Fixing Our Eyes On Jesus

"I pray that the eyes of our heart may be enlightened..." (Eph. 1:18, NIV).
"Open my eyes that I may see..." (Psalm 119:18, NIV).

The Greeks came to the disciples inquiring:  But we would see Jesus!  It's not a matter of having some religious or spiritual encounter that lets you behold Christ clearly and meaningfully, but a life of obedience, not ecstasy, vision, or experience!  Remember what Jesus told Thomas:  Blessed are those who haven't seen!  The point is that Jesus opens the eyes of the blind.  But Christians all have the ability to see Christ at work in the world, the church, their brethren, and even themselves if they persist in growing in the faith. It is vital to know that Satan will trip us up with a temptation to test us at our weak points and vulnerabilities.  And we must realize that he is like a devouring lion, seeking whom he may devour (cf. 1 Pet. 5:8)!

As Christians with the Spirit within, we have an advantage over those who actually did see Jesus in the flesh and may have become biased, calloused, or blinded to the Spirit.  We don't have to go to and fro seeking Jesus' teaching and presence but have the power at work within--which is a much greater blessing and comfort.  We are exhorted to walk by faith and not by sight, and if we do we'll see Christ by faith!  To be a person who thinks clearly with our thinking straightened out, we must see (Christ) clearly (i.e., by faith).  As the Christian sees Jesus from page to page throughout the Bible like a scarlet thread of His theme in action, that the whole of Scripture is about Him.

Peter walked on water as long as he kept his focus on Jesus, but the second he was overcome with the situation at hand and got his eyes off Jesus he began to sink.  Suddenly he realized he needed the intervention of his Savior and uttered the simple words of salvation:  Lord, save me!  We all need to realize that we are in over our head in this life and need Jesus in order to cope with the mundane.  The distracted mind is no fertile territory for the seed of the Word of God to germinate.

It has been said that the faith the grain of a mustard seed can move mountains; likewise, we can have faith to move mountains in Christ, figuratively speaking.  William Carey said that we ought to "Expect Great Things from God; Attempt Great Things for God!'   It's not how big our faith, in other words, but the size of our God, who can work the impossible on our behalf.  The clearer our perception of Jesus, the closer we can walk with the Lord and be of benefit to the kingdom.  Too often the cares of this world smother our spiritual life and we lose focus from keeping the main thing the main thing.  We don't want to major on minors, or become legalists!  Each of us has a part to do in the Great Commission and can learn from each other doing their part.

The more we learn of Jesus and see Him spiritually at work, the more proficient we are at accomplishing His work.  The Great Commission will one day be the Great Completion (by the corporate body of Christ working in unity).  Yes, they say that we can walk on water if we have faith, or that someone has the faith to walk on water.  This applies to everyone and not just to a spiritual elite, for there is no room for a class system in Christ--we are all one in Christ.

I read a book once called The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey that was just a description of the Bible's doctrine of Christ.  The point:  one can never adequately describe Jesus, but you can know Him personally!  And we must learn to focus on Christ in the mundane and everyday and down to earth, not just in a book.  Each of us is a gospel in shoe leather and has a story to tell or a gift to give.  We don't want Jesus to be just in our head or what's called story faith or head knowledge but have first-hand experience one-on-one with our Lord that we have something to share and pass along to others of our encounter with the Lord. 

We are to walk hand in hand with our Lord through all the ups and downs, through thick and thin, to realize the presence of our Lord and being able to see Him more clearly, know Him more clearly, to follow Him more nearly, and to love Him more dearly  (cf. Richard of Chichester).  If a brother needs a book to know Jesus, he's missed the boat!  Jesus is as close as the mention of His name!  However, the temptation is to get enamored with the intellectual aspect of the faith and not to apply what we know.  And the Bible wasn't written to describe Jesus, but to make Him known.

Our faith is not a creed to believe or even song to sing, but a relationship and person to know in the here and now with vibrations throughout eternity.  We don't need to get informed, but transformed, and to know our Lord, if we are to walk with Him.  We get to know the Spirit at work in our hearts and grow in the faith as we increase in our experiential knowledge of Jesus as our Lord and Savior.  "But we do see Jesus..." (cf. Heb. 2:9). God is with us through the indwelling Spirit.  The disciples longed to see the Father, thinking it would suffice, but Jesus reassured them He is all they need.

We are not boasting of visions and dreams or visitations, but we see Christ at work in the world in the here and now through each other.  Do you see just evil in the world, or do you see the good overcoming evil?  Paul said that it was "Christ in you, the hope of glory..." (cf. Col. 1:27), meaning that we live an inhabited life, not just an imitating one.  Our walk is a substituted, transforming, relinquished, and surrendered one--"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me..." (cf. Gal. 2:20).

We ought to be so preoccupied with our Lord in all we do that he is the center of our life and our treasure is in Him that it shows to the point of being a testimony and a light in the dark if we are Jesus freaks or fanatics to some or even "out of our mind"  (cf. 2 Cor. 5:13) it's for Christ's sake, that would be a compliment, as long as we don't live in ignorance of sound doctrine, having a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge (cf. Rom. 10:2, Prov. 19:2)   Colossians 3:2, NIV, says: "For you died., and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."

