Psalm 103 begins with both a call for the hearer to worship and summary of what the psalmist desires to communicate to himself and those listening to him. David is alerting his own soul to bless God’s name and His benefits. But names of God seem to be absent and even the word “name” only appears once in the psalm, so how is His name blessed? Consider, how do we know the greatness of God’s name? We know the greatness of it by what He has done. All works He has done are benefits to those who trust Him, and the greatness of His name is revealed through these benefits. Add the admonitions of verses 11,13, and 17 to fear Him and we see the summary teaching and application of the Psalm: Bless His name, remember His benefits, and fear Him. This application is not merely a spiritual ‘icing on the cake’, it is the means of survival amidst spiritual battle. David knew the value of it. In First Samuel 30:3-6 we observe a desperate situation for David and his men. Having just returned from following the Philistines, they find their hometown, Ziklag, burned down, their wives and children kidnapped to become slaves, and most of their possessions stolen. The men have wept over their families until they have no strength and are discussing stoning David because of the loss. The Scripture records David’s reaction: “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.” (v.6). Now your plight and mine probably are not presently so severe. The danger is to ignore the need for strengthening ourselves in the Lord. We are thus rendered weaker for the lesser battles and ill-fit for the greater battles. And so David urged his innermost being to bless the Lord and not forget His benefits. May we practice the psalmist’s discipline and experience God’s joy.
Archive for the ‘God Thoughts’ Category
Blessing the Name by Remembering the Benefits (Psalm 103)
Posted in General, God Thoughts, God's Word, Remembering, Strength, Sustaining, tagged God Thoughts, God's Word, Remembering, Strength, Sustaining on August 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Spiritual Israel
Posted in General, God Thoughts, God's Word, tagged God Thoughts, God's Word on July 27, 2009| 1 Comment »
Based on a response I received from comments I made in church I began to review and reflect on physical Israel and spiritual Israel. Most of what can be gleaned from Scripture about the relationship between these two and the existence of the latter as distinct from the former is found in Romans and Galations 3.
In Romans 2:28-29, Paul clearly says that being Jewish is not merely physical, having the sign of circumcision. Real Jews would have physcial and spiritual (“by the Spirit”) circumcision. There is, however, a physical Israel, Paul’s “own race”, still recognized by God, who have a type of adoption and the covenants and more but are lost (Romans 9:3-5; 10:1). Romans 11:28-29 sets forth the relationship between them and the redeemed (spiritual Israel). They are clearly enemies in the sense of being unbelieving and counter to the gospel of Jesus, but because “God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable” (cannot be nullified), God still has a plan for them and we should still love them. They are lost apart from CHrist, but some will not be in the future and others are part of God’s end time plans as set forth in the seventieth week of Daniel (9:24-27). And God is saving Jews as Paul testitfies about himself and other “He foreknew” (Romans 11:1-8). The remnant that believes is exemplified by the 7000 of Elijah’s day who had “not bowed the knee to Baal” (11:4). So Israel, the elect, have not fallen “beyond recovery” (11:11). And Israel as a whole provided the means for fulfilling God’s plan of salvation (Romans 15:8; Act 2:22-24).
But what of this spiritual Israel, is it merely the saved Jews? No, for Paul says, “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel” (Romans 9:6), but rather, “the chidren of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring” (9:8). Who are these other children of Abraham? “Those who believe are children of Abraham” (Galations 3:7). “God would justify the Gentiles by faith” (3:8), and “those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham” (3:9). We receive “the blessing of Abraham… to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus” (3:14). “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (3:29), what I’m calling spiritual Israel.
How did this transition in Israel come about? Paul uses the analogy of grafting branches onto an olive tree in Romans 11:17-24. Israel was cut off because of unbelief and Gentiles were grafted in based on belief. The reverse is said to be possible as a warning against unbelief. The fact that Israel is referred to as “natural branches” (11:21) once again emphasizes that physical Israel exists and has a claim on God’s calling.
A better understanding of these concepts may be gained by reading the fuller passages to which I have referred, namely, Romans 2:17-29, Romans 9-11, and Galations 3.
