11 posts tagged “christianity”

Simply put, conversations are good.

Even the most introverted of men has conversations with himself in his head.  Conversation has a certain effortless progression to it.  Casual persuasion, personal stories and humor provide the perfect place for our thoughts to grow, react and reach new conclusions.  Even when you disagree completely, conversation reinforces the reasoning for your thoughts.

But I'm a little worried about our generation.

The elevation of conversation as the final authority on intellectual discourse is highly overrated.  Specifically in the spiritual culture I spend a lot of time in, conversation is growing in popularity as the only valid form of theological education.  The argument goes like this:  No person can ever fully understand the true meaning of the Scriptures.  To assert that you know exactly what the Scriptures are saying is arrogant.  Therefore, NO ONE can talk about the Bible in any kind of authoritative way.  (Rob Bell makes this argument in Velvet Elvis amongst others.)  As a result, some churches are moving to conversation led services.  Rather than have someone preach the Word of God, the congregation just talks about it and tries to collectively come to some conclusions.

Remember what I said to begin with; conversations are good.  On the other hand, the problem with the previous argument and the conclusion to replace preaching with conversation is THE BIBLE.  I'll just quote one:

"If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God."  1 Peter 4:11

The thing about the Bible is that it's going to say over and over again 1.) that we should preach and teach, 2.) that men are gifted by God to preach the word of God and 3.) that when those called to teach and preach DO teach and preach, they should do it with authority. Here's what I mean by over and over: Mark 16:15; Luke 24:57; Acts 10:42; Romans 12:7; 1 Corinthians 1:17; 1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11-13; Colossians 3:16; 1 Timothy 4:6,11 and 13; 2 Timothy 4:2; Titus 2:1-3 and 15.  That Titus 2:15 one is really interesting: "Encourage and rebuke with all authority."  (By the way, those are just from the new testament.)

For any of you that know me, you know I like the way that Matt Chandler thinks.  Recently he did a series entitled the Role of Men and in the third part, "Men as Fathers", he discussed his main goal as a father.  Essentially his idea was this: We have no control over whether our kids end up falling in love with God or not.  So, this is his goal as a father; that when his kids grow up if you were to ask them, "What was your dad like growing up?", they would respond "He just talked about how good God is all the time."

Here are the practical examples he used to illustrate the point:  When he's drawing with his daughter, and she says "pink is my favorite", with authentic enthusiasm he responds, "Isn't God awesome that he invented the color pink?!"  And when he takes his son to the pool, he pauses to point at the slide and say, "LOOK!  Look how amazing God is that He gave men the idea of water slides!"

There's a good chance you're thinking right now, "thanks Luda, but I don't so much have any kids."  On the one hand, I do think you should be preparing now for how you're going to parent someday if you do have kids.  On the other hand, I think there's a much bigger application to the idea Matt's talking about.  The application is that we would start to see and worship God everywhere!  Everything is His.  Everything is pointing us towards Him.  I'll just use one example to illustrate my point.

1 Corinthians 10:31:  "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

Whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, you know what this verse translates into for Christians.  For those of us who grew up in church, we've been taught to pray before we eat.  In that prayer we use some combination of memorized or spontaneous words to say thank you to God for providing food for us.  I would argue that essentially we are (or think we're supposed to be) thankful because our belly is full and not empty.  In other words, we believe that God is glorified when we are satisfied.  And by logical conclusion, deserving of no praise if we go hungry. . .

Now I know this may be a stretch . . . but what if God is bigger than some kind of cosmic food dispenser?  What if God invented the very idea of EATING?  What if he created the concepts of food, of taste and smell, of hunger and satisfaction.

I think this pushes us towards what Paul describes in Phil. 4:12-13; whether I'm hungry or whether I'm full, whether I'm rich or whether I'm poor, I trust and worship and praise and live in light of the enormously huge God who created the idea of food.  I not only see God's glory in my satisfaction, but I can see His goodness in my hunger too.

Heb. 2:2-3
"For if [...] every transgression and disobedience received a just penalty,  how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"

Two quick HUGE thoughts:

1.) "EVERY transgression and disobedience received a just penalty"
   
Take a quick survey of your life.  Remember every disobedient moment.  Every single time you felt God urging your life a direction and you hesitated.  Every time you blew it.  Every failure.

