By Grace Alone...

those whom the world is not worthy

2009-08-18T14:09:00.003-07:00

I know I don't get around to blogging much, but I found this to be worth sharing. If we thought about the things in this video more we would struggle much less with our Disneyland version of Christianity here in the United States.

If God is the Ultimate Good, then it is not loving for us to give people anything less than God. Another way to say it... it is hateful to feed someone's belly without telling that person about the saving grace of Jesus Christ. If they take the food they'll be hungry soon again, if they believe in Christ they will be satisfied for eternity.

HT: JT

Woe to me! (part 1)

2009-02-09T07:11:00.005-07:00

When you leave church, or when you ponder God, what is your reaction?

I firmly believe that the One, True God, who created the universe from nothing, is more powerful, more loving, more just, more glorious than we could ever imagine.

Then why is it that the majority of the time when we think of God, or when we leave church (hopefully we thought of God at church at least), it really avails to nothing more than what we are going to have for lunch.

Isaiah the ancient prophet said it this way when he saw a vision of God, "Woe to me, I am ruined!" The word "woe" was used more in older English times, dictionary.com defines it as: an exclamation of grief, distress, or lamentation.

When was the last time you thought about God in extreme grief or distress? Have you ever had those emotions when you thought of God? If not, you are not seeing the God of the Bible. Even his angels strike fear. Angels are not these fat little cheribum that float on clouds around Hallmark stores. Every time an angel is encountered in Scripture they have to begin with "Fear not". Even the ones who came to preach the good news the first time said, "Fear not, we bring good tidings of great joy!"

The problem is most likely two fold. Preachers don't preach, and the hearers don't actually ponder (think) on God.

So if you have never had the thought "WOE TO ME!" when pondering God, you need to check yourself and check your church. Because something isn't right.

Isaiah 6: 1-5
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Parenting Goals

2008-12-22T11:39:00.002-07:00

One of my goals in raising my children is to disprove the underlying assumption that children are a burden.

The commercial below is supposedly voted the best commercial in Europe (which is why they are probably being out bred by the Muslims 6 or 7 to 1).

My Comments:

Yeah, its kinda funny. But also says a lot about our culture.

The commercial assumes that the child is the problem. I would argue the parent is the problem. This 6 year old or so boy didn't just become a brat one day, he was trained to be one by his parents. So to accomplish the stated goal above (the goal being that my children would be a blessing to those they interact with) my wife and I are being proactive from the outset (birth) to teach our children respect for others, acceptable actions (e.g. don't jump on our old ratty couch, because you shouldn't be jumping on our neighbors nice couch), and obedience to authorities (among other things, of course).

We also go out of our way to leave a wake of order, not chaos. We've all been in the restaurant with crazy kids that yell and scream and throw food. Then the parents leave a mess. After one such incident at a local restaurant, my wife and I were saddened to over hear the waitresses talk about how they never wanted to have kids (because of the example they just saw). So we now go out of our way to tip big, pick up our mess, and teach our kids to say please and thank you. And by the grace of God perhaps someone will see the work of Jesus in our lives through our children and will themselves give praise to God in heaven who gives us the wisdom to see the value and joy in children.

Why such a big universe?

2008-04-21T08:34:00.003-07:00

What? Two posts in the same month! Indeed.

Piper writes about why the universe and man "created in God's image" is so small.

Enjoy

Why God Created the World...

2008-04-14T20:28:00.004-07:00

I am currently in this exercise with my little brother where I'm asking him some basic questions about the Christian faith. These questions often go by the wayside, but the lack of knowing the answers to these questions can have serious ramifications in one's worldview and more importantly one's view of God.

So I'm adding our conversations edited for unnecessary personal content, for your enjoyment and knowledge of our faith. One point of clarification... you (the reader) may ask something like "where do you come off saying that you know all this?!" "Isn't that arrogant to say you believe something as truth?" In essence to believe one thing as true, you are saying that someone who doesn't believe the same thing as true is incorrect. The conclusions I come to have come from reading the Bible and trying to piece it all together to make sense logically (yes it can be done). I've definitely had help from many wise and knowledgeable people who have asked these questions before. So here goes!

