This isn't like most of the other stuff I write. Usually I try to think them out in a logical approach, which will be appealing to the mind of people. It is sanitized that way. I get to show off my theological intellect, and step on very few toes. I get to write things which contain truth, but they seem to be watered down so as to not offend anyone. I suppose sometimes its a pride thing. If i say the right words and people like it, then they approve of me, and if they approve of me then I am honoring God.
How stupid does that make me sound?
But this is not about that. This is about pure, unedited truth. This is about the Gospel, plain and simple. Its not judgmental. Its not a holie-than-thou speech. Its taking the words of Christ seriously.
We have a major problem. Our priorities are backwards. We live in a society which is all about me, and we have polluted the Gospel with that. Let me ask you these basic questions:
Why did Jesus come to earth?
What does it take to be "saved"?
If you are like most people, you probably answered the first question with a "Jesus came to die for my sins" or if you are more generous "to die for the sins of the world" And you probably answered the second question with something like "You pray and accept Jesus into your heart"
The first one is kind of accurate. The second is way off base.
The Word clearly says that we are completely broken and fallen away from the God who created us. There is no way to bridge that ourselves. We have turned from our original purpose, which is to enjoy God's grace and to multiply it. We are sinners bound for an eternal hell. And Jesus, because of His character and not because of anything we have to offer, stepped down into this dark and twisted world, and lived a perfect, pleasing life that He may bring Glory to the Father. And because He desired to do the will of the Father, He went voluntarily to His death and faced the full wrath of God on the Cross. It wasn't because of the cross that Jesus sweat blood in the Garden and asked for the cup to pass away. It was because He knew the terrible wrath that was about to come upon Him.
To use an illustration that David Platt has used:
Imagine for a moment standing in a valley, and before you is a dam which is ten thousand feet tall and ten thousand feet wide. Behind this dam is countless gallons of water ready to burst forth and consume you whole. The dam breaks and the wall of water rushes towards you, destroying everything in its path. As you feel the ground shake, and you hear the water roar, you realize that even if you try to run from this as fast as you can, you will be swallowed whole with in a matter of seconds. You stand there as it approaches, your fate being sealed, and at the last moment the ground crumbles in front of you and the earth swallows all the water completely, so that you don't even get a tiny drop of water on you anywhere.
It was an eternities worth of wrath that He willingly took, to win over His people, so that they may once again enjoy His grace and multiply that grace around the around. And He drank that cup of wrath completely. Not a drop remained, and then He cried out "IT IS FINISHED!"
And this is what I mean by the Gospel is being polluted; We have made the Gospel about "me". Jesus loves me. Jesus died for me. Jesus wants me to be happy. Jesus saved me. And we have ended up making Jesus look like a weak fool who is waiting for our acceptance of Him, rather than the Creator of all things, the Lord of all Lords, and King of all Kings.
Christ is not the center of our lives, though we may claim that. But really, can our claims hold true against the testimonies of what we are doing with our lives?
Our lives are centered around US. We even create God in an image of what we want to see. We want to see a God who loves us, is happy with the way we choose to live our lives, and desires us to be happy and all that jazz. That is what we want God to be like. Sure, God does love us. I can't argue that. And I do believe He wants the best for us in the end. But we cannot make the Gospel about us, when it is clearly all about Jesus.
Let me ask you these things, do you ever find yourself saying something like "I would read my Bible if i had more time" or "I would like to pray more, I just need to find time to fit it in my schedule" Or "Jesus really didn't mean that we have to give up EVERYTHING"
If you say those things, then I plead with you right now: stop reading this, get off the computer, get away from all people or interruptions, fall to your knees and cry out to God to turn your life upside down. Ask Him to cut away all things which get between you and Him. I speak from experience when I say that when He begins to do this, and you make Him the center of your life, you will see life in a way that you had never thought possible.
Now, I can see the objections coming already: " I am not called to do this or that", "Jesus doesn't call everyone to be extreme", "Those verses don't apply to everyone".
And that strikes me as ironic. See, when we read something like "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) or how there are many mansions in Heaven built for us (John 14:1-11), we will say that this is meant for ALL of us. Anytime we read scripture where we directly benefit, we have no problem believing that that verse is for us.
