Life observations – anti-itch meditation

Being Annoyed with Peter’s Denials of Jesus

I’ve read the Bible quite a few times now. Each time through I cover the four Gospels and their account of the life of Jesus.

Every time Jesus is in the garden and tells Peter to watch and pray. I hope that Peter finally does.

When Jesus asks sleeping Peter, “Could you not watch for one hour?”

I think, “Come on, Peter, just once, stay awake. Watch and pray, man.”

But Peter never does. And then the servant girl asks him if he follows Jesus, and I think, “Oh man, come on Peter, just this once, learn from the past, don’t deny Christ”

But Peter does.

Every time.

And every time my heart sinks. The scene where the cock crows and Peter’s eyes meet the eyes of Jesus, and he runs out and cries.

Oh, that gets me.

It could have been avoided, but it wasn’t and no matter how many times I read it, it still isn’t avoided. He falls every time.

I’m very glad my life and my errors were not written in Scripture.

How I Failed At Expecting Less From People Today

Yesterday’s post had a quote about how to enjoy your faith and life more by expecting less from people and possessions, and expecting more than just temporal fixes from God.

I said I’d give it a try.

Today I had two checks on my behavior; two times I got caught not doing this!

One was I rolled my eyes at my wife and she totally caught me doing it. I tried for a second to get around it, but then I just admitted it. We have an ongoing discussion about a matter that has to do with other people. She said a thing that I disagreed with and rolled my eyes.

It wasn’t a subtle roll either, it was the kind where your eyes kind of hurt. Oops. Don’t do that. I expect her to think just like me. She doesn’t. So then I rolled my eyes. Violated the first rule.

The second one was also a violation of the first rule. I was talking to a friend about someone I struggle with and how they said something stupid. I kind of went off. Afterwards I went and rechecked what was originally said and I didn’t hear it right. If I had heard it right it would not have been as bad as I made it out to be.

So, that was gossip and not giving the benefit of the doubt. I expected the other person to say things how I say them. I heard them say a thing way worse than they said it because I assumed their disagreement.

I think expecting too much of people, setting the bar too high, and then judging and being resentful is one of my major hang-ups.

I will fail at this one a lot, but I’d like not to.

I have to watch those emotional reactions and getting carried away in the faults, or perceived faults brought on by doubt of other people. It’s ok if people don’t say and do things like me. It really is.

I apologized to my wife and the guy I was talking to. Not that all is well, but at least I recognized it and tried to set it right.

I shall try again tomorrow!

There Are Conditions for Getting Grace, Mercy, Love, Goodness, and Forgiveness

There are several words in the New Testament that are indeed great words, but they also get twisted.

They are all “happy” words. They evoke positivity and encouragement.

All of them have been stretched so far into happy talk that they cease to mean anything anymore except license and guilt-free sinning.

Grace, mercy, love, goodness, forgiveness, and words like that are what I’m talking about.

Again, these words represent great things, and I am in no way against them. I am against using them in unbiblical ways, however.

I’ve heard many people stress these words so much they eliminate any sort of qualifiers on how to get them. It’s as if God is just throwing them out there to anyone without any reason why.

This isn’t some Calvinism thing either, where God irresistibly forces you to take His grace. I mean people don’t think there is any cost or responsibility associated with these words.

Yet each of these words has verses that let you know they are gotten by meeting conditions. If those conditions aren’t met; you don’t get those happy benefits.

Meeting conditions does not mean earning these things. It means meeting a condition. Conditions determine who gets these things. So, unless you are a universalist and think everyone will be saved, there has to be some reason why some people get grace, mercy, and love from God while others don’t.

Here are some other verses about these words that should factor into our talk about them. All of these verses have conditions in them:

Grace:

“God gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).

“Grace be with all them who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity” (Ephesians 6:24).

Mercy:

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).

“And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy” (Galatians 6:16).

Love:

“Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father” (John 14:21).

“If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love” (John 15:10).

Goodness:

“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” (Romans 11:22).

Forgiveness:

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matthew 6:14).

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9).

Now, I know these aren’t the only verses about these words. There are plenty of other ones. I think we’ve heard those ones a lot. I think they have been stressed to the point of meaninglessness.

These verses are in the Bible too, and they are in there for a reason: to keep people from going to ridiculous and illogical places!

The whole Bible is profitable for doctrine, I suggest we use it and use it correctly. When we do this, it has a way of keeping us from error and that’s a great thing.

What Would it Look Like if You Did Offer Your Body as a Living Sacrifice?

Rickson Gracie was a fighter from the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu camp. He is considered a legend of Mixed Martial Arts fighting. Some consider him the best of all time.

In order to achieve this level of performance, whether you like MMA fighting or not, you have to respect the dedication and discipline.

He said his key to athletic success was having complete control over his mind, body, and breath.

That made me think of what Jesus said about the Greatest Commandment:

“And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.”

In order to achieve as he did, he needed all aspect of who he was devoted to his sport.

Paul tells us to copy athletes in our pursuit of spiritual growth (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Pick the greatest athlete in a sport, see how they live, how they train, how their mind is completely focused on being better.

Take that mentality into your spiritual life. Run it to win.

We’re not competing against other Christians, or trying to be better than other people. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Satan is out there getting ready to throw an Evil Day at you. Will you be able to stand in that day?

So much of Christianity tells you to take it easy. There’s an over-emphasis on grace, on Jesus doing it all, that we’ve become weak, apathetic, and afraid of effort or work.

It’s no surprise the church is the way it is. Biblical literacy is terrible. The morals and spending habits of Christians and the world are nearly the same. There is no real distinction in fruit between a group of Christians and the world.

I think much of this is because we’ve dropped off Paul’s encouragement to discipline ourselves. That’s for monks and crazy people, legalists who don’t know grace and liberty. Jesus did all that dying and suffering stuff, all I do is bask in the blessings!

So, we take it easy. We go with the easy believism and the easy grace and the don’t-do-anything mentality. Then we watch as more and more Christians fall away and delve into doubt and insecurity when life gets hard.

They didn’t do anything to prepare, of course they won’t stand in the evil day.

What would it look like if you did give your body as a living sacrifice as part of your reasonable service? What would it look like if you devoted your heart, soul, mind, and strength to loving the Lord?

When we mention “loving the Lord” in there it makes it sound soft. We’re just supposed to feel lovey feels really strong or something. But read 1 John. What does it mean to love God?

1 John 5:2,3 says that love for God means keeping His commandments. How well do we do that?

Are you training to get your life to look like the Sermon on the Mount? Are you loving others as Christ loved you, giving your life for them, dying daily?

Oh come on now, that’s too much. You don’t have to do all that. Better watch out for legalism, man.

I know, I know. I’ve been told that many times. I’m also watching Christians. I want to hear, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” not “Nice job fitting in with the rest of the world down there.”

We are not to be conformed to the world. The road to destruction is broad.

It seems the majority of Christians I’ve run into all agree that we don’t have to do anything, life is easy breezy, and when we die we go to heaven because we did this one thing one time that showed we believed.

This is a lie. Let no man deceive you with vain words.

The church is filled with deceivers and they will grow worse and worse as time goes on. Expect to hear more of this sort of teaching. So much so that eventually no Christian will ever at any point do anything for fear of doing too many good works and being legalistic.

They call evil, good and the good, evil. We’re repeating biblical history. It ended the first covenant and will end the second one too.

Be like Job and Daniel. Stay faithful to what you’ve been given in Christ. Use all the resources provided you in the Gospel and fight the fight. Run to win. Don’t let the lazy, apathetic deceivers rampant in the church today slow you down.

You serve the Lord God. Serve Him well. It’s worth it.

Train Today for the Battles Tomorrow

Pretty much the only place in the world where I hear encouragement to be disciplined and work hard is in athletics. Athletes do unbelievable things to get in shape and prepare for competition. They give everything they have for the pursuit of victory.

This single-minded focus athletes have is why Paul tells us to copy them. We compete for an eternal crown, they only do it for a temporal crown. How much more should we discipline ourselves and bring our bodies under control (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)?

But we don’t.

See, because we are saved by grace! We don’t have to do anything! We can sin and waste time, live it up in comfort and entertainment because I’m saved, I’ll go to heaven when I die! Take it easy, man! Christ said He finished it, relax, take a seat, don’t get carried away into fanaticism and potentially legalism. Chill down here with us!

I’ve heard this message so many times in Christianity. It’s nauseating. It’s sickening and it’s so foreign to Scripture. But since Christians are taking it easy and chilling, they aren’t reading the Bible enough to know what it’s talking about.

Athletes do all this to defeat other people. I’ve heard a number of athletes say “I train all the time because I know there’s someone else out there working on it right now and someday I’ll face that guy. Better stay disciplined so when I do face him, I win.”

Our job is not to defeat other Christians. You don’t seek spiritual discipline to show up other people or be impressive. You do it to win, but you have to know who the enemy is.

“We wrestle not against flesh and blood.” We know this, but we also don’t know what to do with it. Usually when this verse is brought up it delves into some weird thing about spiritual warfare.

And granted it is talking about principalities, powers, and demonic forces. It is. But it’s not some weird out there thing; it’s incredibly real. Keep reading the context of Ephesians 6.

Paul says to put on the armor of God to withstand the wiles of the devil (6:11).

We do this because we wrestle against spiritual forces, not humans (6:12).

Take up the whole armor of God so you can withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand (6:13).

So stand (6:14)!

There is an evil day coming. The evil day is not death or Judgment Day. The evil day is when evil things happen to you, what will you do? Did you use your off time, days when nothing terrible is happening, to prepare? Or did you take it easy, watch some tv, and chill with the rest of Christianity?

Armor has to be tested. Remember David with Goliath? He didn’t use Saul’s provided armor because David hadn’t tested them. He went with what he had tested.

