Category Archives: Faith

Atonement, Blood, Church Today, Faith, Repentance, Spiritual Warfare, Worship

Sing with Me..

Posted by admin on September 7, 2010 at 10:03 pm.

Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you (Ps 66:3).

 

For many years the Church has sung of God’s greatness, but in recent years it seems that there has been an explosion of songs that extol this virtue. While we used to sing only “How Great Thou Art” and “I Sing the Mighty Power of God,” we now regularly hear “How Great is Our God,” “Our God is an Awesome God” and “Great and Mighty Is the Lord Our God.” (Those who are more conversant with contemporary Christian music will realize quickly that I am not because there are likely many newer songs even than these!)

 

There is nothing wrong or theologically false about these songs, and I don’t want to suggest that there is, but let us not be duped into believing that everyone who sings them is a believer in Jesus. The text that I quoted above makes it clear that just to see the awesome power of God does not always elicit a response of true worship and repentance. In fact, one English translation (NASB) says that, upon seeing His power, God’s enemies will give “feigned obedience” to Him.

 

When I read that phrase recently, my thoughts carried me to those many times when at a public funeral the audience would sing “Amazing Grace,” even though clearly there were plenty that did not believe in that grace or that they needed it themselves. Yet these people will be shown singing His praise fervently, as if to suggest that they really did believe it. I think that’s what the Psalmist meant by “feigned obedience.”

 

It is interesting that most of these songs that extol the greatness of the Creator fail to mention the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Perhaps it is difficult to weave the two themes together. Often when we praise His greatness it is because we are awestruck by some aspect of His creation while the theme of redemption necessarily must bring out our sinfulness and the cross as the answer. Both, though true, are tough to combine.

 

But this gives the pseudo-Christians an opportunity to offer their praise at a distance, without becoming uncomfortable by the mention of the cross and their sin. Perhaps these were in our Lord’s mind when He told the crowd, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 7:21).

Daily Struggles of Life, Discipleship, Faith, Maturity, Power, Prayer, Scripture, Spiritual Warfare, fasting

Spiritual Warfare

Posted by admin on June 23, 2010 at 2:53 pm.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms (Eph 6:12).

                Apparently my life is too entrenched in the physical world that surrounds me, because this verse always strikes a chord with me. Reading this, along with Ephesians 3:9-10, I am reminded that there is an unseen spiritual presence that somehow impacts the affairs of men that I can see. What the connection is between the spiritual world of “principalities and powers” and our physical world of personal survival, caring and rearing our families, standing for Truth in the political world and promoting Christ is impossible to understand. Perhaps one day when this life is over, we will understand it.

                In the verses that follow Ephesians 6:12, Paul speaks about the spiritual armor that we are to don as believers in this battle, but there is another passage that speaks about the weapons that we are to use. That passage is II Cor. 10:4-5 which tells us that our weapons are spiritual and can pull down the strongholds (in the spiritual world) that are impossible if we only see this as a world of space and time. The weapons to which Paul refers are, of course, prayer and fasting. Some might include giving since Jesus included this in His Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 6).

                These “means of grace” (to use the term employed by the Reformers) are mysteries to most of us. Why does God need us to pray when He already knows what He wants done and has the power to accomplish it? Why did the ancients consider fasting to be a way “to make your voice heard on high”? Isn’t that what prayer itself does? If our Lord owns “the cattle on a thousand hills” and “the wealth of every mine,” why does He command us to give?

                The answers to these are bound up in the reality that “our warfare is not against flesh and blood…” Somehow, what we do when we pray, fast and give impacts the spiritual world in ways that we will never completely understand while we are in this life. Certainly the practice of these disciplines creates a growth component for our lives here that will be satisfying while we remain on this side, but God’s purpose is much greater even than that. Somehow we make a difference in the unseen world, and the unseen world affects what happens around us. That’s why Psalm 149 can say that it is the glory of God’s people to pray and to impact the political world in far-away places (see vss. 6-9).

                These spiritual disciplines can become wearisome to us at times, but we must continually feed on the Scripture to keep the truth before us that even if we cannot see visible results from these disciplines, they are effective in the unseen world.

Church Today, Faith, Repentance, Scripture, Walk with Jesus

Nominalism

Posted by admin on April 19, 2010 at 9:44 pm.

Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. Acts 20:30-31

                In the third chapter of John’s Revelation, a letter is recorded that was written to the church at Laodicea in which Jesus described His opinion of nominal Christians (Christians in name only). They are so disgusting that Jesus would vomit them from His mouth. The passage above tells us why.

                Nominal Christianity is a distortion of the Truth. Many people today are merely inoculated with the Gospel – they have just enough of the Gospel to keep from getting the real thing.

