Name: Samuel, aka "Samuel"

Email:

Bio: I love long walks on the beach during a light rain, the feel of peacock feathers between my toes, and a girl who's not afraid of commitment. Yeah, um, seriously, I'm greatly honored to have been asked to contribute to this ministry and to have my posts put alongside those who are much better versed than I. I am excited to see where this ministry goes. Soli Deo Gloria!

Posts by Samuel:

Sorry for the absence…

September 9th, 2009

I just wanted to keep you all abreast of my current status regarding my limited contribution to STF as of late. Life has become very busy and I am finding it difficult to write as much as I’d like. I just started back at school, I work a lot, and I am at the beck and call of a most beautiful wife and two splendid little boys. Aside from that, the ministries at the church have demanded more of my time recently.

I will continue to contribute to this most efficacious ministry as time permits. Thanks all, and God be with you!

SEB

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Understanding God part 1

May 26th, 2009

Intro

This writing will constitute a short series of articles relating to the attributes of God in which I will try to lay down some basic beliefs that we, as Christians, hold.  These articles will by no means be exhaustive, and I would greatly encourage anyone who is interested in going further in picking up one of many great books on the subject.  I merely seek to hit and highlight the majors to give a reasonable understanding to those who are wondering.

My reason for writing this series is a concern for the lack of a full, rounded understanding of God and how He (God) has been misrepresented throughout history to the present.  We tend to focus on one or two attributes that appeal to us, and then we toss the others aside.  I would say that the main reason for this is that, according to our human viewpoint, there are certain attributes of God that tend to clash.  For example, God is defined as love.  But, He is also defined as a consuming fire.  God is called good.  But He is also called jealous.  Keep in mind, all of these qualities are spoken of God about Himself and not by man.  So, if we then have a perfect God, how can He seemingly contradict Himself?  Well, obviously, it is we who have the problem with the so-called contradiction.  And that requires thought.  Long, hard, good ol’ fashioned thought.  And this is where most people get off the boat.

It is hard to reconcile two concepts that seem to contradict at any level in our world of thought.  For example, to be loving is always good.  To be jealous is always bad. We have been taught this since infancy.  In order to understand how these two things can exist in perfect harmony with each other, we must step out of our tainted world-view and into another.  But alas! We are creatures of comfort!  We don’t want to think about God’s anger or judgement because it makes us uncomfortable.  It doesn’t seem to mesh with the God of the New Testament.  This is why the Old Testament is so often brushed aside with so much ease.  It is easier to read about God healing the blind and casting out demons, than to read about the judgement of God coming down as fire from the sky and consuming all in it’s path.  The problem is that this only leads to a further misunderstanding of God because we’ve now disregarded three quarters of the Bible and all that that three quarters has to say about God.  For this reason, we must read all scripture and seek to obtain answers when we get to something that we don’t understand, rather than just glancing over it or pretending it doesn’t exist.  A solid understanding of God and His attributes will invariably lead to a much richer, deeper, and appreciative Christian walk.

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”  2 Timothy 3:16    -KJV

God is eternal, immutable, self-existent, and infinite.

“And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”  Exodus 3:14    -KJV

God is eternal.  God had no beginning.  God always was.  Nothing created God.  This is a hard concept for us to grasp as everything in our world including the very universe itself, is in a constant state of decay.  We can, with the aid of high power telescopes, see to the very edge of our universe.  The light that we see from a star six-hundred light-years  away took six-hundred years to reach us.  We can look at the spectrum of that light and determine the state that star was in six centuries ago!  And that is a star relatively close to us.  But even as stars seem to be permanent fixtures in the sky, we are still able to witness the birth and death of these ancient bodies.  It is therefore no wonder we have such a hard time imagining God to have always been.  So how can we be sure that God had no beginning when our world testifies against it?  Well, we can start with this statement as it will be the premise for so much of this and the coming articles.  God is perfect.  Simple and to the point, no? No? Okay then, lets look at what this statement implies about God’s self existence and immutability, which will help us understand how He is and has to be, eternal.

