A Passion For The Truth

"The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness [trash]" (Prov. 15:14, KJV).  

"They hate the one who judges at the city gate, and they reject the one who speaks the truth," (cf. Amos 5:10). 

"Send Your light and Your truth, let them lead me," (cf. Psalm 43:3). 

"However, when he the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you in all truth," (cf. John 16:13). 
"Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 2:25, NIV).
"But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil" (Heb. 5:14, NIV).
"[And] all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.  They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved" (2 Thess. 2:10, NIV).  

It's obvious that the sign of a Christian is one who's found the truth and been set free by it (cf. John 8:32), but one who also has a passion for truth and THE TRUTH and discerns it; the unbeliever hasn't received a love of the truth, but is deceived by lies, and has not learned to discern good and evil as Heb. 5:14 states.  NB:  Evil is not an entity in itself, but the distortion and perversion of good and truth, or error mixed with the truth; just enough error to deceive and inoculate from the truth).  Paul says that hopefully the unbeliever will come to a knowledge of the truth and repent by the grace of God in 2 Tim. 2:25.

Unbelievers "reject the truth" (Rom. 2:8) and "suppress the truth" (cf. Romans 1:18) and love the lie, which they will believe because God sends "powerful delusion" that they cannot discern truth from lies, and in this way will fall for the Antichrist (cf. 2 Thess. 2:11).  Even believers are susceptible to believing liars and being deceived and are enticed or led astray, as Paul said that a great apostasy shall precede the coming of Christ, and many shall fall away giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons (cf. 1 Tim. 4:1).

It is so important that we guard our souls with truth and be on guard against falsehood whatever the source.  Sound doctrine in the soul is such a defense mechanism known as the "belt of truth."    Spiritually we can be exposed to pseudo-spiritual writings that are extra-biblical and noncanonical, being rejected by the church fathers as passing the tests of orthodoxy.  They had very good reasons to pass over writings that the early church never accepted:  were they written by an apostle?  did they contradict other books in Scripture?  did they speak with God's authority or claim to be the Word of God? did they impact with the inspiration of God?  

Therefore: These criteria are known as apostolicity, orthodoxy, and pedigree of the canon. What's noteworthy is that none of the apocryphal writings were ever quoted by Jesus, any of His apostles, or the Church Fathers (the Apostolic Fathers)!  The Gnostic writings were known to be forgeries or false because they were written much later--as late as the second century and claimed apostolic authorship but were not.

Christians read these writings thinking they will find out something new but don't realize that they are not worthy of our attention.  Paul said that the things we should meditate and think about are those which are true, noble, worthy of honor, etc., in Phil. 4:9.  The point is that the Bible is sufficient to guide the believer and he needs no other spiritual ancient source to fill him in. If the writings don't claim sola Scriptura (the Scripture alone--as authority) or appeal to the Word they are bogus.  It's an insult to Scripture to give heed to these writings because God's Word is what is revealed.  

Remember when The Da Vinci Code was all the rage?  Curiosity seekers were drawn to this oddity of writing, thinking it was something new under the sun.  When they brought attention to the Gnostic gospels it was thought that this was something newly discovered, but the Church Fathers had rejected them as genuine, authentic, bona fide, authorized works of the Holy Spirit.

This is the ultimate question:  do you have a passion for the truth, or a curiosity for the lies of Satan and his deceivers, whether they be false teachers or demons?   One road leads to eternal life, another to apostasy and heresy.  It all goes back to the old expression GIGO or garbage in, garbage out. Don't forget we believe in the God of truth and that Scripture is truth (cf. John 17:17).  

These pseudepigraphical writings  (ancient tabloids) like  Assumption of Moses, Psalms of Solomon, Testament of Job, Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Martyrdom of Isaiah, the Life of Adam and Eve, and other counterfeit writings are meant to deceive and lead to an error with strange teachings.  We are not to tempt God nor the Holy Spirit with our curiosity into Satan's domain!  We dare cannot ask God to "lead us not into temptation" and then expose ourselves to tabloid writings, and this gives the devil an opportunity to deceive.   It's interesting that Hebrews 13:9 warns against "strange teachings." 

In sum, "man shall not live on bread alone" (cf. Deut. 8:3).    Soli Deo Gloria!

The Upside And Downside Of Tradition

"A person may think their own ways are right, but the LORD weighs the heart" (Prov. 21:2, NIV).
"All a person's ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the LORD" (Prov. 16:2, NIV).

"[F]or the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts..." (cf. 1 Chron. 18:9). 

There are many theologians who attack tradition as being unnecessary and unbinding to the believer, especially those believers of the Romanist persuasion with their numerous ones. Tradition can become a teaching aid and learning experience.  John demurred to baptize Jesus but laid aside his understanding of things and trusted the Lord in obedience.  Only sinners needed to repent! Sometimes it's just a simple matter of obedience to authority to our spiritual leaders. The only danger occurs when tradition is contrary to Scripture, directly contravening a doctrine.  Often we defer to tradition for the sake of unity and coherence in the body.

Old traditions die hard!  Even Protestants, especially Lutherans, have traditions reminiscent of Catholicism.  The vestments of pastors go way back, and who would want to be the first to break that tradition?  Because traditions have their pitfalls too! We all observe holy days such as Christmas and Easter, birthdays, anniversaries, even Thanksgiving Day is traditional.

