 29:25 The fear of man brings a snare, But he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted.
Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the LORD, "Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the LORD."
Actually in the writing of this, I was looking only for two verses I've quoted here, but found the others I listed, and included them because they too emphasized the need to trust in God and not man. So it isn't just a couple of verses; God reminds us again and again to trust only in Him. Jesus didn't trust mankind, either, as He walked the earth; and He made us!
John 2:23-25 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.
I know that I am not reliable. I would not want someone putting their trust in me to the point that I could ever disillusion them or cause them to stumble in their faith. While we are very fallible and weak, God never fails us.
2 Timothy 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
Psalm 73:26 My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
1 Peter 1:24-25 For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.
Another thing that I learned in the midst of these struggles was just how loving and gracious God was to illuminate the Scriptures all the more brightly when I was feeling the greatest darkness. I know that a random reading of the Bible is not generally the best way to really plumb the depths of God's goodness, but oftentimes I needed to just open my Book and see what God's seemingly random message was for me that day. Once at 2 a.m., unable to sleep, I came downstairs and opened the Psalms with fumbling fingers and bleary eyes--turned at "random" to Psalm 4, and I knew in reading it that God's hand was there for my assurance. The message of that Psalm, in my own paraphrase, is, "I have everything under control. Now go to bed, rest your mind, and sleep. Trust Me." It wasn't because I was so very continual in my reading, or praying, or obeying...not that I was very neglectful either, but I definitely wasn't excelling. God just knew my frame, and my need, and always, stunningly, had the right Psalm for me, always had the right consolation, the right perspective readily available. He didn't have me turning to anything of judgment or correction or condemnation, though I know there are passages that could easily have seemed to express those things to me. It wasn't because I was so good, or right, or at all perfect. It was in spite of my frailties and because of His goodness; it certainly wasn't because I didn't have plenty of areas that need correction; it was because of His supernatural Word that performs His will so perfectly, and because there are times when He stands close to comfort His own, and to be the very Heavenly Father when we need Him the most.
So the key is to love and not trust others; follow others as they follow Christ; turn from following their path when they don't follow Him, and speak up to them when they stray from the path. It isn't to be cynical, but just to remember Who it is who can be trusted, who we all are who can't be trusted, and to love people, remembering the frail humanity that we all are. I think trusting rightly in the Heavenly Father, who loves all of us in spite of our frailty, brings that joy that was so hard for me to grasp for that season.
New American Standard Bible (NASB)Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

