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June 19, 2016May 1, 2018

Christ our Savior

For the last forty years the Heimlich maneuver has been synonymous with the abdominal thrust procedure for saving someone from choking. This method is named after a surgeon from Cincinnati named Dr. Henry Heimlich who apparently published this idea in an essay in the Emergency Medicine journal in June, 1974. Over the years this maneuver has been used to save the lives of many people who were choking.

But did you know that Dr. Heimlich never actually used the maneuver to save someone from choking until just a few weeks ago at the age of 96? He was apparently having dinner at his retirement home when a woman nearby began chocking and for the first time he used the Heimlich maneuver to save the life of this 87 year old woman.

What does it mean to save someone? It basically means to rescue someone from harm. In Titus 3:3-7, we read: “3 For we ourselves 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. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:3-7, ESV)

Notice that Paul begins with the words we were. He doesn’t say they are, but we were. We were foolish, we were disobedient and so on. He is describing himself and Titus, and all followers of Christ, before we became followers of Christ. This helps us identify ourselves with those around us who do not know Christ and reminds us of who we are without grace.

And then we see one of the most wonderful words in all of Scripture. The word “but.” That word carries with it a whole lot of implication. Paul says this is who we were, but then Christ came into the picture. And he connects the word “but” with the goodness and loving kindness of God. He points out all of the stuff about who we used to be and then the word “but” is there because God loves mankind so much and he is so good that he worked redemptively for us by sending Jesus.

Then Paul points out that we are saved not by what we do, but by what has been done for us. We could never earn salvation. We could never have been good enough on our own. Actually without Christ we were enemies of God, going our own way, as if he didn’t even exist. But God saved us, because of his mercy.

God rescued us from sin, from guilt, from death, from hell, but he also saved us from being separated from him. We were created to live in fellowship with God. Sin messed that up, but through Christ God restored the opportunity for that relationship to be restored.

Paul points out that we are saved through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. That’s kind of confusing, so lets break it down. We were unclean because of our sin, and that separated us from God, so we needed to be washed. But that washing is combined with regeneration and renewal. The word regeneration basically means rebirth. It implies something that was old being reborn. Renewal refers to being made new. The Holy spirit washes our sins away and gives us new life in Christ.

This is not something we could ever have done in our own lives. We cannot wash ourselves from sin. We cannot give birth to a new nature in us. We need to have this done for us. And that is what the Holy Spirit does.

It is also beautiful to see that phrase poured out on us richly. That gives us the image of a generous God who is lavishing us with his love, kindness, and mercy. He is not being stingy. He is not holding back. He is not treating us as our sins deserve or giving us just a little bit of grace, he pours out this amazing grace on our lives.

And then in verse 7 Paul brings in the word justified. This is a legal term that basically means to be declared righteous. It is as if we are standing in a courtroom awaiting a guilty verdict that we deserve and the judge declares us not guilty. One of the things that happens in our lives through the work of Christ is that his sacrifice covers our sins, so that when God looks at us, rather than seeing our sin, he sees Christ’s righteousness and we are declared justified in his sight. We also become heirs who are welcomed in to the family of God and are given the inheritance of eternity with him in Heaven.

So when we talk about Christ our Savior, this is what we are referring to. Jesus died on the cross in order for us to be saved. And make no doubt about it, we needed rescuing. We could not save ourselves. Christ is our Savior.

Let me illustrate it this way…

Way back in the beginning with Adam and Eve, God created things good and perfect. We even get the sense from the book of Genesis that God walked with man in the Garden. God created man to live forever in fellowship with him.

But sin entered the picture and broke that fellowship. Sin wrecked the perfect good reality that God had
created. And man was separated from God. Like verse 3 said, we were going our own way, astray from God, slaves to sin separated from God. And as we know from Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death. We were faced with an eternity of separation from God.

But god loved us so much that he sent us a Savior. Jesus died on the cross, so that our sins could be washed away, we could be declared righteous, and we could be made new, brought back to a right relationship with God and given the hope of eternal life.

So how do we receive this gift? How do we respond to this message? In Romans 10:9,10 we read, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:9,10, ESV)

That is our response. We need to admit that we believe that Christ came to save us and that we want him to be our Savior. That’s it. If you are reading this post and have some questions or if you have responded to this Gospel message and would like to talk with someone about it, please email me at office@riveralliance.com

June 10, 2016May 1, 2018

Father Abraham

Abraham is one of the most famous fathers mentioned in the Bible. According to my best calculations, Abraham or Abram as he is first called is mentioned 287 times in the Bible, including about 73 times in the New Testament alone. He is all over the place. Typically when talking about him we might turn to the book of Genesis which chronicles his life, his early calling from God and the way he followed God toward the promised land. Or we might check out the book of Hebrews where he is talked about in several verses in chapter 11, which is considered the faith hall of fame. But I want to look instead at a letter from Paul to the church in Galatia where Paul mentions Abraham a few times as he talks about faith.

Apparently the Galatian church had run into a problem. Some Jewish teachers had infiltrated the church with some bad theology. They were encouraging the people that in order to be Christians, they not only had to accept Christ as Savior, but also had to conform to the Mosaic law. It is like they were combining salvation by Grace with salvation by works. But in Galatians 3 Paul is challenging them to not go back to trying to be justified by the law after having been justified by faith.

