Know Your Place!

The Greeks of antiquity admonished us to "know thyself," while Sun Tzu wrote in The Art of War, to know your enemy.  In the church, it's vital to know our spiritual gifts and we can only find them out by venturing out of our comfort zone and becoming a servant of the church body because the purpose of the gift is to sanctify and bless the body of Christ--we're saved to become blessings,  This even means doing things that we may even think are not our gift!  We may have to put up with subordination and following and submitting to authority, but this is not a form of inferiority but obedience which even Christ did to the Father and humbled Himself to become our servant. Note that Christ did the servile act of foot-washing to teach that we should deem no service for the Lord's sake as "beneath" us or not what we are gifted to do or not even spiritual enough to do as that it is something the deacons or elders should do.  

The Bible tells us to know God and the Lord, and even the Bible and by corollary, know sound teaching. This all shows that our faith is more about knowing than about doing. In other words, religion always says "Do!" while Christ says "Know!"He said, "This is eternal life, to know [God] and Jesus Christ whom [He] has sent."  In other words, we don't need another "to-do" list!  We also may know that we are saved and even the will of God!  But I want to write about knowing where we belong and our place, for it's offensive to be out of place or to usurp authority or assume power where one doesn't deserve it. There's nothing more annoying for a parent for a child to not know his place or to speak inappropriately when he should know better. I'm assuming that we know what we are doing, are spiritually inclined, have a measure of maturity, and can apply what we know to what we do, which is common wisdom; putting knowledge into action. 

In other words, we know and learn (and we are all on a learning curve) by doing and practicing what we know: translating our creeds into deeds (being a people of God zealous of good works).  But to do the right thing and this is an example of leadership, we must know sound doctrine and get our thinking straightened out, including having a Christian worldview unaffected by the Secular Humanism so prevalent and rampant in academia. Even believers can become brainwashed by the human viewpoint.  Knowing is the first step to feeling good about yourself: know right, think right, act right, and then feel right. As we know, the divine order is:  fact, faith, feeling! We must not get the cart before the horse or depend on our feelings for direction in life.   

We have an objective, absolute, and trustworthy source to rely on (the Bible as our plumb line) and put faith in as truth and knowing that God is the final Arbiter of Truth.  Remember, the better we know our gift and place in the church, the more opportunity we will have for good works and to be oriented to the vision and mission of the church and to navigate ourselves within the body and interact with others. Learn not to stand on the sidelines but stand up for what you believe and dare to be like Daniel who defied the king when he prayed. 

In conclusion, let me add that servants don't ever start out at the top but work their way up!  The best leaders have first been followers first and know the ropes of dedication and faithfulness.  Remember the words of Mother Teresa: "God doesn't call us to success, but to faithfulness." Leave the success to God!  But God but that doesn't mean we don't expect great things from God attempt great things from God?  This means our ministry our outreach isn't measured by the human standards of a numbers game.   Soli Deo Gloria! 

He That Is Spiritual III

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Lewis Sperry Chafer, founder and first chancellor of Dallas Theological Seminary (the largest Protestant seminary on earth) wrote a book in 1918, He That Is Spiritual, to delineate the so-called carnal Christian as contrasted with the so-called spiritual ones. An unbeliever was called the natural man. This dichotomy of believers is unbiblical and misleading. Any Christian can become carnal by sin, and all he needs to do is to confess it per 1 John 1:9--carnality is no perpetual or permanent state. We all live in a state of perpetual and progressive confession and repentance--the unrepentant person is not saved. John says that a Christian doesn't continue in sin, and this means he makes it his way of life, though he may live a defeated life, there is some life to his faith or it is dead faith producing no works, which cannot save.

The whole purpose of faith is to produce the workmanship of God, foreordained by God, that we should walk in it (cf. Eph. 2:10). Spiritual believers are not those who go overboard or are fanatical or so-called Jesus freaks, but those who walk with God in the Spirit. They are realizing their potential of the fruit of the Spirit, and of knowing the Lord. The Christian life that is spiritual is one that enjoys fellowship with God and other believers. All believers are exhorted to read the Bible, witness, and pray; not just the clergy.