                God intended that His people should know Him, that is, have a person-to-Person relationship with Him. He has revealed Himself to us in Scripture and expects us to communicate back to Him through prayer. He, being the Creator and Redeemer and ultimately the Judge of mankind, should be the single most important entity in the universe. That’s His rightful place, but it has been usurped by much of the materialism of our day.

Yet there is a brand of theology extant today that suggests that we can secure a place in heaven without really needing to develop a relationship with Him. I can be assured of salvation as long as I follow someone’s prescribed formula. Prayer and Bible reading are for the super-Christians, and not necessary for those who desire to keep themselves tied to this world. This theology doesn’t come from outside the Church, but from inside – just as Paul predicted. The previous verse called those who preach a gospel of “easy-believism,” “savage wolves.”

This brand of theology is understandable given the human penchant for doing only what it takes to “get by,” but this is a deadly attitude. In Ephesians 5 Paul makes the case that we in the Church are comparable to the Bride in a marriage, and no marriage will ever last where either spouse merely does the minimum. Marriage, like the Christian faith, takes a 100% commitment. Our Lord has demonstrated that commitment on His part; we need to reciprocate. Any preaching or teaching that suggests otherwise is the distortion that Paul had in mind.

While we call Satan, “the enemy of our souls,” the real danger to our souls in this day is the lukewarm spirit that is so prevalent in the American Church. May God give us grace to follow Him fully.

Church Today, Faith, Gentiles, Peter, Repentance, Righteousness, Scripture

Repentant Gentiles

Posted by admin on April 10, 2010 at 11:19 am.

He [Peter] said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. Acts 10:28-29

                The context of this statement was in the home of the Roman Centurion, Cornelius. Acts 10 describes the circumstances surrounding the first Gentile converts to Christianity. Prior to Acts 10, a Gentile would have had to become part of the Jewish community to come to know Christ. Gentiles were considered “unclean” by good Jews in that day.

                This term, “unclean,” has a different connotation in our day. While Peter was told not to consider Gentiles unclean, it is clear that he still considered them sinners in need of repentance. In Acts 11:18, the brethren back in Jerusalem heard about this event, inquired about it and concluded that “God had granted the Gentiles REPENTANCE unto life” (emphasis added).

                Today, however, it is popular to interpret this verse to mean that all men, universally, are clean before God and not in need of repentance, but this is not consistent with the rest of the New (or Old) Testament. All men are created in the image of God, making them of infinite value in God’s sight. The arrogance of the Jews to consider Gentiles “impure or unclean” suggested that they were lesser in God’s sight than Jewish people, and this is the attitude that God corrected in Peter before he preached to Cornelius and his friends. The Jewish people of that day had a great advantage in having the revealed Truth passed down through the generations since Abraham, but they didn’t possess any special righteousness that was superior to the Gentiles. Every human being – no matter how young (even unborn, but I am getting political here) or degraded – is of infinite value to God because His image is stamped into his life. No one is superior to another.

                The Bible makes it clear that ALL of us are sinners, that ALL of us are in need of repentance, that ALL of us are dependent upon the mercy and grace of God through Christ for eternal life. Romans 3:22 says, “There is no distinction.”

                I am a Gentile, so I am grateful that Peter came to Cornelius in Acts 10 with the Gospel message. I am not saying that I would have been too proud to become a part of the Jewish community, if God had so ordered, because my pursuit of Him is more important than anything else in my life. But in His mercy to me and billions of others the issue of repentant faith was not confused with obedience to the Jewish Law.

Children, Discipleship, Faith, Maturity, Messiah, Scripture, Training, Walk with Jesus

God Has No Grandchildren

Posted by admin on March 22, 2010 at 11:03 pm.

They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.” John 4:42

                It is the experience of every believer in Christ that at some point he comes to the same decision as the Samaritans who heard about Jesus from the woman at the well. Many – especially those who grew up in believing homes – trust in Him initially because of the influence of those they respect, such as parents. But there always comes a time when they have to face the decision on their own, a time when they have to decide for themselves whether Jesus is THEIR Savior or just their parents’.

                Whoever coined the phrase, “God has no grandchildren,” was exactly right. I have done my children a disservice if I have not shown them by my words and my example how to establish a relationship with Christ personally. Of course, that relationship changes as they change in their maturity, but at some point I believe that they need to be reading the Scripture for their own direction from God. Time will tell whether my training of my own children was successful.

                One of the better things we did in our family was to memorize parts of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. This is a wonderful summary of Evangelical doctrine that properly emphasizes the nature of God, the Scripture and salvation. It is thoroughly Trinitarian, and though it is often associated with the Presbyterian Church, its teaching does not violate the cardinal doctrines of any Christian denomination, as far as I can tell. I should emphasize that it shouldn’t replace the reading of the Scripture itself, but rather it wonderfully summarizes the Scripture in these key areas.

