"The light of the glory of God is given us in the face of Jesus Christ," whom to see is to see the Father's face in spirit (cf. 2 Cor. 4:6). NB: Jonathan Edwards said that the main business of the Christian life is seeking God! We are told to seek His face ("My heart says this about You, "You are to seek My face," LORD, I will seek Your face. Do not hide Your face from me..." (Psalm 27:8-9, HCSB). God is not hiding or playing some game of cosmic hide and seek, He's waiting to be found and will reveal and authenticate Himself to all sincere seekers, but not triflers. God hides Himself that we may earnestly seek Him. ("If only I knew where I might find Him" per Job 23:3) God's whereabouts are as near as the mention of His name!
This search for God never ends but begins at salvation and will end at the beatific vision in glory when we do see His face. We don't know Christ after the flesh but should recognize His Spirit at work and moving in the body, as it bears witness with our spirit (cf. Romans 8:16). God as the Hound of Heaven seeks us who are the lost sheep: "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me" (Isaiah 65:1, NIV).
When Christians say, "I found it!" what they really mean is that God found them and revealed Himself to them as the hymn Amazing Grace goes, "I was lost but now am found." Pascal also mused: "I would not have found God had He not first sought out me." God wants to make His face shine upon us in blessing us, and this is His commitment to us as believers. Blessing and seeing God's face are correlated.
The inauguration of Christ's ministry (the official initiation ceremony) at His baptism included the Father's stamp of approval and official blessing, and He knew His mission and that God was with Him--that's His name: God is with us! You could say Jesus was coming of age and His rite of passage. "... [I]f only I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus..." (Acts 20:24, ESV). We are to embark on our mission with God's blessing also and know that God is with us too. We are blessed in the Beloved by association. Having this ministry from God or ordination to His service we've also been commissioned), we can anticipate the continual blessing and prosperity of God in whatever we do to His glory and in His name.
As we get to know Christ, we grow in likeness, for we are all works in progress and Christ wants to show Himself in our witness. Remember, God isn't finished with us yet and always finishes what He starts (cf. Phil. 1:6). You might think of us as a slab of marble that the divine Sculptor is attempting to make into a statue of Christ, and what he does is take away everything that doesn't resemble Christ! We all have some rough edges to get smoothed out and that's why we are put through the crucible because our faith is more precious than silver or gold and must be tested for our sake.
To receive God's blessing, we must have faith and make the commitment to go on in self-denial to "follow Him [in lordship to salvation] more nearly, ]getting] to know Him more clearly, and to love Him more dearly," as quoted from Richard of Chichester. Moses came to know God face to face, like a friend and his face, was hid with a veil to hide the glory. There is something about a person having spent time in fellowship with the Lord. It was obvious the disciples had been with the Lord after the resurrection appearances.
Receiving God's blessing gives us a new outlook on life and new hope, purpose, and meaning in life. With God we have dignity! Without God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless, according to atheist Bertrand Russell. The more we are assured of His blessing and approval of us, the more confident we get to attempt more in God's name and to venture out in even greater things expecting even greater blessings. It is true that the greater blesses the lesser, and also that we also ought to bless one another!
But we are saved to be a blessing (cf. Zech. 8:13). God wants our cups to run over! One function of the body of Christ is to be a blessing to the community in mission (cf. Jer. 29:7) and to bless the members of the body in ministry to one another. We all can bless each other with our spiritual gifts and teach one another in discipleship or mentoring. May we pray God's blessings on each other.
The more we become like Christ, the more blessings we receive in Him to share. We are blessed to pass it on. "But He gives more grace..." (cf. James 4:6)! There is more to salvation than being forgiven: to seek the Lord's sanction and blessing in all our labors. We should see God at work in us. And we are to ever seek God's blessings in our work for temporal as well as spiritual things. He blesses us with every spiritual blessing in Christ (cf. Eph. 1:3) and the promises to Abraham that God will bless those who bless us is ours to claim, for all who have faith in Christ are children of Abraham (cf. Gal. 3:7,29) and we are joint-heirs of Christ.
In prayer, we can access or gain entree into the throne room of God for prayer in boldness (cf. Heb. 4:16), as Moses spoke to God face to face as to a friend, and to whom no prophet ever did again. What unrealized, untapped potential there is in prayer there is when we have faith in Jesus' name.
The antithesis of seeking God's face is to be hiding from God or the truth. Sooner or later we may meet our "burning bush" and confront God and have a moment of truth with Him. Then we are sanctified by the truth (cf. John 17:17) and realize its power over us. We are to "contend for the faith" or the truth delivered to the saints. The polar opposite of truth is apostasy and this is not the final lot of the believer.
If God were to withhold His grace from us for any length of time, we'd be without hope and God in the world, just as George Whitefield said of a man going to the gallows: "There but for the grace of God go I." God can harden the heart of a person who rejects Him in judgment much like He did to Pharaoh when he didn't believe the miracles Moses performed with the "finger of God." For God hardens whom He will and has mercy on whom He will (cf. Romans 9:18); it's His prerogative to do as He reserves the right to do with His ultimate free will. Soli Deo Gloria!
To bridge the gap between so-called theologians and regular "students" of the Word and make polemics palatable. Contact me @ bloggerbro@outlook.com To search title keywords: title:example or label as label:example; or enter a keyword in search engine ATTN: SITE USING COOKIES!
About Me
- Karl Broberg
- I am a born-again Christian, who is Reformed, but also charismatic, spiritually speaking. (I do not speak in tongues, but I believe glossalalia is a bona fide gift not given to all, and not as great as prophecy, for example.) I have several years of college education but only completed a two-year degree. I was raised Lutheran and confirmed, but I didn't "find Christ" until I was in the Army and responded to a Billy Graham crusade in 1973. I was mentored or discipled by the Navigators in the army and upon discharge joined several evangelical, Bible-teaching churches. I was baptized as an infant, but believe in believer baptism, of which I was a partaker after my conversion experience. I believe in the "5 Onlys" of the reformation: sola fide (faith alone); sola Scriptura (Scripture alone); soli Christo (Christ alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). I affirm TULIP as defended in the Reformation.. I affirm most of The Westminster Confession of Faith, especially pertaining to Providence.
Showing posts with label Knowing God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Knowing God. Show all posts
Sunday, January 5, 2020
Sunday, October 13, 2019
Marching To A Different Drum
"Come to terms with God and be at peace; in this way good will come to you" (Job 22:21, HCSB).
"Agree with God and be at peace..." (Job 22:21, ESV)
"Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace..." (Job 22:21, KJV).
"Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3, NIV).
"The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world" (John 1:9, HCSB).
"Christ is the centre of Christianity; all else is circumference." --John R. W. Stott, theologian
"The world is relative to Christ." --Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran theologian, and martyr of Nazism
"God weeps with us so that someday we may laugh with him." --Jurgen Moltmann, German theologian (This is how he sums up human history.)
NB: THE ENTIRETY OF THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE CAN BE SUMMED UP: GOD WAS IN CHRIST RECONCILING THE WORLD TO HIMSELF AS THE GOD OF LOVE IN THE FLESH.
Do you march to the beat of a different drum or don't keep pace with your companions? Maybe you hear a different drummer, according to Henry David Thoreau. The only way for two people to be on the same wavelength is for them to be tuned to the same pitch--harmonizing. We ought to be able to make music together as in a choir, striking a common chord that will vibrate throughout eternity. Appealing to the same authority. That's fellowship in essence: two fellows in the same ship. Paul warns against being "unequally yoked" and "fellowship with demons" (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14-15) and "bad company corrupts good morals" (cf. 1 Cor. 15:33). "Agree with God," (cf. Job 22:21)! "Can two walk together unless they be agreed on a direction?" (cf. Amos 3:3). But we can quench or even grieve the Spirit with a divisive spirit or attitude.
We are honored and privileged to be Christ's ambassadors in His name (cf. 2 Cor. 5:20) having His authority in prayer; namely, authorized to do His will (cf. John 14:14). Sometimes even Christians don't agree on disputable or doubtful matters though (cf. Rom. 14:1; cf. Amos 3:3), and room for conscience-sake must be granted. But remember the maxim of St. Augustine: "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity." Some doctrines are not only nonnegotiable but worth standing up for and defending with polemics in this truth war, but we must know where to stop being dogmatic.
There comes a time in every believer's life to get off the fence and decide for good or evil, right or wrong, good or bad, and that usually determines where they stand and what they think is worth fighting for; believe me, some arguments and disputes are not worth the adrenaline and generate more heat than light! We all must be willing though to show where we stand and not on the sidelines letting the brave believers take stands for us. One of God's names is Jehovah Nissi, or "the LORD Is Our Banner," and we ought to take up His cause and fight for what's right before it's too late--light a candle, say a prayer, vote, spread the word, donate time or money, anything but let others do it for you--knowing He's on our side!
Jesus never feared controversy and Paul said to stay away from godless controversy, not godly, meaningful, controversy. If there was never controversy, then how could we arrive at truth and the doctrines or dogma of the church? Heretics and apostates must be rooted out and challenged, not tolerated in the name of love or goodwill. John Stott wrote a book titled Christ the Controversalist to point this very fact out and show us the value of sticking to our guns and believing in something; Stott points out that it's obvious that Jesus faced a storm of controversy and didn't shy away from it, no matter the cost (come what may; let the chips fall where they may!). He was known for upsetting the religious apple cart.
Now the contemporary problem is that so-called Christians are re-thinking, re-marketing, re-tooling, re-defining, re-imagining, or even re-imaging Jesus to suit their own whims, self-interest, or issues. We are made in God's image, He isn't to be made in ours! It is self-righteous to claim that the Jesus "we know" is the reality star so to speak, and not the biblical, traditional model. Paul warned against preaching "another Jesus" (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4) and this is predominant in today's culture of moral relativism whereas people commonly make up their own values as they go along and think anything is okay as long as they can justify themselves or that their motives are right. "O, but I meant well!" is a common reason they claim, but this is no excuse for doing evil; morality is only defined as doing the right thing, the right way, with the right motives (and we will all give account to God per Romans 14:12). The end, no matter how noble, doesn't justify the means!
There is even a Postmodern revolt in the church that denies the fact that we can even know the truth or that we have gotten the gospel right yet. They want to start from square one doctrinally! And scholars today are still searching for the so-called "historical Jesus," thinking that the gospel writers may have gotten it all wrong, though they were eyewitnesses and more objective. They rely on second and third-century sources thinking they're more trustworthy than contemporaries of Jesus. That's why many today actually have a contempt for the real Jesus who stood up against evil in His day and believe that God is love and that's the end of the story, the whole equation; but God is also just and holy and must do something about sin and evil to remain God and to maintain holiness, His attribute of attributes that regulates all the others.
We are not only to fight for the right, and I even mean social justice as well as justice in the courts, all being equal under the rule of law not the rule of men and their whims; "The only way for evil to win is for good men to do nothing," according to Edmund Burke. We must propagate, (even preach) i.e., the real Jesus as He is, the exclusive personification of Truth with a capital T and the only way to heaven, because all religions don't say the same thing as the Baha'i faith posits; note that A. W. Tozer said that Christ is "not one of many ways, nor the best way, but the only way!
The leaders thought they knew the real Jesus in the day but only had contempt and familiarity for this reason; they refused to believe despite the evidence (cf. John 12:37; Psalm 78:32)! Jesus responded (cf. Mark 6:4) that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown and family--rejection was prophesied and par for the course. As the axiom goes, familiarity breeds contempt; then, how does one explain that the disciples were all convinced of Christ's sinlessness, holiness, and deity? Even Jesus' brothers didn't even believe in Him till after the resurrection (cf. Mark 3:21). But you'd think the disciples would end up His arch critics of all people. But Paul said that he preached Jesus (cf 1 Cor. 2:2) not himself. What a real McCoy and role model!
CAVEAT: TODAY WE SEE GOSPEL REVISIONISTS TRYING TO REWRITE HISTORY AND PORTRAY JESUS AS JUST ANOTHER MARTYR FOR A GOOD CAUSE, A GREAT TEACHER AND MORAL LEADER, OR A MISUNDERSTOOD MAN WHO WAS LATER DEIFIED BY ZEALOUS FOLLOWERS, SOME HAVE EVEN BOUGHT INTO NIETZSCHE'S IDEA "THAT RIGHTLY UNDERSTOOD JESUS IS NOT A GATEWAY TO ANOTHER LIFE BUT A ROLE MODEL FOR THIS ONE"
EVEN THE JEWS OF HIS DAY WERE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE, BUT HE WAS NOT THE MILITARY MESSIAH OF CONVENTIONAL WISDOM TO RESTORE ISRAEL TO IS FORMER GLORY--TO THEM, JESUS SEEMED ANTIESTABLISHMENTARIAN, WHILE THE PHARISEES SAW HIM AS A THREAT TO THEIR SPHERE OF INFLUENCE. WE MUST REJECT ANY REINTERPRETATION AND PREACH JESUS AS HE REVEALED HIMSELF TO BE--THE ONE AND ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD WHO CAME TO SAVE US AS THE LORD OF LORDS, FOR HE HAS LEFT US NO OTHER OPTION TO CONSIDER--WE CAN KNOW NO OTHER JESUS!
In short, the essence of knowing Jesus and the good life in Him is to take up the cross to follow Him, no matter the cost, wherever it may lead. "Now that you know these things, blessed are you if you do them" (cf John 13:17). Soli Deo Gloria!
"Agree with God and be at peace..." (Job 22:21, ESV)
"Acquaint now thyself with him and be at peace..." (Job 22:21, KJV).
"Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3, NIV).
"The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world" (John 1:9, HCSB).
"Christ is the centre of Christianity; all else is circumference." --John R. W. Stott, theologian
"The world is relative to Christ." --Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran theologian, and martyr of Nazism
"God weeps with us so that someday we may laugh with him." --Jurgen Moltmann, German theologian (This is how he sums up human history.)
NB: THE ENTIRETY OF THE CHRISTIAN MESSAGE CAN BE SUMMED UP: GOD WAS IN CHRIST RECONCILING THE WORLD TO HIMSELF AS THE GOD OF LOVE IN THE FLESH.
Do you march to the beat of a different drum or don't keep pace with your companions? Maybe you hear a different drummer, according to Henry David Thoreau. The only way for two people to be on the same wavelength is for them to be tuned to the same pitch--harmonizing. We ought to be able to make music together as in a choir, striking a common chord that will vibrate throughout eternity. Appealing to the same authority. That's fellowship in essence: two fellows in the same ship. Paul warns against being "unequally yoked" and "fellowship with demons" (cf. 2 Cor. 6:14-15) and "bad company corrupts good morals" (cf. 1 Cor. 15:33). "Agree with God," (cf. Job 22:21)! "Can two walk together unless they be agreed on a direction?" (cf. Amos 3:3). But we can quench or even grieve the Spirit with a divisive spirit or attitude.
We are honored and privileged to be Christ's ambassadors in His name (cf. 2 Cor. 5:20) having His authority in prayer; namely, authorized to do His will (cf. John 14:14). Sometimes even Christians don't agree on disputable or doubtful matters though (cf. Rom. 14:1; cf. Amos 3:3), and room for conscience-sake must be granted. But remember the maxim of St. Augustine: "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity." Some doctrines are not only nonnegotiable but worth standing up for and defending with polemics in this truth war, but we must know where to stop being dogmatic.
There comes a time in every believer's life to get off the fence and decide for good or evil, right or wrong, good or bad, and that usually determines where they stand and what they think is worth fighting for; believe me, some arguments and disputes are not worth the adrenaline and generate more heat than light! We all must be willing though to show where we stand and not on the sidelines letting the brave believers take stands for us. One of God's names is Jehovah Nissi, or "the LORD Is Our Banner," and we ought to take up His cause and fight for what's right before it's too late--light a candle, say a prayer, vote, spread the word, donate time or money, anything but let others do it for you--knowing He's on our side!
Jesus never feared controversy and Paul said to stay away from godless controversy, not godly, meaningful, controversy. If there was never controversy, then how could we arrive at truth and the doctrines or dogma of the church? Heretics and apostates must be rooted out and challenged, not tolerated in the name of love or goodwill. John Stott wrote a book titled Christ the Controversalist to point this very fact out and show us the value of sticking to our guns and believing in something; Stott points out that it's obvious that Jesus faced a storm of controversy and didn't shy away from it, no matter the cost (come what may; let the chips fall where they may!). He was known for upsetting the religious apple cart.
Now the contemporary problem is that so-called Christians are re-thinking, re-marketing, re-tooling, re-defining, re-imagining, or even re-imaging Jesus to suit their own whims, self-interest, or issues. We are made in God's image, He isn't to be made in ours! It is self-righteous to claim that the Jesus "we know" is the reality star so to speak, and not the biblical, traditional model. Paul warned against preaching "another Jesus" (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4) and this is predominant in today's culture of moral relativism whereas people commonly make up their own values as they go along and think anything is okay as long as they can justify themselves or that their motives are right. "O, but I meant well!" is a common reason they claim, but this is no excuse for doing evil; morality is only defined as doing the right thing, the right way, with the right motives (and we will all give account to God per Romans 14:12). The end, no matter how noble, doesn't justify the means!