The spiritual man has relinquished ownership and the throne of his life to Christ, he has surrendered to the Lordship of Christ, and he lives the substituted or exchanged life with Christ living through him. "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (cf. Gal. 2:20). This can only be accomplished by a believer in sync with God's will, and willing to follow Jesus wherever he may lead. The spiritual man has learned the secret of "inhabitation," as opposed to "imitation."

The obedient Christian does these things and the only test of faith is obedience. A. W. Tozer, in I Call it Heresy!, says: "The Lord will not save those whom He cannot command. He will not divide His offices. You cannot believe in a half-Christ. We take Him for what He is --the anointed Saviour and Lord...." We see our faith in action by our good works according to James. Paul would say we see our good works by our faith. They go hand in hand. In other words: As Lutheran martyr, preacher, and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who believes is obedient, only he who is obedient believes." (Note that it was by faith that Abraham obeyed, as written in Heb. 11:8.) The ultimate result is the fruit of a changed life, not an ascetic or mystic one that parades or charades as spiritual.


The spiritual man is appraised of no one, because of the wisdom of God and, if we have the Spirit, we are spiritual. The natural man cannot comprehend spiritual truth, for Satan has blinded his eyes. We need the eyes of our hearts opened to see spiritual truths. Some believers are more mature in the faith and know the Lord better, but all of them are spiritual. There's no class system or caste system in Christianity, we are all brethren and one in Christ. We should not idolize our fellow believers, even if they seem to be spiritual giants. We should never try to give the impression we are more "spiritual" than other believers or have a holier-than-thou attitude. By the same token, we shouldn't be intimidated by others and develop an inferiority complex. Christ's church has no spiritual elite or privileged class, for God is no respecter of persons and shows no partiality (cf. Acts 10:34, Rom. 2:11).

We all have different gifts and we don't have anything the Lord has not given us (cf. 1 Cor. 4:7). It is the Spirit that matters, not the gift that makes us spiritual. In exercising one's gift, what matters is the spirit that he uses it in. Believers have no excuse not to understand Scripture, pray, and witness and should enjoy the fruits of fellowship and worship in the body because they have the illuminating ministry of the Spirit.


We are all works in progress and improving from faith to faith (cf. Rom. 1:17); no one can claim to have "arrived" or to have met the goal and won the prize (cf. Phil. 3:13-14). We are in the process of maturing in Christ, but it is the direction we are going that counts and is the test, while perfection is the standard (cf. Matt. 5:48). We must bear fruit as proof of our faith, or it is bogus--no fruit means no faith, and ergo no salvation. (Jesus said we shall know them by their fruits in Matt. 7:16.) We can only find meaning, purpose, and fulfillment ultimately in Christ: "There is a God-shaped blank, and only God can fill it." (old axiom). Soli Deo Gloria!

He That Is Spiritual II

"For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God" (Rom. 8:14).



It has been said that a Christian has a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which He loves, a voice through which He speaks, and hands through which He helps--this is the epitome of spirituality--to know Christ and make Him known.


That was the title of the 1918 book by Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, that made him a renowned and celebrated theologian. Who is? This is a vital and bona fide question: Like someone has said, "We have found all the questions, now let's find the answers!" When we are spiritual we are exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit in a manifold manner. There is no certain manifestation, such as talking about Jesus or the Bible. Sometimes just touching base with someone in love and charity and meeting their needs is genuine fellowship and expression of being spiritual. There are telltale signs of spirituality: A famous saying goes thus: Where there is love there is joy; where there is joy there is hope; where there is hope there is peace; where there is peace there is Jesus! I have learned this and have observed it: God meets us where we are and knows where we are! We don't always need someone to preach at us, but sometimes we need a listening and sympathetic ear.


Just think of all the possibilities of expressing the nine winsome graces given by the filling of the Holy Spirit. Wherever two or three are gathered together in Jesus' name, there He is. The one who is spiritual simply walks in the Spirit and has continual fellowship with the Lord (keeping short accounts of his sins and confessing them per 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The spiritual one simply is in touch with God and meets people's needs and is not self-centered, but Christ-centered. He lives for Christ and not for himself. This does not necessarily refer to a level of maturity or of being mature per se, because sometimes a baby believer can be more spiritual than the seasoned.