Paul actually calls them foolish. He is not saying that they were mentally challenged or that their IQ was not high enough. That would actually be a different Greek word. The word he chooses to use suggests that they had the capacity to understand, but were choosing to act in a way that didn’t make sense. They were being irrational. He even asked who bewitched them. As if they must have been hypnotized or someone cast a spell on them for them to believe something so confounding.

Paul was fighting a battle in the early days of Christianity. The church was struggling to define their theology of salvation. When the Gospel was being spread solely among the Jews it was a different kind of battle. They were already in the tradition of following the Mosaic law and they recognized that the law could not save them, but that Christ could. So they responded to the Gospel. But then when the Gospel started to be taken to the Gentiles and they began to believe, some of the Jews were taken aback by the way that the Gentiles lived. The Jews wanted the Gentiles to change their behaviors in order to be saved.

So what is so bad about that? Is it wrong to expect that when someone becomes a Christian that they should be living differently? The problem is that the church in Galatia was in danger of moving in the direction of a doctrine that combined grace and works. But if we can work hard enough to earn salvation, then it is no longer grace. Grace is receiving something that we didn’t or couldn’t earn.

We need to recognize the importance of sound doctrine. As Christians we do not all need to go to seminary or become theologians, but we all need to know what we believe. There are plenty of theological points that we can ponder and debate, but there are some, like our doctrine on salvation, that form the foundation of what we believe. We need to protect those foundational points because others might seek to tear them down by adding or taking away from what we believe. For the church in Galatia it was legalism, for us it might be universalism. We need to hold on to the Gospel and not waiver from sound doctrine.

Paul is setting the Galatians straight and he uses Abraham as an example. Take a look at verses 6-9: “6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness” 7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify[c] the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” (Galatians 3:6-9)

Notice that the verse says counted to him as righteousness. That word doesn’t mean earned, but more like credited. Paul is saying that Abraham wasn’t declared righteous because of circumcision or following the law. Abraham didn’t even have the Mosaic law yet. That law wouldn’t come for hundreds of years. Abraham was declared righteous because of faith, not because of what he did or didn’t do.

And the same is true of us. Look at how Paul says that those of faith are sons of Abraham. Have you ever thought of yourself as a son or daughter of Abraham? When I was growing up I sang the song, “Father Abraham” at camp. I knew the song, but nobody ever explained it to me. It didn’t make any sense. As far as I know I am not even part Jewish, so how am I a son of Abraham?

Notice that in verse 8 Paul uses the phrase, “preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham.” This is a very important verse for the Biblical Foundation of the Gospel. I teach on this verse in day three of my Biblical Evangelism class at Crown College. This verse references a passage that is a well-known point in Abraham’s life. It is referencing Genesis 12:1-3 where God calls Abram to follow him and gives him some promises.

One of the promises that God makes is that he will bless all the families of the earth through Abram. So from early on God set aside Abraham and his descendants to use them to declare himself to the world. And in Galatians 3:8 Paul refers to that and calls it the Gospel. Down through the ages one of Abraham’s descendants would be the messiah, Jesus. And through him salvation would be offered to the whole world.

So often we treat the Old Testament and New Testament as if they are not part of the same story. But God has one story throughout Scripture. This passage shows us that even way back in Genesis 12 God had a plan for saving all of mankind through the work of Christ, a descendant of Abraham.

And as Paul points out in Galatians 3:9, if we have faith in Christ and are followers of his, then we have this connection with Abraham. He is our father too. He is the father of all those who would one day, eventually believe in Christ. That is how we are sons and daughters of Abraham.

And as sons of Abraham, we too should carry on that role of being a blessing to all nations. We are God’s people and he wants to use us to declare himself to this world.

And like Abraham, we are declared righteous because of our faith not because of what we do. Abraham is an amazing example of obedience. But he was declared righteous because of his faith and the same is true of us.

That is why Christianity stands out so much from all of the other religions in the world. Everyone else is expected to earn their salvation, but we are expected to receive our salvation by grace recognizing that we could never earn it.

So let’s stop trying so hard to earn it. I know so many Christians who are worn out and tired and who feel like failures. I want to remind us today, that we don’t earn a thing. Christ is our Savior. He is the one who did the work, and he is the one who is still at work transforming our lives. We can stop striving so hard to be good Christians. We can stop judging ourselves so harshly and comparing ourselves with those around us. We are saved by Grace that is received through faith, not by works. Christ is our Savior!

June 1, 2016July 20, 2016

Ordination and Mission

This past Sunday we were blessed to host the ordination service for Chris O’Dell at The River. Chris and his wife Jamie were part of The River in the early days and then left for ministry in Taiwan. They serve at a coffee shop/church called The Aroma. You can find out more about their ministry and how to partner with them on The Aroma Website. Chris and Jamie and their boys continue to be part of The River extended family and we partner with them as they are ministering in Taipei. It is a great partnership considering our similar kind of ministry focus at Dunn Bros. here in Chaska. This is a way for us to be fulfilling Christ’s Great Commission for us in Matthew 28:19-20 where he says, “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.” We are in the process of making disciples here in Chaska, MN and at the same time we are partnering with them in making disciples among people we may never meet this side of Heaven as we partner with Chris and Jamie in Taiwan. Please join us in supporting them. Check out The Aroma Website for more information.

May 23, 2016May 1, 2018

Traps and Snares

One of my best friends in college was a kid named Eric. He was a country boy from the farmlands around Lancaster, PA. We were very different. He grew up hunting and fishing, hanging out in the woods and living on a chicken farm and I grew up playing games at the video arcade and hanging out at the mall.