Are you in the Word? Are you hiding it in your heart? Are you seeking righteousness? Are you battling sin? Are you mortifying the deeds of the body?

If you aren’t doing this on the off days, what makes you think you’ll stand strong in the evil days when life falls apart?

There’s a day coming when you’ll face the enemy who hasn’t taken one day off. Every day Satan is out there training, practicing, doing his thing, paying attention to how to derail you and defeat you.

He’s out there every day sharpening his arrows to bring you down. What will you do in that day? It probably depends greatly on what you’re doing today.

Don’t let the ease of today fool you into thinking some tomorrows aren’t going to have an evil battle for you. Train like there’s a battle coming.

You won’t hear this much in Christianity. I’ve been told every time I’ve brought this up that I’m being legalistic and treading on dangerous ground and denying grace and all manner of other things summed up with, “Dude, come chill with us.”

No thanks. I’ve watched many of those people who’ve said these things to me over the years. I’ve seen them in the evil days they’ve faced: they collapsed. Their house on the sane fell flat. I don’t want that for you or me.

The Bible tells me to be disciplined like a champion athlete and prepare for the day of battle. I’m going to go ahead and do my best to do that.

5 Points about Seeking A Multitude of Counselors

“In a multitude of counselors, there is safety” is a phrase from Proverbs I hear thrown around quite a bit.

Most applications are that you should get as many people’s input as possible. Often, from what I’ve seen, people just keep asking for counsel until they get permission to do what they wanted to do!

But a multitude of counsel leads to some other stuff too, even according to the Bible.

Isaiah 47:13 says, “You are wearied in all your counsels.” Hearing everyone’s opinions is exhausting. It can go on and on. Paralysis by analysis. And ultimately, does no good and only wears you out trying all the stupid options.

This is especially true if you are asking for counsel from morons, which is the point of the Isaiah verse.

The Chaldeans/Babylonians were used by God to defeat nations including Israel, but they thought it was them. They ignored the God of Israel who enabled them and resorted to their Gentile superstitions. Here’s the whole verse:

“Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.”

They were asking all the wrong people.

As if there was no God in Israel, they sought help from every other possible source. The counsel of these sources was exhausting. So many words; so little deliverance.

Here are a few thoughts on getting counsel:

1. Many times, instead of seeking counsel, just get to work taking care of the situation. This is especially true if your own actions caused the stupid situation to begin with.

2. Stop talking about it. Stop basking in the drama of telling everyone your juicy problems in the guise of seeking help. Seeking counsel has more to do with listening that you going on and on with your drama.

3. Stop listening to people whose lives demonstrate they have no idea how life works or what the Bible says (these go together incidentally).

4. Yes, there are times you need to bounce something off other people. Some situations are complex and it’s good to check yourself. But find good people to do that with. Seek counsel from people who know God’s counsel.

5. In the end, most biblically minded counselors should be in general agreement (with some exceptions). Then stop talking and getting more insight, hear God’s Word, and get busy!

6. Often God’s Word is pretty clear cut and requires no additional counsel. We need to obey what He says if we want to reap good fruit. Fear God. Do what He says. The Scripture was written by many people. The Bible is essentially a multitude of counselors in itself! Don’t ignore this perfect guide while following heathen scum, Gentile, unbeliever wisdom!

Anyway, that’s my counsel for you!

The Gospel Has Power, But Where is It?

One request Paul made in his prayers for the believers in Ephesus was that they would know “the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.”

This is in the context of God’s plan of redemption, our coming glorification, and inheritance. This is all cool stuff. Paul says that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and set Him in heavenly places is the same power working in us (1:19-20).

So, here’s the question: Where is this power?

I can only assume Paul would pray the same thing for us. That our eyes would be enlightened and we would know this power. In 3:20 Paul says God can do exceeding abundantly more than we could ask or think according to His mighty power.

So, here’s the question: Where is this power?

Paul says later in chapter 6 that we should be strong in the power of His might.

So, here’s the question: Where is this power?

It seems the entirety of my Christian life I’ve been surrounded by people who tell me there is no power. That you can believe the Gospel and it makes or requires no change. That as long as you say The Prayer, you’re in, don’t worry about it. You don’t do anything. Even if there is never any fruit or external change, you’re still saved.

It’s a Gospel with no power. Yet repeatedly the New Testament talks about God’s power in relation to the Gospel and salvation.

On the flip side, I also have known people who think their ecstatic experience: speaking in tongues, hand raising, healings, alleged miracles, are proof of this power. Yet all these things are external, things that makes my physical life better and more thrilling.

Is that really what Paul is talking about? Ecstatic emotional experience that people in other religions also get? This is above all that we could ask or think? It seems exactly what people ask for and think!

In the middle of Ephesians Paul throws in this verse, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man” (3:19).

That’s Paul’s idea of power. Spiritual strength, probably most easily summarized with the Fruit of the Spirit. This is above what we typically are asking or thinking. Everyone loves the spiritual gifts that make us feel special. Spiritual fruit is humiliating and hard. Who wants that?

Yet I think that’s the power. Spiritual growth. True manifestations of the Spirit always look like Christlikeness.

So, here’s the question: Where is this power?

Where are all these fruits of the Spirit in the church? Where are all the mature believers? How come I hardly see any of this? Do I just not have eyes to see? Am I too cynical and judgmental to be able to see it?

The question remains: Where is this power?

Why are we not talking about this? Why do we keep telling people the Gospel requires nothing out of you and results in nothing in you? Why do we make salvation about going to heaven when we die rather than living a new life raised up with Christ?

Ephesians says that the same power that raised Christ from the dead and set Him in heavenly places is at work in us. Where is this power?

Doctrinal Debates and The Gish Gallup

The Gish Gallup is a debating technique where tons of information is thrown out at once to either sound overwhelmingly authoritative or to distract.

Here are several examples so you will know when you’re being Gish Galluped while talking theology with someone!

The Gish Gallup bombards the other person with many arguments, and any time one argument is answered, another argument is thrown out. As you answer one of their many verses, they just throw another one out, never listening or pausing in between verse lobs.

A second way The Gish Gallup is used is when people list a large number of sources to make it seem like they have overwhelming authority. This is seen while reading Christian books, perhaps say, The MacArthur Study Bible. A phrase is followed by a parenthesis where many verse references are listed. If you look up these verses, some may mention one or two words in the phrase, but none will actually say anything close to the statement.

Paying attention to debate skills will help you understand what people are doing. It’s also a good way to identify whether a person has any idea what they are talking about. Gish Gallupers don’t, they flit around on the surface, ever moving to avoid being pinned down, and bombard you with words and verses and other things to give the impression they are winning by all their noise.

Best way to deal with this tactic? The difficulty in refuting this tactic is that it requires thought, time, and an attention span, and Gish Gallupers don’t have any of that! The best approach is to either summarize all their points into a main theme and go at that, or concentrate on their best or worst argument. Ignore the noise and focus in.

You can also refuse to move off the first point under debate, just keep bringing it back. Come right out and say, “You just keep throwing more stuff at me, Deal with my response to the first thing you said.”

Getting them to focus is probably the best approach. Will it work? Probably not. If they refuse to sit on any point and they just keep throwing stuff at you for too long, move on. You’re wasting everyone’s time by continuing.

Gallup into the sunset and pray for their soul.

The Great Commission is not Getting People to Say the Prayer

The Great Commission is the title we’ve invented for the final instructions given to the disciples. There are several versions of it, but mostly we ignore them and tell people the Great Commission means “do evangelism.”

Unfortunately, most people think “evangelism” means get people to say the prayer. We study techniques to eliminate objections and close the deal and get em to say the prayer we invented and then declare them saved and go brag to others how great we are at saving people.

However, a closer examination of The Great Commission seems a little deeper than getting people to say the prayer. In fact, it seems pretty hard and involved.

Take Matthew’s version of it:

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you

–Matthewe 28:19-20

Teach all nations sounds pretty tough, much harder than a five minute conversation ending in saying a rote prayer. Especially so when you consider we are to teach them to observe all the commandments of Christ! This would require some time and effort. Might take more than five minutes over a cup of coffee.

It actually seems like The Great Commission is about helping people live a new life, not just “get saved.”

Then there’s Luke’s version:

And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Luke 24:46-47

Here The Commission is to preach repentance and the remission of sins. One thing to notice is that “faith” is never mentioned in any of the Commission versions. Getting people to “believe” isn’t the main issue.

Repentance is a turning from where you were going to a new direction, probably best understood as the commands of Jesus as the new way to go.

There are many who say that we are saved by faith alone, faith plus nothing. Repentance is part of it. The Bible says several times “repent and believe.” If repentance is not part of faith, what faith is it? If you don’t see you’re heading the wrong way and have no desire to change that way, what in the Gospel are you believing exactly? What do you think you’re being saved from?

We’ve watered down the Gospel to the point that it has no power. You can get a person to believe a watered down Gospel in five minutes over a cup of coffee, I doubt you could adequately do Great Commission stuff in that short of time.

The Spirit, of course, can work such miracles, I’m not saying it’s impossible. Some are so desperate and ready, maybe five minutes would be adequate. As a general rule though, as an expectation? I don’t think so.

In the end, I’m not the Judge. I don’t desire to stop someone from conversations about the Gospel over coffee. I’m not attacking anyone’s evangelistic style. Glad they are doing something.

My main point is: make sure the Gospel and repentance and teaching the commands of Jesus are in there somewhere. If this is left out then you are not doing Great Commission activity.

Many Christians Should Not Be Listened To

Scripture is clear that we can grow and attain more and more Christ-like behavior. We can indeed pursue the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

You wouldn’t know that by listening to Christians though.

Christianity has gotten carried away with some of their doctrines about sin and it’s not helping anything.

Christians repeatedly say that we are tainted with Original Sin, we’re guilty before we’ve even done anything. Want to remove all encouragement to get better? Tell people no matter what you do and even before you did anything you were horrible, worthless scum deserving of hell.