There is even a Postmodern revolt in the church that denies the fact that we can even know the truth or that we have gotten the gospel right yet. They want to start from square one doctrinally! And scholars today are still searching for the so-called "historical Jesus," thinking that the gospel writers may have gotten it all wrong, though they were eyewitnesses and more objective. They rely on second and third-century sources thinking they're more trustworthy than contemporaries of Jesus. That's why many today actually have a contempt for the real Jesus who stood up against evil in His day and believe that God is love and that's the end of the story, the whole equation; but God is also just and holy and must do something about sin and evil to remain God and to maintain holiness, His attribute of attributes that regulates all the others.
We are not only to fight for the right, and I even mean social justice as well as justice in the courts, all being equal under the rule of law not the rule of men and their whims; "The only way for evil to win is for good men to do nothing," according to Edmund Burke. We must propagate, (even preach) i.e., the real Jesus as He is, the exclusive personification of Truth with a capital T and the only way to heaven, because all religions don't say the same thing as the Baha'i faith posits; note that A. W. Tozer said that Christ is "not one of many ways, nor the best way, but the only way!
The leaders thought they knew the real Jesus in the day but only had contempt and familiarity for this reason; they refused to believe despite the evidence (cf. John 12:37; Psalm 78:32)! Jesus responded (cf. Mark 6:4) that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown and family--rejection was prophesied and par for the course. As the axiom goes, familiarity breeds contempt; then, how does one explain that the disciples were all convinced of Christ's sinlessness, holiness, and deity? Even Jesus' brothers didn't even believe in Him till after the resurrection (cf. Mark 3:21). But you'd think the disciples would end up His arch critics of all people. But Paul said that he preached Jesus (cf 1 Cor. 2:2) not himself. What a real McCoy and role model!
CAVEAT: TODAY WE SEE GOSPEL REVISIONISTS TRYING TO REWRITE HISTORY AND PORTRAY JESUS AS JUST ANOTHER MARTYR FOR A GOOD CAUSE, A GREAT TEACHER AND MORAL LEADER, OR A MISUNDERSTOOD MAN WHO WAS LATER DEIFIED BY ZEALOUS FOLLOWERS, SOME HAVE EVEN BOUGHT INTO NIETZSCHE'S IDEA "THAT RIGHTLY UNDERSTOOD JESUS IS NOT A GATEWAY TO ANOTHER LIFE BUT A ROLE MODEL FOR THIS ONE"
EVEN THE JEWS OF HIS DAY WERE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE, BUT HE WAS NOT THE MILITARY MESSIAH OF CONVENTIONAL WISDOM TO RESTORE ISRAEL TO IS FORMER GLORY--TO THEM, JESUS SEEMED ANTIESTABLISHMENTARIAN, WHILE THE PHARISEES SAW HIM AS A THREAT TO THEIR SPHERE OF INFLUENCE. WE MUST REJECT ANY REINTERPRETATION AND PREACH JESUS AS HE REVEALED HIMSELF TO BE--THE ONE AND ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD WHO CAME TO SAVE US AS THE LORD OF LORDS, FOR HE HAS LEFT US NO OTHER OPTION TO CONSIDER--WE CAN KNOW NO OTHER JESUS!
In short, the essence of knowing Jesus and the good life in Him is to take up the cross to follow Him, no matter the cost, wherever it may lead. "Now that you know these things, blessed are you if you do them" (cf John 13:17). Soli Deo Gloria!
Sunday, December 23, 2018
Do You Know Him?
"Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them" (John 13:17, NIV).
Salvation is not achieved nor earned but received as God opens one's eyes to the true identity of who Jesus is, as Peter exclaimed: "Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the Living God." And the Father had revealed this to him to open his eyes to spiritual truth. Faith is not in the acquiescence of the identity of Jesus nor of agreeing with church dogma, but in living out this faith and making it real in our hearts as we fall in love with our Lord in a lifelong relationship and experience. There is so-called story faith or head belief and then there's something a few inches lower: heart belief or acceptance into the heart.
To know Him is to love Him is the old cliche, but this is scriptural since we must follow on to know Him in reality (cf. Hos. 6:3) and Jesus equated knowing Him with salvation. Of course, it goes without saying that to know Him is to love Him. Not just knowing His identity but accepting its ramifications and to obey Him as He demands. If we love Him, we will obey Him--the only test of faith is obedience though (cf. Heb. 3:18-19). There is no salvation without obedience. Faith must be demonstrated by works or otherwise, it is suspect and empty talk. As James did say that dead faith (without accompanying works) cannot save. The Reformers taught it plainly: "We are saved by faith alone but not by a faith that is alone." Faith must be authenticated by works or its spurious and suspect.
We show others that we know Him by our testimony and life witness which should never be jeopardized by sin. We ought to freely show our faith, not privatizing it, but then again not flaunting it nor wearing it on our sleeve--let God open doors to share your story. Once you have a story you will be surprised at the opportunities God gives to share it. This is where faithfulness comes in and faith and faithfulness are the same words in Hebrew which is appropriate. Faith cannot be divorced from faithfulness for the "righteous shall live by their faith" (fulness)--Hab. 2:4. We prove we know Him by living out our faith and sharing it and showing it's not just pie-in-the-sky or wishful thinking but has a common application to everyday, mundane life. So, what's the gospel according to you? If we say we know Him and do not obey Him we are lying!
We must know Him in that He is real to us and we recognize and acknowledge His presence: "He is there, and He is not silent," according to Francis Schaeffer. When we know Him we will see Him in action as "God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform" (according to hymn writer William Cowper). Salvation is not only knowing Him but it is an ethic of proving this to others: We must know Him and make Him known. The ultimate proof of knowing Him is the miracle of a transformed or changed life--this is the whole point of salvation. Changing lives is Jesus' business! If there's no fruit there is no faith and good soil always produces fruit! Colossians 1:10 says that we grow or increase in the knowledge of God as we bear fruit in every good work!
It is important that we acknowledge that the important fact of salvation is not that we know Him but that He knows us (cf. Gal. 4:9). He knew us before the world was even created and this is called "foreknowledge" by theologians and scholars. For whom He knew, He predestined! This means that God ordered and arranged the events in our life so that we would get saved! And for whom He predestined He called (cf. Romans 8:29)! This means that God individually reached out and wooed us to salvation. And for whom He called He justified or saved! And finally, the terminus of the chain of salvation: For whom He justified He glorified. This means God sees the whole event as one unbroken and linked chain that cannot be separated. And it also means no one gets lost in the shuffle; there is no one who was called that didn't get justified and no one justified that didn't get glorified. In the final analysis, this the ultimate proof of our security in Christ that our salvation is a done deal or a fait accompli.
Knowing the Lord is more than acquired information or teachings about Him as at an academic level: We must experience Him and relate to Him on a personal level; i.e., we convert our knowledge about God into the knowledge of God. When we finally know Him we are not immune from knowing about Him, but we know Him on a level above that. We are never excused from knowing about Him and becoming believers or disciples entails matriculating in the school of Christ to dedicate one's life to the lifelong pursuit of the knowledge of God and its application. It's not enough to know; we must apply our knowledge and turn our creeds into deeds! You can know a lot about God and still not know Him! In the seventeenth century, it was every gentleman's hobby to be conversant in the Bible and basic holy talk. Today even in the churches it seems like no one wants to talk about the godly or holy but only to engage in the mundane and secular.
Finally, if we want to boast we should boast in the Lord. As Paul said, "I venture not to speak but of what Christ has accomplished through me" (cf. Rom. 15:18). What hath God wrought? We praise God for who He is and thank Him for what He has done, is doing and believe He will do. But Jeremiah 9:24 says that if a man should boast he should boast that he knows the Lord! This is more to be braggadocious about than riches, wisdom, or strength. Soli Deo Gloria!
Salvation is not achieved nor earned but received as God opens one's eyes to the true identity of who Jesus is, as Peter exclaimed: "Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the Living God." And the Father had revealed this to him to open his eyes to spiritual truth. Faith is not in the acquiescence of the identity of Jesus nor of agreeing with church dogma, but in living out this faith and making it real in our hearts as we fall in love with our Lord in a lifelong relationship and experience. There is so-called story faith or head belief and then there's something a few inches lower: heart belief or acceptance into the heart.
To know Him is to love Him is the old cliche, but this is scriptural since we must follow on to know Him in reality (cf. Hos. 6:3) and Jesus equated knowing Him with salvation. Of course, it goes without saying that to know Him is to love Him. Not just knowing His identity but accepting its ramifications and to obey Him as He demands. If we love Him, we will obey Him--the only test of faith is obedience though (cf. Heb. 3:18-19). There is no salvation without obedience. Faith must be demonstrated by works or otherwise, it is suspect and empty talk. As James did say that dead faith (without accompanying works) cannot save. The Reformers taught it plainly: "We are saved by faith alone but not by a faith that is alone." Faith must be authenticated by works or its spurious and suspect.
We show others that we know Him by our testimony and life witness which should never be jeopardized by sin. We ought to freely show our faith, not privatizing it, but then again not flaunting it nor wearing it on our sleeve--let God open doors to share your story. Once you have a story you will be surprised at the opportunities God gives to share it. This is where faithfulness comes in and faith and faithfulness are the same words in Hebrew which is appropriate. Faith cannot be divorced from faithfulness for the "righteous shall live by their faith" (fulness)--Hab. 2:4. We prove we know Him by living out our faith and sharing it and showing it's not just pie-in-the-sky or wishful thinking but has a common application to everyday, mundane life. So, what's the gospel according to you? If we say we know Him and do not obey Him we are lying!
We must know Him in that He is real to us and we recognize and acknowledge His presence: "He is there, and He is not silent," according to Francis Schaeffer. When we know Him we will see Him in action as "God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform" (according to hymn writer William Cowper). Salvation is not only knowing Him but it is an ethic of proving this to others: We must know Him and make Him known. The ultimate proof of knowing Him is the miracle of a transformed or changed life--this is the whole point of salvation. Changing lives is Jesus' business! If there's no fruit there is no faith and good soil always produces fruit! Colossians 1:10 says that we grow or increase in the knowledge of God as we bear fruit in every good work!
It is important that we acknowledge that the important fact of salvation is not that we know Him but that He knows us (cf. Gal. 4:9). He knew us before the world was even created and this is called "foreknowledge" by theologians and scholars. For whom He knew, He predestined! This means that God ordered and arranged the events in our life so that we would get saved! And for whom He predestined He called (cf. Romans 8:29)! This means that God individually reached out and wooed us to salvation. And for whom He called He justified or saved! And finally, the terminus of the chain of salvation: For whom He justified He glorified. This means God sees the whole event as one unbroken and linked chain that cannot be separated. And it also means no one gets lost in the shuffle; there is no one who was called that didn't get justified and no one justified that didn't get glorified. In the final analysis, this the ultimate proof of our security in Christ that our salvation is a done deal or a fait accompli.
Knowing the Lord is more than acquired information or teachings about Him as at an academic level: We must experience Him and relate to Him on a personal level; i.e., we convert our knowledge about God into the knowledge of God. When we finally know Him we are not immune from knowing about Him, but we know Him on a level above that. We are never excused from knowing about Him and becoming believers or disciples entails matriculating in the school of Christ to dedicate one's life to the lifelong pursuit of the knowledge of God and its application. It's not enough to know; we must apply our knowledge and turn our creeds into deeds! You can know a lot about God and still not know Him! In the seventeenth century, it was every gentleman's hobby to be conversant in the Bible and basic holy talk. Today even in the churches it seems like no one wants to talk about the godly or holy but only to engage in the mundane and secular.
Finally, if we want to boast we should boast in the Lord. As Paul said, "I venture not to speak but of what Christ has accomplished through me" (cf. Rom. 15:18). What hath God wrought? We praise God for who He is and thank Him for what He has done, is doing and believe He will do. But Jeremiah 9:24 says that if a man should boast he should boast that he knows the Lord! This is more to be braggadocious about than riches, wisdom, or strength. Soli Deo Gloria!
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Following On To Know The Lord
"My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me" (John 10:27, NIV).
"Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD..." (Hosea 6:3, ESV).
"Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace..." (Job 22:21, NKJV).
"To know Him more clearly; to follow HIm more nearly, and to love Him more dearly." (Richard of Chichester).
We learn to lead by first being good followers, just like a commander learns first to take orders. Jesus calls us all to discipleship and to follow Him, which is the essence or summation of our Christian ethic. When we go astray from the straight and narrow we need a course correction of divine discipline to prod us on the right path again. We all tend to lose our way as sheep and need a shepherd to show the way. Jesus is not the best way, nor one of many ways, but the only way to life eternal, it has been well put. Jesus was the teacher par excellence and our Exemplar of life to follow, not just a superlative example, but the one of perfect manhood and perfect Godhood. But Jesus didn't just intend to be a role model but to be a Savior
When we have decided to follow Jesus we will be tested because our faith is more precious than silver or gold. We often have to suffer for the cause of Christ and this only occurs when we are considered worthy of the kingdom's honor and name. The principle is that without a cross there is no crown! The problem is that many who name the name of Christ do not wholeheartedly follow Him and are doing more harm than good to Christ's honor by their life witness. The damage to the Name is severe by those who are nominal Christians or who only half-heartedly follow Him. We only can know Christ by following Him; we cannot know Him second-hand or by just hearing of Him--we must find out for ourselves and put our faith into practice.
True faith manifests itself only in obedience. The testimony that cannot be denied is how Christ does the transformation of an individual's life once he decides to follow Jesus--this is a miracle in itself. The lesson of Reality 101, when the chips are down, is to learn that we must relinquish the throne of our lives to Christ and be willing to go wherever He leads us through thick and thin as it were. But note that we are not saved by asceticism or martyrdom; we aren't holier by virtue of having suffered more. We must always bear in mind that Christ left us an example that we should follow in His steps in obedience (cf. 1 Pet. 2:21). Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."
NB: GOD WANTS OUR OBEDIENCE, NOT OUR ACHIEVEMENTS! THE ESSENCE OF RELIGION IS THE STRESS ON MAN'S ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE.
In sum, there's more to Christianity than imitating Christ; we know Him progressively as we follow Him in discipleship demonstrated in obedience and love; thus our marching orders should be to know the Lord and to make Him known. Soli Deo Gloria!
"Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD..." (Hosea 6:3, ESV).
"Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace..." (Job 22:21, NKJV).
"To know Him more clearly; to follow HIm more nearly, and to love Him more dearly." (Richard of Chichester).
We learn to lead by first being good followers, just like a commander learns first to take orders. Jesus calls us all to discipleship and to follow Him, which is the essence or summation of our Christian ethic. When we go astray from the straight and narrow we need a course correction of divine discipline to prod us on the right path again. We all tend to lose our way as sheep and need a shepherd to show the way. Jesus is not the best way, nor one of many ways, but the only way to life eternal, it has been well put. Jesus was the teacher par excellence and our Exemplar of life to follow, not just a superlative example, but the one of perfect manhood and perfect Godhood. But Jesus didn't just intend to be a role model but to be a Savior
When we have decided to follow Jesus we will be tested because our faith is more precious than silver or gold. We often have to suffer for the cause of Christ and this only occurs when we are considered worthy of the kingdom's honor and name. The principle is that without a cross there is no crown! The problem is that many who name the name of Christ do not wholeheartedly follow Him and are doing more harm than good to Christ's honor by their life witness. The damage to the Name is severe by those who are nominal Christians or who only half-heartedly follow Him. We only can know Christ by following Him; we cannot know Him second-hand or by just hearing of Him--we must find out for ourselves and put our faith into practice.
True faith manifests itself only in obedience. The testimony that cannot be denied is how Christ does the transformation of an individual's life once he decides to follow Jesus--this is a miracle in itself. The lesson of Reality 101, when the chips are down, is to learn that we must relinquish the throne of our lives to Christ and be willing to go wherever He leads us through thick and thin as it were. But note that we are not saved by asceticism or martyrdom; we aren't holier by virtue of having suffered more. We must always bear in mind that Christ left us an example that we should follow in His steps in obedience (cf. 1 Pet. 2:21). Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."
NB: GOD WANTS OUR OBEDIENCE, NOT OUR ACHIEVEMENTS! THE ESSENCE OF RELIGION IS THE STRESS ON MAN'S ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE.
In sum, there's more to Christianity than imitating Christ; we know Him progressively as we follow Him in discipleship demonstrated in obedience and love; thus our marching orders should be to know the Lord and to make Him known. Soli Deo Gloria!
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Better Than Sacrifice
"... 'Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams'" (1 Sam. 15:22, NIV).
"For I desire steadfast love [or mercy] and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6, ESV).
God isn't interested in what we give up for Him (like giving up something for Lent), but that we dedicate our lives to Him in full surrender to His will. It's not what you give up but that you give up yourself. Living the Christian life costs something in the long term, but not living it costs more! To obey is better than sacrifice (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22)! He desires mercy and not sacrifice (cf. Hos. 6:6; Matt. 9:13)! When we bring our offerings to God, and our whole life is to be an offering, we are doing that which costs us something--the ownership of our lives. The kinds of sacrifices that please God are the sacrifice of praise (cf. Heb. 13:15), the sacrifice of righteousness (Psa. 4:5) and the sacrifice of thanksgiving (cf. Psa. 107:22, 116:17)! "To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice" (Prov. 21:3, NIV). The sacrifice that pleases God is a broken spirit and contrite heart (cf. Psa. 51:17).
