Where did this month go?!

Well, you might have thought I permanently retired from blogging or something. Nope, I just got caught up in the ridiculousness of project deadlines for work, the grind of school, and fighting fatigue and illness resulting probably from stress. I am planning to get back to regular blogging, and for all my faithful reader or two, I am sorry for not keeping you up to date. :)

Give What You've Got

Another quote from Gary Thomas in Sacred Marriage:

Marriage teaches us to give what we have. God has given us one body. He has commanded our spouse to delight in that one body -- and that body alone. If we withhold from our spouse our body, it becomes an absolute denial. We may not think it is a perfect body, but it is the only body we have to give.

So many people fail to give God or others anything simply because they can't give everything. Learn to take small steps of obedience toward God -- offering what you have, with all its blemishes and limitations -- by offering what you have to your spouse.

Romans and James: Faith That Works

Many people argue that the book of Romans and the book of James disagree on the subject of faith. Paul writes that justification is by faith alone, yet James teaches that faith without works is dead. How do we reconcile these two teachings?

First of all, we must understand that Paul is discussing the beginning of one's spiritual life when he says, "And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness" in Romans 4:5. Paul is obviously stating that we cannot earn God's favor; through Christ, God must justify the ungodly if he will justify anyone.

But Paul does not stop writing with this statement. He goes on to discuss Abraham's circumcision. "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness." When was Abraham circumcised? He was circumcised years after God justified him. His circumcision was evidence of his faith in God, not the basis. Romans 4:11 tells us that his circumcision was the sign and the seal of his faith, not the grounds.

Rather than contradicting James, I believe this passage is in harmony with James 2:17 which says, "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." Abraham was challenged to put his money where his mouth was in Genesis 17; "Every male among you shall be circumcised." While Abraham's faith alone was the grounds for his justification back in Genesis 15, Abraham's faith in God must have been working when he performed the first circumcision upon himself!

True forgiveness is a process, not an event. It is rarely the case that we are able to forgive "one time" and the matter is settled. Far more often, we must relinquish our bitterness a dozen times or more, continually choosing to release the offender from our judgment.

-- Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage

Explaining "Sacred Marriage"

A mature husband and wife can grow leaps and bounds spiritually as they learn to compromise and move toward the other. But it is often the case that one spouse doesn't care about spiritual growth; they may be fully consumed with their own desires and sense of need. While such a situation may result in a less satisfying and less happy marriage, it can still provide the context for Christian growth. A Christian is never dependent on the response of others to grow spiritually. It's our own heart's decisions that matter.

-- Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage

Great Quotes...

I am reading a book called Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas; Thomas argues that marriage is less about happiness and more about holiness. I just wanted to post some significant quotes:

A good marriage is not something you find, it is something you work for.
-- Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage

If marriage ... is a disillusioning experience for many people, the reason is to be found in the passivity of their faith. People dislike the fact that the blessings of God may only be found and enjoyed when they are persistently sought (Matthew 7:7; Luke 11:9). Marriage is, therefore, both a gift and a task to be accomplished.
-- Otto Piper as quoted by Gary Thomas, Sacred Marriage

What is the Will of God for My Life?

Often we hear or think the question, "What is God's will for my life?" Sometimes it seems so hard to make big or tough decisions and we do need wise guidance and counsel. However, we often forget that God's Word is filled with exactly what he expects us to do! Here are a few examples of what God's Word expects of his children:

And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." -- Matthew 22:37-40

For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. -- 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8

Many passages describe God's will for our lives; they are clear expressions of God's expectations for our lives. We should make it our first priority to evidence our love for God in the obedience of his commands. We cannot do this without the enabling of the Holy Spirit, but we cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit without evidence of his presence. Our lives must bear the fruit of our faith; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

In Ezekiel 33:11, God expresses his desire for humans; "I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways!" God desires that we turn from our sin, and turn to him, place the responsibility for our future in the hands of Christ Jesus, and then bear fruit productively.

So, God's will is easy. He tells us exactly what to do; "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." Do you really love God? Do you really try to keep his commandments with all you heart, soul, and mind?

May the Holy Spirit give us the strength and the will!

"It bids me fly and gives me wings!"