At one point Eric had to take a speech class and one of the assignments was to give a persuasive speech. Eric came up with the bright idea to do a speech on trapping animals. He wanted to talk about how using traps to catch animals was actually a very humane way of capturing them.

He decided that the best way to do that was to bring a trap to class and during his speech he would set it off on his own hand to show that it was not that bad. Unfortunately he did not practice that part and so he found out in the middle of the speech that it hurt a lot worse than he thought it would.

No doubt there are some traps that are much more humane than that trap that Eric used in speech class. But no matter how non-lethal a trap is, the purpose is still the same. The purpose of a trap is to lure and ensnare an unsuspecting victim.

In Luke 17:1-4 Jesus talks about traps. He is not talking about the physical ones like Eric was referring to in his speech, but about spiritual traps and snares in the form of temptation and false teaching.

In verse 1 Jesus tells his disciples that temptations to sin are sure to come. That means that we should expect temptation to be a normal and regular part of our lives. The original Greek version of the phrase “temptations to sin” in this passage actually uses the word skandala which means something along the lines of a snare or a trap. It is translated as stumbling blocks in the New American Standard Bible. In other words it is referring to the things that trip us up and cause us to fall.

That is an accurate word picture for us. Think about it like a snare laid out on the ground in our path that is specifically there with the purpose of tripping us up. Because of our sin nature we see those traps as desirable, or harmless, but the concept of a trap or a snare is that it’s very purpose is to cause us to fall. We need to recognize temptation for what it is.

We also need to realize that Satan wants us to trip and fall and that he is actively trying to destroy our relationship with God. We need to be aware of his schemes and the traps and snares that he intentionally puts in our way.

When those temptations arise we have the opportunity to choose to follow what we know to be God’s will for us or we can embrace the temptation and move into sin. The more we choose to follow God’s will and turn away from sin, the more we are going to get to know God’s will and be able to recognize those stumbling blocks and snares for what they are. Unfortunately the opposite is also true. The more we choose to ignore God’s will and choose to give our bodies over to sin, the less we are going to be able to understand God’s will and the more likely we are going to be fall into those tempting traps.

While we are saved by grace and not by our ability to stay away from bad things, choosing to ignore God’s will and give ourselves to sin, leads us down a path away from God. Sin is a harsh slave master. Temptation looks all nice and pretty and desirable, but it is a snare and it leads to slavery.

Jesus goes on in verse 1 to specifically challenge us to not be the ones leading people into those snares. When I was younger I watched movies that contained nudity. Over the years I started specifically staying away from those kind of movies because I know that is a temptation that I should avoid. However, when I was younger, not only did I watch those movies, I also watched them with friends or with my younger brother. That means that I was not just exposing myself to temptation, I was exposing them to it as well. And in this verse Jesus is saying woe to those who would do that.

In verse 2 he goes on to point out that it would be better to have a millstone hung around his neck than to cause a little one to sin. A millstone was a heavy, flat stone that was used to crush grain. Imagine for a moment the terrible death these words are illustrating. And yet Jesus is saying that it would be better for that to happen than to cause one of these little ones to stumble.

I look back at my life with a lot of regrets for what I was like in high school, college, and early adult life. It was not that I was terrible, but I probably had more bad influence on people than I had good influence and I didn’t even realize it. I probably had heard this verse, but I never really connected the dots to myself.

We need to recognize the role we play in the temptation of others. In verses 3 and 4 Jesus goes on to point out that it is not even enough for us to just not have a negative influence on others, we have to take it a step further. Jesus challenges us to confront our brothers when they sin. This means that if we see one another sinning we are not supposed to ignore it, we are to confront one another. We don’t do this to condemn them, but to lead them to repentance. And if they repent we are to forgive them, even if we have been wronged in the process.

These verses are a powerful reminder of the important role we play in one another’s lives. Imagine us all walking on a path together like some kind of giant nature hike. As we walk, we need to recognize that there are traps and snares all over the place that would trip us up and cause us to fall. We need to be watching out for them, not just for us, but for one another as well. We need to point out the traps as we walk and we need to be especially making sure that we are not the ones leading people into those traps. Then, if one of our brothers falls into a trap, we should be there alongside them to help them out and to help them get back on their feet. It is like we are walking this path together, and we care for one another along the way, helping each other on this journey of following the Lord.

May 16, 2016May 1, 2018

Discerning God’s Will

I was recently asked a question about discerning God’s will. How do we know what God wants us to do? I believe that Romans 12:1-2 is a great passage to help us answer that question. In Romans 12:1-2 Paul writes: I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world,[c] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Paul uses the word therefore in verse 1. That is important because we need to pause and connect what he is about to say with what has been said. Now the word therefore in this case actually marks a transition not just from chapter 11 to chapter 12, but from Paul’s overall direction up until this point to what he is going to talk about through the rest of this letter. In the first 11 chapters of this book Paul has been focused on doctrine and now he is challenging them to put that into practice in the way that they live for Christ.

He also uses the word appeal. That word can also be translated as urge or exhort. He is challenging them with a bit of authority. It is stronger than just asking. So considering all of this great stuff about God that they have learned in the first 11 chapters, Paul now challenges them on how they are to live.

He begins by telling them to present their bodies as living sacrifices. Let’s break that down a little bit. A sacrifice is basically offering, giving up or dedicating something. Like in the OT when the people would bring a lamb to be sacrificed on the altar. But Paul here is talking about a living sacrifice. That means that it is still something that is given or dedicated, but it is not killed like the OT sacrifices were. The living sacrifice he is referring to here is our bodies. So putting all of this together, Paul is talking about our lives being given or dedicated to God.