ALL of them have already received a just penalty.  God literally unleashed the full force of His wrath on His Son Jesus Christ on the cross.  Every bit of shame you've ever felt, Jesus took on Himself.  Every bit of pain you've ever caused for yourself, Jesus took on Himself.    Why?  So that by putting your trust and faith in Him, He could save you from the punishment you deserve.

2.) "how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?"

FOR REAL DID YOU HEAR WHAT YOU JUST READ?  Are these words penetrating your heart?  Does the thought of Jesus on the cross shake you to your core?  Do you stand in awe of so great a salvation?

Or are you neglecting it?

And if we are neglecting the salvation that we claim to be true, how guilty are we?

The Country Club Gospel is hard to explain descriptively because at it's roots it is a subconscious way of looking at the church, the kingdom of God and the gospel.  Maybe, it's a wrong understanding of the purpose of the gospel.  However, it is never hard to recognize when you see it, and we are always at danger of moving towards it.

Essentially the Country Club Gospel is the idea that Christ died for us on the cross so that we could make a club of people who generally look like us and believe what we believe about Jesus and sit around playing patty-cake. 

Now don't get me wrong here; we have some VERY, VERY spiritual and mature looking forms of patty-cake; what with our constant prayer meetings, fellowship meals, and our unquenchable search for more Biblical knowledge that we will never apply to our lives.

The Country Club Gospel happens when we replace God's glory and the brutal, vicious, and BEAUTIFUL truth of Christ's death on the cross and resurrection with our comfort.

Here's are some tests to check your heart:

1.) Do you share your life with ANY non-Christians?

2.) Do you panic more at the thought of losing your job or your friends going to hell when they die?

3.) If the most important/dramatic/explosive spiritual occurrence in your life in the past few months was when one of your friends broke up with one of your other friends, or when two of your friends started dating. . . you might be falling for the Country Club Gospel.

4.) Do you avoid taking the time to apply preaching of the Word of God to your life because you don't want to miss lunch with your friends?

5.) Do you and your friends talk more about you and your friends or God?

Heb. 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

AUTHOR:
Jesus is the author of our faith.  This is some really good news.  Unfortunately, by our christendom subculture, this idea gets really confused a lot of the time, mostly by this question:  "When did you accept Christ?"

The implication of the question is that one day I figured that the gospel made more sense than any of the other explanations of the world and so I essentially saved myself by choosing to believe in Jesus.  The only problem with that is the Bible.  It's going to pretty clearly say that Jesus changes lives, He speaks into our hearts and changes us.  Not the other way around.  He's the author of your faith.  Not you.  He's awesome, you're not really.

So why is that such good news?  Well honestly, it might not be good news.  It might be terrifying news.  It might reveal to you that you're fabricating a faith built on your own religious practices and your understanding and reason.  This is bad -- mostly because you could think you're saved and tight with God when the truth is you've never met the guy and He's never changed you from the inside out.  (Matt. 5:24-29, Matt. 25:31-46)

On the other hand, if Jesus has rocked your world, then the fact that He's the author of your faith is very good news!

Phil. 1:6 "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus"

PERFECTOR:
So, here' the good news.  If you started this thing, then judging by your track record, there's a good chance you're going to fail.  On the other hand, if He started this thing, He's kinda pitching a perfect game if you know what I mean.  Jesus isn't really prone to making mistakes.  And this means we can rest in the assurance of a good God who's carrying out His work in us to completion, even when that work feels REALLY painful.

Jesus made it really clear that He was going to send the Holy Spirit to live in us and to teach us to hate sin and to love the things of God.  The Holy Spirit and the Word of God work together to divide what is spirit from what is flesh (Heb. 4:12).  This can be a painful process.  Your flesh will cry out for it's old addictions and lusts.  Your flesh will HATE every ounce of serving the community around you and the body of Christ.  It hates every reminder that life isn't about you.  But the Holy Spirit works in you in such a way that you start to love it, and live for the moments when you more fully understand that this whole thing is God's and not yours.