However, tradition must be concordant with the Word to be binding and otherwise, it is simply a matter of personal conscience--for we ought to have the freedom to have our own convictions before God.  By and large, tradition must bow to conviction!  Family Christmas celebrations come to mind as a common tradition, even routines that are observed. Christmas is not biblical per se nor mandated, but that doesn't make it unbiblical, because it conflicts with nothing in Scripture.  The problem comes when we put tradition on a par with the authority of the Word like they did at the Counter-Reformation (the Council of Trent, 1545-63).  We don't add tradition as a replacement of Scripture!

There are many gray areas that cannot be judged as ill-advised scripturally, but the believer is to make up his own mind and feel free from being judged.  The Jews at the time of Christ were burdened with the traditions of the elders and Pharisees, and the law had become a yoke they couldn't bear (cf. Acts 15:10) as a result. The point of Christianity is that it's not merely a religion of externals (do this or that), but of internals--the mental attitudes and thoughts are more important.  God looks at our motives and incentives.  We can become so bogged down in a tradition that we miss the boat with true spirituality. We are all creatures of habit seeking comfort zones!

Let's not get our eyes off Jesus as the true focus.  Even the devil can observe tradition and look somewhat Christian--as he can "appear as an angel of light" (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4).  Christianity is a matter of the heart and a spiritual matter at that. God sees the heart, while a man looks on the outward appearance.  We cannot judge what happens in the heart of a believer observing his tradition, and God only holds a man accountable for what he knows, has the opportunity to know, or should know, i.e., had the opportunity to know.  We ought to ask ourselves:  Do we know better or not?

Sometimes churches have traditions known as rituals or liturgies, that they religiously obey during the worship service, which shows little imagination or creativity from the powers that be, and little has changed from the founding of the church--is there no room for improvement or advancement?  Has the church freeze-dried the format down pat so that there's little room for the Spirit to move? The church is to be semper reformanda or "always reforming." Even though the Bible does say that all things should be done decently and in order, but that doesn't preclude freedom of the Spirit and opening the door to allow Him access.

Jesus accused the Pharisees of being hypocrites, for they "[nullified] the word of God for the sake of [their] tradition" (cf. Matt. 15:6, NIV).  Jesus didn't follow the traditions of the elders to prove they weren't binding.  We need to keep the main thing the main thing!  We don't want to confine or bind the activity of God by our preconceived notions of what He can or cannot do.  Man is by nature a religious being (known as Homo Religiosus) and will revert to his default position of security in tradition when push comes to shove or when the chips are down his real faith shines through to shed light on his inner convictions.

When Protestants stipulate that tradition has no spiritual merit or value per se, this is vis-a-vis salvation. Tradition has no part and no authority in salvation or over Scripture, of which authority is sola Scriptura or Scripture alone. Tradition doesn't trump the Bible in authority, nor is it on par with it.  All in all, the heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart, which only God can judge and see through its veneer.

We all observe tradition unbeknownst to us, often masked as routine, habit, or custom.  Jesus said a blessing and thanksgiving before meals and the tradition of saying grace was realized--note that this was not a command!  We say "Please!" and "Thank you!" out of courtesy, but this is just tradition too!   In sum, don't pooh-pooh tradition by virtue of it being merely tradition; i.e., don't knock it unless you don't observe any yourself!    Soli Deo Gloria!

In Defense Of Truth

"Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne." --James Russell Lowell
By definition, truth corresponds with reality (Correspondence theory of truth), or more directly that which God decrees or is concordant with Him.

"I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth" (1 John 2:21, NIV).

There comes a time in our testimony that we must stand up for the truth and be counted as a test of our faithfulness. Jesus is the epitome of truth and all truth is God's truth, Jesus revealed Himself as its ultimate source. The trouble with truth is that no one person has a monopoly on it and we all need each other to arrive at truth per se (not abstract, but personified in Christ)--no one's cornered the market. What's wrong with cults is that they have just enough truth to be dangerous; they have an element of truth and inoculate people from the real thing, because of having error mixed with the truth to deceive. There's no such thing as pure evil--it's just a perversion or distortion of truth and good.

People go by what rings true for them personally for basically four reasons: it's true because it's believable or they believe it; it's true because their fellowship or group believes it; it's true because they want to believe it, and it's true because they have a vested interest in it. This is due to our bias and everyone has a bias; there's no such thing as perfect objectivity outside God. We all need to examine our motives and check facts because our faith is fact-based and our God is fact-based.

We must not dodge the "no-truth-premise" by insisting that truth is relative. This is a "self-refuting statement" and cannot possibly be true or it contradicts itself--is that statement relative too? To the Postmodern, truth is but a "short-term contract." But Christians are hungry for the truth and love the truth; it's the rejection and hatred of truth that marks the unbeliever (cf. Rom. 2:8; 2 Thess. 2:10). One sure sign of a believer is his devotion to truth. Remember, Jesus promised the truth will set us free from this confusion (cf. John 8:32). There is Truth with a capital T! Truth, according to the Bible, is absolute, universal, and objective, meaning it applies to all, all the time, everywhere, and is true regardless of whether believed or not!