We are the hands to do Christ's work, the heart to show Christ's love, and the voices through which Christ speaks to a lost world that doesn't realize He's for real and works in us. We shouldn't be saying that we see the devil at work in the world and ask "why?" but Jesus at work through the church and ask "why not?"   As the hymn by William Cowper goes:  "God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform."(Cf. Isa. 45:15, NLT).  

The faith we have is the faith we show--we must learn to become contagious Christians because of our fixation on the Lord, though we are not fanatics who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, because the clearer our vision of Christ, the more useful in the mission to the world and ministry in the church, as it becomes obvious that we have been in the presence of Jesus!

Bear in mind that to see Jesus with our physical eyes may not do any good spiritually, we must behold him with our spiritual eyes and not only with our intellect but with our whole heart.  We need a real-life personal encounter with God that will change us from the inside out so that we can walk with Christ through faith.  To see Jesus is to know Him and to know Him is to love Him.

In sum, let's follow on to know the Lord (cf. Hos. 6:3) as Richard of Chichester said, "To know Him more clearly, to follow Him more nearly, to love Him more dearly."

CAVEAT:  TO THE PERSON WHO DOES NOT SEE, HE SHOULD ASK HIMSELF: WHERE IS HIS HEART?    Jesus Himself said that the person who is really blind is the person who thinks he sees and doesn't.      Soli Deo Gloria!

A Reason For Suffering...

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." --C. S. Lewis
"For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone" (Lam. 3:33, NIV). 
"... Who dares to ask, 'What are you doing?'" (Job 9:12, NLT).  

"...He speaks to them in their affliction," (cf. Job 36:15, NIV). 

"We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," (cf. Acts 14:22, NIV). 
"Don't be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through. ... Instead, be very glad--for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering" (1 Peter 4:12-13, NLT).
"Now I rejoice i what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's affliction, for the sake of his body, which is the church" (Col. 1:24, NIV).
"For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him" (Phil. 1:29, NIV).

NOTE: NO RELIGION OR PERSON HAS THE FULL ANSWER TO SUFFERING, BUT CHRIST GIVES MEANING IT BECAUSE HE SUFFERED AND WAS STILL VICTORIOUS AND CAN RELATE TO US IN OUR SUFFERING BECAUSE OF IT; HE LEARNED OBEDIENCE BY WHAT HE SUFFERED (CF. HEB. 5:8).  TRUE FAITH ENDURES EVEN WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING WHY.  WHAT A RELIGION SAYS ABOUT SUFFERING IT CANNOT EXPLAIN IS WORTH BELIEVING. 

Christianity, as a religion, alone offers a reason for suffering besides it being karma or deserved from sin or wrongdoing. We see temporal events in light of eternity and everything strikes a chord to vibrate into the next life.  No religion offers a complete and definitive reason for it though, but Christianity helps us endure it; if man has a reason for his suffering, he is able to while it away.  Realistically speaking, God has His reasons we cannot fully know, for His thoughts are infinitely higher than ours.  God is too deep to explain Himself, too kind to be cruel, and too wise to make a mistake.  The challenge is to keep the faith in spite of our suffering and trial and to learn from it, as we chalk it up to experience in the school of hard knocks.  As Paul said in his swan song, 2 Timothy, v. 4:7, KJV, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."  In our suffering, we must never ask where God is, but where He isn't.  "He is there, and He is not silent,"  according to Francis Schaeffer.

In part, our suffering's purpose is so that we can "console" others in their affliction and suffering and relate to them (cf. 2 Cor. 1:4). We are not called to be stoics who think that the ultimate purpose in life is to endure (literally grin and bear it) and accept the bad times and our so-called fate, not doing anything about it.  God can help us live above and beyond our circumstances.  We are not to be defined by them or limited in our ability to do God's will and achieve our calling.  Instead, we ought to be unfazed like Paul and say, "But none of these things move me" (cf. Acts 20:24).

We must acknowledge though, that all trials are Father-filtered and God has allowed them, even if Satan is doing the harm, and God will bring about His glory in the end--behind every cloud, there's a silver lining.  There is a chance to sympathize and with and encourage the bereaved or tested, when we can say that we've been there and done that.  This is the open door to sympathizing with our fellow man and not turning a deaf ear to his predicament, for it could happen to us--no one is immune from suffering and it comes with the territory of being saved.  Job's comforters made the mistake of having the presupposition that all suffering is caused by sin and they thought he was only getting half of what he deserved and ought to repent.  God didn't apologize nor offer reasons for his suffering, but showed His face to him, and instead of answering "why?" God answered "who?"  Who are we to question God?  God doesn't owe us an explanation!

In the final analysis, God never promised us a bed of roses and we signed up for this upon salvation.  Reality 101 is realizing that character comes from affliction!  No believer gets to skate through life trouble-free.  Even Christ didn't exempt Himself from suffering and suffered more than we will; our crosses to bear pale in comparison!   Sometimes we aren't aware of just how hard-of-hearing we can become and need a spiritual wake-up call.  Times like these are times to make a spiritual inventory and see where we get our strength from.  And we must expect trials, tribulations, affliction, suffering, loss, and even defeat.  God is on our side, but there is no guarantee of coming out on top all the time; however, all in all, we are more than conquerors in Christ and winners in a win-win situation because Christ won and we are identified with His victory at Calvary.         Soli Deo Gloria!