Why Physics
Posted in General, God Thoughts, Random thoughts, Science, tagged Poems, Random thoughts, Science on June 5, 2009| Leave a Comment »
Waver No More
Posted in Cultural commentary, General, God Thoughts, God's Word, tagged Cultural commentary, God Thoughts, God's Word on April 20, 2009| 1 Comment »
The United States is not a Christian nation any more than the Northern Kingdom of Israel was a godly nation in the days of Elijah. King Ahab and his father had made sure of that by not merely carelessness with God’s commands but actually having ”forsaken the commandments of the Lord” (I Kings 18:18). As it says in Nehemiah 9:26, “they…cast Your law behind their backs.”
So Elijah comes along to chide Israel, God’s people for turning godless, right? No, hear what he said: “Elijah came near to all the people and said, ‘How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him. But the people did not answer him a word.” (v.21) The challenge that Elijah gives these wayward people is actually an idiom, or word picture, in the original language. As Charles Ryrie conveys it the question should read literally, “How long are you hopping between two forks?” Picture someone, who is not well endowed with balance high up in a tree, trying not to fall as he jumps between two branches, wanting to discover which is easier to perch upon. Their choice was between the covenant keeping God, the Creator, Who was the Originator and Sustainer of Israel on the one hand. On the other hand is Baal, whose name means ‘lord’, an idol who is the fertility god and rainmaker and highly favored in the palace to the risk of life and property if you did not worship him. So the people ‘play both sides’ or ‘ride the fence’ as we say. “The people did not answer him a word.” What can they say? He has described their procedure. When you are desperate or needy apply to this God for help; when it’s safe and convenient declare for that one.
And how is it different in America? “I believe in God. I go to church. I’m a Christian.” But all too frequently under the surface you will find a humanist, who is one who “upholds human [as opposed to God’s] reason, ethics, and justice, and rejects supernaturalism.” Based on this stance they are apt to say things like the following. “If it’s an unwanted child wouldn’t everyone be better off if it were aborted?” “God could have created using evolution.” “How I dress is my own business.” “I just couldn’t live with him/her.” And in numerous other ways we ignore God’s Word for our own preference. Elijah’s challenge to you, America, is declare for God and live for Him or stop pretending and live for your idol, yourself. God hates vacillation, for He says, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm…I will spit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:15-16).
See where complete departure from God gets you. Of course, many are refusing to acknowledge God and our society is coming apart at the seams, beginning with the family. Elijah challenges those people as well: “Elijah said to the people, “let them [the prophets of Baal] choose one ox for themselves and cut it up, and place it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other ox and lay it on the wood, and I will not put a fire under it. Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire, He is God.” And all the people said, ‘That is a good idea.’” (v.22-24) The prophets of Baal dance and sing, pray and yell and cut themselves all day long, “but there was no voice and no one answered” (v.26). The path we as a people are taking is failing as fast as the day comes to an end. We will not succeed apart from God because there is no truth for living life there. And we will not succeed in wavering between two opinions.
Americans, Burke County residents, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord” (Acts 3:19). It is a good way and a way of life and truth.
You Don’t Want Fair
Posted in Cultural commentary, General, God Thoughts, God's Word, tagged Cultural commentary, God Thoughts, God's Word on March 22, 2009| 2 Comments »
A common thought and pronouncement in our culture is, “That’s not fair.” But we don’t really want fair ultimately because then we would all be in a world of hurt. And that world is called hell. What we want is privilege. Privilege is offered to all who will accept it by admitting they have done wrong and trusting the Savior to rescue them from fairness, that is, hell. Without hell there would be no need for a Savior.
So why not choose to believe that there is no hell and no Savior? There are several problems with that decision. First of all, if there is no hell it is not fair or logical. If there is no hell then God is not just because everyone who does bad things no matter how heinous gets away with it. If you execute them they either go to heaven or cease to be. This lack of belief in hell is one of the reasons I believe there is an ongoing occurrence of mass murders followed by suicides. If someone kills a dozen people and then kills himself he thinks he has avoided all punishment while expressing his deep anger and controlling his own destiny. We need to teach people about hell so they will have a vague sense of the torture that awaits those who neglect the Savior for control of their own destiny. God says, “He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished” (Exodus 34:7) and “The soul that sins will die” (Ezekiel 18:4).