It is said that we cannot know the truth, and this would be true had not Jesus revealed it, the trouble is not in knowing the truth, but that we have rebelled from it and are seeking rationalization to justify ourselves. Differing worldviews all posit certain "truths" and make truth claims that only their truths are true--they are all unified that Christianity is a lie. "No lie is of the truth," according to 1 John 2:21. However, there is a reliable truth that we all can put faith in.

The catchphrase that something "may be true for you but not me" is also fallacious. Some people refuse to accept truth in essence because they think it gives others power over them, and they claim no one's in a position to know what's true for them. People claim that our Christian claims are irrelevant, but God's truth marches on and is vindicated. Why do they all despise our truth? We all act like there's truth because there is truth! All Christians ought to devote themselves to the pursuit of truth with a passion. We all ought to be known as lie detectors and purveyors of truth!

As Christians, we are ambassadors for truth because we belong to the truth" (cf. 1 John 3:19) for Christ came to bear witness of the truth, and grace and truth came through Him, being full of grace and truth (cf. John 1:7), and all who hear Him are of the truth. And the church is known as the "pillar and ground of truth (cf. 1 Tim. 3:15). When they insist that it's merely our interpretation, we insist that truth is absolute and universal and can be communicated. Zechariah 8:19 exhorts us: "... Therefore love truth and peace.'" Soli Deo Gloria!

Love Not The World

"He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin [for a season]" (Heb. 11:25, NIV). 
"We have met the enemy, and he is us!" (Pogo, Walt Kelly's cartoon character)
"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor. 10:4, NIV).
"These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings" (Col. 2:22, NIV).    

The title above is from a book by Watchman Nee, Love Not the World, who was a missionary in China during vehement Christian persecution which happened when the Mao regime was in power.  Loving the world is a trap and sideline from Satan that lures the unsuspecting believer away from God's way and his walk with Him, to get him off track. We can let the world squeeze us into its mold or worldview unawares.  John says not to love the world, nor the things of the world (cf. 1 John 2:15). Jesus said similarly, that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also!  Satan controls the world system--the entertainment industry, religion, the government, academia, the media, and he will give it over to whomever he desires--Christ refused it at His temptation in the wilderness.

When kids (and I'll focus on them) go off to college they are immersed in the devil's worldview, usually unprepared and unbeknownst to them, and many change their way of thinking pretty quick and become conformed to the image of the world, even losing their faith.  Satan is very subtle and uses mind games, engages in power trips and controls, psychological warfare, and authority figures to mold young impressionable minds in their formative years.  They become too busy for God in college and their priorities are turned topsy-turvy.  They eventually may become uninformed as to world affairs and tune it out in apathy and become ignorant--what's worse, they are unconcerned, disinterested, and nonchalant. They don't know and they don't care, nor care that they don't know!

With so many competing interests, God may seem boring in comparison--but this only happens to the immature, unseasoned, and uncommitted believers.  Much more, hormones are all the more active and they are growing up and discovering sex and show all the more interest in the opposite sexual persuasion.  Any unnatural desire though is lust and sinful--there is natural attractiveness.  Parties become frequent and easily accessed, challenging their morals and scruples. 

The odd thing is that they may still engage in refraining from certain taboos like not playing cards, dancing, going to movies, having long hair, drinking, doing drugs, gambling, smoking, listening to Rock music--an especially big no-no! (When I was young you had to watch the hemlines, the hairlines, and the movie lines) etc., but they must find out that refraining from activities is no guarantee or measure of spirituality.

The issue is that they lack a consistent walk with the Lord and don't even seek spiritual guidance, instead they fall through the cracks and get lost in the shuffle of growing up. They drift away, not so much as to rebel or fall away.  Kids don't learn the true value of success and what is really important to God.  God does promise to prosper us in what we do and kids have a worldly concept of success, thinking bigger is better and more is better, and forget that God is looking for our obedience and faithfulness, not our achievements or our success, which is His business. The Christian life isn't a performance, but the fruit of the Spirit and resultant faithfulness in one's gifting; NB: fruits are grown, but gifts are given.

When the kids get too entangled in the ways of the world, it chokes out the Word, and they become carnal and must be treated as infants in Christ, not knowing good and evil.  Christianity is about being free in Christ in order to bring Him glory.  "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36, NIV).  ("Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin,..." Acts 13:39, NIV).  If these kids knew the Christian worldview they wouldn't be sitting ducks and succumb to Satan's Anfectung or assault of evil in academia.

In conclusion, worldliness is not refraining from some religious taboo but whether we let it influence our outlook on life, or way of thinking, or even a belief system.  Remember: There's no compromising with the devil--show discernment!  "Don't provide an opportunity for the devil" (Eph. 4:27, CEB).  "Have nothing to do with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them" (Eph. 5:11, NIV).  You can watch TV, but don't be overly influenced by their take on world events or the world-system, if opposed to Christ, i.e., have a Christian worldview. 

Let God open your eyes to see good and evil (cf. Heb. 5:15) everywhere because the "devil seeks whom he may devour"(cf. 1 Pet. 5:8) because we are in an enemy-occupied territory and must remember that "the battle is the Lord's" (cf. 2 Chron. 20:15).    James 1:27 describes the believer with "pure religion" or devotion as one who is "unspotted" or uncontaminated from the world (system).    Soli Deo Gloria!

The Problem Of Legalism

"These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings" (Col. 2:22, NIV).
"They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules" (Matt. 15:9, NIV). 