Living In The Old Testament

THE OLD TESTAMENT IS SUMMED UP IN LEV. 17:11 WHILE THE NEW TESTAMENT IN ROM. 3:25.  
"WITHOUT THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD THERE IS NO FORGIVENESS OF SIN."  "PROPITIATION THROUGH FAITH IN HIS BLOOD."

The issue is whether you are living in the OT or the NT.  The OT is the Law and the NT is the Spirit (OF GRACE).   We are not bound to the letter of the Law, which kills, but to the Spirit, which is life.  Christ fulfilled the Law to the letter and set us free to live according to the Spirit of life in Christ (cf. Rom. 10:2).  In fact, the day we were set free from the Law was a day of rejoicing, and the day we realized it was heaven on earth as well as music to God's ears.  Nowhere in the NT are we admonished to live according to the Law!  Actually, "love is the fulfillment of the Law" (cf. Rom. 13:10).  We serve in the new way of the Spirit, not in the old way of the letter of the Law (cf. Romans 7:6). 

The yoke of following Jesus is the light and easy burden (cf. Matt. 11:30).  As many as are relying on the Law are under a curse (cf. Gal. 3:10).  God didn't give us the Law to keep, but to break, in order to show us we cannot keep it and look for salvation.  The Law merely measures us and shows our guilt, but doesn't save, but shows our need and doesn't exculpate.  NB:  NOWHERE IN THE NT ARE WE COMMANDED TO OBSERVE THE LAW NOR TO BECOME SOMEWHAT JEWISH TO BE SAVED OR SANCTIFIED.  

We have the yoke of God's will and following on to know the Lord.  That is why we live on purpose, and not just according to some externalism standard like the Pharisees did  (EXTERNALISM):  circumcision, hand washing, sacrifice, tithing, fasting, Sabbath and holy day observance, and following the kosher restrictions on diet (anything avoiding the condition of the heart or thought life).  Instead, we are exhorted to be filled with the Spirit, which wasn't given yet in the OT.  Christians all have a ministry and mission, and are priests for the Lord, not needing the priesthood any longer.  In fact, we are a "kingdom of priests." (cf. 2 Pet. 2:9).    We all have a spiritual gift to use for God's glory and to help function in the church's commitment to fulfilling the Great Commission.

There are still so-called Judaizers who add law to grace, and works to faith, and put a yoke on us, spying out our freedom in Christ and hinder us from being free and doing the will of God.  They put us back into bondage, not realizing that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom"  (cf. 2 Cor. 3:17).  Our faith is not performance-based, but relationship-based.  But we are still prone to spiritual tyranny.  This is nothing but slavery to the Law.  We need to be set free and if the Son shall set us free, we shall be free indeed (cf. John 8:36).  God doesn't need people keeping someone's rules, but people who know Him.

To know Him is to love Him; however, it would all be in vain if we not only knew Him but didn't make Him known.   The mature believer is Spirit-filled and knows that as many as are led by the Spirit are the sons of God (cf. Rom. 8:14).  And now, "love is the fulfillment of the Law" (cf. Rom. 13:10; Gal. 5:14); Matt. 22:40).  And so, let us not just progress from faith to faith, but follow on to know the Lord, confessing Him, serving Him, and worshipping Him.  This entails spreading the Word and doing our part as we fit into the body with our unique gift or gifts.

Our marching orders are to fulfill the Great Commission and to occupy and stand our ground till He comes again--bloom where we are planted.  Our goal: to follow Christ more nearly, to know Him more clearly, and to love Him more dearly (according to Richard of Chichester). The keyword in our faith to us is to KNOW!  We know Jesus as God, Savior, and Lord; we know ourselves as totally depraved and in need of salvation; we know our enemies as the flesh, the devil, and ourselves as our worst enemy; we know our purpose, gifts, and calling to serve the Lord, we know God's will in order to fulfill our mission to the unsaved and ministry to our brethren; we also know the Word as we study, read, obey, and share it; and use all this knowledge to apply it first to ourselves, and to not only know the Lord but make Him known.       Soli Deo Gloria!

The Law Of Causality And God

By definition, an effect has a cause or is caused by something, while a cause produces an effect; there can be no uncaused effects or causes that don't have effects.  There can be uncaused causes, but not uncaused effects; nothing can cause itself! This is not being guilty of worshiping at the shrine of Aristotle, but apologetics is linked to logic and teleology, as a result, known as the cosmological proof of God.  

"Every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of all things," (cf. Heb. 3:4). 

The law of causality (of causal links), also known as the law of cause and effect is the second law of knowledge after the law of noncontradiction. With these two laws predicated, all knowledge becomes possible. Without them, no knowledge is possible. As Augustine said, "I believe in order to understand," so also all knowledge begins in faith (is contingent), assuming something you cannot prove, even in the sciences--both applied and pure--belief causes understanding! The law of causality states simply that for every effect there's a cause; it doesn't state that everything has a cause--that would lead to absurdity and nothingness or infinite regress--and logicians argue for the impossibility of crossing infinity. You must begin somewhere, with some presupposition you cannot prove.

Secularists have faith in science as the ultimate source of truth and bet the farm on this fact--which precludes philosophy or religion as sources of enlightenment. In the final analysis of causality, nothing can be its own cause! Then it would be both a cause and an effect simultaneously or violate the law of noncontradiction. Aristotle saw God as the unmoved mover or uncaused cause. Going back to the beginning of all time, there has to be a First Cause or primary mover of the cosmos. This being, we call the necessary being. Everything is contingent by definition except God! Because if everything is dependent then nothing is necessary in itself.