The statement, “God is perfect”, means that God is, in all ways, perfect.  When He loves us, He loves us perfectly.  When He judges, He is perfectly just.  When His wrath is poured out, it is perfectly executed and with finality.  When His grace covers our sins, it does so perfectly and completely, and so on and so forth.  God never does anything half-way, nor does He make mistakes.  Whatever God does, He does it with all of his perfect attributes working perfectly together as one.  None of His attributes may be decreased, and none may be increased. They are continually perfect.  This inability to change is what is meant by God’s immutability.  It is not a limitation in any sense, but a logical outcome of a perfect being.  One can only change in two ways, either for the better, or for the worse.  If God ceased to be perfect in any one thing by diminishing a certain attribute, he would no longer be perfect and could not be God.  Likewise, neither can He increase any one thing about Him, for that would mean that there had existed a potential for change, and up until that point, God was not perfect and therefore, was not God.  This means that when God brings about the salvation of a person, it is His love, mercy, righteousness, and judgement all working together for that end.  When He let’s another fall into judgement for their sins, again, it is His love, mercy, righteousness, and judgement all working toward that end.  Throughout history, men have tended to focus on one aspect of God or another and diminish the rest.  At times, it has been God’s righteousness and judgement that have been exalted, while His love and mercy have been put aside which has given the impression of an intolerant and angry god.  At other times, and in ours especially, His love and mercy are the idealized attributes and we have ended up with a weak fluffy god who tends to cater to felt needs.  Both are dangerous for both do not give the full view of God.  When one has a full view of God, one can be sure that when they worship, it is done correctly.  When they are addressing Him in prayer, they are able to put themselves in the right place.  When they have a moral dilemma, they know what God has to say on the matter.  It is very important that we view and treat God with the respect and honor that are His.  We are not to be scared of Him in the sense that we can’t come before Him, nor are we to be so comfortable with Him that we curl up in His lap and slap Him on the back.

When we say that God is self-existent, we are merely saying that nothing created Him.  As humans, we are reliant beings.  We rely on the fact that God exists.  If God doesn’t exist, we cease to exist because we are merely a physical manifestation of God’s creative mind.  Without that mind, we never were.  God, though, was not created by anything at all, nor does He rely on anything to exist.  If He did, it would imply that He lacked something, and if He lacked in anything He would cease to be perfect.  He simply was, is, and will be.  The argument for this goes back to the statement that God is perfect, and because of this, He is immutable.  You see, it is illogical to think that there can exist two perfect beings.  If God was created, then only a perfect being would have been able to create Him because it does not follow that an imperfect being could create anything truly perfect, no matter how close that creator being was to perfection.   But a perfect being could not create another perfect being, because they would share every attribute perfectly.  There would be no difference between them for if there were, one or both would not be perfect.  So both beings would then be indistinguishable from each other, and therefore the same being, rendering the whole thought impossible.  So there we see that only one perfect being may exist and must have always existed without reliance on any other being.  So how then do we relate this to our world that is based upon beginnings and ends?  We must understand the relationship of time to both God and us to fully grasp that, and that’s easier said, but I’ll try to touch on it.  To infinity, and beyond!  (Sorry. Those of you who have kids are now laughing…)

Infinity is a word that is really hard to grasp.  In fact, it is more of a concept than a measurement.  We live in a world dictated by the time-space continuum.   Everything we seem to know exists within this model.  We have the three dimensions of height, width, and length, plus the all encompassing fourth dimension of time.  All matter and energy are moving along within time, or along the continuum.  Our world is dictated by time.  Everything in our world had a beginning and will also have an end.  We can see this.  We can touch this.  This is the most easily proven fact in the world.  This is what we know.  With time, empires rise and fall.  Mountains are raised and canyons are gouged out of the rock.  People live and people die, and in a couple generations you’re lucky if someone even remembers you ever existed.  Even the antediluvian stars mentioned above are but for a short time compared against the vast infinity.  So to say that God is infinite really taxes our finite minds.  It means that He is not bound by the time-space continuum.  He cannot be contained, but contains all things.  He cannot be measured, or ordered, weighed, nor grasped.

“Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens—what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave—what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth and wider than the sea”   Job 11: 7-9

God is not bound by time.  God created time, so therefore, He must transcend time.  Where we live our lives in a present or now, able to look back to the past without ability to return nor see into the future, God is always in the present, regardless of where we are on the timeline.  In other words, whether God is in our past, present, or future, He is always in the present.  Also, I do not mean that He has to pick a moment on the timeline to exist at as we see in sci-fi movies where time machines are involved.  To God, the past, present, and future are all the same.  They are His now.  This is why He gets to call all of the shots concerning our lives because He can see us a billion years into the future, whereas we can’t often see to the end of the street.  God is able to simply “straddle” the whole of time and see it all at once.  He is unfettered by ages or eons or spans of time because these things as long as they are, when put alongside infinity, by reason become infinitely short.  God contains all matter and energy, as they originated from Him, and also time itself.  He is everywhere at once in all time past and future.  It would seem that His is the only true reality as ours is just the impotent measurement of a very short flicker of a flame against the expanse of ages.  And through all of this, we return to our first statement that God is eternal, and in the words of Dr. Phil, “And you can take that to the bank.”

This will lead us into the next article where we will cover the omnipotence, omnipresence, and foreknowledge of God.  Please stay tuned for part 2 of this series where I will again attempt to befoul the noble field of theology with over-simplified explanations of vastly complex topics that are much over my head and beyond my pay-grade.

SEB







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Idolatry. Not Just for Savages Anymore.

February 17th, 2009



When we think of the word “idolatry” our minds tend to conjure up all sorts of images based upon history or what we’ve seen in various media outlets.  Maybe we think of half-naked tribal peoples bowing and burning incense before a large grotesque face carved out of stone.  Or perhaps we imagine some  nubile virgin laying atop an altar as a witch doctor prepares to plunge a twisted blade into her heart while chanting in a strange tongue.  Or maybe we even look to other religions and cults that exist today whose practices seem taboo or foreign to us western occidentals.  The reality, however, is that idolatry hits much closer to home than you might think.  I would go so far as to say that every Christian who has ever walked the earth has engaged in it in one form or another and some or most to great extents.  Surprised?  It is actually one of the major stumbling blocks to living a life that is wholly devoted to God.  We live in a world that is chock full of distractions, where every pleasure and want can be temporarily satisfied merely by tossing a little money it’s way.   Unfortunately, this very often leads to bondage, or at the very least, hinders one from becoming all that he could be for Christ.  In effect, believers stop serving the Lord, and start serving their acquired vice.  So then if idolatry is such a problem amongst Christians, we must identify it for what it is, that we might live as we should.  And to identify it accurately we must turn to the source of all authority, that being the Bible.

Let’s start off in the book of Matthew, specifically in the 6th chapter at verse 24 which reads thus;

²⁴No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

-KJV

So, a few things to look at in this passage.  Firstly, notice the word “serve”.  The original Greek word is douleuõ which is the verb form of doulos which means “slave”.  Being that the verb douleuo is in the “present tense,” we can understand this to mean an ongoing act of being enslaved to a master. Now the word masters is translated from the Greek word kurios, which can be translated a few different ways, all pertaining to and adding strength to the verse. 1) He to whom a person or thing belongs, about which he has power of deciding; master, lord the possessor and disposer of a thing 2) The owner; one who has control of the person, the master 3) Is a title of honor expressive of respect and reverence, with which servants greet their master 4) This title is given to: God, the Messiah.  What is revealed to us then, is a picture of a slave torn between serving, or being enslaved to, two masters.

Skipping over the center of the passage, (we’ll get to that shortly), let’s look at the last sentence in which both masters are identified.  First, we see that the first Master is God, which should be without need of further explanation.  The second master, however, is a somewhat strange word that should be exposited in order to fully understand why Jesus used that specific word and form.  The word mammon is a Greek transliteration of the Aramaic word mamona meaning “wealth” or “property”.  The root of this word in both Aramaic and Hebrew let us know that the word mammon used here is to mean the confidence and reliance upon worldly wealth, property, or basically anything under the sun that one might take stock in.

The question is now begged, “Can one serve God fully, yet at the same time, put his stock and trust in worldly things?”.  Jesus answers emphatically in the negative.  We are told that he (the slave) “will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”  Jesus seems to be implying that there are only options for the two extremes; that there is no middle ground.  This is to impress a couple important points to the hearer.  First, the nature of slavery is a full-time commitment.  It would be absolutely impossible for a slave to serve two masters.  Remember, this is not the same thing as having two jobs, where you work awhile at one and then go to the other.  Slavery means that you are at the beck and call of your master at all times.  If you are busy with a task for one master, it would be impossible to be at the immediate call of the other master. Therefore, you cannot be the doulos of two masters.

