I was expressing to a close friend my desire to live for God better. This friend told me a story about how he learned to live in what he called the present presence of God.
A call from a stranger on Judy’s cell phone told him that she had been in a traffic accident. When he arrived he saw the large pickup truck that collided into the passenger side of Judy’s Honda Civic on its side in the intersection. He said that Judy was stretched out on her back with a paramedic kneeling at her head stabilizing her neck. She recognized his voice, when he came to her side, so he was encouraged that she was alert and speaking, but she was more concerned and upset for the other driver who, according to a police officer next to her, said was trapped in the pickup. Right away, my just took Judy’s hand and prayed with her. “But I was just speaking words. I didn’t even sense I was speaking to God.” Like myself, he found himself doing the Christian thing: living for God, but living by faith.
What he learned was the Bible doesn’t speak about a Christian life, but speaks of a life of faith. We fall into the Christian lingo instead of being filled with the truth of the Word. We need to take heed from James; we need to live our lives by faith; faith without our works is dead faith, but works without faith are dead works, and so we are admonished to pray in faith, not doubting, but believing. (Jas 5)
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Testimony of Christ in the Workplace
Jesus Christ came to visit this world. He was God “reconciling the world to himself.” Through Jesus Christ God made if possible for alienated men, sinners, to return to Him, but only through Jesus Christ. God ordained that all the world’s peoples—all nations and tribes of every language—would be redeemed from their estrangement.
As Jesus came to this world he humbled Himself to be God’s Servant. His home was the glory of heaven, but He when he visited this world His glory was veiled (Heb 9:3; 10:20); and, yet he abided in this other world, which is cursed and defiled, without being touched by this defilement. As God’s Servant (Isa. 49, 53) He exemplified to us how to live in this desecrated realm in a perfect and God-honoring way.
For example, He humbled himself for about 30 years as a son, and under the tutelage, it is presumed, of his earthly step-father in the trade of a Carpenter. As it is enjoined upon us in the 4th Commandment, “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD YOUR God,” so it is that Jesus exemplified this for us. Richard Steele says “That his precepts might have greater force, he has given us his own example: for before his entrance into the ministerial office, we find him labouring in the carpenter’s trade: and if so divine a person stooped to a laborious calling to teach us humility, diligence and industry, shall any who call him their master, refuse to imitate him herein?”
Have you ever stopped to consider that “preaching the Gospel” includes exemplifying humility, diligence and industry at our place of employment? When we spend our employer’s or customer’s time to evangelize our fellow employee, or our employer’s customer, we are stealing our master’s time and money. Certainly there are recognized times where we converse with people in the course of our business, but we should guard our testimony by following our Lord’s example to us.
As Jesus came to this world he humbled Himself to be God’s Servant. His home was the glory of heaven, but He when he visited this world His glory was veiled (Heb 9:3; 10:20); and, yet he abided in this other world, which is cursed and defiled, without being touched by this defilement. As God’s Servant (Isa. 49, 53) He exemplified to us how to live in this desecrated realm in a perfect and God-honoring way.
For example, He humbled himself for about 30 years as a son, and under the tutelage, it is presumed, of his earthly step-father in the trade of a Carpenter. As it is enjoined upon us in the 4th Commandment, “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD YOUR God,” so it is that Jesus exemplified this for us. Richard Steele says “That his precepts might have greater force, he has given us his own example: for before his entrance into the ministerial office, we find him labouring in the carpenter’s trade: and if so divine a person stooped to a laborious calling to teach us humility, diligence and industry, shall any who call him their master, refuse to imitate him herein?”
Have you ever stopped to consider that “preaching the Gospel” includes exemplifying humility, diligence and industry at our place of employment? When we spend our employer’s or customer’s time to evangelize our fellow employee, or our employer’s customer, we are stealing our master’s time and money. Certainly there are recognized times where we converse with people in the course of our business, but we should guard our testimony by following our Lord’s example to us.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
DO HARD THINGS
"It is a matter of serious regret that young people are commonly so little disposed to listen to the advice of the aged."