God, as theologians see it, is the Causa Prima or the First Cause and primary mover of all. He got the ball rolling and fired the big bang, even programming it with some 50 universal constants, including the weak and strong nuclear forces, the force of gravity, the charge of the electron, the atomic weight of the proton, the speed of light, and the freezing point of water, and so forth, which are all constants throughout the cosmos.

Truth, according to the correspondence theory of truth, is that which corresponds with reality! Reality is not an infinite series of efficacious, finite causes, but a limited chain of effects tracing their root to God Himself. Everything in the universe (the time-space continuum) has a beginning; for everything that begins to exist is an effect and has a cause. The Big Bang (it didn't just happen out of the blue!) and the universe began to exist and, therefore, it has a cause--I venture to posit that God is that cause.  Nothing just happens by itself! 

When you say that Z was caused by Y and Y by X ... you realize infinite regress is impossible that the chain of events isn't eternal and must end somewhere (you run out of letters).  This type of evidence for God is called cosmological the law of cause and effect), for Heb. 3:4 says that everything is built by someone, but God is the builder of all, being the First Cause, or origin of all things--"In the beginning God...." God had no beginning and is eternal, therefore has no cause! I posit that everything in the time-space continuum had a beginning for Scripture declares that time itself began (Titus 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:9). God is the uncaused being, which doesn't violate any principle of logic or reason.

We must learn to think teleologically, or that everything has a purpose--it is only natural for children to wonder "why" because they naturally think along these lines. This type of proof of God is known as teleological, or that design, art, beauty, order, harmony, and purpose exist naturally in nature. God, being eternal, doesn't change and is therefore not an effect or has no cause. And it is important to note that where we start determines where we will end up; we must begin with God to come to any logical conclusion and not contradict ourselves or commit intellectual suicide.

All in all, there is ample, practical reason to understand the interrelationship of cause and effect: ideas have consequences and to troubleshoot problems we need to understand this relationship. We assign ultimate causation to God: In the beginning God! Finding the "culprit" is the aim, whether mundane or spiritual, whenever we encounter dilemmas or issues. Ultimately, God is the cause of all and works all things to His glory (cf. Eph. 1:11). As Wycliffe's tenet says, "All things come to pass of necessity." In sum, nothing just happens by itself and it's only natural to wonder why things happen as they do. Soli Deo Gloria!

What If You Wonder Where God Is?

"If only I knew where to find him; if only I could go to his dwelling!" (Job 23:3, NIV).
"Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, ..." (Isa. 45:15, NIV).
"Let all the world be silent--the Lord is present" (Hab. 2:20, CEV).
"Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go..." (Gen. 28:15, NKJV).
"...And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him" (Deut. 4:29, CEV).  "He is there, and He is not silent." --Francis A. Schaeffer, apologist
"I believe in God, and if I woke up in hell, I'd still believe in God." --Robert Louis Stevenson
"What can be seen on earth indicates neither the total absence of God nor his manifest presence, but rather the presence of a hidden God." --Blaise Pascal, the renowned French scientist, philosopher  "You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you." --Augustine, Confessions  

This is a hypothetical premise since it only appears this way, but in reality, it's quite another circumstance.  Sometimes God seems MIA (missing in action)!  Or we may ponder where God is when it hurts.  The psalmist can relate:  "Why are you far away, Lord?  Why do you hide yourself when I am in trouble?" (Psalm 10:1, CEV).  Given: upon salvation, which is not to be forfeited, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit with the specific gifts and the inception of the fruit of the Spirit. 

NB:  gifts are given and may become manifest without spiritual maturity, but fruits are grown and relative to maturity.  All things being equal, the Spirit-filled believer never loses the indwelling presence of the Spirit, but the Bible does admonish us from quenching (putting out its fire and effect) and grieving (making sad by consistent sin).

However, the believer needs to constantly seek the filling (the exhortation in Eph. 5:18 means to "keep on being filled").  There is also something else to reckon with:  the anointing for ministry.  God specially anoints believers to do a certain task or assignment (1 John 2:20).  We are to be constantly filled and refilled with the Spirit--it's not a one-time event.  We are always filled to enable us to do His will and to preach the Word (cf. Col. 1:29; Heb. 13:21), or do what we are gifted for and called to fulfill.

The Spirit never leaves us, in fact, if one wonders that, it only shows that he does possess the Spirit and is a Christian. We shouldn't ask, "Where's God?" but "Where isn't God?"  And more appropriately, "Where's the church?"  But God can feel distant and disengaged:  God asked Adam the convicting question:  "Where are you?"  His shame was his fault. God didn't move, Adam did!   We need to take a spiritual inventory and get a checkup at church to measure ourselves and participate and belong to the body of Christ in an active manner.  Jesus said explicitly in Heb. 13:5 that He will never leave us nor forsake us! And again in the Great Commission:  "And lo I am with you always!" (Cf. Matt. 28:20).

But the problem arises when we go by feeling, instead of by faith.  The just shall walk by faith and not by sight--empirically (cf. 2 Cor. 5:7; Rom. 1:17; Hab. 2:4). And in the final analysis, it's a good sign to ask this question, because it shows that the person is thinking and wondering about spiritual matters (an unbeliever couldn't ask this): Note, that the Christian life is not about walking about on some perpetual religious high or on "cloud nine."