Original Sin has been stretched into saying that everything we do is sinful. All our righteousness is as a filthy rag, even after salvation. There’s nothing you can do that is free from sin.

The problem with the results of this stuff is that 1) it eliminates any desire to pursue righteousness and 2) it minimizes the seriousness of sin.

If all I do is tainted with sin and if I’m guilty even while not doing sin, oh well. What’s the big deal? If I can’t help it, then the thing that can’t be helped becomes expected.

If, however, righteousness is possible for us, if we actually can do good, then the desire to pursue that good is restored and it also puts us in a fighting stance against sin.

The emphasis on the horribleness of you has also resulted in a massively happy self-help oriented Christianity that veers into the opposite ditch. As with most extreme teachings, we don’t find the truth, we merely go as far away from the wrong side as possible resulting in wrong in the other direction.

If Christians make too much of our nastiness, the best way to correct that is to constantly talk about how wonderful and awesome we are, right? Aren’t we special and happy being us?!

Constantly telling people God loves them just the way they are and pumping them up with self-esteem boosting sanctimony still leaves people devoid of pursuing righteousness and downplaying the seriousness of sin.

Here’s the deal:

You are a sinner. This is bad. All your efforts without Christ will only result in filthy rags and you will be unable to please God. However, with Christ by faith, you are fully equipped to do righteousness. Add in the ministry of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the Word of God, and you can now grow into the perfect man Christ Jesus and be fully equipped to every good work.

You have to keep this in balance. Throwing it out of balance, either by moping in your awfulness or rejoicing in your awesomeness, will keep you lethargic and apathetic.

If, however, you go with Scripture (always a good idea) you will be encouraged to pursue what is good and leave behind what is evil. You will lay hold on eternal life and set aside every sin and weight that slows you down.

You’ll see there is a fight to be fought and a victory to be won. You’ll also see that in Christ by faith you have all you need to fight that fight and get victory. Not only that but our progress will be rewarded in this life and in the life to come.

This is all great stuff. Don’t let weird Christians keep you from pursuing righteousness and fighting sin. There’s way too much at stake for that nonsense!

Taking the Kingdom by Force and Today’s Wimpy Gospel

“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”

–Matthew 11:12

This verse has always intrigued me. How do you take the Kingdom by force and why is violence necessary?

This is especially intriguing considering our wimpy gospel we throw out there today that requires nothing but a few seconds repeating a prayer and now you’re done and heaven awaits.

The contrast of our wimpy gospel with the Gospel of Scripture is fascinating. How did we, and why did we, drop off all notions of effort in obtaining salvation?

Most of it ties to Martin Luther and his by faith alone doctrine. Since then people have believed that works are unnecessary for salvation, before, during, or after.

Everyone likes a free lunch, so obviously we would like a free eternal bliss.

No one wants to do what God says, and we certainly don’t want to be held accountable for doing what He says. We want to do our thing, and when we sin we blame someone or something else. Eating from The Tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden is typical of our sin. “It wasn’t me.”

But here’s the thing: it was you! You sin. You disobey God. Obeying God is hard. If salvation has anything at all to do with me obeying God, I’m in trouble.

So, in steps the wimpy gospel: well, lucky for you, Jesus did it all! All you have to do is believe! It has nothing to do with you.

Sounds good and many think this is exactly what the Gospel is. This is how we’ve come to define “grace.” But this is not at all how the Bible talks about salvation.

When John the Baptist showed up, crowds gathered to him even though it required walking out into the desert! They were excited about the Messiah coming and flocked to John. Many point blank asked, “What should I do?” Luke 3:7-14 shows this zeal and effort to get right with God, to make the way smooth for the Messiah.

When Jesus began His ministry the people responded in much the same way. This all seemed to die off over time when they learned more about who the Messiah was, the delay in bringing in the actual physical restoration of Israel, and then all the crazy stuff Jesus told them following Him involved. The crowds eventually demanded His crucifixion.

There was a glimpse of people taking the kingdom by force. By “force” means overpowered, taken by storm. It describes the striving zeal to struggle to get what was available. It conveys the idea of plundering and taking away the rewards of conquering a city.

Getting the Kingdom is viewed as a stronghold with untold wealth that you use all your energy, zeal, and effort to conquer and take to yourself. It’s the guy who sold all he had to buy the field to possess the buried treasure.

Our wimpy gospel tells us to do nothing. Jesus did it all. Just sit and say this prayer, and then go back to doing what you were doing.

Not only is this blasphemous and pathetic, but it also belittles all that is offered through the provision of Christ. We don’t strive for the buried treasure because we don’t know there is a treasure.

If I can believe the Gospel and then go back to my life of sin, if the Gospel requires and guarantees no change, then why bother to take it? Our wimpy gospel offers no treasure, other than a floaty concept of “heaven” that is so unreal and far off it matters none at all.

Jesus is offering new life, life more abundant. He’s offering freedom from sin and worldly traps, freedom from the fear of death, from needing people’s acceptance and approval, and all the stuff that makes life miserable. He offers you love, joy, and peace, not just as floaty concepts, but as real experiential stuff. He offers you the Holy Spirit, to be a partaker of the divine nature, who will enable, equip, and empower you to do good!

What He’s offering is unbelievably awesome. If you understood what He was offering, you would do all in your power to go get it.

But we don’t. We don’t because we don’t understand the treasure available. We don’t because it requires effort and zeal, maybe even fighting a fight, and that’s hard.

Plus, most Christians tell you not to do anything, and doing stuff is actually bad. We’re just supposed to believe, like little kids believing in Santa Claus. We’re surrounded by apathetic, lazy, blame-shifting people in Christianity. “No one else is doing anything for this and they’re all saved” is the general consensus.

Judgment Day will declare who is saved, and it won’t be many. It will only be those who by violence take the treasures of salvation by force. Those who have fought the fight.

“Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”

–Hebrews 4:11

Easy Believism, Sanctification, and Rebellious Children

Sanctification is a word that flips some Christians out. Sanctification is the set apartness of the believer, which is seen increasingly over the years of a believer’s life by righteous conduct.

There are several “-tion” words that are part of salvation:

Justification—making and declaring believers righteous.

Regeneration—spiritual rebirth making the believer a new spiritual creation in Christ Jesus.

Reconciliation—brought into right relationship with God.

Redemption—bought out of slavery to sin.

Sanctification—the set apart life that grows in the believer over time.

Glorification—the ultimate step in salvation whereby we are made like Christ when we see Him as He is.

Justification, regeneration, reconciliation, and redemption happen at the exact moment of salvation. Sanctification, being set apart to God, happens at the point of salvation as well, but there is a process of sanctification that begins at salvation and continues through the earthly life of the believer. Glorification is the future hope of our fully redeemed body.

All of these things are part of the package of salvation. You can’t pick and choose; you get them all! This is important to understand.

Easy Believism is the idea that a person can be saved and yet show no fruit or good works as a result. Sanctification is optional. It’s something you should get around to doing, but you don’t have to.

The reason this became a teaching is because of the emphasis on being saved by grace through faith and not by works. If sanctification were a part of salvation, then you should be able to tell if someone is saved. If sanctification is necessary for salvation; doesn’t that mean we are saved by being sanctified?

It’s a legit question. You are not saved because you become sanctified. Sanctification is a thing that happens if you are saved.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God. If you are regenerated, made a partaker of the divine nature, you have the Spirit in you, there’s no way sanctification won’t happen.

In fact, if you look up “sanctification” in your Bible, it’s only used 5 times in the KJV, two of the five verses tie sanctification in with the Holy Spirit. One ties it in with Jesus Christ. If you as a believer are in Christ and the Spirit is in you, sanctification is guaranteed to happen.

This puts people in a bind though. We like to declare people saved. We like to run people through The Prayer and pronounce them good. We especially like doing this with little kids. We tell ourselves all these people are saved now, yet over time we realize their lives are a complete fleshly sinfest.

What to do? Certainly we can’t conclude all our evangelism didn’t work. Certainly we can’t conclude little Billy is on his way to hell. So, instead of admitting any of these common sensical things, we warp the entire doctrine of salvation so we can feel better about little Billy.

Many people who adhere to Easy Believism and make sanctification optional, have kids who walked away from the faith. It’s so common, it appears to be a prerequisite for holding this doctrine.

It also might be that if you raise your kids telling them they are saved because they said a 32-second prayer and now they can do whatever they want and it doesn’t matter, might just be the kind of thing a young sinner will take you up on.

All I know is that there’s a connection between holding Easy Believism and having sin-filled, rebellious, God-rejecting kids.

Easy believism eliminates the power of the Gospel. It tells you that salvation only pays off when you’re dead and are in heaven. It offers no help for life in this present world. It’s ineffective to actually change or transform a life.

That being the case, repentance is usually ignored or dismissed by Easy Believism people when it comes to salvation. The Bible says “repent and believe.” Easy believism says to just believe.

Repentance is turning from your sin, from the way you were going. You reach the bottom of your sinfulness, you hit the rock bottom of terrible sin choices and cry out for a better way. The Gospel says, “Hey! Here’s a better way right over here!”

A person who truly hears the Gospel and knows their sin, will rejoice there is provision to change the road you’re on.

But if the Gospel offers no new life, no true deliverance from the power of sin, no transformation, then why bother repenting? Why bother turning and gong that way if it leaves you in the same spot and turns out to pretty much be the exact same way you were going before?

Sanctification is a thing that is guaranteed to happen with the Gospel. It’s part of what the Gospel is. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Sanctification is just as real in Christ as wisdom, righteousness, and redemption.

Sanctification is not you working your way into salvation, or saving yourself. Sanctification is you using what you’ve been given through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All that Christ has given you and all the power of the Spirit of God dwelling in you.