The second point, stemming from the first, that is made is the idea that partial servitude is no servitude at all.  Partial servitude to God is full servitude to mammon, which is rendered as no servitude to God.  In other words, God demands everything that we are.  We should be able to give up anything in this world at the drop of a hat for His sake and not think twice about it.  After all, nothing exists in this world that was not from within God, as He is the originator of all things and is sovereign over all things.  Therefore, it is silly to think that you can actually own anything at all in this world, let alone put your confidence in those things.  And so from this verse we can glean that whatever it is that we put first before God, whether it be money, work, various sinful habits, hobbies, family, etc. (basically anything that causes us to not fully serve Him as a slave to a master), can constitute idolatry.

Now that we understand how God defines idolatry, we are left with a decision.  Either we serve God fully, or we don’t.  Let’s look now into the Old Testament to the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal where he asks a question that all of us need to weigh and answer. We will be looking at 1 Kings chapter 18 verse 21.

At this point in the story, we see that Israel, currently under the rule of King Ahab, has fallen into the worship of Baal, the principal deity of the surrounding regions, and forsaken the commandments of the Lord.  Along comes Elijah, the prophet of God, to issue a challenge to those that would side with the worshipers of Baal.  He commands that all of Israel and all the prophets of Baal be gathered together so that the true God of Israel might be revealed.  And so we pick up in verse 21;

21 And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.

-KJV

What a piercing question this is!  To answer this question is to be a witness against yourself!  We already know from the verse in Matthew that you may only serve one master and that there is no such thing as “partial discipleship”, so, if the Lord be God, follow Him!  If you choose mammon, then it is your god, and follow it.  Be honest with yourself and look with clarity into your heart.  Are you willing to let go of everything for the sake of following the Lord? Are you willing to give up the lyrically degenerate music, the internet porn, the excessive booze, the girlfriend or boyfriend that’s dragging you down, or anything else the Lord might find offensive or unbecoming of His own?  As a perfect example of the attitude we should take when it comes to clearing the junk and mung from our lives, let’s look at King Josiah and what he did to bring about spiritual reform in a pagan Israel.  This is 2 Kings chapter 23 verses 4-20.  I know this is pretty much the whole chapter, but in it’s entirety we see that nothing less than a total eradication of sin and spiritual debris will do.

4  Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel.

5  He did away with the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had appointed to burn incense in the high places in the cities of Judah and in the surrounding area of Jerusalem, also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and to the moon and to the constellations and to all the host of heaven.


6  He brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron, and ground it to dust, and threw its dust on the graves of the common people.


7  He also broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the LORD, where the women were weaving hangings for the Asherah.


8  Then he brought all the priests from the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one’s left at the city gate.


9  Nevertheless the priests of the high places did not go up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.


10  He also defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or his daughter pass through the fire for Molech.


11  He did away with the horses which the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entrance of the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the official, which was in the precincts; and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.


12  The altars which were on the roof, the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, the king broke down; and he smashed them there and threw their dust into the brook Kidron.


13  The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.


14  He broke in pieces the sacred pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with human bones.


15  Furthermore, the altar that was at Bethel and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he broke down Then he demolished its stones, ground them to dust, and burned the Asherah.


16 Now when Josiah turned, he saw the graves that were there on the mountain, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the LORD which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.


17 Then he said, “What is this monument that I see?” And the men of the city told him, “It is the grave of the man of God who came from Judah and proclaimed these things which you have done against the altar of Bethel.”


18 He said, “Let him alone; let no one disturb his bones.” So they left his bones undisturbed with the bones of the prophet who came from Samaria.


19 Josiah also removed all the houses of the high places which were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made provoking the LORD; and he did to them just as he had done in Bethel.

20 All the priests of the high places who were there he slaughtered on the altars and burned human bones on them; then he returned to Jerusalem.

-NASB

And there you have it.  King Josiah did not leave any remnant of the pagan influence standing or alive.  He engaged in complete, remorseless, and total destruction of everything that was holding Israel back from the Lord’s blessing.  We too must be absolutely merciless and without regret when it comes to purging ourselves of foreign masters that would vie for our loyalties.  We must serve God with a single-eyed devotion.  In our society we are faced with innumerable distractions that would seek to take our hearts away from our Lord and spiritually cripple us.  Let us be ever vigilant in guarding our hearts and minds that we might not “play the harlot”.  The line in the sand was drawn eons ago between the Lord God and the prince of this world.  Whose side are you on?