NB:  2 Chron.32:31 that says;  "...God left [Hezekiah] and discover[ed] what was in his heart."  But the Spirit wasn't yet given--our case is different ever since that gifting at Pentecost!  God may want to know if we are just going by feelings that shift like a weathervane. The correct order is that we know the truth, believe it in our heart, obey it, and the feelings will follow naturally.  We all have to grow in this respect and some say the formula is this:  fact, faith, feeling.  Or you could say:  know right, think right, act right, feel right!   Sometimes the believer needs to learn to wait on the Lord and seek His face, and he will then find out that God was there all the time.  Our faith must be "tested by fire" (cf. 1 Pet. 1:7).

The next time you wonder where God is, He didn't go anywhere, you did; however, the problem is in being restored to fellowship by confessing known sins and in getting back into doing the will of God, for which you will be filled and anointed according to your calling.  The most frequent culprit is our own sins which grieve the Holy Spirit and then we lose our joy which is a fruit of the Spirit and being filled (cf. Gal. 5:22). Sin hides God's face from us (cf. Isaiah 59:2).  Sometimes, though, someone else may quench the Spirit, and He doesn't feel welcome in our midst.  "Therefore, come out for among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them ... and I will welcome you" (cf. 2 Cor. 6:17).  Come out from among them and be ye separate, which means sanctified or holy!

Note that David felt discouraged too: "...but David strengthened himself in the LORD his God" (cf. 1 Sam. 30:6).  Is it any wonder that Jonathan Edwards said that seeking God is the main business of the Christian life? And that R. C. Sproul said that the search for God begins at salvation?    Let's all aspire to what Psalm 73:28, NIV, says: "But as for me, how good it is to be near God!"  In the final analysis, it's stated categorically that Christianity is not about believing there's a God, but believing in the God who is there!     NB:  SAMSON "WIST NOT THAT THE SPIRIT HAD LEFT HIM!"   Soli Deo Gloria!

Modern Terminology For Salvation

"For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Cor. 4:5, NIV).  
"For who makes you different from anyone else?  What do you have that you did not receive?  ..." (1 Cor. 4:7, NIV).

Today's evangelicals like to refer to "accepting Jesus" as if that's all there was to salvation, period.  This is a misnomer and misleading, not to mention nonbiblical in terminology.  We also hear many well-meaning evangelists talk of "making room in your heart for Jesus," "trying Jesus," or "making a decision for Jesus," but these statements can be quite misleading to the cause of lordship.  The Bible refers to "receiving Christ as Lord" and we cannot receive a divided Lord or someone for who He is not--the Lord of lords and King of kings into our hearts.

We trust Him as Savior and submit to Him as Lord, that's where it's at. By divorcing faith from faithfulness we do detriment to the biblical evangel, which is our message to the world at large.  However, there are many who preach "another Spirit," "another Jesus," or "another gospel"  (cf. 2 Cor. 11:4) who are false teachers or wolves in sheep's clothing.

The gospel message is all about what God has done for us, not what we do for God! He paid the price for a debt we owed and couldn't pay!  But the gift of salvation is free as a gift to be received by grace in faith.  We don't earn it, cannot pay it back, and don't deserve it!   Jesus is the one who accepts us the way we are and we must be willing to accept our brother the way he is, as a work in progress.  But He doesn't let us stay that way but is always at work "within us to do and to will of His good pleasure" (cf. Phil. 2:13).

Since our salvation is so great a work, what shall happen if we neglect it (cf. Heb. 2:3)?  We don't do Jesus any favor by becoming Christians, as if He needed us and couldn't get along without us, but we were chosen and predestined before the foundation of the world in an election to His glory (cf. Eph. 1:5,11), in His own way.  When we humbly realize our unworthiness and that we were accepted by grace and didn't deserve it, how shall we not accept others with the same attitude of grace and welcome them into the fellowship?

Easy-believism is rampant in the church and that means that a full surrender of lordship isn't necessary for salvation, because it's seen as a work.  Roman Catholicism sees our part as mere acquiescence or agreement with church dogma as saving faith.  We cannot dichotomize our faith and say that we can have faith without lordship, for we must receive Him as Lord (cf. Col. 2:6).  Another way of looking at this easy-believism is as "cheap grace" which justifies the sin, not the sinner!

Believers who want to justify their sin and live in sin as so-called "carnal Christians" are really not believers at all, for there is no such category of brethren.  Christians can be carnal and out of fellowship, but not as a class, permanent state, or category of spirituality.  All Christians yearn to obey the Lord and have the same love for the Lord, for if anyone loves not the Lord, let him be "anathema, Maranatha" (cf. 1 Cor. 16:22)!

The logical conclusion of believing we accept Christ is that God owes us a living or a blessing in this world, which is what "prosperity theology" espouses, and is erroneous, if not heretical and damnable.  We are not here to cash in on God at some spiritual lottery, because God never promises us a "rose garden" or "bed of roses" but a life of trial and testing as life is a trust and commitment.  Our home is not to be here and we are not to make ourselves too comfortable in this life, seeking our reward in this life. We seek a Celestial City!   Some are indeed given their portion in this life (cf. Psalm 17:14) but we seek a heavenly city and a crown that cannot fade away or perish.  God is not our "genie" or Santa Clause to grant our every desire and wish, but we are to learn to joy in doing His will and seeking His glory as our fulfillment, not an entitlement of material blessing.

