Chris DeLuna

Can the Bible's inerrancy be maintained when its own quotations aren't exact?

2012-02-10T01:32:00.013-06:00

On Wednesday, February 8th, I posted the following as my Facebook status update:

At The Fall Eve technically "quoted" the Word of God in response to Satan (Gen. 3:2), but she sinned nonetheless. Quoting Bible verses is pointless if it's not coupled with obedience.

Someone asked, “Is it really a quote if the words/meaning are modified?”

And I replied,

That’s a good question. My answer would be that a quote is verbatim. So the answer wouldbe no. It's not a quote if the words have been modified. Let’s look at the difference between what God said and what Eve said God said:
God said, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:16-17).
Eve said to the Serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die’” (Genesis 2:3).
The point in my post is that Eve understood God’s prohibition as made known by his “word.” She conveyed the prohibition to the Serpent by appealing to God’s word and yet she disobeyed. It's the same for many today. Many people know how to quote (Copy and paste, anyone?), recite, paraphrase, allude to etc. scripture, but it is all useless if we ultimately do not submit to it.

I was not too happy with my initial answer because I didn’t think it through thoroughly, but answered rather in haste. It later dawned on me that the Biblical authors are known for quoting loosely from others and so by our modern standards they aren’t “quoting” directly, but indirectly. Quotes by today’s standards are expected to be verbatim, but one of the principles when reading and interpreting works of antiquity such as the Bible is that we ought not to import our modern standards upon such works, but apply the standards of their time.

The next day I began reading from Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology in preparation for Sunday School and by God’s good providence I came across a section that deals with this issue of loose and free quotations. Grudem writes,

The method by which one person quotes the words of another person is a procedure that in large part varies from culture to culture. In contemporary American and British culture we are used to quoting a person’s exact words when we enclose the statement in quotation marks (this is called direct quotation). But when we use indirect quotation (with no quotation marks) we only expect an accurate report of the substance of the statement. Consider this sentence: “Elliot said that he would return from home for supper right away.” The sentence does not quote Elliott directly, but it is an acceptable and truthful report of Elliott’s actual statement to his father, “I will come to the house to eat in two minutes,” even though the indirect quotation included none of the speaker’s original words.
Written Greek at the time of the New Testament had no quotation marks or equivalent kinds of punctuation, and an accurate citation of another person needed to include only a correct representation of the content of what the person said (rather like our indirect quotations): it was not expected to cite each word exactly. Thus, inerrancy is consistent with loose or free quotations of the Old Testament or of the words of Jesus, for example, so long as the content is not false to what was originally stated. The original writer did not ordinarily imply that he was using the exact words of the speaker and only those, nor did the original hearers expect verbatim quotation in such reporting.

Works Cited
Grudem, Wayne A. "The Inerrancy of Scripture." Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2000. 92+. Pr

A Lack of Faith Versus Misplaced Faith

2012-01-13T19:11:00.002-06:00

I sent a tweet out earlier during the day in which I said, “A lack of faith is as bad if not the same as misplaced faith.” My tweets get posted as FB updates as well. So I finally got around to writing up an explanation. This is what I was thinking when I sent the tweet.

The Apostle Paul expressed “great sorrow” and “unceasing anguish” (Rom. 9:2) for the lost condition of his fellow Jews. He writes, “My heart's desire and prayer to God for them [Israel] is that they may be saved” (Rom. 10:1). The question then is why were they NOT saved despite their “zeal for God” (v. 2). Was it a case of no faith or misplaced faith? It was both.

Paul writes that the reason for their lost condition was that they sought to “establish their own [righteousness]” and “did not submit to God's righteousness” (v. 3, emphasis added). When Paul says they sought to “establish their own [righteousness]” he means they “trusted in themselves that they were righteous” (Lk. 18:9). Trust is another word for faith. They had faith that God would accept them on the basis of their own perceived goodness. This means they found it not only necessary, but also unacceptable to trust in someone other than themselves. They had “a lack of faith” in “God’s righteousness” offered freely through Jesus. Instead of placing their faith in Jesus they fatally misplaced it themselves and it cost them eternal life because “all who rely on works of the law are under a curse” (Gal. 3:10). “No one is justified before God by the law” (v. 11). This is why Paul writes, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil. 3:8-9).

When Paul said he wanted to be “found in [Christ]” he meant he trusted in Christ for acceptance before God on the basis of what Christ did on his behalf. He did not want to try and establish, as he put it, "a righteousness of my own that comes from the law” (self-trust).
The point is that everyone without exception has faith. The issue is what or in whom are you trusting? The object of our faith is what makes the difference between Heaven and Hell.

How do we know if the message at church was Biblical?

2012-01-10T19:01:00.002-06:00

This was originally a Facebook status post and thread but I decided to post it as a blog. I started reading through the Bible at the beginning of this year. I'm currently in Exodus. I’ve been purposely reading slowly and paying attention to every detail. One of the observations I made through Genesis and even in Exodus is that God doesn't ask people to do things. He commands them! Duh. I know. Just bear with me.

I guess I could cite several examples, but consider Moses. God says to him, "I will send you to Pharaoh" (Ex. 3:10). It doesn’t sound as if God was interested in how Moses felt about it yet Moses speaks up nonetheless. He offered the LORD excuses as to why he was not the person to go. He essentially claims he’s a “nobody” (v. 11), that the people of Israel wouldn't believe him (3:13; 4:1) that he's isn’t "eloquent" (4:10) and then finally tells God to "send someone else" (4:13). The presumption! How did God respond? In anger (4:14). Moses finally decides to go once he realizes that God was not asking, but commanding him. I made the following observation about God’s responses to each of Moses’ objections/excuses.

You'd think that God would respond to Moses' objections by motivating Moses much like a modern day feel-good motivational speaker would seek to motivate, but God doesn't do that. God implicitly agrees with Moses' self-assessment and the assessment of his fellow Israelites. God agrees with Moses' objections, but does not accept them as excuses! This is what I mean:

When Moses said he was nobody to be telling Pharaoh what to do God didn't say, "Moses! Have a better self-image. You ARE somebody!" Instead God says, "I'll be with you" (3:12). Moses WAS a nobody in Pharaoh's eyes! But God meant to communicate that the deliverance of the slaves wasn't dependent on who Moses was, but on who God was.

When Moses says to God that the slaves wouldn't believe on his word alone that God sent him (Ex. 4:1-9) God doesn't say to Moses, "Your so negative! Be positive!" God agrees with Moses that the slaves wouldn't believe on Moses' word alone so God grants him the power to perform miracles, "that they may believe that the LORD...has appeared to you" (v.5). Miracles would serve to confirm Moses' divine commission. Next!

Moses says he's not "eloquent" that he's not a good speaker because he's "slow of speech and tongue" (4:10), but again God doesn't say. "Yes you are a good speaker!" God says, "I know that [Aaron] can speak well...he shall speak for you..." (4:14, 16). Appointing Aaron was more an act of mercy and concession on God's part. He could have used Moses just as well because the Exodus didn't depend on Moses' persuasive powers or lack thereof. God had already told Moses that Pharaoh would not listen anyway unless he were "compelled by a mighty hand" (Ex. 3:19) and that was exactly what God planned. He was going to beat Pharaoh into into submission until he cried "uncle!"

In conclusion:
The point in all of this is that God does not need our talents or lack thereof. He needs only our obedience. Moses may have sounded humble on the surface, but unbelief was at the root of all his objections. Disobedience can mask itself as humility.

Taking my queue from the LORD I also learn that a good way to measure whether a sermon is biblical is if at the end of the sermon you’ve grown more confident in God. Motivational speakers seek to build one’s “self-confidence,” but God seeks to build our confidence (faith) in Him. The litmus test of whether a sermon is biblical is whether the preacher exalts the audience or God. At the end of a sermon are you more in awe about your own potential or in awe of God?

How Can a Loving God Send People to Hell?

2011-12-29T17:42:00.001-06:00

When God looked upon Jesus at the cross He saw nothing less than our record of sin. Jesus became the object of God’s wrath not because Jesus himself sinned or even became sinful, but Jesus became the object of God’s wrath because he took our place. The Bible says, “the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Is. 53:6). Jesus suffered the penalty for our sins. This ought to teach us then is that the cross reinforces not nullifies the truth of eternal punishment. Think about it. The Bible says, “[God]…did not spare his own Son but gave him up…” (Rom. 8:32). The fact that Jesus was God’s own and unique Son did not change or overturn God’s relationship to sin. He abhors it. Jesus’ identity i.e. who He was did not cause God to change his mind about sin. God cannot act against his Holy nature. Sin is eternally revolting to God and he will, he must, always punish sin. Therefore, if God did not spare his own Son from suffering the consequences of sin what makes anyone think that God will spare them? It matters little who we are. If we die without forgiveness, God will not spare us. He did not spare his own Son. Some people tragically comfort themselves with the false idea that “we are all God’s children” and that as such a “loving God” would ever send anyone to hell. The Bible does not teach that we are all God’s children. We are all God’s creatures, but we are not all God’s children (John 1:12). Dying without Christ only multiplies guilt. According to the Bible the worst sinner is the Gospel-rejecting sinner (Matt. 11:20-24; Heb. 2:1-4; 10:28; 12:25). The cross is God’s public declaration that He will most certainly always punish sin.

Baby Jesus and Talladega Nights

2011-12-19T13:37:00.004-06:00

Christmas is a wonderful time of the year because we celebrate the birth of Jesus, but I agree with Lucy Bobby, Ricky Bobby’s wife from Talladega Nights (2006), when she chastises Ricky Bobby for imagining Jesus as a perpetual infant. She rebukes him saying, “Jesus did grow up. You don’t always have to call him ‘baby.’” Lol!

Some people find the whole scene offensive. I understand. I wouldn’t defend it, but ironically Ricky Bobby mentions/upholds the hypostatic union of Christ in that he maintains the dual nature of Jesus being 100% human and 100% God. Ricky Bobby says, “newborn Infant Jesus don’t even know a word yet -- just little infant -- so cuddly, but still omnipotent.” At the end of the prayer he calls Jesus, “Baby God.” And there you have it. Jesus never stopped being God even while an infant.

Disclaimer: The last comment contained some elements of sarcastic humor (but some seriousness) and irony. Chris DeLuna has not watched the entire movie (and neither recommends it). Like many, he became familiar with the scene via Youtube.

So while we may laugh at the idea that each person at the table elaborates on their own version of Jesus we must recognize that the scene serves as a mirror of ourselves. The scene reflects the mentality of many of us in that we do not like the Biblical Jesus so we make one of our own likings; a Jesus of our own imagination. Hollywood creates this sin-laden, irreverent movie scene (perhaps as mockery too), but the joke is on us. In my opinion God uses even Hollywood as a mirror to show us our depraved condition. The Bible says, “Unto us a Son is given” (Is. 9:6) not “a son is imagined.”

So how do you imagine Jesus? Is he the one given by God or the one you imagined up?

No Practical Reason for Believing What Isn’t True

2011-12-16T16:55:00.006-06:00

When asked whether there was a “practical reason” for having a religious belief even if such belief wasn't objectively true Bertrand Russell answered,

Well, there can’t be a practical reason for believing what isn’t true. That’s quite –- at least I rule it out as impossible. Either the thing is true or it isn’t. If it is true you should believe it and if it isn’t you shouldn’t. And if you can’t find out whether it's true or whether it isn’t you should suspend judgment. But you can’t – it seems to me fundamental dishonesty and fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it's useful and not because you think it’s true.

I found myself agreeing in principle with Russell’s answer. As Christians if we know anything we should especially know that the nature of truth itself calls for and obligates us to believe it first and foremost because it is true. We must believe what is true before we ever “like it” or even find it useful. Anything less is self-delusion. Unlike Russell I affirm that God is knowable yet agree with Russell that truth is absolute (Relativism is self-defeating/self-contradictory).

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Additional thoughts…
I don’t know whether the woman’s questions are her own or she, as an interviewer, is trying to objectively represent theists who reject the atheistic worldview.

The rationale behind her question of an external and “imposed” authority is this; it is argued that since humanity cannot determine for itself between right and wrong (because right and wrong does not originate with us) right and wrong must be sought from “outside” ourselves. Truth is transcendent. For the Christian this “outside” source is none other than the Triune God of the Bible and the very essence of sin is to depart from this most basic truth. ALL sin and rebellion has at its root the very thought of self-rule. The prophet Isaiah spoke of it in this way, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way” (53:6). So from a strictly Biblical worldview sin is described in terms of straying from the Shepherd and going “his own way.”

THE ATHEISTIC ALTERNATIVE
But going one’s own way (self-rule) is precisely the thing that Russell advocates because “what is imposed on you from outside is of no value. It doesn’t count.” This is another way of saying we can pick and choose what we want to obey. The interviewer calls it a “personal ethic.” Russell argues for the establishment of an internal “rational morality” in place of an external transcendent divine authority. In other words, he argues that we don’t need God to be good. We can define for ourselves what is good and bad. We can be good without God.

POST EDIT:
As far as right and wrong are concerned Christians make a distinction between what we instinctively and internally know what is right and wrong (conscience) and between special revelatory knowledge. We cannot have personal knowledge about God unless he condescends and reveals Himself. The Bible is categorically special revelatory knowledge. It is available to all. The Bible makes sense of the world for us; it’s beginning, its purpose and its end. Contrary to what many atheists think, the Bible is not primarily a book about “how to be good” but more so a historical narrative that man is indeed not good and what God did to redeem us because of his loving-kindness and grace.

Four Reasons Why No Bible Translation is ever Completely Successful

2011-12-14T14:00:00.003-06:00

No translation is ever completely successful, however, whether of the Bible or any other text. All translations fall short for a variety of reasons.

First, no two languages are equivalent in their vocabulary, sounds, rhythms, idioms, or underlying structure. Nor are any two cultures out of which languages arise equivalent in their way of understanding and expressing reality, their value systems, or their social and political organization, among other factors.
Second, the meaning of a text includes much more than its abstract thought. The sounds and rhythms of words, word play and puns, emotional overtones, metaphor, figurative language, and tone are just some of the other devices that carry meaning. No translation can transfer all these things from one language to another.
Third, all translation requires interpretation. One cannot convey meaning in a second language without first deciding what it means in the original. This step of interpretation in translation is unavoidable and imperfect; equally skilled and well-meaning scholars will interpret differently.
Fourth, a traditional translation requires one to choose a single possibility—whether of a word or an interpretation— when in fact two or more may be plausible.

Nelson, Bibles. "An Introduction to The [expanded] Bible." Introduction. The Expanded Bible: New Testament. [S.l.]: Nelson Bibles, 2009. Print.

Why I Love Paul

2011-10-25T15:10:00.008-05:00

I’m in awe of this amazing privilege afforded me by the grace of God of being able to read and study God’s word especially as I prepare to teach and preach weekly at Church of Grace. We’re currently in chapters 16-18 in Acts (Paul’s second missionary journey); obviously no one is to be compared to Jesus since the Lord is in a category all to himself; he’s uncontested; yet among “the rest of us” I can think of no one more admirable and greater than the Apostle Paul. A reading through the New Testament leaves no one in doubt that Paul was a man who truly bore, as he put it, “the marks of Jesus” (Gal. 6:17). I attempt to read through Acts weekly especially paying attention to the immediate context from which I am preaching. I made the following observation today; here’s a glimpse into Paul's highly admirable character.

“Now while Paul was waiting for [Silas and Timothy] at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16); he began “preaching Jesus and the Resurrection” (v. 18). “After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth…And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks. When Silas and Timothy [finally] arrived from Macedonia, Paul was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus” (Acts 18:1, 3-5).

It is clear to me that Paul most certainly did not equate “waiting” with
“inactivity.” “While Paul was waiting for [Silas and Timothy] (Acts 17:16)…[he]
was occupied with the word, testifying to the Jews that the Christ was Jesus”
(18:5). These little details are easy to miss hence the reason for “paying attention” to the text. I love Paul because as he strengthened the churches he planted he also strengthens me, not him, but Christ in him. He was a man of humility always attributing who he was and what he did to Christ. He wrote,

“By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of [the other Apostles], though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

And

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

I love Paul because he makes me love Jesus more. Well, not he, but ultimately God causes me to love him more. You know what I mean.

Six Confedreate Soldiers Buried at old Nuecestown Cemetery

2011-07-13T15:43:00.006-05:00

I’d been doing some research on a historical building of my hometown of Robstown, TX. During my research I decided to visit a cemetery a few miles away that I’d always been curious about. I didn’t even know the name of the cemetery before I visited. Once there I noticed some of the gravestones had written “Nueces-Town.” I knew of no town by that name so I made a note-to- self to look into it further. Not surprisingly I discovered that the cemetery is named Nuecestown Cemetery because it served the original residents of the Nuecestown community. Nuecestown was founded in 1852, but its decline began when the St. Louis, Brownsville, and Mexico Railway bypassed the town in 1905. At present the only remains of the old town is the preserved schoolhouse and the cemetery. During my visit to the cemetery I noticed some confederate flags and so I went over to take a look and discovered that buried at this site are six confederate veterans of the Civil War. Here are the pictures.

What is the church's role in culture?

2011-06-28T23:20:00.001-05:00

Vimeo: Matt Chandler, Michael Horton and Tim Keller answer perennial questions: Put another way, how does the church equip members to carry out their callings in the world?

Chandler, Horton, and Keller on the Church in Culture from The Gospel Coalition on Vimeo.

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Spurgeon on Altering Impolite Biblical Language

2011-06-01T00:16:00.003-05:00

I have heard men, with prudish and mock-modesty, who would like to alter the Bible; and (I almost blush to say it) I have heard ministers alter God's Bible, because they were afraid of it. Have you never heard a man say, "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not"—what does the Bible say?—"Shall be damned." But that does not happen to be polite enough, so they say, "Shall be condemned." Gentlemen, pull the velvet out of your mouths; speak God's word; we want none of your alterations. I have heard men in prayer instead of saying, "Make your calling and election sure," say "Make your calling and salvation sure." Pity they were not born when God lived far—far back that they might have taught God how to write. Oh, impudence beyond all bounds! Oh full-blown self-conceit! To attempt to dictate to the All-wise—to teach the Omniscient and instruct the Eternal. Strange that there should be men so vile as to use the penknife of Jehoiakim to cut passages out of the word, because they are unpalatable. O ye who dislike certain portions of Holy Writ, rest assured that your taste is corrupt, and that God will not stay for you little opinion. Your dislike is the very reason why God wrote it, because you out not to be suited; you have no right to be pleased. God wrote what you do not like; he wrote the truth. -Charles Spurgeon

"Wasting" it on Jesus? Really?

2011-05-19T02:14:00.000-05:00

Some thoughts from tonight's reading through the Gospel according to Mark:

The Bible says that Judas didn’t care about the poor but “was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it” (John 12:6). So as I was reading the Gospel according to Mark I saw it as no coincidence that Mark places Judas’ conspiracy to betray Jesus to the chief priests in the context of Jesus’ anointing at Bethany by the woman with the alabaster jar (Mark 14:1-10). Matthew does the same thing and places these incidents together (Matthew 26:6-16). Since in Judas’ judgment this oil was nothing less than a misappropriation of ministry funds (because none of it benefited himself) it became the straw that broke the camels back. Mark says that when the woman with the alabaster box poured the entire oil-based perfume on Jesus “some of those present” (vs. 4) became indignant and “scolded her” for the apparent wastefulness. Matthew on the other hand gets a little more specific and says that it was “the disciples” (Matt. 26:8) who were indignant. The Gospel of John however places Judas as the instigator of the protest. The passage says,

But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it (John 12:4-6).

Judas appraised the oil at “more than three hundred denarii” (vs. 5). A denarius was a day’s wage at the time. Placing this price in modern terms we take the current hourly minimum wage of $7.25 and multiply it with an 8-hour workday. This equals $58 a day; a modern day “denarius.” Judas appraised the expensive ointment at over three hundred workdays, which amounts to $17,400 ($58x300 = $17,400). This is roughly a year’s income for the average worker. So Judas’ eyes saw the equivalent of someone’s annual income spent on only one ministry “staff person.” Of course the real reason for his indignation was that he wouldn’t see any of it go to him personally. He said, "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" but what he was really thinking was "Why was this ointment wasted on Jesus instead of it being sold for three hundred denarii and given not to the poor, but to me?" Jesus knew exactly what Judas was thinking and saw Judas influence the other disciples so that they too voiced concerns, but their concern for the poor was most likely genuine. They had no idea of the evil brooding in Judas’ internally yet they were on his side externally. So as I stated the Bible places Judas’ decision to betray Jesus in this context and therefore it is safe to conclude that this was the incident that cemented his decision to betray Jesus as if to compensate for lost money. After all, this is how he approached the religious leaders who were seeking to arrest Jesus. He asked, "What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?" And they paid him thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:15). Judas didn’t recognize the worth of Jesus, but rather devalued and demeaned Him by clearly implying that Jesus wasn’t worth a year’s wages.