So how about having a Savior? Is that fair? Is that just? An evil person does a horrendous crime to another individual or to a whole nation and later believes that “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). How can God be just to let this monster off the hook? He is just because Jesus took the punishment on the cross by being “marred more than any man” (Isaiah 52:14) and by being “sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 6:21). On the other hand, why should someone who told a “little white lie” be committed to hell? It is because “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all” (James 2:10). So, if you want fairness you cannot eliminate hell and if you want privilege you cannot eliminate the Savior.
Secondly, you cannot arbitrarily refuse the existence of hell and believe in God because God’s Word says it exists. Jesus speaks of hell frequently in His great sermon as when He says that anyone who speaks to his brother “’you fool’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell” (Matthew 5:22). Later in Matthew 10:28 Jesus warns us, “Do not fear those unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” You may object that you do not believe the Bible or do not accept all parts of it. Then you are creating your own god. How do you know this god exists and what is your basis of authority for this belief? My authority is the Bible.
Maurice Rawlings, an initially skeptical emergency room doctor, corroborates the evidence for hell in his book, “To Hell and Back”, by chronicling a number of near death experiences of those claiming to have been in hell. Why do the popular accounts record “warm lights” but never include these horror stories? Dr. Rawlings notes, “If the interview is delayed just a little bit…only the positive experiences will be found. The negative experiences have long since been relegated to the painless portions of the memory, the victim apparently unable to coexist with this painful memory.” (p.33) His most striking story is about a man whose treadmill test was shortened. Several times he collapsed and was revived by Dr. Rawlings applying CPR. He says, “I would reach over and start him up again. But this time he was screaming the words, ‘Don’t stop! I’m in hell! I’m in hell!’ Hallucinations, I thought…But he was saying the opposite: ‘For God’s sake, don’t stop! Don’t you understand? Every time you let go I’m back in hell!’ When he asked me to pray for him, I felt downright insulted. In fact, I told him to shut up…” (p.36-37). After the patient’s pleading and the nurse’s “expectant look” he makes up a prayer, “Jesus Christ is the Son of God…keep me out of hell, and if I live, I’m on the hook. I’m yours.” (p.37) Dr. Rawlings reports, “A religious conversion experience took place…He was no longer the wild-eyed, screaming, combative lunatic who had been fighting me for his life. He was relaxed and calm and cooperative. It frightened me.” He confides that besides converting the patient “this miserable prayer of mine had opened the road to my own salvation.” (p.37)
You can have fair if you like but I prefer the privilege of rescue from hell through my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Just Sayings
Posted in Cultural commentary, General, God Thoughts, Poem, Strength, tagged Cultural commentary, God Thoughts, Poems, Strength on February 5, 2009| 2 Comments »
Some old sayings recycled and rehashed for the
days we are in:
Desperate times require desperate measures
So the old saying goes
But are we willing to take the cure
Before we’re in the throes
If it were a snake beside the path
We’d all been bit for sure
But will we extract the poison there
So each one can be pure
Pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps
Cannot happen nor would
Since Eve was deceived, Adam rebelled
We can’t do what we should
Problem older than Methuselah
Recent as your last breath
If not rescued by the Redeemer
You have no hope but death
Right as rain, pure as the driven snow
Our sin gone by His blood
The Christ has made His beloved so
By grace’s abundant flood
Imitation’s th’best flattery
Be pleasing in His sight
Now we will and can live for Jesus
Evidence of His might
Oh, lost ones know that the gig is up
Unless you trust Him too
He died on the cross to rescue you
And give you life anew
Shack Flak
Posted in Cultural commentary, General, God Thoughts, God's Word, tagged Cultural commentary, God Thoughts, God's Word on January 21, 2009| 2 Comments »
Let me say it up front. I see most movies after they have gone DVD. I hear most news from a biweekly magazine. I find out how the ball team did after the season. By the time I try it out it’s gained the adjective “classic”. That way someone can tell me if it’s worth seeing or hearing or doing. So a friend prevailed upon me recently to read The Shack by Wm. Paul Young, saying it was so good and profoundly affected her (couldn’t stop crying or laughing). I had intended not to read it after several unfavorable reviews. But she sent it to me and I agreed to read it, so I decided I could evaluate it objectively given the positive and negative input I had received.