No Matter What we do, the Meaning of Christmas Shines Through

2009-12-16T15:02:00.000-08:00

This Christmas I have heard so many (meaningless) sources giving what they consider the "reason" or "meaning" of the season...things such as Santa, and food, and decor...all of which completely miss the point; you'd think even a secular person would realize how hollow those things would ring on their own. I was telling my neighbor Stacia how our tree has been up since around Thanksgiving and it still is not decorated. She was saying that Katie could help us when she gets home tomorrow; that's true and I'm glad for it. Still, if the tree were not decorated, if there were no presents, or carols, or cookies, or friends over, if there were no outward celebration of the holiday, still the goodness of Christ would remain. There would be nothing we could do to eliminate His goodness and hope, even if we meant to squelch it. The advent of that miraculous birth, that perfect life, that sacrificial death, and that marvelous resurrection all bring joy to those who would trust in the hope and enjoy the peace that come because of His momentous birth! The glory of that would sneak in under the doors, through the computer, through the phone lines; it would emanate from the sunlight coming in the windows. It would come in through things natural and things man-made. The quiet of the snow, the provision of the rain, the slipperiness of the ice all would sing glory to the advent of Christ.
So the performance of having everything perfect is not such a high-pressure impact on the joy of the season. I can do the things I love to do in order to celebrate; the traditions we hold make a continuity between years past and present; but it's not crucial to the "reason for the season." Without that pressure, the performance is pleasure, not pain. The remembrance of Christ, the little things that reflect His glory, should be a pleasure to implement. And so it is. I can make the cookies, the foods for feasts; buy the gifts, wrap them; decorate the tree...do all the things that anyone else will do; but if I am not joyful in the midst of it, or I'm despairing over a neglected tree, I've clearly forgotten the goodness that it all is supposed to represent. The goodness is there in spite of me.
The symbolism of each thing may be something of a stretch. Tim asked the other day what lights have to do with Jesus, and it seems pretty direct to say that since Jesus is the Light of the world, the lights should be symbolic of Him. Yet He is pure, which should be white light, and so many Christmas lights are colored instead. Our world doesn't perfectly glorify Him, but He shines in the darkness anyway. The candy canes have their legend too. I'm not sure that the tree is exclusively Christian; I've heard conflicting stories regarding the source of it. But since it only goes up for Christmas (at least in the context of our family's celebration), it also comes to reflect Christ in spite of its seeming obscurity. It doesn't matter that our Hindu neighbors also have a tree in their window. It just reminds us of their confusion, and that's a good thing. We need to keep people's confusion in mind and pray for opportunity to clear it up, for the words to speak at the right time. The increase in those opportunities is also a part of the glory of the season.
Christmas will come whether I'm with it or not. Joy will be there for the asking even if I get cranky and stressed and don't access it. Eternal life will be available whether we've ever celebrated a Christian holiday--it isn't because of what we do, but the Baby grown into the Man on whom we place our hope. Hallelujah! God is so good! Don't stress the little stuff; enjoy that cosmic event that happened on our little sin-flawed planet 2010 years ago. Merry Christmas!

There's a Fine Line Between Condemnation and Expulsion

2009-12-16T09:11:00.000-08:00

In my Bible reading lately I have noticed that there are a number of instances where on occasion a believer is called to shun another who calls himself a brother, when his actions would seem to deny his faith. I'm sure that doing so could easily be mistaken for condemnation, and so in my mind this morning I was puzzling over the distinction since I know that God does not give us a place to condemn others. Eventually I came up with some symptoms that might indicate the difference. First of all, I need to capture the verses that prescribe this cutting off of fellowship for what we should hope would be only a short time. And for myself, I have never been in the position to specifically "shun" a brother; I see this as something that is done as a church discipline with the involvement of the church elders. Still, a lot of these distinctions have their more limited applications in various aspects of the Christian life on occasion, so I think that clarifying them is useful for all of us. Perhaps many of us experience condemnation at times (even through no fault of our own), and can see the usefulness in this clarification on that end as well.
1 Corinthians 5:1-13 It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present. In the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.
But actually, I wrote you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler--not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves.
At the price of what would be a false unity, we need to divide with those who are not following Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:19 For there must be factions among you, so that those who are approved may become evident among you.
The symptoms of condemnation I came up with would be seen after you have done everything you can to turn the brother from his sin and it seems to have availed nothing, and you stop having fellowship, eating with him, or getting together with him for any reason other than restoration. The symptoms of condemnation might include:
1.) contemptuous and unloving attitude. Shunning the person from fellowship could be done either in a contemptuous and unloving way, or in a loving and caring way. If it is done without the goal of reconciliation, that will be obvious and will further alienate the person. 1 Corinthians 16:14 Let all that you do be done in love.
2.) anger. James 1:19b-20 says, But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.
3.) putting up hurdles to avoid reconciliation. Then lack of reconciliation is not their doing, but our own.
4.) lack of concern and prayer for the person. This expresses an unforgiving and judgmental attitude; we close ourselves off from engaging the Holy Spirit in reaching the heart of the person.
5.) unhappiness at any good that the person experiences, and rejoicing when they experience hardship (except with the hope of restoring them to obedience). Romans 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Romans 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
6.) a feeling of certainty or even hope that the person is destined for hell. This is surely not the place of humanity, but God alone determines who goes to hell.
7.) considering the person as dead even while they live. I have seen parents whose children embrace a homosexual lifestyle call them dead though they are physically alive; this is not what the Scriptures call for. They might well be spiritually dead, but they still need prayer, concern, and attempts made to reconcile them to God.
If we have a condemning attitude, we need to take care to avoid having condemned ourselves in the process, having the plank in our own eye as we try to remove a splinter from that of our brother. Rather, we should have an attitude like that of the Apostle Paul, not giving up but seeking restoration:
2 Corinthians 2:4-11 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you. But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree--in order not to say too much--to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, otherwise such a one might be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. For to this end also I wrote, so that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
Galatians 6:9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
Restoration and forgiveness should always be the goal of expulsion, continuing in prayer in hopes that the Spirit might bring it to pass:
Galatians 6:1-2 Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.
Matthew 6:14 For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
So there is the sum of what I came up with; I think it's clearer in my mind, and I hope if you shared my confusion I might have helped you also.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