No one can claim to be always spiritual or that they have "arrived" at such a point of perfection, of not being conscious of sin or shortcomings. Sometimes the wisest remarks can proceed out of the mouths of babes, as Jesus noticed: Psalm 8:2 says, "Through the praise of children and infants..." I believe children can even be used by God: a child's voice convicted St. Augustine said: "Take and read, take and read."


He that is spiritual simply walks with the Lord as Enoch and Noah ("Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God")-and we have this privilege too! It is a "faith-walk" because "we walk by faith, and not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:17). There is no veneer to see through or guise of spirituality, such as hypocrisy (he has nothing to hide and is straightforward in speech), but a genuineness and authenticity in action. He is the real thing, an original! He's not out to outshine someone or be a rival. "The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments' (1 Cor. 2:15). There is a certain natural ability to discern the Spirit, in other words. Whatever he does, he does to the glory of God (cf. 1 Cor. 10:31)!


There is no inherent dichotomy or division of believers into classes of spiritual and non-spiritual, first-class and second-class, or what Chafer mistakenly believed to be carnal and spiritual Christians. Just like it is wrong to have a "holier than thou" attitude (cf. Isa. 65:5), it is wrong to deceive yourself into thinking you are more spiritual than your brethren--you either are spiritual or you're not--there are no degrees to graduate to.


Any believer can be carnal or spiritual at any given period of time, it is not a given (each day one must start all over in their walk: "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deut. 33:25). "This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it," says Psalm 118:24), and he must "abide in Christ" or stay in fellowship with God in order to walk in step with Him. The most spiritually mature can indeed fall into sin like David did but he will ultimately recover and his carnality will not be a permanent or continuous state. The continuity of our status in Christ never changes; only our state of fellowship and relationship and/or sanctification.


This doctrine need not be problematic or an issue at all: "So I say, walk by the Spirit and you shall not gratify the desires of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). We are indeed free in Christ: not free to live according to the flesh and our old nature, but power to live in the new nature or spirit. The old nature knows no law, the new nature needs no law! In other words: Freedom to do what we ought, not what we want! We've never had the right to do what is right in our own eyes or to do what is scripturally wrong. In sum, "So we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step [pace] with the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25). Soli Deo Gloria!

He That Is Spiritual

 It has been said that a Christian has a mind through which Christ thinks, a heart through which He loves, a voice through which He speaks, and hands through which He helps--this is the epitome of spirituality--to know Christ and make Him known.

"O that they were wise, that they would understand this, that they would consider their latter end!" (Deut. 32:29, KJV).


That was the title of the 1918 book by Lewis Sperry Chafer, the founder of Dallas Theological Seminary, that made him a renowned and celebrated theologian.  Who is?  This is a vital and bona fide question:  Like G. K. Chesterton has said, "We have found all the questions, now let's find the answers!"  When we are spiritual we are exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit in a manifold manner.  There is no certain manifestation, such as talking about Jesus or the Bible.  Sometimes just touching base with someone in love and charity and meeting their needs is genuine fellowship and expression of being spiritual. There are telltale signs of spirituality:  A famous saying goes thus:  Where there is love there is joy; where there is joy there is hope; where there is hope there is peace; where there is peace there is Jesus!  I have learned this and have observed it:  God meets us where we are and knows where we are!  We don't always need someone to preach at us, but sometimes we need a listening and sympathetic ear.


Just think of all the possibilities of expressing the nine winsome graces given by the filling of the Holy Spirit.  Wherever two or three are gathered together in Jesus' name, there He is.  The one who is spiritual simply walks in the Spirit and has continual fellowship with the Lord (keeping short accounts of his sins and confessing them per 1 John 1:9:  "If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  The spiritual one simply is in touch with God and meets people's needs and is not self-centered, but Christ-centered.  He lives for Christ and not for himself.  This does not necessarily refer to a level of maturity or of being mature per se, because sometimes a baby believer can be more spiritual than the seasoned.


No one can claim to be always spiritual or that they have "arrived" at such a point of perfection, of not being conscious of sin or shortcomings.  Sometimes the wisest remarks can proceed out of the mouths of infants (cf. Matt. 21:16), as Jesus noticed:  Psalm 8:2 says, "Through the praise of children and infants..."  I believe children can even be used by God: a child's voice convicted St. Augustine said:  "Take and read, take and read."  Proverbs 20:9, HCSB, says, "'Who can say ,"I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin?'"