When we believe we "accepted" Christ, it gives us an entitlement mentality that leads us to think we can cash in on our spiritual lottery ticket and that God owes us for us doing Him the favor of accepting Him, making it look like we did something for our salvation., and forgetting it was by grace alone. The essence of the Law is what we do for God or owe Him in obedience, the essence of the gospel is what He's done for us that we don't deserve.

In sum, we cannot say we accept Jesus for salvation, because that makes it look like we are doing God a favor when He is the one doing us a favor of accepting us and justifying us through faith all by grace, so we cannot boast--it sounds so condescending to say that we accepted Christ! Even our righteousness is not our gift to God, but His gift to us (cf. Isaiah 45:24)!   In sum, it all sounds so superficial and trivializes our commitment.     Soli Deo Gloria!

Our Universal Diagnosis: A Vacuum

"We grasp at every passing straw, and even as we clutch it disappears." --Billy Graham
"... Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God" (Matt 4:4, NIV).
"All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come" (Job 14:14, NIV).

Man without God is unfulfilled and on a universal quest for ultimate truth, meaning, and purpose.  The Dalai Lama said that "Emptiness is the ultimate truth."  Billy Graham says that man is the only creature capable of becoming bored.  "Nature abhors a vacuum," says Billy Graham.  It was Blaise Pascal who said man has a vacuum only God can fill.  Augustine of Hippo likewise wrote that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.  Man is searching for that missing ingredient and is on a frantic search for happiness.

Seek the Answerer!    This is true, we can become bored with life or of ourselves, despite the environment and entertainment opportunities.  That's why we have millions seeking psychiatric counsel and meds to solve their personal problems and unresolved issues.  Most of man's emotional problems are basically curable by the truth, and that is one reason truth sets us free.  Carl Jung, the protege of Sigmund Freud, said that " the central neurosis of our time is emptiness."  We all sense something is wrong with us, regardless of faith, and are on a Great Quest (Billy Graham's terminology) to find THE answer.

Man has been called Homo divinus and even Homo religiosus, or that man is, by nature, divine and religious, respectfully, seeking spiritual answers and fulfillment, rather than a secular solution. The anthropological proof of God is that there is a universal belief in God in some manner.   Have you ever observed an ape building a chapel?  We alone seek metaphysical answers to physical and emotional or spiritual problems--we must realize that many so-called religions seem to work and do have an element of truth, for man seeks truth by nature (enough to inoculate from the real thing), but that doesn't mean they are true.  Christianity isn't true because it works, but it works because it's true--viva la difference!

Man longs for relationships, and being in the image of God, we are personal beings seeking meaningful relationships--God is personal and wants to get personal with us!  We must reciprocate and return the favor.  We can try political freedom, education, materialism or higher standards of living, experiments with drugs or fee sex, but man only becomes worse off by seeking other means of satisfaction other than what we are meant for; ignoring design breaks faith with the Designer--for instance, we are hard-wired for work, not a life of leisure or pleasure seeking.

Christians need to preach that they have found it, the answers in the Answerer!  The proof of the pudding is in the eating, they say!  Solomon tried virtually every area of endeavor only to declare it all vanity, but his wisdom caught up with him at last and realized the only fulfillment was in doing our duty to God, obeying Him, our Maker.  A square peg cannot fit into a round hole and many people are doing that, attempting to be something or do something they were not meant to be or do.  If Einstein had been condemned to a life at the Swiss patent office, he might not have realized his full potential and would've had low self-esteem as unfulfilled.  We must pursue our passions without discouragement and realize our calling in life.

Man is not an animal in heat, seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, despite protests that there is no right or wrong, only pleasure, and pain.  We must not just follow our heart, but not our whims, we must not arbitrarily seek for needles in haystacks.  Man is meant to be on a mission, full of meaning and purpose with a mind thinking the thoughts of Christ, or having a Christian worldview of the world, not to be influenced by the secularization of society, but remaining salt and light.      Soli Deo Gloria!

The Goal Of Our Christian Life

"Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them" (John 13:17, NIV). 
"A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still." --famous proverb 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer equated belief and obedience:  "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."  They go hand in hand and one must not divorce faith and faithfulness either, and the result, which is obedience (cf. Heb. 3:1-19). Unbelievers are called "sons of disobedience" in Eph. 2:2. Christians are to be eager to live for the Lord and to live a life pleasing to Him.  Discipleship implies obedience because we are following on to know the Lord (cf. Hos. 6:3) in His steps. Good deeds are the fruit of salvation, not the means; if there is no fruit our salvation is suspect.

And we are not given a list of dos and don'ts and the Bible isn't a handbook on rules or catalog of regulations, but a key to personally know the Lord.  Yes, the goal is not to obey but this is a byproduct of our love, which is expressed in obedience (to love Him is to obey His commandments).  The believer yearns to obey, even if he falls short of his ideal.  The second part of the Great Commission is to teach us to obey, and it doesn't just stipulate that we obey one rule or what to obey, but the principle of obedience and to obey all things commanded by Christ.