 

SEB

 

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iGod : The Folly of Inventing Deity

February 9th, 2009

“Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”  - 2 Timothy 4: 2-4 

Around six years ago or so, my wife and I were invited to attend the wedding of one of her then co-workers.  While there, I had the express “privilege” of sitting down with the officiating priestess before the ceremony and asking some questions of her regarding her beliefs.  She told me that at one point she had attended a Christian church, but found it to be too exclusive for her liking.  She told me that Christians were too judgmental and that the traditional Christian church was “just not for me”.  ”I did not feel comfortable there”, she said.  She then proceeded to tell me that she got involved in her current church because “it was right for me”.  And basically, what her church was, was a universalist-ultra-liberal-all roads lead to Rome- let’s incorporate mysticism and not speak to sin kind of church.  The kind of church that believes the Bible to be just another tome of fallible wisdom in the long line of religious writings passed down from antiquity, to be used alongside the writings of every other prophet who have since walked the earth.  Notice the prolific use of the words “I” and “me” in her explanation of her divergence from orthodox Christianity.  Obviously, her view of truth was being distorted by the lens of her own desires.  She was doing nothing short of inventing her own god based upon what she felt was right.  In other words, in her world, God does not make the rules and establish law, she does.

So let’s look at the logic behind this method of truth-seeking by means of an analogy.  Let’s say that I really like sharks.  No, I mean I REALLY like sharks.  In fact, I do nothing short of love them.  I feel an affinity for them and consider them my friends.  And surely, since I love them and consider them my closest friends, they would not hurt me.  So I decide to go for a swim off the coast of San Francisco in a nice shiny black wet-suit.  And I love my shark friends SO much, that I even bring a big bag of fish guts and spread it around in the water for them as I wait for them to come to me so I can pet and cuddle them.  When the sharks think they’ve come upon a wounded seal and start tearing the limbs from my body one by one and I start to fade from massive blood loss, am I surprised?

The point of this silly analogy is that no matter how much I desire something or wish a particular thing to be true, that desire has absolutely no power over the absolute truth.  And so, like the priestess I met at that wedding, will she be surprised when she is standing before the Judgment Seat of God and He tells her to depart from His presence?  Will she be able to say, “But I really believed that there was no Hell.  I really believed that Mohammed and Buddha were right, too.  I thought when Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life and that no man comes to the Father but by Me”, it was just a suggestion.  I was really sincere!”  No, I don’t think that that will get her out of the immense pickle she has gotten herself into.  The truth is just not relative.

This type of self-serving “theology” is becoming ever more prominent in society today.  It is the idea that the Scriptures are not to be held on the same level as an inward revelation of truth.  In many cases, the Scriptures are actually ignored altogether and referred to as either archaic or out of touch.  The Greeks, in days gone by, called those people who were considered to possess this inward divinity, “Enthusiasts”.  Obviously, it is where we get our word “enthusiasm” today and describes those who’s emotions and passions drive them in all they do.  Certainly, there is a place for enthusiasm, but never at the expense of lessening or doing away with the very Words of God.  As I write this article, I feel enthusiastic about it.  I feel impassioned regarding the message behind it.  If I did not, I would most likely be leaving you with much less impact and substance, assuming I would have started it in the first place.  And so, let’s be enthusiastic about the Word of God and it’s infallible truth.  Only when we understand that the Scriptures are the ONLY authority for discerning truth, can enthusiasm be applied properly.

 

SEB

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An Open Letter to the Christian

February 9th, 2009

1. Purpose and Scope

Firstly, let me start off by saying that the original intent behind this writing was more of an effort to collect my thoughts into one place.  I find that my method of mentally filing things away frequently lends itself to lost ideas, and so it behooves me to record them as they come.  In contemplating the things written herein, I became aware of a deep conviction that has been troubling me for some time now.  This work was, as stated above, intended for myself, but I thought it might also prove helpful to others.  And so I have compiled this letter.