He that is spiritual simply walks with the Lord as Enoch and Noah ("Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God," Gen. 6:9)--and we have this privilege too!  It is a "faith-walk" because "we walk by faith, and not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7).  There is no veneer to see through or guise of spirituality, such as hypocrisy (he has nothing to hide and is straightforward in speech), but a genuineness and authenticity in action. He is the real thing, an original!  He's not out to outshine someone or be a rival.  "The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments'  (1 Cor. 2:15).  There is a certain natural ability to discern the Spirit, in other words.  Whatever he does, he does to the glory of God (cf. 1 Cor. 10:31)!


There is no inherent dichotomy or division of believers into classes of spiritual and non-spiritual, first-class and second-class, or what Chafer mistakenly believed to be carnal and spiritual Christians. Just like it is wrong to have a "holier than thou" attitude (cf. Isa. 65:5), it is wrong to deceive yourself into thinking you are more spiritual than your brethren--you either are spiritual or you're not--there are no degrees to graduate to.   Any believer can be carnal or spiritual at any given period of time, it is not a given (each day one must start all over in their walk:  "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (Deut. 33:25).  "This is the day that the LORD has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it," says Psalm 118:24), and he must "abide in Christ" or stay in fellowship with God in order to walk in step with Him.  The most spiritually mature can indeed fall into sin like David did but he will ultimately recover and his carnality will not be a permanent or continuous state. The continuity of our status in Christ never changes; only our state of fellowship and relationship and/or sanctification.

This doctrine need not be problematic or an issue at all:  "So I say, walk by the Spirit and you shall not gratify the desires of the flesh"  (Gal. 5:16). We are indeed free in Christ:  not free to live according to the flesh and our old nature, but power to live in the new nature or spirit.  The old nature knows no law, the new nature needs no law!  In other words:  Freedom to do what we ought, not what we want! We've never had the right to do what is right in our own eyes or to do what is scripturally wrong.  In sum,  "So we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step [pace] with the Spirit" (Gal. 5:25).   Soli Deo Gloria!

Is God Scientific?

God invented science and all laws of the universe (cf. Job 38:33). Actually, a Christian, Sir Francis Bacon formulate the scientific method. God created the earth by the Word of His mouth by speaking it into existence (cf. Psalm 33:6,8). Science and nature have no power to create but that doesn’t mean God defies the rules of logic and laws of nature (this proves a divine Lawgiver). Nature didn’t create itself and has no power to do so. Nothing can logically create or cause itself according to the law of cause and effect, including God; however, self-existence is possible logically. We know that "out of nothing, nothing comes" (ex nihilo, nihil fit) and if there ever was nothing, there could be nothing now! Something is eternal.

God is the only Creator: “Every house is built by someone and God is the builder of all things,” (cf. Heb. 3:4). This is cosmology. Infinite regress is impossible! All laws of nature are from God (cf. Col. 1:16; Job 38:33). God has power over nature as exhibited when Jesus calmed the storm and showed that He rules.

God cannot be proven in the same way that science does by observation, measurement, and repetition. God is not audible, visible, or tangible to us and cannot be put into a laboratory test tube or under lab testing parameters. We cannot measure a pound of justice nor a foot of love and likewise cannot measure God.

The existence of God is a philosophical question and is up to metaphysics, not physics. You cannot normally prove the metaphysical by the physical. Thus the existence of God is not within the scope and parameters of science to prove or experiment on. God created the heavens and the earth to show His glory but we cannot prove God; there is evidence, not proof. But it goes for atheism: evidence, not proof. Both sides require faith: either in science or in God. It’s not a matter of faith versus reason, but faith versus faith: faith in science is still faith. There is no “smoking gun” evidence either way. You cannot prove either proposition or hypothesis beyond a shadow of a doubt. Soli Deo Gloria!

Can We Separate Faith And Repentance?

 Faith and repentance go together hand in hand, to be distinguished but not separated. They are both the gift of God (cf. Acts 5:31;11:18; 2 Tim. 2:24). They are stated in juxtaposition in Scripture and not to be divorced. They can be seen as the flip side of the other. In fact, theologians speak of penitent faith or believing repentance. To see them linked in the Bible, read Acts 20:21 and Heb. 6:1.