The principle of obedience per se is to be taught, not just to authorities and the rules of the Lord (cf. Jer. 5:4; 8:7; Micah 4:12) but to the will of God.  There is no such thing as disobedient believers per Bonhoeffer--they can disobey, but all believers have surrendered to the lordship of Christ (cf. Rom. 12:1) and have obeyed the gospel, to receive the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 5:39).  God's commands are not burdensome, for His yoke is easy (cf. Matt. 11:29) and He grants us the strength to obey (cf. Phil. 2:13). 

But we are not just goody-goodies who appear as shallow seeking the approbation of men, but those people who know the Lord, doing the work of the Lord from the heart--for we are a people "eager to do good works" (cf. Titus 2:14).  We increase in the knowledge of the Lord by applying what we know in good works as Col. 1:10, NIV, says, "[B]earing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God."  Note that 2 Pet. 3:18 commands us to grow in the knowledge of our Lord as we increase in grace.   To know Him is to love Him!  We can only boast if we know Him (cf. Jer. 9:24).

It is said that Christ didn't come to make bad men good, but dead men alive!  We are raised from the dead when we get saved, for Christ is still in the resurrection business.  Obedience is for our own good, for God knows what's best for us and the way to life as we are called to trust in His will.  We must realize that the Pharisees were externalists, going through the motions and memorizing the Dance of the Pious, but had no inward reality! As it says in 1 Sam. 15:22, "to obey is better than sacrifice," it follows that we must have an inward reality and not just be paying lip service (cf. Jer. 12:2).  The Pharisees were experts at the Law of Moses and were legalists' thinking that obedience without a right heart could please God (cf. Matt. 15:8).

What really pleases God is faith and we cannot please Him without it (cf. Heb. 11:6), and expressing this faith through love is all that counts (cf. Gal. 5:6), as Mother Teresa of Calcutta has said, "True holiness consists in doing the will of God with a smile."  Our ultimate goal is to have a fulfilling, loving relationship with our Lord, and this is done by knowing Him and applying what we know.  Richard of Chichester's prayer was "to know Jesus Christ more clearly, to love him more dearly, and to follow him more nearly. 

All knowledge is merely a byproduct and not the end itself in our life, it is merely a means to an end of knowing Him, and we don't want our knowledge to be second-hand knowledge only but from our own experience.  It doesn't just stop at head knowledge but is to be applied to our lives (cf. Job 5:27).

Many believers pride themselves on being right and have separated from fellow Christians over nonessential issues; they are content just to be doctrinally correct and impeccable, even splitting hairs, or worse yet to be politically correct, saying "my way or the highway."  We must learn to defend the truth and stand up for the truth, but remember that our relationships are more important than our stands; at our judgment, God will not ask us if we were a Democrat or Republican, for instance, or a Calvinist or Arminian, but whether we loved our opponents.

However, we are never called to be argumentative, contentious, divisive, or judgmental, but to build bridges not make walls in relationships.  It is said that we must not be disagreeable, but learn to agree to disagree, and the Bible says that God's servants must not be quarrelsome (cf. 2 Tim. 2:24) or argue over the meaning of words (cf. 1 Tim. 6:4).  "If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching they are conceited and understand nothing..." (1 Tim. 6:3-4, NIV).

In sum, we must never lose focus on the twin goals of our faith:  orthodoxy and orthopraxy, or to believe right and live right as its consequence; in other words, making disciples doesn't just mean bringing people about to our way of thinking or our school of thought, but turning our creeds into deeds and living it out as a witness to the world.    Soli Deo Gloria!

What's Wrong With Atheism?

"Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless." --Bertrand Russell, atheist philosopher, and mathematician  "There is no accountability since God does not exist" (Psalm 10:4, HCSB).  "The fool has said in his heart [notice it's the heart, not the mind] that there is no God" (cf. Psalm 14, 53:1).   

Atheism is a bankrupt faith that cannot be proved and is only believed because of a gut reaction or animosity to God because they don't think He's fair, He didn't give them something they wanted, they see injustice and cannot rationalize it, or justify the ways of God to man, as did Milton in Paradise Lost.  Atheism doesn't have a leg to stand on because you cannot prove a universal negative:  how would you prove there are no little green men, for example, without being present everywhere and knowing all?  Only God knows for sure!  And so you would have to be God, quite ironically, to disprove God.   Atheists often claim they are good people but have no motive other than selfish ones to be so.  But they cannot explain goodness or why there's evil in the world.  The biggest obstacle is that most people know there's a God as certainly as the law of cause and effect and see the evidence of a Designer from all the design in the cosmos.

The issues they cite are that they believe science, namely evolution, has undermined the Bible; God is merely a "delusion" or neurosis to be cured; God is the "opiate" of the people (what Marx thought) or anti-depressant; God is a "neurosis" or "projection" like the desire for a "father figure", a la Freudian theory; or that He is unnecessary to explain reality.   The cosmos cannot be all there is because there is evidence of intelligence in the universe and this cannot be explained away as random energy or atoms in motion--there's something other than matter/energy!  The cosmos had a beginning, and needs a cause or Beginner; because we know that everything in time and space had a beginning, but who began the so-called big bang to begin everything? ( It is a principle of logic that everything that begins to exist has a cause and everything captive to time had a beginning.)