I was struck early in the story with how compelling his tale is, so real and wrenching. But my first and subsequent contacts with “God” in the story compelled me in a different way. Mr. Young’s theology is atrocious, in a word, unbiblical. I believe his misrepresentation of the triune Godhead is deepened by the heart rending story and the excellent points he makes about relationship, reconciliation, restoration, and spiritual strongholds. Because he does such a good job of dealing with these ideas many people may be accepting of or overlooking his falsehoods about God. You cannot have a proper or full relationship with a God who does not exist, a figment of Mr. Young’s and perhaps American Christianity’s imagination.
Consider the following quotes and how they align with Scripture. Papa (the name he uses for Father God) says to Mack, “I don’t need to punish people for sin” (p.120). Scripture says, “Your sins have made a separation between you and your God” (Isaiah 59:2); “I will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:7). Next he follows up by saying, “It is not my purpose to punish sin” (p.120). It is His purpose for He is “the One forming light and darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these” (Isaiah 45:7).
Young rejects authority structures as un-needed among Christians and nonexistent within the Godhead: There is “no need for hierarchy” (p.124). Ephesians 1:10 says, “He purposed in Him [Jesus] with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times.” Jesus said, “We must work the works of Him who sent me” (John 9:4). Hebrews 5:8 instructs us that “although He was a Son He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.” But Young has his Jesus saying, “We are submitted to you in the same way” (p.145), referring to sacrificial love. But the Bible says, “He has put all things in subjection under His feet” (I Corinthians 15:27). It is true that doing things for people out of a sense of obligation is not love but that does not negate roles and responsibilities. As an example Young’s Jesus character says, “Fulfilling roles is the opposite of relationship” (p.148). “Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church” (Ephesians 5:25); “Wives be submissive to your own husbands…so that…they may be won without a word” (I Peter 3:1). Proper fulfillment of roles is a sacrifice of love pleading for relationship.
Previously my mind and heart have flown caution flags at the idea of representing God in visual images such as “The Passion of the Christ.” This view was suggested to me by a former elder who pointed out that the second commandment warns against idols or images in the likeness of God. I had thought little of it at the time and even thought it did not apply since the actor was representing the second person of the Godhead faithfully in the form of a man which He was. But having read this erroneous account, red flags went up and I began to question all representations of God apart from Scripture, from a crèche to Aslan. Then Young limits Jesus to human needs (hunger) and mistakes (like dropping a bowl of batter). Jesus is not so limited in Revelation 19 when “He judges and wages war” (v.11) and “from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike the nations” (v.15). And what of a mere human Jesus “when the doors were shut,…Jesus came and stood in their midst (John 20:19). God is not represented as a Father and therefore a man as Young’s character suggests because “once the Creation was broken, true fathering would be much more lacking than mothering…an emphasis on fathering is necessary because of the enormity of its absence” (p.94). Rather, it is in His nature because He is “Eternal Father” (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus “was calling God his own Father” (John 5:18) and that upset the Jews. We are only a reflection of that, poor though we be, not the cause of it. Attempts toward gender neutrality destroy pictures God determined for both man and woman. The woman is the picture of “His bride”, the Church, who “has made herself ready” (Revelation 19:7). And picturing God the Father as a man or woman in flesh is mistaken for “God is spirit” (John 4:24).
So despite Young’s insights into relationship with God and among men the ultimate result I believe will not be closeness to God because people will be disappointed as they find God is not who they thought He was. It results in a wrong view of ourselves as well so that his Jesus says, “I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa, into my brothers and sisters, into my Beloved” (p.182). Certainly much referred to as Christian today is not, but it is not something to be ashamed of and retreat from. Tremendous progress of the Gospel in and from Antioch resulted in “the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch” (Acts 11:26). Lord, do such a work in me that I am that kind of Christian. Help us to be “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” (II Peter 1:3). Oh, Lord, give us that “true knowledge of Him” so that we might catch a fuller glimpse of Him and His promises.