                If we are going to properly prepare our kids to walk with Christ on their own, it is imperative that they see themselves within the larger context of the Church. This is where good Christian biography comes in to play. We especially found missionary biographies to captivate the attention of the kids, but our family time of devotion was a great opportunity to read aloud some of the classics. C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia are wonderful stories that captivate the attention of kids in elementary school and up (I read them for the first time in college, and have read them several times since). And, while the stories are thoroughly engaging, they contain many tremendous allegories of the Christian life.

                But none of this is profitable if our kids don’t see in us a vital walk with Christ ourselves. Just as we don’t want them believing solely because we tell them it’s the Truth, so we should not simply believe because someone has told US that Christianity is the Truth.

Disciples, Faith, Messiah, Miracles, Resurrection

Coming to Jesus Step By Step

Posted by admin on March 20, 2010 at 10:35 pm.

 

Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, put their faith in him (John 11:45).

                Whatever happened to these Jews who believed in Jesus following the raising of Lazarus? We don’t know and won’t know for sure until we get to heaven, but there are some likely scenarios for these people.

                Undoubtedly, many of these formed the throngs that lined the road at Jesus’ Triumphal Entry. They would have waved palm branches and laid out their cloaks before Him as He rode into Jerusalem. They probably WEREN’T among the crowds that were incited by the religious leadership to call for Him to be crucified.

                Acts 6:7 records that the disciples increased greatly after the Day of Pentecost, and that even a number of priests became Christians. We are not told that the Jews who believed following Lazarus’ resurrection were priests, but some may have been and certainly many of the people who came to Christ in the early chapters of Acts were likely ones who witnessed the miracles of Jesus – including this significant event.

                Most of us forget that those who came to Christ in the book of Acts were not hearing about Jesus for the first time. It is likely that many had been among the crowds that followed Jesus, that ate the bread that He miraculously provided, that knew someone who knew someone who had been healed. Finally the news of the Resurrection of Jesus reached them and convinced them the He really was Messiah.

                People in our day don’t usually come to know Christ the first time they hear the Gospel message either. The vast majority of people need to hear, think about the claims of Christ and finally become convinced that He really is God before they will trust Him. This reality should make us re-think what real evangelism is, and help us to recognize that when we stand for Christ in our neighborhoods or work places, someone may be there who will later recall that testimony as a step toward his decision for Christ.

Church Today, Faith, Gentiles, Jesus, Missions, Psalms, nations

Other Sheep

Posted by admin on March 19, 2010 at 10:37 pm.

I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16).

                The “sheep pen” here refers to the Jewish people who believed in Jesus. This would suggest that the “other sheep” are non-Jewish (that is, Gentiles).

 The term “Gentiles” really refers to the “nations.” When Israel was a sovereign kingdom God intended that they would be an example to the outlying nations of the goodness of their God. Responding to Israel’s obedience, God wanted to shower upon them blessing after blessing until – like the Queen of Sheba – the nations would recognize Him as the true and living God.

But we know that Israel wasn’t obedient, and instead of drawing the nations to Himself, God used them as instruments of judgment upon Israel. In their continuing state of rebellion, Israel became antagonistic toward those nations rather than recognizing them as tools of God’s judgment and great tensions developed. Examples of these tensions are seen in the prophetic books of Jonah and Obadiah as well as in Psalm 137.

All of this is to say that from the very beginning, God has had a heart for all nations. Many of the Psalms used in Temple worship include phrases like, “let the nations rejoice” and “declare His glory among the nations” (Ps. 96:3). It has been His purpose to bring men “from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” to Himself. And because this is His passion, He has communicated it to those people that are truly His. That’s why every evangelical denomination has some involvement in overseas missionary activity. In fact, Jesus tied His own return to the progress of His Church in reaching the nations with the Gospel. He couldn’t be much clearer than when He said, “This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matt 24:14). Some will think I am exaggerating when I suggest that the extent to which a local church is involved in missions will be the extent to which they please the heart of God.

Having been part of a missionary organization for more than 30 years, I never fail to be thrilled over reports of the Gentile nations coming to the Savior. It is especially satisfying as I see the Church in North America declining to know that God has not forgotten His passion to bring the nations to Himself, because it has ALWAYS been part of His plan.

Faith, Purpose, conversion

The Gospel Yeast

Posted by admin on February 27, 2010 at 11:58 am.

Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.”  Luke 13:20-21

                This is one of the few times in Scripture where yeast is not compared to sin. Most often it is used to speak of the way sin changes the state of a person’s heart. But in this case, that change is a positive one. The Gospel (the kingdom of God) actually alters the very nature of human development.