If we are just going through the motions of sacrifice and it becomes a matter of routine, duty, or habit, we've lost it. Some people just memorize the Dance of the Pious and put on a show for God as they nod to God to fulfill their guilty conscience. We can never know the joy of worship when we are not free in the Spirit of all guilt and sin. We worship with our lives, not just in church! We don't go to church to just to sing a worship song because the full service is worship to Him. Sometimes it seems we don't get much out of the worship but this ought not to be so. If we don't get anything out of worship we did it for the wrong reason and may be in a worship rut. Worship is God-centered and we must learn to focus on Christ and get our eyes off ourselves. We lose ourselves in worship and enjoy doing it and by not letting it become perfunctory. When all's right with God our worship will show it and we get recharged as a by-product! We empty ourselves to get filled! The way to entree into God's presence, actually being ushered into the throne room, is by offering thanksgiving and praising Him. "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise...," (Psalm 100:4, NIV).
"For I desire steadfast love [or mercy] and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6, ESV).
God isn't interested in what we give up for Him (like giving up something for Lent), but that we dedicate our lives to Him in full surrender to His will. It's not what you give up but that you give up yourself. Living the Christian life costs something in the long term, but not living it costs more! To obey is better than sacrifice (cf. 1 Sam. 15:22)! He desires mercy and not sacrifice (cf. Hos. 6:6; Matt. 9:13)! When we bring our offerings to God, and our whole life is to be an offering, we are doing that which costs us something--the ownership of our lives. The kinds of sacrifices that please God are the sacrifice of praise (cf. Heb. 13:15), the sacrifice of righteousness (Psa. 4:5) and the sacrifice of thanksgiving (cf. Psa. 107:22, 116:17)! "To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice" (Prov. 21:3, NIV). The sacrifice that pleases God is a broken spirit and contrite heart (cf. Psa. 51:17).
If we are just going through the motions of sacrifice and it becomes a matter of routine, duty, or habit, we've lost it. Some people just memorize the Dance of the Pious and put on a show for God as they nod to God to fulfill their guilty conscience. We can never know the joy of worship when we are not free in the Spirit of all guilt and sin. We worship with our lives, not just in church! We don't go to church to just to sing a worship song because the full service is worship to Him. Sometimes it seems we don't get much out of the worship but this ought not to be so. If we don't get anything out of worship we did it for the wrong reason and may be in a worship rut. Worship is God-centered and we must learn to focus on Christ and get our eyes off ourselves. We lose ourselves in worship and enjoy doing it and by not letting it become perfunctory. When all's right with God our worship will show it and we get recharged as a by-product! We empty ourselves to get filled! The way to entree into God's presence, actually being ushered into the throne room, is by offering thanksgiving and praising Him. "Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise...," (Psalm 100:4, NIV).
Sacrifice entails that it costs us something, as David said he would not "offer to God that which cost [him] nothing." Our salvation costs Christ His blook, subordination, and life but is freely offered to us when we trust Him as Savior and submit to Him as Lord. It's free, but it costs everything we've got! True holiness consists in doing the will of God with a smile according to Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Christians are to be hedonists in the sense of finding their joy in the Lord! (Nehemiah 8:10, NIV) says "... [F]or the joy of the LORD is your strength...." What is the chief end of man? "We ought to rejoice in the Lord always and glorify God by enjoying Him forever" (paraphrase from The Westminster Shorter Catechism). God is most pleased and glorified with us when we enjoy Him and take pleasure in Him: take delight in the Lord and He will give you the delights of your heart (cf. Psa. 37:4).
Our lives are to "offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice ... this is [our] true and proper worship" (cf. Rom. 12:1) and that means salvation isn't by martyrdom or asceticism (i.e., the more we suffer, the holier we are!) but we must desire to live out our faith! And we must offer ourselves to God's altar daily and renew our commitment regularly-it's not just a one-time event or decision! We are to be so filled with the Spirit (cf. Eph. 5:18) that we overflow to be a blessing to others as a conduit as our cup overflows (cf. Psa. 23:5; Zech. 8:13). Christians have the beatific vision as an eternal hope and will enter into the "joy of the Lord" in glory as a reward. Soli Deo Gloria!
Our lives are to "offer [our] bodies as a living sacrifice ... this is [our] true and proper worship" (cf. Rom. 12:1) and that means salvation isn't by martyrdom or asceticism (i.e., the more we suffer, the holier we are!) but we must desire to live out our faith! And we must offer ourselves to God's altar daily and renew our commitment regularly-it's not just a one-time event or decision! We are to be so filled with the Spirit (cf. Eph. 5:18) that we overflow to be a blessing to others as a conduit as our cup overflows (cf. Psa. 23:5; Zech. 8:13). Christians have the beatific vision as an eternal hope and will enter into the "joy of the Lord" in glory as a reward. Soli Deo Gloria!
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
The Endless Pursuit Of Pleasure As A Goal
"If I want to know how to live in reality, I must know what God is really like." --Plato
"The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." --The Westminster Shorter Catechism, 1646 "The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Tim. 1:5, NIV, emphasis added).
The Epicureans (cf. Acts 17) were known as pleasure seekers (today known as hedonism), who were essentially atheists who lived for the here and now: "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!" (Those on this pursuit are really searching for happiness without God's input.) This saying is actually from the Bible too (cf. Isa. 22:13; 1 Cor. 15:32; Luke 12:19). In the worldview of Secular Humanism, one does just that without living in light of eternity as the Christian. When you remove God from religion or the equation and live for self as the dynamic of one's life, all that's left to relate to is man as "the measure of all things" and this life to think about: no hell to shun, no divine Law to obey, no heaven to prepare for nor to expect and hope for. They don't take any responsibility for their actions, good or evil since they deny Judgment Day and any divine accountability.
This is where Christianity breaks with Secularism and Hedonism: they want believers to get out of their pants and stop interfering with their own mores and values, which they see as relative or unknowable, even nonexistent. The Bible clearly states we are mere stewards of all the resources God has granted us in this life and will be rewarded or judged accordingly; i.e., vis-a-vis our works and that which is done in the flesh. The Epicureans weren't seekers of maximum physical pleasure though, but what they deemed optimum pleasure--a point of contentment and balance, even of intellectual pleasure to boot. NB: Didn't Solomon experience the vanity of intellectual pursuits, obsession with possessions or materialism, and sensual or sexual pleasure-seeking for fulfillment? If you seek pleasure, you'll never find it--seeking God it's part of the package.
The mature Christian (and when Paul "became a man he put away childish things") doesn't live for pleasure-seeking, but for a purpose, meaning, and fulfillment in Christ as he brings glory to Christ through a life of good deeds that are foreordained. He doesn't dwell on just "having fun" as some people are focused on and feel their day is wasted if they got none! Specifically, he would rather be doing the Lord's work than spending the day at Disney World! Don't get me wrong: there is a degree of pleasure watching one's children grow up and enjoy themselves and there is vicarious fun.
But how many parents would go there by themselves without the kids? Most vacations are heavy on relaxation, withdrawal, and recreation, not having fun in a conventional way. The Christian defines fun in a lot different manner than do children and may think it's fun to have a fruitful conversation. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes that man is meant to find enjoyment in his labor and in his eating. The believer's so-called fun is much more sophisticated and is basically R & R so that he is up to getting back to doing the Lord's work or fulfilling his calling.
But the believer doesn't make pleasure-seeking the goal or purpose of his life and doesn't feel left out if he didn't have all the fun he felt entitled to--felt needs are often ignored by God. The whole Christian walk is to be one of abundance and fulfillment in Christ and we are complete in Him. In contrast, it's the job of kids to play and have fun, they are not mature enough to know the fulfillment of finding the image of Christ in work and doing God's will.
The more we understand who we are in Christ, the more focused we who know our God can "be strong and do exploits" (cf. Dan. 11:32). In a way, all play of childhood is merely a foreshadow of what the work-world is like when one has found his higher calling. One may wonder where some believers get their drive, and the only answer is that they know the Lord and are purpose-driven, not fun-driven for our emotions and feelings can be deceptive and mislead us.
This is where the Protestant work ethic enters the equation and one actualizes his potential in Christ to the full. Luther restored dignity to all labor, not just the noble pursuits and we must realize we are a creature not made or hard-wired for idleness, but meant to walk with Christ in a joy-filled life; i.e., "rejoice in the Lord always" (cf. Phil. 4:4). On the other hand, the believer must beware not to be all work and no play, so to speak, and to be no fun, neither the party-pooper nor necessarily the life of the party either; however, things go better with Christ! Our pleasure ought to be in God!
CAVEAT: SATAN WILL ENTICE US WITH HIS DELICACIES AND IF WE FALL IN LOVE WITH THE WORLD AND WHAT IT HAS TO OFFER, IT DIMINISHES OUR APPETITE FOR THE SPIRITUAL AND DIVINE AND WE BECOME SPIRITUALLY HANDICAPPED.
In sum, when one seeks pleasure it eludes him, but when one seeks God pleasure is a byproduct and blessing. In the final analysis, we all must take stock of what drives us, what our pleasure is, what motivates us, and what inspires us and gives us a reason to live--taking a spiritual inventory or checkup; can man survive without God in the picture? Soli Deo Gloria!
"The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." --The Westminster Shorter Catechism, 1646 "The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith" (1 Tim. 1:5, NIV, emphasis added).
The Epicureans (cf. Acts 17) were known as pleasure seekers (today known as hedonism), who were essentially atheists who lived for the here and now: "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!" (Those on this pursuit are really searching for happiness without God's input.) This saying is actually from the Bible too (cf. Isa. 22:13; 1 Cor. 15:32; Luke 12:19). In the worldview of Secular Humanism, one does just that without living in light of eternity as the Christian. When you remove God from religion or the equation and live for self as the dynamic of one's life, all that's left to relate to is man as "the measure of all things" and this life to think about: no hell to shun, no divine Law to obey, no heaven to prepare for nor to expect and hope for. They don't take any responsibility for their actions, good or evil since they deny Judgment Day and any divine accountability.
This is where Christianity breaks with Secularism and Hedonism: they want believers to get out of their pants and stop interfering with their own mores and values, which they see as relative or unknowable, even nonexistent. The Bible clearly states we are mere stewards of all the resources God has granted us in this life and will be rewarded or judged accordingly; i.e., vis-a-vis our works and that which is done in the flesh. The Epicureans weren't seekers of maximum physical pleasure though, but what they deemed optimum pleasure--a point of contentment and balance, even of intellectual pleasure to boot. NB: Didn't Solomon experience the vanity of intellectual pursuits, obsession with possessions or materialism, and sensual or sexual pleasure-seeking for fulfillment? If you seek pleasure, you'll never find it--seeking God it's part of the package.
The mature Christian (and when Paul "became a man he put away childish things") doesn't live for pleasure-seeking, but for a purpose, meaning, and fulfillment in Christ as he brings glory to Christ through a life of good deeds that are foreordained. He doesn't dwell on just "having fun" as some people are focused on and feel their day is wasted if they got none! Specifically, he would rather be doing the Lord's work than spending the day at Disney World! Don't get me wrong: there is a degree of pleasure watching one's children grow up and enjoy themselves and there is vicarious fun.
But how many parents would go there by themselves without the kids? Most vacations are heavy on relaxation, withdrawal, and recreation, not having fun in a conventional way. The Christian defines fun in a lot different manner than do children and may think it's fun to have a fruitful conversation. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes that man is meant to find enjoyment in his labor and in his eating. The believer's so-called fun is much more sophisticated and is basically R & R so that he is up to getting back to doing the Lord's work or fulfilling his calling.
But the believer doesn't make pleasure-seeking the goal or purpose of his life and doesn't feel left out if he didn't have all the fun he felt entitled to--felt needs are often ignored by God. The whole Christian walk is to be one of abundance and fulfillment in Christ and we are complete in Him. In contrast, it's the job of kids to play and have fun, they are not mature enough to know the fulfillment of finding the image of Christ in work and doing God's will.
The more we understand who we are in Christ, the more focused we who know our God can "be strong and do exploits" (cf. Dan. 11:32). In a way, all play of childhood is merely a foreshadow of what the work-world is like when one has found his higher calling. One may wonder where some believers get their drive, and the only answer is that they know the Lord and are purpose-driven, not fun-driven for our emotions and feelings can be deceptive and mislead us.
This is where the Protestant work ethic enters the equation and one actualizes his potential in Christ to the full. Luther restored dignity to all labor, not just the noble pursuits and we must realize we are a creature not made or hard-wired for idleness, but meant to walk with Christ in a joy-filled life; i.e., "rejoice in the Lord always" (cf. Phil. 4:4). On the other hand, the believer must beware not to be all work and no play, so to speak, and to be no fun, neither the party-pooper nor necessarily the life of the party either; however, things go better with Christ! Our pleasure ought to be in God!
CAVEAT: SATAN WILL ENTICE US WITH HIS DELICACIES AND IF WE FALL IN LOVE WITH THE WORLD AND WHAT IT HAS TO OFFER, IT DIMINISHES OUR APPETITE FOR THE SPIRITUAL AND DIVINE AND WE BECOME SPIRITUALLY HANDICAPPED.
In sum, when one seeks pleasure it eludes him, but when one seeks God pleasure is a byproduct and blessing. In the final analysis, we all must take stock of what drives us, what our pleasure is, what motivates us, and what inspires us and gives us a reason to live--taking a spiritual inventory or checkup; can man survive without God in the picture? Soli Deo Gloria!
Sunday, August 26, 2018
Knowing Your God
"If man is not made for God, why is he happy only in God? If man is made for God, why is he opposed to God?" says Blaise Pascal, this is our "dilemma." If you've ever felt that God is keeping a low profile like the psalmist in Psalm 89:46, "How long, O LORD? Will You hide Yourself forever?" "...He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him": (Heb. 11:6). Francis Schaeffer said that Christianity is "about the God who is there." If you have wondered about this, read on.
Sometimes God seems MIA or missing in action; even Job replied, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him" (Job 23:3). Also in Job: "Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night?" (Cf. Job 35:11) We all have sometimes wondered of the "whereabouts" of God, but James says, "Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto thee" (James 4:8). It is our fault if we don't find Him. Isaiah says that God conceals Himself, though He reveals Himself: "Truly You are a God who has been hiding Yourself" (Isaiah 45:15).
God will be found by those who are not even seeking Him too, according to Isaiah 65:1 which says, "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me: I was found by those who did not seek me." God doesn't take triflers seriously if you want to really know God. Your testimony must be: "I was lost, but now am found." We do not find God in reality, He finds us! No one can come close to God and remain unchanged! "Seek the LORD, and live..." (Amos 5:6).
I quote Daniel 11:32 as follows: "...but the people who know their God will display strength and take action [other translations render it: do exploits or firmly resist him, i.e., the opposition]." To know God is to love God and the highest calling we have is to know God: "...but let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows Me..." (Jeremiah. 9:24). God will authenticate Himself to you because God is no man's debtor. When we find God--and as Pascal said, "I would not have found Him, had He not first found me," We must be prepared for an encounter and reckoning. How can we know God? First, we must seek Him with our whole heart-- "Prepare to meet thy God," says Amos 4:12. This is always true; we never know when or how we will meet and confront our God.
Let us look at the wisdom of Job: "Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace!" (Job 22:21). It wasn't until Job actually acknowledged God that he was truly humbled and realized his self-righteousness. Hosea's theme is to know the Lord, even though we are backslidden: "Let us know the LORD, let us press on to know the LORD" (Hosea 6:3). God's main "pet peeve" against Israel was that there was "no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1). What is true worship? Read Hosea 6:6 which I quote: "For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."
To know God, we must seek Him with our whole heart. Jeremiah 29:13 (cf. Deut. 4:29) verifies this: "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." Isaiah offers similar advice: "Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6). Hosea says "...For it is time to seek the LORD..." (Hosea 10:12). In seeking God, He wants us to acknowledge Him and His presence. One of God's names is YHWH Shammah, or "the LORD who is there, (Ezek. 48:35). Paul says to the Corinthians: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells is in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16).
Some people think that everyone is on a mad quest to find God! In reality, they are trying to get the benefits without the Benefactor! God says that there "is none that seeks Him" (Rom. 3:11). The search for God begins at salvation, according to R. C. Sproul, not before salvation, because God finds us, who are lost sheep. Jonathan Edwards proclaimed seeking God as the main business of the Christian life.
The promise that He will be found is in Matthew 7:7 said by Jesus Himself: "....seek and you shall find...." "The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him": (Lamentations 3:25). Here are two promises: "If you seek Him He will let you find Him." and "O LORD, You have not forsaken those who seek You" (Psalm 9:10b). A warning to the wise is sufficient: "He did evil because he did not set his heart on seeking the LORD" (2 Chron. 12:14). Even Hezekiah, the godliest king of Judah, sought the LORD in 2 Chronicles 20 when threatened by Assyria's armies.
If you put God in a box, you will not find Him; you are restricting Him, like saying: "I just like to think of God as the Great Spirit in the Sky or as the Heavenly Father, doting Grandfather, or the Man Upstairs--well do you see what I mean? We must be willing to acknowledge God for who He is and that means accepting the truth no matter where it leads--you will not ever find the truth if you are not willing to go where the facts lead and admit you could be wrong.