What about us? What do we withhold from Jesus because we think it’s a waste? What do we keep from Jesus because we don’t think Jesus worthy of it and yet in our withholding are we not saying we’re worthy of such things?

Society’s Schizophrenia with Disabled Children

2011-04-19T07:00:00.001-05:00

A survey of pediatricians and pediatric surgeons revealed that more than two out of three would go along with parents’ wishes to deny lifesaving surgery to a child with Down syndrome. On the one hand, we provide special parking and elevators for the handicapped. We talk tenderly about those poster children with spins bifida and Down syndrome. We sponsor the Special Olympics and cheer on the competitors, speaking joy and inspiration they bring us. But when we hear a woman is carrying one of these very children, we say, “kill it.”

Alcorn, Randy C. "What About Disabled and Unwanted Children?" Why Pro-Life? Sandy, Or.: Eternal Perspective Ministries, 2004. 85-86. Print.

What About Disabled and Unwanted Children?

2011-04-18T16:51:00.008-05:00

Some argue, “It’s cruel to let a handicapped child be born into a miserable and meaningless life.” But what do the disabled think about their lives? Spina bifida patients were asked whether their handicaps made life meaningless and if they should have been allowed to die after birth. “Their unanimous response was forceful. Of course they wanted to live! In fact, they thought the question was ridiculous.”

I heard a pro-choice say of a severely handicapped child, “Should a woman be forced to bring a monster into the world?” Only by using such words can we deceive ourselves into believing them. The term vegetable is another popular word for disadvantaged humans. Such terminology dehumanizes people in our eyes but doesn’t change who they are.

A bruised apple is still an apple. A blind dog is still a dog. A senile woman is still a woman. A handicapped child is still a child. A person’s nature and worth aren’t changed by a handicap.

Alcorn, Randy C. "What About Disabled and Unwanted Children?" Why Pro-Life? Sandy, Or.: Eternal Perspective Ministries, 2004. 84+. Print.

Providence: “It is Raining” versus “God sends Rain”

2011-03-19T08:00:00.005-05:00

A few days ago I was caught off guard with a sudden and unexpected rain. I was outside my home and my three year old verbally made the observation that it was raining. I responded by saying, “Jesus is making it rain.” I immediately chuckled when without any hesitation she responded, “He’s making it rain really hard.” I thought it amazing that she didn’t question my claim when I directly ascribed the activity of rain to the Lord. When it finally stopped raining my son and I went to the backyard to play catch despite the mud. Moments later my three year-old emerged through the backdoor, looked around with astonishment and exclaimed, “Jesus made it a mess!” D.A. Carson makes the observation that, “The writer of Ecclesiastes knows of the water cycle, but Biblical authors prefer to speak of God sending the rain than to say, ‘It is raining.’”1 This is an observation we shouldn’t miss for it speaks of the sovereignty and providence of God. Jesus too said, “For [God]…sends rain…” (Matt. 5:45, cf Acts 14:17).

1. Carson, D. A. "The Mystery of Providence." How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006. 180. Print.

“The stereotype of a ‘hell-fire’ preacher…cannot be found in the Bible.” D.A. Carson

2011-03-18T13:30:00.009-05:00

The God of the Bible is not unmoved by our suffering. He is slow to anger, abundant in mercy. The Jesus who delivers the terrible “woes” to the religious hypocrites of his day (Matt. 23) ends up weeping over the city of Jerusalem: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate” (Matt. 23:37-38). The stereotype of a “hell-fire” preacher really letting his hearers have it cannot be found in the Bible. Though the Bible speaks plainly, and sometimes in fury, it never does so without tears. And Christians can never forget that they too, like the rest, are by nature objects of wrath. They never warn others about the wrath of God from a position of superiority, but from the brokenness of experience and the relief of redemption they want to share.

Carson, D. A. "Jesus' Teaching on Hell." How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006. 90-91. Print.

ACTS Bible Study: Acts 1:1-3

2011-02-24T18:10:00.000-06:00

I'm currently preaching-teaching through the New Testament book The Acts of the Apostles. These ACTS videos are a cross between a Bible study and Biblical commentary. My aim is to stir up your interest in the Bible and make information easily accessible to you. God bless you!

Understanding the Bible: About Chapter Divisions

2011-02-23T17:52:00.001-06:00

The individual books of the Bible did not originally contain chapter
divisions. Chapter divisions were introduced centuries later. This was
not a bad thing. Designating chapters and verses were a great idea!
However, we must ignore the chapters and verses divisions when reading
the Bible. In this video I explain why.

How Luke describes Gospel Preaching in Acts

2011-02-08T10:48:00.000-06:00

I've been reading through book of Acts since this weekend and continued to do so even today. I started in Acts 8 and decided to make note of the specific words Luke uses to describe the preaching of the Gospel. These bullet points aren't exhaustive, but here they are nonetheless:

* Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ (Acts 8:5).

* “Philip…preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 8:12).

* “[The Apostles]…testified and [spoke] the word of the Lord” (Acts 8:25).

* “Philip…told [the Ethiopian eunuch] the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:35).

* “Philip…preached the gospel” (Acts 8:40).

* “[Paul]…proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues” (Acts 9:20).

* “Speaking the word” (Acts 11:1).

* The angel said to Cornelius, “Peter will declare to you a message by which you will be saved, you and all your household” (Acts 11:14).

* When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews (Acts 13:5).

Notice that communicating the Gospel is spoken of in terms of preaching, testifying, proclamation, speaking, telling and declaring. Every single one of these words describes oral communication. The Gospel is a message that by necessity requires words.

What's the difference between American's concept of Freedom and Christian Freedom?

2011-01-04T16:37:00.001-06:00

The difference between the American view of freedom and the Biblical view of freedom is that American freedom sees freedom as an end in itself. The goal is to possess and secure the freedom to choose and do as we please. It is selfish and inwardly focused. What one chooses is irrelevant so long as the right to choose is granted.

Biblical freedom on the other hand is not concerned with securing individual rights, but in removing restraints that keep people from loving and serving one another. The Bible says, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another” (Gal. 5:13). The Christian must not make the mistake of assuming that the American concept of freedom is the same concept as the Biblical concept of freedom. Christians are people who “were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another” (Titus 3:3). We were enslaved to self and whatever freedom we thought we had was not exercised for the good of others, but for our selfish desires. The Bible does not call this freedom, but enslavement to sin and self. The American freedom so many boast of today is not freedom at all, but a form of enslavement. This is the effect of sin. It blinds and makes evil to appear good.

When Music Soothes the Downcast Soul

2011-01-02T22:59:00.003-06:00

This album reminds me of when I was living in San Antonio and was going through a personal dark period especially as I questioned my faith altogether. My wife Letty was concerned, but didn’t know what to do except try to soothe my troubled soul through music. She brought home Shaun Groves' album entitled Invitation to Eavesdrop. I can honestly say it helped a little, but I eventually discovered that the culprit was bad Bible teaching. My head was ringing from weekly contradictions and my inability to sort them out was killing me. Anyways. I believe it was Martin Luther that said, “Next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world.”

The song Welcome Home is very poetic and heavy on the metaphors. The song is about surrendering to Christ completely as he seeks to dwell in us in order to sanctify us. The metaphors work nicely to this end especially when he sings, “Scrape away the guilty stains until no sin or shame remain. Spread Your love upon the walls and occupy the empty halls until the man I am has faded. No more doors are barricaded.” Here the song and the lyrics in their totality.

Verse:
Welcome to this heart of mine
I've buried under prideful vines
Grown to hide the mess I've made
Inside of me
Come decorate, Lord
Open up the creaking door
And walk upon the dusty floor
Scrape away the guilty stains
Until no sin or shame remain
Spread Your love upon the walls
And occupy the empty halls
Until the man I am has faded
No more doors are barricaded

Chorus:
Come inside this heart of mine
It's not my own
Make it home
Come and take this heart and make it
All Your own
Welcome home

Verse:
Take a seat, pull up a chair
Forgive me for the disrepair
And the souvenirs from floor to ceiling
Gathered on my search for meaning
Every closet's filled with clutter
Messes yet to be discovered
I'm overwhelmed, I understand
I can't make this place all that You can

Repeat chorus
I took the space that You placed in me
Redecorated in shades of greed
And I made sure every door stayed locked
Every window blocked, and still You knocked
repeat chorus
Take me, make me
All You want me to be
That's all I'm asking, all I'm asking

"Turn and live" declares the LORD GOD

2010-12-31T18:22:00.006-06:00

As the New Year approaches I am comforted by the truth that with God “there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). God does not change. He will not change His mind about me or any other believer since the good He’s purposed towards us is based on neither our goodness nor badness, but is “according to the riches of his grace” (Eph. 1:7). God’s kind intentions are further solidified through Jesus’ personal assurance. He said, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Lk. 12:32). Since I am a believer only by the grace of God and therefore a “sheep” of His flock it is permissible for me to personalize the verse by rendering it this way: “Fear not, [Chris DeLuna], for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Therefore even through 2011 “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in [me] will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). “For those who love God” (Rom. 8:28) we can be certain that God will continue to work “all things…together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

As this New Year approaches I am also comforted by His Sovereignty. The earth has made another a full circle around the sun just as God appointed since the beginning of creation. When God created the sun and the moon he said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years…” (Gen 1:14). Even now the LORD actively “upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3), but its days are numbered. The Bible says this present “world is passing away” (1 Jn. 2:17). He who is married to this age will be a widow in the next. God will usher in a new age with a new earth in which “night will be no more. [God’s people] will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light” (Rev. 22:5). Do not be unbelieving. The day of the great divide will surely come. God will forever separate light from darkness, sheep from goats and saints from sinners. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). “Nothing unclean will ever enter [the Kingdom of Heaven], nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27). How about you? Is your name written in the Lamb’s book of life?

Unbeliever, unless you repent this is your fate. If you die in unbelief you will immediately be ushered into hell, but in due time hell will give you up so that you may appear at “the Great White Throne” (Rev. 20:11). Your entire life will have been recorded in "the books” (Rev. 20:12). Jesus’ word will prove true for he said, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matt. 12:26). You will especially answer for having derided God and His people, the church. Jesus takes every infraction against his church personally. Like any good and honorable husband Jesus protects and defends his wife’s honor because He loves his bride, the church, as his own body (Eph. 5:28). This is the attitude in which Jesus confronted Saul of Tarsus when Saul was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1). Notice how Jesus phrased the question to Saul. "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" (Acts 9:4).

God the Judge will take His seat at the great white throne, the books will be opened and you will be judged according to what is written in the books. God will swing his gavel for the final time and formally consign you to “the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14) for eternity, but why suffer such a fate? As the Lord has previously pleaded he continues to do so even today saying, “Why will you still be struck down? Why will you continue to rebel?” (Is. 1:5). As he pleaded with Israel before He pleads with us too, “Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord GOD; so turn, and live" (Ezekiel 18:30-32). Do you not know that God’s sword is always sharpened? He has “bent and readied his bow; he has prepared for him his deadly weapons, making his arrows fiery shafts” (Ps. 7:12-13) so that he is always ready to “repay those who hate [Him]” (Deut. 32:41). “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day” (Ps. 7:11). “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” (Heb. 2:3). We will indeed not escape if we neglect salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Turn to Christ and live!

What the Virgin Mary Knew

2010-12-17T11:20:00.005-06:00

I'm currently reading through the Gospel of Luke in preparation for Sunday morning and I was reminded of the song Mary Did You Know as I read through Luke 1:26-56. I thought that I’d look at what exactly did Mary know as far as Luke 1 is concerned. While I would love to do a survey of all four Gospels and study Mary’s knowledge and view of Jesus such a task is laborious and time at the moment does not permit.

Here’s what Mary knew as far as Luke 1 is concerned.

Mary knew she had “found favor with God” (Lk. 1:30).
Mary knew that her child was “the Son of the Most High” (Lk. 1:32) “the Son of God” (Lk. 1:35).
Mary knew that her “baby boy” would restore the Davidic throne and “reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Lk. 1:33).
Mary knew that a miraculous birth would not be “impossible with God" (Lk. 1:37).
Mary knew that all generations would call her blessed (Lk. 1:48).
Mary knew how to praise God (Lk. 1:46-47).
Mary knew that God looks on the humble and opposes the proud (Lk. 148, 51-53).
Mary knew that God is Mighty and Holy (Lk. 1:49)
Mary knew that God is faithful to His promises (Lk. 1:54-55).

By the way...I highly recommend the movie The Nativity Story. I love the portrayal of Joseph. Joseph's character is reflective of Matthew 1:19. It says Joseph was "a just man." He's honorable and the love and care he shows for Mary is impressive and worthy of emulation. Mary too is a great example of faith. We do well to emulate it.

Family Fun: Make up your own games!

2010-11-23T10:01:00.021-06:00

Parents often have the false idea that they cannot please their kids without spending money either by buying them elaborate gifts or taking them on expensive outings, but I’ve learned through experienced parenting (10 years now) that children cherish quality time spent with their parents. Kids are easier to please then we think.

There is no lack of imagination at our home so often times we’ll usually make up games at home. There are several games we’ve made up on a whim, but this is one I made up last night. Don’t laugh. Here’s a list of the materials. You’ll need:

Flag Football Belt:

You’ll use it in the same way as used for flag football, but if you don't have one then improvise just like you do with flag football.

A Timer

Our desktop computer is in our living room so we used a “bomb timer.”

An Ice Pack

Someone’s bound to get hurt especially since this game involves dad.

A Coffee Table (optional)

You’ll need the edge so that someone can accidentally bang his or her head on it. Where's the fun if no one gets hurt?

A Nurse

The nurse role isn’t part of the role-playing. Moms make the best nurses.

The Object of the Game
Ok. Now for the object of the game. The idea is that the kids have to “save the day” by disarming/defusing the bomb attached to the villain (Dad). No. He's not a suicide bomber. The kids have to pull the flag football belt off thus disarming the bomb. The online timer has a ring at the end so they’ll know when the time is up. It gets dramatic! We set it to 30 seconds and one minute. Dad, you have to make it a bit difficult, but you have to let them pull it. There’s no point in making it impossible. Where’s the fun in that? The game seems silly, but it gets you spending time with the kids. The wrestling part is fun too. Nacho Libre!

So not surprisingly on the last go around we wondered towards the coffee table in our struggle and my son Cris took a fall banging his head on the edge of the coffee table. It was good to end on that note because whining and begging continues for a while if dad has to end the game. The injury on the other hand ends the game “since someone got hurt.” ☺

Sofia felt Cris needed frozen Franks instead of a wimpy ice pack.
So there you have it. Have fun, but bumps and bruises are inevitable. It’s part of growing up. The fun and memories of “playing with dad” outweighs the risk of bumps and bruises unless you end up in the ER. That's no fun.

Moses as God to Pharaoh Part 1

2010-10-17T22:58:00.004-05:00

God said to Moses, “You shall be as God to [Pharaoh]” (Ex. 4:16). What did God mean by that statement? Moses was like God to Pharaoh in the sense that God appointed Moses to speak to Pharaoh in the place of God. Pharaoh was to receive Moses’ word as nothing less than God’s word. When Moses said, “Let my people go” he was not speaking for himself saying “let my fellow Hebrew people go.” It was no one less than God Himself speaking to Pharaoh through Moses saying, “Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness” (Ex. 5:1).

Furthermore Moses said, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood” (Ex. 7:17). Moses spoke to Pharaoh saying, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord” yet we know that Moses did not mean that he was “the LORD.” Moses spoke in the first person because he spoke as God’s appointed representative, but never at anytime did Moses think he was literally “a god.” The verse says, “By this you shall know that I am the Lord: behold, with the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water that is in the Nile, and it shall turn into blood” (Ex. 7:17). Notice that Moses says in his next breath, “behold, with the staff that is in my hand.” Clearly this is a reference to Moses’ literal staff. The LORD was communicating in the strongest of terms that to reject Moses was to reject the LORD. Moses held a unique position and relationship with the LORD that no one else shared and The LORD reinforced this reality in Numbers 12. After the Exodus Miriam and Aaron became disgruntled with Moses because of his marriage to a “Cushite woman” (Num. 12:1) and they sought to undermine Moses and blur the God appointed distinction. They grumbled saying “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” (Number 12:2). The Bible says, “And the LORD heard it” (Vs. 2b). The LORD became angry and called out Miriam and Aaron to account for their speech,

“Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. 7Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 8With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 9And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed” (Number 12:6-9).

The LORD judged Miriam by giving her leprosy yet even then Moses interceded on her behalf and the LORD eventually healed her, but not before she was shamed by a seven day expulsion from the Israelite camp (Num. 12:14-15). Moses was initially called to save the Hebrews from their enslavement to Egypt. He was their God appointed savior. But Moses eventually served as their judge. He was Israel’s first judge. Exodus 18 recounts how Moses “judged the people…from morning till evening” (Ex. 18:13).

to be continued...

Are Human Beings Spirits?

2010-10-13T01:29:00.005-05:00

Apart from the erroneous Genesis 1:26 extrapolation that men can speak things ex nihilo just like God it’s difficult to get a full grasp what Word of Faith proponents mean exactly when they say that we are “spirits.” I even had someone tell me this week “we are a spirit, just like God…” We are certainly like God, but we aren’t a spirit, just like God. God the Father is Spirit and does not possess physicality. We know God the Father through Jesus because “in [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9). “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). One of the marks of W-F theology is the redefining of Biblical words and concepts. The word spirit seems to have suffered the same fate. Are we spirits? What about Jesus? Was he a spirit? How did he define spirit?

We know Jesus is not a spirit because he took great pains to prove this fact when he had risen from the dead. Jesus’ disciples thought they were seeing “a spirit” when he appeared to them yet Jesus corrected their misperceptions by saying, “For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have" (Lk. 24:39). His statement is clear. He is not a spirit, but a human being with corresponding physicality. Spirits by nature do not possess physicality. This however is not a denial that human beings are spiritual. We are certainly spiritual because we have a spirit yet we are not a spirit. Our being consists of a body and spirit/soul unity. God meant for us to be physical. This is the point of a promised resurrection with Christ as the first fruits. The resurrection guarantees our continued existence as physical beings yet our physically resurrected and glorified bodies will be completely under the control of a supernatural/spiritual nature yet this does not deny physicality. Therefore it is more accurate to say that we are spiritual beings as opposed to saying we are spirits.

Here’s some further insight from Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology:

In the New Testament spirit is also seen as that dimension of human personality whereby relationship with God is possible (Mark 2:8 ; Acts 7:59 ; Rom 1:9 ; 8:16 ; 1 Cor 5:3-5 ). It is this human spiritual nature that enables continuing conversation with the divine Spirit (Rom 8:9-17).

To be fair here is a larger portion of the earlier mentioned quote,

“…we are a spirit , just like God and therefore, are able to hear God if we are spirits washed in the blood, able to then connect with God, through Jesus.”

If this quote means what the Baker Evangelical Dictionary means then there really isn’t an issue with it. The dictionary however relegates spirit as a “dimension of human personality” and not the totality of it.

The Bible's Call for Division AND Unity

2010-10-11T11:51:00.007-05:00

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household" (Matt 10:34-36).

One of the unfortunate things about people’s reading of this passage is that it almost always gets interpreted ONLY as division between a believer and an unbeliever and we fail to understand that the passage has some application between professing believers. This is the reason why. The Bible calls for division (2 Cor. 6:17) as much as it calls for unity (1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 1:27). The Bible even calls Christians to divide themselves from others who cause division (Titus 3:10), but isn’t this a contradiction? Isn’t it a contradiction one the hand to call for unity and on the other hand to call for division? It’s only a contradiction if one believes in unity at all costs. What the Bible means is that we must distinguish between NECESSARY division and UNNECESSARY division. One the one hand the Bible says to “contend for the faith” (Jude 3) and by using the scriptures we ought to reprove and correct (2 Tim. 3:16) even commanding us that some must be rebuked “sharply” (Titus 1:13) for their divisiveness. I don't know about you, but such commands seem divisive and sound they'd stir up trouble. You see, when the Bible says not to divide it means that we ought not to divide over things not worth dividing over that is things that do not have anything to do with the essentials of the faith. The Bible does not issue a blanket unqualified call neither for division or unity. There are some essential Bible truths that must always be fought for because if changed they would destroy the very foundation for saving faith. The Bible says “watch out for those who cause divisions” yet it issues that warning by identifying the type of division being introduced. It says, “watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles CONTRARY TO THE DOCTRINE that you have been taught” (Rom. 16:17). Christians are being obedient to the scriptures when they warn fellow Christians about other so-called believers causing division because they introduce false teaching into the church. They are truly the ones who cause unbiblical division. It is naïve and unbiblical to say that Christians ought not to speak out against other Christians because “it causes division” such persons, in my opinion, show they don’t understand the nature of the matter.