What has been troubling me over the past few years is the state of the body of Christ, particularly among the Evangelical circles.  We have become weak, lazy, self-entitled, and unfaithful to our Lord and Master Jesus Christ. This letter will seek to address the reasons for this lapse, seek to offer loving reproof, and will hopefully incite change in those that require it.

As a disclaimer, I am not a theologian, nor am I a particularly wise man.  I apologize in advance for anything I say that might prove false.  I do, however have a great love for God and strong desire to discern spiritual truth.  I will not delve into the realm of theology except when it is helpful in making a point, as it goes beyond the scope of this writing.  This letter is written for the Christian who is under grace through faith in Christ and should be read as such.  I will assume that everyone who is reading this has an accurate understanding of the Gospel and what it means to truly be born again.

“I am what I am by the grace of God.”

2. Admonishments and Exhortations

As I have already said, I see a big problem in the church today.  The symptoms are many and they all point to a great sickness among the body of Christ.  As Christians, we are called to be set apart, to be sanctified, to be separate from the world.  Yet, in a 1999 study, the Barna Research Group concluded;

“Divorce rates among conservative Christians were significantly higher than for other faith groups, and much higher than Atheists and Agnostics experience.”

Certainly this should not be! But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen Christians acting just like everybody else in the world. When I think of things I’ve done or said in the past or when I think of the cowardice I’ve shown in the face of adversity, I am sincerely ashamed.  Take a look at what Jesus says in Matthew 5:13-16;

13″You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men. 14″You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden;  15nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  16Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

I see a lot of dim lights these days.  Instead of putting up a fight, many today are more apt to capitulate, trading the truth that has been imparted to them for worldly comfort.  Christians these days seem to find it very easy to live with one foot in and one foot out saying, “I’ll follow Jesus as long as it doesn’t interrupt my life too much.”  As the great Augustine prayed in the days before his conversion;

“God, give me chastity and continence - but not just now.”

As ridiculous as that prayer may sound, many of us pray that same prayer every day.  It just might sound more like, “God, I really want to follow you and get up for church, but this bed is just so warm and I’m just so tired.”  That may sound simplistic and mundane, but I know I’ve said that to myself many times. Imagine, I have the chance to go fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ, revel in the Lord, and learn the very words of the living God, yet I will sit in bed and probably not even crack my Bible that day.  Again, that may seem like a mundane example, but stop and think about the seriousness of that situation.  How can we call Him Lord, when we won’t do the simplest of commandments such as gathering with the brethren or reading our Bibles?  Let alone trying to discern His will for our life and carry out our calling as a slave would to his master.  We have become entirely lazy and self-absorbed.  We pull God out of the closet when we need Him, and stick Him back in when things are going well.  Remember, we are here for God.  He is not here for us.

Part and parcel to this is the seeming use of Christianity as some sort of vehicle for self-fulfillment.  I am not saying that fulfillment is not the result of our belief in Christ, it surely is.  What I am speaking to is the disturbing trend of weeding out anything that doesn’t fit with our agenda or view.  We see extreme versions of this thinking all through history in the likes of Marcian of the 2nd century, or Thomas Jefferson of the 18th.   Men have been twisting the Bible or cutting parts out ever since the beginning of the church to fit their own views.  Certainly though, that type of flagrant heresy is the exception rather than the rule; but, what about the churches that never speak of Hell?  What of the churches who never use the word “repent” in their Gospel message?  What of the churches who don’t tell folks to count the cost?  If our church leaders can’t stand up for the Word of God, how can we expect their parishioners to stand up to the world? C. H. Spurgeon said it well when he spoke these words;

“Avoid a sugared gospel as you would shun sugar of lead. Seek the gospel which rips up and tears and cuts and wounds and hacks and even kills, for that is the gospel that makes alive again. And when you have found it, give good heed to it. Let it enter into your inmost being. As the rain soaks into the ground, so pray the Lord to let his gospel soak into your soul.”

More often than in the past it seems that Christians attend church for the sake of “finding spirituality”. Why is it that most Christians are more willing to read The Purpose Driven Life,  (which has a weak gospel message but tells you that you’re important), than read the Bible, the only writing that has any authority whatsoever?  That, my friend, is a huge problem in itself.

WE ARE NOT READING OUR BIBLES!

