Augustine knew me...

"Who will enable me to find rest in you? Who will grant me that you come to my heart and intoxicate it, so that I forget my evils and embrace my one and only good, yourself? What are you to me? Have mercy so that I may find words. What am I to you that you command me to love you, and that, if I fail to love you, you are angry with me and threaten me with vast miseries? If I do not love you, is that but a little misery? What a wretch I am! In your mercies, Lord God, tell me what you are to me. 'Say to my soul, I am your salvation' (Ps. 34:3). Speak to me so that I may hear. See the ears of my heart are before you, Lord. Open them and 'say to my soul, I am your salvation.' After the utterance I will run and lay hold on you. Do not hide your face from me. lest I die, let me due so that I may see it."

Christ our All in All

I guess what bothers me about some preachers today is that some of them preach messages that HIndus, Jews, Muslim, and Atheists would agree with. Take Joel Osteen as an example. Most of what he says would probably please people of all religions. But he calls himself a Christian pastor. I heard him on an interview say that teaching the Bible was not his gift; that's for others to do. My question is simply: what kind of pastor doesn't preach the Bible?! My point is simply that our message should be distinctly Christian and I want to talk about what elements of which the Christian message should consist.

Most people hear the pastor talk about Jesus and assume that the gospel is being preached. But the truth is that Ghandi was a big fan of Jesus, though not of Christians. Ghandi would probably love a Biblical exposition on the beatitudes. We cannot simply preach a message about Christ our example. This is insufficient. Imitating Christ's actions and attitudes won't get anyone into heaven. What we must realize is that Christ came to fulfill the law on our behalf. This came after the beatitudes and must not be missed. Jesus said, "I came not to abolish them [the law] but to fulfill them." The great sermon on the mount must be read through the lenses of this verse. In fact, the whole Bible must be read in light of this verse. So Christ came to fulfill the law. Why is this so important? Because we cannot fulfill it! Christ came not just as our substitute in death but also our substitute in life. When we believe in Him, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ (2 Cor. 5:21). But most sermons I hear ignore this important fact. They are full of directives, telling me what Christ commands and then how to obey it. But rarely do I hear the words: "Christ already fulfilled the law on your behalf, so you can rest in that." But resting in that truth does not mean passivity. It simply means that I will know what I screw up that it's been done for me and therefore embrace Christ all the more tightly. But not only has he fulfilled the law on my behalf, he empowers me to obey him.

Christ death atoned for my sin but not only are my sins forgiven, his death secured for me the Holy Spirit to empower me to obey him. This is another crucial point that is missed in sermons today. I imagine that most people walk out of sermons feeling guilty for not measuring up and resolving to try harder this week. Well, my first paragraph was intended to eradicate the feeling of insufficiency in light of Christ's work of fulfilling the law. The key to obedience is more than resolve and will-power. Because will-power obedience does not give any glory to God because it's in our own strength. God glorifying obedience is empowered by the Spirit. it is in walking with Christ, in moment by moment dependence on him that we are filled with the Spirit. Dependence on Christ comes from obeying his promises. We must never see his commands apart from his promises. This again will lead us to despair. God commands us to go to the ends of the earth, as in Pakistan or Sudan, and follows it by the promise of his presence until the end of the age. This is good news!

In summary, what is missing in pulpits today is simply the Gospel, the good news that Christ has come and lived the life we can't life and died the death we deserve, atoning for our sins. And his very presence dwells in us to empower us. This is a message that Muslims will disagree with and that which distinguishes us from everyone else. Christ is our law-fulfiller, substitutionary atonement, and empowerment. May we embrace him for all that he is.