Martin Luther realized the threat of Antinomianism and debunked it in his book, Against the Antinomians.  On the one extreme, there's the question of the Antinomian (anti-lawism or showing a distaste for the law) or libertine, on the other hand, we have the legalists.  They both are too obsessed with what right and wrong behavior is, not heeding the warning to watch our thinking and to be mature in our thinking and not infants (cf. 1 Cor. 14:20).  We are to be "renewed in the spirit of [our] minds."

Antinomianism suggests that since we are forgiven, we can live as we please, not as we ought.  Their slogan is: "Freed from the law, Oh blessed condition; now I can sin all I want and still have remission."  We are never granted carte blanche to live as we please or to do what is wrong.  We must not be like Israel that did that which was right in their own eyes (cf. Judges 21:25).  Antinomianism is nothing but moral liberty in Christ gone amok or plain moral laxity.

It is true that our faith is more than a list of dos and don'ts, and we are not under the law, but we are not lawless!  What did Paul say in Romans 6, but that we should not go on sinning, now that we are forgiven?  "Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more" (cf. Rom. 5:20); God will save the chief of sinners like Paul and that no one is too bad to be saved.  Christians do sin once saved (cf. Gal. 2:17) and perfectionism (entire sanctification) is unattainable this side of glory (cf. Prov. 20:9; Psalm 119:96), but we are not servants to sin as our master, but to righteousness, and are set free from its dominion.

We are all slaves to the power we choose to obey (cf. Rom. 6:16; 2 Pet. 2:19).  The point of being a Christian is being set free from our bondage.  We don't have the right to live in the flesh, but the power to live in the Spirit.  That's why "the letter kills and the Spirit gives life"--we must learn to walk in the Spirit in fellowship with our God.  We don't want to mimic the Pharisees who practiced the letter of the Law, without observing the Spirit.  What they were especially guilty of, is going beyond that which is written, as Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 4:4. Legalism is sheer spiritual tyranny and those who impose it are on a power trip and are control freaks.

Spiritual believers need no law, for they observe the law of the Spirit of life in Christ, but unbelievers know no law!  We must never major on the minors and become obsessed with a minor point or sin while avoiding major ones (cf. Matt. 23:23 where Jesus pointed out the Pharisees had neglected the heavier matters of the Law like justice, mercy, and faithfulness, cf. Matt. 23:23).   We ought to always respect the weaker brother's conscience and not be offensive, flaunting our liberty--we all should keep our convictions on disputable or questionable matters to ourselves and not publicize them.  We all have a right to an opinion on gray areas!

Grace, however, is not a license to sin and the Law still holds a place in our lives to be a mirror of ourselves, driving us to the cross, showing us we can't keep it and become convicted. But "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (cf. 2 Cor. 3:17).  We ought not to misuse liberty and take advantage of it, which would be a presumptuous sin!  By sinning we demonstrate our slavery, we don't prove our freedom.  We are free from sin, not to sin!  We are not under the Law but not lawless.

In sum, it's no use giving us a rule book, we cannot follow it!  The problem with legalism is that no perfect set of rules can be made and even if they could, man could not abide by it, for even the yoke of the Law was too heavy a burden for Israel--no list could be comprehensive enough and cover all the bases--we live under the easy yoke of God's will and abiding in Christ as we walk in the Spirit and fellowship.  The highest law is of love, and this can only be fulfilled in Christ! But God's Law is perfect and able to convert the sinner (cf. Psalm 19:7).

It's no use making up rules; we cannot keep them!   In the final analysis, the only way to avoid both extremes is the antidote of the Truth in the serious study of the Word of God.       Soli Deo Gloria!

Where Did God Come From?

"Can you fathom the mysteries of God?  Can you probe the limits of the Almighty?" (Job 11:7, NIV).
God is the "uncaused caused" or "unmoved mover" (causa prima or first cause in Latin), according to the Greeks of antiquity, viz., Aristotle.   
"The finite cannot contain (grasp) the infinite." classic axiom
"Tell me your certainties, I have enough doubts of my own." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
According to the "Kalam cosmological proof" of God, everything that begins to exist has a cause, the cosmos began to exist, ergo it had a cause or Beginner.  

NOTE THE ILLOGICAL ASSUMPTION THAT EVERYTHING CAME FROM SOMETHING, WHICH WOULD BE THAT INFINITE REGRESS WAS POSSIBLE OR YOU COULD CROSS INFINITY!   WE MUST NOT ASSUME EVERYTHING WAS CREATED! 

Or, who made God?  Paul Little cites when Bertrand Russell asked, "Well, who created God?" and when no answer was forthcoming, he said, "My entire faith collapsed," according to his book, Why I Am Not a Christian.  The premise of the question is that everything came from something!  Everything that exists in time and space had a beginning because of the space-time continuum.  If we say that everything had a beginning, then there would be a time when nothing existed!  Then nothing would exist now!  By logic, something must have had no beginning and always was!  If that were not so, then nothing could ever exist, for out of nothing, nothing comes (ex nihilo, nihil fit in Latin).  Russell should have asked where he came from!

There is a problem of eternal regression or, in mathematics, the impossibility of crossing infinity--every chain of events must have a starting point (e.g., if I say God came from X, you would only ask, "Where did X come from?" and then, "Where did Y come from?" and so forth ad infinitum; soon we're at the end of the alphabet by analogy).  Nothing can be explained by an eternal link of cause and effect (passing the buck) by an infinite series of efficient cause.  At some point, the chain breaks down with a starting point, or it wouldn't exist.