The highest calling we can have is to know God and the most rewarding relationship is our one with Him--if we pass this on to our children in passing the torch we have done our duty as a generation. Knowing God makes you strong in your faith and able "to do exploits" and not falter in faith. The ultimate goal of knowing God is to be like Him or to be sanctified. Jesus said, that He came "not to be served, but to serve" It is the same with us, in that we will have a servant's heart and realize that true greatness is not in how many people serve you, but in how many people you serve.
God is both transcendent and immanent (distant or removed and near): "'Am I a God who is near,' declares the LORD, 'And not a God far off?' 'Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?' declares the LORD. 'Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' declares the LORD." God is not bound by the time-space continuum and confined to our dimensions.
The only relationship that fully satisfies and fully rewarding is one with our Maker (we are made for Him and can only find happiness in Him); and we are like a vacuum that only God can fill, according to Blaise Pascal, and Augustine also said that our hearts have a need that only God can satisfy [paraphrased]. Paul said to the Philippians: "... that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection..." (Phil. 3:10). The ultimate questions are: "How big is your God?" not how big your faith. The answer is that to know Him is to love Him! The biggest challenge you can give is to live for something bigger than yourself and your concept of God affects this--don't think small, but aim high with God on your side!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Sometimes God seems MIA or missing in action; even Job replied, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him" (Job 23:3). Also in Job: "Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night?" (Cf. Job 35:11) We all have sometimes wondered of the "whereabouts" of God, but James says, "Draw nigh unto God, and He will draw nigh unto thee" (James 4:8). It is our fault if we don't find Him. Isaiah says that God conceals Himself, though He reveals Himself: "Truly You are a God who has been hiding Yourself" (Isaiah 45:15).
God will be found by those who are not even seeking Him too, according to Isaiah 65:1 which says, "I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me: I was found by those who did not seek me." God doesn't take triflers seriously if you want to really know God. Your testimony must be: "I was lost, but now am found." We do not find God in reality, He finds us! No one can come close to God and remain unchanged! "Seek the LORD, and live..." (Amos 5:6).
I quote Daniel 11:32 as follows: "...but the people who know their God will display strength and take action [other translations render it: do exploits or firmly resist him, i.e., the opposition]." To know God is to love God and the highest calling we have is to know God: "...but let him who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows Me..." (Jeremiah. 9:24). God will authenticate Himself to you because God is no man's debtor. When we find God--and as Pascal said, "I would not have found Him, had He not first found me," We must be prepared for an encounter and reckoning. How can we know God? First, we must seek Him with our whole heart-- "Prepare to meet thy God," says Amos 4:12. This is always true; we never know when or how we will meet and confront our God.
Let us look at the wisdom of Job: "Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace!" (Job 22:21). It wasn't until Job actually acknowledged God that he was truly humbled and realized his self-righteousness. Hosea's theme is to know the Lord, even though we are backslidden: "Let us know the LORD, let us press on to know the LORD" (Hosea 6:3). God's main "pet peeve" against Israel was that there was "no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1). What is true worship? Read Hosea 6:6 which I quote: "For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings."
To know God, we must seek Him with our whole heart. Jeremiah 29:13 (cf. Deut. 4:29) verifies this: "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." Isaiah offers similar advice: "Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6). Hosea says "...For it is time to seek the LORD..." (Hosea 10:12). In seeking God, He wants us to acknowledge Him and His presence. One of God's names is YHWH Shammah, or "the LORD who is there, (Ezek. 48:35). Paul says to the Corinthians: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells is in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16).
Some people think that everyone is on a mad quest to find God! In reality, they are trying to get the benefits without the Benefactor! God says that there "is none that seeks Him" (Rom. 3:11). The search for God begins at salvation, according to R. C. Sproul, not before salvation, because God finds us, who are lost sheep. Jonathan Edwards proclaimed seeking God as the main business of the Christian life.
The promise that He will be found is in Matthew 7:7 said by Jesus Himself: "....seek and you shall find...." "The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him": (Lamentations 3:25). Here are two promises: "If you seek Him He will let you find Him." and "O LORD, You have not forsaken those who seek You" (Psalm 9:10b). A warning to the wise is sufficient: "He did evil because he did not set his heart on seeking the LORD" (2 Chron. 12:14). Even Hezekiah, the godliest king of Judah, sought the LORD in 2 Chronicles 20 when threatened by Assyria's armies.
If you put God in a box, you will not find Him; you are restricting Him, like saying: "I just like to think of God as the Great Spirit in the Sky or as the Heavenly Father, doting Grandfather, or the Man Upstairs--well do you see what I mean? We must be willing to acknowledge God for who He is and that means accepting the truth no matter where it leads--you will not ever find the truth if you are not willing to go where the facts lead and admit you could be wrong.
The highest calling we can have is to know God and the most rewarding relationship is our one with Him--if we pass this on to our children in passing the torch we have done our duty as a generation. Knowing God makes you strong in your faith and able "to do exploits" and not falter in faith. The ultimate goal of knowing God is to be like Him or to be sanctified. Jesus said, that He came "not to be served, but to serve" It is the same with us, in that we will have a servant's heart and realize that true greatness is not in how many people serve you, but in how many people you serve.
God is both transcendent and immanent (distant or removed and near): "'Am I a God who is near,' declares the LORD, 'And not a God far off?' 'Can a man hide himself in hiding places So I do not see him?' declares the LORD. 'Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?' declares the LORD." God is not bound by the time-space continuum and confined to our dimensions.
The only relationship that fully satisfies and fully rewarding is one with our Maker (we are made for Him and can only find happiness in Him); and we are like a vacuum that only God can fill, according to Blaise Pascal, and Augustine also said that our hearts have a need that only God can satisfy [paraphrased]. Paul said to the Philippians: "... that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection..." (Phil. 3:10). The ultimate questions are: "How big is your God?" not how big your faith. The answer is that to know Him is to love Him! The biggest challenge you can give is to live for something bigger than yourself and your concept of God affects this--don't think small, but aim high with God on your side!
Soli Deo Gloria!
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
Putting God On Trial
"I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the LORD, and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart" (Jer. 24:7, NASB). "... 'There is no accountability, since God does not exist'" (Psalm 10:4, HCSB).
The Bible assumes the existence of God and is not apologetic; it makes no effort to pander to those who doubt His existence and offer proof. When asked point-blank for evidence to support God's existence, but the skeptic on the defensive and ask him what evidence he's found that God doesn't exist! Christians put the Lord on trial all the time when they try to "prove" Him or offer evidence in order to convince the skeptic or to argue someone into the kingdom by rationalization or presentation of proofs. There are indeed several ways to make it seem reasonable to believe in God, but a God who demands evidence isn't worth our worship. The fact should be obvious and people are without excuse for not believing in God (Christianity isn't about believing in a God, but in the God who is there!); people know the truth and they foolishly suppress it (you have to know it to suppress it!).
When we try to prove God the skeptic is in the position of being the judge ascertaining whether there's enough evidence to convince him. The power of witness and conviction is in the use of the Word of God, not in our clever argumentation and rationale. People don't realize it but they claim they know that there is no God, when this is a logical contradiction, which cannot be proved (a universal negative). Atheism is irrational and intellectually bankrupt and has no basis in fact--the only reason people deny God is out of moral concerns, not intellectual ones--all their questions might be answered and they still wouldn't believe, or they could witness miracles and still not believe. One must realize that all knowledge begins in a step of faith in which he cannot prove the premise; scientists are people of faith just as much as religious people, they just bet the farm that science has the answer and not God.
Faith is a gift of God and God expects us to use the faith we have if we are to get more; they are all judged according to the God that they did know and the moral principles they were aware of--our works. God can make a believer out of the most stubborn person and melt his heart into godly faith and repentance from stone to flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26), as it were. When we judge God by weighing the evidence we put Him on trial and say He needs our approval and judgment to be legit. Evidence is only for the believer to strengthen faith that is already there to help him realize the reasonableness of Christianity, as John Locke termed it, just like miracles strengthen and support faith, but note that faith doesn't come from miracles, but miracles from faith! This is a paradox!
No one can disbelieve in Christ due to lack of evidence, and there is never enough evidence for the stubborn and unwilling skeptic, who is on a power trip or mind game and is engaging in intellectual arrogance, not intellectual honesty. God promises to bring faith by the hearing of the Word, i.e., preaching! We should never break faith in the Word as the means to faith, and not our clever proofs. God needs to open hearts and quicken faith within them for the person to come to saving faith. Just head knowledge won't do, because God requires believing in the heart with a love for the Lord. If anyone loves not the Lord, he is anathema, Maranatha, under a curse till Christ comes, according to 1 Cor. 16:22. We must realize that faith is given, not achieved and those who do believe are not smarter, wiser, more virtuous, nor intelligent than the infidel, but brought to faith by the grace of God and not their own merit or presalvation work. Grace from beginning to end, as Christ is the Author and Finisher" of our faith.
When the gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit falls on those listening and does a work of grace in their hearts--for we are all given a measure of faith and receive the same faith (cf. Rom. 12:3; 2 Pet. 1:1). Acts 18:27 says that we "believed through grace," and this was not because we were out-argued or intellectually convinced, but our hearts were changed by grace. We have nothing to boast of in God's presence! Faith is not a work or that would be the beginning of merit-based salvation! Jesus said that the "work of God is that you believe" in Him, and we are not saved by works of righteousness that we have done (cf. Titus 3:5), but by His purpose and grace alone. As Paul said, "grace reigns through righteousness," in Romans 5:21 (which means it's irresistible and sovereign).
In the final analysis, God is our judge--we are not His judge! We are the ones on trial and have been found guilty as sin in need of redemption, justification, reconciliation, and propitiation. The only ones who find the truth are those who admit they're lost and could be wrong. Christianity is fact-based and based on historical records, not fable, myth, hearsay, or man's origin and we don't need all the facts nor all the answers to come to faith, God expects a leap of faith to enter the kingdom and we must trust the Lord for the answers and come to know the Answerer (as Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the LORD is good," or that the proof of the pudding is in the eating)!
Our assurance is not based on conjecture, but a certainty, as sound as the Word itself. Bertrand Russell was asked what he would say to God, should he be wrong: "Why didn't you give more evidence?" He admits there is evidence, after all! Like I said, there is never enough evidence for the hardened, stubborn heart who doesn't want to obey God, for Jesus said, "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know..." (cf. John 7:17). The heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart! "The fool has said in his heart that there is no God..." (cf. Psalm 14:1, emphasis mine). Where's the skeptic's heart, not how smart is he? Just like Paul said in Romans 1, that people refuse to acknowledge God and be thankful and their foolish hearts are darkened--they became fools!
The fact is that God exists and people foolishly suppress what they know about Him due to the calloused hearts. Paul makes it clear in 2 Tim. 2:25 that repentance precedes knowledge of the truth and Augustine asserted that we believe in order to understand--faith precedes reason! In other words, we don't argue the way to God, but accept Him as a given and proceed from there to make deductions. God is the beginning point, not man as the Word says, "In the beginning God..." Athanasius said it well, "The only system of thought that Christ will fit into is the one where He is the starting point. Proverbs 1:7 makes my point too: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge..." We commence with God, we don't conclude with Him!
To explain just why we cannot engage in a battle of wits or evidence, is because people always interpret evidence in light of their worldview and the evidence they already accept and assume is true--what they do is "file" it away till they can reconcile or answer it to the satisfaction and worldview; they don't want to believe it or God would open their eyes (cf. John 7:17). We cannot reason to God, but with God on our side, we reason from God ("In the beginning God..."), for the Bible and logic are OUR weapon! Remember the ancient axiom: "All knowledge begins in faith."
Soli Deo Gloria!
The Bible assumes the existence of God and is not apologetic; it makes no effort to pander to those who doubt His existence and offer proof. When asked point-blank for evidence to support God's existence, but the skeptic on the defensive and ask him what evidence he's found that God doesn't exist! Christians put the Lord on trial all the time when they try to "prove" Him or offer evidence in order to convince the skeptic or to argue someone into the kingdom by rationalization or presentation of proofs. There are indeed several ways to make it seem reasonable to believe in God, but a God who demands evidence isn't worth our worship. The fact should be obvious and people are without excuse for not believing in God (Christianity isn't about believing in a God, but in the God who is there!); people know the truth and they foolishly suppress it (you have to know it to suppress it!).
When we try to prove God the skeptic is in the position of being the judge ascertaining whether there's enough evidence to convince him. The power of witness and conviction is in the use of the Word of God, not in our clever argumentation and rationale. People don't realize it but they claim they know that there is no God, when this is a logical contradiction, which cannot be proved (a universal negative). Atheism is irrational and intellectually bankrupt and has no basis in fact--the only reason people deny God is out of moral concerns, not intellectual ones--all their questions might be answered and they still wouldn't believe, or they could witness miracles and still not believe. One must realize that all knowledge begins in a step of faith in which he cannot prove the premise; scientists are people of faith just as much as religious people, they just bet the farm that science has the answer and not God.
Faith is a gift of God and God expects us to use the faith we have if we are to get more; they are all judged according to the God that they did know and the moral principles they were aware of--our works. God can make a believer out of the most stubborn person and melt his heart into godly faith and repentance from stone to flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26), as it were. When we judge God by weighing the evidence we put Him on trial and say He needs our approval and judgment to be legit. Evidence is only for the believer to strengthen faith that is already there to help him realize the reasonableness of Christianity, as John Locke termed it, just like miracles strengthen and support faith, but note that faith doesn't come from miracles, but miracles from faith! This is a paradox!
No one can disbelieve in Christ due to lack of evidence, and there is never enough evidence for the stubborn and unwilling skeptic, who is on a power trip or mind game and is engaging in intellectual arrogance, not intellectual honesty. God promises to bring faith by the hearing of the Word, i.e., preaching! We should never break faith in the Word as the means to faith, and not our clever proofs. God needs to open hearts and quicken faith within them for the person to come to saving faith. Just head knowledge won't do, because God requires believing in the heart with a love for the Lord. If anyone loves not the Lord, he is anathema, Maranatha, under a curse till Christ comes, according to 1 Cor. 16:22. We must realize that faith is given, not achieved and those who do believe are not smarter, wiser, more virtuous, nor intelligent than the infidel, but brought to faith by the grace of God and not their own merit or presalvation work. Grace from beginning to end, as Christ is the Author and Finisher" of our faith.
When the gospel is preached, the Holy Spirit falls on those listening and does a work of grace in their hearts--for we are all given a measure of faith and receive the same faith (cf. Rom. 12:3; 2 Pet. 1:1). Acts 18:27 says that we "believed through grace," and this was not because we were out-argued or intellectually convinced, but our hearts were changed by grace. We have nothing to boast of in God's presence! Faith is not a work or that would be the beginning of merit-based salvation! Jesus said that the "work of God is that you believe" in Him, and we are not saved by works of righteousness that we have done (cf. Titus 3:5), but by His purpose and grace alone. As Paul said, "grace reigns through righteousness," in Romans 5:21 (which means it's irresistible and sovereign).
In the final analysis, God is our judge--we are not His judge! We are the ones on trial and have been found guilty as sin in need of redemption, justification, reconciliation, and propitiation. The only ones who find the truth are those who admit they're lost and could be wrong. Christianity is fact-based and based on historical records, not fable, myth, hearsay, or man's origin and we don't need all the facts nor all the answers to come to faith, God expects a leap of faith to enter the kingdom and we must trust the Lord for the answers and come to know the Answerer (as Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the LORD is good," or that the proof of the pudding is in the eating)!
Our assurance is not based on conjecture, but a certainty, as sound as the Word itself. Bertrand Russell was asked what he would say to God, should he be wrong: "Why didn't you give more evidence?" He admits there is evidence, after all! Like I said, there is never enough evidence for the hardened, stubborn heart who doesn't want to obey God, for Jesus said, "If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know..." (cf. John 7:17). The heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart! "The fool has said in his heart that there is no God..." (cf. Psalm 14:1, emphasis mine). Where's the skeptic's heart, not how smart is he? Just like Paul said in Romans 1, that people refuse to acknowledge God and be thankful and their foolish hearts are darkened--they became fools!
The fact is that God exists and people foolishly suppress what they know about Him due to the calloused hearts. Paul makes it clear in 2 Tim. 2:25 that repentance precedes knowledge of the truth and Augustine asserted that we believe in order to understand--faith precedes reason! In other words, we don't argue the way to God, but accept Him as a given and proceed from there to make deductions. God is the beginning point, not man as the Word says, "In the beginning God..." Athanasius said it well, "The only system of thought that Christ will fit into is the one where He is the starting point. Proverbs 1:7 makes my point too: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge..." We commence with God, we don't conclude with Him!
To explain just why we cannot engage in a battle of wits or evidence, is because people always interpret evidence in light of their worldview and the evidence they already accept and assume is true--what they do is "file" it away till they can reconcile or answer it to the satisfaction and worldview; they don't want to believe it or God would open their eyes (cf. John 7:17). We cannot reason to God, but with God on our side, we reason from God ("In the beginning God..."), for the Bible and logic are OUR weapon! Remember the ancient axiom: "All knowledge begins in faith."
Soli Deo Gloria!