What Is Truth?
Posted in General, God Thoughts, God's Word, tagged God Thoughts, God's Word on January 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »
“What Is Truth?”
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When Jesus was on trial before His death on the cross, Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea was questioning Him in order to discover why He was being accused. Jesus gave Pilate answers and silence that must have seemed irrelevant to the accusations. The apparent lack of correlation between accusations and answers pushed Pilate to frustration1 since he was trying to spoil the accusers’ design and release Jesus. In the midst of the growing tension Jesus and Pilate have a verbal exchange of which the following is a small part: “Jesus answered, ‘…for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.’ Pilate said to Him, ‘What is truth?’ And when he had said this he went out…” (John 18:37-38). There is no evidence that he either waited for an answer or wanted one.
There is a similar lack of commitment to discover the answer today so that we need to know it all the more. “What is truth?” The question is not simple and I believe it can be expanded into three questions. How do we define the concept truth? Does truth exist and can we objectively know it? Assuming truth does exist, which set or sets of truth claims are true?
Several different dictionaries I referenced record that truth is “conformity to fact or reality.” In other words, in order for something to be true it must be the original item or line up in visual (and 4 other senses) and verbal description with the original. Josh McDowell points out that, for instance, lying is wrong not because my parents, my church, or the Bible teach it was wrong. These sources report that it is true that lying is wrong, but they are not why it is wrong. Neither is it wrong because it is illegal, it hurts someone, or feels wrong. These perspectives are consequences of the truth that lying is wrong, but they are not why it is wrong. McDowell’s concludes, “Lying is wrong because it is contrary to the nature and person and character of God,” which is “…God is true” (John 3:33). He IS the original. “Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17) because it aligns with and accurately reports who He is. Your parents, church, the law, your feelings, and their pain report truth when what they communicate corresponds to who God is.
Answering the second question about whether truth exists and can we know it proceeds directly from whether or not the original exists and we can know it. Jesus said, “I am…the truth” (John 14:6). McDowell paraphrases this verse, “I have fidelity to the original”, which is effectively what Jesus said: “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). To Philip’s request Jesus said, “…He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘show us the Father?’” (John 14:9) Jesus has complete fidelity to the original.
But which truth claim or claims are true? First of all, we can eliminate the plural because two opposing claims cannot be true at the same time and in the same sense (law of non-contradiction) in that the truth of one requires the falsehood of the other. If you do not accept this law of logic you have no truth claim, being self-contradictory. As to which claim is truth, my best effort is to agree with all the believers past and present that “He who receives His (Jesus’) testimony has set His seal to this, that God is true” (John 3:33).
The reason we know that Pilate did not want his question answered is because, if he had, the answer was standing right in front of him. In a song by Michael W. Smith the refrain begins, “Ancient words ever true, changing me, changing you…” And why do they bring change? It is because, “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” (Hebrews 4:12). This truth is not meant to merely be some awesome monument which at first sight is admired and afterwards ignored. Being “living and active”, it either penetrates the pores (“and marrow”) of your being purifying everything it touches or it work hardens your exterior by relentless pounding until you are brittle and break. The truth exists. You can know it. You should pursue it.
1In order to see this frustration building it is helpful to look at all four accounts: Matthew 27:11-26, Mark 15:1-15, Luke 23:1-5, John 18:28-19:16
Heightened Praise
Posted in Beauty, General, God Thoughts, Poem, tagged Beauty, God Thoughts, Poems on January 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »
The more we see of God the more our praise will be raised and our lives be purified. Oh that this might be true of you and me:
What praise can this feebled mind impart
Or glory give to God
But He commands the soul
Lift up words and life to make a start
Tell of wonders in the world abroad
Of land, sea and sky
Sing with the birds and waves
Praise with them, for silence would be odd
With the angels up above exalt
See His untold beauty
Awe at His purity
Oh a change in manner would result
Before God’s high throne see all that’s true
Know deepest wisdom’s way
Feel total power sway
There have all that’s right and good in view
Un-skewing Worship
Posted in General, God Thoughts, Song on December 28, 2008| 1 Comment »
Today in worship our church had a sharing service. God was at work moving hearts with what to share. Wanting my own worship to be raised to a higher level I was contemplating the following song. After reading the verses read my thoughts below on bringing balance to worship.