Incredibly, I just read this in Carl Stam's Worship Quote of the Week, and thought it fit nicely with my last post:

THE GOSPEL GIVES WINGS

Run, John, run! The Law commands!
But gives me neither feet nor hands.
Far grander news the Gospel brings:
It bids me fly and gives me wings!”

–Attributed to John Bunyan (1628-88)

An Equation For Life

Wow, it has been way too long since I posted last. I have begun my second (and FINAL) semester of Hebrew, and it has really been hammering me! I had my first major exam of the semester yesterday, and hopefully I can now focus on new material instead of feeling like I need to constantly review from last semester.

On the way to work this morning I was listening to another sermon by Piper on Romans 2:25-29. Piper was focusing on verses 28-29:

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

In his treatment of this passage, Piper tried to help people understand this verse with several illustrations, including two equations. These equations were developed from these verses and the context of Romans, and they are helpful in understanding how the Jews could have the Law, but not get it, while the Gentiles could get the Law and not have it. Here are the two equations:

LAW - SPIRIT =

• External Religious Rituals (circumcision, baptism?, Bible reading?)
  
• The Need for the Praise of Man (it is amazing how the taste of a compliment is so POWERFUL to us)
  
• Death

LAW + SPIRIT =

• Internal Circumcision of the Heart (Jeremiah 31:33)
  
• Satisfaction in the Praise of God (see verse 29b above)
  
• Life

So LAW + SPIRIT is the fulfillment of the Law; without the Spirit, Piper points out that the law simply backs us into a corner and we rebel or we try to look like we are obeying the law and we try to climb a moral ladder to heaven. And we know that the only way we can have Law and Spirit is to trust in Christ alone for our forgiveness and righteousness.

This LAW - SPIRIT equation opens my eyes; maybe you too can see the Pharisees of the 21st century in our church pews.

Job and Jesus

As I have been reading through the book of Job, a couple of passages have caused me to stop and think. Job 9:33 tells us that Job desires for someone to stand between God and Job to mediate or arbitrate. "There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on both of us." Another passage, Job 16:19, states, "Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, and he who testifies for me is on high."

Who is this witness? Was Job aware of the role the messiah would play thousands of years before he was born? I'm not sure about what Job knew or didn't know (and I will keep looking for references to Christ as I read through the book), but these verses describe very well the way in which Jesus Christ stands on our behalf before God. Only our High Priest can put one hand on God's shoulder and one hand on our shoulder and reconcile our differences. "For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf" (Hebrews 9:24).

Jesus is exactly what Job needed.

A Blameless and Upright Man

Job 1:8 describes Job in God's own words; "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" God defines the blameless and upright man; he is one who fears God and turns away from evil. To have God say this of me is one of my greatest desires! It may never happen while I breathe with these lungs, but this is the goal at which I aim.

So what keeps us from "fearing God and turning away from evil"? How can we acheive this? Well, in one sense, we can never succeed in such a goal, since we are powerless to accomplish more than legalism in our good works apart from the Holy Spirit. However, with the Holy Spirit's work in us, we can accomplish this goal by the practice of spiritual discipline. 1 Timothy 4:7-8 describes both the process and the goal; "train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." We must train ourselves to ingest and digest God's Word, spend time in prayer, guard against sin, serve others, and proclaim the gospel of Christ in our words and deeds. (Don Whitney has some great books on the spiritual disciplines.)

One of my biggest challenge to accomplishing this goal is simply remembering the goal during the daily grind. When we lose focus on the goal we will inevitably stray. May we all strive diligently for God to call us "blameless and upright," one "who fears God and turns away from evil."

"Sin is Crouching at the Door"

While reading my Bible last night (starting a new bible reading plan), I read again a passage that my pastor discussed in a recent sermon. Genesis 4:7 says, "if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it." This was God's warning to Cain prior to the murder of Able. This seems to be simple advice, but just like the words "giving birth" cannot adequately describe the intensity of the process, so do the words "you must rule over it" mask the intense process of conquering sin. This passage, however, does encourage us to be diligent, because sin is ready for us especially when we are not. May God give us diligence in good deeds and victory in Christ!