Friday, June 23, 2017
When God Is Silent
"He speaks in dreams, in visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they lie in their beds. He whispers in their ears and terrifies them with warnings" (Job 33:14-15, NLT). "He is there and He is not silent." (Francis Schaeffer)
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pain." (C. S. Lewis)
God is not obliged to answer all prayers the way we want. He reserves the right to do His will, regardless of our desires or plans. Prayer is only for the believer, it's not a way to win over the lost by granting their desires as you pray for them--the only prayer valid for the unbeliever is his salvation, God only promises to meet the needs of His children, but not necessarily their felt-needs or wants. Playing God or Santa Clause to the infidel or even to the carnal Christian who needs repentance doesn't fly with God.
Our prayers must be explicit and specific to leave God the opportunity to answer them; this means not being general or making requests that one cannot know whether they can or will be answered (like God bless the people in Africa!). How are you going to find out if God ever answers such a prayer? "God is good" to all in some ways, and to some in all ways, known as general grace, but He's not obliged to show special grace to any (or it would be justice, not grace), which results in salvation (cf. Psalm 145:9). My rule of thumb is never to utter a prayer that its answer cannot be validated or verified.
Before one engages in big prayers, one should be proficient at the small ones--this is common sense. For an example of my point, George Mueller recorded over 50,000 answers to prayers he had made during his life devoted to prayer. I'm not saying you cannot pray for the impossible (Cotton Mather prayed hours a day for 20 years for revival and the Great Awakening didn't happen till the year he died!), but know that no request is too small for God and no need too great, for His love reaches out to all our needs and His omnipotence or plenipotence is never challenged by them.
When it's hardest to pray, we should pray the hardest! We ought always to pray like it all depends on God, but do as if it all depends on us. We are exhorted by Jesus in Luke 18:1 always to pray and never to give up or faint--to persevere! We are never out of our league in prayer, because we have an Advocate in the Holy Spirit putting our requests into perfect, heavenly diction. God's power is best demonstrated through weak vessels who will give Him the glory! Never think that a prayer ministry is a small one, for there are few so inclined that it's vital to the body to have prayer warriors. Also, remember that practicing the presence of God entails constant prayer and communion or fellowship with God.
Ending a prayer "in Jesus' name" is not a magic formula, but to remind us that we are praying God's will, not our own, and relying on Christ's merits, not ours to enter the throne of grace. God does promise to answer a prayer agreed upon by the body of Christ (two or three gathered in His name), but the assumption is that it's in Jesus' name, to bring Him glory! The more adept we become at prayer, the more we sense God's will and pray accordingly.
You can judge someone's prayer life (have a litmus test for it), by how in sync they are with God's will and how much they depend upon the Spirit to guide it, being sensitive to His promptings and on the same page as God. Prayer is not a wish-list to present, but dialogue with God--the purpose of prayer is prayer, not to get our will done in heaven, but God's will done on earth. Christ's motto was "Thy will be done," and this is the key to pleasing God and seeking His presence in prayer, not a cop-out or excuse if the prayer's not answered, and certainly doesn't indicate lack of faith. The key to understanding prayer is to know that God has ordained prayer as the vehicle for doing His will; both the efficacy of prayer and the sovereignty of God are at work and both taught in Scripture.
By and large, God is always at work speaking through His Word and Providence, and even circumstances. In passing let me mention an oft-quoted word to the wise: "Satan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when he sees, the weakest saint upon his knees!" To sum up, God is never silent--we need to listen up--sometimes He chooses to say "No" and teach us a lesson on His will. Soli Deo Gloria!
"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pain." (C. S. Lewis)
God is not obliged to answer all prayers the way we want. He reserves the right to do His will, regardless of our desires or plans. Prayer is only for the believer, it's not a way to win over the lost by granting their desires as you pray for them--the only prayer valid for the unbeliever is his salvation, God only promises to meet the needs of His children, but not necessarily their felt-needs or wants. Playing God or Santa Clause to the infidel or even to the carnal Christian who needs repentance doesn't fly with God.
Our prayers must be explicit and specific to leave God the opportunity to answer them; this means not being general or making requests that one cannot know whether they can or will be answered (like God bless the people in Africa!). How are you going to find out if God ever answers such a prayer? "God is good" to all in some ways, and to some in all ways, known as general grace, but He's not obliged to show special grace to any (or it would be justice, not grace), which results in salvation (cf. Psalm 145:9). My rule of thumb is never to utter a prayer that its answer cannot be validated or verified.
Before one engages in big prayers, one should be proficient at the small ones--this is common sense. For an example of my point, George Mueller recorded over 50,000 answers to prayers he had made during his life devoted to prayer. I'm not saying you cannot pray for the impossible (Cotton Mather prayed hours a day for 20 years for revival and the Great Awakening didn't happen till the year he died!), but know that no request is too small for God and no need too great, for His love reaches out to all our needs and His omnipotence or plenipotence is never challenged by them.
When it's hardest to pray, we should pray the hardest! We ought always to pray like it all depends on God, but do as if it all depends on us. We are exhorted by Jesus in Luke 18:1 always to pray and never to give up or faint--to persevere! We are never out of our league in prayer, because we have an Advocate in the Holy Spirit putting our requests into perfect, heavenly diction. God's power is best demonstrated through weak vessels who will give Him the glory! Never think that a prayer ministry is a small one, for there are few so inclined that it's vital to the body to have prayer warriors. Also, remember that practicing the presence of God entails constant prayer and communion or fellowship with God.
Ending a prayer "in Jesus' name" is not a magic formula, but to remind us that we are praying God's will, not our own, and relying on Christ's merits, not ours to enter the throne of grace. God does promise to answer a prayer agreed upon by the body of Christ (two or three gathered in His name), but the assumption is that it's in Jesus' name, to bring Him glory! The more adept we become at prayer, the more we sense God's will and pray accordingly.
You can judge someone's prayer life (have a litmus test for it), by how in sync they are with God's will and how much they depend upon the Spirit to guide it, being sensitive to His promptings and on the same page as God. Prayer is not a wish-list to present, but dialogue with God--the purpose of prayer is prayer, not to get our will done in heaven, but God's will done on earth. Christ's motto was "Thy will be done," and this is the key to pleasing God and seeking His presence in prayer, not a cop-out or excuse if the prayer's not answered, and certainly doesn't indicate lack of faith. The key to understanding prayer is to know that God has ordained prayer as the vehicle for doing His will; both the efficacy of prayer and the sovereignty of God are at work and both taught in Scripture.
By and large, God is always at work speaking through His Word and Providence, and even circumstances. In passing let me mention an oft-quoted word to the wise: "Satan laughs at our toiling, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when he sees, the weakest saint upon his knees!" To sum up, God is never silent--we need to listen up--sometimes He chooses to say "No" and teach us a lesson on His will. Soli Deo Gloria!
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Headsup On Knowing Our God
"He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ." 2 Thess. 1:8
There is a world of difference 'twixt knowing about God and knowing God first-hand or having knowledge about God and of God. We must turn our knowledge about God into the knowledge of God, though knowing about Him is a prerequisite to knowing Him. Believing He exists or knowledge about Him doesn't satisfy--we yearn to have a relationship with Him and to know Him. Why? To know Him is to love Him and our mission is to know Him and make Him known! Richard of Chichester said that he wanted to "know Him more clearly, follow Him more nearly, and love Him more dearly!" What a challenge! In knowing God we cannot define Him, put Him in a box, or limit Him in any way--He is infinite and we at finite and cannot grasp Him ("Canst thou by searching find out God?"--Job 11:7). The only way to know God is not second-hand knowledge, but by a personal, divine encounter via an exercise of faith in the risen Christ.
God's pet peeve is that man doesn't know Him and those who don't know Him are condemned. "Three is no faithfulness, no love, no knowledge of God in the land." (cf. Hosea 4:6). The problem with man is that he rejects what he does know and isn't grateful, but worships the creation, not the creator! The benefits, not the Benefactor! Knowing God is eternal life and it is imperative that God knows us or we will be condemned: "I never knew you...." Knowing God boggles the mind, enlarges the intellect, expands our thinking, and blows us away. Daniel says that "those who know their God shall be strong and do exploits" (cf. Dan. 11:32). It is possible to have an intimate acquaintance with the Almighty through daily devotion to prayer and Bible reading.
It isn't how big your faith is, but how big your God is! Some have a God who is too human, and their God is thus too small--an inadequate vision or view of God is idolatry. Don't underestimate the Almighty or put Him in a box to fit your dimensions or definitions like thinking of Him as the Great Mathematician, Mean Judge, Man Upstairs, Father Time, or Great Artist, or even God is like you! "With whom then will you compare God? To what image will you liken Him?" Isaiah 40:18
No one is like God and we cannot compare Him to anyone--we don't talk in comparatives or superlatives, but contrast Him. The good thing is that we are in His image (the imago Dei) and because we are persons with a personality just like God has and we can relate to Him and form friendships and relationships. But take it all by faith--you'll never figure God out because you're finite and He's infinite (the finite cannot grasp, the infinite goes the maxim).
God's fingerprints or imprints are everywhere and He is always with us. Christianity is about the God who is there and He is not silent but invites us to know Him personally. All that we need to know of God's nature and personality is given us in the person of Christ--God with skin on! Though we are inadequate in describing Him, we are commanded to make Him known! The Bible never proves God but assumes Him and makes Him known! We cannot know God exhaustively, but truly, for eternal life is to know God (cf. John 17:3). Soli Deo Gloria!
God's pet peeve is that man doesn't know Him and those who don't know Him are condemned. "Three is no faithfulness, no love, no knowledge of God in the land." (cf. Hosea 4:6). The problem with man is that he rejects what he does know and isn't grateful, but worships the creation, not the creator! The benefits, not the Benefactor! Knowing God is eternal life and it is imperative that God knows us or we will be condemned: "I never knew you...." Knowing God boggles the mind, enlarges the intellect, expands our thinking, and blows us away. Daniel says that "those who know their God shall be strong and do exploits" (cf. Dan. 11:32). It is possible to have an intimate acquaintance with the Almighty through daily devotion to prayer and Bible reading.
It isn't how big your faith is, but how big your God is! Some have a God who is too human, and their God is thus too small--an inadequate vision or view of God is idolatry. Don't underestimate the Almighty or put Him in a box to fit your dimensions or definitions like thinking of Him as the Great Mathematician, Mean Judge, Man Upstairs, Father Time, or Great Artist, or even God is like you! "With whom then will you compare God? To what image will you liken Him?" Isaiah 40:18
No one is like God and we cannot compare Him to anyone--we don't talk in comparatives or superlatives, but contrast Him. The good thing is that we are in His image (the imago Dei) and because we are persons with a personality just like God has and we can relate to Him and form friendships and relationships. But take it all by faith--you'll never figure God out because you're finite and He's infinite (the finite cannot grasp, the infinite goes the maxim).
God's fingerprints or imprints are everywhere and He is always with us. Christianity is about the God who is there and He is not silent but invites us to know Him personally. All that we need to know of God's nature and personality is given us in the person of Christ--God with skin on! Though we are inadequate in describing Him, we are commanded to make Him known! The Bible never proves God but assumes Him and makes Him known! We cannot know God exhaustively, but truly, for eternal life is to know God (cf. John 17:3). Soli Deo Gloria!
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Popular Perceptions/Experiences Of God
"Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons" (1 Tim. 4:1, ESV).
Virtually every spiritual experience of Christianity is duplicated and counterfeited by false religions.--don't be fooled by mystics of any faith! The Buddhists claim visions and to "see the light of God;" the Hindus and other faiths claim to "speak in unknown tongues;" the Muslims claim to experience the "spirit of Muhammad" and that he lives in their heart! Transmigration, as anything, or reincarnation, or as a person ("better luck next time!") replaces evolution or sanctification, whichever the case may be. Pantheism, or that the universe is God and all is God or that we are all One replaces theism.
The concept of yin/yang replaces the biblical concept of evil being the corruption/perversion/deviation/negation of good. It's a parasite on goodness. There isn't much daylight between believing all is God and there is no God. The incarnation of Christ becomes the latest of many avatars or personifications of the gods. The experiences of Eastern religion have begun to replace illicit drugs such as LSD. Prophecy is replaced with tarot cards, palmistry, and mediums. Hearing voices is most likely a sign of an experiment or an opened door with the occult, drug world, or mental illness, then a sign of a spiritual encounter with God on a personal level--it's too subjective to trust. Faith in karma, which replaces Judgment Day, is then the Eastern answer to Providence. The goal is to be freed from the law of karma (i.e., reunion with Brahma or extinction of desire or being in some kind of Nirvana). In Buddhism enlightenment replaces salvation.
Virtually every spiritual experience of Christianity is duplicated and counterfeited by false religions.--don't be fooled by mystics of any faith! The Buddhists claim visions and to "see the light of God;" the Hindus and other faiths claim to "speak in unknown tongues;" the Muslims claim to experience the "spirit of Muhammad" and that he lives in their heart! Transmigration, as anything, or reincarnation, or as a person ("better luck next time!") replaces evolution or sanctification, whichever the case may be. Pantheism, or that the universe is God and all is God or that we are all One replaces theism.
The concept of yin/yang replaces the biblical concept of evil being the corruption/perversion/deviation/negation of good. It's a parasite on goodness. There isn't much daylight between believing all is God and there is no God. The incarnation of Christ becomes the latest of many avatars or personifications of the gods. The experiences of Eastern religion have begun to replace illicit drugs such as LSD. Prophecy is replaced with tarot cards, palmistry, and mediums. Hearing voices is most likely a sign of an experiment or an opened door with the occult, drug world, or mental illness, then a sign of a spiritual encounter with God on a personal level--it's too subjective to trust. Faith in karma, which replaces Judgment Day, is then the Eastern answer to Providence. The goal is to be freed from the law of karma (i.e., reunion with Brahma or extinction of desire or being in some kind of Nirvana). In Buddhism enlightenment replaces salvation.
People generally perceive God in one of five ways: a critic who is detached and impersonal and even judgmental and harsh; a life coach that is a positive influence and encouraging; a projection of some person we see a need for such as a father figure or friend; a force that is impersonal and we cannot know or have a relationship with and cannot love us; or a principle to live by and code of conduct to make us feel good about ourselves.
Christian Science downgrades Jesus to just a divine principle and no more divine than we can be. While the Unity School of Christianity believers say that Jesus is a force. New Age adherents such as Shirley MacLaine--as the life-giving cosmic energy of the cosmos. George Lucus, the originator of the Star Wars sagas, believes all religions are right, and that God is just some impersonal force to be tapped into, either the good or dark side (there's no yin/yang-like struggle of equals). If all religions are right, that is saying none are right: all can be wrong, but logically, with the contradictions (Islam denies that Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead), they all cannot be right! The Baha'i faith believes that all religions basically teach the same thing concerning God--another cop-out from facing the real issue of sin and salvation, which is the crux of the problem. They can have things in common and be contradictory at the same time.
The Holy Spirit, the animating principle agent in creation and salvation, is not some blase, passive force, but a living personage equal with the Father and the Son in the deity. Some Christians do believe that the Holy Spirit is just the Spirit of God or a manifestation of Him, but the Bible clearly teaches that the Paraclete, Counselor, and Comforter is a person who has a will, thoughts, and emotions. When you say tongue-in-cheek or not, that you wish the "Force" to be with someone, you are relegating God (which is idolatry) to a blind force like the blind kismet or impersonal fate of Islam and this force cannot love you, and it's an impersonal fate, or the fatalism of Stoicism. The unbeliever cannot share in the power of God and the nature of the Divinity--for he is dead spiritually!
Where am I headed here? We are not to witness based upon subjective feeling or experience, nor to base our assurance upon it--there is too much false assurance out there! The thing that makes Christianity unique is not our experience in Christ, but that it is based upon objective, the historical fact--the resurrection! Christianity is the only faith-based upon history and evidence that can stand up in a court of law when before unbiased jurors. Christianity is history or it is nothing! We are not mystics who claim some surreal experience, but a transformed life in Christ that cannot be matched by counterfeit experiences.
When you say, "The Force be with you!" we are welcoming and approving the devil's work and inviting danger by the flirtation with it. The whole point in Christianity is that you can know God on a personal level, which is denied by all other faiths except Judaism--an impersonal force or God cannot love anyone. Our faith is not measured by our experience but by our obedience. The issue is not what kind of experience you had, but do you KNOW God? Soli Deo Gloria!
Christian Science downgrades Jesus to just a divine principle and no more divine than we can be. While the Unity School of Christianity believers say that Jesus is a force. New Age adherents such as Shirley MacLaine--as the life-giving cosmic energy of the cosmos. George Lucus, the originator of the Star Wars sagas, believes all religions are right, and that God is just some impersonal force to be tapped into, either the good or dark side (there's no yin/yang-like struggle of equals). If all religions are right, that is saying none are right: all can be wrong, but logically, with the contradictions (Islam denies that Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead), they all cannot be right! The Baha'i faith believes that all religions basically teach the same thing concerning God--another cop-out from facing the real issue of sin and salvation, which is the crux of the problem. They can have things in common and be contradictory at the same time.