My God, How Wonderful Thou Art by Fredrick Faber
My God, how wonderful Thou art
Thy majesty how bright
How beautiful Thy mercy seat
In depths of burning light
How dread are Thine eternal years
O everlasting Lord
By prostrate spirits day and night
Incessantly adored
How wonderful, how beautiful
The sight of Thee must be
Thine endless wisdom, boundless pow’r
And awful purity
O how I fear Thee, living God
With deepest, tenderest fears
And worship Thee with trembling hope
And penitential tears
Yet I may love Thee too, O Lord
Almighty as Thou art
For Thou has stooped to ask of me
The love of my poor heart
Our worship must always be skewed for lack of knowledge of God, or for knowledge we have but our own or collective blindness willfully or unwittingly neglects. By skewed I do not mean to necessitate sinfulness (though willful neglect of knowledge is) but rather leaning to one side and therefore lacking or incomplete. There are those who see God as harsh so that their worship is wrong and skewed away from grace. Those of us who know grace are frequently skewed toward grace away from a true understanding of all that God’s character entails. Grace and truth are not the paradox of God’s character, the harsh versus the warm fuzzy. Grace is God’s truth applied; truth is the full extent of God’s grace understood.
God is pure and good and just and wrathful and loving because He is so separate and other than we, that is, holy. His grace is that justice satisfied, that wrath poured out but not on us, that goodness reaching us, that purity transferred to us, and that love passionately pursued because He is so holy. Grace and truth are in no way opposed. They seem to me as two sides of the same coin, equal in value, both representative of the same thing, God’s character. I have need of balancing my view of grace by reminder of how awesome and holy and just He is so that I better understand how kind and patient and forgiving He really is.
Priority and Purpose
Posted in General, God Thoughts, God's Word, tagged God Thoughts, God's Word on December 13, 2008| Leave a Comment »
What are you focusing on this Christmas? Even if your focus is noble it is at least harried with distractions of life in general and the Season especially. Temptations to distraction were part of Christ’s earthly stay as well, but He was above the frey. Consider His purpose and priority:
Why did Jesus come to the manger? Why was this child special above all others? Why do people both admire His life and dismiss much of what He taught? The angels proclaimed, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:14). They are certainly good words and true, but they are lacking as a purpose statement. How will these two great goals be accomplished and how will we know when they are? The angel’s declaration to Joseph is more specific: “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). But what are sins? And what does it mean to be saved from sins?
Many people want to strip the true meaning of Jesus’ coming by saying what we need is political salvation. Those following Him believed He would set things straight, seen by the fact that when “He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately” (Luke 19:11). But Jesus said to Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). Others think the salvation we need is rescue from poverty or prejudice, but Jesus said, “The poor you have with you always” (Matthew 26:11). It was not that He did not care for the poor, for He said things like “when you give a reception, invite the poor…” (Luke 14:13). Instead, He had a narrower purpose and a higher priority on this trip to Earth.
Just before He left His disciples to return to heaven He explained His purpose succinctly, noting its agreement with previous Scripture, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations” (Luke 24:46-47). This was not plan B after the crowds and religious leaders rejected Him. He had been trying to explain it to His disciple frequently, but they didn’t get it. “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things…and be killed, and be raised up on the third day” (Matthew 16:21). Of what benefit is this “forgiveness of sins”? “He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” and “God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them” (2 Corinthians 5:15,18-19). That’s salvation. We can have a relationship with God. Our problems are not political or poverty or prejudice or disease or war or hatred. Our problem is separation from God.