The first one we tackled was "Why God Created the World". I was so excited to hear my brother's initial response, it was basically right on. Then I wrote him back affirming his ideas and introducing some new terminology and pointing to a few specific places in the Bible where it talks about this question.

Hey Joel...So I was thinking...I am not sure what order to really go in with these questions and my day is really busy cause I have some catching up to do so I am going to just throw some things out there on one of the questions. Lets just start of with for what reason did God create the world.
Well...according to everything that I have been taught my entire life, sorry if I leave anything out, but the earth and we as humans were created to praise and worship God. We were created to glorify Him and be with Him. We were not made for this earth as it is but we were made to live eternally with Him and praise Him eternally in heaven. We were made so that we could draw close to Him and raise Him up above us and put Him and His wishes above our own desires. Well those are my first thoughts I should hit the books! I look forward to hearing back from you!

My response:

The interesting thing is that God needed nothing in creation. If he needed anything he would not be God. He by definition is self-sufficient. The Triune God(God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit) was completely happy and satisfied within himself from before time (John 17:5, 24).

But he did create us. Why? He created us for his Glory. Not that we would add to his glory but reflect his glory and magnify his glory to the world. God talks about his sons and daughters, "whom I created for my glory." Isaiah 43:7. Paul also says that our purpose in all that we do is to "do it for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31

This fact gives us significance in life. As we study the attributes of God and understand that we are not "mini-me's" that "complete him" but that he actually was happy and satisfied from eternity past within the Trinity and does not need us; we come to the conclusion that we are of no importance. But that's not true because we find that the importance and worth of our creation comes in that we can bring glory to God by our lives.

The next logical question is: If the purpose in my life, as a part of God's creation, is to glorify Him, then what is the way (if any) for me to glorify him most? (we'll have to get into that one later)

Just so you know, I did most of my research for this in Wayne Grudems' book Systematic Theology... I highly recommend it, it is very easy to read and understand, and covers all kinds of deep theological questions.

Complementarianism

2007-11-05T08:59:00.001-07:00

The sermon at our church yesterday was about how women should not be in an authoritative teaching position over a man in a church. (1 Tim. 2:12-15)

That often stirs up lots of passionate discussion. Which I'd like to work through on this post.

If you have a question or comment, feel free to comment on this post, and I'll write another post in a couple days (hopefully) answering some of those questions.

What Do Other People Deserve (from me)?

2007-06-01T12:49:00.001-07:00

-The neighbor's dog uses my front yard as "the facilities". What is my response?
-What is my response to the person driving 5 mph under the speed limit in the left lane?
-How should I react when I am accused of offending someone (even if I should have been the one offended in the situation)?

What drives my interaction with the people around me? Is it my desire to be correct (and that it be made known loud and clear)? Is my conversation with people mostly to hear them or to push my thoughts on them?

In my last post I discussed what I deserve. If you didn't catch that please check it out.

Now I intend to tackle the situation of what other people deserve from me. One foundation must be laid down to understand where I am coming from, which ironically is the whole point of the post. That foundation of my response to this question (What do people deserve from me?) is rooted in the point of my last post which said that I deserve the wrath of God because of my plethora of shortcomings and failings. But in his infinite mercy and grace he provided the means so that I would not have to experience that wrath. The means? His son Jesus Christ.

So when I think about what God has done in providing his son, Jesus, to essentially step in front of the bullet of God's wrath that was supposed to be for me, it has to affect the way I live my life and the way I interact with other people.

Jesus told a story about a servant who owed his king lots of money, let's say $100,000. The master was intending to sell the servant and his family to pay for the debt, but the servant begged for forgiveness of his debts. The king was gracious and forgave the debt. Later on, the servant runs across a guy who owes him a much smaller amount, let's say $100. The servant chokes the guy and tells him to give the money back. The guy pleads for forgiveness but the servant takes the guy and has him thrown in jail until the debt can be repayed. The master finds out about this and is not happy. He takes the servant and says "You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?" So he had the servant given over to the torturers until he could repay his debt. (see the actual story here)

That story is very applicable to everyday life. If Jesus forgave me of all my wrongdoings against him, shouldn't I also forgive my neighbor? Of course I should! My wrongdoings against God are HUGE and numerous compared to the small offenses that someone else does to me.