Notice also that Paul tells them to present their bodies as living sacrifices. That might seem like they are to work really hard to be a good Christian, but that word present can also be seen as offer or yield. I would suggest that yield is a great way for us to understand what Paul is talking about here.

The word yield means to give way or submit. So yielding our lives to the Lord as living sacrifices would be like submitting ourselves to him and his plans for us rather than our plans for ourselves.

Paul then goes on to talk about not being conformed to this world. The word there carries the idea of us being squeezed into a mold. We are constantly being bombarded by messages from this world about what we are supposed to look like, want, desire, believe, feel or think about things. And much of what the world suggests is contrary to God’s will.

But Paul is saying, don’t let that stuff corrupt our thinking. Don’t let the world dictate what we believe or think. God has something better for us. God is calling us away from this world and toward him. Rather than being conformed by this world, he is calling us to a transformation.

You know the word for transformed there is the word from which we get our word metamorphosis. The way this is written suggests a continual renewing of the mind. He will give us a new way of thinking that may not make sense to this world, but God’s knows what is best for us and he will show us a better way. This continual renewing of our mind then will lead us into God’s will. The more we yield to his plans for us, then the more we will be able to understand what God really wants for us.

So let’s get back to the original question. I know this is the big picture answer. It is kind of a long term approach to answering this question, but this is how we know God’s will. It is through choosing moment by moment and day by day to yield our lives to God that we get to know his will.

The problem is typically when we ask this question, it is that we want to know God’s will right now about a particular situation. Paul is describing much more of a long term process. He is pointing out to us that we need to grow in this area and it will take time of gradually, more and more being able to discern his will. If we are not yielding to God moment, by moment and day by day, then it is going to be hard to know his will for a one time event. So the first thing that I want to impress upon us is to start with these basics. Let’s begin yielding our lives to God as living sacrifices, choosing his way instead of our own and over time we will be growing in our discernment of God’s will.

But I am not totally sure that that answers the intent of this question and I think there is also something here for the times when we want to know the will of God as we make decisions in our lives. Notice this idea of not being conformed to this world, but being transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Too often when we are faced with a decision, the main things we consider are the things of this world. Most of the time we make decisions based on the same way the world makes decisions. We tend to weigh the pros and cons like finances, happiness, future possibilities and things like that.

We need to stop letting worldly priorities dictate our choices and instead earnestly seek Gods will. You know there are plenty of things that we know to be God’s will that we choose to ignore when we are trying to make a decision. Sometimes I am faced with a choice that makes all the sense in the world, but it kind of steps on some of the things that I already know to be true about God’s will. Many times we choose to ignore those things or compromise them just a little bit, so that we can grab hold of a bigger paycheck or some measure of enjoyment that we so desperately want for ourselves. When we do that, we are letting ourselves be conformed by this world, rather than being transformed by the renewing of our minds.

I believe that if we lessen the voice of this world and stop listening so much to what this world says is best, and if we focus on the stuff we already know to be true about God’s will, then while that may not give us a definite answer it is going to narrow things down quite a bit and help us be able to see things more clearly as we try to discern God’s will.

May 8, 2016May 1, 2018

Rahab’s Example

Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho when the people of Israel showed up with the command from God to go in and take the promised land. The Israelites sent in spies to check things out and they wound up at the home of Rahab in Jericho and she went out of her way to hide and protect them when they were in danger. Even though she was not an Israelite she believed in the stories she had heard of their God and chose to align herself with him rather than with her own people. And she and her family were spared when God destroyed the city. You can read more about the story of Rahab in Joshua 2.

Later on Rahab is mentioned in Matthew 1:5 as part of the genealogy of Jesus. She was David’s great, great grandmother. She is also mentioned in Hebrews 11 as part of the faith hall of fame. And she is given as an example of faith showing itself in works in James 2.

In that passage James poses a very interesting question in verse 14: 14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

This is a strong challenge. He is questioning people’s salvation. But notice that James is not comparing those who have faith to those who have works. That is not really the point. He is comparing those who say they have faith, but it doesn’t show in the way they live their life, compared to those who are visibly demonstrating their faith by how they live.

He gives an example in verses 15 and 16: 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

In this specific example James is not talking about a stranger, but about a brother or sister in Christ. He is talking about someone within the body of Christ who is in obvious need. This implies that the person who says they have faith knows the person in need, knows their need, and rather than helping them out, simply says “go in peace, be warm and well fed.” This almost seems sarcastic, because the words they say are in direct correlation to the specific needs of the person. But rather than help them, they just say some words. This is the exact issue that James has with their so-called faith. It is nothing more than words.

James calls that kind of faith dead in verse 17: 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James is calling for our faith to be alive. Our faith should be evident in our lives. People should be able to see Christ in us. Our testimony cannot just be a testimony of words, it needs to be a testimony of life.

In verses 20-23 James points to the example of Abraham and how his faith showed up in what he did and then he shares a controversial statement in verse 24: 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

In this verse it seems like James is kind of contradicting the belief that we are saved by grace through faith, rather than works. But we need to understand verse 24 in light of the rest of what James is saying. He is not comparing faith to works, he is not even saying it is faith plus works, he is saying that true faith is shown in works. If we really have faith, then it should be evident in our lives.