You can’t be made a new creation in Christ, a partaker of the divine nature, and stay the same person. It’s impossible. Therefore, if no sanctification shows up then you should have no assurance you actually are a partaker of the divine nature. Sorry little Billy, but you need to examine yourself to see whether you’re in the faith!

Why Self-Help Advice Prevents Spiritual Success

When I was a young, insecure man I read a lot of self-help books. There are bits of good advice to be had in these books. Many of the bits of advice were tied to Scripture, usually in an odd way. Like manifesting: if you put a dream into words the dream will happen. The Scripture they use for this is “The word became flesh.” Gag.

From time to time I dabble in self-help stuff again, often just for reminders of priorities, time management, and how to spend time as the stages of life progress. Inevitably I get fed up with the self-help advice just like I did in the past.

Their idea of success is a core reason why their advice falls flat to someone who knows the Bible. Their success is usually money and winning, maintaining a standard of living that doesn’t jive with NT Christianity.

Oh sure, they talk about making all that money so you can be generous, but it’s kind of tacked on, the rich man’s guilt, a thing they have to say so as not to be one of those evil rich people you hear about.

Achieving their success requires selfishness, that is, in fact, why it is called “self-help,” because you are only helping yourself. Often the motivation to achieve is based on showing up people, being better than others, winning at all costs, being better than your parents, lots of anger and resentment, etc.

“Pay yourself first” is typical advice. You have to sacrifice relationships to do your goals and achieve your dreams. You have to be a bit of a jerk to really achieve. One standard self-help advice says to remove yourself from people who bring you down.

That’s pretty much everyone at some point or another isn’t it?! NT Christianity says to esteem others better than yourself. The strong should bear the infirmities of the weak. Self-help says to get rid of the weak to get more strong.

Worldly success requires selfishness.

Spiritual success requires self-denial.

You cannot serve God and mammon.

So, now we have to define what spiritual success is.

As I understand it, spiritual success is being conformed to the image of Christ. Growing up into the perfect man Christ Jesus. In order to grow you actually have to do some stuff.

This is a controversial statement in Christianity with our rampant Calvinism that says God does it all, we’re just passive blobs. And with the over-emphasis on faith alone without works, we’ve come to believe that all works, even Spirit led works after salvation, are somehow bad and antithetical to grace.

Some think spiritual success means you go away from people. You just go work on yourself. Monks do this. So do people who isolate from church because all those weird, hypocritical Christians are in there and we’re totally better than them.

Others go the opposite direction and think spiritual success looks like number of followers, how many conversions you’ve done, how many people are in your church, how much money and size of the church building you have, etc. Something that can be counted.

Both of these are nothing but conformity to the world. This is just Christian self-help selfishness.

True spiritual success looks like Christ. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of love and He lived that out by dedicating His body and will to the will of His Father. What did that look like? Sacrificial loving service.

You can’t do sacrificial loving service alone in a cave separated from others. You can’t do that if your focus is attracting more people to adore you. You can’t love an individual because you’re so concerned about getting the next one.

Sacrificial loving service like Christ did will make you be around undesirable people, people the world has cast aside as not worth the trouble. It will put you in opposition to many who are going after worldly success, and especially those who are going after spiritual success in a selfish manner (isolation or attracting a crowd).

Spiritual success does not look successful by worldly, measurable standards. But nor is it a denial of all people either though, because being alone eliminates the possibility of loving sacrificial service.

Spiritual success, growth in Christ, is a worthy goal, it is the mark we are pressing forward to. The race we are running, the fight we are fighting. There are things you can do to advance and obtain. But they’re not selfish! They’re not even done primarily for you.

Ultimately they are done for your Father in heaven, other people can benefit from this, but your primary goal is to please your heavenly Father and your commander, Jesus Christ.

The result of Jesus’ loving sacrificial service was crucifixion. People didn’t like it. You won’t get worldly acclaim or win many friends by actually following and growing into Christ. Marvel not if the world hates you.

But the number of people you influence is not the measure. The praise of others is not the goal. Living with the destination of standing before God and giving an account is the motive. Hearing, “Well done, good and faithful servant” is the goal. All of this is based on love for the Lord your God and loving your neighbor.

Live for that measure of success and you will not have any eternal regrets.

How Does Stoicism Differ From Christianity?

I recently heard some guys talking about Stoicism, which is a philosophy that is attracting young men in these days of outrage and confusion. They were asked how Stoicism differs from Christianity.

These guys are not overtly Christian, although I think both would claim to be, and their basic conclusion is that there really was no difference. This made me chuckle.

However, I understand why they think that. The best way to go about describing how Stoicism and Christianity are different is by defining what Stoicism is. Here’s the best definition I came across:

It stressed duty and held that, through reason, mankind can come to regard the universe as governed by fate and, despite appearances, as fundamentally rational, and that, in regulating one’s life, one can emulate the grandeur of the calm and order of the universe by learning to accept events with a stern and tranquil mind and to achieve a lofty moral worth.

The basic tenet of Stoicism is to control what you can and let the rest go. Being calm and free of emotional extremes lets you know you’ve arrived at Stoic peace.

For a man-made philosophy, Stoicism isn’t bad. I like lots of things they teach. However, it does differ from biblical Christianity in a fundamental way.

But here’s where moderns will think Stoicism is just like Christianity. The modern church teaches self-help, pop-psychology with Jesus tacked on. It has largely missed the entirety of the power of the Gospel, which is that by faith the believer is crucified with Christ, they are raised up to newness of life, and they are crucified with Christ and it’s no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me.

Instead of this, the Church teaches a few pointers for you to make your life better by ripping a few verses out of context and giving you three ways to improve your marriage and six ways to pay off your mortgage, etc.

Stoicism sees no spiritual help at all. It’s you being in control. You ignoring what you can’t control, which probably does lead to a level of emotional equilibrium.

It will also lead you to give up entirely on other people! Other people are out of your control, their emotions, reactions, thoughts, will, etc. are all out of your control. So if I’m having trouble with my wife who has a bad attitude (just a random example), I cannot control her emotional weirdness, what do I do? Check out? Sit in the corner feeling emotionally calm and superior?

Whereas the Gospel, which says I’m already dead and now am living to serve others as Christ gave His life for me, tells me to lay down my life for my wife. To do everything in my power to serve her regardless of whether she bends to my control.

Stoicism is a macho view of life. It’s the quiet lone ranger, the Clint Eastwood and Mel Gibson characters in the movies. Notice they always have terrible relationships with women! One of the guys who was saying Stoicism is just like Christianity recently got a divorce. Shocking.

Life is more than just about you and your emotional state. This is the main problem with all humanistic philosophy: it’s egocentric. It’s all about me. Pride is the main driver—don’t let anything get to you. Live above it. Be better than that. Pride is the main driver. It also looks awesome and others will pat you on the back for being so manly and in control.

I see the allure, but I also see how ridiculous it is. Jesus Christ gave His life for what was “out of His control.” I know that line will bug Calvinists, but it’s true. Jesus cried over Jerusalem because He would have gathered them as a hen gathers her chicks, but they would not come to Him.

Christ gave His life as a propitiation for the sins of the world, many have responded to His love and sacrifice by trampling the Son of God underfoot.

You lay down your life for your wife whether she responds the way you want or not. You do it because Christ did it for you. You don’t do it to control your wife or even to control you. You do it because Christ did it for you.

Stoicism says you are in control of you. Don’t let anything or anyone else get to you.

Christianity says you are gone. You no longer live. You are now to give your life for everything and everyone you come in contact with! Esteem others better than yourself. Use your strength to bear the burdens of others. You don’t just passively sit by and calmly watch the weak suffer, you give your life to build them up.

I’m sure a Stoic person would disagree with my assessment, but when I tack together all I’ve heard from these Stoic guys pretending they are nailing it in life, this is how what they say differs from true Christianity.

Jesus was no Stoic. He flipped tables. He cursed fig trees. He wept tears of blood. He gave Himself for those who did not deserve it. He did everything in His power to redeem a fallen world. The world is still fallen.

Your job in life is not to be above it all, but to place yourself beneath others to lift them up and carry their burdens no matter how much it hurts and how often it brings tears to your eyes.

It aint easy and it looks and feels miserable. Stoicism feels cool and calm and smart. It’s way more popular. Don’t think for a minute that this brand of Greek philosophy is on par with the teachings and life of Jesus Christ. In the end it won’t work. Jesus Christ is always the answer. His Gospel is what our life should be.

Easter Cliches

Easter brings about many Christians saying many things that may or may not be entirely helpful.

For some reason, people saying “He is risen,” all over the place annoyed me this year. It’s not like He just rose today. He’s been risen for quite some time now.

I know it’s a good reminder, I’m just saying. Do you really understand the power of the resurrection if you need to be reminded of it? I don’t know, maybe. It just annoys me that there’s a suddenness to the statement, as though it just happened. As though we weren’t aware of the resurrection before Easter Sunday, but we can talk about it today now until we forget again.

I don’t know. I have a bad attitude about such things.

I also see many people saying how great the resurrection is because “now my sins are taken away.” I’m not saying the resurrection didn’t take away your sins, it certainly played a huge part in that, but that’s not all there is to it.

I fear that most Christians think the only thing the resurrection does is forgive sins and “save us.” Now I can die and go to heaven.

When you read how the New Testament talks about the resurrection, it has to do with new life in Christ. A new life that begins at salvation and continues to mature, grow, and bring forth fruit until it fully blossoms in blessed righteous perfection for eternity. The power of the resurrection isn’t just about getting sins forgiven; it’s about getting new life.

Old things are passed away, behold all things are new. It’s no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me. We are new creations in Christ Jesus. We were buried with Him and now raised up with Him to newness of life.

It saddens me that this is ignored when this is a huge part of the resurrection’s power. We’re told to remember what Christ did and be happy our sins are forgiven. For some reason we drop out when it comes to living a new life raised up to look like Christ’s righteous life. Easter rarely has applications about putting off the old man with its lusts and putting on the new man and walking in righteousness, even though that is exactly what the resurrection equips us to do.