I wanted to make that crystal clear.  We live in a world where we have access to numerous translations of the Word, access to great expositors, and access to books that serve to explain the Bible itself. We have a wealth of knowledge at our very fingertips.  We have absolutely no excuse for not reading the Word of God!  I find it sad that the early church, though only possessing fragments of what we have today, were willing to die at the hands of the brutal Roman Empire to call themselves Christians.  And we, who are so abundantly endowed with the Word of God and who have freedom of religion, shrink back in fear of being labeled “Christian” that we might offend a coworker or make that nice atheist uncomfortable.  Christianity is a religion of peace with God, not peace with man.  This can be seen in Matthew 10:32-39 which reads;

32″Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.  33″But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.  34″(Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  35″For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW;  36and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD.  37″He who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.  38″And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.  39”He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

We need to take up our cross and follow our Lord no matter where it leads.  This is not a matter of choice; it is a matter of obedience.  As Christ was obedient to the will of the Father even unto death on a cross, we are to follow that same example.  We are to be obedient.  Paul likens this obedience to the relationship of a slave to his master in his epistle to the church in Rome.  We see this thought in Romans 6:16-18;

16Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?  17But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,  18and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

What we read here is that we have two options.  We are either slaves to sin or we are slaves to obedience.  There is no in-between.  We are slaves either way.  A faithful slave will carry out his duty before his master and will fulfill that which is required of him regardless of how much it puts him out. There is no question.  There is no complaint.  There is no idea of doing it some other way than that which the master has commanded.  How often we question God when we don’t like something that has happened to us, or when we are called to service, or when we don’t like some particular doctrine.  By what divine right have we to question He who created the Heavens and the Earth by speaking them into existence?  How utterly arrogant!

Perhaps the problem is that we don’t fully comprehend the nature and ramifications of sin.  Again, this goes back partly to the problem in the pulpit (though I do not seek to lessen the responsibility of the parishioner in finding these things out through the reading of the Word).  What we do know from the Bible is that sin is an affront to God.  Sin is in direct violation to His nature.  In fact, so serious is the problem of sin, that the redemption of mankind through the God-Man Jesus is counted as an even greater work of God than the creation. We are not to tolerate any sin!  Whether that sin is of us or we are sitting around laughing at some lewd joke told at work around the water cooler.  If God does not tolerate sin, how can we, who are His children, tolerate it?  For us to tolerate or commit sin in any form would be contrary to our profession in Christ. Don’t get me wrong, I am not preaching sinless perfection as that is wholly unbiblical, but we are told to uphold the law even though we are not under it.  We will fail.  We will fall.  Hence, the death of Jesus on the Roman cross.  We are to strive for godliness and holiness through the strength of the Holy Spirit.  This is the process of sanctification to be completed upon our exit from this material world into the embrace of our Savior.

I think that too often people hear that all to common phrase, “God loves you and has a plan for your life.” Well, that’s fine and all, but it is certainly incomplete in relating God’s will for one’s life.  If one hears that enough, without the need for repentance and without the truth of impending judgment, how is one expected to develop a healthy fear of the Lord? How about, “You are a wretched and vile sinner who actively rebels against God, by which whom you are deemed an enemy, and you must repent and place your faith in the blood of Jesus who died and rose again and now sits at the right hand of the Father.  Only then will you be made at peace with God.  Only then will your life have any meaning.” I am sure that the pews would probably not be filled as full, but those who would be saved would end up with a much more accurate view of the relationship between God and man and might take their “walk” a little more seriously.

3.  Parting Words

My brethren, I sincerely hope that this letter helps encourage you to persevere and to fight the good fight. In writing this I found that I was cutting into my own heart and exposing the errors in my own walk, but that affliction is good and should be heeded as a sage.

It was my purpose in addressing a few problems in the church that I feel have done great damage to the body of Christ, but ones that are easily remedied.  It would be a great thing indeed if Christians really started reading their Bibles everyday and spent everyday in prayer.  The Bible tells us that the giving of our lives to God is our “reasonable service.”  That’s all we have, but yet, what less could we give to our Lord and Redeemer?  Has He not earned our lives?  Does He not have every right to every part of our lives?  I think we could at least study the scriptures and invest more of our time in prayer, rather than in this world.  For doing so is merely “chasing the wind”.

Sincerely yours in Jesus Christ our Lord,

SEB

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