This was the first sentence in an article written by Arichibald Alexander in 1844. In some ways one might say the same of our youth today, but I have been challenged by two young men who wrote a book that we are using in Sunday School at our church.
This book's title is, Doing Hard Things. It has changed our household. It is becoming a common retort to my kids when they don't measure up to a challenge or task, no matter how small. I do not escape from these rejoinders.
My wife has been taking an active interest in encouraging me in my exercise and diet, and when I groaned my dismay at being served oatmeal for breakfast, she said—yes, you guessed it, "Do hard things."
My reply was, "oh please, don't devalue the saying." I was properly rebuked by her soft answer, "Sometimes the hard things, look easy." Well, yes this is what the Harris brothers say, and this is what I've been challenging my kids to do also.
So far the message of this book has changed our family. My daughters are now volunteering at the local pregnancy support group. I have changed my priorities to be more involved in my church's men's fellowship and with my family's devotions, and my wife is continuing to minister to one of our church members and service with our home schooling group. We have eight children, and we are looking for hard things for them also.
By all means, find this book, read it, then do hard things.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
No King In Israel
There was no king in Israel.
As I listened to one of my pastors preach from this section, I'm afraid I didn't hear everything he said (it was Wednesday evening, after a long day, and I had just sat down after a hectic day--okay I think you got the drift).
But later after I took the time to read through this book and put together what I did hear, I was struck by this phrase which is found three times in the book of Judges. Ever since I jettisoned my dispensational beliefs, I have been blessed with the personal discovery of redemptive history. It's not that I never heard the phrase when I was in Bible college, but now I embrace the concept as part and parcel of my reformation.
This phrase is found in the latter part of Judges: after all the cyclical apostasy, repentance, and salvation of the nation, and as you meditate upon this book's place in the canon, and upon the redemptive historical context of the events, you remember that there is a reason for these accounts.
The events of the judges happen after the admonition of Joshua to keep the law and to obey it because the result will be that the LORD will be their God and they will be His people. Then on the other side of this book begins the story of Ruth which happens in the days of the judges which is the story of the origin of the kingly line of David and, ultimately, the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.
There was no king in Israel says the author of Judges. Yet, as my pastor reminded me, there were previous injunctions regarding the king in the Law, and there was the promise that "the sceptre shall not pass from Judah."
Finally, let us take warning from the fact that there was a King in Israel, but He was rejected. He manifested his presence in the Tabernacle, but the people would not obey Him, nor worship Him. To me this is the most frightening aspect of the statement, "There was no king in Israel." Let us beware that in the New Israel, the Church of God, we do not idolized self and dethrone our King Jesus who is our Lord.
As I listened to one of my pastors preach from this section, I'm afraid I didn't hear everything he said (it was Wednesday evening, after a long day, and I had just sat down after a hectic day--okay I think you got the drift).
But later after I took the time to read through this book and put together what I did hear, I was struck by this phrase which is found three times in the book of Judges. Ever since I jettisoned my dispensational beliefs, I have been blessed with the personal discovery of redemptive history. It's not that I never heard the phrase when I was in Bible college, but now I embrace the concept as part and parcel of my reformation.
This phrase is found in the latter part of Judges: after all the cyclical apostasy, repentance, and salvation of the nation, and as you meditate upon this book's place in the canon, and upon the redemptive historical context of the events, you remember that there is a reason for these accounts.
The events of the judges happen after the admonition of Joshua to keep the law and to obey it because the result will be that the LORD will be their God and they will be His people. Then on the other side of this book begins the story of Ruth which happens in the days of the judges which is the story of the origin of the kingly line of David and, ultimately, the King of Kings, Jesus Christ.
There was no king in Israel says the author of Judges. Yet, as my pastor reminded me, there were previous injunctions regarding the king in the Law, and there was the promise that "the sceptre shall not pass from Judah."