Atheists need to know that they are people of faith also, and really of blind faith because they have no hard evidence that there is no God, they just cannot explain issues that have answers but they refuse to accept.  They may be offended by God and have objections but not proof.  There's more evidence for God than against Him, but one doesn't need all the answers to believe, even though there is sound evidence to base faith on. Norman Geisler wrote a book, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist, quite appropriately. 

There is an ulterior motive for being an atheist:  They don't want accountability, culpability, or responsibility!  Just as Albert Camus said, "The absurd is sin without God," and Dostoevsky said, "If there is no God, all things are permissible."  They want to believe they are mere animals and not in God's image, thus they act like animals by and large not answering to anyone.  They want no righteous judge to watch their behavior, and supernatural creator to worship, and no divine lawgiver to obey!  How convenient to feign intellectual problems when it's a matter of the heart!  The heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart! 

The knowledge of God can be suppressed or muffled, but not destroyed--atheists live in a state of denial hiding behind smokescreens to muddle the issues or change the subject!   Most atheists think of themselves as superior intellectually or as assuming the moral high ground, as they see Christians as hypocrites, but this is not the case because Christianity is defensible in the open marketplace of ideas and in the public square.  Atheists do worship something or someone even if they claim to be nonreligious or have no God you can worship yourself or your abilities. 

Man is by nature a religious being and must worship something, for we are hard-wired for worship.  You can be religious without having a religion too, according to John Dewey!  Atheism has even been declared a religion in the high courts.  In the final analysis, they want to start with man and explain away God, rather than start with God and explain man!   It's similar to the Protagoras, the Greek philosopher, saying, "Man is the measure of all things."  Dostoevsky said that if we don't worship God, we'll find something else to worship 

This applies to Christians too because they can become practical atheists, living as if there were no God, despite faith in Him.  Dostoevsky was right:  "Man has forgotten God." And Will Durant puts it quite bluntly that "the greatest question of our time is whether men can bear to live without God," for in the eyes of many, "God is dead", and man has killed Him, like Nietzsche claimed, or made Him irrelevant and unnecessary.  Atheism raises more questions that cannot be answered. It cannot answer life's ultimate questions.  One paradox to consider is why so-called militant atheists have such animus toward a God that they don't believe exists, as if they hold a personal grudge--what did God do to them?  What we are witnessing is anti-theism or militant atheism whereby they have declared war on people of faith.

In sum, atheism doesn't have all the answers and ignores the obvious evidence given to all, and God says they are without excuse (cf. Rom. 1:20)!  No amount of evidence, circumstantial, experiential, or direct, will convince some doubters and skeptics.   In the end, one must ask the atheist what evidence is there that there is no God!  Christians see evidence everywhere, while they ask where is the evidence there is not God.   There's ample evidence to the open-minded and willing, but never enough to convince those who don't want to believe!   We can be assured God doesn't believe in atheists!

CAVEAT:   WHERE YOU BEGIN HAS A LOT TO DO WITH WHERE YOU'LL END UP!    Soli Deo Gloria!

The World's Soccer Team In Jeopardy

The boys in a Thai soccer team got inadvertently trapped in a cave and were in danger for 18 days before rescue attempts were successful--this newsflash spread around the world like wildfire and enraptured and engrossed the people of every nation's attention and concern away from politics.  Prayer certainly went out, and volunteers, professionals, and expert divers from all over the world (some 1,000) came to the rescue and conducted a coordinated and concerted plan of attack. 

One wonders why God would allow such meaningless jeopardy and some even though it was the kid's fault for venturing into the cave in the first place--but when you're pointing the finger in blame you cannot solve the problem at hand. I'm sure they were on every Christian's prayer list who watched the news and knew about it.  This was an answer to prayer and proves prayer works and changes things.  These boys will not be able to forget nor deny this experience with answered prayer and I hope the world will neither; this was nothing short of a miracle in its timing.

The point, in fact, is that we do not realize God's grace unless we see it in contrast to what comes natural or is deserved.  Grace is giving us what we don't deserve, while mercy is not giving us what we deserve--they go hand in hand.  It was not fortuitous that the cave's pump failed soon after the last boy was rescued and they escaped in the nick of time--a sign of Providence guiding the operation and that cannot be denied by anyone of faith.  This is an answer to prayer, but there are skeptics who can find some reason to discount it and attribute it all to coincidence.  But with God, there are no flukes or coincidences--not even luck!  These boys were not lucky, but fortunate beneficiaries of God's grace and blessing!

The lesson learned is that we saw that there is still some good in the world and that we can focus on something besides ourselves and our world, and even current events and news cycles that are so nerve-wracking.   Truly, there might be movie rights and this team may become adopted as the world's boy soccer team and enrapture the world's love and admiration for their courage and the miracle of their rescue which involved only the best of the best divers and organizers in the world.  It was a concerted effort and the world can be proud it pulled together for this. Now we know what courage and bravery are by their example in survival and rescue as a lesson from God.

So this may have just happened as God's way of getting our attention and a wakeup call to see if we will glorify God and reward those who seem to have thankless professions behind the scenes--God meant it for good.

CAVEAT: THIS COULD'VE BEEN YOUR KIDS AND THIS MAY HAVE BEEN A TEST TO SEE IF YOU CARE FOR THOSE IN NEED AND APPRECIATE OUR UNSUNG HEROES.    Let's all thank and praise God WHO WAS FRONT AND CENTER BEHIND ALL THE DRAMA AND TRAGEDY!      Soli Deo Gloria!