And then James points to the example of Rahab and ends with a strong challenge in verses 25 and 26: 25 And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

So like the example of Abraham, Rahab is commended here for her actions or works. That does not mean that she was saved by her works, but rather that her works were a response of faith. The work that James is referring to is that she harbored the spies and hid them and went out of her way to help them. Why do you think she did that?

In Joshua 2:8 – 13 Rahab actually answers that question for us. She tells the spies about how word of the Lord had spread and fear of him had fallen on the land and then she testifies to what she believes at the end of verse 11: for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

The reason she helped the spies is because she believed in their God. She believed that he was who he said he was and that he would do what he said he would do. That is faith. She had faith and so she did what she did. Her works were her response of faith.

I believe the example of Rahab is very poignant. Notice that James refers to her not just as Rahab, but as Rahab the prostitute or Rahab the harlot. Her life was so defined by prostitution that that is how she is known. And yet James refers to her being justified by her works. He is not talking about her work as a prostitute, but by what she did when she took care of the spies. So even though she is known as Rahab the prostitute, with that stigma attached to her for her whole life, she is described here and in the book of Hebrews as a woman of faith. She could have let her past define her and continued along that path, but she stepped out in faith and followed God.

I think that is a powerful reminder to us. We may often look back at our lives with feelings of failure and discouragement. We may even feel defined by things that are not flattering. But while we can’t change the past, we don’t have to let it define how we are going to move forward. I am not calling on us to focus on the work we haven’t done, or the things we have messed up or done wrong. I am calling us forward from this point on, that our faith would be alive and that we would step out in faith and follow God.

April 30, 2016May 1, 2018

Does God Contradict Himself?

I was recently asked the question, “why does God contradict himself?” This person was focusing on how God says, “thou shalt not kill,” but then there were lots of times in the Old Testament where he called for whole cities to be wiped out, which seems a lot like genocide. Have you ever struggled to put together something you believe about God with the way you see him act in Scripture?

Before I consider the specific example, I think it is important to take a look at the big picture. In 2 Timothy 2 Paul is challenging and encouraging his young apprentice in his pastoral role, and he wraps up the passage with an interesting quote in verses 11-13: 11 The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12 if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; 13 if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself.

So Paul seems to be quoting something here, but it is not Scripture. Some scholars believe it was a saying or possibly even a hymn within the early church. We don’t know. It seems to connect with the previous two verses where Paul talked about his own personal suffering in prison.

The first half of this statement connects with the hope of resurrection that awaits us as Christians. Those who believe in Jesus, have had their sins forgiven, are brought back to a right relationship with God and can look forward to eternal life in Heaven.

The quote then moves on to those who have denied Christ. This word is sometimes translated disown and suggests a deliberate choice to not follow Jesus as Lord. So Paul is saying that if we deny Christ, that he will deny us. If we don’t accept him, he won’t accept us. Now that sounds harsh, but God has offered his free gift of salvation to the whole world, and those who deny him or turn their backs on that free gift will also be denied. Those who accept Christ will be accepted, but if you want nothing to do with him, then that is your choice.

But then Paul’s quote moves on to one final point that I think brings out an important characteristic about God that is good for us to consider regarding our question for today.

Paul talks about being faithless. That doesn’t mean to not have faith, it means to be unworthy of faith. It means not doing what would be considered faithful. We are faithless a lot. We mess up and don’t keep our end of our covenant with God. We go our own way, do our own thing, and faithlessly fail to live out what we say we believe.

But notice that this quote says that even though we are faithless God remains faithful. That means he always keeps up his side of the covenant. And Paul points out that God remains faithful because he cannot deny himself.

This means that God is who he is, all the time. We talk about how God can do anything, but one thing he can’t do is something that is contrary to his nature. Who God is, is who God is. He will always act in a way that is true to his nature.

So what does that have to do with our question for today? It means that God doesn’t contradict himself. So we need to take what we know to be true about God and let that influence how we understand the things that don’t make sense.

Now, I understand that actions need to back up words. I don’t like hypocrites any more than you do. Sometimes people say one thing and do the opposite and so we tend to judge people more by what they do, than by who they tell us they are. That is understandable, but it is also not entirely informed. Sometimes we might see someone do something and misconstrue what is really going on.

We see this all the time in situation comedies on television. They are great at creating circumstances where someone sees someone else doing something but only gets part of the story and it leads to a whole bunch of funny outcomes.

Allowing someone’s actions to dictate what we believe about them is ok, but it is not complete, because we may not really understand what is going on. If we know their character and we see something that doesn’t fit with that character, we are probably going to give them the benefit of the doubt, because we know them. We should do the same with God.

I believe that if we hold on to what God says about who he is in Scripture, it is okay to wrestle with the things that don’t make sense. But we have to do that while maintaining a firm grasp on what God has already revealed to us about himself.

So how about we start with what we see here in 2 Timothy that God does not deny himself. He will always act in a way that is consistent with his nature. We also know from James 1 that God is the same, yesterday, today and forever and does not change like shifting shadows. And in Numbers we are reminded that God does not lie. So if we believe all of that, then we can hold on to those truths and wrestle with any apparent contradictions we think we see.

So let’s apply that to our earlier example of the apparent genocide we see God commanding in the Old Testament compared to the command to not kill in the 10 commandments.