Finally, let us take warning from the fact that there was a King in Israel, but He was rejected. He manifested his presence in the Tabernacle, but the people would not obey Him, nor worship Him. To me this is the most frightening aspect of the statement, "There was no king in Israel." Let us beware that in the New Israel, the Church of God, we do not idolized self and dethrone our King Jesus who is our Lord.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
FIGHTING DOUBTS
As we go through trials and, even more importantly, enjoy blessings and successes, we need to fight doubts that either God has abandoned us, or that we free from dependence upon God.
Frankly I think all of us Christians find it easy find in our experience the fight to have assurance in our trials. And we need to remember that ". . .the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church . . .according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.
In our trials we cry out to God with an assured hope that we have "access with confidence," and "this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." And, thus we fight the doubts that God is there with an assurance given us in comfort of the Holy Spirit ministering to our being as our Comforter and Counselor.
But when things are good, we are in peril to live a life of doubt as if God is not there. We need to make our cry, " I will never forget Your precepts, For by them You have given me life." (Ps. 119:93). Our life without God is like grass that is withered to a crunchy brown. We must fight doubts that are sufficient in ourselves, and do not need the water of God's Word in our life. We must fall to the temptation to live in the blessings of God without any sense that He is permeating us with His presence-- not in a strictly emotional way, but in a wholistic way, so that our being is blanketed with the deep sense of doing His will. (1 Cor 10:31). Our soul must speak to itself with this permeating presence of God in the words of David (Ps. 103:1-5):
Frankly I think all of us Christians find it easy find in our experience the fight to have assurance in our trials. And we need to remember that ". . .the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church . . .according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.
In our trials we cry out to God with an assured hope that we have "access with confidence," and "this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him." And, thus we fight the doubts that God is there with an assurance given us in comfort of the Holy Spirit ministering to our being as our Comforter and Counselor.
But when things are good, we are in peril to live a life of doubt as if God is not there. We need to make our cry, " I will never forget Your precepts, For by them You have given me life." (Ps. 119:93). Our life without God is like grass that is withered to a crunchy brown. We must fight doubts that are sufficient in ourselves, and do not need the water of God's Word in our life. We must fall to the temptation to live in the blessings of God without any sense that He is permeating us with His presence-- not in a strictly emotional way, but in a wholistic way, so that our being is blanketed with the deep sense of doing His will. (1 Cor 10:31). Our soul must speak to itself with this permeating presence of God in the words of David (Ps. 103:1-5):
Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! 2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, 4 Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, 5 Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
The Peace of Christ
In a recent training on Stress Management, the conversation turned to different types of stress upon an individual. Among this were physical, emotional, and Spiritual.
Of course, the idea of Spiritual stress interested me, and as we talked, I realized that the comments aimed at describing spiritual stress as some form of imbalance or disharmony in their being, and I realized that these people were trying to describe peace, or more accurately, the lack of peace.
Since I was not the trainer, I didn't have the chance to expand on the only way to find peace: repent and turn to Christ for forgiveness.
There is a family in our church that is facing a difficult trial that involves false charges of child endangerment. Now, I know this family to be very diligent about watching their children, and other member of the church have told me the same thing and encouraged this family to trust God to work out all these things for their good.
Even so, the father has expressed his struggle with fear and anxiety, even when he knows that God is their advocate, and he has found encouragement in Paul's words from Philippians 4, "5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. "
Praise God for His Peace, and may we have opportunity to communicate the peace of Christ to all those around us in word and in deed.
Of course, the idea of Spiritual stress interested me, and as we talked, I realized that the comments aimed at describing spiritual stress as some form of imbalance or disharmony in their being, and I realized that these people were trying to describe peace, or more accurately, the lack of peace.
Since I was not the trainer, I didn't have the chance to expand on the only way to find peace: repent and turn to Christ for forgiveness.
There is a family in our church that is facing a difficult trial that involves false charges of child endangerment. Now, I know this family to be very diligent about watching their children, and other member of the church have told me the same thing and encouraged this family to trust God to work out all these things for their good.
Even so, the father has expressed his struggle with fear and anxiety, even when he knows that God is their advocate, and he has found encouragement in Paul's words from Philippians 4, "5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. "
Praise God for His Peace, and may we have opportunity to communicate the peace of Christ to all those around us in word and in deed.