Yet when we are called to go to the poor, the sick, or the imprisoned we blow it off as a job for someone else to do. When we are called to "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 obey everything I(Jesus) have commanded you", we leave that to the few, the proud, the missionaries, as if they are some sort of specially qualified class of people. Here's a secret: they're not. They have simply found that having God as the center of their lives means they are to answer His call to go anywhere and do anything.
But this is a lifestyle which is uncomfortable for us. We have to take risks, putting our trust and faith solely in God. We might lose friends, family, a lover, a good paying job, or even lose our very life. Due to that, we'd rather take the safety Christian route. I've even used the excuse of something like "God can use me more if I am alive, rather than dead". Needless to say, I think God did a major face palm when I said that.
Basically our excuses boil down to this reality: there are things in our lives which we love more than God, and our lives plainly reflect this. Maybe its that job, that boyfriend/girlfriend, that degree you are pursuing, etc...what ever it is, Jesus plainly calls you to give that up and make Him the Lord of your life. No you don't accept Him, as if he a facebook friend request. You submit your entire life to Him. Don't believe me? Read scripture. Pray. Fast. Let the Holy Spirit speak truth to your heart. You will see what I am seeing, and what countless saints have seen through history. Jesus is EVERYTHING. Nothing else matters.
So really, we have a choice to make:
Do we continue living the way that we do, adding in a bit of church here, or a little bit of worship time there, and hope that when we stand before Him, He doesn't repeat Matthew 7:22-23 (look it up!)
OR
Do we fall on our knees, crying out to God to come and make our lives completely based around Him? Do we heed that call that he has for us, no matter where it takes us or what it costs? Do we Worship Him as the only Lord of our lives?
I'm going to be honest, the former choice is very appealing to the flesh, but it leads to death. Jesus is very clear about that. So I plead with you to choose the second. I beg that you count all things as loss, and only known Him as gain. When you do that, I promise that you will see a major change.
Blessings,
Tom
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Persecution of the Saints
One of the things that amaze me about Jesus is some of the claims that He made while on Earth, trying to spread the Kingdom of God. Usually if someone is trying to get people to follow their idea, they promise them some sort of reward. For example, if one lived during the time before the American Revolution, it would be expected that the American rebels would promise their followers great things, such as the chance to be free from tyranny, freedom from taxes, and so on. They would want to promise something that would appeal to human nature.
Most religions you see this same type of line. “Do this, and you are going to get a great reward in the afterlife” and the reward is usually something which our mortal minds and flesh desire. Maybe it’s the complete release one gets from Buddhism. Or perhaps it’s the reward of eternal orgies, rivers of alcohol, treasure, or simply the notion of having our every desire to be dished out to us. Even in this life, there are plenty of religions that promise good things to their followers now. Example of this is the “prosperity gospel” which plagues American churches. They tell their follower things like “If you make a faith covenant with God by sending me $1000, then God will give you 10 times what you gave!” Even many modern evangelical preachers, who are preaching the real Gospel fall into the trap of promising things for followers “Accept Jesus into your heart, and everything will be better”. Sure, it all sounds great. I’d love it if it were true. But Jesus said very different things to His followers
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
What?!?
That is what you promise us Jesus?
Who does that? I mean, Jesus would do terrible at sales and PR in today’s world. But you know what? It is the truth. Christians all over the world suffer, just as Jesus suffered. Here in America, we have it pretty good though. We don’t have to worry about persecution. I think the extent of the persecution that most of us might see would be in the form of ridicule. The worst I ever had was someone spitting on me and cursing me. Sure, there are stories about individuals who are killed for sharing their faith here and there. For instance, there were two brothers shot in Boynton Beach, Florida earlier in the year for sharing their faith to troubled youth. And there was the rash of fires that happened in Christian churches in the south. Yet these tend to be isolated incidents, thankfully. In fact, I think we have it so easy that some Christians really believe that someone saying “Happy Holidays” to them is a sign of persecution.My point is that here we don’t really have an idea of what it means to be persecuted.
That bothers me deeply.