We do not become perfect the moment we are converted to Jesus. The Bible says, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…” (Rom. 12:2). The root of our problems is unbiblical thinking rooted in our sinful nature. We all have ungodly minds that must be intentionally made to conform to the mind of Christ. We’ll always be in process of ridding ourselves of false beliefs and ideologies even in the areas that pertain to what we think it means to be a Christian. God calls Christians to unite around truth and truth is impartial. It is not a respecter of persons. Truth will call us out regardless of whether one is a believer or not. We are to conform to the truth not conform the truth to us. Peter was the leader of the Apostles yet Paul rebuked him when he saw that Peter’s “conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:14). Peter’s behavior swayed because his mind reverted back to his old ways. Christians are called to unite around the truth of God and the by-product of this is nothing less than division. Following Jesus is not for the fainthearted. Cowardice is a sin (Matt. 10:31-33 ; Rev 21:8) and cowardice is easily cloaked behind platitudes such as “we shouldn’t be divided.” Following Jesus is divisive at its very core.

Why the Gospel isn't just for the lost, but for the saved too

2010-10-05T10:16:00.006-05:00

From Pastor Tim Keller:
Paul said to the Corinthians, "I gave you birth through the gospel"! And then, after it has regenerated us, it is the instrument of all continual growth and spiritual progress after we are converted. "All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth." (Col. 1:6). Here we learn:

That the gospel is a living thing (cf. Romans 1:16) which is like a seed or a tree that brings more and more new life--bearing fruit and growing.
That the gospel is only "planted" in us so as to bear fruit as we understand its greatness and implications deeply--understood God's grace in all its truth.
That the gospel continues to grow in us and renew us throughout our lives--as it has been doing since the day you heard it.

This text helps us avoid either an exclusively rationalistic or mystical approach to renewal. On the one hand, the gospel has a content--it is profound doctrine. It is truth, and specifically, it is the truth about God's grace. But on the other hand, this truth is a living power that continually expands its influence in our lives, just as a crop or a tree would grow and spread and dominate more and more of an area with roots and fruit.

The full essay can be obtained here: The Centrality of the Gospel

Law to the Proud & Grace to the Humble Evangelistic Priniciple

2010-10-04T17:46:00.002-05:00

The following is a great principle to continually keep in mind in our evangelistic endeavors. It is taken from Ray Comfort's book, What Did Jesus Do? A free PDF copy can be downloaded here.

Scripture tells us that “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble”(James 4:6). Those who have a humble heart, who recognize their sin and see their desperate need for God’s mercy, will understand the gospel of grace. But the proud and self-righteous—those who proclaim their own goodness (see Proverbs 20:6)—don’t see their need for the Savior. They need the Law to show them the righteous standard that God requires.

Biblical evangelism therefore follows the principle of “Law to the proud,and grace to the humble.”If someone is proud and self-righteous—like the self-righteous man who ran to the Savior and asked how to be saved—we must do what Jesus did. We should give him the Law to show him the nature of sin. If he is humble of heart (already possessing the knowledge of sin), such as in the case of Nicodemus,then we should do what Jesus did and give him grace.

It is as simple as sowing seed. A wise farmer always checks the soil before he plants seed. If the soil has stones, he removes them. If it is hard, he breaks it up. He knows that if he wants to successfully grow a crop, he must properly prepare the soil before he sows the precious seed. That’s the principle behind the evangelistic use of the Law: “Law before grace.”

Demons more enlightened than the lost?

2010-10-01T15:07:00.005-05:00

21 And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. 22And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. 23And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, 24 "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are— the Holy One of God." 25But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" 26And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. 27And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." (Mark 1:21-27)

To my astonishment I made the following observations about this passage.

The demon recognized the true identity of Jesus
The demon was not self-deceived. He knew exactly where he stood in relation to Jesus. He was an enemy.
He knew the power of Jesus and that Jesus had authority over him and therefore subject to Him.
The demon was obedient to Jesus' command to "be silent, and come out of him!"

This demon seems to do better in some respects in contrast to the lost. The lost do not know the true identity of Jesus and therefore this ignorance serves as the root cause of all the other points. They do not truly know where they stand in relationship to Jesus. They don’t recognize His authority and therefore do not obey. Jesus says to demons “come out” and they do, but to the lost he utters, “repent” and they say “no.” Where do you stand?

Involvement: Key to Effectiveness

2010-09-25T17:20:00.004-05:00

From John MacArthur:

They [Jerusalem church was] effective because they had total involvement. Every church suffers from the syndrome of hangers on. You know I told you there are people who make things happen. There are the people who watch things happen, and there are people who haven't figured out what's happening. And that's what the church suffers from. There are always people in the church who hang on and do nothing. It's a great traumatic experience in their spiritual life to be here in Sunday morning, let along to be involved in communicating Christ during the week, or be out on Sunday night, or be in a Bible study on Thursday evening, or whatever goes on in opportunities and so forth. It is a great thing just for them to manage to get it together for an hour or an hour and twenty minutes. But the Jerusalem church didn't have any of that. They had total involvement. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and they all spoke the word with boldness. Everybody was doing it. Now that's impact, right? No dead weight. Total involvement.

They had neither Grace nor Truth

2010-09-20T03:10:00.005-05:00

It just dawned on me that many of us incorrectly believe that the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day possessed the truth of God yet were poor administrators of such truth because they lacked the necessary accompanying grace. This couldn’t be further from the truth. According to Jesus the religious leaders were completely bankrupt in both departments. They were devoid of truth and as a consequence devoid of grace as well. Jesus brought both “grace and truth.” He didn’t add grace as an improvement to an existing truth establishment. He brought truth and grace because we had neither.

Needing to be Needed

2010-09-14T23:48:00.003-05:00

Once again, from J.I. Packer:

Neighbor-love, as we have seen, seeks the good of the loved ones. For strong neighbor-love to be active in our hearts is a sign of spiritual health. But be careful lest you become one of those people who suffers from the neurosis of needing to be needed-the state of not feeling that you are anything or anybody unless you are able to feel that others cannot get on without you! That is not true neighbor love, nor is it spiritual health. That is lack of spiritual health; it is in fact another form of pride. Our sense of personal worth is to flow, not from our Christian activities, nor from having others depending on us, but from our knowledge that God loved us enough to redeem us at the cost of Calvary.

Redeeming love imparts worth to the otherwise worthless creatures in whom it is invested, making it needless to seek a sense of worth from any other source. And if I am using my neighbors to bolster my sense of self-worth, I am using them, which is something different from loving them. My attitude is likely to make me keep them dependent on me when I ought to be setting them free, and that will be harmful both to them and to me.

One of the disciplines to which the Lord calls us is the willingness, from time to time, not to be used in significant ministry. Jesus modeled this when, having told Peter to bring Him some fish miraculously caught (as we must consecrate to Him the gifts He has given us), He then proceeded apparently to ignore Peter’s offering and to feed the disciples from fish He had prepared independently (see John 21:9,13).

Imagine, now, a devoted and gifted Christian woman, whose ministry has been precious to her, finding that for quite a long period the Lord sidelines her so that her potential is not being used. What us going on? Is that spiritual failure? It is probably not spiritual failure at all, but a lesson in Christ’s school of holiness. The Lord is reminding her that her life does not depend on finding that people need her. The prime source of her joy must always be the knowledge of God’s love for her-the knowledge that though he did not need her, He has chosen to love her freely and gloriously so that she may have the eternal joy of fellowship with Him. Regarding her ministry, what matters is that she should be available to Him. Then He will decide when and how to put her to service again, and she should leave that with Him.

In the spiritual life, what we are always takes priority over what we do. If we lose touch with what we are, and with the reality of God’s free mercy as the taproot of our spiritual life, the Lord may have to sideline us until we have learned this lesson again.

J.I. Packer on the Power of God

2010-09-13T16:53:00.004-05:00

A great word on God’s power by J.I. Packer from his book Rediscovering Holiness (p. 187):

God does not give His power as a possession of our own, a resource to use at our discretion. It should not be necessary to say that, but the amount of talk today about using the power of God shows that this misconception is common. God uses us, calling into play the powers He has given us, as channels through which His own power flows. But we are not storage units like batteries, or receptacles like buckets, in which the potential for power in action can be kept until needed. And we do not use God, or God’s power, as we use electricity, switching it on or off as we like.
Wanting to possess divine power to use at his own discretion was the sin of Simon the sorcerer (Acts 8:18-24). His sin is recorded as a warning, not as an example to follow. The right desire at all times is to be “an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work” (2 Tim. 2:21). The King James Version reads, “a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use,” which is stronger and clearer.
Should Christians speak to us of using the power of God, red flags should flash before our mind. If however, the talk is of how to be usable and useful to God, we should be nodding our heads. Let us see to it that we do not go wrong here.

Distrusting the LORD'S Goodness and His Ability

2010-09-02T11:58:00.010-05:00

Reading the Bible in the midst of discouragement can prove very challenging. I determined to read through the Psalms this week, but I found myself having to do as Paul repeatedly did and “beat my body and make it my slave” (1 Cor. 9:27NIV) because in the midst of discouragement I found my body revolting against the idea of reading through scriptures for hours at a time, but I didn’t fret too much because I, like Paul, recognized that “nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh” (Romans 7:18). So long as we’re in these sinful bodies seeking the Lord will always be a battle, but a battle we can overcome because of the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. I rejoice in the word of God, but “I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand” (Romans 7:21). Christ reigns in the believer, but until He returns and we attain the resurrection we’ll find that sin will continue to wage an insurgency even after its dethronement in our lives.

God as a Refuge
As I read through the Psalms I began to understand more clearly why the LORD described David as “a man after His own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14). There are so many ways in which David pleased the Lord, but space does not permit I cover them all. I saw in the Psalms how David continually sought to please God by conforming himself to the LORD’s likeness in that he even sought to hate what the LORD hates and love what the LORD loves. Though he may have sounded self-righteous at times (a charge we are so quick to make at anyone’s sincere efforts at Christ-likeness) we find that he is indeed not self-righteous (more on this later), but continually confessed his sin before the Lord, “I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin” (Ps. 38:18). David’s boldness and confidence is based on nothing less then his relationship with the LORD. He trusted in the LORD'S mercy. He knew that,

8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. 10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him” (Psalm 103:18-13).

Therefore David repeatedly runs to the LORD for protection. He takes refuge in the “shadow of [the LORD’s] wings” (Ps. 17:8; 36:7). He confessed, “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty” (Ps. 91:1). The LORD is David’s “Rock,” his “Fortress,” the God in whom he “trusts.” It becomes evident that this protection is only for those who fear God and make Him their “dwelling place” (Ps. 91:9). I cannot stress enough that God as “refuge” is a continual theme of David throughout the entirety of the Psalms. Here are a few examples.

• Blessed are all who take refuge in him (Psalms 2:12)
• Let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them (Ps. 5:11)
• Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand (Ps. 17:7)
• The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold (Ps. 18:2).
• But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works (Ps. 73:28)

David “taps” into (for lack of a better way to put it) God’s heart by humbling himself and looking to God for salvation. This is God’s very heart. He delights and takes pleasure in playing the hero. He loves to save anyone who calls on him because it results in praise. His power is placed on display for all to see. He is glorified for His rescue work. This is God’s default disposition. He has about him a divine eagerness and readiness to save those who cast off self-trust and self-reliance and run to Him for protection. God is love. Everyone readily accepts this truth. This is why we find difficulty in accepting the truth that God becomes angry and “full of wrath” towards individuals. Even to the point of hatred. What provokes God to such anger? The people he brought out of Egypt serve as a perfect example of a people that continually tested and provoked God. How did God feel about them? He says, “For forty years I loathed that generation” (Ps. 95:10). Why? “Because they did not believe in God and did not trust his saving power” (Ps. 78:22). No. They weren’t atheists. They certainly believed God existed. They just didn’t believe that he was good or that he was able. "Because they did not believe in [a good] God..." In their eyes God not only lacked benevolence, but they believed he was also impotent (“they...did not trust his saving power”). This, in God’s eyes, was an attack on His very nature. What about you? Do you find yourself not believing in God’s goodness and his ability to rescue you of whatever situation you find yourself in? Make God your refuge today. Read the Psalms and better acquaint yourself with “His ways” (Ps. 95:10) that he may be pleased when we realize we are helpless without Him and thus run to Him in faith.

Satan's Ambition Commendable Before the World?

2010-09-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

It wasn’t long ago that Paul’s statement about not being “outwitted by Satan” (2 Cor. 2:11) struck a chord with me. He says he exercised forgiveness and asked the Corinthians to do likewise so that they would not be “outwitted by Satan” be cause he was not “ignorant of his designs.” Apparently Paul was informed about Satan’s specific strategies and our actions or inactions that may give him the upper hand. Even after unsuccessfully tempting Jesus Luke says the devil did not give up, but simply “departed from [Jesus] until an opportune time” (Lk. 4:13). All this has caused me to ask myself whether in fact I am as informed as I should be concerning “the schemes of the devil” (Eph. 6:11). To be ignorant either unintentionally or by willful neglect is to disregard the scriptural warning to “be sober-minded [and] be watchful [because] your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). With all of this in mind I picked up Lewis Sperry Chaffer’s book Satan: His Motives and Methods and came across this most sobering thought.

“[Satan’s] own terrible sin before God would not be condemned in the eyes of the world, for it is that which they most idealize and praise. In his sin he aspired to that which is highest, and proposed to realize his ideal by his own self-sufficiency and strength.”

And

“[Satan’s] unholy ambition and disregard for the Creator is a most commendable thing according to the standards of the satanic order. In the language of this world, Satan is simply ‘self-made’ and every element of his attitude toward his Creator is, as a principle of life, both commended and practiced by the world.”

Mr. Bitter takes issue with King David

2010-08-31T09:34:00.007-05:00

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no "root of bitterness" springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled (Hebrews 12:14-15).

I’ve been reading the Psalms lately and for whatever reason begin thinking about how our heart condition and attitude has a profound effect on how we interpret and receive the word of God. For example everything is offensive for the person who has allowed bitterness to take root in their soul. Bitterness blinds a person to their own sins. So I imagined King David posting his Psalms in a blog or on a social networking site and imagined what kind of responses and exchanges he might receive from unbelievers, but particularly from the bitter person. Here’s merely a sampling of what I am talking about.

⁵The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. ⁶You destroy those who speak lies; the LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. (Psalms 5:5-6)

@David, I’m not much into your particular genre of writing, but I recently decided to give it a reading. I regret to inform you that I was not impressed and have in fact taken issue so much of what you’ve written. I think it’s so wrong of you to pen such judgmental words against others. How dare you say that God “hate[s] all evildoers” and that he “destroy[s] those who speak lies” and “abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man” (Ps. 5:5-6). God hates? I’m sorry, David, but you FAIL! That’s not the god I know. I’ll tell you what’s abhorrent. Your self-righteousness. It reeks quite frankly. Have you even read your own words? “But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house” (vs. 7). What makes you so special and different anyway? Maybe you ought to be worrying about your own lustful and adulterous heart, Mr. “Bathsheba,” before pointing out the sins of others. Judge not, that you be not judged.

“¹O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. ²Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am languishing; heal me, O LORD, for my bones are troubled. ³My soul also is greatly troubled. But you, O LORD— how long?” (Psalms 6:1-3)

@David, interesting. So what happened, David? You were so self-righteous in the previous Psalm, but now you are asking for mercy? What a double standard! You wished others damnation for their sins yet you won’t do likewise for self? Maybe you’ve forgotten what you wrote previously. That’s okay. I’ll remind you. You wrote:

⁹For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. ¹⁰Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you (Psalms 5:9-10)

@David, so do you cry to manipulate God? Is that how it works? Jesus said that pagans wrongly believe their prayers will be heard because of “their many words” (Matt. 6:7). David, you are so wise (sarcasm)! You’ve figured it out! It isn’t repetition that gets God’s attention, but “the sound of [your] weeping” (Ps. 6:8). Sigh.

Praying to Folk Saint Don Pedrito Jaramillo

2010-08-25T09:42:00.010-05:00

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that we of “Mexican-descent/heritage” are especially prone to superstition and mysticism. I also have a working theory that this may be a reason why a certain flavor of Christianity is very appealing to us, but maybe that’s a post for another time. Anyways, I took one of several trips last year to Mexico and as we neared Falfurrias, TX my pastor friend and I passed up a sign that pointed to the “Don Pedrito Jaramillo Shrine.” Until then I had never heard of him. So we made it a point to stop by on the way back. Here is what I found.

Apparently Don Pedro Jaramillo (1829-1907) is one of the most famous curanderos (healers) and has become a folk saint. His burial site has been venerated. His tomb reads “The Benefactor of Humanity.” He’s held as an object of faith and so people offer up prayers accordingly. Here are some pictures from the shrine.

These are pictures people post on the wall attached with prayers.

"Pedrito Jaramillo, from the bottom of my heart I ask that you maintain my family's health."

Grave side prayer kneelers

Mean Moms and Nice Dads

2010-05-07T18:06:00.006-05:00

So it was my turn to take the kids to school the other day and my strategy is usually to awaken them gently and slowly. Ever seen Adam Sandler in the movie Spanglish when he opens the door to his son’s room and says to him, “You don’t have to get up yet, but are you thinking seriously about it?” Well, that’s kind of my deal though I didn’t copy Sandler. I usually lie down next to them and enjoy the moment while gently asking them to get up. They eventually do and without much complaining. I’ll walk out the door after I’ve helped them get dressed and wait for them in the car. I do this because I’ve learned that kids will do what you do quicker then do what you say. So I’m driving Cris (7 yrs old) to school and then he tells me on his own, “Dad, you are too nice. You need to be more strict.” I asked him to explain as I tried to hold back laughter because I knew where he was going with that statement. He said, “When you wake us up I understand you are trying to be nice, but I really do need to get to school and I don’t want you to go to jail. Mommy is very strict with us and MAKES us get up.” He was referring to the fact that Letty storms in their rooms in drill sergeant fashion, turns the lights on and starts commanding them to “get up, get dressed, brush your teeth, get your back pack, hurry up, let’s go, I’m waiting for you to move and so on.” It’s pure misery. Lol! The irony is that Cris hates this approach and whines about it, but it puts him in school earlier than when I take them and they get there in time to eat breakfast too. Despite the misery he enjoys the end result. He enjoys breakfast and he enjoys not being cited for tardiness.Excessive tardiness results in absences. Cris cares that the truancy department not contact us as parents so he says he’d rather endure the misery of sergeant Letty than receive kind treatment by dad (we’re always the good guys by the way) and risk being late to school. In addition to criticizing my approach in getting him up he also questioned my driving speed and the route I took to school. He said I wouldn’t need to drive so fast if I just took the route that “mom” takes. Despite the unpleasant things Letty may put the kids through they understand even at such a young age that she does it for their own good and appreciate it despite the whining. I praise God for that. Happy Mother’s Day, Letty.

God is the Gospel Bible Study online materials

2010-05-05T22:32:00.005-05:00

We'll soon start a Bible study series entitled God is the Gospel. Here are the links to some of the free online materials we'll be using. Download them and read them if you'd like to get a head start! You'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to view/open the files. The free program can be downloaded here.

God is the Gospel Book (PDF)
God is the Gospel (personal) Study Guide (PDF)
God is the Gospel DVD Study Guide (PDF)

Four Reasons You Might Be Aborted: An Open Letter to Fetal Humans

2010-04-24T20:50:00.012-05:00

In America 250 fetal human beings are aborted for every 1000 live births. Though it is no laughing matter Joe Carter writes an open letter in satirical fashion to all fellow humans who have yet to survive beyond the womb and informs them of four reasons they might be aborted and how avoid that gruesome fate.

1) Don’t be the unlucky third in series of IVF induced triplets

2) Don’t be anything other than “chromosomally normal”

3) Don’t be a girl

4) Don’t squint

I highly encourage you to read the letter in its entirety here: Four Reasons You Might Be Aborted: An Open Letter to Fetal Humans

About my date...

2010-04-24T02:55:00.006-05:00

I love my 9-year old daughter, Ariela. It’s indescribable. I love each of my kids in a special and unique way, but Ariela was the first child born to Letty and I so she holds that special place as being our first. She’s growing up too quickly. It hurts. So about a week ago she and I were driving to see Letty at the hospital and listening to one of the Christian radio stations when a lengthy commercial came on about the importance of Dad’s spending quality time with their daughters. Ariela had asked me earlier that day if I would take her to the mall, but we were pressed for time so I couldn’t do it. So this commercial comes up and at the end of it the announcer asked, “Dads, when was the last time you took your daughter to the mall?” It was unbelievable! Ariela about jumped in her backseat and gave me this look of shock as I eyed her through the rear view mirror. It was a God moment.

