28 October 2008 by Brian.

I’ve been reading in the book of James lately and was reminded of just how relevant the book is today.  Many Biblical scholars believe that James was written during a time of economic crisis in the first century.  Specifically, the Roman Empire was experiencing a famine, putting extreme pressure on the Jewish community.  Of course, Jewish followers of Christ were seen as traitors and idolaters by the Jewish religious and political establishment, making them even more vulnerable.  Simply put, these were extremely difficult times which could make it difficult to stay faithful to God and His ways, rather than to take matters into their own hands and attempt to provide for themselves, even if it meant acting in un-Christlike ways.  Sound familiar?  You can see the evidence of the pressure that the original readers of James were under and you can see how James drove the message home by using so many agricultural images while speaking to members of an agrarian society during a famine.

Try reading James again with this background in mind.  I think we may find it easier to put ourselves into the shoes of the original readers and to really understand what God is trying to teach us through this powerful little letter.

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5 September 2008 by Brian.

I was reading Psalm 50 and was struck by the statement God makes at the end of this selection:

17     For you hate discipline,
and you cast my words behind you.

18     You make friends with a thief when you see one,
and you keep company with adulterers.

19        “You give your mouth free rein for evil,
and your tongue frames deceit.

20     You sit and speak against your kin;
you slander your own mother’s child.

21     These things you have done and I have been silent;
you thought that I was one just like yourself.
But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you.

The passage describes a community made up of people who have no regard for the righteousness of God.  They live according to their own rules, satisfying their appetites, and obeying their whims.  They disregard God’s corrective action in their lives, they disregard the moral law and freely accept injustice among them.  They speak evil, even of those to whom they should be most loyal - their own family.  So, they speak up in matters they shouldn’t and keep silent when they should speak up in opposition to evil.

God states definitively that He is completely different from this society of His supposed people.  God does not keep silent in the face of evil, but opposes it.  He does not speak evil, but doesn’t back down from the truth, even when it is uncomfortable to the hearer.  As His people (I refer to believers here), we are expected to glorify Him by living His character by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

So, if this is true, then why do I so often hear those who speak up against evil, injustice, or sin referred to as “mean” and those who keep silent and go with the flow as “nice”?  People tend to feel guilty for trying to do the right thing or requiring others to hold to a standard, whether it is simply a business policy that is the standard or its an issue of right and wrong.

We must be careful, always realizing that our judgment isn’t perfect and that humility and grace should always be present in the believer’s life.  But, there are many issues in our society about which God would have us speak up on behalf of Right and righteousness.  If God is who He says He is, then we should be faithful to do so.  The weak and vulnerable in our society need our voices.  People need to see us living the life of Christ at work, in our families, in politics, and, yes, even in church!

Do we dare to ask God to show us just how far short we fall and then trust Him to re-mold us in His image whether it’s comfortable or not?

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18 September 2007 by Brian.

Okay, okay…I sensationalized the headline, but I read Hebrews chapter 12 today and was blown away by just how profound, challenging, and encouraging this chapter is.

So often, we get caught up in the excitement of chapter eleven’s “heroes of the faith” and think of the awesome things they did for God.  In doing so, we usually forget two things: that we’re meant to live out the same faith in our own lives and that each of these heroes faced impossible situations and incredible trials.  The fact is that their lives were far from easy ones and their only assurance that things would turn out well for them was their faith.  As the author of Hebrews makes clear in 11:35-38, many of the faithful met with rather horrible ends in this world.  Now, on to chapter 12….