People get lost there. “Sounds like legalism and hard work. Jesus died and paid it all so I don’t have to do anything. He said “it is finished,” which means I don’t have to do anything.”

This is where I get annoyed.

Many of Easter’s clichés sound a lot like easy believism and people turning grace into license, rather than a true appreciation for the power of the resurrection.

So anyway, I guess I’m just an old man muttering in the corner at this point. Carry on.

My Resignation Sermon

The other day I put a battery in an old MP3 player because my iPod I’ve been using for 20 years finally died on me. Turns out the MP3 player was the thing I used to record my sermons back in the days I was a pastor.

Four old sermons were on it, including a rehearsal of my resignation sermon.

I resigned over two years ago now. The circumstances were a little odd as my mother was dying of cancer and had a turn for the worse the week I was scheduled to give my resignation.

One of the options was for me to record it in case I had to leave for my mom’s. I was able to deliver the sermon in person so the recording was not needed. I left right after I resigned and was at my mom’s for two months. She died three weeks after my resignation.

I completely forgot I ever made the recording. So I pushed PLAY and the memories came flooding back.

I will always be appreciative of my 21 years of pastoring. I can’t even explain how much it did for me spiritually.

I can’t explain how much it hurt either though. When I delivered this sermon to the church live, I pretty much cried through the whole thing. At the church we’re attending now, this past Sunday the sermon was about being a pastor from 1 Peter5. I teared up several times.

I clearly still have some emotions about the whole thing.

Anyway, my resignation was kind of hurried and many people were not at church the Sunday I gave it. Now that I found the recording of it, I put it online for anyone who was interested.

Some of you blog folks have read me for many years, which I appreciate. Perhaps you’d be interested too. A little glimpse into my pastoral career. Broke my heart.

Unfortunately, since the resignation was a little hurried, it surprised some people. Some thought there were nefarious things going on. There weren’t. This recording is basically what I said at church live. It’s the whole story. Nothing nefarious; just painful.

You can CLICK HERE to listen to it if you desire.

Thank you.

Jesus Super Ad

Super Bowl Sunday is upon us. I don’t care about either team. I’m tired of hearing about Patrick Mahomes and how he throws the ball sidearm sometimes. I was doing that in fourth grade. Lit up the playground. No big deal. And Philadelphia? Please. Even Philadelphia doesn’t like Philadelphia.

But just when you think the Super Bowl will lack the Super, there are entertaining commercials we are told.

I’m not really sure why the commercials get hyped so much. Especially now when our society punishes creativity and humor and everyone has to espouse the same weird morality. It just gets old and nauseating.

But just when you the Super Bowl commercials lack the Super, there is going to be a Jesus commercial this year!

Oh, that should be super.

A Michigan creative agency is behind the multi-million dollar “He Gets Us” campaign that is airing two ads Sunday, Feb. 12. But instead of advertising a product, the short black and white videos carry a Christian message.

The founder of Hobby Lobby has put much money behind the campaign. Along with others:

A group of 75 wealthy donors funded the effort, which kicked off with a $100 million budget last year, according to McKendry. It hit $300 million this year with the goal of eventually becoming a $1 billion campaign.

Before you go thinking this is all about money though, rest assured, it’s merely trying to promote Jesus.

The campaign aims to “raise the respect and relevancy of Jesus” in the United States, and he hopes it encourages Christians to “reflect Jesus better in their life.”

Great. All attempts to make Jesus relevant typically just make Him worldly. Relevancy makes me cringe. It appears to be a moralistic message divorced from the Gospel and the identification with the crucifixion, burial, and being raised up with Christ to newness of life. Don’t need all that repent, believe the Gospel, and be born again stuff, just social justice, act better, moralistic deism.

However, in an effort to respond graciously, and maybe like the apostle Paul, “Whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached,” I will attempt to go along with it.

If nothing else, it will prevent some more evil satanic indoctrination taking place in that ad spot. I’m sure you’re all thinking, “Shouldn’t this money have been given to the poor?” like Judas would ask! Well, they addressed that issue too.

McKendry acknowledged critics have asked why millions of dollars are being directed to advertising instead of helping people. But he believes “He Gets Us” will create “an army of people” who will raise more money than what’s being spent on the campaign.

Ah, so rest assured, they’ll make more money. Isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?

Sigh.

The Only Real Response to Fake People

So, you’ve discovered that Christians are fake. You might have even left the church over their fakeness.

It’s a good thing that you were able to discern their fakeness, but what do you do with it now? Is leaving them the answer?

It might appear that way, and depending on how terrible the fake is (many awful things have been done under the name of Christianity), maybe you should have.

But, from what I’ve heard, most people who leave the church because it’s fake simply want to experience life outside of mom and dad’s Christianity, which is also a fine thing.

It means you are growing up.

My dad was a good guy, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve seen more and more some of his problems, his people pleasing, and various other character flaws that didn’t serve others including me all that well.

My mother had issues. She was far from a perfect Christian. She had many character flaws that hurt me and others.

The churches my mom and dad went to had tons of people in them with character flaws. None of them were perfect either. They did things that hurt others and me.

When I left my parent’s house for college I did not go to church for several years. I was pretty tired of church and church people. It wasn’t just fake, it was devastating to me. The church was not kind to my family.

But I read the Bible. I started to read the actual words of God and study them for understanding. I concluded that my parents and others in the church did not have perfect doctrine. I felt a call to get back in the church.

I could sit on the sidelines and judge, or use my supposed wisdom and get in there and try to help. So I changed my major and pursued pastoral ministry.

I was a pastor for 21 years and was hurt by a very long list of people in the church. I saw fake like you wouldn’t believe and got hurt by many fake people.

The pain was real. The pain was pretty much the only real thing I’ve gotten out of church in my entire lifetime of being in it.

But I can’t leave it.

Because behind the pain and the fake there are genuine believers. There is a fellowship of believers, a new family, a like-mindedness, a love and compassion that I have not found anywhere else.

Someone once told me due to my pain experienced in the church that I should “leave the church and follow Christ.”

I found that funny, because it’s because I am following Christ that I am still in the church.

It’s the only reason I’m still there. I have not gotten rich off the church. In fact, in many ways I have sacrificed to be in it. Even after 21 years of real pain as a pastor, I started going to another church after resigning because the church is important.

Yes, there are fake people there and you will get hurt there. You will, no doubt about it. That’s what people do. I am a people. You are a people. But we need each other. I can’t just hate my mom and dad and church people and everyone who wasn’t better. I’d be all alone if I did that. It’s no answer because I’m left with me who is also not perfect!

We need each other to grow in Christ. To become less like our fake selves and more like the real, true Jesus Christ.

God knows you. He knows you intimately. He knows your thoughts. He knows your past. He knows your fake and everyone’s fake that is around you.

What do you think God does with His knowledge of your sin and fake and weakness? Do you think He leaves you? Do you think He gives up on you and takes off to find someone who isn’t so fake?

God knows you. He has every right to leave you, especially after all the things you’ve taken from Him with no gratitude. You’ve taken Him for granted. You’ve sinned against Him, pushed against Him with all your fleshly might.

He will never leave you or forsake you.

He loves you. Love is the answer.

Yes, people are fake and they will hurt you.

People were fake and hurt Jesus Christ. One of His own disciples, Judas Iscariot, played his part. He turned out to be fake and hurt Jesus immensely.

What was Jesus’ response? He called Judas his friend and asked His Father to forgive Him.

God loves you. He has shown you how to best deal with fake people. You are a fake person before Him. He is all truth. We are liars, we are fake pretenders. He doesn’t leave you when He learns who you are. He knows our frame, He knows we are made of dust. He knows everything about us. He formed you in your momma’s womb!

He doesn’t leave. He still loves. He’s willing to forgive.

So, you’ve discovered fake people around you. You’ve had bad experiences with people. What will you do with that? Find another group of people? Stay all by yourself in isolation?

Or will you be like your Father in heaven and forgive people, hang in there with them, love them and show them mercy and grace because that is exactly what you need from them?

Love is the answer. God is love. God demonstrated His love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

You’ve found the church to be filled with fake people. You can leave them and conclude you’re better, or you can be like Jesus Christ and lay down your life for them, show them love, grace, forgiveness, and compassion.

This is what Christ has done for you. This is what your soul is crying out for. All the other places you’re looking will not answer your deepest need.

When you come to Christ you put an end to your fake and then you become more and more forgiving and loving to the fake people around you.

You’re not better. I’m not better. We’re all fighting the same battle. Christ gives the victory. Will you let Him win you?

Are Fake Christians Your Problem?

So, you’ve discovered Christianity is fake. Nice job. Welcome to the club.

Now what? What’s the alternative plan? What thing in this world is going to not be fake enough for you?

Let me guess: it’ll be the one thing you wanted to do all along anyway!

Yes, yes, I know, everyone in church is fake. Here’s an insight for you: you are the fake someone else left the church over.

What if you were part of the fake problem?

1 John 2:19 says that “they went out from us, but they were not really of us.”

John said there were certain fake people in the church (if you knew the Bible you would know there were fake people in the church, this isn’t rocket science, God told ya!) who eventually left the church. The fact that they left shows they weren’t ever part of it.

So, dear friend who left the church because the people were fake, the fact that you left the church shows that you were one of the fake ones.

Make sure you get that. I’m not trying to be rude, I’m pointing out Scripture.

As long as other people are your excuse, as long as other people are the problem, you will remain in your sin and ultimately be unfulfilled.

Oh, I know, you’ll enjoy your sin for a season. It will seem nice for a while, not being shackled to rules and whatnot, being able to sleep in on Sunday mornings, etc. But you’ll be empty.

You’ll be empty and yet tell people you are fulfilled. You’ll be fake, just like you were when you were in the church. New game; same rules.