So we finally had our date yesterday. I got around to taking her to the mall and letting her have free reign. I told her we could go wherever she wanted and take as long as she wanted. She’s easy too because she isn’t demanding and knows that we are moderate in our income and so she isn’t unreasonable in asking for things that are simply out of the question. She was just enjoying the fact that she had all my attention. We went for pizza (her choice) after the candy store, after Hello Kitty and after smelling perfumes, colognes and engaging in other activities. So then we spontaneously decided to go to the beach for a walk and get our bare feet in the sand and wet, despite that we weren’t dressed for the occasion. So then I turned on the radio station during the drive to the Island and Adventures in Odyssey was playing. To our shock again we found the theme of the episode focused on honoring your mother and father. The episode was called “Bringing Up Dads” and it was about a girl who found herself embarrassed by her dad and unable to relate to him as before because she had grown into a pre-teen, but by the end of the show she learned to appreciate her dad and not take him for granted. Is that providence or what? I was taken back by the timing of it all. Our modest outing was all seasoned by God’s grace.

If you are interested/curious you can click here to access the episode we listened to: “Bringing Up Dads”

John Piper on Hell-Bound Christians

2010-04-20T15:15:00.004-05:00

In his most recent sermon entitled How Much Does God Love This Church? John Piper says,

"I am more concerned about nominal hell-bound Christians who feel loved by God, than I am about genuine heaven-bound Christians who don’t feel loved by God. Please don’t hear me as uncaring or indifferent to genuine Christians who don’t feel loved by God. I do care, and this sermon is especially for you. At this point, I’m simply trying to give you a perspective on why I emphasize what I do. There are millions of nominal Christians who are not born again who believe God loves them and yet are on their way to hell."

You can read the sermon, watch it or just listen to the audio only.

Moses and Joshua: Israeli Idols?

2010-04-15T00:22:00.003-05:00

The people of Israel at the Jordan crossing "stood in awe of [Joshua] just as they had stood in awe of Moses" (Joshua 4:14). In awe of a man? So were the people of Israel guilty of having their eyes on men and not God? Was this a case of idolatry?

Joshua was awesome because God made him awesome “in the sight of all Israel” (3:7). The beginning of the book of Joshua clearly shows that God handpicked Joshua as Moses’ successor promising him, “Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you” (Joshua 1:5) But Just like Moses Joshua needed to demonstrate in tangible fashion to all of Israel that God was truly with him as Israel’s new leader. Miracles had previously served as Moses’ credentials (see Exodus 4:1-9, 28-31) when he first appeared to Israel during their enslavement in Egypt and so they would also need to serve as Joshua’s credentials. God specifically said that the reason he was providing Moses with accompanying miracles was so “that [Israel] may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to [Moses]” (Ex. 4:5). Therefore as the people readied to cross the bridgeless Jordan God said he’d do the same for Joshua by telling him, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you” (Joshua 3:7). God commanded Joshua to give the priest specific instructions on crossing the Jordan. Joshua delivered the instructions and then made a prophetic utterance to all of Israel saying,

"Come here and listen to the words of the LORD your God…Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you…Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan…And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap" (Joshua 3:9-13).

We know what happened next. The Jordan crossing happened just as Joshua had said it would and thus it verified him as a true prophet. The waters of the Jordan stopped flowing and divided so that the entire nation crossed on dry ground. Joshua 4:14 says, “On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel…” What was the result of God intentionally “exalting” Joshua “in the sight of all Israel”? The result was that Israel “stood in awe of [Joshua] just as they had stood in awe of Moses” (Joshua 4:14). Therefore, no, God was not serving as an accessory to idolatry. He wasn’t being “man-centered,” but he, as is commonly his custom, was using a man on the ground to accomplish his purpose. God chooses to use men and just because one admires and recognizes the work of God in their lives and ministry does not automatically mean that one is being idolatrous. Whether one is or isn’t idolatrous is hard to tell because we ultimately cannot see the hearts of men. In our lack of discernment we are too prone to make the idolatry charge towards others when they are simply being grateful for benefiting off the God-given gifts of men (Eph 4:7-16). The idolatry trigger-happy charge that many people seem to posses reminds me of the lack of discernment in the priest Eli (1 Samuel 1). He failed to recognize a broken and contrite woman praying with fervor to God at the altar so he rudely interrupts her and charges her with drunkenness saying, "How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you" (1 Samuel 1:14). Seriously, how bad had things come to in God’s house that one arrives at a place where one no longer recognizes genuine heartfelt prayer when they see it? God answered the prayer of the falsely accused woman, Hannah, and she eventually gives birth to the prophet Samuel who eventually anoints King David from whom the Messiah is promised: Jesus Christ.

Minimum Wage More Precious than Wisdom?

2010-04-10T14:01:00.006-05:00

Most people offer their employers one hour of work in order to receive $7.25 at the end of that hour. Think about all of the things one can accomplish with $7.25! People do this week in and week out. So then if we are willing to offer our employers one hour in order to gain $7.25 we must also ask if we equally willing to give God one hour so that he may give us “wisdom and instruction” that he says “is better than gain from silver”? What will the wisdom he offers do for us? The book of Proverbs is replete with God’s promises of what his word will do for us. Here’s just one passage among many.

6For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; 7he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, 8guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints. 9Then you will understand righteousness and justice and equity, every good path;
10for wisdom will come into your heart, and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul; 11 discretion will watch over you, understanding will guard you, 12delivering you from the way of evil, from men of perverted speech Proverbs 2:6-12

At this point we may be “amening” yet I’ve found that this supposed knowledge on our end seldom spills out into action. We are shamefully inconsistent. We must forget about how much we say we value God’s word because the contrary is reflected in the actual time we spend reading it. We aren’t in church as often as we should be especially on Sunday morning and if we are we get upset that the sermon exceeds the 27-minute mark. So why do we kick and scream about getting up on Sunday morning and grudgingly go to church out of a sense of “duty”? Because we do not actually see the value in the word of God we say we do. It is mere lip service on our part. The simple test is this. Do you think most people would attend church if the church had an endless amount of money and rewarded attendees with a full tank of gas for their vehicle and a $100 bill on top of that for being in service for one and a half hours? I think most people would be in church weekly if that were the case. Why? Because they see not only the value of money, but they experience the benefits of it in that it fills up their gas tank and allows them to drive their vehicle. There are typically four Sundays in a month so that would also add up to $400 a month. That’s a free car payment each month. People would be in attendance because they believe and have no doubts about the value of money. In fact some pastors have actually used this knowledge to boost attendance. Yet God says that we ought to seek his wisdom in the same way we seek and work for money (Proverbs 2:4) because the “the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold” (Proverbs 3:14). Do we really believe that?

I certainly hope you haven’t misunderstood me. I am speaking specifically about how much we say we value God’s word in contrast to our value of money. Money is certainly not evil. Money can be a blessing from God. So I am not going to respond to you if you make a comment in defense of a church using certain gimmicks to get people in the door. That’s not the point of my post, but my point is that we must eventually examine what we say we believe and what we actually do. That’s all I’m saying. I say we are inconsistent.

"How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?"

2010-04-08T10:59:00.005-05:00

I’m big on Christian basics. I mean that I emphasize basics in my preaching and teaching because I have learned that one can never assume that professing Christians are set on them. It has been proven time and time again that one can never assume that just because a person has been a professing believer for years that they understand some of the most fundamental tenants of the Christian faith. I’ve learned that many Christians despite their many years in the church cannot define basic doctrines such as the fallen nature of man and our need for divine enablement in order to believe (human depravity), that God is Triune in nature, that Jesus was crucified not for being a “good teacher,” but for blasphemy in that he claimed to be the unique Son of God, that the Bible teaches that God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1:4) and there are other basics, but you get the point. Church leaders have been lamenting this fact for years, but in all honesty we are partly to blame.

On one occasion the physical resurrection of Jesus was the topic for our Wednesday Bible study. After hearing me say “physical” repeatedly a certain person spoke up and said, “But I do not know what you mean by physical. You keep saying that, but I do not know what you mean.” To their astonishment I told them that the post-resurrection Jesus invited his disciples to touch him so that they could determine for themselves that they were truly seeing the same Jesus that had been buried, but was now back from the dead. He needed them to be convinced that they were not seeing a “ghost” i.e. a spirit. They looked at me as if I were making this up and asked, “He really did that?” At that point we went to Luke 24:

36As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, "Peace to you!" 37But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38And he said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." 40And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" 42They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43and he took it and ate before them (Luke 24:36-42).

The passage clearly indicates that the disciples “thought they saw a spirit,” (vs 37) but the point of the passage is to correct this false perception. This is the reason why Jesus invites them to examine him physically saying, “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have" (vs 39) and thus why he also asked for something to eat so that he could further demonstrate his physicality (vs 43). This particular person at our Bible study was astonished and confessed that they had never known this. They’d always thought of Jesus as rising from the dead in ghostly fashion. They recognized that their view had been colored more by the popular notions of life after death that is rooted in Greek philosophy and not in Judeo-Christianity. This knowledge opened up a whole new understanding for them about what God has in store for those who love him. We’ll be physically raised from the dead and possess bodies just like Jesus’ glorified one. “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Cor 15:49).

Are Christian's supposed to argue?

2010-04-02T18:55:00.008-05:00

According to Miriam Webster’s online dictionary an argument is “a reason given in proof or rebuttal” or a “discourse intended to persuade.” An argument is “a coherent series of statements leading from a premise to a conclusion.” Why this topic? Because I’ve become weary with the oft-repeated statement that as believers we aren’t supposed to “argue.” I am convinced that based on the contextual usage of the word argue that people who say such things simply do not know what an argument is and such ignorance, if carried out to its logical conclusion, is really a call to do the very opposite of what the Bible tells us to do. Let’s apply the definition of what an argument really is and see whether sharing Christ carries a built-in necessity to argue. Let’s take a “discourse intended to persuade.” Numerous examples from the Bible can be given, but I’ll offer Acts 2:14-41.

The onlookers had just heard and witnessed something extraordinary taking place. We know this event as Pentecost. I encourage you to read the passage before proceeding to read the rest of this post. The Bible says that the onlookers “were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?’” (Acts 2:12). And in response the Bible says, “Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them” (vs 14). What is this? You guessed it. It is a discourse. Peter explains that what the onlookers were hearing was nothing less than the fulfillment of on Old Testament prophecy. Peter knew that the crowd was not simply going to believe without reason so what does he do? In his discourse he provides a rebuttal to the traditional Jewish understanding of Psalms 16:8-11. He “argues” that the passage did not actually refer to King David as everyone supposed, but that it spoke prophetically of Jesus who had recently been crucified. Peter explains that the passage cannot refer to King David because King David, contrary to what the passage said, did indeed experience physical decomposition (vs 27) because David’s tomb was with them even on that very day. Does the scripture then contradict itself in light of the fact of David’s bones still among them? No. Peter says that the passage refers to Jesus who did not remain in the grave and did not experience decomposition. In other words, Peter provided a rebuttal and gave proof for that rebuttal offering up the resurrection of Jesus as proof. This has all of the elements of an argument. Therefore sharing Christ means that one will eventually have to argue their position and provide reason for why people should believe. Every believer is called to apologetics. The Bible says that we must always be “prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (2 Peter 3:15) yet we are told to do this with “gentleness and respect.” It sounds so spiritual and humble when someone says “I don’t argue,” but in many cases it may simply be a cloak for cowardice and disobedience. I think however in most cases it is just plain ignorance.

If this isn’t convincing then I challenge you to open a red-letter edition Bible and pay attention to the red words. You know what the red words are. You’ll find that in many cases they are nothing less than Jesus’ arguments with the Pharisees.

Having learned this I hope you can appreciate the humor of the Monty Python video. Most people think the argumentation begins at 0:08. People think that the characters are arguing based on the mere fact that they are expressing disagreement, but they are not arguing according to the strict sense of the word. This is what the character on the left tries to point out saying that an argument isn’t simply contradicting someone, but that “an argument is a collective series of statements to establish a definite proposition.” A real argument isn’t introduced until 2:15. The character on the right had stated he would not proceed arguing until he received additional payment to which the character on the left grudgingly obliged. The character on the right proceeds in automatic contradicting by denying the reception of payment, but the denial of payment is countered through a well-reasoned rebuttal. The character on left (at 2:15) points out the obvious saying, “If I didn’t pay then why are you arguing…if you are arguing then I must’ve paid.” The character on the right concedes the point by admitting that he is indeed arguing, but denies the reason offered by the character on the left. He reasons that one cannot necessarily infer that he is arguing as a result of payment. In his rebuttal he says, “I could be arguing on my spare time.” This video is truly funny.

So if you want to argue that I am overly analytical and think too much about things then I’ll tell you right now that I’ll concede your point given the condemning evidence of this blog post.

Church giving away millions at Easter services

2010-04-02T14:26:00.007-05:00

DISCLAIMER: If you think this is a blog "bashing" Bil Cornelius then you'll probably be disappointed if that's what you are looking for. Neither am I defending him. I am simply attempting to "test everything" (1 Thess 5:21) in light of the teachings of scripture. This is a blog that reflects my thoughts on many issues, but this particular post reflects how I processed a particular moment in the indicated interview.

Corpus Christ Pastor Bil Cornelius was featured on Fox News today in a video report entitled Church's Easter Cash Prizes. Not long into the beginning of the interview the female interviewer stated that she understood why Bay Area Fellowship was conducting the give away saying that BAF "hoped to attract the person who is saying to themselves, 'I haven't been to a church in a while.'" Following up on that statement the male interviewer considered what effect prizes may have on existing BAF members so he asked Bil, "If I am a congregant in the Bay Area Fellowship and I get to take home a car or a furniture set or some coupons that have some value what should I be feeling when I take that home? What should my reaction be?" Interestingly Bil Cornelius appealed to the biblical doctrine of assurance.

What is the doctrine of assurance? The doctrine of assurance is usually used in reference to personal salvation. It seeks to answer the question, "How can I be assured that I am saved or that I will remain saved?" Theologians have traditionally dealt with this issue by appealing to the scriptures such as Jesus' own words of promise that he would indeed "give [his flock] eternal life, and they will never perish, andno one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28). There are also the words of the Apostle John saying, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). Hence pastors have traditionally pointed struggling believers to look to the scriptures and find in them God's trustworthiness. God's own character is the basis for the believer's "hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began" (Titus 1:2). This is what the apostle Paul appealed to when writing to the believers in Philippi saying, "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil 1:6).

So how did Bil answer the question about what effect prizes may have on existing members? Bil did not specifically say "assurance," but it is evident from his response that this is precisely what he desires to produce in existing BAF members. He said, "We pray the reaction is that God loves them. This is a tangible example of God's love. Uh, but the reality is…is that one of the things is that we struggle with the concept of gaining heaven through Christ is that you can't touch it yet. You can't feel it yet or, dare I say, you can't drive off in it. And so this is a tangible reminder that what we've been given is so much greater it's just that we can't see it yet, but one day we will."

I commend Pastor Bil for not balking in the interview, but confessing unashamedly that Jesus is the ultimate Prize. In fairness I personally believe that the nature of the controversy really has to do with the question of whether the end justifies the means and whether the very nature of the message we proclaim (the Gospel) is affected by how we communicate it. Does the method affect the message?

Part 2: Follow up comments

This section was not part of the original post, but I’ve added it because I felt I needed to point out what I think the issue is. I assumed that the reader might have recognized the problem I was pointing to, but then convinced myself that they may not. So I’ll try to be a bit clearer.

I want to just say that pastors are called to feed and cultivate faith in God. The way in which they are to do that is by reading and explaining the Bible. I do not mean comment upon it, but to explain the intended meaning of the Biblical author. Neither do I mean that pastors are to assume independently of the Bible and predetermine what they think the church and the world need and then find a scripture to support their own predetermined conclusions. God, through his word, has already diagnosed the human condition and provided the remedy. It’s the same diagnosis and solution regardless of the century or culture people may have or currently live in. Therefore we are to read the Bible and explain the Bible allowing God to set the agenda because “¹⁶All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17). Pastors recognize that people struggle with assurance, but at the root of a lack of assurance is nothing less then a lack of faith in God’s word. The main reason why people may struggle with assurance is the fact that they lack confidence not only in what God has said and in who God is. The pastor’s job is to employ the scriptures and to reason with believers and unbelievers alike so that they see the grandeur of God and thus they are reminded that we serve the same glorious God that brought the people out of Egypt with mighty signs and wonders. God has a long resume. We need only to look at redemptive history. We serve the same God who performed many miracles and reveals to us that he has the entire cosmos under his control, but the most amazing thing is that “Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6) i.e. “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). How then do we minister to people weak in the faith (lacking assurance)? Do we teach the bible or do we give them material things as an object lesson? Or do we do both? If so, where should we place the majority of time and effort? In explaining the Bible and showing God as he has revealed himself in the scriptures or by spending millions in a giveaway? The Bible is objective and can therefore be understood objectively, but our actions are subjective.

Celebrity comedian and magician speaks up about people who evangelize

2010-04-01T01:57:00.002-05:00

Speaking about proselytizing a very well known celebrity sincerely and rhetorically asked those who don't share their faith, "How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? I mean if I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn't believe it…that that truck was bearing down on you there's a certain point where I'd tackle you. And [everlasting life] is more important than that!"

So what celebrity made these statements? It was none other than avowed atheist Penn Jillette member of the comedy and magic duo Penn Teller. Penn was not mocking believers, but was dead serious because he understands the reasoning behind proselytizing and further said, "I've always said I don't respect people who don't proselytize" i.e. people who believe that there is a heaven and hell, but don't witness because it might make the situation "socially awkward." He was particularly speaking about an experience he had with an audience member at his show that witnessed to him. Penn said, "He was polite and honest and sane and he cared enough about me to proselytize and give me a Bible." While Penn goes on to say that he doesn't believe in God he understands that it is an act of love when a believer shares a message that could possibly save someone eternally and that refraining from sharing that message is nothing less than hate.
See for yourself:

Not even God the Father and the rest of heaven will get over it

2010-03-26T01:38:00.007-05:00

Jim Elliff on The Glory of the Lamb:
The prospect of the cross traverses the shadow-lands of the Old Testament, to the reality in the Gospels, and on to redemption’s vivifying power in Acts and in the epistles. But in Revelation [4-5] we see the most dazzling depiction of all, as the heavenly court glories in the lamb slain, and the inhabitants of heaven sing loudly about the power and glory of the cross. One is taken aback by the emphasis on the cross in the Revelation. Heaven does not “get over” the cross as if there are better things to think about.

On earth some of our more knowing brethren have said, or at least thought, “I’ve gotten the idea of the cross clearly in my thinking; so now I can ponder things of much greater theological importance.” But then they pass away with some massive tome about some theological vagary on their chest, and are ushered into heaven only to find that the angels and created beings, as well as the Father Himself, are obsessed with the very subject they left behind years ago. Heaven is not only Christocentric, it is also cruci-centric, and quite blaring about it

THE CHARACTER OF GENUINE SAVING FAITH

2010-03-24T14:50:00.004-05:00

I adapted this outline from The MacArthur Study Bible, p. 2190.
The outline is also available online at www.gty.org

I. Evidences That Neither Prove Nor Disprove One's Faith
A. Visible Morality: Matthew 19:16-21; 23:27.
B. Intellectual Knowledge: Romans 1:21; 2:17ff.
C. Religious Involvement: Matthew 25:1-10
D. Active Ministry: Matthew 7:21-24
E. Conviction of Sin: Acts 24:25
F. Assurance: Matthew 23
G. Time of Decision: Luke 8:13, 14

II. The Fruit/Proofs of Authentic/True Christianity:
A. Love for God: Psalm 42:1ff; 73:25; Luke 10:27; Romans 8:7
B. Repentance from Sin: Psalm 32:5; Proverbs 28:13; Romans 7:14ff; 2
Corinthians 7:10; 1 John 1:8-10
C. Genuine Humility: Psalm 51:17; Matthew 5:1-12; James 4:6, 9ff.
D. Devotion to God's Glory: Psalm 105:3; 115:1; Isaiah 43:7, 48:10ff.;
Jeremiah 9:23, 24; 1 Corinthians 10:31
E. Continual Prayer: Luke 18:1; Ephesians 6:18ff.; Philippians 4:6ff.;
1 Timothy 2:1-4; James 5:16-18
F. Selfless Love: 1 John 2:9ff, 3:14; 4:7ff.
G. Separation from the World: 1 Corinthians 2:12; James 4:4ff.; 1 John 2:15-17, 5:5
H. Spiritual Growth: Luke 8:15; John 15:1-6; Ephesians 4:12-16
I. Obedient Living: Matthew 7:21; John 15:14ff.; Romans 16:26;
1 Peter 1:2, 22; 1 John 2:3-5

If List I is true of a person and List II is false, there is cause to question the validity of one's profession of faith. Yet if List II is true, then the top list will be also.