The Holy Spirit, the animating principle agent in creation and salvation, is not some blase, passive force, but a living personage equal with the Father and the Son in the deity. Some Christians do believe that the Holy Spirit is just the Spirit of God or a manifestation of Him, but the Bible clearly teaches that the Paraclete, Counselor, and Comforter is a person who has a will, thoughts, and emotions. When you say tongue-in-cheek or not, that you wish the "Force" to be with someone, you are relegating God (which is idolatry) to a blind force like the blind kismet or impersonal fate of Islam and this force cannot love you, and it's an impersonal fate, or the fatalism of Stoicism. The unbeliever cannot share in the power of God and the nature of the Divinity--for he is dead spiritually!
Where am I headed here? We are not to witness based upon subjective feeling or experience, nor to base our assurance upon it--there is too much false assurance out there! The thing that makes Christianity unique is not our experience in Christ, but that it is based upon objective, the historical fact--the resurrection! Christianity is the only faith-based upon history and evidence that can stand up in a court of law when before unbiased jurors. Christianity is history or it is nothing! We are not mystics who claim some surreal experience, but a transformed life in Christ that cannot be matched by counterfeit experiences.
When you say, "The Force be with you!" we are welcoming and approving the devil's work and inviting danger by the flirtation with it. The whole point in Christianity is that you can know God on a personal level, which is denied by all other faiths except Judaism--an impersonal force or God cannot love anyone. Our faith is not measured by our experience but by our obedience. The issue is not what kind of experience you had, but do you KNOW God? Soli Deo Gloria!
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Limiting God
When you emphasize just one attribute of God or try to define Him to fit your agenda or project, you are limiting God or putting Him in a box. Martin Luther told Erasmus of Rotterdam that his "thoughts of God were too human." In J. B. Phillips' book, Your God Is Too Small, the author expounds upon this theme. We will never fully apprehend God nor understand Him enough to peg Him, say we can second-guess Him, or have Him all figured out--He is beyond our analysis and cannot be defined by any human power of reason--God cannot be rationalized either. Throughout all eternity we will ever be learning more of Him and only be scratching the surface. Fathom this: God is perfect!
Common ways people limit God are saying things like God cannot forgive someone taking their life; God cannot meet my needs; my problems are too big or too little; God doesn't care. God is so big that everything is small to Him and He cares enough to meet every need. We are wrong to call God just a mean Judge, kind Father, celestial killjoy, sentimental Grandpa, or Great Spirit. Some people have a wholly inadequate concept of God and this in itself is limiting God--we are to be aware of all His attributes and not just our favorite one (some people even think of the Trinity as comprising the Father, who is the stern one, the Son, who is the nice one, and the Holy Spirit, who is the mysterious one).
A common error is to make God in our image (Voltaire said that man created God in his image) and like presumptuously thinking He is a member of our political party or even a citizen of our country. Some even think Jesus would drive a Harley! This is all limiting God and trying to make a definition to fit our philosophy or way of life. God is no respecter of persons or even teams, shows no partiality, and won't even take sides on sports events--don't believe that praying for victory is going to help; both sides are doing it and the prayers cancel out! May I say, may the best team win?
The reason we cannot define God and understand Him is made clear by an old Greek maxim: "The finite cannot grasp the infinite." You cannot fit something that's infinite into a limited space. We cannot imagine an infinite amount of potatoes, for instance, but we can imagine a God who is infinitely holy, wise, powerful, and righteous. Just like love just is and beauty just is, and beauty remains after the rose fades, and love needs an expression like faith to make it known, but God is love and beauty proves there must be someone to enjoy it, namely God its Creator. We can be grateful that God's love for us in infinite and cannot be measured and that eternity is longer than we can imagine, though God has set eternity into our hearts (cf. Eccl. 3:11).
You must ask yourself, "How big is your God?" And stop wondering if He can meet your needs because He is up to the challenge. The bigger God you have the more awe and fear of God you have. It energizes and expands the intellect, boggles your understanding, it humbles the minds and spirit, and quite simply put, "It blows you away," to meditate on who God is. Einstein thought of God as a "pure mathematical mind" in his early days, and this shows that even great minds cannot fathom God, but need to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit to come to faith in the true God as He is. Someday we will behold the beatific vision and be satisfied with seeing Him as He is and when we see Christ we shall become like Him. The highest calling of man and deepest meditation and contemplation is to dwell on who God is and His nature--we should never grow weary of this but always be up to the challenge and rise to the occasion.
For instance, God is perfect: That means He cannot change for the worse, nor improve for the better. He just is and describes Himself as I Am without a predicate, which means He is our everything and meets our every need and is everything He desires to be. Our existence depends on Him, but He is self-existent and needs no one or nothing to exist or to live and owes no one or no thing. Why do we want to know God as He is? To know Him is to love Him and gives us a great desire to be like Him.
People who know their God, says Daniel 11:32, shall be strong and do great exploits. God's pet peeve is that people don't know Him in Hosea 4:1 and Jesus said in His intercessory prayer of John 17 that knowing God and Jesus is having eternal life. The whole point of believing in God is to know Him. What is God like then? All He has to tell us is expressed in the icon of God--Jesus Himself! God is like Jesus! Soli Deo Gloria!
Common ways people limit God are saying things like God cannot forgive someone taking their life; God cannot meet my needs; my problems are too big or too little; God doesn't care. God is so big that everything is small to Him and He cares enough to meet every need. We are wrong to call God just a mean Judge, kind Father, celestial killjoy, sentimental Grandpa, or Great Spirit. Some people have a wholly inadequate concept of God and this in itself is limiting God--we are to be aware of all His attributes and not just our favorite one (some people even think of the Trinity as comprising the Father, who is the stern one, the Son, who is the nice one, and the Holy Spirit, who is the mysterious one).
A common error is to make God in our image (Voltaire said that man created God in his image) and like presumptuously thinking He is a member of our political party or even a citizen of our country. Some even think Jesus would drive a Harley! This is all limiting God and trying to make a definition to fit our philosophy or way of life. God is no respecter of persons or even teams, shows no partiality, and won't even take sides on sports events--don't believe that praying for victory is going to help; both sides are doing it and the prayers cancel out! May I say, may the best team win?
The reason we cannot define God and understand Him is made clear by an old Greek maxim: "The finite cannot grasp the infinite." You cannot fit something that's infinite into a limited space. We cannot imagine an infinite amount of potatoes, for instance, but we can imagine a God who is infinitely holy, wise, powerful, and righteous. Just like love just is and beauty just is, and beauty remains after the rose fades, and love needs an expression like faith to make it known, but God is love and beauty proves there must be someone to enjoy it, namely God its Creator. We can be grateful that God's love for us in infinite and cannot be measured and that eternity is longer than we can imagine, though God has set eternity into our hearts (cf. Eccl. 3:11).
You must ask yourself, "How big is your God?" And stop wondering if He can meet your needs because He is up to the challenge. The bigger God you have the more awe and fear of God you have. It energizes and expands the intellect, boggles your understanding, it humbles the minds and spirit, and quite simply put, "It blows you away," to meditate on who God is. Einstein thought of God as a "pure mathematical mind" in his early days, and this shows that even great minds cannot fathom God, but need to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit to come to faith in the true God as He is. Someday we will behold the beatific vision and be satisfied with seeing Him as He is and when we see Christ we shall become like Him. The highest calling of man and deepest meditation and contemplation is to dwell on who God is and His nature--we should never grow weary of this but always be up to the challenge and rise to the occasion.
For instance, God is perfect: That means He cannot change for the worse, nor improve for the better. He just is and describes Himself as I Am without a predicate, which means He is our everything and meets our every need and is everything He desires to be. Our existence depends on Him, but He is self-existent and needs no one or nothing to exist or to live and owes no one or no thing. Why do we want to know God as He is? To know Him is to love Him and gives us a great desire to be like Him.
People who know their God, says Daniel 11:32, shall be strong and do great exploits. God's pet peeve is that people don't know Him in Hosea 4:1 and Jesus said in His intercessory prayer of John 17 that knowing God and Jesus is having eternal life. The whole point of believing in God is to know Him. What is God like then? All He has to tell us is expressed in the icon of God--Jesus Himself! God is like Jesus! Soli Deo Gloria!
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Look At Me!
Ponder and meditate on these texts with added emphasis:
"Look unto me, and be ye saved..." (Isaiah 45:22, KJV, emphasis added).
"... 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world'" (John 1:29, KJV, emphasis added).
"Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: and thereby good shall come unto thee" (Job 21:22, KJV).
When Moses lifted up the serpent on a pole in the wilderness in Numbers 21, all that was required was an act of faith to be healed from the bite of the venomous snakes. Just look at the bronze serpent! Later people turned it into a fetish and worshiped it so that King Hezekiah had to destroy it--they missed the point! We just need to look unto Jesus! 1 Peter 1:8, emphasis added, says the following: "...[And] though you have not seen Him you love Him."
How can you keep your eyes on Jesus according to Hebrews 12:2 if you don't see Him? It wasn't faith in the offer, but faith in God and obeying Him. It is imperative that we look unto Jesus to be saved and get our eyes off ourselves (our merit). Paul rejoiced in Galatians 1:16 that God "was pleased to reveal His Son in [him]." He prayed "that the eyes of [hearts] may be enlightened' (cf. Eph. 1:18, NASB).
We believe in spite of the fact that we don't know Him after the flesh, or are eyewitnesses to His resurrection. Jesus said in John 20:29 (ESV): "...Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed." We don't need to be empiricists relying on experience, nor rationalists, relying on our reasoning faculties either. God makes Jesus real to us just like being there--the Holy Spirit convicts: this means that having the Holy Spirit's inner witness is greater assurance that if we had been there and seen Jesus for ourselves. It is much more vital that we learn to see Jesus with our hearts than our eyes and God can indeed open the eyes of our hearts, that He does become real to us.
The Greeks inquired: "Sir, we wish to see Jesus" (John 12:19, NASB, emphasis added). The point is that "we do see Him" (cf. Hebrews 2:9). I would love to say to my brother: "I see Jesus in you!" Or: "He's got his Father's eyes!" We are the icons of Christ and represent Him to the lost. We all bear the image and likeness of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work. God works on us till He sees Christ in us and until then we are a work in progress--the final sanctification and glorification won't happen till our resurrection.
God wants to open our spiritual eyes to beware of what He is doing in the world through Jesus. We are the hands of Jesus that lends a helping hand; the ears that hear people's needs; the voice that speaks up for Him; the heart through which Christ loves and that spreads compassion; the feet that are welcome to spread the good news; and the mind that thinks Christlike ideas to share with a lost world, and through which Christ thinks.
Love sees better than any eye could ever hope to--just look at Helen Keller, exhibit A! The trouble with some Christians, and we all believe, having not literally seen, is that they think their faith will be strengthened if they had a vision of Jesus or personal encounter with the Almighty of some kind, or revelation to share. The fact is that God doesn't exist to grant our whims and wishes and provide us with experiences. All we need to know and experience is in the Word--we can have an existential encounter in the Word itself! The Word is sufficient, clear, and simple enough for the child to understand its main message of salvation (cf. Matt. 11:25 where Jesus commends the Father for revealing the truth to infants). God does want us to have a genuine experience and relationship with Christ but on His terms, not ours.
Everything He has to say to us is in the Word; we don't need any manuals, commentaries, lexicons, etc., to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit--that His job description. Though God has not retired dreams or visions or audible communications, He has promised to speak through the Word. Like the psalmist said in Psalm 119;18 to God: "Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law." (This refers specifically to the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit.) It is with man's heart that he disbelieves and doesn't see. Jesus said to the unbelievers: "You are slow of heart to believe..." "The fool has said in his heart, that there is no God" (cf. Psalm 14:1, emphasis mine).
Jesus proclaimed Himself the Word of God and John called Him the Logos or the Word which became flesh or incarnate (cf. John 1:1, 14). How can anyone claim to know Jesus if He is unfamiliar with the Word (John 5:39, ESV, says plainly: "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me"). Jesus is the theme of the entirety of the Word, on every page, in some prototype, analogy, parallel, etc. He is like a scarlet thread running the course of Scripture to be seen by the believer--the key to unlocking the mysteries, understanding its message, and knowing God. personally.
After all, Christianity is about "the God who is there" (for us) and is a relationship with the living God, not just a philosophy or school of thought, though this is important. It is not a list of dos and don'ts, a catalog of rules, collection of pious sayings, but a methodology for getting to know the living God and enjoying this relationship. The better we know God, the more we will learn to see Him; just like His fingerprints are in every living creature under heaven and the skies show His handiwork. The most tragic thing is that there are those who think they see and are blind; a much worse state than knowing you're blind and acknowledging this to God.
We can progress like John Wesley, who said he read the newspaper daily "to see what God is doing in His world." We need people today who have eyes to see and ears to hear what God wants a man to do in these desperate times that seem to bear the signs of the times (the coming of our great Savior in glory for us).
As Christians we must realize that we represent Christ to the lost world and the only Jesus they may see is the one we show them; you could ask the question: What is the gospel according to you? Your brother may know Jesus in a different way or manifestation than you from an entirely different experience and background, but never get tired of learning about the Jesus you don't know or never knew. Don't limit the Jesus you know putting Him in a box and being a spiritual Lone Ranger out of fellowship; after all, we are to teach and edify each other about Christ. One person may be the ear and the other the hand of Christ to the lost. God works in each of us in a unique way. The whole point is to keep focused on Christ and get our eyes off ourselves and our own little world, thinking primarily of His will and His kingdom, not ours.
The final judgment of God is a hardening of the already confirmed and hardened will in defiance and is mentioned in Acts 28:27 and Isaiah 29:13 in the NASB as follows: "For the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would hear them." God has blinded Israel in part that the Gentiles may be grafted into the Olive Tree. Just like Paul says: "... [B]ut the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded" (Romans 11:7, NKJV). The sole qualification for seeing is to come to Jesus admitting you cannot see! Soli Deo Gloria!
"Look unto me, and be ye saved..." (Isaiah 45:22, KJV, emphasis added).
"... 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world'" (John 1:29, KJV, emphasis added).
"Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: and thereby good shall come unto thee" (Job 21:22, KJV).
When Moses lifted up the serpent on a pole in the wilderness in Numbers 21, all that was required was an act of faith to be healed from the bite of the venomous snakes. Just look at the bronze serpent! Later people turned it into a fetish and worshiped it so that King Hezekiah had to destroy it--they missed the point! We just need to look unto Jesus! 1 Peter 1:8, emphasis added, says the following: "...[And] though you have not seen Him you love Him."
How can you keep your eyes on Jesus according to Hebrews 12:2 if you don't see Him? It wasn't faith in the offer, but faith in God and obeying Him. It is imperative that we look unto Jesus to be saved and get our eyes off ourselves (our merit). Paul rejoiced in Galatians 1:16 that God "was pleased to reveal His Son in [him]." He prayed "that the eyes of [hearts] may be enlightened' (cf. Eph. 1:18, NASB).
We believe in spite of the fact that we don't know Him after the flesh, or are eyewitnesses to His resurrection. Jesus said in John 20:29 (ESV): "...Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed." We don't need to be empiricists relying on experience, nor rationalists, relying on our reasoning faculties either. God makes Jesus real to us just like being there--the Holy Spirit convicts: this means that having the Holy Spirit's inner witness is greater assurance that if we had been there and seen Jesus for ourselves. It is much more vital that we learn to see Jesus with our hearts than our eyes and God can indeed open the eyes of our hearts, that He does become real to us.
The Greeks inquired: "Sir, we wish to see Jesus" (John 12:19, NASB, emphasis added). The point is that "we do see Him" (cf. Hebrews 2:9). I would love to say to my brother: "I see Jesus in you!" Or: "He's got his Father's eyes!" We are the icons of Christ and represent Him to the lost. We all bear the image and likeness of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work. God works on us till He sees Christ in us and until then we are a work in progress--the final sanctification and glorification won't happen till our resurrection.
God wants to open our spiritual eyes to beware of what He is doing in the world through Jesus. We are the hands of Jesus that lends a helping hand; the ears that hear people's needs; the voice that speaks up for Him; the heart through which Christ loves and that spreads compassion; the feet that are welcome to spread the good news; and the mind that thinks Christlike ideas to share with a lost world, and through which Christ thinks.
Love sees better than any eye could ever hope to--just look at Helen Keller, exhibit A! The trouble with some Christians, and we all believe, having not literally seen, is that they think their faith will be strengthened if they had a vision of Jesus or personal encounter with the Almighty of some kind, or revelation to share. The fact is that God doesn't exist to grant our whims and wishes and provide us with experiences. All we need to know and experience is in the Word--we can have an existential encounter in the Word itself! The Word is sufficient, clear, and simple enough for the child to understand its main message of salvation (cf. Matt. 11:25 where Jesus commends the Father for revealing the truth to infants). God does want us to have a genuine experience and relationship with Christ but on His terms, not ours.
Everything He has to say to us is in the Word; we don't need any manuals, commentaries, lexicons, etc., to be enlightened by the Holy Spirit--that His job description. Though God has not retired dreams or visions or audible communications, He has promised to speak through the Word. Like the psalmist said in Psalm 119;18 to God: "Open my eyes, that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law." (This refers specifically to the illuminating ministry of the Holy Spirit.) It is with man's heart that he disbelieves and doesn't see. Jesus said to the unbelievers: "You are slow of heart to believe..." "The fool has said in his heart, that there is no God" (cf. Psalm 14:1, emphasis mine).