Some questions:
1.) Can you see the perfecting work of the Holy Spirit in your life?  Are you learning to hate your old sinful habits, to love the Word of God and to love the things of God? 
     * If not, there's a good chance that you're just playing a religious, social Christian game.
     * If you could at one point, but not so much recently, then QUIT hardening yourself to God's voice. (Heb.  12:25)
2.) Are you stressing out about wondering where God's presence is, sin issues, or thinking you can't mature yourself?
     * He started the work.  He's faithful to carry it on to completion.  If He wants to be quiet for a while to help you understand how much you WANT to hear Him, He's allowed to. 
     * He heals you and purifies you and releases you from addiction and sin.  Why are you trying to do it on your own?  He wants you to know that you need Him and you can't handle it.

Pray, trust, and obey.  Do work son.

"God out of undeserved grace sent His Son, Jesus Christ to take the punishment of death on the cross that we deserved and to satisfy God's wrath and justice."

Let's keep this one short and simple:

God is just.  The wages of sin is death.  God's wrath burns against sin. 
He also loves His kids even though we're idiots.  What to do, what to do?

And so He did what none of us would do; He took His own punishment on Himself in the form of His Son, Jesus Christ.  In all of history the cross alone BOTH proves God's wrath and His grace simultaneously!

Why does it matter?

1.) We need it.  we cannot pay for our own sin.  We can't fix ourselves.  We can't handle our due punishment.  The cross teaches us that we can't earn God's favor. 
** That means, if you're getting really tired of trying to fix yourself, you should stop trying.  Jesus wants to fix you. (Matt. 11:28)
** That means, stop living in guilt.  The punishment is paid for. (Rom. 8:1)
** That means, quit trying to earn God's favor with religion.  He already loves you. (Rom. 5:8)

2.) The cross teaches us to hate sin.  When you consider the vivid picture of God's wrath that is Christ on the cross, suddenly sin loses a little bit of it's luster.
** That means, stop thinking God is cool with you living in sin.  He hates it.
** That means, stop thinking God is cool with you living in sin.  HE HATES IT.

That's it for today.  Jesus paid for your sin.  That means God hates sin, and He loves you.  So love Him back and hate sin too.  DANG it's so simple it's amazing huh?

"We disobeyed His desire for our goodness (sin)"

Today we're gonna talk about a popular three letter word; sin.  Let me just say that this post is probably going to make you uncomfortable.  However, it's the truth and this morning I read John 7:7 where Jesus says, "The world [...] hates me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil."  So now, while all hopped up on spiritual testosterone, I tackle everyone's favorite topic: Sin and You!

Due to the nature of today's post, I decided to start with some indirectly related humor.  This makes me laugh.

We have become a bunch of spiritual libertarians in terms of our sin.  In other words, we don't think our crap stinks.  The vast majority of people in our culture either claim "There's no such thing as sin. . . I'm glad that works for you . . . but who are you to judge me?" or the religious equivalent: "I'm covered in God's grace . . . I got my all paid ticket to heaven . . . so sin doesnt' really concern me too much anymore."

DISCLAIMER:  I'm not that guy standing on the corner yelling at you that you're going to hell because you're a whore monger.  We DO need to clarify a few things about sin if we're going to understand how good the gospel is.

Defining Sin:  First let's understand that sin is more than just breaking the rules.  Romans 14:23: "Whatever does not come from faith is sin."  That's a lot bigger than action.  Sin includes heart motivations (1 Cor. 4:5), attitudes (Heb. 4:12), actions and intended actions (Matt. 5:21-47) that push us away from trusting  and proclaiming God's goodness.

Here's why that matters, EVEN IF (and it's a big freakin' if) you are capable of following all of God's commandments perfectly, at the end of the day you are still full of sin.  The question is not "Did I break the rules?".  The question is "In every single one of my motivations, attitudes, actions and thoughts did I trust and live by faith in God?".

the Heart of Sin:  If sin was simply breaking the rules, then God is just some kind of weird rule-nazi and then the cross isn't going to make any sense at all.  But God isn't all about the rules (though they do matter).  He is all about His own glory.  (See the end of Living in Light of the Gospel (Part 3))

At the heart of this sin issue is the fact that we have replaced God with other things.  We have trusted, feared and lived for money, alcohol, popularity, power, relationships, and more than anything else ourselves.  We have declared, "Alcohol can cure all my problems!"  We have lied to ourselves, "She can satisfy me and make me feel whole!"  We have honestly believed, "I can do it.  I can make life work on my own.  I DO NOT need any help."