Russell might well have asked, where did love come from?  Or, "Where did I come from?"  We discovered them, they were always there in God's mind and He revealed them to us.  God is love and love came from God, existing even before God expressed it in His creation. and salvation plan.  We are the expression of God, as being His icons, or created in the image and likeness of God. You may well ask, "Where did love come from, or where did justice come from?"  They certainly existed before being expressed.  Fair play existed before we have learned to express it in sports!  We don't create anything, but only discover what's already there!  A child may not understand this, but neither will an adult, for God's profundity is beyond our comprehension and we will never quite figure God out or put Him into a box.

If God came into being or began to exist, He would be captive to time and not eternal--God exists outside the time/space continuum.  Only that which is caused has a beginning.  Since God is eternal, He can have no cause and that's why He is the First Cause or as His name may be called "I CAUSE TO BE."  This is because God created the time-space continuum and is no slave to itit.  He exists independent of them.  Eternal, by definition, means no beginning and no cause.  The law of cause and effect says every effect must have a cause; God is not an effect and has no cause.  By the laws of non-contradiction and of causality, nothing can be its own cause or create itself!  But there can be an uncaused cause.  In other words, according to the law of causality, nothing just happens by itself! 

This is like saying that every event has a cause and everything that begins to exist has a cause.  God is not an event nor an effect and has no beginning, therefore no cause and cannot have come from anything.  God is the Beginner, and has no beginning, and couldn't have arisen from any cause or from anywhere.  R. C. Sproul says, "Being eternal, God is not an effect.  Since he is not an effect, he does not require a cause.  He is uncaused.  It is important to note the difference between uncaused, self-existent eternal being and an effect that causes itself through self-creation."

God is self-existent, needing no one, and nothing to exist--depending on only Himself.  God came from God--He is totally existent within Himself and fully satisfies all His needs by His very being.  We are all contingent creatures needing others, but God needs only Himself. If everything were contingent, dependent on outside forces, then nothing would be possible; ontologically speaking, something must be a necessary being for anything to exist in reality.  If God did need someone or something, that person or thing would be God!

All in all, there is can be no explanation for God's eternity and we cannot answer all questions--His thoughts are higher than ours, like the heavens from the earth (cf. Isa. 55:8-9).  We don't need all the answers to believe in Him though, and believing in God doesn't mean we have all the answers; however, we do have sound reasons for our faith. 

But no one has all the answers!  And we believe despite our doubts, but we can know the Answerer to our queries and doubts.  We will never understand many truths about God because we are finite and He is infinite and He has certain truths we are not capable of knowing--the secret things belong to the Lord and only that which is revealed belongs to us (cf. Deut. 29:29).   Our God, then, is transcendent or separate from creation as its Creator, and not subject to being created, formed, or emanated from anything or anyone.    Soli Deo Gloria!

It's Not About You!

To self-centered, selfish people it hasn't dawned on them that the world doesn't revolve around them.  This is part of growing up--Reality 101.  People don't exist to meet our needs!  You cannot love others when you're wrapped up in yourself.  We feel a disconnect and are not communicating when we focus on self.  Let's empty ourselves like Christ!  All of our thinking is distorted when self-centered, and we tend to think of "my way or the highway."  In other words, we become less tolerant. Sometime we must learn to stop running from our problems and difficult relationships, and reconcile---work things out!  God doesn't call us to be peace-keepers, but peacemakers; seeking to build bridges, not walls.

There are several ways we can discriminate or alienate, if we're looking, and the solution is to get our priorities right:  We are Christians first; human beings second; members of a family third; Americans fourth; citizens of a state fifth (as opposed to those who would say: "American by birth, Texan by the grace of God," or "Texan first, American second, and so forth), and finally members of a party, if any. Tribalism is the gut feeling that we have when we belong to a group, faction, or party that gives us pride and is wrong, as is party spirit.  This rating is not a cut-and-dried formula but a rough outline.

  When we meet people we disagree with, we are to treat them as fellow human beings, sometimes even as brothers in Christ, and learn that God puts them in our orbit to practice the first of the fruits of the Spirit, which is love. This priority is contrary to the America First doctrine or that we put America first in everything; this is much like the Deutschland uber Alles (Germany above all) campaign of Germany during two world wars. This leads to jingoism and chauvinism, or extreme patriotism at the expense of our values.  We must ask ourselves:  Where is our ultimate loyalty?

God has a plan for us if we submit and abide, but we must deny ourselves, put Him first and die to self, as "living sacrifices"--living for Him. The essence of humility is not thinking less of yourself, but of yourself less!  In order to say "Yes!" to Jesus, we must first say "No!" to self! We want God-confidence, not self-confidence!   Even our goals, ambitions, and priorities must be aligned with His.  Do you have great ambitions for yourself?  "Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them..." (Jer. 45:5, NIV). 

Selfish ambition is a fruit of the flesh, even though it's what makes the world go round, known as greed and envy.  Greed is not good, despite the movie Wall Street, and is a sin to be avoided--only godly ambition is acceptable to God--the desire to bring Him glory in all we do as Job One. Only in finding our true identity in Christ, setting our agenda in accordance with His will, and making an impact for Christ, will we see our true, rewarding importance in the mission He has given us--as we complete our marching orders--to make a difference for Christ in the world.