III. The Conduct of the Gospel:
A. Proclaim it: Matthew 4:23
B. Defend it: Jude 3
C. Demonstrate it: Philippians 1:27
D. Share it: Philippians 1:5
E. Suffer for it: 2 Timothy 1:8
F. Don't hinder it: 1 Corinthians 9:16
G. Be not ashamed: Romans 1:16
H. Preach it: 1 Corinthians 9:16
I. Be empowered: 1 Thessalonians 1:5
J. Guard it: Galatians 1:6-8

Adapted from John MacArthur, The MacArthur Study Bible, p. 2190.
The outline is also available online at www.gty.org/Resources/Questions/QA162

The Great Commission in Genesis 1:28

2010-03-20T18:38:00.008-05:00

This is a sermon excerpt for Sunday March 21, 2010:

26Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 28And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

What I want you to do is to see Genesis 1:28 as a prototype of the Great Commission. What is the Great Commission? If you ask any Christian what the Great Commission is they will most likely, and rightly so, make reference to Matthew 28:18-20.

18And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age" (Matt 28:18-20).

That is the Great Commission as laid out in the NT, but for now let’s go back to Genesis 1:28. I want us to see how this is in sorts the original “Great Commission.” God commissioned i.e. he “blessed” Adam and Eve to "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…” They were to rule together as husband and wife, but they each had a distinctive role to play. God created Adam, but then God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him" (Genesis 2:18). Ladies, lest you think that this is some sort of inferior role you must remember that this is the same title bestowed on the Holy Spirit. He too is a deemed a Helper. By helper God did not mean that Adam was going to need someone to pack his lunch. Hey, if Adam was hungry Eve could just say, “There’s some fruit on that tree over there. Help yourself.” I’m being silly, but I think you get the picture. Neither did God envision Adam needing someone to wash his clothes because God didn’t create him or her as needing clothes to begin with. Eve wasn’t depressed because she didn’t have enough shoes or outfits. Remember that God said to “them” (plural),

"Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth" (Genesis 1:28)

God commissioned them together to rule over the earth with each fulfilling roles distinct from each other. “God created [them] in his own image” so that they would “fill the earth and subdue it and [exercise] dominion.” God meant for Adam’s rule over the earth to reflect God’s ultimate rule over the entire universe. This is God’s purpose for creating Adam: that Adam live in such a way that he mirrors the nature and character of God in all that he does. This is what it means to glorify God. The New Testament isn’t charging us with anything new when it says,

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

This is something that goes back to the intent of the original creation. Imagine Adam and Eve in the garden and for the first time coming upon the fruit of a tree whose fruit was permissible to eat. Adam could have said, “Eve, come here. You have got to take a bite of this!” Eve would taste it and say, “Wow! That’s amazing!” and they would be in awe of God’s creativity in how he made different fruits, with different sizes, colors and tastes. This is only touching one small aspect of God’s original creation. This says nothing of their awe of the Sun during the day and the moon the stars that filled the night. Consider also what they may have thought of the animals among them and didn’t pose a threat to them. Imagine Adam using a lion to rest his head on or even a bear. There was no fear. The animals were subject to Adam.
Now about the food…God found himself pleased when Adam and Eve enjoyed what his own hand had made in the same way one of the best ways to pay a chef a compliment is through the pleasure one experiences when eating whatever they’ve cooked. Your enjoyment of the dish says much about the chef’s culinary skills. He is pleased by it. It is the same way with God. There is a God-designed and God-intended connection between enjoying God through enjoying his creation, but we must maintain the distinction between God and what God has made. And neither must place them against each other like so many tragically do.
What a tragedy that there are Christians who feel guilty about enjoying God’s creation because they feel they are being idolatrous. They don’t seem to make the connection that one of the ways to glorify God is to enjoy what God has made. I’m not saying that idolatry is not a legitimate concern, but it is certainly wrong to never enjoy anything for fear of idolatry. That’s a tragedy. This is the reason why it seems that people who don’t know the Lord seem to enjoy themselves better at the Lake or at the beach than legalistic Christians do. They aren’t weighed down with false guilt.

Texas Bluebonnets, a Bike Ride and Public Indecency?

2010-03-13T18:52:00.012-06:00

It’s that time of the year when the Bluebonnets begin to blossom and color the roadsides and fields of Texas. I saw this patch by the roadside just past Nueces River. I just had to stop and take some pictures.

I normally spend my Saturdays in study, but I’ve been making an effort to find some other time to get my study out of the way so that I can give them more of my time on the weekend. I’ve been trying to break the routine as well and considering the sunshine today and the perfect temperatures how could I stay indoors? I decided to take several of my nieces and nephews for a bike ride. By the grace of God I managed to come back with the same number of kids I left with. (Note to self: Make everyone go potty before taking a lengthy bike ride). We had a few whiners (“I’m thirsty”), one fender bender, some scrapes and bruises, but we all survived.

I’m not going to reveal who that is, but a certain someone couldn’t hold it and with no restrooms nearby they had to find the nearest bushes.

This is what’s cool about being a boy. Forget the bushes. Just find a tree (first tree on the left) and mark your territory.

God's Grace through Hunting

2010-03-11T13:20:00.001-06:00

If you know me personally then you know that I am enthralled, in awe and amazed at the Biblical revelation of grace. I’ve made it my lifelong mission to think upon, study, experience, communicate, live and enjoy every facet of this diamond. So as I always find myself thinking about this I recalled that a few years ago during my youth ministry days I received a call from a good friend and fellow believer who happened to be a professional hunting guide. At the time I had been somewhat out of touch with him, but even during the time we attended the same church I cannot say that we were particularly close. We were just well acquainted with each other as fellow brothers in the Lord. He called and asked if I’d like to go on a free hunt. Who turns down a free hunting trip? So after speaking at youth service that Wednesday night I took my packed bags, rifle and drove up to Lampasas County where my friend took me to a beautiful first class hunting lodge. I’ll never forget it.

So one night my friend, the landowner and myself were sitting outside after a day’s hunt and I must tell you I really felt out of place in the midst of these two white men whom I had nothing in common with neither race, similar upbringing, age, vocation or anything else I could think of. We only had Jesus in common. He’d brought us together. What a funny sight now that I think about it more. I was the customer and they were at this Mexican’s service as if I had actually paid the $2,500 for the hunt. The hunt was free to me, but not free to the landowner or my friend who made his living from booking and guiding these hunts. So why was I there under such circumstances? You see, my friend had previously asked the landowner if he’d reward him a free hunt if he booked a certain number of hunts at his place so as to guarantee profit. I believe the landowner agreed, but not too eagerly since each hunting package was priced between $2,500-$3,500. The landowner agreed nonetheless. So then my friend entered that hunting season expecting to personally hunt free of charge alongside his teenage son, but then he said that late into the season he believed God lead him to give up his hunting package and give it to me as a gift and not incur any additional costs on my end. He even offered free taxidermy services should I harvest a trophy. Like I said, who would turn that down? I was graced, but it was costly. It was free to me, but not free to them. They absorbed the cost. The trip for me was especially timely because I was on the verge of burnout. I needed a sabbatical so to speak. My friend never said, “Chris, I am going to take you on this trip because I feel you deserve it” or anything else like that. He simply said, “The Lord has put it on my heart to give you this hunting trip with no strings attached.” He knew nothing of my desire to get away and enjoy a few days off. God knew my need and he went above and beyond simply granting me a few days off. He booked a hunt that I'd only dreamed of, but never in my life would I have thought I'd ever go on such a hunt. I had been hunting before, but never with a professional hunting guide, free lodging and free meals. I was even given a free pair of Nikon binoculars (valued at $350).

This is similar to the gospel of Jesus Christ. God’s offer of salvation is free only because Jesus paid for it. It wasn’t free for God. Jesus absorbed the wrath of God on our behalf even though we were unworthy. It was costly for him, but free for us. Grace.

Is Someone You Know in Hell?

2010-03-08T20:57:00.016-06:00

"And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."—Matthew 8:11-12KJV

I’ll never forget the impact the reading of Charles Spurgeon’s Heaven and Hell sermon had on me several years ago. Even before my present vocation I’d often thought about eternity. I think everyone thinks about eternity at one time or another regardless of his or her age, belief or unbelief. It’s a universal human phenomenon. If one would cease to think about eternity and even deny it altogether it seems they would have to be intentional about it because the concept seems to be hard-wired into us. Eternity is our default mindset because we do not naturally believe we cease to exist when we physically die. We do not naturally believe we succumb to nothingness. We recognize that there is an immaterial reality about us. Indeed there was a time when we were not, but never will there be a time when we are no more. We’ll be conscious forever. There is no end. This brings us to hope and fear alike. The Bible speaks of a great divide that will take place and is even taking place now. Have you ever paused long enough to reflect on the fact that there are people you know and care about that you may never see again? Ever. Unless they trust in Christ to forgive their sins they’ll perish in them forever while you enjoy God’s salvation. Maybe they’ll be the one’s to be saved and you’ll be the one to perish in hell. Some of this may already be a reality for you. Maybe you know someone who died without Christ. What good is it to them that you think about them now? Cherishing their memory may bring you some comfort, but it does not alleviate their present torment. Speaking well of their legacy does not produce even a drop of water to “cool [his or her] tongue” (Luke 16:24) during their present anguish. The dead find no comfort in your previous promise to not ever forget them. Your promise has become their curse. You may have spoken not fully knowing what you were saying because if you are saved you’ll be with God and you will forget them. In the eyes of the dead you’ll do something worse. You’ll “amen” their damnation. I know, I know. This is a most terrible thing to speak of. I’m being a “downer” here, but speak of it we must. These aren’t fairy tales, but reality…unless Jesus was a liar. Do you think Jesus was a liar? Was he a fear monger for warning us about hell? He lamented over those who did not heed his warnings (Matthew 23:37). He even wept because of people’s unbelief (John 11:35). Many have tried to tone down Jesus’ language of hell by appealing to the fact that Jesus used metaphorical language to describe its horrors yet it seems to escape their understanding that metaphors are employed when adequate words escape our efforts at describing something. Metaphors are used to clarify the nature of the thing described. Jesus used metaphors to strengthen the reality of hell not weaken it. Therefore hell is worse then Jesus describes it in the same way the real experience of burning your hand is worse then the previous warning to not place your hand there because the thing was hot. The pain of a burned hand isn’t metaphorical pain. It’s real, but at that point no one needs to convince you. Do they?

People have asked me how it will be possible for us to eternally enter “into the joy” (Matt 25:21) of God while we remain aware that existing simultaneously along with us will be those who were “thrown into the lake of fire” for eternity (Rev 20:15) because their names were “not found written in the book of life” (Rev 20:14). How can we remain happy in heaven knowing about hell? I’m not exactly sure how, but I know that we’ll be changed. We’ll know and agree with perfect justice and know that God did no one any undeserved harm, but he’ll have paid the workers of evil their wages (Romans 6:23). We’ll be like the angels described in Revelation that see God punish the wicked after hundreds of years of divine forbearance. Even as they pour out God’s wrath the angels declare,

"Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!" (Revelation 16:5-6)

Another angel seconds that statement saying,

"Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!" (Revelation 16:7)

In his sermon Charles Spurgeon describes a dream a Christian mother had about her unsaved children. He says,

“That was a dreadful dream which a pious mother once had, and told to her children. She thought the judgment day was come. The great books were opened. They all stood before God. And Jesus Christ said, ‘Separate the chaff from the wheat; put the goats on the left hand, and the sheep on the right.’ The mother dreamed that she and her children were standing just in the middle of the great assembly. And the angel came, and said, ‘I must take the mother, she is a sheep: she must go to the right hand. The children are goats: they must go on the left.’ She thought as she went, her children clutched her, and said, ‘Mother, can we part? Must we be separated?’ She then put her arms around them, and seemed to say, ‘My children, I would, if possible, take you with me.’ But in a moment the angel touched her; her cheeks were dried, and now, overcoming natural affection, being rendered supernatural and sublime, resigned to God's will, she said, ‘My children, I taught you well, I trained you up, and you forsook the ways of God; and now all I have to say is, Amen to your condemnation.’ Thereupon they were snatched away, and she saw them in perpetual torment while she was in heaven. Young man, what will you think, when the last day comes, to hear Christ say, ‘Depart, ye cursed?’ And there will be a voice just behind him, saying, Amen. And, as you inquire whence came the voice, you will find it was your mother. Or, young woman, when thou art cast away into utter darkness, what will you think to hear a voice saying, Amen. And as you look, there sits your father, his lips still moving with the solemn curse.”

In concluding his sermon Spurgeon goes on to say,

I have told you of heaven and hell; what is the way, then, to escape from hell and to be found in heaven? I will not tell you my old tale again to-night. I recollect when I told it you before, a good friend in the crowd said, "Tell us something fresh, old fellow." Now really, in preaching ten times a week, we cannot always say things fresh. You have heard John Gough, and you know he tells his tales over again. I have nothing but the old gospel. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." There is nothing here of works. It does not say, "He who is a good man shall be saved," but "he who believes and is baptized." Well, what is it to believe? It is to put your trust entirely upon Jesus. Poor Peter once believed, and Jesus Christ said to him, "Come on, Peter, walk to me on the water." Peter went stepping along on the tops of the waves without sinking; but when he looked at the waves, he began to tremble, and down he went. Now, poor sinner, Christ says, "Come on; walk on your sins; come to me; and if you do, he will give you power. If you believe on Christ, you will be able to walk over your sins—to tread upon them and overcome them. I can remember the time when my sins first stared me in the face. I thought myself the most accursed of all men. I had not committed any very great open transgressions against God; but I recollected that I had been well trained and tutored, and I thought my sins were thus greater than other people's. I cried to God to have mercy; and I feared that he would not pardon me. Month after month, I cried to God, and he did not hear me, and I knew not what it was to be saved. Sometimes I was so weary of the world that I desired to die; but then I recollected that there was a worse world after this, and that it would be an ill matter to rush before my Maker unprepared. At times I wickedly thought God a most heartless tyrant, because he did not answer my prayer; and then, at others, I thought, "I deserve his displeasure; if he sends me to hell, he will be just." But I remember the hour when I stepped into a little place of worship, and saw a tall, thin man step into the pulpit: I have never seen him from that day, and probably never shall, till we meet in heaven. He opened the Bible and read, with a feeble voice, "Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and beside me there is none else." Ah, thought I, I am one of the ends of the earth; and then turning round, and fixing his gaze on me, as if he knew me, the minister said, "Look, look, look." Why, I thought I had a great deal to do, but I found it was only to look. I thought I had a garment to spin out for myself; but I found that if I looked, Christ would give me a garment. Look, sinner, that is to be saved. Look unto him, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved. That is what the Jews did, when Moses held up the brazen serpent. He said, "Look!" and they looked. The serpent might be twisting round them, and they might be nearly dead; but they simply looked, and the moment they looked, the serpent dropped off, and they were healed. Look to Jesus, sinner. "None but Jesus can do helpless sinners good."

Prayer Concert at Primera Iglesia Bautista

2010-03-08T17:11:00.013-06:00

It was approximately two weeks ago a group of local pastors met with Pastor Roland DeLeon of Primera Iglesia Bautista, Corpus Christi and it was from that meeting that a call for prayer was made. Last night was the culmination of that meeting. Some of the churches that showed up for prayer included River Hills Baptist Church, New Life Baptist Church, Church of Grace, Annaville Baptist Church, Brighton Park Baptist Church, Yorktown Baptist Church and several others. The spirit of the evening was the mutual recognition that churches must not compete with each other, but they must complete each other in a united effort to reach the lost for Christ’s sake. Christ calls for the entirety of his body to form a unified front in rescuing the lost. Pastor Bill Simmons also addressed the need to close the generational divide and for young and old to work together in God ordained harmony.

The New Atheist's Real Problem

2010-03-07T00:32:00.006-06:00

Every time I listen to militant atheist Christopher Hitchens I recognize more and more that the core of his objections at theism (belief in God) spring from nothing more than moral outrage. It’s the age old problem of theodicy. Unlike the old order of atheists who objected at theism on intelligent grounds (or so they said) Hitchens is very blatant about his moral outrage at God’s performance in running the universe. It seems to color his debates. Of course he’d object at my very suggestion that he is angry at a God who does not exist. He’d consider it absurd yet this is the very basis for his outrage. It’s as simple as that. Look past his educational credentials and even his accent and you’ll find that the substance of his argument at its core is that “If there was a God he’d certainly be good and not allow evil to reign as it presently does, but since evil does reign then there must not be a God.” To Hitchens this option is most preferable than the more ghastly proposition of believing that a God exists, but that he sits idle as children are killed, women are raped and many more innocents are preyed upon on a worldwide scale. This is the sum of his argument.

If I were an atheist...accounting for the slaughter of peoples in the Bible

2010-03-05T18:19:00.007-06:00

If I were an atheist and sought to discredit the existence of God especially as he is portrayed in the Old Testament I don’t see how calling him evil for the kinds of things he commanded such as the killing of women and children would be an argument against his existence. Such would be a confusion of categories. How could I call a non-existent being evil? My negative criticism would only serve to affirm the existence of such a deity, but that he is evil nonetheless. Secondly, I’d be operating from the assumption that “if” God exists then he must necessarily be good, but how would I account for such a presupposition? Why does he have to be good? Why is it that “if” he exists then he has to be good? Hmmm…so if I were an atheist and denied the existence of God I would still have to account for the atrocities committed in the Old Testament. I could simply deny that they actually occurred, but would this help my cause? We know that such atrocities at the hand of humans are not only possible, but are realities as confirmed even in recent history. I’d need only to look to Hitler’s final solution and then fast-forward to Rwanda and Darfur. Humans indeed are capable of such evils.

Ok. So I’d deny that national Israel actually heard from God (since there is no god), but that they instead only acted “in the name of God” in order to justify wiping out entire peoples. Now why they would feel the need to invent a god to justify their actions raises new questions. Nevertheless I’d approach these events and treat them as purely historical while disregarding the reasons the Biblical authors offer up as justification for wiping out other nations such as “God told us to.” Removing the God factor for the moment does not eliminate the fact that these events still took place, but I’d lay the responsibility entirely upon man i.e. national Israel. I must still answer the question of why national Israel eliminated entire peoples. By re-reading these accounts purely as historical record I would most likely conclude that Israel wiped out the competition for no other reason then self-preservation. They were fighting, in their minds, for their own survival because they saw the surrounding nations as a threat to their existence. If this is so, then is this not in keeping with natural selection in evolutionary theory? If so, on what grounds would I be morally outraged? Why not accept that evolutionary processes as they work themselves out in human history? Why stand in judgment over evolution? Who am I to dictate to evolution what it naturally does? Am I not a product of it? I ought to rest my faith in evolution and trust its processes. Has not evolution brought us to our present intelligence? Let us be thankful that we are not Neanderthals. We could’ve been lower on the human evolution scale, but we are not. Has not each event in human history served at least in some measure to contribute towards evolution's larger purpose? My language betrays me since there actually is no purpose in these processes. Anyways...what if the Canaanites were deemed inferior and their elimination was a sort of quarantine so as to eliminate inferior stock in human development? Now we know that in evolutionary thought there are no “supernatural” categories such as to account for god so then even the human phenomenon of belief in god[s] must be accounted for within our DNA. Something within our DNA is causing us to believe in god. Have we, through evolution, developed a “god gene” i.e. a gene that predisposes us to “spirituality”? A plausible theory could be that evolution has given us a “god gene” so that it empowers us to perform some of the most atrocious, but necessary acts in “the name of natural selection.” Evolution fools us to act “in the name of God,” while having its own purpose (for lack of a better term) served in the larger context of human evolutionary development. Why did Israel feel the need to invent a god to justify their actions? Evolution made them self-delusional so that they acted in harmony with evolutionary processes. There really is no god[s], but evolution has deceived us into thinking that a god[s] exist so that our actions such as the wiping out of other peoples in the long haul contributes to human evolutionary development in whatever form that may be. If this is so then I don’t see the reason to be morally outraged and speak in terms of good and evil, but only in terms of what advances the evolutionary process. Let’s just let nature have its course.

Porn in exchange for Bibles at UTSA?

2010-02-26T00:14:00.012-06:00

I don’t know if you’ve heard about the “Smut for Smut” campaign at UTSA. It is absolutely blasphemous. I am aware that some may think it is in bad taste for me to even bring attention to it, but oh well. I believe that many times people do not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

So anyway, this smut for smut campaign is sponsored by the student organization Atheist Agenda and they are asking everyone to bring in “sacred texts” such as the Bible in exchange for porn. Student President Thomas Jackson says in the MSNBC video, “Atheists tend to be rather knowledgeable about the scriptures.” This is laughable. His statements betray him. For example: When he refers to some of the material in the Bible he says, “These things aren’t acceptable in our society.” Young man, let me enlighten you. Since the fall God’s law has never been acceptable in any society, but you’d know this if you had read and understood the Bible. Man universally rejects God. This is Bible 101. It’s called The Doctrine of Human Depravity. Jackson agrees with the Bible more than he knows because he goes on to say that humanity is able to find morality independently of the Bible. Uh, yeah, buddy… this is one of Paul’s argument in the book of Romans. He writes,

14Gentiles, who do not have the law (no Bibles handy), by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law (a Bible).15They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts (they don’t need a Bible to know right from wrong), while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. Romans 2:14-15

This is the reason the Apostle Paul says that men are held accountable to God. It is precisely because they intuitively know the difference between right and wrong. People inherently know that it is wrong to murder regardless of the century they lived in, their culture and their educational level. I guess that’s strike two for Jackson. So “atheists tend to be rather knowledgeable about the scriptures”? Really? Then why is it that atheist heavy weight Sam Harris cannot even define one of the most basic biblical concepts such as faith? I briefly wrote about that here and here.
Jackson makes the loaded claim that, “If you read the Bible it contradicts itself nearly on every page.” This young man is obviously a fool and I agree with the interviewer when he says, “You need to think through it a little bit more Thomas.” Personally, I’d love Thomas Jackson to demonstrate how “the Bible it contradicts itself nearly on every page.”