So when my neighbor's dog comes and makes a big ol' pile on my lawn, I can get all up tight and stomp over there with a shovel to let him pick it up... or I can give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe he doesn't even know the dog gets out.

Or the guy/gal going 5 under in the left hand lane, maybe they are as content as can be with life (we all have those days every once in a blue moon, where we're not in a hurry). So instead of riding their bumper, I should be patient (what is the extra minute I save by going faster, going to do for me anyways).

So the conclusion is this: Because so much grace and forgiveness has been extended to me, I should extend grace and forgiveness whenever I can. What people deserve from me is GRACE.

Side note: This is one of those things that what you believe affects the way you act. If I based my faith on my feelings and my performance (how "well" or how "poorly" I live each day), I'd be falling in and out of salvation all the time. And I would treat people the same way, acting as if that they had to earn my forgiveness. But because I believe that the Bible teaches that God's grace covers all my sins - even the ones I haven't committed yet - I should treat people with grace as well.

What do I deserve?

2007-05-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

I work hard I deserve to drive an expensive car.
I spend 45+ hours at work each week, I deserve to have dinner on the table when I get home.
I went to college for 5 years, obtained a difficult degree, I deserve some respect.
I deserve to have this car lane, how dare someone cut me off.
I, I, I.

Let’s talk about what I really desrve.

A Christian understands at the fundamental level, what we deserve. I say that because a Christian will understand that any individual "deserves" the wrath of God. If we solely look at our own merits we realize that we are evil in nature and fall well short of the glory of God. The Bible says "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one." Romans 3:10-12 and "For the wages of sin is death." Romans 6:23.
Oh, but what a sad story (or life) that would be if it finished there! That's the thing, we just have to start there... Because without the sad news and bad news there would be no Good News. The Good News is this: Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, came to the earth and actually lived a life with out fault. Therefore he is the only one who actually deserved anything good from his merits. But what happened to him? He was crucified. The only one to ever walk this earth who was without fault, was put to death in the most excruciating, horrible, painful way you can imagine. He payed the "wages of sin" without deserving it.
He was laid in the ground for 3 days, but by the power of Spirit of God, he rose from the dead conquering Death.
So what does that do for us? I didn't give the last half of Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Eternal life is the opposite of death, so what Jesus did for those who believe in him, is he took the death and wrath from God that our merit deserves and he took that upon himself on the Cross. When he did that those who believe became justified before God. Jesus took the sins of believers on himself, and gave them his righteousness.
So now we still deserve God's wrath, but Jesus has taken what we deserve! He paid our debts, so now we don't have to pay the debt of death, insted we are given the gift of eternal life!

Rom 5:8
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Rom 5:9
Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath {of God} through Him.
Rom 5:10
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

What an amazing story it is! And YOU can have that same gift of eternal life.

Rom 10:8
But what does it say? "THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART"--that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,
Rom 10:9
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus {as} Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;
Rom 10:10
for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Confessing Jesus as Lord of your life, and forsaking all else is our part in being declared righteous before God.
I have experienced this truth in my own life and I deeply desire that you would put your faith in Jesus (trust him) to save you from the wrath of God which we all deserve.

For further explanation this is a good, well written article regarding this subject.

The Entitlement Generation

2007-05-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I have heard the phrase, "The Entitlement Generation" thrown around to describe this up and coming generation. By the name I speculate that the idea behind it is that this generation seems to think that something is owed to them by the world. The reasons why a person thinks they deserve certain things vary I'm sure. In my previous post, I mention one incident I saw on tv that really started me down this thought process of "deserving". (for more info on the "entitlement generation" here is a decent news article.)

Honestly, I don't think this is a new concept. The phrase, "he received his just desserts" has been around for quite some time. Which makes me think it goes deeper than the particular way the last of the baby boomers have raised their children. Not that parents cannot have positive or negative effects on their children, but I do see selfishness for what it is and would entertain that selfishness may just look different in each generation.