There is not some simple, easy answer, but let me first point out that technically speaking, the Hebrew word in the 10 commandments could be translated either as kill or murder. And there is a difference. Killing in a war or executing a person for crimes he has committed or killing someone while defending yourself from someone are very different than murdering someone in cold blood. On the flip side, we could look at the word murder referring to unlawful killing. With that in mind, even if we are against all forms of killing we would recognize the difference between killing and murder. So comparing what we see God commanding the armies of Israel to do in a war is not the same thing as committing murder which is probably what the 10 commandments are referring to.

But when God has the Israelites wipe out an entire town, what do we do that? Is God really commanding genocide? That is a tougher question, but if I hold on to what I know to be true about God I can wrestle with that question as well.

In Exodus 34 God declared to Moses who he is and he said this about himself, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands,[a] forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.

In that description I see a God who is loving, merciful and gracious, and yet also holy and just and aggressive in his dealings with sin. Those are both facets of his character. I think sometimes we only want to think about God as being loving, merciful and gracious. But that is not a complete picture of God. It is only in light of his holiness and justness that we can real understand his love and mercy.

God could have wiped us all off the face of this world because of our stubborn refusal to obey him and he would have been totally justified. What should amaze us more is not when he chooses to show wrath, but when he chooses to show mercy, because we all deserve death.

Now I know that is a very imperfect explanation, but I think we also need to consider that the Old Testament was a long time ago and it was a very different time in the life of man, that we do not understand. Things have changed a lot over the history of man, through the dark ages and medieval times and then on to where we are today. And while God doesn’t change, man does and therefore God’s dealings with man, while coming from the same character, look different depending on our viewpoint. So ultimately I believe God is who he says he is and that he will not contradict himself, and I continue to trust in him even if there are some of the things that I do not understand.

April 24, 2016May 1, 2018

Good, Good Father

In Matthew 7:7-8 we read: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

So in this passage Jesus is speaking on prayer. Asking, seeking, and knocking are all basically forms of prayer. They are speaking of us going to God with requests.

I don’t believe this passage is saying that we can ask for whatever we want, regardless of God’s will and we will get it just because we ask. I don’t believe that is what it means to be a good father. I don’t give my kids everything they ask for and it is not because I am being mean, it’s because I love them and I am trying to do what is best for them.

Sometimes we go to God with things that seem good and we can’t see any reason why it would not be good for us to receive what we are asking for. And yet still God does not give us what we want. Those times are tough.

I have a good friend who is a pastor and his wife has cancer. I don’t know why God has not just stepped in and miraculously healed her. There is no reason that I can see for that not to happen. I can only imagine what it must be like to cry out to God again and again and not receive that healing.

Sometimes when we cry out to God again and again, and don’t receive what we are asking for, our souls hurt and we can begin to forget who God really is and who we are in him.

This passage is teaching us something very important about God. Overall this passage is about prayer, but Jesus is also pointing out that God is a good father. Look at the example Jesus gives in verse 9-11: 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

A good earthly father may not always give his son what he asked for, but he is not going to ignore him or taunt him or give him something harmful instead. And Jesus says that if that is true of an early father how much more true is it of God.

This is known as an “a fortiori argument” or an argument from the lesser to the greater. If a good early father would respond like this, then think about how much more we can expect from God. God is better than even the best image we could have of what a good earthly father is like.

I think I am a decent father and I believe that my children know that I love them and want the best for them. But I know I am far from perfect. I have had to apologize to my children many times for losing my cool, or accusing them of things they didn’t do or lack of patience or other things. I am far from perfect.

But I know how much I love my children. They mean more to me than I could possibly express. Recently I was singing the song “Good, Good Father,” by Chris Tomlin. As I was singing I was drawn into the image of how I see my kids. I was trying to put myself in their shoes and if only they could see themselves through the way I see myself looking at them. If they could only recognize how much I love them, not because of how good they are at pleasing me, but simply because they are my children. And then I was thinking, do I see God that way? Do I really see him loving me with the kind of love that I have for my kids, only infinitely greater?

I sometimes get a very warped idea of who I am in God’s sight. I can be very performance based in my thinking like I have to please God or always be on my best behavior rather than just recognizing that he is my dad and I am loved by him. And his love for me is not based on how well I am doing, but because I am his child.

So as I was singing this song I felt like I was crying out for my soul to get this. I want to know, down deep in my soul, that God is a good Father and I am loved by him. That doesn’t change. It is who he is and it is who I am in him.

This passage is about prayer, but it is also a reminder that God is a good father. A few chapters earlier when Jesus was teaching his disciples to pray he used the word Abba, which is a very intimate expression of father. Imagine thinking of God like our daddy.

I may not know why God doesn’t answer some of our prayers the way we think he should and I don’t know why some of us are going through the things we are going through. But if I know that my Father God is a good father, and that he loves me and wants what is best for me, then I can rest in him and trust that he will take care of me.

Sometimes in our lives we forget that image of God. And in those times it is easy for us to give up and lose hope. But when times are bad, that doesn’t mean that God is not a good father or that we are not loved.

In this passage where Jesus uses the words ask, seek and knock, those verbs are all in the present tense. They could be looked at more along the lines of keep on asking, keep on seeking and keep on knocking. I understand what it is like to be tired of asking, seeking and knocking. But I want to remind us today that our God is a good father. Let’s hold on to that image of him, even if we need to cry out to our own soul to remember that. And let’s continue to bring our prayers before him, trusting that he hears us, that he knows what is going on in our lives, and that he loves us very much.