Denying self, loving others and its impossibility Part 1

2010-01-21T22:28:00.007-06:00

“If you asked twenty good men to-day what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love. The New Testament has lots to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. We are told to deny ourselves and to take up our crosses in order that we may follow Christ; and nearly every description of what we shall ultimately find if we do so contains an appeal to desire.” C.S. Lewis

Imagine this scene. I come home with an attitude of pride and accomplishment and say to my wife,

“Letty, I denied myself today. I came across a most tempting opportunity to ‘gratify the desires of the flesh’ (Gal 5:16), but know that I mustered up enough will power and successfully deprived myself of a most opportune sexual exploit. I am not denying I did not want to. You should’ve seen the woman in question. It was all so very tempting. Aren’t you happy I denied myself for you?”

It’s probably at this point that I’d probably black out from a most well deserved smack on the face. But why aren’t women happy with only our restraint? Why the need to go deeper and demand all of us? Of course there is an answer to this question and I hope that it becomes apparent throughout this note. You see, when two people vow to love each other in holy matrimony they promise to do so as long as they both shall live and by that they mean they commit the entirety of their persons to each other. They should understand that they are committing to loving each other with all of their heart, soul and mind. Anything less is not a full commitment and unworthy of the marriage covenant, but imagine the groom emphasizing during the vow exchange the commitment to not commit adultery. Imagine him saying to his bride to be and in the presence of all witnesses, “I promise to deny myself of other women while we are married regardless of how luring and enticing (James 1:14) they or the opportunity may present itself. It’s going to be very hard considering my sinful passions that are so easily aroused (Rom 7:5; Col 3:5).” That would be awkward to say the least wouldn’t it? The promise is to love and it encompasses that he will indeed not commit adultery. Not committing adultery isn’t the goal. It is simply the by-product of the larger goal namely loving his wife. It is not praiseworthy for him to continually bring as a topic of conversation how much and how successfully he denies himself. His aim ought to be to actively and intentionally seek how he may express love for his wife whether it is in helping with household chores traditionally associated with the women’s role or in planning a night out. It isn’t hard. You get the point.

What about being given to our spouses entirely in mind, will and emotions? Is this even possible? Imagine if we would let others in to our so-called “good hearts” so that they saw everything? Imagine telling a close friend, “Sometimes when you call I hit the ignore button because I don’t feel like talking to you. I do like you, but you can really be annoying sometimes and I don’t care for your company.” We wouldn’t have many relationships if we carried ourselves in this manner. The truth of the matter is that we have all at one time or another done this very thing in our hearts. I vaguely remember the movie Liar Liar in which Jim Carey’s character was induced with a sort of spell that made him unable to lie. The spell forced him to utter exactly what he was thinking or feeling. The problem wasn’t the truth per se, but what the truth revealed about his character and integrity or lack thereof. His ugly heart was on display for all to see. The window to his soul had been opened by way of his mouth. This is what the Bible means when it says, “Their throat is an open grave” (Rom 3:13a). By speaking, our mouths reveal the contents of what is in us in the same way an open grave reveals its contents namely “dead people’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matt 23:27). The reason some people can’t speak life or any other good thing is because they themselves are devoid of life and goodness. Jesus said, “what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart” (Matt 15:18). The heart refers not to a special compartment of the soul, but the heart in biblical thought refers to the core of the person. It is out of this core i.e. “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander” (Matt 15:19). We are essentially evil. This is why we don’t always say precisely what we are thinking or feeling. We don’t want to be the true-life version of Liar Liar.

Even as born-again persons we find that even on a good day our feelings and desires are at odds with God’s Spirit (Gal 5:17). Our flesh is set against him and we care little for his word (the Bible) and his beloved people (the church) or even people who, though they may be alienated from Him because of unbelief (John 3:18), must still be afforded dignity and respect (John 3:16) because they carry God’s image (James 3:9) by virtue of creation. What then is the cure for all of this? What about self-denial and its relationship to love? I’ll seek to answer this in more detail in the next related post.

Why you should should intentionally seek pleasure

2010-01-20T19:00:00.000-06:00

This from page 33 of Michael Horton's book Putting Amazing Back into Grace: Embracing the Heart of the Gospel,

To the question, “What is the chief end of man?” the Westminster Shorter Catechism leads of with its famous answer: “To glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” What a loaded sentence! There is a sense, then, in which were created to take pleasure in God as well as his taking pleasure in us. In fact, it is the purpose of earthly pleasures and joys to raise our senses to the enjoyment of God. This means that as long as our pleasure-seeking is calculated to be, in the end, a form of God seeking, it is an acceptable and, in fact, godly pursuit. Imagine the implications of this sort of thinking! We see it throughout the Old Testament, in the history of a life-loving and world-embracing people who, at their best, squeezed the juice out of life’s every grape in order to participate in the fullness of “enjoying God forever.” It is the story of a man, God in the flesh, who not only saw fit to bless the union of a husband and wife, but also provided a miraculous vintage of wine to celebrate the occasion. No one can appreciate the Hebrew/Christian understanding of creation and remain insensitive to its world-affirming character.

How to Deal with Anger and Unforgiveness Part 2

2010-01-20T06:30:00.001-06:00

"You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. Leviticus 19:17 ESV

In my last posted I stated that the primary motivation in seeking not to hate our neighbor was not because hate produces negative feelings produce bad health. Hating neighbor is a direct violation of God’s command to “love [them] as yourself” (Lev 19:17). Feeling hatred is of concern, but it is only the symptom of a deeper problem. Hate is indeed serious. Unchecked and unbridled hatred is the root of murder (Matt 5:21-22). God aims at the root because once the root has been uprooted then the bad fruit that nourished itself (hateful feelings) from it will eventually wither away. In addition, it is a mistake to confine hating your neighbor to simply harboring animosity towards him. Hating neighbor also includes remaining passive towards him, which I’ll eventually explain. It’s important to remember that God’s command to “not hate your brother in your heart” is not his way of saying that you have no real reason to be angry, but that you’ve been legitimately offended is presupposed. God isn’t saying to you, “You have no reason to be angry so get over it!” Jesus expands upon this very command. We find his explanation in Matthew 18:15.

Jesus says, "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault….”

Now, the typical response by someone who has been legitimately offended is to avoid the offending party and inform others either by phone, text messaging, Twitter, Facebook etc. It goes something like this, “Can you believe [insert name here] did [insert offence here]? He/She is such a [insert insulting name here]!” At this point it is gossip. Look at Jesus’ words and notice the word go. Go and do what? Go gossip? Go slander? If you do these things you have fallen for the very trap God warned you about. He said, “do not incur sin because of him” (Lev 19:17) by failing to “reason frankly with” them. It would be at this juncture that you'd go from being an innocent victim to perpetuating the problem and thus incurring guilt because of your own sin. This is what Jesus encourages you to immediately, “go and tell him his fault” (Matt 18:15). Don't take any other route. God's way is different from the typical attitude that says, “I don’t see why I have to be the one to go to them and address the matter. They are the ones who offended me and therefore they ought to be the ones to initiate an apology! I’m here when they are ready!” Is this what Jesus would have you do? No. He said,

“…go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother” (Matt 18:15).

And we are to “reason frankly.” This means that our temperaments ought to be kept in check. Don’t overreact and do not involve any other persons at this level. I’ve learned that many offenses arise from simple misunderstandings and the feud dies at the first attempt of reconciliation because the offending party may not have known know they offended you and often times are willing to apologize, but it largely depends on your approach. You are most likely to agitate the situation by approaching the accused with an air of superiority. Don’t come to the accused conveying an attitude that you know for certain they intentionally offended you and that you have in their absence pronounced a guilty verdict, but are willing to pardon them if they simply say they are sorry. This approach is most unwise. The Bible says, “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame” (Proverbs 18:13). So don’t be stupid and haughty. Hear them out and be humble. Otherwise you are a Pharisee condemning the innocent (Matt12:7, John 7:50-52)

Here’s another question to ask. Why did your neighbor sin against you in the first place? Remember that Jesus aims at reconciliation and at this level he encourages those efforts to be kept privately, but I do not believe that it is beyond the scope of Jesus’ command that the efforts be kept private not only to protect the character and reputation of the accused party (who may actually turn to be innocent) and save them unwarranted embarrassment through gossip and other means. Jesus may be encouraging you to “go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone” because in that process you may discover that you too have sinned against your neighbor and he in response has lashed back. Though I think that the scripture presuppose our innocence I do not think the situation described is impossible.

To be continued

Why we are beyond merely forgiven

2010-01-19T05:30:00.001-06:00

¹⁵But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. ¹⁶And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. ¹⁷For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Romans 5:15-17

Yesterday I read John Piper’s book entitled Counted Righteous in Christ: Should We Abandon the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness? You can download the free online version here. As always, Piper never disappoints. A friend yesterday asked me how or through whom did I come to an understanding of the doctrine of justification and the imputed righteousness of Christ, but I couldn’t recall. I don’t remember at what point in my Christian walk I came to understand it as I do now. I guess it’s been a process, but I must say that Piper’s book definitely broadened my understanding of this awesome truth that God amazingly “justifies the ungodly” (Rom 4:5).

The Other Gift of God

Anytime we speak of the gift of God we may immediately think of eternal life, but the free gift spoken of in Romans 5:15-17 is not eternal life. It is “the free gift of righteousness” (vs. 17). The righteousness spoken of here is a righteousness that, as Paul says, is not “a righteousness of [our] own” (Phil 3:9), but a “righteousness from God” that we receive by faith. In order for us to be “justified” before God he must look upon us as righteous, not merely forgiven. We must truly stand righteous before him if we are to be accepted by Him. Again I do not refer to merely standing guiltless (forgiven), but we must come to him clothed in righteousness. The problem is that we are destitute of any righteousness. This is where the gift comes in. God freely and graciously gives us Jesus’ righteousness if we accept it by faith. Piper says, “The free gift in verse 15 is not the gift of eternal life, but the gift of righteousness that obtains it eternal life.”

From Piper, page 115

The Greek word for “justify” does not mean to “forgive.” It means to declare righteous, usually in a court of law. A prisoner who is found guilty and is forgiven would not be called “justified” in the ordinary sense of the word. He is justified if he is not found guilty. Forgiveness means to be found guilty and then not have the guilt reckoned to you but let go. So we should be careful that we not assume that justification and forgiveness are identical.

What are the implications of this?

The implications are amazing! It's very liberating. Instead of seeing ourselves as merely “pardoned sinners” we may see ourselves as God sees us. He sees us “in Christ” i.e. he sees his beloved Son’s righteousness as our own. In an earthly court a criminal that is merely pardoned may be “forgiven” of his crimes yet he still carries the stigma of being a criminal. He hasn’t been “justified,” (declared just and righteous) but he's simply been pardoned. We, as sinners in God's Supreme Court, are not only forgiven because of Jesus' blood, but additionally we are “declared just” (justified) because Jesus’ righteousness is credited to us. Struggling believers are at times counseled by being reminded that God no longer sees their sin and that he has forgotten them, but an emphasis only on this aspect of what God does on our behalf is short-sided. It’s not only that God doesn’t see (he doesn't hold it against us) our sin, but God has “raised [us] with Christ” (Col 3:1). In one sense we are with Christ at “the right hand of God” (Col 3:2) because our lives are “hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3).

Jesus Christ is in a position of reigning. Pay attention. We are told that because of Adam’s original sin “the judgment following [his] trespass brought condemnation” (Rom 5:16) and that “because of one man’s trespass, death reigned” (Rom 5:17), but notice that Jesus reverses because his “one act of righteousnessleads to justification and life” (Rom 5:). You’d think however that by the reversal that “life” would reign in contrast to “death,” but it doesn’t say that. It says “those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness [will] reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:17). It’s us, as individuals, alongside Jesus that will reign! We are not merely pardoned sinners, but we reign with Christ while clothed in his righteousness. This is how God sees us. He has declared us just even before “rulers…authorities…the cosmic powers over this present darkness…the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12) that we are indeed righteous!

Amazing and almost unbelievable!

If God is God then what about suffering and evil?

2010-01-16T02:31:00.003-06:00

I’m currently reading through Randy Alcorn’s book If God is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil. This moved me and I wanted to share it with you. He tells this story on pages 22-23 of the book:

Someone told me the story of a teenager who didn’t want to be seen in public with her mother, because her mother’s arms were terribly disfigured. One day when her mother took her shopping and reached out her hand, a clerk looked horrified. Later, crying, the girl told her mom how embarrassed she was. Understandably hurt, the mother waited an hour before going to her daughter’s room to tell her, for the first time, what had happened.

“When you were a baby, I woke up to a burning house. Your room was an inferno. Flames were everywhere. I could have gotten out the front door, but I decided I’d rather die with you than to leave you to die alone. I ran through the fire and wrapped my arms around you. Then I went back through the flames, my arms on fire. When I got outside on the lawn, the pain was agonizing, but when I looked at you, all I could do was rejoice that the flames hadn’t touched you.”

Stunned, the girl looked at her mother through new eyes. Weeping in shame and gratitude, she kissed her mother’s marred hands and arms. May we learn to see the problem of evil and suffering through new eyes.

How to Deal with Anger and Unforgiveness Part 1

2010-01-14T21:13:00.020-06:00

"You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. Leviticus 19:17 ESV

Upon reading "You shall not hate your brother in your heart…” you may have immediately thought of personal feelings of animosity because of an offense taken and you think that God does not want you to harbor such feelings mainly for the sake of your personal well being. “It isn’t good for you to be angry because of your high-blood pressure.” Ever heard that one? You may think that God is concerned mainly about “the deadly effects of negative emotions on the body” in the Dr. Don Colbert sense. Such a view is too narrow at best and selfish at worse. Our health should be of secondary concern. God’s command is "You shall not hate your brother in your heart…lest you incur sin...” Committing sin before him and causing your neighbor to also sin is God’s main concern. This is not to deny that God cares about your feelings. He cares more than you can even imagine, but he sees past mere symptoms (feelings of anger) and sees the root of the matter (sin) because He is indeed “…living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:12-13).

First of all, it isn’t sinful to be angry. God made us this way. Sin should anger you. There is something very wrong when a person can live in this world with all of the injustices that take place daily and yet remain unmoved. I believe that in most cases indifference is the sin we ought to be concerned with more than with anger. There ought to be as much an effort to help people with indifference management as much as with anger management. There are times when we ought to be raving mad, but we aren’t because of our cold and insensitive hearts and unconcern for our fellow human i.e. our neighbor. When God says, "You shall not hate your brother in your heart” he means you shall not hate your brother in such a way that you continually harbor hateful feelings. Unlike the positive feeling of happiness and joy anger and hatred are unresolved feelings. Think of them as indicators that something is wrong and call upon you to resolve the matter like an engine light that comes on calling attention to impending car trouble. The engine warning light in your car is not the actual problem, but it serves to call attention that something is wrong and that you must address before things can become worse.

Our natural response to anger is to think of how to make such feelings subside as if that were the main and only goal? As stated, this view is self-centered and selfish. Our resolve ought to be in diagnosing and administering God’s prognosis to the situation and that prognosis goes beyond merely making the “yucky” feeling go away so that you merely feel better. The feelings serve only as an alarm to a bigger problem and God would have you to resolve it because HE LOVES YOU AND HE LOVES YOUR NEIGHBOR! So what’s the problem? The problem is this strained and/or broken relationship with your neighbor because of an offence committed. This is the context of Leviticus 17:9-18. Vengeance presents itself as an attractive option yet God has clearly declared that this is not an option for us if we are to remain in the right. For the very next verse (vs 18) says, “You shall not take vengeance.” Therefore "you shall not hate your brother in your heart” means that you shall not maliciously scheme and plot to bring your neighbor to ruin in an act of vengeance for having offended you. The heart of God’s command is to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Vengeance seeks to right wrongs. God is all for righting wrongs, but we ought to seek to resolve wrongs according to his way and not ours.

You Have Legitimate Reason to Be Angry

This is the second thing you ought to take notice of is this. The command to “not hate your brother in your heart” is not God’s way of saying that you have no real reason to be angry, but the scripture presupposes that a legitimate wrong has been committed. God isn’t saying to you, “You have no reason to be angry so get over it!” He isn't insensitive toward you. Jesus expands upon this very command. We find his explanation in Matthew 18:15. He says,

"If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault….”

The typical response by someone who has been legitimately offended is to avoid the offending party and inform others either by phone, text messaging, Twitter, Facebook etc. It goes something like this, “Can you believe [insert name here] did [insert offence here]? He/She is such a [insert insulting name here]!” At this point it is gossip. Look at Jesus’ words and notice the word go. Go and do what? Gossip? Slander? It is at this point that most people go from victim to sinner by “incur[ring] sin" through gossip and slander. Jesus said, “go and tell him his fault.” This is different from the typical attitude that says,

“I don’t see why I have to be the one to go to them and address the matter. They are the ones who offended me and therefore they ought to be the ones to initiate an apology! I’m here when they are ready!”

Is this what Jesus would have you do? No. He said, "If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault….” There are a several number of reasons for this and I don’t have time to elaborate on them all, but here’s a practical one. The person may not know they offended you and if so they may not have done so intentionally!

To be continued

Thoughts on Depression, Penance and Worm Theology

2010-01-11T19:06:00.017-06:00

I do not sense that the biblical truth that man is totally depraved was intended to beat us down and pulverize us so that we are set on course to a never-ending life journey of self-loathing and incurable depression. The truth of human depravity isn’t God’s big stick or whip to inflict pain as if he were some sort of sadomasochist. Human depravity isn’t flattering in any sense to us, but God reveals to us this most dreadful condition much in the same way a doctor regretfully must inform a patient of their grave illness. The patient must be willing to accept the diagnosis as accurate if he is ever going to submit himself to the proper remedy and God indeed has the cure for our depraved condition.

Here’s another way to look at it. “Self” is the problem. Our lives must be oriented around God, but most often our lives are God excluding because we are oriented around self. We are naturally man-centered and not God-centered. Let’s say that in “witnessing” you convince someone that their sense of goodness is a farce in God’s eyes because they truly aren’t good according to God’s law. The likely result is that they may no longer feel good about themselves, but bad. So then a person may move from feeling good about self to feeling bad about self, but do you not see that self remains the focus? The aim is to exhort the sin conscious and convicted person to look away from self and to look to Jesus and see in the cross a full and complete “satisfaction” for sins without any requirement or contribution on their end.

I intentionally used the word “satisfaction” in order to hopefully draw attention to the Catholic understanding of satisfaction and show how we may ignorantly, but still erroneously practice penance and not repentance. We have unknowingly invented a protestant version of penance by only excluding the physical and external self-flagellation aspect of Catholicism. We may not externally flagellate, but we do so internally by “beating” ourselves down with thoughts of self-worthlessness as if God becomes more and more satisfied by abasing ourselves more and more. We may think that by confessing how bad we are and loathe and cry “woe is me” that we are making “satisfaction,” but full satisfaction is found in the completed work of Jesus (looking outside self) and not in ourselves. Believing in sound doctrine does not atone for sin and neither does membership in any denomination. Tithing faithfully to the church does not provide salvific merit either. Church attendance won’t do it or praying incessantly. Faith and faith alone in the person of Jesus and his atoning work is what pleases God so that in his eyes we become "the righteousness of God" (Romans 3:22). Therefore do not focus too much on your badness (but don’t forget it either), but focus more so on God’s goodness that you may rejoice. Consider this great scripture:

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10

Was God heavy-handed with Ananias and Sapphira? (Acts 5:1-11) Part 2

2010-01-11T06:30:00.040-06:00

What exactly did Ananias and Sapphira do?

1But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? Acts 5:1-3

They lied about the amount they gave. They intentionally led everyone to believe they had given 100% of the proceeds from their property sale. This is especially sad because they were under no apostolic mandate to even sell their land in the first place. The apostles weren’t imposing it on them or on anyone else for that matter. The church practiced free-will giving. This is implied by Peter’s rhetorical address to Ananias, “While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal” (Acts 5:4)? Peter pints out for Ananias what Ananias already knew. Ananias knew that he had a right to own land and to do with it as he pleased. He not only had the freedom to sell or not sell, but also the freedom to disperse the money as he pleased. If Ananias would’ve made his intentions known saying and carried follow through in action accordingly saying, “I’ll give 50% to the church and keep 50% for my wife and me,” then according to Peter that would’ve been fine too. The amount of money was not the issue, but their deception.