I think I'm going to use the next couple posts and share my thoughts on what is deserved and that which is undeserved.

The first two will probably be about "What we deserve from God" and "What other people deserve from us."

Not living for ourselves

2007-05-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

Some background to the title of this blog:

The other night my wife and I were sitting watching TV... (I know it's sad, we should have been out enjoying the weather) watching "Deal or No Deal". The game show where the contestant picks one of 26 cases each with a dollar amount between a penny and a million dollars. The process whittles down to find out how much money is in the contestants case, every so often the 'banker' calls and gives them an offer to buy the case, for less than what could be in the case.

Essentially its a game of odds, some people get lucky others don't. It is remarkable how many people really believe that the biggest amount is in their case and act towards that end.

So getting to the point, when we were watching a lady was down to about 4 cases. There was one big number like 400k and several smaller ones, she had one case to open before her next offer from the banker. And her friend who was helping make the decisions, said..."Go for it, you deserve more than they are offering." I was dumbfounded, not only does playing the odds have absolutely nothing to do with what we "deserve" but this lady really thought that "fate" or something would grant her more money, because she had suffered or something in this life.

Multiple topical conversations could be brought out here. 1) issues with the "entitlement generation" 2) what do we really deserve 3) how to actually play to get the best odds... etc.

But the point I'd like to make is that we ought to not live for ourselves. That lady on the show was living for herself, and thinking, "what do I deserve?" I'll delve further into what we really deserve later. But for now let's think about how we can live our lives to serve others, rather than ourselves. This is difficult and it takes sacrificing our own desires. But in the end when we are laying on our death bed would you rather be taking everything you did in life to the grave with you(Like someone who selfishly does everything for themself)? Or would you rather be leaving a legacy of love and service to the people in your life.

Here's a sermon from John Piper on the topic (obviously I like this guy).

Don't Waste Your Life.

John Piper On Marriage

2007-04-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

This series of sermons was pretty eye-opening for me. Great insight into marriage and husband/wife roles. Piper has an amazing gift to preach the Word of God.

Staying Married Is Not About Staying in Love, Part 1
Staying Married Is Not About Staying in Love, Part 2
Marriage: God’s Showcase of Covenant-Keeping Grace
Marriage: Forgiving and Forbearing
Marriage: Pursuing Conformity to Christ in the Covenant
Lionhearted and Lamblike: The Christian Husband as Head, Part 1
Lionhearted and Lamblike: The Christian Husband as Head, Part 2
The Beautiful Faith of Fearless Submission

One of my favorite quotes from "Marriage: God's Showcase of Covenant-Keeping Grace"

"The Wrath of God is Coming on this world and on people. To which I can imagine someone saying "the last thing I want to hear about in my troubled marriage is wrath" ..... which is like a frustrated fisherman on the western coast of Indonesia on December 26 early in the morning 2004 saying "the last thing I want to hear about is a tsunami." You better want to hear about this, you think you don't want or need to hear about this. Here's the main reason why you need to hear about the wrath of God for your marriage. if you don't hear about the wrath of God, believe it, feel it, fear it, you will drag the gospel down to small humdrum relational improvement stuff it was never meant to be. The Gospel is Magnificent! It is global it is universal... it has to do with big things! Like, it stops Tsunami's dead in their tracks! You never ever dreamed of a Tsunami like the wrath of God. Infinite omnipotent anger you don't want to tangle with on judgment day. And God doesn't want you to tangle with it either. which is why he put forward his Son...that we might be justified"

New Blogger

2007-04-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

I must admit. This is my first blog ever. I am really looking forward to sharing with you all, the things I am learning and the amazing ways that God is revealing himself to me and my family.
My hope is that this will help facilitate me being able to keep in touch with my friends and family not only through discussion but also through you being able to chew on some of the same things that I am chewing on.
Of course I'll post funny things and happy things, not just the deep pondering of the meaning of life.
I intend to post fairly often so check it out when you can.