Nothing destroys churches like church politics or even party spirit--dividing into disputes about leadership or nonessential doctrine. We have more in common than divides us!  Identity politics, so prevalent today, is evil!  However, remember: The devil's strategy is to divide and conquer!   Even Christians tend to take their politics more seriously than their faith and will cut off fellowship on this basis.  Unfortunately, many believers focus on tribalism or identity with a party and owe their ultimate allegiance to it, like swearing an oath to a fraternity or club, and they will die for their political opinions, repeating the mantra:  "My party, right or wrong!"  "If you disagree with me, you're my enemy!   Don't they realize that God works through the body in toto and we need every part?  In the end, it's all about Jesus and how much glory we can bring to Him.

To ever find the truth we must admit we could be wrong, and that includes our politics. Everyone should ask themselves:  What if I am wrong?  We all accept something we cannot prove--a presupposition.  You cannot get to first base with some believers politically because their news sources are different and they have bought into a foreign or alien worldview, buying it hook, line, and sinker, and have sold out lock, stock, and barrel to some ideology, to the point of being fanatics about a party or politician; this is nothing but deifying a party or person and worshiping at the idol of politics--get over it, God is not a member of your or my party and He isn't even American!  The truth is in Jesus and when we get our eyes off Him we lose focus and go astray.

We must realize it's not about us and our happiness and fulfillment, but about God and our serving Him to His glory.  Some believers think life is about what God can do for them and it's about turning in their spiritual lottery ticket and having their best life now; au contraire, it's all about being vessels of honor, being used by God.  We were made to bring honor to Him, and any other goal is shortsighted and selfish--even selfish ambition--for the "chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" (The Westminster Shorter Catechism).

We must yield control of our lives to His sovereignty and walk with Christ in His will, just as Christ's motto of life was:  "Thy will be done!" The ultimate prayer of relinquishment.   According to Nobel Prize winner Albert Schweitzer, "The only truly happy people are those who have learned how to serve."  Christ is so wonderful to behold that we are lifted in spirit as we get our eyes off ourselves. In sum, we find our purpose and fulfillment in Christ alone!   Soli Deo Gloria!

Seeing Our Own Sinfulness

"The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so.  Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God"  (Rom. 8:7-8, NIV).
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9, NIV). 
"... But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at the door.  Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it" (Gen. 4:7, HCSB)
"It is no use giving us rules of conduct; we cannot keep them." --John Stott
"In Adam's fall/ We sinned all" (The New England Primer, 1727). 

We all are born "in Adam" (as opposed to becoming "in Christ" upon salvation) or with "original sin" (the result of the first sin) inherited from Adam, by virtue of his being the representative head of our race and acting on our behalf when he disobeyed God. When Adam ate of the so-called "proverbial apple" it was the prototype or model sin:  "He spurned God's grace; contradicted His truth; rejected His authority; disputed His wisdom; repudiated His justice, and resisted His grace" (Author unknown). 

Sin is our birthright and a virus we all have inherited.   It has been defined by the Westminster divines as "any want of conformity to or transgression of the law of God."  By the way, it's "any thought, word, action, omission, or desire contrary to the Law of God" (Charlie Riggs of the BGEA) i.e., anything contrary to the nature of God--our Declaration of Independence from God--it's such a killjoy word for preachers but cannot be ignored without peril. It's our birthright and a virus we inherit.  We must be against it!

We must see our sinfulness to be saved and come to repentance.  The law was given to make us see our sin ("for by the law is the knowledge of sin," cf. Rom. 3:20).   It was never given to save us but to show us we need salvation. We don't know how bad we are, till we attempt to become good, and we cannot become good without knowing how bad we are--the solution to this catch-22 is knowing Jesus as our Savior.  This so-called doctrine of total depravity or more realistically, radical corruption. means our whole being--heart or emotions, mind or intellect, and will or volition--are corrupt and unable to please God--we're not utterly depraved or as bad as we can be. 

Even our reasoning powers and conscience are corrupt--spoiled by sin (cf. Titus 1:15).  We are stubborn, rebellious people whom God has to conform to do His will like a Potter working on clay.  G. K. Chesterton said tongue-in-cheek that this is the only doctrine "that can be proved."  "... [B]ut men loved darkness rather than light" (cf. John 3:19).

Our sinfulness becomes even more apparent to us as we get closer to God--the closer our walk, the more consciousness of sin. Peter exclaimed, "Depart from me O Lord, for I am a sinful man" (cf. Luke 5:8).  Samuel Rutherford said to pray for a hearty sense of sin, because "the greater sense of sin, the less sin."  The point of being bad is not that we are too bad to be saved, but never good enough to be saved--Isaiah 64:6 says "our righteousness is as filthy rags."  

In fact, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (cf. Rom. 5:20).  Let's not play the "let's compare game!"   It doesn't matter that we may be better than our neighbor--we all look like saints compared to Saddam Hussein, because God doesn't grade on a curve--we're all in the same boat of falling short of God's glorious ideal per Rom. 3:23.

