Christian Liberties. (getting on my soapbox...)

We must be very careful how we preach today... In a market and results driven society people judge Christians by their results. This is a very difficult and precarious position to be in as people charged with preaching the Gospel.

It is quite easy to call a Christian a hypocrite. We dont have everything right, we dont know all the answers, and we never live up to the charge Jesus gave us to be "Perfect as the Father is perfect". It is easy as maturing Christians and leaders of the church to encourage and look for change within the people that we are pouring our lives and the Gospel into. This can be OK, because Christ did come to redeem us and make us new. In addition it is OK to encourage and teach sanctification in the life of the believer, it is promised and it is a benefit of life in Christ. The problem comes when we dont properly teach that sanctification does not grant us justification, and that is an important distinction to make. Grace alone, through faith alone is the only thing that grants us justification from sin through Christ.

When we look for and teach sanctification alone, we need to be careful not to give a new law. People may be looking for a checklist or rules to follow to be a good Christian, but those were given, and they are unattainable apart from Christ. In the sermon on the Mount, Christ taught the true spirit of the law, "You have heard it said... but I tell you that...". Christ came and elevated the law to make it the perfection that God necessitates. We cant be perfect, we've already blown it both on our own and through the inheritance of original sin.

Now Christ taught us that he came to fulfill the law. His righteousness was imputed to us and our faith is then credited to us as that righteousness. This is the only law that there is, the law of the truth and love of God. That law is fulfilled in Christ. He did it for us. This is Grace! We are justified WHILE WE WERE (and are) STILL SINNERS!!!!!! To give people a new law is only to add rules that God didnt give us. That is not grace. You dont have to be anything other than a believer in Christ to take part in Grace. Paul tells us that we cannot add anything to the law, and that we can only listen to the Gospel that he has given us... even if an angel comes and preaches a different Gospel between now and the return of Christ, we are not to acknowledge it. Jesus also said that a false teacher would do better to tie a stone around their neck and jump in the sea than face judgement for their teaching. Christ cares a lot about the Gospel that gets preached.

Now, dont get me wrong, people who are careful with how they live are doing a great thing. But we cannot expect it for the salvation of people. Not only this, but we can help be redemption for people in Christ. There are lots of rules out their for Christians: Dont listen to most music, Dont play sports, Dont dance, Dont drink, Dont smoke. But what does this say to people? That you have to be perfect to follow Christ? Thats not a very attractive set of rules for lost people... Christ said that He came to make all things new, also Paul said that all things are permissible, not all things are beneficial. This is true. My drinking or not drinking, or insert whatever there, doesn't affect my faith in Christ. I can sin in drunkenness and irresponsibility, and we can do this anywhere, too much football or an obsession with a championship, the difference between dancing to hook up or dancing to music, on and on... But as Christians we can also show people who drink to live, how to enjoy a drink in fellowship and responsibly.

In this way we can show people, through Christ, how to live to their Joy and to the Glory of God. That is the Gospel. Instead of giving them a new law, the Gospel transforms and informs how we drive on the highway, sports stars, dancing and music, drinking, and everything else in our lives. What is better to hope for? an end to football? or a league of football players living their lives and playing to the very most of the gifts they've been given? We can have the same hope and joy in redeeming responsible and worthwhile consideration of everything in our lives. Lets not make new laws and rules, but instead live lives that are constantly being evaluated with the Gospel in mind so that we might transform and worship God in every single thing we do.

That is truly what it means to be a light in the world.

Praise God.

How do we know Beauty?

And where do we miss it?

Read this article in the Washington Post. Its long, but very worth it.

A brilliant musician, in a world that's way too busy. If you want more of Joshua Bell get his essentials CD or his Beethoven's violin concertos both are amazing works. Great for romantic dinners, writing papers, and appreciating a man that I swear has 4 hands and two violins.

Run in such a way as to get the prize.

It is amazing how much the hymn in the previous post speaks to both the reality and thanks I feel in my life right now. God is so good to reveal to us, in His time, what changes He desires for us, and His true character and face.

If you re the reading type, check out chapter 16 of J.I. Packer's Knowing God. It is entitled "Goodness and Severity" and it is brilliant.

"Earlier in Romans, Paul addressed the self-satisfied non-Christian critic of human nature as follows: "God's kindness leads you toward repentance"... "You... pass judgement on them and yet do the same things" - yet God has borne with your faults , the very faults which you regard as meriting his judgement when you see them in others, and you ought to be very humble and very thankful."

Its hard to realize that I don't love God as I ought, or give Him thanks as I ought. But the Grace of God is that He loved us first... and while we were still sinners. I don't have to try and fix all of my faults to make God love me, God already loves me. Now I just have to go about loving Him more.

Paul wrote to Tim "pursue righteousness". The Bible is literally saturated with language telling us that we should thirst for God, that we should treasure the kingdom, that we should run the race in such a way as to win. Most of all we should love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength... These are active participles. We need to be doing them. It is true that the work on the cross is complete, we add nothing to it. But, we should be pursuing our God.

I know I for one am tired of being lazy. Who's with me?