Why did Ananias lead everyone to believe they had given all?

Peter asked, “Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?" Isn’t it ironic that it is Peter who discerns the work of Satan in the heart of Ananias? Peter at one time had also been influenced by Satan so that he unthinkably opposed Jesus. The difference is that Peter was unaware of it and actually believed he was doing the right thing until Jesus rebuked him saying, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man" (Mk 8:33). Unlike Peter’s sin Ananias’ sin was premeditated. He conspired with his wife knowing full well that they were doing wrong, but why? What motivated them?

Why did Ananias and Sapphira do it?

The scripture does not specifically tell us why Ananias and Sapphira did what they did, but I think we can take a good jab at it because we all possess a nature just like theirs. What do I mean by that? I mean what Paul means. In writing to the Corinthians Paul said, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man” (1 Cor 10:13a). What did Paul mean by temptation that is “common to man?” He means that people have struggled with the same kind of sins since The Fall. We all fell from the same tree so to speak. We are of the same cut. All men in every century regardless of the place have struggled with lust, sexual immorality, greed and power struggles to name only a few. Women too are prone to particular sins that men may not be, but we are all in the same boat nevertheless. With the exception of Jesus there have been no human beings after the fall that did not possess a sinful nature. The problem isn’t sin out there, but sin in here. Sin isn’t external, but internal. Jesus said,

“21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality,envy, slander, pride, foolishness.23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person" (Mark 7:21-23).

Jesus spoke about denying self and crucifying the flesh daily (Luke 9:23). When we speak of not exposing ourselves to ungodly things whether it comes through media of any type or through the company of the shady company we may unwisely keep we are not thinking in terms of sin coming in, but we are concerned with waking up "the old man” and by that I don’t mean “Dad’s taking a nap so please don’t do anything to wake him.” We are taking about arousing “the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24). Como dicen, “No le muevas.”

We may elevate men of God from past generations so much that we may think them less sinful, but the Bible simply won’t have it. The Apostle James says, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours” (James 5:17). The KJV says, “[Elijah] was a man subject to like passions as we are…”

17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. James 5:17-18

Part of the point to the verse is that just because Elijah through his prayers was able to make it rain or cause a drought did not mean that he was super human. “[He] was a man with a nature like ours” i.e. a sinful nature. Therefore it doesn’t matter how much one has accomplished or may accomplish in the name of God all men yesterday, today and until Jesus comes will remain sinful in their nature. Our hope for a full and complete deliverance from “this body of death” (Rom 7:24) is in the return of Jesus and in final the resurrection,

50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God,nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.51 Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." (1 Corinthians 15:50-54)

Our Sin Commonality to Ananias and Sapphira

What does any of this have to do with Ananias and Sapphira? My point is that the reason we can probably have a good idea as to why they did what they did is (as I’ve probably overstated) that they possessed a nature just like ours and therefore their struggle was something that is common to us all.

How many of you want to be known for being generous? Even though someone may be greedy they don’t like to think as such “y menos” do they want to be known among others as greedy individuals! I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to walk down the street in Robstown only to hear someone say, “Mira! Ayi va Chris ‘codo’ DeLuna. A ese ni le sacas ningun chicle.” We want to have the appearance of being good people. We would all like to enjoy a good reputation? We want to be well spoken of? Now the question is what are we willing to do to attain that kind of status in the eyes of others? That’s somewhat of the position Ananias and Sapphira were in.

To be continued…

Was God heavy-handed with Ananias and Sapphira? (Acts 5:1-11) Part 1

2010-01-10T06:30:00.032-06:00

This is the beginning of my Sunday morning sermon for January 10, 2010 at Church of Grace:

1But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet.3 But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God."5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. And great fear came upon all who heard of it.6 The young men rose and wrapped him up and carried him out and buried him. 7After an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. 8 And Peter said to her, "Tell me whether you sold the land for so much." And she said, "Yes, for so much." 9 But Peter said to her, "How is it that you have agreed together to test the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out." 10 Immediately she fell down at his feet and breathed her last. When the young men came in they found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband. 11 And great fear came upon the whole churchand upon all who heard of these things. (Acts 5:1-11)

If there’s such a thing in the Bible as getting “slain in the spirit” this is it right here. To be “slain” means to be put to death; to be killed. This is precisely what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. The Holy Spirit put them to death hence they were “slain by the spirit.” I don’t mean to sound facetious. There is no doubt that this passage presents a problem to many people. It’s a hard passage to stomach, but if we are going to be consistent with the rest of what the Bible reveals concerning God’s nature then I don’t see why this passage should be as difficult as we’ve made it out to be. When people look at this passage they may feel that Ananias and Sapphira were dealt a heavy hand and that it just seems like overkill on God’s part. Those feelings are understandable, but we must not ever allow ourselves to stand in judgment of God. God doesn’t need to justify himself to anyone. “But who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” (Rom 9:20). God always does what is good and holy. God is not evil. “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Don’t get me wrong. When I say we are not to question God I do not mean that we should not seek to understand why God does what he does. God certainly has answers for genuine truth seekers. God loves to reveal himself to those who sincerely seek him, but he shuts out the mockers. What I mean by not questioning I mean we are to not act as judges over God and demand for him to justify himself to us for what he does.

Think about the passage. What’s so difficult about it? Does not the Bible teach us that God is a judge? In fact he is “the Judge of all the earth” (Gen 18:25). So then what’s so difficult about a judge exercising judgment? You might say,

“Chris, I understand the concept of God judging, but in the case of Ananias and Sapphira the judgment seems so arbitrary. They aren’t the only ones who have been guilty of hypocrisy so why does God seem to single them out? I mean if he is going to slay anybody that puts on face and practices dishonesty in the local church then you might find that you won’t have much of a church left when he’s done.”

That kind of objection reminds me of a Bible study I had in my apartment a few years ago. In that study we arrived at a section in the Bible that says God chooses people unto salvation and that it’s his prerogative do so only to hear a certain person heatedly object. I mean this guy became hot. His nostrils flared up and after hearing him out and trying to reason with him for a short while I simply asked,

“Ok. Let me see if I understand you correctly. You are telling me that God has no right to choose people. It’s either he saves everyone or he saves no one, but he has no right to pick and choose?”

And he said,

“Yes. That’s what I am saying.Either he should save everyone or no one, but he doesn’t have the right to say ‘eeny, meeny, miny, moe.’”

Of course that’s an unfair caricature on his part. God doesn’t really say, "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe,” but you get the point. The spirit behind such an objection is the same kind of spirit that often finds its self even judging God’s actions as wrong. They might say,

“Well, if he’s going to kill Ananias and Sapphira he might as well kill everybody because everyone has played the hypocrite at one time or another and practiced dishonesty, but the truth of the matter is that he doesn’t kill everyone. He seemed to have just arbitrarily picked out Ananias and Sapphira, but why is that so? Why do we not we see this happen today? Where’s the consistency in God? When was the last time you witnessed someone die in the presence of God?”

There is an answer as to why we don’t see this happen often today, but I don’t want to provide a full answer just yet. I'd like for you to note however that I didn’t say it doesn’t happen at all anymore, but only that it doesn’t happen often. For now I’ll just tell you up front that in one sense God’s swift judgment on Ananias and Sapphira don't have much to do with the gravity of their sin of lying and testing the Lord, but in another sense it has everything to do with it.

Work out your salvation? The fear and trembling of Phil 2:12b

2010-01-07T17:18:00.011-06:00

“…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12b-13)

This verse has always bothered me. It’s bothered me because I almost always hear it conveyed with the idea that we must “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling” because it might just be that in all our “working” we may not attain it, but that somehow “fear and trembling” in our pursuit of it may just help to ensure that we attain it. It all sounds so confusing and downright contradicting to the rest of the Bible that says we are made right with God by faith apart from any good works on our behalf. So what’s the deal then?

Let’s ask ourselves why there should be "fear and trembling?” We find that the answer is right in front of us! “It is God!” God ought to be the source of our fear and trembling. Paul does not mean that our fear ought to be based on the possibility that we may fall short and not be “truly saved,” but he means that God himself ought to be the source of our fear and trembling! Yes, it is downright Biblical to fear God. I do not mean fear in the sense of having an unhealthy phobia about God, but I mean the same kind of fear that Isaiah experienced in Isaiah 6 when he said, "Woe is me! …for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" (Isaiah 6:5). We are talking about the same holy, holy, holy God that appeared to Moses through a burning bush yet when Moses drew near he was told, "Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground" (Ex 3:5). We are talking about the same God who in light of the Israelites' stubbornness before Him he said to Moses, “Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people" (Ex 33:3). What did God mean by that? He was saying that he couldn’t even take a walk with sinners because of his holiness and divine justice. He might “consume [sinners] on the way.” The author of Hebrews too writes, “Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe” (Heb 12:28).

But why do it with “reverence and awe?” Reverence and awe are simply another way of saying “fear and trembling.” Yet the question remains why “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe?” The very next verse tells us why: “For our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). There is something very awesome and yet dangerous about God drawing near. Just ask Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). Yet this is precisely what God has done. He dwells in us through the new birth. How much nearer can he be? When the Hebrew people were delivered from Egyptian slavery they were lead by God out into the wilderness, but they were led externally. God was "outside" of them. God was for them “the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night” (Ex 13:22). In the New Testament we are told that “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness,” (Matt 4:1) but he was not led externally rather internally. God was in Him. Jesus professed “the Father is in me” (John 10:38; 14:10, 11). It is only when one takes in all of the Biblical data that one begins to grasp God’s thrice holiness and the fearful reverence it ought to produce in us because “it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:31).The Philippians didn’t need to be reminded about God’s holiness only that God himself had rolled up his sleeves, personally came down and personally went to work in them “both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” So in effect this is what I believe Paul is saying. He means something to the effect of, “Listen! We are not becoming ‘obedient from the heart’ (Rom 6:17) neither are we being ‘conformed to the image of his Son’ (Rom 8:29) by our sheer will power. We are not the source of this apparent life change and move towards holy living. There is something else at work in us that is ‘training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age’ (Titus 2:12). Do you want to know what the source of our power is if not our wills? It’s God! He has drawn near in all his holiness and “works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). Does God’s nearness not make you fear and tremble? This isn’t some impersonal force at work in you, but a divine person personally causing you to will and to work. Who need fear their wills when they resolve to change themselves, but fail to do so? What are the consequences of not obeying our “New Year’s resolutions?” Nothing! Because they were self-imposed to begin with! Oh but to yield to God IN us is an entirely different matter. Therefore work out your salvation with the appropriate reverence and awe due to God because he is not far off, but in you.

God-centeredness versus Man-centeredness

2010-01-07T06:30:00.001-06:00

Some of you may have no idea why I would post this and why it’s even relevant. If so then don’t bother yourself and read it. But those of you who do this is from John Frame:

The Westminster Shorter Catechism says as its answer to Question 1, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy him forever.” (Emphasis mine) So it is possible to have a God-centered view of human experience and subjectivity, a human “focus” that detracts not one bit from a biblical God-centeredness.

1 I love you, O LORD, MY strength. 2 The LORD is MY rock and MY fortress and MY
deliverer, MY God, MY rock, in whom I take refuge, MY shield, and the horn of MY
salvation, MY stronghold. 3 I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies. 4 The cords of death encompassed me; the
torrents of destruction assailed me; 5 the cords of Sheol entangled me; the
snares of death confronted me. 6 In my distress I called upon the LORD; to my
God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him
reached his ears. Psalm 18:1-6

Like many Psalms, this song includes lavish use of the first person singular personal pronoun, “I,” “me,” “my—“maybe 75 occurrences. But will anyone claim that this Psalm is anything but God-centered? The God of Scripture is not Moloch. He does not demand human sacrifice as the price of honoring him. Misery is not his goal for us. Rather, he delights in delivering and sanctifying his people. “Focus” is not a zero-sum game, where every bit of attention to God must detract from man and vice versa.

Disheartened during church service, but...

2010-01-06T22:04:00.002-06:00

Our evening church service started a little uneventful. I was discouraged to see many people missing. There are many challenges facing someone planting a church in this day and age. I spoke on the necessity of living upright and honest lives that others may have “nothing evil to say about us” (Titus 2:8). Our ability to advance the Good News is directly tied to how we live before others. I also talked about serving others through good works, but ironically I was having trouble seeing past the fact of low attendance even during the time that I taught. It wasn’t until after church service that the Lord ministered to me and lovingly reminded me of why I am in Robstown. I’ve found that it is when I am engaged in some of the most menial tasks that He nudges me and reminds of the things that please Him.

It started after service when I grudgingly (yes, I admit it) took a homeless lady to HEB and purchased some groceries for her such as eggs, bread, drinks etc. I was glad to learn that she’d found a place to stay for a while. At least she’ll be out of the cold. I rejoiced in that. Then I gave an elderly man a ride home too. Don’t misperceive what I am saying. There’s no boasting here. These aren’t “great and mighty” deeds yet I found myself very content in them. I thought of another man in his sixties (he doesn’t know how old he is) I see around too. He has the mind of a child and still cries at night from missing his deceased parents. I was repentant before the night was over and thanked God for his work in me. To Him be the glory.

Commentary on Bible Reading Plan: Jan 3 & 4

2010-01-05T07:00:00.009-06:00

I had to read solo last night from the scheduled reading (Gen 10-12 and Matt 4) because I came down with one of my migraine headaches around 3:30pm and it kept me from functioning. I got home a little past five and sought to relieve it by lying down for a bit. My kids started to rub my eyes and temples and I eventually fell asleep. They decided not to wake me for the evening reading so I woke up when it was over. Sunday evening proved a little challenging because the kids were restless and were having a hard time concentrating. We pushed through though. There will be days like that. The important thing is to read through no matter what.

By the way, I don’t know if this is important to you or not, but we read out of the ESV Bible at home and at church. People have asked me why we use the ESV Bible and I usually encourage them to read Translating Truth: The Case for Essentially Literal Bible Translation. My kids read from this particular Children's ESV Bible, but it seems to be out of print. I think this one is the exact same Bible, but with a different cover.

Some thoughts on Genesis 11
The sin of the people in Genesis 11 was that they said, “let us make a name for ourselves” as opposed to glorifying God and making His name great. They did not want to “be dispersed over the face of the whole earth” (Gen 11:4) in contrast to God’s command to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Gen 1:28). In reading this passage I could not help, but to remember one of the most outrageous interpretations/commentaries on this passage. It came from eisegetical master Jesse Duplantis.

Commentary on the Bible Reading Plan: Jan 2

2010-01-02T19:48:00.003-06:00

We really had a great time on the first day reading the account of creation, but being that Genesis 1-3 was fresh on my mind I saw the sad contrast of the way things became in Genesis 6. Genesis 1:31 reads, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen 1:31a), but when we come to Genesis 6:12 we read, “And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt…” (Gen 6:12).

We started in Genesis 4 tonight and the issue came up of who Cain married considering that everyone came from Adam and Eve. Ariela is so dramatic. She began to gag and pretend she was hyperventilating when it became apparent to her that men originally took wives from among their own family. In other words Cain most likely married his sister. I had to pause in the reading and let her recover.

Here’s another tip if you are reading with your kids too. Have them keep a notepad/journal and have them write down words that they don’t understand. Have them look them up in a dictionary. Remember to just work through and let your kids know that it's ok if they don't understand. The point is simply to read through. So I advice that you limit the words to about three so that they don’t feel overwhelmed. Ariela tonight chose enmity (Gen 3:15), offspring (Gen 3:15) and fugitive (Gen 4:12b).

I also wanted to inform you of two children’s Bible study resources I’ve had on my wish list and I guess now is as good a time as any to purchase them.

Bible Reading Plan: Idea 1

2010-01-02T07:00:00.001-06:00

Here’s an idea for those of you following the yearly Bible reading plan along with your children. Place a big poster board on the wall with everyone’s name and the assigned reading. Check off the reading assignment as they are completed. The poster board will serve to remind everyone of the assigned reading for the day and help to see each other’s progress as the boxes are checked off. It’ll serve to provide a sense of accomplishment.

Commentary on Bible Reading Plan: Jan 1

2010-01-01T23:28:00.002-06:00

I begin the New Year tonight reading Genesis 1-3 and Matthew 1 aloud to my children (2, 6 & 9) and my wife. It’s part of the Church of Grace plan to read the Bible in a year. 2009 was a year of transition for me in that I lived in three different places. The fact that we were not completely settled in didn’t help my efforts to spend quality time with my children in the evenings like I used to in 2008, but thank God that by his grace we bought a home in September and have finally settled in. During the Genesis reading my son Cristobal asked me tonight, “If God knew that Adam and Eve would sin then why did he create them?” I never mentioned God’s foreknowledge. He simply assumed it and wondered why God would allow the fall to happen in light of his foreknowledge. Ariela commented that the reason Eve was not scared of the serpent when he did appear was because she had no reason to be since God had placed all the animals under their dominion. I have to admit that I had never given that much thought. But what was interesting about this question and comment was that they sprang from their own thinking. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

5 Books that Have Positively Impacted My Faith in 2009

2009-12-31T12:04:00.036-06:00

As I reflected back on the 2009 year I became especially mindful of some of the books that had and continue to have a positive impact on my faith in God. Here they are in no particular order:

A Tale of Two Sons: The Inside Story of a Father, His Sons, and a Shocking Murder by John MacArthur

I first heard John MacArthur preach a sermon series on Luke 15 in 2005 and since then I never saw the story of The Prodigal Son in the same way again. I was excited to eventually see the release of the book in 2009. We did an 11-week partially video based series at Church of Grace. Because I was teaching from this book the series at Church of Grace caused me to look more in depth into every detail of the story and consequently served to drink deeper of God's grace.

Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

This book served as a personal rebuke. I personally know how easy it is to become discouraged and disillusioned with the church. Can I get an “amen”? I confess that for a while there I had become somewhat frustrated at the church that it seemed as if I had nothing good to say about her, but authors Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck brought a fresh and much needed reminding of Jesus’ love and care for His bride despite her shortcomings and failures.

Just Do Something: How to Make a Decision Without Dreams, Visions, Fleeces, Open Doors, Random Bible Verses, Casting Lots, Liver Shivers, Writing in the Sky, etc.By Kevin DeYoung

The subtitle very accurately sums up the book. Charismatic-Pentecostal (or as you prefer to be called "non-denominational") believers seriously need to read this book. Enough said!

Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers for Complex Questions and Deep Wounds by Chris Brauns
By far this book has been the most impacting in that it confirmed many of my own beliefs and convictions about forgiveness yet for a season I began to doubt whether I was wrong because I seemed to be in the minority camp. I do not mean to say that a majority consensus determines truth, but that being in the minority camp does cause one to rethink one’s position more often than if everyone seems to agree with you. By God's grace I had many opportunities to carry out what I learned in the book. You can read about one of my personal opportunities mentioned by the author himself here.

Counterfeit God: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters by Tim Keller
I only recently purchased this book so I must admit that I am not done reading, but I am ony halfway into it. What I’ve read so far is also life-changing. Tim Keller shares via video why he wrote on the most relevant subject of modern idolatry.

My prayer is that you too consider these books for the nourishment of your faith in Christ Jesus.

Your Love Never Fails

2009-12-10T14:28:00.004-06:00

I’m not the biggest fan of Jesus Culture simply because I don't know much about them, but the song Your Love Never Fails has grown on me because I reminded of certain truths about God and the scriptures that attests to these truths. That's what a "worship song" is supposed to do.

Verse 1:
Nothing can separate (Rom. 8:31-39)
Even if I ran away (The Prodigal, Luke 15)
Your love never fails (Psalm 48:9, 57:10)
I know I still make mistakes (1 John 2:1)
But You have new mercies for me everyday (Lamentations 3:21-22)
Your love never fails (Psalm 48:9, 57:10)

Chorus:
You stay the same through the ages (The Immutability of God, Malachi 3:6)
Your love never changes
There maybe pain in the night but joy comes in the morning

And when the oceans rage (Matt. 8:23-25)
I don't have to be afraid (Matt. 8:23-25, Joshua 10:8)
Because I know that You love me (John 3:16, Rom. 5:8)
Your love never fails

Verse 2:
The wind is strong and the water's deep
But I'm not alone in these open seas
Cause Your love never fails

The chasm is far too wide (Rom. 8:31-39)
I never thought I'd reach the other side
But Your love never fails

Bridge:
You make all things work together for my good (Romans 8:28)

MacArtur: Health and Wealth Preachers Shameless Frauds

2009-12-08T00:45:00.011-06:00

I woke up Monday morning and as I proceeded to go about my day I was overcome with a sense of heart-felt gratitude that I couldn’t contain myself so I grabbed my cell phone and posted this comment on my Facebook status,

“I'm particularly grateful today for having been delivered out of the aberration and sometimes down right heresy that is W-F theology. Why many preachers continue to remain silent on this issue baffles me. I just hope it's not because they are cowards."

