Dangers of Being Ecumenical
John Piper rejects the notion that Muslims and Christians have the same God. He’s right!
See this post from Justin Taylor’s blog, Between Two Worlds
January 24 2008 | Doctrine and Videos | No Comments »
Piper The Dog, Not The Theologian
Here’s a little family video for you all to enjoy. -Matt
January 20 2008 | Videos | No Comments »
Following Jesus Is In The Imperative
Psa. 101:2 (ESV) I will ponder the way that is blameless.
Oh when will you come to me?
I will walk with integrity of heart
within my house;
Seems like often when I speak to someone about what we are to do as believers, our duty, they start to squirm. Why is that? We should hold one another accountable to doing what is right and good, but it seems that as soon as you do that, people want to say that it’s all about grace.
What does that mean? Grace is what saves us and it is by grace that we are able to persevere in the Christian life, however, grace doesn’t simply “meet us where we are”. It has a mind to change us and we should expect that. The old has gone and the new has come and we should begin to proudly proclaim our duty not from our own strength but because we know of the work that the Holy Spirit has done.
In this passage in Psalm 101, David makes a proclamation that would make many modern Christians uncomfortable. How can David be so bold as to state that he “will walk with integrity of heart”? It is because he knows his God. It is not by his strength that he can do so, but as a child of God who has been redeemed he is able.
Keep in mind that David didn’t always walk with integrity–demonstrating our absolute need to rely on the Holy Spirit for this. He does, however, make the proclamation out of a love for God and a true desire and attempt to “walk with integrity of heart”.
As believers in Jesus Christ, we need to start making more proclamations about what we will do. Yes, the imperative follows the indicative. We know who we are, children of God. Now we need to walk in it.
1John 2:4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,
1John 2:5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:
1John 2:6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (ESV)
November 09 2007 | Doctrine | No Comments »
Why Christians Don’t Have An Eternal Perspective
I can’t speak for Christians in other parts of the world, but American Christians lack an eternal perspective, and here’s why.
A friend of mine once said that to be born in the US is like winning the lottery. Certainly we have poor people and I don’t want to belittle that, however, from a global perspective, we are incredibly wealthy–even our poorest by comparison have great wealth.
So what does that have to do with an eternal perspective on life? Focusing on the middle class, we see that the vast majority of Americans are born into what could be called perpetual comfort. We always have food, a house, clothing, transportation to go to a job, the list goes on. We have come to expect this to always persist. So, when trial comes, and I mean real trial–not “my car broke down and now I don’t have any money for repairs right now”. I mean when real calamity comes–Job style–where everything you’ve ever had is taken from you. What is your perspective on God? Here are the questions we ask:
- How could you do this to me God? I’m your child.
- How could you do this to me God? Look at all I do to build the Kingdom.
- Why are you silent?
- Do you not love me any more?
- You once watched over me, but now you’ve handed me over to Satan.
- Why do the wicked prosper?
I will explain further, but if you can look at any one of these questions and not answer them from you knowledge of who God is, then I submit to you that you may be worshipping a false god–the god of perpetual comfort.
Let me answer some of these questions. I’ll start with my favorite: “How could you do this to me God? I’m your child.” Read Hebrews 12:3-11.
3(H) Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or(I) fainthearted. 4In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?
(J) “My son,(K) do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
6For(L) the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”7It is for discipline that you have to endure.(M) God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8If you are left without discipline,(N) in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to(O) the Father of spirits(P) and live? 10For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good,(Q) that we may share his holiness. 11(R) For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields(S) the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
This passage is incredibly rich and so you should read through it several times, but the main point I am trying to make here is that unless you are chastened, and I mean through suffering, you are “illegitimate children and not sons”. Our natural thinking and the asking of that question, shows we don’t know the scripture–we don’t know God. We must suffer if we are children of God, but let us not lose hope because our suffering is merely temporal and will not last.
Now let me answer the next one. “How could you do this to me God? Look at all I do to build the Kingdom.” God doesn’t need us to do His work. He loves us and gives us good works to do that he has prepared for us to do (Ephesians 2). He, however, isn’t dependent upon us. If you think somehow that you can earn God’s favor by your works, then you missed the whole point of works. Our works confirm what we profess. If we had to prove to God our worth, what a terrible situation that would put us in. Remember that the imperative follows the indicative–that is, who you are before God determines what you do. What you do does not determine who you are before God. Through the blood of Jesus Christ, you have been bought at a price and you are a child of the living God. Now act like it. Do your work and work HARD without ceasing and without counting the cost.
Now, back to the issue at hand. We need to stop thinking that if we do enough work, God will leave us alone and never trouble us with suffering. This misses the loving effect that suffering has on the believer. Your suffering is not for you alone. It is a means God uses not only to refine you as pure gold, but to help you strengthen those around you. See my last post for more on strengthening your brothers.
Ok, I’ll answer one more as this post is already longer than I wanted it to be. Let’s answer the question, “Why are you silent?” God often seems silent in these times as we are asking the wrong questions–questions such as the ones I’ve already addressed. If we knew our Bible better, we would be able to answer these questions easily and embrace all that God is bringing to us. Frankly, during our trials, God is anything but silent. He has a bull-horn and he has it pointed directly at our ears. You can’t hear it because you don’t like what he’s saying. As much as many evangelicals decry the “health, wealth, and prosperity” gospel very few seem to live their lives as if they really think it is wrong. As long as we have health and comfort we’re a-Ok with God. As soon as things go bump, we ask these same childish questions. Keep in mind, I’m not pointing the finger here as I’ve done the exact same thing myself. I’m simply pointing out that I have been convicted that this is sin. The true God of the Bible can’t be squeezed into our little boxes. When we try to do that, we are sinning.