April 16, 2016May 1, 2018

Resurrection not just Reanimation

So Zombies are kind of a big deal lately. There are many TV shows and movies related to zombies. There was even a youtube video that went viral recently about a couple of brothers who pranked their younger sister on the way home from having wisdom teeth surgery. They got her to believe that a zombie apocalypse was beginning. Last I saw it had almost 14million hits. According to Wikipedia “A zombie is a fictional undead being created through the reanimation of a human corpse.”

Today zombies are potentially more popular than they have ever been. If you go online you will find all kinds of information on zombies, including many sites that focus on the best way to survive a zombie apocalypse. I even came across articles on this subject on the websites for The Center for Disease Control, US News and World Report, and The Washington Post.

Recently I was asked by someone in my church, “What does the Church mean by bodily resurrection?” This person referred to the apostle’s creed which refers to the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. They were wondering if this means that when we go to Heaven we will have a body like we have now? In other words, will we be resurrected back into the body we had before we died? And if so, then at what stage? Does a person just end up with the body they had right before they died, or is it from like when they were in their prime? And what about someone who was missing a limb or had some major problem with their body, is that fixed? And what if you were cremated? Does that mean you can’t be resurrected? The person who was asking these questions didn’t specifically connect this to zombies, but they are trying to figure out what to make of the idea of bodily resurrection.

Well, first of all let me point out that we are not talking about reanimation we are talking about resurrection. That is a significant difference. Scripture may not give us a definitive picture of what these resurrected bodies will look like, but in I Corinthians 15 Paul gives us enough of an image to recognize we are talking about something a whole lot better than zombies.

Paul begins that chapter with a very succinct outline of the Gospel. In a few verses he reminds us that Christ died for the sins of the world, that he was buried and that he rose again and appeared to many people. It is kind of like the Gospel in Cliff Notes fashion.

These first six verses provide an important foundation and then Paul moves on to connect Christ’s resurrection with our own. It is important for us to realize that Jesus did not just die as a sacrifice for our sins, he rose again in victory over death and sin and paved the way for our resurrection.

There were apparently some in Corinth who were suggesting that there was no resurrection for the dead. In these verses Paul lays out a very logical argument that reminds them of the completeness of the Gospel.

Paul then moves on to talk a little bit about what this will be like. Paul doesn’t give us an exact picture of what to expect, but he gives us a few images to think about to help us consider the idea of a resurrection body.

The first analogy is of a seed in verses 36-37. A seed that is planted in good soil germinates. Basically the seed itself disintegrates or dies, but out of that seed grows new life in the form of a plant. And what comes up out of the ground is not the same thing that went into the ground, but something new and different.

So we can understand the analogy to the seed. A person dies, they are even planted in the ground, and a new body comes up out of the ground at the time of resurrection. We should not expect it to be the same as it was when it went into the ground, but rather something new.

Paul moves on to the analogy of different kinds of animals in verse 39. We know and understand the difference between a human being, an animal, a bird and a fish. Their bodies are designed for very different purposes that are right for the environment where they will exist. Our resurrection bodies will be different than our earthly bodies and will fit the needs of the new environment awaiting us.

And then Paul moves on to compare earthly and heavenly bodies in verses 40-41. Right now we live in earthly bodies. They are fine and work for here on earth, but God has something different in store for us in Heaven. These bodies were not meant for Heaven.

Paul then goes on to make some comparisons in verses 42-44. First he talks about how our bodies will be imperishable compared to perishable. That means that our resurrected bodies are not going to fade away or be temporary. It is a body that will be built to last.

He then talks about how when we die, that is the low point for our earthly bodies. They finally run out of strength and fail completely. And when they do our bodies are at their weakest and most dishonorable. But out of that weakness and dishonor of death our new bodies will rise in glory and power. I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but it sounds pretty good.

The last comparison Paul points out is that our resurrected bodies will not be natural, they will be spiritual. This is an important distinction. I don’t know exactly what that will mean, but I would image that a lot of the limitations we know now, will not be limitations then.

Then in verses 45-49 Paul talks about how we will be born in the image of the man of heaven. We started life with earthly bodies. Adam was made out of the dust of this earth and so were we. Our earthly bodies reflected Adam. But our new bodies will be more reflective of Christ and that doesn’t mean we will look like he looked while he was on this earth, but more in the image of who he is in Heaven. We will all finally have heavenly bodies.

Then Paul ends the chapter by telling us of the victory that is coming. For those of us who believe in Christ, death is not the end. Death is a result of the fall. It Is because of sin. In Christ we are set free from that curse of sin and have victory over death. For most of the world death is seen as the biggest defeat of our lives. But Paul is turning things upside down and saying that it is not defeat. Death has been defeated and victory is ours in Christ as we are raised to new life with imperishable, glorious new spiritual bodies.

We may not be able to picture exactly what that means or looks like, but the specifics don’t matter. Paul gives us enough information here to recognize that we have a lot to celebrate.

Paul’s final verse ends with a good note of encouragement for us in light of the resurrection. He writes: Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

There is a confidence in this resurrection that allows us to get on with our daily lives. We can be steadfast, immovable, abounding in the work of the Lord, because we know that our future is secure. In Christ, we know that one day we will rise again to spend eternity with him, and that understanding of our future allows us to have confidence here and now for whatever we are facing today.

We are looking forward to a glorious life in Heaven and while we are here on this earth we can stand in that victory even though we have yet to experience it. I know life is not always easy here on this earth, but understanding this chapter can give us strength to stand immovable, knowing what is to come.

April 7, 2016May 1, 2018

Why Blood?