New Testament Law-Keeping

John Piper, in a sermon on Romans 2:11-16, said these very convicting and passionate words:

The kind of obedience that is being spoken of in law-keeping in the mind of the apostle is the obedience of faith, which according to Romans 1:5 is the whole goal of his ministry. It's the whole goal of my ministry. You wonder, "why does Piper preach about these things? These are complicated things. I don't hear anybody talking like this." Well, you do. The reason is the whole book of Romans, Chapter 1 verse 5 (read it!) is designed to bring about the obedience of faith among the gentiles for the sake of the Name! That's my passion! I don't want a church filled with carnal, disobedient law-breakers that look just like the world in the way they live, and have this light, feathery confidence that they are going to heaven just because they prayed a prayer one time or signed a card or did something when they were six! What kind of a church is that? That's wicked for a pastor to cultivate such a people! It's heartless; it's cruel. How many people at the judgment will curse their pastors because he didn't tell them when the Lord says to them, "why do you call me Lord, Lord? Depart from me; I never knew you, you workers of iniquity." "Workers of iniquity? We didn't think it mattered that you worked iniquity! All you had to do was believe!" And the pastors will be cursed.

Wow! Piper really hammers home the idea that "carnal Christians" are no Christians at all! And what an incredible duty pastors have to tell people the TRUTH!

May we all be truth-seekers and law-keepers.

The Nation of Israel

Many promises were made to the people God brought out of the land of Egypt roughly 3500 years ago, and many see biblical promises being fulfilled in the Holy Land in recent and current events. This morning, however, I read a passage of Scripture that causes me to at least revisit my understanding of the nation of Israel.

Charles Spurgeon often referred to the people of his church as the people of Israel; "Israel in the covenant of grace is not natural Israel, but all believers in all ages." (Quoted from here.) Romans 2:28-29 suggests that we should view the followers of Christ as part of the true Israel. "²⁸For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. ²⁹But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God."

Who, then, does Revelation 7 refer to regarding the 144,000 of Israel? Just as circumcision was prescribed for the ethnic Israelites of the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit performs circumcision on the hearts of the spiritual Israelites of the New Testament. In Ezekiel 37:16-22, the Lord promises to join together again the tribes of Israel under one King, never to be divided again. Romans 11:11-24 depicts the nation of Israel as a olive tree with wild olive branches (representing non-Jews) being grafted in. Obviously, all these passages refer to a spiritual nationality vs. a physical ethnicity.

Thus, the Bible seems to teach that we, as believers in Jesus Christ, are part of the covenant community of the children of Israel.

Time Change...

This Sunday the time changes back to normal from Daylight Saving Time. This change of the system by which we order our lives causes me to think about an attribute of God's nature that we have studied recently in our Sunday morning Bible study class...

On the first Sunday in April every year we change our clocks. April changes to May, and spring changes to summer in June. By August our weather can change by 30 degrees when a thunderstorm rolls through, and my grass seems to change from freshly mown to overgrown in hours. Our clothes change from cool and dry to sweaty in minutes.

As summer fades, our days become shorter and our nights become cooler. Trees change from their common color to radiant hues of red and orange and gold and yellow.

We cannot fathom life without change. We live life as a succession of changing moments. We go from sleeping to awake; from lying to standing; from dirty to clean; from scruffy to shaven; from hungry to full; from busy to bored; from happy to sad; from apathetic to fanatic; from young to old; from healthy to ailing. We do not experience any portion of life without change. Every moment details change in our existence.

We, however, are reminded by the Bible of One who never changes:

"God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind." -- Numbers 23:19

"For I the LORD do not change" -- Malachi 3:6

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." -- James 1:17

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." -- Hebrews 13:8

God is our Rock; he never changes; he never fails. God never loves us more (or less) than he does right now. God is always wrathful against sin. God is eternally just and righteous and holy and beautiful and kind and merciful and gracious. God is never surprised; he is sovereign over the past, present, and future. He is consistent. He is faithful.

So when you wake up on October 30, 2005, remember that though our clocks may change, the One who created time will never change.

Sometimes Life Seems Too Busy!

I haven't posted in several days; between work, school, and family, we decided to add car shopping. Whew! We just purchased a 2000 Mazda MPV minivan, and I am glad the deal is done. I hope to start posting again more regularly soon. Thanks for visiting my site!

Comments? Questions?