What it all boils to in the end is that we don’t have an eternal perspective because we don’t know the true God. We don’t know him because we don’t acknowledge what the Word tells us about him. We only acknowledge the things that make us comfortable. If I have learned anything through my own trial is that I’ve paid a lot of lip service to knowing the word of God. I have realized first of all, that what I thought I knew was often wrong and skewed by a vision of God that was based on who I wanted him to be and not who he truly is. Second of all, I have realized that what I do know is a drop in the ocean of what there is to know of God in his word.
We all need to repent of trying to make God fit into our box. We need to run from the god of perpetual comfort back into the arms of the true God who loves us and who treats us as sons.
November 04 2007 | Doctrine | No Comments »
Being Sifted
It’s been since June that I wrote on this blog and for good reason, I think. I’ve been diagnosed with Zollinger Ellison Syndrome and have had to come to terms with living with a disease that threatens my life and will most likely shorten it. It’s placed me in spiritual free-fall, which has been really hard, but also great.
I’ve commented a lot recently to friends how as I’ve walked through so far in this life as a believer in Jesus, I’ve learned so many lessons and truths as you would learn simply walking along the way with you master who is teaching you through his words. Since June, however, our great God has seen it fit to put me through what I now dub Spiritual Boot Camp. I’ll explain what I mean.
During these last several months Chris Taylor got me turned onto listening to John Piper at Desiring God. Chris has said, and I would have to agree with him at this point that Piper is one of the greatest if not the greatest preacher of our time. Piper has such an amazing grasp of suffering and trial in the life of the believer and God’s absolute sovereignty in it. The reason I point this out is in order to give proper attribution to the source of what I am about to say. Given, the lessons are simply Biblical, yet they are lessons that are brand new to me–someone who has been a Christian for nearly 30 years. That in itself unfortunate, but better to learn them late rather than never and I am learning them from John Piper. He is really a gift to God’s people.
And that is the main reason I write or speak about my own trial is to tell others so that they may also know and draw near to the true God of the universe.
Let me get to the point. Read with me Luke 22 starting in verse 32, “but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter is about to go through some serious trials and will deny Jesus which Jesus is about to tell him. This statement Jesus makes is just incredibly profound. For just a minute, though, simply look at the last part where Jesus says “strengthen your brother’. Keep that in your mind that this is Jesus purpose–perpetuating the Kingdom of God by strengthening one another.
The real story here begins a verse earlier. “”Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat,”. Again Jesus words are incredibly profound. We simply assume that God has no part with evil yet here we see Satan making demands of Him. How can that be? Well, recall Job. Read it again if you need to but there is this conversation that God strikes up with Satan saying “consider my servant Job”. What is God doing? Sounds to me like he’s about to set Job up. Can that be the God we know and worship? Would he set up his own people whom he loves to be tried?
Absolutely!
Look again with me at Luke 22:32, “but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again…”. We have to acknowledge that God is the one who brings trial through whatever means–even enabling Satan to carry out his own works. But Jesus, the one from whom, along with the Father, the Spirit proceeds (refer to your Westminster Confession) has said that he has prayed for Peter (as well as the other disciples as the words ‘you’ here is plural) and then he says “And when you have turned again”, not “if you turn again”. Jesus has guaranteed it by his prayer and his Spirit that Peter and the other disciples will not lose their faith. They will stumble in some serious ways, but they will not lose their faith. And again, we see the purpose of this–to “strengthen your brothers.”.
It is really hard to explain the problem of evil, but God, if he is sovereign must also be sovereign over it. He is not and cannot be the author of it, but he certainly has control over it and even causes it (Job 2:10)–yet without sinning. In our culture we tend to worship the god of perpetual comfort. We, childishly, reason that if we are not comfortable, then God must not be good. if this is the way you’ve thought, then let me be the first to break it to you. When Satan “demanded to have you, that he may sift you like wheat”, did Jesus respond by saying “don’t worry about it. I’ve talked to God and he’s going to keep Satan from ’sifting’ you”? No. That’s not what he said at all. He answers in a way as to make it clear that Satan’s demand was granted. Let me say that again. God granted Satan’s demand. There are many things I glean from that, but there are two main points that I think are most important. First, Satan can do nothing without God’s permission. And second, God permits evil against his people. Is God purposeless in doing so? Of course not. His purpose it to “strengthen your brothers.” When we endure trial, it is a Kingdom building plan of God. We are need to use our trial for God’s glory because it is for our good.
I conclude in this by saying that the suffering that you go through “… seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” (Heb. 12:11 ESV) Be trained through your suffering. Don’t spend too much time getting upset with God for bringing hard things to you. He has permitted Satan to “sift you as wheat”. God is the only one who you can “blame”, but remember that God chastens those he loves–those who he considers sons. it may not feel like love and he may seem silent, but the trial or affliction itself is a loud and clear proclamation by the God of all things that he is out for you–he is out for your righteousness and your sifting is necessary.
October 27 2007 | Doctrine | No Comments »