It truly is like training for a race. The more we pray, and reject sin, and try and set a Godly example of Christian freedom, the easier it will be to get up the next time we fall. God wants us to be soldiers for him, but believe me, being a soldier is not an overnight transformation. You learn to salute, you learn rank, you learn to shoot, you learn tradition and history. In the same way we have to run after learning to worship, learning to learn from those more mature, learning to fight sin, and learning the Bible.

God chose us, and God loves us. And now that He has given us truth, lazy is the only word to describe not running after it. Like the hymn says (and Jeremiah) , our heart is deceitful, God is truth.

Ill let Dr. John Piper finish this up...

Therefore, I conclude that Jesus' demand to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength means that every impulse and every act of every faculty and every capacity should be an expression of treasuring God above all things. Jesus warned that this most important of all demands would be widely forsaken in the last days. "Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold" (Matt 24:12, NASB).
Beware lest your love for God grow cold in these days. Remember, we will love him to the degree that we know him. And remember that only Jesus can make him known in truth and fullness (Matt 11:27). Therefore, look steadily at Jesus and pray that he would reveal God as compellingly beautiful. "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).

Praise God.

Gadsby Mondays

795

Mighty enemies without,
Much mightier within,
Thoughts we cannot quell or rout,
Blasphemously obscene;
Coldness, unbelief, and pride,
Hell and all its murderous train,
Threaten death on every side,
And have their thousands slain.

Thus Pursued, and thus distressed,
Ah! whither shall we fly?
To obtain the promised rest,
On what sure hand rely?
Shall the Christian trust his heart?
That, alas! of foes the worst,
Always takes the tempter's part;
Nay, often tempts him first.

If to-day we be sincere,
And can both watch and pray,
Watchfulness, perhaps, and prayer.
To-morrow may decay.
If we now believe aright,
Faithfulness is God's alone,
We are feeble, fickle, light,
To changes ever prone.

But we build upon a base
That nothing can remove,
When we trust electing grace
And everlasting love.
Victory over all our foes
Christ has given with His blood,
Perseverance he bestows
On every child of God.

(1Peter 1:2, 2Tim 2:19, 1Thess 5:24)

Identity

Its strange how we all have an idea of who we are and what we look like to others. That idea is probably different from everyone else's perception, and is probably worlds apart from God's look at who we are and what defines us.

I have my foot in so many worlds that sometimes I get caught in between them all. It is dangerous to be able to lose identity and wonder who we are. I have so many ideas of who I am and what I look like, but even that changes from situation to situation and place to place. I have friends that know me as funny, or smart, or an ass, or irresponsible, or responsible. Trust me, my resume and my file at the DOD looks a whole lot different than if you meet me at a bar, or if I'm serving you at Changs.

For God it is sin, and (praise God) Jesus that defines who we are. We are given that new identity in Christ that I, by comparison, rarely define myself by. If I'm home for the night, or having to move away from Columbus to Dayton, or Dayton to a Naval Station, my real definition never actually changes. Yet I miss friends, come across people who don't know me as I would like the people surrounding me to know me, and act differently.

Not only this but I can define myself through the people around me as well. Then girls, friends, coworkers, all people I have no sacramental (marriage) or familial ties to. God has called me unto himself, and my family, and also to bear witness to the resurrection for whatever situation I happen to be in. Not to commit myself to things that are temporary, not letting the dead bury the dead, or even seeing every need as a calling.

I work hard to project an image or meet people a certain way. All of this effort to build myself up as an alter of praise, because it makes me feel good. Yet, where does Joy come from? From worshiping God as He is to be rightly praised. That is what my time should be spent doing. I am quite sure that if this was the case, I would find brothers and sisters in Christ and I would cherish those relationships. I would find joy more abundantly in trying to figure out how to Glorify God's name instead of my own, and my purpose would be fulfilled.

Sin sucks, it seriously gets in the way.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 1Peter 1:3-5

Knowing God by seeking to know God

Its a funny thing, that the God of the Universe would move so that we could know Him. An infinite unfathomable God gave us both Jesus and the Holy Spirit so that we could know and love Him better.

Without the movement of God toward us, we would never be able to know or see Him. Forever veiled in our own sin and destruction we would never experience Glory without God showing it to us. Paul said "For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known." (1 Corinth 13:12).

Paul then prays for us that "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power" (Eph 1:17-18). Now there is quite a lot of stuff to unpack in that prayer, but notice that he prays for us to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation as we come to know God. Also that he finishes these verses noting that we only believe by the working of God's great power.

The knowledge of God is really nothing that we can strive for or study or take pride in. Rather it is a gift of grace, fully given to us in the form of Jesus Christ on earth. All we can do is pray for wisdom and revelation and allow the Spirit to move in our lives. We need to remember that it is a gift to know God and we should rejoice in it; not compete with it. We should use this gift to help others to understand the Gospel and Grace of God. Its not knowing God, its seeking God that fulfills our purpose here on earth.

Knowledge should spur us on to fruit and community. The apostle ends the 13th chapter is 1 Corinthians by encouraging us:

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Praise God.

I promise I will write a serious blog this week...

BUT FOR NOW GO BROWNS!!!!! All the abysmal years of being a fan are paying off (at least a little). Way to go Brownies!