Also, the way to salvation is termed with one as well as the other (cf. Luke 24:47; Acts 26:20). Repentance must produce fruits worthy of it.  The first message of the kingdom of God for John and Jesus was to repent! “Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand!” (cf. Matt. 3:2; cf. 3:8). If you cannot believe, you need to repent and vice versa! This is the conclusion of the matter: There is no genuine repentance without saving faith!  Soli Deo Gloria!

How To Take God Out Of The Box...

 

1. By worship Him for who He is and not as one-dimensional, having a small God.
2. By knowing Him as Lord and Savior.
3. By experiencing or encountering Him in real-time and living it out. 
4. By submitting to His Lordship via obedience.
5. By learning the doctrines of the Bible that explain God’s divinity, nature, and deity.
6. By refusing to see Him solely as Father, Jesus, Great Spirit, or even the man upstairs, seeing God as too human.
7. By regular church attendance and the “hearing of the Word,” which gives faith.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Some Orthodox Proofs Of God...

 

1. Just like you understand the wind by seeing it in action—you see God in action; that is to say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating!
2. You can tell what God is up to after the fact that He knows best.
3. By being in awe of His creation and recognizing the need for a Creator.
4. We know the sun is up there because we see everything else; likewise, we see because God is light!
5. Why do you think we are God-conscious, unlike the animals who never build chapels or pray?
6. We have a built-in sense of right and wrong proving a God who must care about justice like we do.
7. There are countless ways we are different from animals that we must realize we are not one.
8. Who made us smarter than beasts?
9. Who can answer the ultimate questions of life’s purpose, meaning, fulfillment, dignity?’
10. Why do we need an Answerer? God seems to have them!
11. Wouldn’t a God be a higher being than us? The miracle of changed lives is irrefutable.
12. If God were a force or influence, not a Person, how could He love us? We love Him because He first loved us! God is love!

The old argument from design (teleological) argument is still valid and should be looked at from a logical and commonsensical view: where did the design come from (a Designer?); plans (a Planner?); order (an Orderer?); laws (a Lawgiver?); purpose (a Purposer?; or a beginning (implying a Beginner). Teleology is another word for purpose. In other words, the presence of God is in everything and to think without purpose is unscientific at that.  Soli Deo Gloria!

Can Christians Affirm The Big Bang?

 

1. The Bible doesn’t explain how God created the earth. The know-how is left to science, not religion.
2. The Bible doesn’t make it clear when creation happened, but only “in the beginning," it doesn't start, "Once upon a time," but commences somewhere in the time-space continuum. 
3. There is nothing contradictory in the Big Bang that would directly contradict Scripture,” it admits that the first thing formed was “light.”
4. Even scientists acknowledge that time and space began at the Big Bang or creation.
5. The Bible says God created time and that time “began,” (the energy clock began ticking).
6. Scientists have no answer as to the know-why of the Big Bang but can find out know-how. 
7. Science doesn’t know who fired the Big Bang into existence; who banged it!

Note that ID or intelligent design is necessary for the cosmos; without logos or logic there could be no cosmos for many universal constants were “programmed” into the Big Bang because pure energy has no form or intelligent purpose! The input must be design from a Designer!  Soli Deo Gloria!

How About Providence And Destiny?

 

1. “A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD determines his steps.” (cf. Prov. 16:9)
2. “I know, LORD, that a man’s way of life is not his own; no one who walks determines his own steps.” (cf. Jer. 10:23).
3. “A man’s steps are determined by the LORD, so how can anyone understand his own way?” (cf. Prov. 20:24).
4. “He will certainly accomplish what He has decreed for me, and He has many more things like this in mind.” (cf. Job 23:14).

HCSB version.

God cannot be frustrated in His plan; He has no Plan B. (cf. Job 42:2). Our free will doesn’t limit His sovereignty. He is in control and Lord of all. We do make choices but God determines the conditions, and what choices we must make—whether between A or B. There are no other opportunities but what He grants. We must choose to serve God because the default god is Satan—we will serve someone or something.  Soli Deo Gloria!