Not because I have some sort of sick and twisted desire to see people suffer. It’s quite the opposite of that. If I had it my way, none of my brothers or sisters would have to suffer. That is not up to me though. The reason I am deeply bothered is that in our American churches, our persecuted family seems to get forgotten. However, we have the time and desire to argue over curtains, carpets, music styles, dress codes, translations of the Bible to use and so on. We have committees to discuss trivial issues. We create ministries to fit every obscure niche (Somewhere out there, I know there is a minister of serving latte to the congregation. I just know it!). Despite all of the unnecessary things filling up our priority list, we seem to lose sight of the real priorities. There are many priorities that we miss, which I won’t discuss them all now, but among the top of the list of these missed priorities is forgetting the persecuted church. Have we forgotten 1 Corinthians 12:26? If one member suffers, then we all suffer with them! Have we forgotten the example of the Church in acts? They were selling all they had, to make sure their brothers had their needs met.
I wish we knew persecution more, that we may identify with our brothers and do whatever we could to help them persist during their suffering by suffering along side with them.But I realize that our culture has taken over our minds. I realize that we’d rather spend money on temporary luxuries, than to feed our brother. I know we’d rather spend money on that weekend trip to have fun, rather than taking that time to go into the slums and giving hope to our family, and not just our family, but to all people.
You see, our brothers and sisters they accept Christ, wherever they may be, knowing that people will hate them. The church in Sudan knows that they could end up like the Christians who have been crucified there. The church in China knows that when they meet to discuss the wonders and joy of Christ, they could be, at any moment, arrested by communist soldiers. The underground church in Saudi Arabia knows that if they were to openly confess converting from Islam to Jesus, they would be executed for being apostates, per Saudi law.
But you know what?
They, like the early church, have no qualms with being persecuted, even to the death. Their joy is not in this life. Their prize is not some temporary pleasure that religion offers. They don’t look forward to endless personal desires being fulfilled in paradise.No, their prize, their crown, the very treasure is Jesus Christ. I think of the book of Revelation, where the saints in heaven cast their crowns before Christ! Why? Jesus is their treasure. There is no other name under Heaven which saves, and they count it all joy to be persecuted for His name and His sake.
I desperately hope for that type of faith to sweep over our churches. I pray for the faith to throw away everything that isn’t Christ. I pray to rejoice in the suffering with them. I pray that we can identify with our hurt and suffering brethren, that we may join with them in the Glory of Jesus. I pray that we could ease their pain; help bear their burdens.
Remember that Jesus is our treasure, the number one priority of our lives. Remember that he is eternally worthy. Remember that He made us, His Church, to be His beautiful bride. This doesn't just mean His church in America, who has extreme riches and resources, but the church world wide. Remember that He bought us all with His blood, and unified us in His Kingdom. There is NO reason, if we treasure Jesus and His Bride, for us to forget or even ignore the Saints around the world.
Most religions you see this same type of line. “Do this, and you are going to get a great reward in the afterlife” and the reward is usually something which our mortal minds and flesh desire. Maybe it’s the complete release one gets from Buddhism. Or perhaps it’s the reward of eternal orgies, rivers of alcohol, treasure, or simply the notion of having our every desire to be dished out to us. Even in this life, there are plenty of religions that promise good things to their followers now. Example of this is the “prosperity gospel” which plagues American churches. They tell their follower things like “If you make a faith covenant with God by sending me $1000, then God will give you 10 times what you gave!” Even many modern evangelical preachers, who are preaching the real Gospel fall into the trap of promising things for followers “Accept Jesus into your heart, and everything will be better”. Sure, it all sounds great. I’d love it if it were true. But Jesus said very different things to His followers
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
What?!?
That is what you promise us Jesus?
Who does that? I mean, Jesus would do terrible at sales and PR in today’s world. But you know what? It is the truth. Christians all over the world suffer, just as Jesus suffered. Here in America, we have it pretty good though. We don’t have to worry about persecution. I think the extent of the persecution that most of us might see would be in the form of ridicule. The worst I ever had was someone spitting on me and cursing me. Sure, there are stories about individuals who are killed for sharing their faith here and there. For instance, there were two brothers shot in Boynton Beach, Florida earlier in the year for sharing their faith to troubled youth. And there was the rash of fires that happened in Christian churches in the south. Yet these tend to be isolated incidents, thankfully. In fact, I think we have it so easy that some Christians really believe that someone saying “Happy Holidays” to them is a sign of persecution.My point is that here we don’t really have an idea of what it means to be persecuted.