Jesus proclaimed Himself the Word of God and John called Him the Logos or the Word which became flesh or incarnate (cf. John 1:1, 14). How can anyone claim to know Jesus if He is unfamiliar with the Word (John 5:39, ESV, says plainly: "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me"). Jesus is the theme of the entirety of the Word, on every page, in some prototype, analogy, parallel, etc. He is like a scarlet thread running the course of Scripture to be seen by the believer--the key to unlocking the mysteries, understanding its message, and knowing God. personally.
After all, Christianity is about "the God who is there" (for us) and is a relationship with the living God, not just a philosophy or school of thought, though this is important. It is not a list of dos and don'ts, a catalog of rules, collection of pious sayings, but a methodology for getting to know the living God and enjoying this relationship. The better we know God, the more we will learn to see Him; just like His fingerprints are in every living creature under heaven and the skies show His handiwork. The most tragic thing is that there are those who think they see and are blind; a much worse state than knowing you're blind and acknowledging this to God.
We can progress like John Wesley, who said he read the newspaper daily "to see what God is doing in His world." We need people today who have eyes to see and ears to hear what God wants a man to do in these desperate times that seem to bear the signs of the times (the coming of our great Savior in glory for us).
As Christians we must realize that we represent Christ to the lost world and the only Jesus they may see is the one we show them; you could ask the question: What is the gospel according to you? Your brother may know Jesus in a different way or manifestation than you from an entirely different experience and background, but never get tired of learning about the Jesus you don't know or never knew. Don't limit the Jesus you know putting Him in a box and being a spiritual Lone Ranger out of fellowship; after all, we are to teach and edify each other about Christ. One person may be the ear and the other the hand of Christ to the lost. God works in each of us in a unique way. The whole point is to keep focused on Christ and get our eyes off ourselves and our own little world, thinking primarily of His will and His kingdom, not ours.
The final judgment of God is a hardening of the already confirmed and hardened will in defiance and is mentioned in Acts 28:27 and Isaiah 29:13 in the NASB as follows: "For the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would hear them." God has blinded Israel in part that the Gentiles may be grafted into the Olive Tree. Just like Paul says: "... [B]ut the elect have obtained it, and the rest were blinded" (Romans 11:7, NKJV). The sole qualification for seeing is to come to Jesus admitting you cannot see! Soli Deo Gloria!
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
"Acquaint Now Thyself With Him"
Why know God? To know Him is to love Him. When studying Him we are drawn to emulate Him and reflect His nature in our lives as a testimony that we know Him. Plato said, "If I want to know how to live in reality, I must know what God is really like." A. W. Tozer said, "What we believe about God is the most important thing about us."
"And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3, ESV).
"But the people who know their God, shall be strong and do exploits" (Daniel 11:32, KJV).
"For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6, ESV).
"... There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1, ESV).
Title ("... and be at peace") taken from Job 22:21. We need to turn our knowledge about God into an active, working knowledge of Him. How do we accomplish this as we study God and are led to God? God blows us away and boggles our minds as our wits our expanded to new dimensions of thought. God truly is the greatest thought we can have and we are meant to study and worship Him. God-study is an exercise in mental gymnastics. We apply our knowledge by doing good deeds ("... doing good works and increasing in the knowledge of God," says Col. 1:10); praying and meditating, which is just focused thought or thought with a purpose instead of random and aimless daydreaming or drifting. We best make use of our knowledge by the unnatural act of worship and this can only be done in the Spirit to please God ("God is Spirit, and seeks those who worship Him in Spirit and in truth," according to John 4:24). Our ultimate goal should be to see that God is indeed worthy of our trust, obedience, and worship. Don't be content just to be theologically correct or orthodox, but practice orthopraxy or right behavior and know God and demonstrate it in your life---what is the gospel according to you?
Without God in the picture of life, life makes no sense and "if we are considered without reference to God we become a useless passion," according to Jean-Paul Sartre. Without God in the equation, or having a secular worldview or belief system, everything becomes relevant and there is no absolute truth--what standard can you rely on or refer to? Many people are practical atheists, that is, they claim adherence to a faith, but they live contrary to it or ignore God in their life. Psalm 10:4 says they have no place for God in their thoughts. We cannot know how to live without absolutes of right and wrong and we need God to show us the way: "If we knew what God is like, we would know how to live," said Plato.
God is a personal God and is obviously a person, not a blind, aimless, or purposeless force or influence. He is no impersonal force and doesn't have a "dark side" as in Star Wars. Satan is not the counterpart of God, but only a fallen angel who at one time was (per Ezek. 28) "full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty." We have to first acknowledge how little we know of God and that we need His guidance and illumination to know Him. But it is not that we know Him, that saves us, but that He knows us (cf. Gal. 4:9). There is a consequence of not knowing Him (to believe in Jesus is to know Him at sufficient level): "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God..." (2 Thess. 1:8). Romans 1 reveals what man is like when he leaves God out of the reckoning.
And so, what is God like? He is multifaceted like a diamond! Can we describe Him? Thales the ancient Greek philosopher couldn't come up with a definition, but the Greeks eventually concluded that God must be immaterial, immutable, and eternal and as such is the only necessary being or thing in existence. Being eternal means He has no cause and is, therefore, the first or primary cause and unmoved mover of the cosmos. We describe God in terms of His eminence, affirmation, and negation. His holiness or purity regulates all the other attributes and His moral purity is unequaled. There are communicable and incommunicable attributes--for instance, only God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. God is perfect: "He cannot change for the better, for he is already perfect; and being perfect, he cannot change for the worse" (A. W. Pink) God so perfect he needs no repentance--i.e., His nature never changes, though He does relent per a change in circumstance (e.g., Jonah's prediction of the destruction of Nineveh).
Luther told Erasmus that his thoughts of God were too human: He put Him in a box. We put God in a box when we describe him as the man upstairs, father time, cosmic killjoy, mean judge, doting or permissive grandfather, or spirit in the sky, without reference to His other attributes. ("O, I like to think of God just as my Father.") God is infinite and cannot be defined adequately to our satisfaction. We will be studying Him forever. His glory, majesty, sovereignty, and Trinity are incomprehensible to us and God has to speak to us in baby talk or lisping to relate to us. J. B. Phillips wrote a book Your God Is Too Small; consequently, our comprehension of God affects our actions. God is the incomprehensible one and His nature has profundity--we can never analyze Him, peg Him, nor figure Him out--"Canst thou by searching find out God?" says Job 11:7. All we need to know about God's nature is given in the person of Christ, who is the incarnation of God and the perfect God-man, or perfect God, perfect man, very God of very God, and very man of very man--fully God, fully man.
God wants to authenticate Himself to you and is no man's debtor; any honest seeker will find Him. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!" (Psalm 34:8a, ESV). The person who knows God has experienced Him personally and the Spirit bears witness with His Spirit that he is a child of God. God has made Himself known through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the God-man, who is the personification of everything God wants us to know of Himself. His unprecedented conduct, unparalleled claims, unique character, and unequaled credentials (as one scholar points out) prove that He is the living and the one and only-begotten Son of God made flesh on our behalf. Everything we need to know of God is revealed in the second person of the Godhead, who is Jesus, the icon or image of God. Soli Deo Gloria!
"And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3, ESV).
"But the people who know their God, shall be strong and do exploits" (Daniel 11:32, KJV).
"For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6, ESV).
"... There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land" (Hosea 4:1, ESV).
Title ("... and be at peace") taken from Job 22:21. We need to turn our knowledge about God into an active, working knowledge of Him. How do we accomplish this as we study God and are led to God? God blows us away and boggles our minds as our wits our expanded to new dimensions of thought. God truly is the greatest thought we can have and we are meant to study and worship Him. God-study is an exercise in mental gymnastics. We apply our knowledge by doing good deeds ("... doing good works and increasing in the knowledge of God," says Col. 1:10); praying and meditating, which is just focused thought or thought with a purpose instead of random and aimless daydreaming or drifting. We best make use of our knowledge by the unnatural act of worship and this can only be done in the Spirit to please God ("God is Spirit, and seeks those who worship Him in Spirit and in truth," according to John 4:24). Our ultimate goal should be to see that God is indeed worthy of our trust, obedience, and worship. Don't be content just to be theologically correct or orthodox, but practice orthopraxy or right behavior and know God and demonstrate it in your life---what is the gospel according to you?
Without God in the picture of life, life makes no sense and "if we are considered without reference to God we become a useless passion," according to Jean-Paul Sartre. Without God in the equation, or having a secular worldview or belief system, everything becomes relevant and there is no absolute truth--what standard can you rely on or refer to? Many people are practical atheists, that is, they claim adherence to a faith, but they live contrary to it or ignore God in their life. Psalm 10:4 says they have no place for God in their thoughts. We cannot know how to live without absolutes of right and wrong and we need God to show us the way: "If we knew what God is like, we would know how to live," said Plato.
God is a personal God and is obviously a person, not a blind, aimless, or purposeless force or influence. He is no impersonal force and doesn't have a "dark side" as in Star Wars. Satan is not the counterpart of God, but only a fallen angel who at one time was (per Ezek. 28) "full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty." We have to first acknowledge how little we know of God and that we need His guidance and illumination to know Him. But it is not that we know Him, that saves us, but that He knows us (cf. Gal. 4:9). There is a consequence of not knowing Him (to believe in Jesus is to know Him at sufficient level): "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God..." (2 Thess. 1:8). Romans 1 reveals what man is like when he leaves God out of the reckoning.
And so, what is God like? He is multifaceted like a diamond! Can we describe Him? Thales the ancient Greek philosopher couldn't come up with a definition, but the Greeks eventually concluded that God must be immaterial, immutable, and eternal and as such is the only necessary being or thing in existence. Being eternal means He has no cause and is, therefore, the first or primary cause and unmoved mover of the cosmos. We describe God in terms of His eminence, affirmation, and negation. His holiness or purity regulates all the other attributes and His moral purity is unequaled. There are communicable and incommunicable attributes--for instance, only God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. God is perfect: "He cannot change for the better, for he is already perfect; and being perfect, he cannot change for the worse" (A. W. Pink) God so perfect he needs no repentance--i.e., His nature never changes, though He does relent per a change in circumstance (e.g., Jonah's prediction of the destruction of Nineveh).
Luther told Erasmus that his thoughts of God were too human: He put Him in a box. We put God in a box when we describe him as the man upstairs, father time, cosmic killjoy, mean judge, doting or permissive grandfather, or spirit in the sky, without reference to His other attributes. ("O, I like to think of God just as my Father.") God is infinite and cannot be defined adequately to our satisfaction. We will be studying Him forever. His glory, majesty, sovereignty, and Trinity are incomprehensible to us and God has to speak to us in baby talk or lisping to relate to us. J. B. Phillips wrote a book Your God Is Too Small; consequently, our comprehension of God affects our actions. God is the incomprehensible one and His nature has profundity--we can never analyze Him, peg Him, nor figure Him out--"Canst thou by searching find out God?" says Job 11:7. All we need to know about God's nature is given in the person of Christ, who is the incarnation of God and the perfect God-man, or perfect God, perfect man, very God of very God, and very man of very man--fully God, fully man.
God wants to authenticate Himself to you and is no man's debtor; any honest seeker will find Him. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good!" (Psalm 34:8a, ESV). The person who knows God has experienced Him personally and the Spirit bears witness with His Spirit that he is a child of God. God has made Himself known through the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the God-man, who is the personification of everything God wants us to know of Himself. His unprecedented conduct, unparalleled claims, unique character, and unequaled credentials (as one scholar points out) prove that He is the living and the one and only-begotten Son of God made flesh on our behalf. Everything we need to know of God is revealed in the second person of the Godhead, who is Jesus, the icon or image of God. Soli Deo Gloria!
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Is Talk Cheap?
The Romans were practical people who believed talk was cheap and actions are what matter because sometimes actions do speak louder than words. Did not Pilate ask Jesus, "What did you do?" and not "What did you say?" If we don't make good on our talk it is cheap and we lose the validity of our testimony. Most people that believe talk is cheap are those who don't know how to talk or haven't acquired the skill to converse intelligibly. It is a matter of mutuality or give and take, listening and talking because there are times when listening is a better skill and more valuable than speaking. We may need someone to listen to us at times of need and God can give us a word of encouragement, and it is a gift to be able to speak a word in season and to know how to comfort someone in their loss.
Talk can be therapeutic, too. People that have problems need to talk them out and resolve personal issues together with other peers or trusted counselors. To give someone the silent treatment is one of the cruelest forms of punishment because it cuts him off from communication and fellowship. All believers need the fellowship of their brethren and no one is a rock or island in need of no friends. Like the song by The Beatles, "I Get Along With A Little Help By My Friends." People who need people, it is said in another song, are the happiest people. Personally, I can testify that there have been periods in my life when I just wanted "talk therapy" and needed to talk out my problems and to get some empathy or sympathy. I have been to the point of such loneliness that I was desperate to talk to even anyone.
We relate to one another by communicating not by doing works, which are a validation of our witness, and show that our faith is real. Like Paul would say, "I will show you my good deeds by my faith," and James would say, "I will show you my faith by my good deeds." They go together and can be distinguished, but not separated--you cannot have one without the other and works and faith are each other's flip side. One work we are commanded to do is to witness of our conversion and of the gospel message and this is via words, not actions, through our actions prove our witness is real to us and show the gospel in shoe leather.
Talk can be cheap if it isn't backed up by a testimony that isn't jeopardized and is without hypocrisy. It can be empty talk that has no inner meaning or edifying or redeeming value to the listener. Some people know how to talk so well that their talk is their profession and they heard no matter the season because they have proved themselves or have the training and experience to back it up. We all want to hear from someone who has been there and done that or has learned through the school of hard knocks and has a story. A person with a message to relate will always find hearers.
We earn the right to be heard and no one is obligated to listen to us if we haven't earned this privilege. People who are good talkers have learned to be good listeners first and have often learned the hard way and not just through books. Scholars don't necessarily have all the answers either; it is a matter of knowing God and having the gift of wisdom that He alone can bestow. Soli Deo Gloria!
Talk can be therapeutic, too. People that have problems need to talk them out and resolve personal issues together with other peers or trusted counselors. To give someone the silent treatment is one of the cruelest forms of punishment because it cuts him off from communication and fellowship. All believers need the fellowship of their brethren and no one is a rock or island in need of no friends. Like the song by The Beatles, "I Get Along With A Little Help By My Friends." People who need people, it is said in another song, are the happiest people. Personally, I can testify that there have been periods in my life when I just wanted "talk therapy" and needed to talk out my problems and to get some empathy or sympathy. I have been to the point of such loneliness that I was desperate to talk to even anyone.
We relate to one another by communicating not by doing works, which are a validation of our witness, and show that our faith is real. Like Paul would say, "I will show you my good deeds by my faith," and James would say, "I will show you my faith by my good deeds." They go together and can be distinguished, but not separated--you cannot have one without the other and works and faith are each other's flip side. One work we are commanded to do is to witness of our conversion and of the gospel message and this is via words, not actions, through our actions prove our witness is real to us and show the gospel in shoe leather.
Talk can be cheap if it isn't backed up by a testimony that isn't jeopardized and is without hypocrisy. It can be empty talk that has no inner meaning or edifying or redeeming value to the listener. Some people know how to talk so well that their talk is their profession and they heard no matter the season because they have proved themselves or have the training and experience to back it up. We all want to hear from someone who has been there and done that or has learned through the school of hard knocks and has a story. A person with a message to relate will always find hearers.
We earn the right to be heard and no one is obligated to listen to us if we haven't earned this privilege. People who are good talkers have learned to be good listeners first and have often learned the hard way and not just through books. Scholars don't necessarily have all the answers either; it is a matter of knowing God and having the gift of wisdom that He alone can bestow. Soli Deo Gloria!
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Do Christians Know God?
"...Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself" (Gal. 4:14).
"But we do see Jesus..." (Heb. 2:9).
"...[T]his mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).
This is a loaded question and depends upon your definition of terms. One may know a lot about God by virtue of doctrinal acquaintance, but be wet behind the ears or very naive in his experiential knowledge. The Bible does say that in the age to come, no one will say, "Know the Lord," for everyone will know Him. They will know the rules or the ways of the Lord and actively put them into practice. Jesus is the Way and they will know Him. This obviously refers to having a relationship with the living God and growing and or maturing in it--faith is not static, but alive.
"We walk by faith, and not by sight," (2 Cor. 5:7). This means we have to venture out in step and take that leap of faith like Abraham did, even not knowing where he was going. No one gets saved without taking this journey of faith. Paul said to the Galatians that it was like this: "And now that you know God--or rather are known by God" (Gal. 4:9). It is much more vital that God knows us! Anyone who loves God is known by God (cf. 1 Cor. 8:2). Those who God doesn't know will be cast into the lake of fire and are cursed: Jesus will say unto them, "I never knew you." This kind of knowledge is of having a personal relationship with the Almighty. The elect are known by God for sure: "For whom He foreknew [in the sense of having a relationship with and loving], He predestined..." (Rom. 8:29).
No one should want Christ to pronounce this to them at the judgment--to make sure that God knows you! (cf. Gal. 4:9) By this I mean make sure you are saved! This is not to satisfy idle curiosity, but a command in 2 Pet. 1:10 says: "...make every effort to confirm your calling and election." Your spiritual growth is stunted without 100 percent assurance. You can't just hope you are saved, but must know it. "For know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:12). "...whoever comes to me I will never drive away" (John 6:37). Eternal security is not a biblical term, but eternal salvation is: see Heb. 5:9 talking about God giving eternal salvation (not provisional or temporary salvation) to all who obey Him. Heb. 9:12 says that we obtained eternal redemption by His blood.