The heart of sin is that we have declared with our lives "God isn't God.  He's not even all that good." 

A friend of mine was working at Starbuck's and a girl asked him, "So I have two friends who are lesbians but they are some of the best people I know.  Do you really think God will send them to hell just because they're lesbians?"

He responded absolutely correctly, "No!  No, He won't send them to hell just because they're lesbians.  The lesbian issue is a much smaller issue than the fact that at a heart level they have told God that He is not who He says He is, and He's not good.  I think that is the greatest sin we are guilty of and very deserving of hell."

the Consequences of Sin:  So I know we've all heard it a thousand times, but try to read with fresh eyes and ears Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death".  Can we please go ahead and make that connection.  Think back to the last time you dealt with death; the death of a family member, the death of a best friend.  Remember all the pain and all the desperation.   Remember the hopeless feeling.  That's what we earn by treating God like a piece of crap.  When we turn our backs on God and flick Him off over our shoulder as we walk away, when we live like we're what the story is all about and act like we can fix ourselves; we are ambassadors for death.  We grow it in ourselves and we spread it all around us.  We speak words of death to all around us.  We kill relationships for a buck or our pride.  Emotionally, relationally, physically; we lie to gain, we cheat to gain, we steal to gain and in the end we die and we lose it all.  And in the now, we're already dieing and we don't know how to make it stop.

The weight of sin is a terrifying thing.

Or here's what's even more subtle and sneaky:  Maybe you're great at being a good person.  You are generally nice and you give to some charity in Africa (or twenty) and you value people more than money and if you had to grade yourself, you'd say you're doing alright.  The problem is you end up tricking yourself and other people into thinking that being good will heal them and save them from the consequences of their sin, when only God can.  

Only God can take away the punishment that He's handing out.  Only God can fix our perverted hearts.  Only God can teach us to hate sin.  Only God can reveal the depth and beauty of His glory to us.  Until we own the weight of our sin, we'll never know how much we need Him.

PS (in case you're thinking the good news sounds pretty bad so far, don't worry; things will get better on Monday.)

"God created us in right relationship with Him."

This is a pretty huge statement.  If you know me at all, you know that Genesis chapters 1-3 are some of my favorite chapters in all of scripture.  They are also foundational to a solid understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Go read Genesis 1 right now. Now, go back through it and ask yourself these two questions:  1.) What is the one repeated commentary on God's creation?  2.) Every time He makes something new, what does He have to say about it?

It was good. - If we're ever going to understand the gospel of Jesus Christ, we're first going to have to understand the goodness of God.  From the beginning, the picture of God is a creative, all powerful being who makes GOOD stuff.  He doesn't screw up in the creation process.  He never needs some kind of cosmic eraser. Way too often our picture of God is some kind of cosmic kill-joy who hates you and any kind of fun thing you like to do.  That's just not Him.  He created waterfalls and mountains and sunsets and stars and fruit and all of creation.  He invented the idea of sex and intimate relationship.  He created creative human brains in His image that have come up with banana pudding, twice baked potatoes and water slides! 

Application:  1.) You can go ahead and stop doubting God.  He makes good stuff.  He didn't screw up when He made you.  His essential character is good even when we don't understand what He's doing. 

2.) God's goodness is all around you.  God created the creative brain who created the computer you're using to read this blog right now.  God created the colors you're seeing, never mind the eyes you're using to see them.

It was relational. - God makes mankind in His own image and right away He starts talking to us.  Literally the first thing He does after creating man is to bless them.  In Chapter 1 of Genesis here are the interactions between God and man: 1.) God blesses man;  2.) God talks to man;  3.) God gives man commands;  4.) God provides for man;  5.) God gives man guidance.

The picture is God as a loving father instructing His children.  He whispers in Adam's ear, "Hey go ahead and make some more of yourselves, it'll be a fun process and you're gonna love playing with your children."  Two quick steps over to Eve and God motions over his shoulder to Adam, "I know He's awkward, but trust Me, it's gonna turn out alright."