I arrived at home very and was ready to call it a day, but I brought my MacBook Pro to bed so I could briefly browse before going to sleep and by God’s providence I came across an article (Thank you Caron Totty Strong!) by John MacArthur entitled A Colossal Fraud. If you know anything about “Jmac” you know he is no coward. He’s never cowered to speak clearly and truthfully no matter the circumstance. His appearances on Larry King Live have surely demonstrated this. In his article MacArthur begins by pointing out that Bernie Madoff’s $18 billion 20-year ponzi scheme pales in comparison to the more “diabolical fraud” that is “prosperity” teaching MacArthur goes on to write,

“Someone needs to say this plainly: The faith healers and health-and-wealth preachers who dominate religious television are shameless frauds. Their message is not the true gospel of Jesus Christ. There is nothing spiritual or miraculous about their on-stage chicanery. It is all a devious ruse designed to take advantage of desperate people. They are not godly ministers but greedy impostors who corrupt the Word of God for money's sake. They are not real pastors who shepherd the flock of God but hirleings whose only design is to fleece the sheep. Their love of money is glaringly obvious in what they say as well as how they live. They claim to possess great spiritual power, but in reality they are rank materialists and enemies of everything holy. There is no reason anyone should be deceived by this age-old con, and there is certainly no justification for treating the hucksters as if they were authentic ministers of the gospel. Religious charlatans who make merchandise of false promises have been around since the apostolic era. They pretend to be messengers of Christ, but they are interlopers and impostors. The apostles condemned them with the harshest possible language. Paul called them "men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain" (1 Timothy 6:5). Peter called them false prophets with "heart[s] trained in greed" (2 Peter 2:14). He warned that "in their greed they will exploit you with false words" (v. 3). He exposed them as scoundrels and dismissed them as "stains and blemishes" on the church (v. 13).

Thank God for MacArthur and other real men who have a backbone to speak up about these wolves who continue to ravish the flock of God. I highly encourage you to read the rest of the article here.

Perpetual Unhappiness: It's our attitude

2009-12-05T17:53:00.003-06:00

In his article Don't take life for granted Ruben Navarrette writes,

"As Americans, we've become victims of our own success. We've strayed so far
from the example of our immigrant parents and grandparents that we bear no
resemblance to that model. Weighed down by own bloated sense of entitlement and
self-importance, we've lost our appetite for competition and we prefer to talk
instead about what we think we ‘deserve.’ At the first sign of adversity, we
play the victim, give up, or fall apart. With all the blessings that come with
living in the world's most remarkable country, still we complain. We retreat. We
whine."

His observation reminded me of Louis C.K.’s appearance on Conan O Brien.

I remember a few years becoming astonished when I came across 2 Timothy 3. I was astonished because of a particular sin named among other sins. The Apostle Paul sounded the alarm about coming perilous times because such times would be filled with people who are “lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:2-4)! Did you notice the sin of ingratitude tucked in-between disobedient to parents and unholy? Being ungrateful is way more than simply forgetting to say thank you, but ingratitude is a disposition of the heart and ultimately a lifestyle.

November 2009 Chris DeLuna Sermons

2009-11-30T00:45:00.009-06:00

I have the great privilege of serving Church of Grace as the teaching-preaching pastor. Below are the audio messages from these past few Sundays. Click on the hyperlinks to be taken to a download page.

Message 1 on Miracles, November 1, 2009
Message 2 on Miracles, November 8, 2009
Romans 6:16, November 15, 2009
Message 3 on Miracles, November 22, 2009 (currently working on getting this file uploaded)
Continuation of preaching through Acts (4:32-37), November 28, 2009

News that is Worthy of an Eight-Mile Run

2009-08-04T08:10:00.001-05:00

Most of us have been to funerals and we don’t like them. They are just wrong. I do not mean the concept or the things we do such as eulogize the departed. I mean that it is just plain wrong that someone has died. We were not meant to die. Even the youngest of children can understand this. They too feel the loss and they know in their gut that death is a bad thing. They too have that inner witness that death is an interruption to the hopes and aspirations of life. Death stinks. Think about the most recent funeral you attended. Recall the hurt and the loss that attended those closest to the deceased. Maybe that person is you. Maybe you were not the far off acquaintance, but the closest to the deceased. I remember the death of my uncle a few years ago. It was a sad occasion and I found comfort only in the fact that not too long before his death he had embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ and submitted to Him as Lord and Savior. Apart from that truth there was no other comfort. The hardest day was the day of the burial. It just seemed so final. A chapter in our family life was closed. No matter how much we wept and cried out in anguish my uncle was not going to come back because of the many tears and heartache. There would never again be a time in this life where we would see him. We buried his remains and everyone went back to living their lives without him. Think about the last person you lost and imagine this. Imagine that a few days later you are thinking about that person when all of a sudden they appear to you. You think you may be dreaming, but that loved one assures you that you are not and proceeds to prove it. You are not crazy and you know it because you are not the only one who is interacting with this person who was previously dead. You suddenly realize that others need to know. Imagine being the bearer of that kind of news. Imagine you had the privilege of delivering the news that someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s friend was not dead anymore. What a joy! But imagine you had no car, no telephone and no Internet. The only option was for you to take an eight-mile hike. Would that kind of news make the trip worth it?
This was the case for two people. Luke 24:13-35 tells us that on the Sunday following the crucifixion of Jesus two discouraged disciples began to make a journey to the village of Emmaus. Emmaus was about eight miles from the city of Jerusalem. These disciples were not aware that Jesus had risen, but their minds were occupied with Jesus and all that had occurred just days prior. Jesus was dead, but they “had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel” (vs. 21). Jesus joined them in their walk until they reached the village, “but their eyes were kept from recognizing him” (vs. 13). The Bible says that when they reached the village they urged this man (Jesus) to stay with them. He did and they ate. The Bible says, “When he [Jesus] was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. 31And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight” (Luke 24:30-31). Now they were convinced that Jesus was back from the dead. What did they do in response? The Bible says they immediately got up to make the eight-mile trip back to Jerusalem to tell others. “And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem” (Luke 24:33). They were the bearers of good news. The news they carried would heal the hurts and restore shattered dreams and hopes. The news of the resurrection meant more than the disciples could have ever conceived of at that moment. They were just happy that he was alive again and I highly doubt they complained one bit about the eight-mile journey because the news was simply too great. What about you? Is the gospel to you so great that the work and trouble that usually comes with communicating it not bothersome at all? Do you, in your joy, exclaim as the apostle Paul, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18). The trip shouldn’t be too bad for us. We drive in air-conditioned vehicles. This surely beats walking. Is the gas too expensive? Delivering the news that Jesus is alive is greater than delivering the news that someone’s loved one is alive because Jesus’ death becomes the basis of their resurrection. Jesus said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19b). Is the good news worthy of an eight-mile run?

"If God isn’t pumping..."

2009-07-22T11:07:00.003-05:00

Here’s a quote that blessed me the other night as I was reading through some material in my Logos software. The quote concerns preaching.

“In the 1800s a famous organist traveled from town to town giving concerts. In each town he hired a boy to pump the organ during the concert. After one performance, he couldn’t shake the boy, who followed him back to his hotel. “Well, we had a great concert tonight, didn’t we?” said the boy. “I had a great concert,” replied the maestro. “Go home!” The next night, halfway through a fugue, the organ quit. The little boy stuck his head around the corner of the organ, grinned, and said, “We aren’t havin’ a very good concert tonight, are we?”1

The point? “If God isn’t pumping when we’re preaching, nothing happens.”

1Briscoe, D. S., Larson, K., & Osborne, W. L. (1993). Measuring up : The need to succeed and the fear of failure. Mastering ministry's pressure points (51). Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Books.

It's Never a "Good Time" to Preach the Gospel

2009-07-16T17:48:00.016-05:00

I have come to recognize that there is something utterly lacking in the way that people perceive “the gospel.” In my opinion, I believe we are currently reaping the ugly fruit of a shallow evangelism that has presented the gospel as mere fire insurance. I am sure that is not what any sincere evangelist intends, but that is the inevitable consequence of oversimplifying it.
The second consequence is the belief that “accepting Christ” may or may not lead to godly living. The unfortunate perception is that accepting Jesus is mainly about ensuring people that “they will go to heaven when they die.” I simply do not believe this was the attitude of the apostolic church. I am sure volumes could be written on this, but I offer these thoughts and I do so having spent some considerable time personally witnessing to people door-to-door.

Thought #1: You don’t need permission when you’ve been commissioned.
The reality is that according to the unbeliever it’s never a good time for them to hear the gospel so forget trying to find a good time. The lost don’t like that you knock on their door to preach. If they wanted to hear preaching then they would be in church, but they weren’t in church. That’s why you are at their door. You are on a rescue mission to save people from their sin (Matt. 1:21). God means to save sinners and he will save all who have been “appointed to eternal life” (Acts 13:48). So let us “not be afraid, but go on speaking and…not be silent” (Acts 18:7) because God is with us. The Lord told Paul to continue preaching because he had "many in this city who are my people” (Acts 18:7). We may assume the same thing. Let us not forget God's promise to Abraham in saying, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be" (Gen. 15:4-5).

Thought #2: We don’t need to “earn the right” to “share" the gospel.
Then there’s those who believe one must “earn the right” to “share” the gospel. This is nonsense. First, the Gospel is proclamation by nature. Yes, it is sharing, but it is first an announcement about what God has done. Secondly, God has the right to do as he pleases. Just ask Nebuchadnezzar.

For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation; 35all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” Daniel 4:34, 35

God the Son has commanded his disciples to preach unconditionally. Period!

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20

Exposing Prosperity Gospel Seminar in Robstown

2009-06-30T20:11:00.010-05:00

We are getting ready to host Justin Peters beginning this Sunday, July 5th at 11:00AM. This free seminar will continue every evening until Wednesday July 8, 2009. Despite that Justin Peters has traveled extensively throughout the United States and beyond I learned that he has never before conducted this seminar in this region so I am curious as to the turnout. So far I know that some folks from River Hills Baptist Church will join us and some people from Grace Community Church in San Antonio. My pastor friend Larry Mayo of Country Bible church in Taft plans to bring some people as well. There is possibly another group from McAllen, TX coming out. This is the schedule:

Session 1: July 5, Sunday 11:00AM
Session 2: July 5, Sunday 6:00PM
Session 3: July 6, Monday 7:00PM
Session 4: July 7, Tuesday 7:00PM
Session 5: July 8, Wednesday 7:00PM

Church of Grace is located at
211 E Main Ave, Robstown, TX 78380

Former Catholic Priest Alberto Cutie marries

2009-06-17T13:06:00.005-05:00

I don’t know much about this particular priest, but I have found myself having compassion for his predicament for whatever reason. I couldn’t help, but to have this scripture in mind as I read the CNN article on his marriage.

But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion. 1 Corinthians 7:9

Most people rightly think of celibacy as a gift from God, but they overlook the fact that the Apostle Paul equally calls a person’s calling to be married a “gift from God” too. Some people are not meant to marry and others are called to marry, “but each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another” (1 Corinthians 7:7). Therefore, while celibacy can certainly be a gift from God there are other forms of it that are demonic in origin.

1Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. 1 Timothy 4:1-5

The Slums Outside of Monterrey

2009-06-06T17:00:00.000-05:00

We came to a place called “la marranera”. It is called that because the area was formerly a place where pigs were raised. It’s basically a slum neighborhood now. The residents have no electricity and no running water because the government does not sanction the housing. Pastor Rolando took us there to meet some of the people and distribute some rice. The first kid we came across with was naked. His mother says he refuses to wear a diaper. The brothers prayed with her because she was worried about a growth she has and fears that it is cancer. She also had us pray for her son that is hospitalized.

Brother Bill here is praying for an elderly lady who needed some money for medications.

The lady in this photo built her own adobe house using dirt and horse manure.

Topo Chico in Monterrey

2009-06-05T23:17:00.025-05:00

I am in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico this week participating in some preparatory work for an evangelism clinic in August. Brother Bill lead us to Monterrey to meet some of the pastors from the city. We spent Thursday and Friday visiting some of the miistry areas. Pastor Rolando of El Calvario Baptist Church in Monterrey took us to a neighborhood in Monterey that Pastor Jaime has been ministering to. This particular neighborhood suffers from poverty, gangs, broken families and drug abuse. Were it not for the work that Pastor Jaime has invested into the lives of these individuals we were told it would not have been safe for us, but the people from the neighborhood have grown to respect him. It seemed that almost every young person we spoke to was high from sniffing a form of paint thinner. Here is Pastor Jaime with some of the young people he is trying to reach for Christ.

Two of the young girls confessed to their daily struggle with drug addiction and expressed a desire to get off of them and seek Christ. Letty and OJ, through the scripture, exhorted them and prayed for them. They also shared the gospel with some of the other young ladies as well.

We made a stop at an HEB to buy some soda and bread to take to the people at the Topo Chico neighborhood. Brother Bill and everyone else pitched in to distribute it.

Pastor Jaime surely has his work cut out for him. As I mentioned earlier, most of these young people (practically every one of them) was high from sniffing the paint thinner. One of them would carry the liquid under their shirt and everyone else carries with them a small rag they clutch in their had after soiling it with the paint thinner. They clutch their hand and inhale it from there.

Atheist Christians?

2009-05-28T15:20:00.007-05:00

In his book, The Prodigal God, Tim Keller makes the claim that the early Christians were accused by the Roman Empire as being atheistic. Tim Keller didn’t provide a citation.
Then today I was watching an episode from Christianity: The First Two Thousand Years and John Dominic Crossan makes the exact same claim except that he adds that the Roman Empire saw the Christians as a hateful sect because of their separatist lifestyle in that they refused to participate in the pagan festivals. I am just wondering from what historical source do they get all of this. Shoot me a link of anyone knows.

What it means to be blessed.

2009-05-22T11:14:00.001-05:00

When Peter was preaching Jesus to his fellow Jews he told them, “God, having raised up his servant [Jesus], sent him to you first” (partial quote of Acts 3:26). What was God’s purpose in sending Jesus according to Peter’s statement? For Peter says, “God, having raised up his servant [Jesus], sent him to you first, to bless you…” (Partial quote again). This is what I am saying. Most people think of being blessed as receiving something (a gift) so that they may enjoy it. We also often think in terms of rewards and punishment. We think that God will bless us for obeying his law. He will, but we must be careful when it comes to how we perceive grace. In other words we think that God will bless after we turn away from sin, but this is not what Peter is saying here. Here is the full scripture.
“God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness" (Acts 3:26).
Peter means to say that God blesses us by giving us the power and ability to do what we couldn’t do before i.e. turn away from sin. There is a difference between the gift of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit. The gift is given so that it may result in holy living. The very act of turning from that which enslaves us is the blessing!

The ACTS of Jesus

2009-05-20T15:54:00.012-05:00

“all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up”

I returned this past Sunday to preaching from the book of Acts. It was only my third message since beginning the series through Acts. I had taken a two-week hiatus because I preached an evangelistic message on May 3 for our baptism service. Mothers Day followed (My thoughts on this day deserve a separate blog). I was glad, however, to return to where I left off on April 26th. My plan was to pick it up from Acts 1:4, but I spent about the first two hours reviewing my previous two messages so that I could create a sense of continuity. I didn’t get past verse one however because I couldn’t believe I previously missed what Luke is saying in the first two verses. This is what I mean.

We might become mislead if we began by considering the tile: The Acts of the Apostles. The Greek manuscripts title it simply as “Acts.” Later manuscripts add “of the Apostles.” That is somewhat of an accurate title because the apostles are certainly the ones taking the lead in preaching and proclaiming the gospel, but has it ever bothered you that we are not told about the ministry of every single apostle? Why is it that we know very little of the entire twelve beyond this point if this book is really about the Acts of the Apostles? The twelve Apostles are foundational to the church, but we know more about the Apostle Paul in contrast to the twelve. The Apostle Paul dominates half the book beginning in chapter 13.

"In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach”

It would be unbiblical to create a divide between Jesus and his apostles. God forbid that we do so. It’s a matter of perspective. Luke seems to divides Jesus’ work in two parts and if the work of Jesus is divided into two parts then we must ask where is it that we find the dividing point? The ascension of Jesus serves as the dividing line (until the day when he was taken up).
We often speak of Jesus in terms of pre and post-resurrection i.e. Jesus before the resurrection and Jesus after the resurrection. Luke makes a distinction here between the pre-ascension and the post-ascension Jesus for he writes,

“In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up”

So did Jesus “began”, but didn’t finish?
The Gospel according to Luke is about what Jesus "began to do and teach" up until he returned to the Father, but if you don’t catch what Luke means then you just might come away thinking that Jesus left things unfinished. You might think of Jesus much in the same way that secular and unbelieving historians think of him. You see these guys all the time on the History and Discovery channels giving their commentary and opinions every time there is some program about the Life of Jesus. Jesus is portrayed as a revolutionary or a good teacher who taught good morals and tried to better this world, but whose life was tragically cut short by a corrupt government and religious institution. He began, but didn’t finish. Yes, Luke is a historian, but this is not how he portrays Jesus. So don’t take Luke’s words this way,

“In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2until the day when he was taken up” because his life was tragically cut short

Jesus began, but his followers continued?
Now, you may say that Jesus began, but his apostles continued the teaching. Throughout history there have certainly been leaders of causes whose lives have been cut short because of an assassin or some tragedy. The leader dies and so does the cause or movement they began, but there are those instances in which the followers are able to continue the work and vision of the leader.
You may say, “Yes, this is true of Jesus! His disciples carried the mantle so to speak.” There is certainly an aspect in which this is true, but in another sense it is not. Jesus’ followers did not pick up where Jesus left off in the same sense that Martin Luther King’s followers picked up where Dr. King left off in advocating civil rights. This, again, is the mistake that secular historians make when they speak of Jesus. They perceive him as someone who brought a body of teaching that was revolutionary and that being a follower is mainly about adopting that body of moral teaching. They convey the idea that we no longer have Jesus the person, but we have his teachings. This is nonsense. This is not the manner in which Luke is presents Jesus. No, no, no! Luke means to say that in his first book he deals with “all that Jesus began to do and teach until the ascension,” but the book of Acts is about all that Jesus continues to do and teach after his ascension into heaven.

Is the Bible Enough Part 1

2009-05-15T11:09:00.005-05:00

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” Romans 1:16

I remember a few years ago I was driving through downtown Corpus Christ while listening to John MacArthur preach about the sufficiency of the Bible for faith and conduct. It suddenly hit me like never before. You see, I had known that something was amiss in my circle of evangelicalism, but I couldn’t quite express it. It was a gut feeling that not all was well. I had been on staff at a church that was growing numerically, but I was bothered by the seeker sensibilities/marketing approach and had begun to question whether our outreach methodology was actually undermining the claim that the Bible is enough (2 Timothy 3:16). Here is what Dr. John MacArthur said in his sermon entitled “The Sufficiency of Scripture,”

First of all, in the last few years in the church, there has grown to be among church leaders a great preoccupation with what I would call "worldly management technique." With all of the books being written on successful corporations and successful styles of management and leadership and so forth, the church has perked up its ears and gone after that really as if it were the very life of the church. There are many who bow, as it were, to the gods of worldly management technique. Churches are learning those kinds of methods as if they were the keys to building the Kingdom of God. And in a very subtle way, this is an attack on the adequacy of Scripture, as if to say, "Knowing the Word of God and understanding its principles and the principles taught therein related to the growth of the church is not adequate and we must go to the management techniques and the systems of success the world uses in its corporate environment and transfer those to the church if we want the church to really grow and develop." I believe this is a subtle attack on the sufficiency of the revelation of God for the matter of the growth and development of the church. Secondly, another angle that I've been recently concerned about is that there are many people who feel the Scripture is not a sufficient diet for the saints of the church and there must be along with it a certain amount of entertainment. And churches are spending a lot of money to entertain people. We have developed because of our penchant for entertainment in our society a sort of a Christian celebrity list. We are heavy into entertainment which is costing the church when you include Christian TV entertainment, billions and billions of dollars of the Lord's money. And it is, in a sense, a concession to those people who do not believe that the teaching and the study and the learning and the application of the Word of God is an exciting enough diet. In fact, there are many people who seem rather bored with the things of God revealed in Scripture and are really in desperate need of some entertainment. And there is in that, I believe, an attack on the sufficiency of the Word of God to bring to the life of believers all that is needed not only for the matter of spiritual battle but for the matter of joy and fulfillment in life
I immediately repented and decided that I would, to the best of my
ability, try to conduct ministry in such a way that it communicates that the
simple presentation of the gospel is sufficient for people to be saved.