Friday, February 29, 2008
Where Is Our Focus?
I was talking to a young man some time ago, and in the course our convesation , I told him, "If you do anything, pick just 2 or 3 things that you want to accomplish in life, and stick to them." These words are easier said than done for me. As I work 8 hours at my day job and spend much of the rest of my time with the family, or maintaining our finances, I still find time to practice some guitar and write a little bit. Additionally, I fit in study time for some ministry. But these interests and duties, I perceive, are unfocused pursuits that need to be evaluated in the light of God's Word to do all to the glory of God, and require a more disciplined and biblical approach to my intellectual pursuits.
The current reading from James W. Sire's book, Habits of the Mind: Intellectual life as a Christian calling, has led me to consider Sire's proposition as to what it means to be intellectual and how to use the intellect; he comes to the place where he lays out the uniquenes of being a Christian intellect, "A Christian intellectual is everything an intellectual proper is but to the glory of God." Sire points out that Christian thinkers have a passion not just for thinking, but for a passion for holiness which is the glory of God. The greatest expression of the holiness in God in man was in the person of Jesus Christ, and furthermore, a passion to glorify God is a passion to be like Christ, and this includes the desire for God to remake us through "gradual means, the means of grace. . . ." I believe Sire rightly notes, "A passion for holiness will therefore result in a passion not only to know the truth, but to do the truth." [E. Michael Jones, Degenerate Moderns: Modernity as Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior (San Franciso: Ignatius, 1993)]; there is an unbreakable link between knowing and doing. Even so, we still struggle. We experience the frustration of desiring to what we know is right and no doing it; and, what I hate, that I do. (Romans 7:14-25). Paul's description discrepancy between orthodoxy and orthopraxy is where we observe our inability to glorify God. How shall we then focus our attention upon glorifying God in all that we do when we are plagued by this struggle between what we believe and what we do? The answer is found submission to the Holy Spirit in two parts: first, in aspiration to setting our minds on the things of the Spirit (Prov. 23:7; Pil. 4:8), and second, in mortifying the deeds of the body by the power of the Spirt (Rom. 8:13; Col 3:5). Spirit God's work in our life is sanctifying to our mind and to our practice as He uses the means of prayer, the minstry of the Word of God, worship, fellowship of the saints, and communion to grow us in grace intellectually and practically. Let us seek to serve the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength. Amen!
The current reading from James W. Sire's book, Habits of the Mind: Intellectual life as a Christian calling, has led me to consider Sire's proposition as to what it means to be intellectual and how to use the intellect; he comes to the place where he lays out the uniquenes of being a Christian intellect, "A Christian intellectual is everything an intellectual proper is but to the glory of God." Sire points out that Christian thinkers have a passion not just for thinking, but for a passion for holiness which is the glory of God. The greatest expression of the holiness in God in man was in the person of Jesus Christ, and furthermore, a passion to glorify God is a passion to be like Christ, and this includes the desire for God to remake us through "gradual means, the means of grace. . . ." I believe Sire rightly notes, "A passion for holiness will therefore result in a passion not only to know the truth, but to do the truth." [E. Michael Jones, Degenerate Moderns: Modernity as Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior (San Franciso: Ignatius, 1993)]; there is an unbreakable link between knowing and doing. Even so, we still struggle. We experience the frustration of desiring to what we know is right and no doing it; and, what I hate, that I do. (Romans 7:14-25). Paul's description discrepancy between orthodoxy and orthopraxy is where we observe our inability to glorify God. How shall we then focus our attention upon glorifying God in all that we do when we are plagued by this struggle between what we believe and what we do? The answer is found submission to the Holy Spirit in two parts: first, in aspiration to setting our minds on the things of the Spirit (Prov. 23:7; Pil. 4:8), and second, in mortifying the deeds of the body by the power of the Spirt (Rom. 8:13; Col 3:5). Spirit God's work in our life is sanctifying to our mind and to our practice as He uses the means of prayer, the minstry of the Word of God, worship, fellowship of the saints, and communion to grow us in grace intellectually and practically. Let us seek to serve the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength. Amen!
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