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,  2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” (NRSV)

Verse one grabs us and diverts our attention from the fine examples of chapter 11 and forces us to apply this faith to our own lives.  As I pondered the verse, I realized that each of us has a “race marked out for us”.  Each of us has our own set of challenges, our own opportunity to exercise faith, experience God’s providing and sustaining grace, and thereby glorify Him.  Verse two redirects us once again, but this time it is to Jesus that we look.  Why?  Because he is the One who went before us, perfectly modeling the walk of faith.  Not only that, but He is the One by whose Spirit we are made increasingly holy as we walk by faith.  Chapter 11 had some great Old Testament examples to follow, but Jesus is the ultimate example to follow.  The Chapter 11 “heroes of the faith” exercised their faith imperfectly,  but served to prepare the way for Jesus, just as the Old Testament law (i.e., Judaism) could not provide salvation, but served to bring awareness of sin and to point the way to the One who would die for the sins of the world.  In doing so, Jesus dealt with sin once and for all.  He is the ultimate High Priest, the ultimate sacrifice, and the initiator of the new and perfect covenant.  That’s great stuff!

Continuing in verse two of chapter 12, Jesus’ walk of faith is explicitly spelled out for us, so there is no mistaking the type of example we are to follow.  First of all, the joy that was set before Jesus was not the opportunity to acquire great wealth, fame, or worldly power.  Instead, his joy was in expressing the love of God for his enemies (sinful mankind) and by laying down His own life, redeeming them and offering them life in relationship with the Father.  To gain this joy, He endured (a key word in the book of Hebrews) the most humiliating death which one could face, not to mention the fact that it is a  physically tortuous way to die.  In choosing to obey His heavenly Father, Jesus didn’t consider the shame of it (He IS God, Himself, after all!).  Instead, he faced the trial and passed through it to the position of honor at the right hand of the throne of God!  What an amazing savior!

The question I must ask myself, and I hope you’ll join me in asking it, is, “What shame or what trial has God asked me to face in order to glorify Him and accomplish His plans and purposes in my life?”  If I’m making my decisions based upon their impact on my own ego, my own reputation, or my own comfort, I’m probably not following the path of Christ.  I’m certainly not following His example by doing so.  Where is my focus?  Is it on the trial?  Or is it on the glory that can be brought to God as I trust Him through it and the blessing that might accrue to others as a result?

If you plan on reading further into chapter 12, be forewarned: the remainder of the chapter gets even better.  You will be challenged and blessed.  If you want to get the most out of it, read the book of Hebrews from beginning to end in one sitting.  I promise, you won’t regret it!

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26 August 2007 by Brian.

“Very few really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ask. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds – justification, explanations, forms of consolation without which they can’t go on. To
really ask is to open the door to the whirlwind. The answer may annihilate the question and the
questioner.”

Spoken by the Vampire Marius in
Ann Rice’s book The Vampire Lestat
Ballantine Books. New York, NY. 1985.

(Remember, Ann Rice became a Christian late in life…interesting what happens when you dare to really take a look at reality!)

I found this quote at http://tchriscrain.blogspot.com/2007/07/critical.html .

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16 July 2007 by Brian.

I am fully aware that I don’t have it all figured out, but I do believe that God gave us an objective revelation (The Bible), that can be counted upon.  In fact, it can be counted upon to reveal Truth.  My understanding of that Truth is certainly not perfect, but the revelation is there all the same.

This article reminds me of a problem in the post-modern church: they want to bring the Kingdom into every area of life (an excellent and Biblical goal), but they cast doubt on the certainty of knowing very much about the Kingdom.  How?  They’re so determined that we cannot know absolute truth (we certainly can’t know it exhaustively, I readily admit!) that they eliminate certainty even about the Bible’s own statements in regards to its authority, much less the ability to form doctrines in regards to the specific character of that Kingdom.

After observing this process for a little while, I believe I understand why the Emerging Church resonates so well with our current culture – it finds little reason to do anything else.  After all, who knows what’s right?

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7 May 2007 by Brian.

I’ve noticed a particular phenomenon lately.  When confronted with certain information, an individual will often choose to believe the circumstances to be what they DESIRE them to be, rather than face an unpleasant reality.

So, I asked myself, “When did this begin?”  Did it come with Post-modernism?  Or was it an invention of the Modern Age?  Perhaps it came with the Enlightenment?  Then, I thought of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and decided that this has always been a fundamental danger of mankind’s freewill.  What does this mean for you and me?  For one thing, it means that we need the assistance of the Holy Spirit and that of godly counselors to help us see when our desires blind us to our reality.  It should bring some humility and caution to the conclusions we draw and make us more reliant on the One Who Knows and on the community of believers with which He’s blessed us.