As I listened to Charles Colson in Charlotte recently He stated the case so clearly, “Only the gospel will change people.” He quoted a Russian proverb that Solzhenitsyn used to say, “Men have forgotten God, that’s why this happened.” Regardless of whether we have allowed falsehoods to seep in or turned all belief in God on its head Colson said, “False worldviews bring disaster.” He continued by stating what he calls “Colson’s Law: Politics is how we organize our common lives together which is a reflection of our culture shaped by religion incarnate.” Or to see the cause and effect more clearly: Practical religion results in culture which results in politics. We have strayed so far from true belief in God by embracing a soft babe in manger who will solve poverty and prejudice and political turmoil and bring peace. Peace begins in the heart reconciled to God through belief in what Jesus did on the cross.
One way my family remembers that at Christmas is a non-traditional advent wreath beginning with a red candle for the blood of Christ which we call the “Savior” candle. We read prophecies about Him coming to save His people and sing one song of the cross before we begin Christmas carols. My prayer for this Christmas season is that you would refocus on the forgiveness and reconciliation you have in Christ and how to bring it to others or if you have not yet known Him you will turn away from sin and trust Jesus as your Savior. He is the Source of peace and reconciliation and the beginning of restoration.
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Bored to Death
Posted in Beauty, Cultural commentary, General, God Thoughts, tagged Beauty, Cultural commentary, God Thoughts on May 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »
On my classroom wall is posted the statement, “Bored is not a circumstance; it’s a state of mind.” From the frequency of gaming, surfing the web and channels, and various other vicarious pursuits of entertainment coupled with short attention spans and lack of excitement for anything short of amazing I would say it is a common state of mind. Other evidences may be harder to see: boredom with marriage, the job, the church, or life itself. As Thomas Dubay puts it in The Evidential Power of Beauty boredom is “an insipid tedium with existence itself. Reality [is] a colossal blah.” (p.73) What is the cause of this state of mind? Part of Dubay’s answer is as follows: “The personal inability to perceive truth and beauty is related as first cousin, if not sibling, to a lack of wonder, which in turn, often if not always, arises from jadedness, from a perduring and even disgusting boredom caused by excess and overindulging” (p.72) He is in fact repeating himself because jadedness means dullness brought on by excess. So many people are seeking out more amazing, more sensually beautiful, or more violent stimulation to stave off boredom but these things are causing it. In fact, “fully jaded men and women, old or young, marvel at nothing.” (p.73) One area where this dullness is resulting in a desire to ramp up the stimulation is the immodesty of dress in public and in every form of media. I think that the following statement relates to this idea: “It is one of the notable sadnesses of our time that so many are incapable of fascination with the deeper levels of human beauty, especially those rooted in the spirit, levels that far transcend physical attractiveness.” (Dubay, p.64) To summarize, boredom occurs because over stimulation dulls the mind so that it cannot in turn “perceive truth and beauty”.
But if over stimulation were the primary cause would it not be eventually self-correcting when the stupor of dullness persists? Would not the bored soul stop pushing forward into continued boredom? I believe the answers are no. The bored person is addicted to the stimulation of senses because he or she is trying to fill a great void, an emptiness in their soul brought on by their own sin or very frequently the hurt caused by someone else’s sin. Jeremiah 2:13 says that people “hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Obviously the answer is not pouring in more stimulation to relieve the boredom or hurt because the void can never be filled that way. As a friend of mine said recently, when people are so focused on themselves they cannot help but become bored. They need to focus on something outside themselves.
You may say, “What’s the big deal. Someone is bored. Get up and do something; get over it.” I am not referring to a momentary Tuesday afternoon lack of something to do. As I have observed it this boredom is a growing disease that is robbing people of purpose and happiness. To the unbeliever I would say, you need Jesus who can heal your sin and your hurts. As He has said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) God’s salvation is sufficient but that salvation will need to be worked into a person’s life through a growing relationship with God that will heal hurts. The believer who is bored has either given up ground or never taken it from the enemy. The first part of the verse above about broken cisterns says, “My people have committed two evils: The have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters”. Our primary focus must be God. Part of the solution for the believer may be to fast from mere entertainments and seek more profound beauty. “Cease striving and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10) Seeking God will increase your thankfulness and erase the dullness of reaction to beauty and truth. The dullness of boredom can be erased by knowing and serving God rather than things or ideas or self.
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