Knowing you are saved is the first step to making sure you know God because everyone who is saved knows God--some just have a childlike familiarity with Him and haven't reached maturity yet. Be assured of this: If you are saved, you do know God--it is just a matter of how well. Now that you know God (or rather that God knows you, cf. Gal. 4:9) you are to grow in the knowledge (2 Pet. 3:18). "Bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Col. 1:l0). This is a mandate in the Word--to grow--it is not an option for so-called Jesus freaks or fanatics: Jesus has little tolerance for lukewarm Christians who have lost their first love or are indifferent or disinterested in spiritual matters.
To know Him is to love Him. "Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace, and thereby good shall come unto thee" (Job 22:21). God hides Himself: "Truly, you are a God who hides yourself" (Isa. 45:15). Job wondered: "Oh, that I knew where I might find him" (Job 23:3). He will be found by those who diligently seek Him, not triflers. He finds us first: "I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me" (Isa. 65:1). The trouble with the world is that no one is looking for God--"There is none that seeks God" (Rom. 3:11). They are seeking the gifts without the Giver, the benefits without the Benefactor. Pascal said that he would not have found God, had not God first found Him. "I was lost but now am found!" This is the beginning of our relationship with God: The main business of the Christian life is to seek God and His face.
God's pet peeve or controversy with Israel is that they don't know Him. (Hos. 4:1) "There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land." The exhortation to Israel: "Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD" (Hos. 6:3). God wants a relationship with Him: "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice [religiosity], and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings [going through the motions]" (Hos. 6:6). Psalm 14:3 and Rom. 3:11 say that no one seeks God--they seek the benefits, not the Benefactor; the gifts, not the Giver. Knowing God is the business of the Christian life a well as always seeking Him. "And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3). If you want to boast, do so about knowing God! "But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD ..." (Jer. 9:24).
The book of Daniel is a good example for us. Daniel dared do great things in God's name, he demonstrated great energy for God, he had great thoughts of God. What will the people who know their God be like? "But the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action" ["shall firmly resist him" (the enemy), or "be strong and do exploits"] (Dan. 11:32). In other words, spiritual strength and boldness come from knowing the Lord. We are commanded to "grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord" (2 Pet. 3:18). Col. 1:10 says, "Bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God."
Even Paul didn't claim to have laid hold of it yet and to have arrived: "I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection" (Phil. 3:10). We never stop learning and growing in our knowledge of God and the finite cannot grasp the infinite as they say. But we have the mind of Christ and have the unique capacity to have a relationship with God. We have the mind to know Him, the heart to love Him, and the will to obey Him, because we are in the image of God (imago Dei). We are the literal ikons of God and reflect His glory: we are made to glorify Him (Isa. 43:7).
The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) says that "the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." We are unique creatures and living beings: Animals are oblivious to God and have no capacity to know Him--they are indifferent to spiritual things and don't even wonder if there is a God--you will never see a simian building a chapel, even in a trillion years of so-called evolution! Soli Deo Gloria!
"But we do see Jesus..." (Heb. 2:9).
"...[T]his mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27).
This is a loaded question and depends upon your definition of terms. One may know a lot about God by virtue of doctrinal acquaintance, but be wet behind the ears or very naive in his experiential knowledge. The Bible does say that in the age to come, no one will say, "Know the Lord," for everyone will know Him. They will know the rules or the ways of the Lord and actively put them into practice. Jesus is the Way and they will know Him. This obviously refers to having a relationship with the living God and growing and or maturing in it--faith is not static, but alive.
"We walk by faith, and not by sight," (2 Cor. 5:7). This means we have to venture out in step and take that leap of faith like Abraham did, even not knowing where he was going. No one gets saved without taking this journey of faith. Paul said to the Galatians that it was like this: "And now that you know God--or rather are known by God" (Gal. 4:9). It is much more vital that God knows us! Anyone who loves God is known by God (cf. 1 Cor. 8:2). Those who God doesn't know will be cast into the lake of fire and are cursed: Jesus will say unto them, "I never knew you." This kind of knowledge is of having a personal relationship with the Almighty. The elect are known by God for sure: "For whom He foreknew [in the sense of having a relationship with and loving], He predestined..." (Rom. 8:29).
No one should want Christ to pronounce this to them at the judgment--to make sure that God knows you! (cf. Gal. 4:9) By this I mean make sure you are saved! This is not to satisfy idle curiosity, but a command in 2 Pet. 1:10 says: "...make every effort to confirm your calling and election." Your spiritual growth is stunted without 100 percent assurance. You can't just hope you are saved, but must know it. "For know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day" (2 Tim. 1:12). "...whoever comes to me I will never drive away" (John 6:37). Eternal security is not a biblical term, but eternal salvation is: see Heb. 5:9 talking about God giving eternal salvation (not provisional or temporary salvation) to all who obey Him. Heb. 9:12 says that we obtained eternal redemption by His blood.
Knowing you are saved is the first step to making sure you know God because everyone who is saved knows God--some just have a childlike familiarity with Him and haven't reached maturity yet. Be assured of this: If you are saved, you do know God--it is just a matter of how well. Now that you know God (or rather that God knows you, cf. Gal. 4:9) you are to grow in the knowledge (2 Pet. 3:18). "Bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Col. 1:l0). This is a mandate in the Word--to grow--it is not an option for so-called Jesus freaks or fanatics: Jesus has little tolerance for lukewarm Christians who have lost their first love or are indifferent or disinterested in spiritual matters.
To know Him is to love Him. "Acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace, and thereby good shall come unto thee" (Job 22:21). God hides Himself: "Truly, you are a God who hides yourself" (Isa. 45:15). Job wondered: "Oh, that I knew where I might find him" (Job 23:3). He will be found by those who diligently seek Him, not triflers. He finds us first: "I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me" (Isa. 65:1). The trouble with the world is that no one is looking for God--"There is none that seeks God" (Rom. 3:11). They are seeking the gifts without the Giver, the benefits without the Benefactor. Pascal said that he would not have found God, had not God first found Him. "I was lost but now am found!" This is the beginning of our relationship with God: The main business of the Christian life is to seek God and His face.
God's pet peeve or controversy with Israel is that they don't know Him. (Hos. 4:1) "There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land." The exhortation to Israel: "Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD" (Hos. 6:3). God wants a relationship with Him: "For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice [religiosity], and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings [going through the motions]" (Hos. 6:6). Psalm 14:3 and Rom. 3:11 say that no one seeks God--they seek the benefits, not the Benefactor; the gifts, not the Giver. Knowing God is the business of the Christian life a well as always seeking Him. "And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3). If you want to boast, do so about knowing God! "But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD ..." (Jer. 9:24).
The book of Daniel is a good example for us. Daniel dared do great things in God's name, he demonstrated great energy for God, he had great thoughts of God. What will the people who know their God be like? "But the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action" ["shall firmly resist him" (the enemy), or "be strong and do exploits"] (Dan. 11:32). In other words, spiritual strength and boldness come from knowing the Lord. We are commanded to "grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord" (2 Pet. 3:18). Col. 1:10 says, "Bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God."
Even Paul didn't claim to have laid hold of it yet and to have arrived: "I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection" (Phil. 3:10). We never stop learning and growing in our knowledge of God and the finite cannot grasp the infinite as they say. But we have the mind of Christ and have the unique capacity to have a relationship with God. We have the mind to know Him, the heart to love Him, and the will to obey Him, because we are in the image of God (imago Dei). We are the literal ikons of God and reflect His glory: we are made to glorify Him (Isa. 43:7).
The Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) says that "the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." We are unique creatures and living beings: Animals are oblivious to God and have no capacity to know Him--they are indifferent to spiritual things and don't even wonder if there is a God--you will never see a simian building a chapel, even in a trillion years of so-called evolution! Soli Deo Gloria!
Sunday, April 12, 2015
A More Accurate Way
"Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature: (1 Cor. 14:20).
Some people are merely content to be correct theologically, not availing themselves of the abundant life and relationship with Christ. But we also come across sincere believers who are wrong and need to be shown the light, as it were. I believe we should tactfully edify them and explain the Word more accurately in a gentle way, so as to be offensive. I contend that it is not sufficient to be sincere, one must also be right to please God. Should we straighten out our brothers or let them go on in error?
Priscilla and Aquilla took Apollos aside and explained the Word of God to him more accurately, though he was mighty in the Scriptures, he knew only of the baptism of John. There is more than just knowing the Scriptures, though that is vital: "Press on, press on to know the Lord," says Hosea 6:3. Jesus said to the woman at the Samaritan well that those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth. It is not enough to just be sincere if you are sincerely wrong. Paul told the Corinthians that he would rather not have them ignorant (the word ignoramus comes from this root). God places no premium on ignorance and ignorance is not bliss because God holds us responsible for the light we have the opportunity to know, whether we care to learn it or not. It is ignorance that binds us, not the truth! "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" (John 8:32).
Faith is not blind and ignorant and doesn't ignore our intellect, but respects the mind. We are not anti-intellectual or anti-scholastic. Learning has its place and some even have the gift of knowledge (for the edification of the body--the building up of the body of Christ). Proverbs says that the wise store up knowledge. There is a certain joy in just knowing the Word and in being in awe! The fool feeds on trash, Proverbs says, but the wise yearn for the truth. The old principle of GIGO applies (garbage in equals garbage out). "For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). We are to "grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 3:18). It is the "knowledge of the truth (doctrine, that is) that leads to godliness," according to Titus 1:2.
Paul exhorts us in Eph. 4:3 to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." How can you have unity if you don't have an agreement? We are to be in agreement and harmony as much as possible: Augustine's dictum that we are to maintain agreement: "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials [negotiables] liberty; in all things, charity." There are some doctrines that we are to be dogmatic and intolerant of error on such as the deity of Christ and the infallibility of the Word of God.
There are also doctrines or dogma (church doctrine recognized officially) that are negotiable or room for disagreements (we agree to disagree without being disagreeable) such as interpretations of the Rapture or church government. However, the more we agree and find commonality or common ground, the more the Spirit can bless and unify us. Unity is not uniformity--we aren't all to be clones or imitations of each other, but individuals and different parts of the dependent and needing the rest of the body.
How do you think God tells you the more accurate way, but through the body of Christ and the Word itself? If we don't want to grow up in Christ and mature we balk at learning the meat of the Word or the things of God in depth we have the wrong attitude and may have not accepted the Lordship of Christ, even if we believe. God frowns upon willful ignorance and expects us to increase in our maturity and knowledge of the Word. Paul met this obstacle when he felt that they rejected him because he was dogmatic: "Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" It may cost to stand up for Jesus, or the truth--remember Jesus before Pilate saying, "For this cause I have come into the world, to bear witness of the truth." Jesus is the truth incarnate and knowing Him is the way of knowing the truth--the better we know Him, the more we know the truth and the freer we become.
The more enslaved we are in our submission to the Lordship of Christ, the freer we are paradoxically speaking. Don't resent someone telling you the truth and realize that it is for your own good and you will grow and benefit from it--God doesn't want you to remain an infant in Christ, but to mature and grow in your comprehension of doctrine or teaching. "All Scripture is profitable for doctrine..." (2 Tim. 3:16). We are to build each other up, edify each other, and admonish each other and this is done through the Word and our interaction in the body: We cannot grow by ourselves and need the body--it is a body-building program of truth, so have the right mental attitude!
The more we apply the truth, the truth God gives us, and the more we know, the more accountable we become. Knowledge in itself, the wrong kind (about God, instead of God), merely puffs up, but love (exercising the fruit of the Spirit, for instance) edifies or builds up, says 1 Cor. 8:1, and he who thinks he knows does not yet know as he ought to know--we should never think that we have arrived: "I do not consider myself to have laid hold of it yet" (Phil 3:13) or don't need to learn anymore.
Knowledge is not to be an end in itself and a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Some people know enough to be dangerous! We are not to get an exclusive mindset and think we have cornered the market on truth! We are never to be intolerant of those who disagree with us and become contentious, argumentative, or divisive. No one person has all the truth (sorry Catholics who have faith in the Pope!) and we all must learn from each other as we discover our niche or job in the body.
In summation, we are our brother's keeper in the sense of being responsible to show him his error and restore him to the light. We are responsible for the light we have, but that doesn't excuse us and give us the right to be ignorant (God frowns upon ignorance). "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" (John 8:32). A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and we are never to think we have all the truth or have cornered the market, being exclusive or arrogant. Soli Deo Gloria!
Some people are merely content to be correct theologically, not availing themselves of the abundant life and relationship with Christ. But we also come across sincere believers who are wrong and need to be shown the light, as it were. I believe we should tactfully edify them and explain the Word more accurately in a gentle way, so as to be offensive. I contend that it is not sufficient to be sincere, one must also be right to please God. Should we straighten out our brothers or let them go on in error?
Priscilla and Aquilla took Apollos aside and explained the Word of God to him more accurately, though he was mighty in the Scriptures, he knew only of the baptism of John. There is more than just knowing the Scriptures, though that is vital: "Press on, press on to know the Lord," says Hosea 6:3. Jesus said to the woman at the Samaritan well that those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth. It is not enough to just be sincere if you are sincerely wrong. Paul told the Corinthians that he would rather not have them ignorant (the word ignoramus comes from this root). God places no premium on ignorance and ignorance is not bliss because God holds us responsible for the light we have the opportunity to know, whether we care to learn it or not. It is ignorance that binds us, not the truth! "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free" (John 8:32).
Faith is not blind and ignorant and doesn't ignore our intellect, but respects the mind. We are not anti-intellectual or anti-scholastic. Learning has its place and some even have the gift of knowledge (for the edification of the body--the building up of the body of Christ). Proverbs says that the wise store up knowledge. There is a certain joy in just knowing the Word and in being in awe! The fool feeds on trash, Proverbs says, but the wise yearn for the truth. The old principle of GIGO applies (garbage in equals garbage out). "For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7). We are to "grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Pet. 3:18). It is the "knowledge of the truth (doctrine, that is) that leads to godliness," according to Titus 1:2.
Paul exhorts us in Eph. 4:3 to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." How can you have unity if you don't have an agreement? We are to be in agreement and harmony as much as possible: Augustine's dictum that we are to maintain agreement: "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials [negotiables] liberty; in all things, charity." There are some doctrines that we are to be dogmatic and intolerant of error on such as the deity of Christ and the infallibility of the Word of God.
There are also doctrines or dogma (church doctrine recognized officially) that are negotiable or room for disagreements (we agree to disagree without being disagreeable) such as interpretations of the Rapture or church government. However, the more we agree and find commonality or common ground, the more the Spirit can bless and unify us. Unity is not uniformity--we aren't all to be clones or imitations of each other, but individuals and different parts of the dependent and needing the rest of the body.
How do you think God tells you the more accurate way, but through the body of Christ and the Word itself? If we don't want to grow up in Christ and mature we balk at learning the meat of the Word or the things of God in depth we have the wrong attitude and may have not accepted the Lordship of Christ, even if we believe. God frowns upon willful ignorance and expects us to increase in our maturity and knowledge of the Word. Paul met this obstacle when he felt that they rejected him because he was dogmatic: "Have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" It may cost to stand up for Jesus, or the truth--remember Jesus before Pilate saying, "For this cause I have come into the world, to bear witness of the truth." Jesus is the truth incarnate and knowing Him is the way of knowing the truth--the better we know Him, the more we know the truth and the freer we become.
The more enslaved we are in our submission to the Lordship of Christ, the freer we are paradoxically speaking. Don't resent someone telling you the truth and realize that it is for your own good and you will grow and benefit from it--God doesn't want you to remain an infant in Christ, but to mature and grow in your comprehension of doctrine or teaching. "All Scripture is profitable for doctrine..." (2 Tim. 3:16). We are to build each other up, edify each other, and admonish each other and this is done through the Word and our interaction in the body: We cannot grow by ourselves and need the body--it is a body-building program of truth, so have the right mental attitude!
The more we apply the truth, the truth God gives us, and the more we know, the more accountable we become. Knowledge in itself, the wrong kind (about God, instead of God), merely puffs up, but love (exercising the fruit of the Spirit, for instance) edifies or builds up, says 1 Cor. 8:1, and he who thinks he knows does not yet know as he ought to know--we should never think that we have arrived: "I do not consider myself to have laid hold of it yet" (Phil 3:13) or don't need to learn anymore.
Knowledge is not to be an end in itself and a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Some people know enough to be dangerous! We are not to get an exclusive mindset and think we have cornered the market on truth! We are never to be intolerant of those who disagree with us and become contentious, argumentative, or divisive. No one person has all the truth (sorry Catholics who have faith in the Pope!) and we all must learn from each other as we discover our niche or job in the body.
In summation, we are our brother's keeper in the sense of being responsible to show him his error and restore him to the light. We are responsible for the light we have, but that doesn't excuse us and give us the right to be ignorant (God frowns upon ignorance). "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free" (John 8:32). A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and we are never to think we have all the truth or have cornered the market, being exclusive or arrogant. Soli Deo Gloria!
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