Surpised By My Callousness

I was watching "The Departed" a couple weeks ago and the thought struck me: "Why am I not disgusted by this violence? When did I get so comfortable with seeing a dead body fall off a roof?" Wasn't Israel rebuked over and over again for their violent ways? It bothers me that violence is something to which my heart has been calloused. Jesus wept over Lazarus and was able to reverse the curse. I go to movies to see it. I remember in my media class (one of my favorites which is why I remember anything) how the prof. spoke of "glorified violence" in movies and TV shows. That is rather telling I think. We do glorify violence. I find myself euphemizing violence by calling it "action." I will walk out of a movie and complain that it did not have enough "action." What I really mean is that not enough people were lit up with bullets to satisfy me. I'll turn my head (if God is gracious) if there's a scantily clad woman but violence somehow has lost its effect on me. I guess I'm just way to comfortable with death. Jesus wasn't. It hit him hard. He felt the weight of the death that had ruined the world he had created. Right now I'm planning on seeing "Live Free or Die Hard" which inevitably will be chalked full of head shots and hand grenades and I'm thinking about how hypocritical I am for writing this. I need a changed heart and I guess that starts through prayer.

In Remembrance

I love how God does things. All throughout the Old Testamant, he directs his people back to their deliverance from slavery and he makes this the basis for their obedience. "You have been shown mercy, go and be merciful." Isn't that the way we work? How much quicker are we to forgive after we've been forgiven? The key to the Christian life is understanding how deserving of God's wrath we are and how freely we have been forgiven. And I think that's why Paul, after eleven chapters of soteriology, writes "...by the mercies of God, present your bodies as living sacrifices." The cross is not one big guilt trip: "You better be obedient...Christ died for you." Instead, it should be a springboard of praise and joyful obedience in response to such love. Throughout the Old Testament, remembring God's faithfulness and kindness is a major theme. God has delivered us from many things in our lives that we should record, as Moses does the Pentateuch. But ultimately, we should put every effort into remembering moment by moment what has been done for us on the cross in light of our still sinful condition. As we grow in our walk with Christ, we will discover that God is holier than we could ever imagine and that our sin is more atrocious that we could ever know. But instead of disparing, we should fix our eyes on the cross and dwell on the magnificence of his "glorious grace." If we dwell there, we will find that no sin against us is ever impossible to forgive and no kindness is ever too great to bestow. We would be a more loving, more thankful, and more serving people. And I pray that it would start with me.

On Godliness

I have to admit that I have always had a skewed view of what it means to be godly. I have always seen people who memorize the Word and who quoted it often as godly people. And those who have an outward joy, a good attitude, and lengthy prayers as those who had true godliness. I think both of these are good but this certainly does not make you a godly person. But whenever godliness is mentioned in the Bible, it rarely is in relation to knowledge of the Word alone or outward zeal. Godliness is what God produces in you, which always results in virtue. I think the Puritans best-exemplified godliness. They had a holistic view of life, meaning that they drew no line between the secular and the sacred. Whatever they did, they did with excellence. They saw every area of their lives as an opportunity to worship God. What an amazing impact this mentality would have on our daily lives! A paper for class is no longer to appease my parents and professor but, rather, an opportunity to glorify God. Living a godly life will come by letting your theology affect your reality. If my heart and mind are deeply rooted in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,” then the mundane in life will become a joy because I am motivated by love for Jesus Christ. The difference between someone seeing Christ could be the way you write a paper or your attitude when you take out the trash. It’s not always crystal clear how God is glorified when no one is looking or seems to notice but we must choose to walk by faith and not by sight. We trust that we should be “always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58). Everything we do, we should do in the name of the Lord. I open the door for someone in the name of the Lord and for his glory. Christians are walking signposts, pointing people to Christ. That’s why we exist. I admit that I have not always had this mentality and I still struggle to maintain it. I have been subpar in my schoolwork and other areas. I also realize that I have spent much time memorizing the Word in the middle of classes which is somewhat Pharasaic. I was forfeiting godliness for the sake of learning how to be godly. May we realize that true godliness is found in not only orthodoxy but orthopraxy. May we strive to know our Word and live it out as we abide in Christ moment by moment.