You are your problem.

Yes, there are bad people out there who do bad things, and yes some of those bad people are in churches doing those bad things. I know the church. I‘m well aware.

But no matter what evil thing I or anyone else does in the church or as a Christian, it does not take care of your soul.

Where will you go? Jesus asked Peter that question. Many fake disciples left Jesus (another passage letting you know there are fake people around Christianity) and Jesus asked Peter if he would leave to.

Peter’s beautiful answer was, “Where else can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

So, I ask you the same question: where will you go? Where is this bastion of non-fake you dream of?

Socialism? Environmentalism? Science? Politics? Business? Meditation?

Good luck with that. You’ll soon find loads of fake there too if you pay attention, which I encourage you to do. You were smart enough to find fake among Christians. That’s a good start. Use that same skepticism and you’ll find the fake everywhere.

Take care of the fake in you, because if you don’t, wherever you go for non-fake you will ruin by bringing your fake into it. Do you really believe in your new group and cause? Or is it just the thing you’re playing that isn’t Christianity?

I know, you bought all the books on meditation and you’ve read and studied and analyzed your new fake life. You’ve invested in it and let everyone know by your talk and your dress what your new fake group is.

It’s nice that you found a group that will support you in your fake. It’s nice you’ve found a group that says your particular batch of sins you enjoy are actually ok.

But what happens when that fake burns you?

Because it will.

If fake bothers you that much, I assume you’re most bothered by your own fake.

If you’re not bothered by your own fake, then stop using fakeness as your reason for leaving people. It apparently doesn’t bother you that much.

No one else is your problem. Others may not have helped as they could have, some legitimately harmed you. I’m not excusing any of that. It’s real stuff.

But real stuff requires real answers and it requires a real you.

You are right to be bothered by fake. Now do fake you.

Yes, Christians are Fake: Nice Job, Sherlock

Deconstructing your faith is a new thing in Christianity, or at least that’s the new name for it. People who grew up in the church, or at least attended church for a while, realize church people are fake and then they take off.

“Christianity is false. Look at all the pretenders.”

I’ve heard this charge by many who have “left the faith.”

Let me say this:
You have no idea.

I was born in a pastor’s family and was a pastor. I’ve been intimately involved in church since my birth. I know Christians. I know many things about many Christians.

Here are two things I know from this experience:

1. Those who think Christians are fake, typically have no clue what they are talking about.

2. If they had a clue, they would realize the fakeness was way more than their shallow observation admits.

Most pastors I have known are fake. Most church leaders are fake. Most Christians are fake. They are pretending. They are putting on a show.

My wife and I went to Las Vegas a couple years ago, mostly because we were in the area and were curious what it was like. We spent all of five hours in Vegas.

It looks glamorous and shiny and spectacular. Caesar’s Palace with its stone façade and statues were not stone! They were plastic! The fakeness was everywhere. The whole place was fake.

Vegas is a place where people who have left the church because it’s “fake” go for real fun.

The local church is the Las Vegas of the Body of Christ.

Many are playing the part; few are actually a part of the Body. Instead of stone, it’s plastic.

Try doing 20+ years of pastoral work actually paying attention to the same group of people and I guarantee you will see the fake. You might even realize at some point you are part of the fake.

So, yeah, there’s plenty of fake in Christianity. I dare say there’s way more than the casual observer has any clue of.

Congrats for figuring it out.

Now what?

You going to go into worldliness? Going to go after money and fashion? Or perhaps go the other way and forsake money and capitalism and try frugal simplicity for realness? What’s going to be your non-fake life to replace the fake one? What part will you play next?

How is that going to be more real? What happens when the leaders of your new movement have moral failings and actually are antithetical to the supposed cause they pump up? Where are you going to find these sinless, perfect, un-fake people to follow?

And, pray tell, how are you going to guarantee you’re not going to be fake? Do you really hate Christianity, or are you just playing the Christianity-hater part that is so cool in the world right now? Do you know the reality of what it is you think is fake?

You can’t know the fakeness of Christianity until you know the actual realness of it.

Of all the people I’ve heard denounce Christianity because it’s fake, very few have any lengthy knowledge of the Bible.

Because, see, here’s a thing you should know: The Bible says most of Christianity is fake!

So, the fact that you’ve deduced this is something I could have told you from the Bible. If you had listened to the Bible in your supposed “time in Christianity,” you would know enough to not put your trust in people, but in Christ alone.

Why? Because people are fake. The heart is deceitful. And if you think others are fake, wait until the Holy Spirit gets to work in you to point out your fakeness.

Then you’ll be brought to your knees and have what the Bible refers to as a “broken and contrite spirit.” Humility, the actual basis upon which grace, forgiveness, and salvation take root.

Yeah, Christianity is fake. You have no idea how fake it is until you know your own fake. As you turn from Christ and the fake of churchiness, you’ll flee further and further into other fakeness.

Yes, the Church is fake and Christians are fake, but Jesus Christ is as real as it gets.

When you get done playing your new fakeness, don’t forget to come back to the Truth. He’s waiting for you to get done playing games and finding excuses and blaming fake people.

He’s still there. Still waiting.

Jeremiah And Christian Happiness

Keeping verses in context is how you understand their point. It’s also how you eliminate simplistic, happy conclusions.

I’m not convinced life is as happy as people make it sound, and I certainly doubt when Christians tell me their life of faith is unspotted happiness. It doesn’t ring true.

I came across a verse the other day that was happy, but it also stood out in its context. Here’s the verse:

Sing to the Lord!
Give praise to the Lord!
He rescues the life of the needy
from the hands of the wicked.

–Jeremiah 20:13

How happy and nice! Now for the context. Here are the verses right before it:

But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior;
    so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced;
    their dishonor will never be forgotten.
Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous
    and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance on them,
    for to you I have committed my cause.

–Jeremiah 20:11-12

These verses are about wanting God to kill the bad guys. Do some vengeancing, Lord! And here are the verses right after verse 13:

Cursed be the day I was born!
    May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,
    who made him very glad, saying,
    “A child is born to you—a son!”
May that man be like the towns
    the Lord overthrew without pity.
May he hear wailing in the morning,
    a battle cry at noon.
For he did not kill me in the womb,
    with my mother as my grave,
    her womb enlarged forever.

–Jeremiah 20:14-17

Go ahead, make a happy Bible study out of that one!

Jeremiah is known as “the weeping prophet.” He had a rough gig. The people he preached to were already doomed, the writing was on the wall, they were toast. But individuals could save themselves from the coming judgment, but most refused the offer. Jeremiah was rejected and persecuted because of his attempts to save a few.

It was a ministry doomed to failure. If you look up the phrase “not listen” in the Bible, you will notice that the Book of Jeremiah has the most uses and it’s not even close!

God is so fed up with their not listening, that He says He will no longer listen to them! Don’t bother praying, God won’t intervene. He already showed them how to be delivered, either do that or get toasted.

Jeremiah lived in a tough time, a sad time, seeing the downfall of the people for whom God had done so much. The covenant comes to a crashing halt. Jeremiah weeps.

I find it hard to imagine Jeremiah going along with the modern happy Christianity of our day. I believe he would say with James, “Let your laughter be turned into mourning.”

Lives are falling apart, but we’ve made peace with sin. We not only don’t fight materialism, we’ve all but embraced it and called it “God’s blessings.” Jeremiah would see right through it.

If Jeremiah taught your next Bible Study group, would you return? Would you desire to hear more?

Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, said there is wisdom in the house of mourning and stupidity in the house of mirth. I’d much rather hear from Jeremiah than any guru hopped up on some notion of happiness.

However, no one wanted to hear Jeremiah even in the midst of in your face sadness, I can’t imagine anyone heeding Jeremiah’s message in our time of affluence and comfort.

We’re missing something. The Bible never once says that happy comfort leads to spiritual growth, or that spiritual growth leads to happy comfort.

What it does repeatedly say is that tribulation leads to spiritual growth and spiritual growth leads to tribulation. Hard to get people out of their happy material life to go hear that message.

So, Jeremiah and his ilk get ignored while judgment stands at the door.

Knock knock.

Bible Reading: Christianity’s Lucky Rabbit’s Foot

I read a book talking about how to be a good Christian. One of the chapters, yes one chapter, was about how you should read the Bible. To put it in context, there were at least 40 chapters in this book. One was about reading the Bible.

Anyway, it encouraged you to read your Bible regularly, which is indeed a good idea. The author promised that the days when you read your Bible will be noticeably better than the days you don’t.

I’ve heard this sort of nonsense before. I find it funny. The only person who says this is someone who does not read their Bible daily.

For many years I have kept the habit of reading my Bible daily. I’ve had many bad days in that length of time. I have never noticed that since I began reading my Bible daily that all my days are better. I suppose, in all fairness, I should have not read my Bible for all those days as well to truly test the hypotheses, but that’s humanly impossible.

Furthermore, the days I most often have skipped Bible reading over those years are days when my schedule is off, typically because I am on vacation or have some other plan. I have frequently found those days to be tremendously enjoyable! Nothing to do with not reading the Bible much to do with being on vacation.

There have also been other days when I know my day will be bad but I read the Bible to help me through. The day is still bad.

Telling people that their day will be better if they read the Bible is the Prosperity Gospel. It’s Health and Wealth teaching. “Do this specific spiritual thing and you will materially be better off.”

If you’ve heard me or read me enough, you know I’m constantly talking about reading your Bible, knowing it so well that you know the context of every verse and can automatically tell if what someone says is consistent with the Bible. I’m all for people reading the Bible, but I’m not for lying and manipulating.

Your day is going to be your day. I guarantee you that a life spent reading the Bible will be more balanced overall, more overly satisfying, but to put it on the daily testable level is goofy. I know many faithful Christians who have awful, painful lives. I know many complete heathen scum people who enjoy themselves quite nicely.