He wraps His strong arms around both of them and says, "Look at all the beauty.  I'm giving it to you to take care of it and to cultivate it.  Eat all the green plants for food, they won't make you sick.  Watch out for this tree, there are consequences and dangers, but I want what's BEST for you.  I give you my blessing."

Why does it matter?  See, the thing is that God doesn't change (Numbers 23:19, Malachi 3:6).  If He wanted to bless us and walk in relationship with us from the beginning then He still does.  At the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a good, loving Father who LONGS for His children to walk with Him rightly.

He is bigger than us. - Let me just go ahead and stop you before you start reading this and thinking to yourself, "wow I must be awesome, look how much God wants to walk with ME!!!"   The first four words of Genesis are very intentionally: "In the beginning, GOD".  We're going to get into this more as we go, but from the start this thing is His.  He's at the center.  He created it.  He started it.  He blessed us.  He provided for us.  He made.  He is good.  He's worthy of all worship and glory.  Him; not you.

The fact that God is relational is an overflow of who He is and how good He is, and NOT some expression of His loneliness or inadequacy.  That being said, He wants you.  He wants to know you.  He wants to walk with you again.  That's a pretty big invitation into the story of God.

Don't you hate when you're reading along and Jesus smacks you in the face.  This is one of those passages:

Luke 17:10

"Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come immediately and sit down to eat'? But will he not say to him, 'Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink'?  He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he?  So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, 'We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.'"

So, yeah, that oughtta pretty much do it.  Even on all of those days when you are perfect, at best you did only that which you ought to have done. . . And last I checked I'm not racking up too many days of perfection.  Praise Jesus that His righteousness is credited to us!  (See Living in Light of the Gospel (Part 1))

Back to Living in Light of the Gospel tomorrow.

What is the gospel of Jesus Christ?  The question probably sounds pretty elementary.  Yet, I'm terrified that a majority of people who claim Christ (whether young or old believers) do not have a working and full definition of the gospel. 

Problem #1: WORKING DEFINITION:  A working definition is one you understand well enough to be able to explain it in your own words.  You can relate it to your life and other people's lives.  (As opposed to a static memorized definition or a catechisms . . . where you know "the right answer" in words but you don't really understand the concepts.)  If the gospel of Jesus Christ is central to your life, you should have a working definition of what it is.

Problem #2: FULL DEFINITION:  Many people and many churches understand or focus on one aspect of the gospel at the expense of a full understanding.  (Mark Driscoll calls this the sin of theological reductionism.)  For instance, some people focus completely on how much God loves you and in so doing ignore the fact that God hates sin.  Or other people might emphasize the fact that God wants to restore the whole world and so all they talk about is how we are enacting restoration and how we should treat the environment at the expense of the personal work of Christ on the cross that brings new spiritual birth in people.  None of these ideas are wrong.  The point is that emphasizing one without the other aspects is to miss the full picture (WHICH IS A BIG BEAUTIFUL AMAZING PICTURE!).

So here it is:  the gospel of Jesus Christ:

God created us in right relationship with Him.  We disobeyed His desire for our goodness (sin).  We became spiritually dead in our separation and broken relationship with God, and earned eternal death as the due punishment.  God out of undeserved grace sent His Son, Jesus Christ to take the punishment of death on the cross that we deserved and to satisfy God's wrath and justice. Jesus not only died the death we deserve, but He also conquered death and reigns fully alive and victorious over death.  When the truth of the gospel opens our dead hearts and births life in us, we put our full hope, trust and faith in the work of Jesus on the cross, and He sends the Holy Spirit to live in us.  God credits us with the righteousness of Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God in us teaches us to hate sin and to love the things of God (redemption, restoration, love, forgiveness, hope, healing, etc.).

P.S. gospel means good news.  THIS IS ALL FREAKIN GOOD NEWS! (Maybe I should go back and replace all the periods with exclamation points.)
P.P.S. We're going to talk about what the gospel shows us about God, what each part means and how it applies to our lives and scriptural basis for all this in the coming days. Get excited!