Can Christians Judge Others?

2009-12-14T20:58:00.000-08:00

A while back, a friend of mine brought up the question whether a Christian should judge another Christian. It often comes up when someone thinks that you're treading on their toes, and sometimes people have a point, that you really have no place determining for yourself what their status is. I think there are times when you should, and times when you shouldn't, judge another person. The quote that usually is used, taken out of context, is Matthew 7:1, "Do not judge so that you will not be judged," which I believe is referring more to a condemning attitude that might be leveled toward your brother. Or then, John 8:7, "He who is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her." (And then Jesus, sinless, chose not to cast it.) This is also in the context of condemnation; the men were exploiting the woman as a manipulation to test Jesus' response. But elsewhere there are other references. You know, don't you, that you don't take one or two verses and make a whole theology on it...you need to look at what's called the whole counsel of Scripture. Doing so gives a more balanced view, and sometimes there is a passage that sheds light on how those others are really intended to be applied. I think that the confusion that is so prevalent regarding judgment brings us all to stay more silent than we should, rather than helping one another where we may be weakest, and we might so need a little human intervention. I think we all need our brothers to speak up at us now and then!
So a couple of days later, I was reading with my son Tim, and just "happened" (as it so often happens) upon a verse that answered that question that my friend asked about judging others. Who appoints us to judge anyone? Why, God's word does, actually. 1 Corinthians 5:9-13 says, "I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people. I did not at all mean the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolators, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolator, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler--not even to eat with such a one. For what do I have to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. Remove the wicked man from among yourselves."
We have to judge in many ways. We have to be able to discern and determine for ourselves how our own walk is, who we can imitate and follow because of their faithfulness to Christ, and who we must not imitate or follow because they aren't adequately following Christ. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses in their walk; everyone gets discouraged or distracted or confused at times. But when we judge that someone is straying, and we address it (in love, of course, 1 Corinthians 16:14 Let all that you do be done in love...), then we have the capacity to strengthen the knees that are weak (Hebrews 12:12-14). In fact, addressing sin in a brother is, as I see it, how to demonstrate our Christian love for one another, in a potentially eternal life-saving way. James 5:19-20 says, My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his ways will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Of course we will be considered enemies of some when we do so, but that is just very much worth the risk when you consider the potential for good. One proverb has assured me through this, because more than once I have been thought an enemy before for being so judgmental as to speak up for wrongs I see being committed. It is Proverbs 27:6: Faithful are the wounds of a friend; deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. A Christian who lets a brother progress in the wrong direction unaddressed for fear of his response is not a friend, but an enemy. To whom are you most faithful? If you address a sin problem in a brother even to your own detriment and the end of that friendship, you have been a faithful friend not only of the brother, but of God Himself. If you don't address a brother's sin because you don't want to risk the loss of an earthly relationship, you are not being a friend of your brother or of God, but only of your own selfish desires.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.