This solidarity in Adam means we have a legacy of sin as our inheritance and we cannot escape our birthright.  We were born in sin, not born free!   Our wills were in bondage too, not free till we were freed in Christ upon salvation (cf. John 8:36)!  We cannot even save ourselves and don't even meet our own standards of good, as Ovid said, "I see better things and I approve them, but I follow the worst." But the whole point is that the greater we are forgiven, the greater our love, as William Jay of Bath said, "I am a great sinner, but I have a great Savior."

In Adam's fall, we all ceased to be good, though not ceasing to be human.  We all have a dark side or are like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--we all have feet of clay or a vulnerable side no one sees.  The world thinks a man is basically good, but he is inherently evil and cannot please God--all he can do is sin.  People think this means we are as bad as we can be, but we are as bad off as we can be.  We are not as corrupt as possible, for God restrains sin, but our whole nature is corrupt.--total depravity, not utter depravity.  Why?  God can turn the wrath of man to praise Him (cf. Psalm 76:10).  We see goodness in light of evil and evil brings opportunity for good.  The good news is that no one is too bad to be saved, but grace abounds to the chief of sinners, as John Bunyan wrote (cf. Rom. 5:20).

Sin has been our downfall and we must be reminded of our old sin nature or it will dominate.  "Sin wants to destroy you, but we must not let it" (cf. Gen. 4:7, CEV).  We need to renounce sin in ourselves and turn from it first to have discernment. "The absurd," according to Albert Camus, "is sin without God"--we must become aware of sin to repent of it; that's why knowledge and admission of sin is the missing ingredient (Whatever Became of Sin? by Karl Menninger, MD).

We are all guilty of rebellion, independent attitudes, lawlessness, godlessness, injustice, unbelief, iniquity, and all manner of transgression and unrighteousness--these are all evil violations of God's person and nature.  D. James Kennedy says the law was given to show us we don't keep it, the "law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul" (cf. Psalm 19:7). The Law doesn't convert us or save us, it measures and convicts us! 

In the final analysis, we all must exclaim to God as Paul did, "What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (Cf. Rom. 7:24).  He answers his own question:  "Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Cf. Rom. 7:25).   The higher law Christians adhere to is the law of love, which is done willingly and gratefully.   Soli Deo Gloria!   

Love Is Our Biggest Asset To Share...

"What the world needs now, is love, sweet love; it's the only thing that there's just too little of..." -- a folk song of the 60s
"All you need is love .. Spread the word, the word is love!" --song lyric from The Beatles
"How these Christians love one another." --Celsus, second-century Greek philosopher
"Love makes the world go round." --song lyric from 1961 Broadway play Carnival!
"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35, NIV).
"We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19, NIV).
"But children, let us not love with words or speech but with action and truth" (1 John 3:18, NIV).
"Once you've experienced it [the love of God], you want to pass it on!" --famous gospel song

Atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell said that "... what the world needs is more Christian love."  He was right that only Christianity is the faith with compassion.  How many hospitals and relief organizations have been founded by infidels?  It was the Christians who came to the rescue at the "killing fields" of Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge persecutions and atrocities post-Viet Nam.  The Eastern faiths recognize only karma as justice and believe people are to work out their own problems and suffer the results of their own evil and sin, which is some iron-clad law known as karma, working like cause and effect.  Mother Teresa Calcutta, now canonized by Rome and who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, was only allowed to work with the "untouchables" of India because the elite or upper castes didn't care about them and had written them off.

There are basically three religions thriving in India (Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism), with only a minority of Christians, who face persecution most everywhere, though the apostle Thomas founded a church there that still exists.  The best way to reach out to these pagans is to show them what they lack and what Christ has to offer: love.  Only Christianity is a faith of love and believes God is love; Muslims reject this kind of deity and the consequence is that the Golden Rule is also rejected because there is no reason to love the "infidel" or non-Muslim. 

The church needs believers filled with the Spirit and with the love of Christ to show what Christ can do in transforming souls.  Love is the first of the fruits of the Spirit and this means all Christians know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge through the Spirit. " It costs so little to teach one to love, and so much to teach them to hate," according to Father Flanagan, founder of Boys Town in Omaha, NE.

The point is that missionaries must start young, reaching out to the youth, who represent the future, and are not so committed to the traditions of the ancestors, but are impressionable and teachable.  If you want to change a nation for Christ, the younger generation must be reached and seeds planted. God's Word will not come back void (cf. Isa. 55:11).  Mother Teresa was right in her devotion:  Christ has no hands but ours to do His work, no voice but ours to speak up for Him, no ears but ours to listen for Him, and no feet but ours to go for Him.  We also have the mind of Christ to implement His will and to out-think the enemy. 

God wants to do a mighty work but He has chosen to use the church, not angels.  If we cannot go, we must be committed to sending and preparing, and even supporting those who will go.  Truly "God's love has been poured out into our hearts" and we are Christ's "ambassadors" and representatives of it on earth in real time 24/7.  (Cf. Rom. 5:5).

When we realize that the harvest is ready (cf. Matt. 9:37-38) and abundant like Jesus promised and predicted, we are all the more committed to the cause of the Great Commission.  The Lord of the Harvest is reaping and sending and calling missionaries to the mission field.  All Christians are given a part in this commission and must spread the Word to the best of their abilities, with their spiritual gift--we are all men and women on a mission!   The point is to start where we are--bloom where we are planted and let God promote us--and He will if we are willing.  I've heard it said that we should be willing to go anywhere, as long as it's forward to manifest this love--the greatest expression of love we can share is to preach the gospel in Jesus' name.  