As the saying goes, “Denial, it’s not just a river in Africa.”

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26 March 2007 by Brian.

If you want to increase your chances of holding bad theology, here’s a couple quick and easy steps to get you on your way.  (Trust me, I’ve seen them put into practice on numerous occasions with a high degree of “success”!)  Step one: Begin by choosing your conclusion based on the claims of a popular speaker, your own preferences for what you’d like to be true, or the exciting new conclusions espoused by the “book of the month” in your particular corner of Christianity.  At this point, you may experience some uneasiness as a result of troublesome Bible passages which seem to contradict your chosen conclusion.  That’s where step two comes in!  Step two: Carefully sweep away any lingering doubts by drawing a false analogy and, “Voila!”, you’re well on your way to bad theology that will stand up to the careless scrutiny of much of contemporary Christianity.

Allow me to give you a real-life example from a teacher of the false doctrine known as, “Neo-Theism” or “Open Theism.”  The teacher asserted that it was God’s plan all along for Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  He said that you can tell from their behavior that they were a little immature, somewhat adolescent, actually.  God wanted them to “grow up” before he introduced them to the reality of evil, but they jumped the gun and that was their sin.

With me so far?  Next, he enlightened us to the fact that Adam and Eve were intended to “grow up” into the knowledge that God has.  Then he talked about the fact that God, not knowing the future (a tenet of Neo-Theism), wants men and women to make their own choices (as opposed to discovering His will for them) and then He blesses it, as long as it is within the bounds of morality prescribed by the Bible.  Don’t believe it?  Just take a father with his boys: he’s happy when they OBEY him, but he’s just as happy when they make their own choices, based on what makes them happy and what they want.

Now, I don’t want to come across as if I’m taking all human initiative out of the equation.  That’s not my intention and it gets quite complicated to go into the details of that issue here.  However, I do see many Biblical examples of an all-knowing God leading people specifically in His will in order to accomplish His plans in their lives and the lives of others.  These events weren’t merely examples of God blessing the self-determined plans of men and women.

Back to our analogy.  What’s wrong with it?  For starters, my goal for my sons is that they will grow up with the ability to stand on their own, for I know that they will be my equal at some point, if not exceed me in many (or every) areas.  I will not always be there for them, therefore independence is the goal.  Does God ever – or should He ever – relate to men and women on this basis?  (Have we become Mormons here?!?)  No way!  We’ll never be ‘God” and we will always exist in a dependent relationship to Him, as He is our Creator and Sustainer.

Now, if you’re really clever, you’ll dig up a good Bible verse to back up your false analogy.  Our teacher had one:  Hebrews 5:12-14 – “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food;  13 for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness.  14 But solid food is for the mature, for those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.”

See?  Remember those “teenagers”, Adam and Eve?  God wanted them to “grow up” and learn the difference between good and evil!

Now, for the secret ingredient…this is where a little trick called, “disregarding context” can come in handy.  Don’t let yourself consider the fact that Adam and Eve lived in the garden of Eden PRIOR TO the fall and the writer of Hebrews gave this admonition AFTER evil and sin became part of everyone’s everyday experience.  If you forget this point, you can mess up the whole analogy and you might end up with decent theology again!

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6 February 2007 by Brian.

Check out Romans 8 and see how many utterances, outcries, groanings, etc. are mentioned.  As you look at these, keep in mind that the main idea of the chapter is that life is given by the Spirit to all who are in Christ.

8:15 - … When we cry, “Abba! Father!”  16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God

8:22-23 - We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now;  23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

8:26-27 -  Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.  27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

8:33-34 - Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.  34 Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.

Grace is truly amazing!  Not only does God take the initiative to draw us to Himself, not only did He take the initiative in providing for our salvation when we were in rebellion to Him, but once we belong to Him, but His Spirit within us continues to motivate our relationship with God.  The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ fills us with a growing longing for deeper relationship with the Father and fills us with longings which God wants to meet.