Doing a spiritual thing for temporal, physical payoff is not the point. We read the Bible to know God, to grow in Christ, to understand what we’ve been given in the Gospel so we know how to live. Will it help your life? Undoubtedly. Will it make tomorrow your best day ever? No.

Furthermore, if it were true that simply reading your bible for “only ten minutes a day” actually makes your day measurably better, I’m quite sure more people would read their Bibles daily. But they don’t. Why not? Because it really doesn’t make that big of a material difference that quickly. That’s not how it was designed. There are no promises remotely like it in the Bible.

Yes, a life lived in constant awareness of God’s Word will have certain spiritual benefits, but this does not equate to material betterness.

Don’t fall for the Health and Wealth/Prosperity Gospel lies out there. They have taken over Christianity. If the only reason you are reading your Bible is to have a better day, don’t expect to read it that faithfully because you will be woefully disappointed by the results.

Read the Bible to know God. This life is momentary suffering. We live for eternal rewards, not physical perks. Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Get to work. Your eternal soul depends on it.

Is Your Soul a Weaned Child?

Right after Psalm 130 about fearing the Lord because He’s the one who forgives, comes Psalm 131. It’s a short Psalm, three verses, and beautiful. Here’s the entirety of the Psalm:

Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.

Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever.

The stretch of Psalms here are called Psalms of Ascent. They were sung on the way up to the temple in Jerusalem. They were sung in a row. Marking iniquities, getting forgiveness, and fearing God are all humble things.

At this point his heart is not exalted and proud, and his eyes are not raised up, looking down in condescension on everyone else. He doesn’t walk around in great matters, meddling in issues he has no concept about. “Too high” means marvelous, wonderful things beyond his power.

He knows his role and he stays in his lane.

Wow, do we need more of this in our day!

Proud people are constantly messing in other people’s business. They think they are the people and wisdom will die with them. If they were in charge, they’d have all the world’s problems solved pronto.

Humble people understand the limits of their powers and thoughts. I can tell you how to solve inflation, but do I really have a clue? If you or I were president, would we really have the slightest idea what we were doing?

I think this is one reason very few humble people are in politics! Who in their right mind thinks, “Yeah, I think I should run the most powerful country in the free world.” Only crazy people!

But this isn’t just about politics; it’s about all kinds of stuff. Your predictions about how things will go, your plans made on incomplete information, and so many of our lectures and witty one-liners. We have no idea.

If we saw our sin, we’d shut up more.

You would quiet yourself as a well-fed baby. What an image!

When our kids were little you could tell when they were hungry because they got angry and screamed. They just lost it. Then they’d get fed and they were the happiest little creatures on the planet. So calm, no fussies. So sweet.

That’s how your soul would be if your hope was in the Lord and you saw your sin and need of forgiveness.

Our pride forgets about our sin. It justifies our actions and we give ourselves a break. We think we’re better than others whom we do not justify and routinely credit the worst possible motives to. Evil people. Let me tell you what’s up! Let me fix you!

Humble people know they need fixing. They know they have no idea. God is the Father; I’m just a kid. Childlike faith. Dependence on Him rather than self-assured lecturing of others.

How’s your soul? Does it act like a well-fed baby; or is it screaming and crying and telling others what to do so you get your food?

Be humble. Hope in the Lord. And chill.

Was It God’s Mysterious Will, Or Are You an Idiot?

A good percentage of Christians who say they believe God ordains all things (He’s behind everything, pulling the levers and making things happen with no free will on humanity’s part) tend to have tough situations in life they are struggling to resolve.

Often the most extreme language about God doing all things is around death. Many people whom we love are taken away from us, why? “Time and chance happens to them all” does not satisfy many. We want an answer that gives our brain some sort of sense, a solid fact to rest on rather than ambiguous, “I don’t know.”

So, funeral talk is sprinkled with “God needed him up there more than we needed him down here,” or “I guess it was his time to go.” This, for some reason, gives our brain a degree of solace.

I’ve also noticed that many people who have kids who walked away from the faith, or physical disabilities, or job/financial trauma also start talking about God being on His throne and such things.

Without minimizing true pain and suffering, we should rethink this deterministic theology.

If God does everything and you have no free will, you also have no power to do anything about it. If your kid walking away from the faith is answered with, “I guess that’s God’s mysterious plan,” this will prevent you from taking action, and more than likely, prevent you from considering what part you played in their falling away. Kids often point out weaknesses in their parent’s faith. Perhaps there’s an area of growth being pointed out for you rather than a giant mystery.

As long as it’s “God’s mysterious will,” then I’m off the hook. Does this give a degree of comfort? I suppose so. Resting in a theology that says, “It wasn’t me” probably feels good!

On the flip side, if you go the other way and figure God had nothing at all to do with this, it was all me, then you have another set of problems. People who don’t think God is involved at all battle depression. Now everything is my fault, and what in the world can I do about it? It removes hope and diminishes prayer.

If I’m doing everything I think I’m supposed to, and everything blows up in my face anyway, what’s the point of doing all that? Why bother? Why continue if nothing matters anyway?

Both responses result in the same fatalistic attitude: What can I do?

Most false doctrine is an attempt to get rid of personal responsibility. “The woman you gave me made me do it” followed by “The serpent made me do it” said the first sinners. We haven’t stopped. Getting out of responsibility drives our beliefs.

Bad things happen to everybody. It will not help to assume all your problems are outside of your control. It will also not help to assume everything is your fault as this will beat you into the ground.

Job’s life blew up. He had many questions. He didn’t fatalistically chalk it up to God’s will. Nor did he take it all on himself. He desperately wanted to talk to God about it.

Job was patient, we are told. Job spent an entire chapter wondering why he wasn’t killed at birth! This doesn’t sound excessively patient to me! Patience might be different from our assumptions. Patience means to endure under trial.

If crying out to God in real anguish, considering the benefits of early death, helps you endure, then go for it! God can handle it.

Job considered his behavior. He checked everything. He didn’t see anything sinful that he did, thus his confusion about why things blew up.

Job is a great example of dealing with earthly pain. He knew God was behind it, so he wanted to talk to God and get it taken care of. Job also was not fatalistic to never consider his own behavior in light of what was happening. We do reap what we sow.

Next time terrible things drop on you, don’t chalk it up to God’s mysterious will and move on in fatalistic resignation. Consider your part. Is there anything you did to lead to these results? If so, what can you do now to help?

If you can’t think of anything, then take it to the Lord and figure out how best to respond to what’s going on. Let the Lord have it, like Job did. The Lord could be doing any number of things behind the scenes, never lose sight of that.

There needs to be a healthy balance, a humble investigation into what’s going on and what I’m supposed to do about it. Knowing that God can help even this terrible thing work for your good is a great comfort. Knowing that there might be things you can do to immediately improve the situation is also a great comfort.

Don’t let your doctrine eliminate your personal responsibility over your life. Don’t let your doctrine undermine the power of God that can work in your life through many terrible things. Trust God and do good.

If God Is Doing All the Stupid, How Can We be Comforted By Him?

Calvinists often say they believe God directs every detail of life because it comforts them. Kids can walk away from the faith, politicians from the other side get in office, people die tragically, and other terrible things are couched with, “God is in control and His plan will not be thwarted. He knows what He’s doing.”

People console themselves with this notion that God is behind all the pain and evil in the world.

I, for one, do not understand how this gives anyone comfort. If God does all the evil then the character of God is undermined. If God is the doer of all the evil, then how can I trust Him? How is He one I’d go to for comfort if He’s the cause of my discomfort? Where is the comfort of the Comforter if the Comforter is making me uncomfortable? I find no solace here. I find the problem has just been exacerbated and there is nowhere to go to escape stupid.

I believe God has given a certain amount of freedom for humanity to be stupid. We take Him up on the offer frequently. The reasons why people die, bad politicians get power, kids walk away from the faith, and other bad things happen, is not because God is making it happen; it’s because sin has messed stuff up.

If I were to say all the stupid in the world is a result of God’s will and His plan, I gotta tell ya, I’m not comforted by that at all.

I believe God is above this world, sitting in righteousness, and watching us blow ourselves up with a mournful heart. This is seen repeatedly in the Old Testament prophets. God is not happy about sin and it’s results and never once does He say, “I’m the one making you worship Baal and commit adultery. Don’t worry about it. I’m still on the throne.”

Nope. Instead His consistent message is, “What in the world are you doing? Knock that stuff off and listen to me.”

If the level of stupid in our world is due to God, if He’s the one that’s making people do stupid stuff, then in what sense is He holy, righteous, or trustworthy? If God makes kids walk away from the faith, then why would I trust Him with my kids? I’d be better off without God in relation to my kids.

Furthermore, and the main point, is that nowhere does Scripture require you to believe that God is doing all the evil and nasty stupid stuff down here. In fact, the Bible tells us to pray that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. The only way that request makes sense is if God’s will is currently not being done on earth.

Asking for God’s will to be done is not simply asking God to push a button. It’s my desire to do God’s will, to teach it, and represent it, to promote it and encourage it. It starts with me.

Much of the talk of God’s complete control of all things is simply a rejection of responsibility. If everything is God’s doing, then I’m not ultimately responsible. It’s some bizarre mystery why my kids walked away from the faith, rather than possibly something I did or something my kid did.

If what happens is due to us, then we have a shot to make things better. If what happens is up to God’s arbitrary, unsearchable will, then we have no shot and I’m not sure why we would worship God for having made such a mess down here with His very odd, holiness-defying will.

The Bible clearly says we have a shot to make things better. Blaming God for all the stupid in the world is not a good look. It’s blasphemous and I don’t think God will take it kindly on judgment day. When we give an account for every deed done in the body, whether it be good or bad, and our defense is, “It wasn’t me; It was you doing it,” good luck with that one.