                I came to know Christ in college. To many around me, the changes that took place in my life were probably considered changes that came with maturity and human development, but I knew different. There was a significant difference between the “BC” person and who I became.

                Though my life as sheltered and stable, I grew up with no real sense of personal value. Before I came to Christ, I had no understanding of why I existed. I was scared to try new things because I feared ridicule or that I would fail and people would think poorly of me. I’m sure it was not intentionally communicated, but I believed my personal worth was a function of some unique contribution that I knew was not in me. Had I embraced an Eastern mystical religion in those days, it would have fit my don’t-rock-the-boat demeanor. I wasn’t passionate about anything so that I would avoid being criticized.

                But Christ changed that. His presence in my life began to permeate everything I was and did. That “small” decision to trust Him with my life suddenly impacted the whole of my life, just like the yeast did to the dough in Jesus’ illustration. I recognized the Bible as the source of Truth; I saw Jesus as the Ruler over the universe; I may not have had clear vocational direction, but I knew it was somehow connected to my relationship with Him. All the pieces of my life that had previously seemed so fragmented, now were brought into order by His presence, like a magnet does to iron filings.

                But it makes me wonder about some of the people near me. Has their internal orientation changed because of their decision to trust Christ? (Has the Gospel yeast permeated their lives?) Rather, have they viewed Christianity as “fire insurance,” simply to keep them from hell? When small children (even my own) trust Christ, does the Gospel yeast so alter their lives that they will be true to it in the turbulent adolescent years and beyond? Certainly, I can never peer into the hearts of these near me, but He does expect me to inspect the “fruit” or see if “the dough has risen.”

Christian, Church Today, Doubt, Faith, Jesus, Leap of Faith

No Leap of Faith

Posted by admin on February 16, 2010 at 10:47 am.

Luke 3:1-2 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar — when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and Traconitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene—  during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert.

                The challenge from the secular world and its accomplices, the mainline liberal and neo-orthodox theologians of our day,  is that we who believe in Jesus have taken a “leap of faith.” To their way of thinking, our faith is firmly planted in mid-air!

                But that is not how the New Testament reads. In the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel (verse 5) and in the second chapter (verse 1) Luke includes historical markers to identify the times in which those events took place. In the passage above, he does the same – no less than in 6 different ways. He may not have used the Gregorian calendar (mostly because it hadn’t been invented yet), but Luke was very accurate in his identification of the historical documentation of the events he recorded.

                We who know Christ should protest when our faith is characterized as a “leap.” It is not. It is rooted in enough documented history that legal experts have declared events like the Resurrection of Jesus to be undeniable. These passages in Luke’s Gospel are just a few of the many intersections the Bible has with other documented secular history.

                I find it also interesting that those who usually characterize our faith as a “leap” are the same ones who say they believe in an evolutionary origin. It’s funny (ironic) that neither the “spontaneous generation” that I read about in my high school science texts nor the more recent suggestion that life was dropped upon this world from outer space are considered “ leaps.” But I shouldn’t be surprised because the politically correct Lexicon has to re-define even the word “is!”

Christ, Death, Eternal Life, Faith, Gentiles, Jesus, Messiah, Sovereign Lord

Prepared for death

Posted by admin on February 15, 2010 at 2:47 pm.

Luke 2:25-32  Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:  “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

                Probably my favorite character (aside from Jesus) in the Christmas story is the old man, Simeon. He was a faithful and godly man in the midst of a religion of external forms and ritualistic worship. At some point – we don’t know if it was that morning when he woke up or months before – God had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen Messiah. But eight days after Jesus was born, His parents brought Him to the Temple for His dedication and, while there, they met Simeon.

                Simeon recognized the Baby Jesus as the Messiah and “sang” the wonderful hymn that is recorded in verses 29-32, called the “Nunc Dimittus.” (This is the last of four hymns recorded in the first two chapters of Luke and takes its name from the first words of the Latin text.)

                I like Simeon and his song because he has life in its proper perspective. First he recognizes that God has him in this world for a purpose. Once he recognizes Messiah, he can be “dismissed” by the “Sovereign Lord.” His work is done; his next assignment is in a different venue – heaven. We who are “in Christ” should take our cue from Simeon – we are here as servants of God, not those who issue the orders! He calls us to His service and dismisses us when He is done with us – not the other way around.

                Simeon also has a global perspective. While God’s principle place of activity was within the nation of Israel, Jesus was still “a light of revelation to the Gentiles.”It was always within God’s scope that ALL nations would worship Him. Around His throne will be some “from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (see Rev. 5).

                But mostly I like Simeon because he is prepared to die. It’s not a fearful thing; he may not know exactly what death will bring, but he knows the One who has ordered it. And he trusts Him.

                Lots of people today aren’t ready to die. But they can be – if only they follow Simeon’s example, and actively look for Messiah.