How much of this do we get to take credit for?  Hmmm…praise God for His grace!

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31 January 2007 by Brian.

Dr. Ron Smith’s thought provoking blog on inductive Bible study offers this anecdote regarding Charles Spurgeon and his familiarity with the Bible.  Spurgeon points out it’s not about familiarity so much as it is about applying the Bible to our lives:

“A lady asked Charles Spurgeon how many times he had been through the Bible.  His classic “Spurgeon” response was ‘ma’am the issue is not how many times I have been through the Bible.  The question is how many times has the Bible been through me.’”

This is what it’s all about.  I can talk all I want about having a Biblical worldview, but unless my life is being transformed by the God of the Bible, then I’ve missed the point.

So, my questions are, “Do I hold a Biblical worldview or does a Biblical worldview hold me?  Am I being changed by my relationship with God, so I reflect His glory to a greater degree each day?”

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11 January 2007 by Brian.

Janet Jackson’s 1986 hit song expresses the feelings of a young lady whose boyfriend was once attentive and romantic, but having won her heart, is no longer interested in her needs and takes her for granted.  Take the following portion of the song, for example:

I never ask for more than I deserve.
You know its the truth.
You seem to think you’re God’s gift to this earth;
I’m tellin’ you… no way.
You ought to be thankful for the little things,
But little things are all you seem to give.
You’re always puttin’ off what we could do today.
Soap opera says you’ve got one life to live;
Who’s right who’s wrong?

What have you done for me lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah
What have you done for me lately?
Ooh ooh ooh yeah

It’s always sad when a man (or a woman for that matter) builds up high expectations, but fails to meet them once they’ve gotten what they wanted.  We see this over and over, sometimes the goal is the “boy/girl of their dreams”, other times it’s just a sexual conquest, but in the end, the pain of unmet expectations is there and it is poisonous to a relationship.

Even sadder is the fact that many believers today have begun to “sing this song” to God!  Just like the song, their unmet expectations of Him are poisoning the joy of relationship with our Almighty, loving God.  For some, this poison results in a nagging frustration and some doubts.  For others, it devastates their lives to the point that they can no longer find meaning or purpose in anything.  Either situation is a tragic way to live!  And it is a growing plague within the western church.

Why do people end up feeling this way toward God (that He’s let them down), but many times even fearing to tell Him about it?  Is it because great catastrophe has struck their lives?  Is it because God actually HAS let them down?  Is it because He doesn’t offer us so much, once He’s “got us”?  Or, are we missing something?

I believe that many of us are missing something…quite a lot, actually!  I believe that this disappointment in God has two main sources.  First, is a misunderstanding about who God really is.  The second is a “man-centered” approach to life, which leads many to the conclusion that their own desires are the most important thing in the entire universe.  There is a simple solution to both these problems and it’s found in knowing the Bible, the Word of God.

So often, we try to “give” God attributes and character traits that He does not have.  Or, we assume that we understand everything about an aspect of His character – take “love”, for instance – when that one attribute has so many sides to it that we shouldn’t simply assume we really understand it, just because we can quote, “God is love.”  The world, even many believers, are crying out for reality.  They desperately want and need to live lives based on truth.  But who can give them the truth?  If only there were an opportunity to study the entire word of God, in order to bless others with the gift of God’s word, with an understanding of His character as He has revealed it in scripture!

In fact, there is such an opportunity and it can be found on a growing number of locations around the globe, as well as via online correspondence (let me know if you want the email address for the correspondence course).  The School of Biblical Studies (a ministry of Youth With A Mission) exists so that believers can learn how to understand and apply the word of God and then take those blessings to those who are most in need.  Do you want to have questions, or would you like to be part of bringing the answers?  I highly recommend that you do an SBS and get ready for an experience that will change lives for eternity, beginning with yours!

(This is an unpaid advertisement!)

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