That bothers me deeply.
Not because I have some sort of sick and twisted desire to see people suffer. It’s quite the opposite of that. If I had it my way, none of my brothers or sisters would have to suffer. That is not up to me though. The reason I am deeply bothered is that in our American churches, our persecuted family seems to get forgotten. However, we have the time and desire to argue over curtains, carpets, music styles, dress codes, translations of the Bible to use and so on. We have committees to discuss trivial issues. We create ministries to fit every obscure niche (Somewhere out there, I know there is a minister of serving latte to the congregation. I just know it!). Despite all of the unnecessary things filling up our priority list, we seem to lose sight of the real priorities. There are many priorities that we miss, which I won’t discuss them all now, but among the top of the list of these missed priorities is forgetting the persecuted church. Have we forgotten 1 Corinthians 12:26? If one member suffers, then we all suffer with them! Have we forgotten the example of the Church in acts? They were selling all they had, to make sure their brothers had their needs met.
I wish we knew persecution more, that we may identify with our brothers and do whatever we could to help them persist during their suffering by suffering along side with them.But I realize that our culture has taken over our minds. I realize that we’d rather spend money on temporary luxuries, than to feed our brother. I know we’d rather spend money on that weekend trip to have fun, rather than taking that time to go into the slums and giving hope to our family, and not just our family, but to all people.
You see, our brothers and sisters they accept Christ, wherever they may be, knowing that people will hate them. The church in Sudan knows that they could end up like the Christians who have been crucified there. The church in China knows that when they meet to discuss the wonders and joy of Christ, they could be, at any moment, arrested by communist soldiers. The underground church in Saudi Arabia knows that if they were to openly confess converting from Islam to Jesus, they would be executed for being apostates, per Saudi law.
But you know what?
They, like the early church, have no qualms with being persecuted, even to the death. Their joy is not in this life. Their prize is not some temporary pleasure that religion offers. They don’t look forward to endless personal desires being fulfilled in paradise.No, their prize, their crown, the very treasure is Jesus Christ. I think of the book of Revelation, where the saints in heaven cast their crowns before Christ! Why? Jesus is their treasure. There is no other name under Heaven which saves, and they count it all joy to be persecuted for His name and His sake.
I desperately hope for that type of faith to sweep over our churches. I pray for the faith to throw away everything that isn’t Christ. I pray to rejoice in the suffering with them. I pray that we can identify with our hurt and suffering brethren, that we may join with them in the Glory of Jesus. I pray that we could ease their pain; help bear their burdens.
Remember that Jesus is our treasure, the number one priority of our lives. Remember that he is eternally worthy. Remember that He made us, His Church, to be His beautiful bride. This doesn't just mean His church in America, who has extreme riches and resources, but the church world wide. Remember that He bought us all with His blood, and unified us in His Kingdom. There is NO reason, if we treasure Jesus and His Bride, for us to forget or even ignore the Saints around the world.
Introduction
Blessings!
I am Thomas, a 2o something follower of Jesus. My two main passions in life are theology and politics, the two topics most people hate to talk about. Unfortunately, that means there are quite a few people who don't use their brains living in the world. My goal with this blog is to address issues which surround the Christian. Sometimes it will be very controversial, and other times it will seem as if I am Captain Obvious. Some issues will be very deep, others will be light hearted. In other words, there will be a wide variety of topics that I will address.
Now, before I begin posting I want people to know my background, so no one will be confused as to where I stand. I associate with Arminian theology, firmly believing that James (Jacobus) Arminius wrote theology based around scripture, but also in line with Pre-Augustine church fathers. I also hold to some tenets of the Stone Campbell Restoration movement, especially the theology of unity in the Church. With that in mind, when discussing the issues associated with the Arminian-Calvinist debate, I will try to approach with the most unifying approach. I have seen plenty of people break communion with each other over disagreements. I don't want to be that type of person. I may disagree with the Calvinist's theology, but I love them as my dear brother or sister.
It should also be noted that I am politically liberal in many instances. But again, its not something that I wish to cause division over.
Anyways, I am done with my rambling now. I pray that I can say something which would bless who ever may read this.
In Christ,
Thomas
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)