Discipleship entails following Jesus wherever He leads us and no one knows the will of God for his entire life ahead of time, or where God may send him.  Look at Abraham, not knowing where he was going, but stepping out in faith.   The Christian life takes faith and walking in the Spirit on a daily basis through all life has to offer.  Christ's love has no ebb and flow like ours does, and we are given this agape or divine love in Christ in order to share with the world. The point is that no one knows where Christ will lead him if he's obedient to the heavenly calling.  One may join the military not knowing where he'll be deployed and God will use him, or his occupation may force moving to new locals to plant seeds.  All God asks is for us to be willing and obedient. As Mother Teresa said so eloquently: "It's not what you do, but how much love you put into it that matters."

But we must set our hearts upon finishing the mission given us ("my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace," (Acts 20:24, NIV).  We must not pawn the mission off on our brother, but seek the gift we have and be faithful to it, so the Lord will indeed say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."  We all have a part in this great work and no believer is diminished.   God doesn't want our achievements; He wants our obedience; to obey is better than sacrifice per 1 Sam. 15:22.  We must not disparage some one's gift or look down on him for we all must be faithful to what we are given.  We all share in the mission:  some go; some send; some prepare; some teach; some support;  some pray!   Soli Deo Gloria!

Christianity Is Good Psychology...

"There is something about the way God is that is like the way we are." --J. P. Moreland and Scott Rae  

"Psychologist, heal thyself." --Joyce Milton  

"If there is no God, all things are permissible." -- Dostoevsky 

"... [A]nd [God] breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul"  (Gen. 2:7, KJV).
Remember the Greek antiquarian axiom:  Know thyself!  

NB:   PSYCHOLOGY IS THE STUDY OF THE SOUL BY DEFINITION.  

The Christian faith is a school of psychology, in fact, a better one than pop or even traditional psychology, and it is a competing one for the hearts and minds of Christians, some of whom feel alienated from the church and don't find solutions in its traditions and teachings.  Too often Christians seeking psychological counseling just have unresolved personal problems and aren't obedient believers repenting of their sins and being accountable--the troubled souls need guidance and support for the social maladjustment.  But psychology is starting to realize the importance of accountability and of making choices again, which is a kind of recognition of sin, the ultimate irresponsibility. The point is that without God there is no sin and we are not accountable!

The fact is that only the church offers answers to all the ultimate questions and dilemmas of man, and psychology focuses on behavior, dodging the bullet.  Psychology is supposedly the study of the soul or psyche, but it has reverted to studying and modifying behavior.  They don't have the big answer to what's wrong with us but focus on diagnosis and so-called self-help therapies. We instinctively sense something is awry with our condition.  William Kirk Kilpatrick concludes, "The real test of a theory or way of life, however, is not whether it can relieve pain but what it says about the pain it cannot relieve."  Why is it that religious people are known to be less stressed than nonbelievers?

Christian psychology, which seems like an oxymoron, focuses on positive psychological hygiene, as well as avoiding bad, destructive behavior.  We are supposed to cease to do evil and learn to do good.  Don't just avoid sin, but do the right thing and live right.  According to Christian psychologists, most mental illnesses don't really exist, but they are over-diagnosed to people who have emotional problems with life adjustment and coping in the real world.  They have not learned to hack Reality 101.  (Modern psychology doesn't know any answers to life's problems and issues, such as the meaning and purpose of life, where we came from, where we're headed, and why we are here.)  They study behavior but cannot define human nature and don't know what makes us human--the image of God!

Every rational person knows about the existence of good and evil, and has eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Adam, but most people still think man is basically good, while Christianity is counter-cultural and says we are basically and intrinsically evil and corrupt through and through--no one escapes corruption and is pure in God's eyes.  This raises a red flag when they cannot account for the evil in the world and don't even have a definition for it.  But Paul said, "Wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:24).  We must know ourselves as the Greeks admonished, and the picture isn't pretty.  A famous Christian philosopher remarked:  "What is wrong with the world?  I am, sincerely yours, G. K. Chesterton."  Christianity gives us dignity and makes us accountable and oriented toward reality, and isn't a cop-out or escape.  Christianity is the only worldview that adequately answers all the ultimate questions plaguing mankind.

Christianity is unique too:  the problem is sin, Christ is the answer!  Man is plagued by real guilt (not a guilt-complex a la Freudian psychology) and needs forgiveness and freedom from guilt which can only be realized in spiritual renewal and salvation.  We are each individually responsible to God and accountable and will be judged as to what we did with our gifts from God.  Christianity doesn't give us the freedom to live as we want, but the power to live as we ought and sets us free from the bondage of sin's power over us. We were born in bondage not born free!  Only in Christianity is there meaning in suffering and the guilt problem is dealt a final blow and resolved for good so that it doesn't dog a person the rest of his life.

We are in the image of God, having intellect, will, emotion, intuition, conscience, etc., and must seek the good and moral choice, as well as avoid the evil one:  Doing the right thing while avoiding bad behavior as well.  We all have human traits of wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence to name a few of the known 52 virtues delineated in Scripture.  The goal is not to pinpoint blame or to point the finger, but to bring healing through reconciliation to God.  Only then will we realize what makes life worth living.      Soli Deo Gloria!