Have you ever asked yourself why there is so much of a focus on blood in the Bible? Between the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament and Jesus’ death in the New Testament there is a lot of blood. In church we read about the blood, we talk about the blood and we even sing about the blood. Some people probably question why the Church seems so infatuated with blood.

In chapter 9 of the book of Hebrews the author spends a lot of time talking about blood and does a good job of connecting the blood we read about with Old Testament sacrifices to the blood we read about with the story of Jesus on the cross.

First, he reminds his readers of the Mosaic covenant that existed in the Old Testament. This was a covenant God had with Israel that they would be his people and he would be their God. It consisted of a system of rules like the 10 commandments and others that taught them how to live and what it looks like to follow God. This covenant also included animal sacrifices for them to offer when they messed up.

The system was not bad, but it was temporary, pointing forward to what would be completed in Christ. And that is what the author is focusing on throughout the chapter.

He talks about the tabernacle, which was set aside as the place for God to dwell with his people. And that tabernacle included the Most Holy Place, which was located behind a curtain that separated it from the rest of the tabernacle. In this Most Holy Place was the Ark of the Covenant which represented the very presence of God. Nobody went behind that curtain except the high priest and he went back there only once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On that day he would make atonement for his sins and the sins of the community by way of animal sacrifices and sprinkling the blood on the cover of the ark.

In Hebrews 9:9 we find out that this was symbolic. The word used for symbol is a word that means comparison, from which we get our word parable. And then verse 10 ends with the phrase, “until the time of reformation.” That is not referring to the reformation time period in history, the word means to set or make right.

So the old covenant was like a symbol of what was to come. It was a system that God put in place that signified repentance and God accepted it as a way of purification. It was a system that was temporary and incomplete but pointed the way to the time things would be set right and become perfect in Christ.

The author of Hebrews then moves on to connect Jesus to that old system of sacrifices. He points out how Jesus became the perfect sacrifice. In the old covenant the sacrifice of animals symbolized cleansing from sin, but in Christ those sins are truly atoned for and there is no further sacrifice necessary.

In verse 15 the author calls Jesus a mediator. Our sin separates us from God, but Jesus came between us and God and made it possible for us to be reconciled. And not just us but everyone, including those who made those sacrifices in the Old Testament.

Notice in verse 16 the word covenant is used and in verse 17 the word will is used. In the original Greek that is actually the same word. The old covenant looked ahead to the death of Jesus, the promise of what was yet to come. Hebrews 9:15 says, “since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” Jesus completed or perfected what was begun with the first covenant.

The animal sacrifices that were offered in the OT had to be offered again and again. It was not enough for them to just be done once. It was over and over again. But Christ’s sacrifice was complete. What he did on the cross was perfect and atoned for the sins of all people, past, present and future, once for all.

And the author points out at the end of the chapter that Christ is coming again. This same Jesus who died for the sins of the world and rose again is coming back and when he comes he is going to raise all those who believe in him to a new eternal life. That is what we are looking forward to and the way we have access to that new life is through the blood of Jesus Christ.

So that gets us back to the original question, why blood? My answer is, I don’t really know. We can trace animal sacrifice back to the sacrifices of Cain and Abel in the book of Genesis and how the animal sacrifice of Abel was accepted while the fruit and vegetable sacrifice of Cain was not accepted. And some even trace it back to the Garden of Eden when God clothed Adam and Even with animal skins after they sinned and realized they were naked.

But the closest answer I can find is in Leviticus 17:11 where we read: “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”

So while that is not an exact answer for why the blood, it does point out the importance of blood. Blood represents life. We need our blood to survive. With the blood sacrifices in the Old Testament it is not like they just took blood from the animals and then set them free. They killed the animals. Using their blood cost them their life.

And the word for atonement means to cover or appease. In the Old Testament the people would sacrifice animals to atone for their sins. They would take one of their animals, that they had raised, or one they had bought with their own money. An animal who had done nothing wrong, and they would sacrifice it to atone for their sin.

It wasn’t literally the blood of the animal that saved them or washed them. Romans 6:23 tells us that the penalty or wages for sin is death, the life of the animal was sacrificed in place of the life of the person. And the life was represented in the blood.

It might seem cruel today, but I think it is important for us to recognize that dealing with sin costs something. We too easily blow off sin today, and it is good for us to recognize that there has always been a cost. Back in the OT they saw that cost. They recognized that an animal would be sacrificed for what they had done.

But we don’t live under the Old Covenant anymore. God made a new covenant with his people when he sent his Son Jesus to this world. Jesus became the perfect completion of the Old Covenant. He died on the cross as a perfect, sinless sacrifice for the sins of the world. His blood covers our sins. And it is important for us to recognize the cost.

Now that we don’t regularly offer an animal as a sacrifice it is easy for us to forget the cost of sin. We take sin lightly and therefore we take grace lightly. We forget how great a price was paid for our sin. We tritely pray “forgive me for this or that mistake that I have made today” as if it is really no big deal.

I may not know exactly why blood, but I do know that it is good for us to remember that sin costs. There is a price that was paid. When we ask for forgiveness for our sins it is not like God says “oh it’s ok, don’t worry about it, it’s no big deal.” When we ask for forgiveness, God says, “it is a big deal, it separates me from you, but I sent my son as a sacrifice for your sin, because I love you and I don’t treat you as your sins deserve, I choose to show you grace and mercy, you are forgiven.”

Let’s not ever take sin or grace lightly. Let’s always remember that sin costs and be thankful for what Christ paid for us.