This whole blogging thing is somewhat new for me. If it is new for you too, I just wanted to point out a couple of things. If you like, agree, dislike, disagree, or have any comments or questions, all these things are welcome! If you look at the bottom of this post, you will see a link that says something like "0 comments." Click this and you can post your comment or question. I hope you leave lots of comments.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Saved? Saved from what?

If you can't tell, I am regularly influenced by the ministry of John Piper, pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Recently I have been listening to his sermon series on Romans. In the message I listened to today (on Romans 1:16-17), Piper discussed "the gospel, ... the power of God for salvation." He asked of the text, "What are we saved from?"

This is a great question! I have heard many answers to this question, and they are all biblical. The gospel saves us from: sin, death, hell, bondage, etc. But in the CONTEXT (which is so terribly important for us to understand precisely what the author intended to convey), we see in the very next verse exactly what we need to be saved from. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." Piper went on to point out more verses that support this, but we don't need to dig much to understand Paul's argument. The gospel is the power of God for salvation from God's wrath against ungodliness and unrighteousness.

This also helps us see the difference in regeneration and salvation. (Regeneration is the point in time which God changes our hearts and we become believers.) It is biblical to say that I was saved at some point in time in the past, but it is also biblical to say that I will be saved on that great day when the cup of God's anger is full and he pours out his wrath on all unrighteousness. We have no hope at that time except for the shed blood of Jesus Christ! God may never say, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" He may say, "What will stay my hand from your eternal destruction?"

If we do not depend only on Christ's sacrifice to pay for our sin, and his righteousness to make us acceptable to God, whe have no hope. This is the power of the gospel.

Another Covenant of Grace

In 1 Corinthians 11 the apostle Paul records for the Corinthians (and for us) Christ's institution of the Lord's Supper. Christ institutes for his followers a replacement for the Passover; a commemoration of the events that brought about salvation for God's people in the new covenant to replace a commemoration of the events that brought about salvation for God's people in the old covenant. The symbolizm is incredible. The Israelites sacrificed a lamb, and the lamb's blood painted on the door frame of the house was the sign of their salvation. Likewise, the Lamb was slain, and his blood is the sign of our salvation.

What is this new covenant? The old covenant, or the Mosaic covenant, was the covenant God established with the people of Israel in the wilderness after he delivered them from slavery in Egypt. God did not force them into the covenant, and they did not deserve this covenant. It was a covenant of grace. It was, however, a covenant that God's people could not keep. God was not surprised, however, and he planned a second covenant to replace the Mosaic covenant.

In Jeremiah 31:31-40, we find God's promise of a new covenant: "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." This time around, God did not write the covenant on stone tablets or scrolls, but he wrote the covenant in the hearts of his people! As a matter of fact, in Ezekiel 36:26-27, God promises, "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules."

So, what is this new covenant? This covenant is God providing salvation to people in bondange, changing sinners into saints, and accomplishing his purpose to glorify himself through the Suffering Servant/Man of Sorrows/Messiah/Jesus Christ/King of Kings! "This cup is the new covenant in my blood."

Work on your faith, not your legalism...

As I was listening to a sermon by John Piper on Romans 1:1-5, I was struck by something he said. Piper was discussing "the obedience of faith" and he stated that we as Christians attempting to live a godly life should focus on improving our faith. This will, in turn, improve our obedience. He went on to point out that if we simply try to improve our obedience, we will only grow in legalism; precisely what the Pharisees did. Is it any wonder why, when we are not focusing on Christ, that we miss the point of Christian living? We cannot earn God's favor; Christ did that with his obedient life and sinless death. We ask God, like the father of the boy with an unclean spirit in Mark 9:14-29, "if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us." Note Jesus' response: "If you can! All things are possible for one who believes." May our response echo the father's: "I believe; help my unbelief!"

Welcome to the Reformation!

Several years ago I began to struggle with passages of Scripture regarding God's sovereign rule over creation. Isaiah 46:9-10 says, "I am God and there is no other; I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.'" Did these passages include my salvation? What implications did Acts 13:48 have: "as many as were appointed to eternal life believed."

As I worked through this issue I began to realize that the men who began the Protestant Reformation struggled with some of the same issues. Martin Luther, while studying Romans, realized that we could do nothing to help our relationship with God; justification (being righteous before God) is by grace alone.

Recognizing that only by the grace of God can one ever awaken from the spiritual dead, I invite you to join me in experiencing reformation.