“Be not deceived, God is not mocked, you will reap what you sow.” We are reaping what we have sown. People die because we chose to go against the one who gave us life. Kids walk away from the faith because youth is curious and adults are hypocritical. Bad politicians get in because generally people who desire control and power are bad people.

Bad things happen because we live in a fallen world. We live in a fallen world because humanity decided to disobey God. The world is a mess precisely because we’re not doing God’s will, not because God’s will is being done.

Knowing that people do the stupid and God is outside of it and above it is what gives us comfort. He’s not part of the problem; He is the solution. Stop blaming Him for our stupidity. He’s not the dumb one here!

Eternal Perspective and Decision Making

The follower of Jesus Christ bases decisions on the Word of God and an eternal perspective.

The Christian is not to be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of the mind, being taught scriptural and eternal truth. There is no way someone living life based on Scripture and eternity could have a life that looked like the world around them.

Much of scriptural truth for decision making can be summed up in two words: love and eternity. Do the thing that looks like Christ dying for sinners, and do the thing that will get eternal reward rather than temporal accolades. With these two simple concepts in the mind, decision making can be fairly simple.

Basing decisions on an eternal perspective might be harder to grasp than Gospel love. Love might be harder to do, thus making love appear more confusing than it is! But love, following the example of Christ’s death, is pretty simple, we just don’t like what we have to do, so we pretend it’s confusing!

Eternal thinking is hard to grasp. The best way to grasp it is to look at its opposite: Short term thinking. There are three examples of short term thinking that pop into my head immediately:

1. Get Rich Quick Schemes. These scams offer easy money with no labor and no time. You just send in the money and tons of money comes back. Easy. Easy fast money is possible, but it is unlikely. Even more unlikely is that your easy fast money won’t end you up in legal trouble.

2. Kids. Kids have no perspective on time, let alone eternity. Their decisions are made for the moment. That’s why they melt when there’s no more milk or they don’t get the candy bar. They have no concept of waiting. Everything has to happen now. They have not been on the earth long. Waiting until tomorrow is a large percentage of their entire lifetime! For someone who is 89, waiting for tomorrow is like nothing. Probably just sleep until it shows up. Kids have no concept of delayed gratification or how long time is. They routinely make stupid decisions. Car insurance premiums for a 16-year old is a case and point.

3. Government. Politicians promise the sky. They will do the immediate thing to gain some poll points, while selling the next generations down the river. But they don’t care. Election is in a couple years. Who cares what people will think of me 20 years from now or how terribly my policies that sound and feel good, will actually work out in reality. Politicians are always motivated by the election cycle. Countries always implode when politicians get more power. They will drive you into the ground and no one will win an election by telling people, “Hey, we have to quit giving you stuff.” Not going to happen. Laws and taxes will always increase, so will the spending. There is no coming back. Term limits guarantee short term thinking.

Eternal thinking is the opposite of these three examples. If you want to make better decisions, ones that will agree with Scripture, think about eternity. You will give an account to God for every deed done in the body. God rewards certain behavior. Delaying your payoff until eternity, until your next life, seems stupid here. Our world thinks after death we disappear. But we don’t. It’s appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment.

Do you think of eternity when you spend your money, or how you earn it? Do you think of eternity in your relationships? Do you think of eternity in how you spend your time? Do you consider giving an account for what you’re about to do? Or are all your decisions based on immediacy and what will benefit me now?

The flesh thinks about short term gratification; the Spirit thinks about eternal reward. Sin is typically a knee-jerk reaction; walking in the Spirit involves discipline, thought, and sober mindedness. Sin is short term pleasure with long term hard consequences. Spiritual behavior is hard in the short term, but long term it has spectacular consequences.

Be careful not to get sucked into get rich quick schemes, not just financial either. There are get rich quick schemes about health, beauty, being cool, and even false teaching in spiritual areas. If it sounds too good to be true; it is.

Be careful not to get stuck in immaturity, acting like a kid with no concept of time. Kids don’t consider long term consequences; they just go for it in the now. This might seem cool, but if you live beyond your stupid decision, look for many long term harmful consequences.

Avoid politicians! Don’t get sucked into the political game. You will end up hating people and isolating yourself. You will get sucked into short term battles that will end relationships and get you sucked away from eternal perspectives. Politics is the ultimate conformity to the world. It’s where conformity is legalized. Be very careful with it.

We are here to make Christ-honoring decisions. You do this by living out the love of the Gospel and thinking of eternal reward. Think wisely with your renewed mind. If you do, you won’t have to worry about conformity to the world because the world bases decisions on selfishness and temporal gratification. That’s not who followers of Christ are. Fight that fight. Lay hold of eternal life.

Being Better than Others Doesn’t Make You Better Before God

“I haven’t missed a Sunday of church for two years.”

“It’s been four years since I had a day when I didn’t read my Bible.”

“I taught Sunday School for 13 years.”

“Spiritual” attainments feed pride. Accomplishments make us better than other people. Motives for what we do can get complicated. Are we going to church to edify and be edified, or are we going so we can hold it over others or “be a good example” to people you’ve deemed worse than you?

I’ve read the Bible a lot of times. I really want to tell you how many because you’d be impressed. I desire to let people know how many times because it is impressive! You’ll fall down before me and worship my awesomeness and stuff. I’ve also memorized a lot of verses. At one point I could quote entire books of the Bible. You’d be wowed.

I wanted to do these things because I wanted to know the Bible and deeply understand it. These two things helped immensely. You should do both things; it will help you. One of the things the Bible says is that “knowledge puffs up.” It does. So does all the stuff you have to do to get that knowledge.

When I stand before God, I’m curious what things that I’m proud of that He’s going to say, “Uh, yeah, I didn’t really care so much about that.” I also wonder what other things I’ve completely neglected that He’s going to say, “Uh, with all the time you had to do those things, how come you never got around to this?”

Is God as impressed with your church attendance as you are? Does your Bible reading wow Him? Are there other things we’re missing?

I know there are because Jesus Himself said that on judgment day many will say “Lord, Lord” and list their spiritual attainments they are most proud of. He will tell them He never knew them and to depart from Him. That’s rough.

Minimizing Bible reading or church attendance is not the point. I’m not saying that if you don’t do these things you’re better off somehow. Not the point at all. I’ve heard some people say that since good works can lead to spiritual pride, they’ll refuse to do them and do sin instead, as it keeps them humble and dependent on God’s grace. That’s just silly. It flies in the face of Paul’s repeated question, “Should we sin that grace may abound?”

The point is not to stop going to church or reading the Bible.

The point is about pride. If you think your spiritual attainments make you better than others and more impressive to God, well, that will probably not be the case. Humility is one of the big things God wants us to work at. Humility will then lead to bearing other’s burdens and doing love things.

I do believe my impressive Bible reading and memorizing feats have helped me love people better, but they can also quickly delve into pride, self-righteousness, and judgmentalism. Pride must constantly be fought off. Fight that fight. You don’t win the fight by doing nothing; you win the fight by doing the right things for the right reasons. Figure out what that means and walk that way.

Fighting Sin Through the Power of the Flesh or the Spirit

Sin is bad; we’re not supposed to do it. How, pray tell, do we fight off sin though?

There are many Christians who think if you just faith enough God will make you not sin, or that you won’t be tempted. There’s a magic moment when you truly call out to God in surrender and the battle is forever over. Sinlessness takes over.

Others think that sin should be fought, that there are actual things we do to defeat sin.

The first option means we do nothing except surrender. God does it all; we’re just passive victors of what Christ does for us.

The second view says we have a part in our own sin battles. That the level of sin in our lives has a direct correlation to our effort to stop it.

The surrender option would be cool, I know why it has a lot of people who believe it. I do nothing and still win! Sweet gig.

The battling view seems more legit, however, both from a practical and a biblical approach.

Paul says we are to bring our bodies under subjection; there are literal physical things we can do to fight off sin. We lay aside the weight of sin, we flee youthful lust. Hebrews says we sin because we haven’t yet striven against sin to the point of shedding blood. Most of us have made peace with sin in our lives. We’re not fighting it as much as we’re covering it so we don’t get caught or look bad.

I think bringing our bodies under subjection is largely something you have to put your mind to and exercise the option. For instance, if your flesh is getting carried away with any number of sins, fasting can be a good route to practice controlling your flesh. Maybe even use it as a punishment for indulging the flesh, make a severer consequence to your actions.

Now, this is where heads explode. “That’s legalism! You’re putting yourself under a yoke of bondage! We have freedom in Christ. You’re undoing grace and trying to overcome sin with works!”

Am I though? How pray tell does sin suddenly stop by me doing nothing?

So if I’m truly tired of a sin I do, how do I get it to stop? Do I just believe more? Surrender more? What does that even mean? How do I go about believing more and surrendering more? What if I already am believing and surrendering, how do I do more of it? Wouldn’t doing more of that be me doing a work?

There is no answer really. All that camp has on their side are increasing levels of doing nothing, which seems entirely weird and hopeless as a strategy.

I’ve run into a number of people who tell me they don’t do anything and now they enjoy levels of no-sin that boggles the mind. I have hung out with these people. I have never been struck by the reality of their alleged sinlessness. Of all the people I know who take the “do nothing to beat sin” approach, they do not strike me as paragons of spiritual attainment.

Yes, there is a pitfall in legalism, just as there is a pitfall in being a lazy bum who does nothing but sit around and wait for Jesus to eliminate their sin struggles. You can attain levels of behavior through sheer will power and discipline. Paul uses the example of athletes striving for a temporal crown as an example.

But Paul’s next point isn’t “So do way less than athletes striving for mastery, in fact, just sit on the couch and do nothing until Jesus magically eliminates your sin battle.” Nope. What Paul says is be like those athletes and do everything to win.

Paul is not a passive person. He attacks. He uses discipline and strategy. I recommend the same thing. I know that’s hard and it would be nice if we could theologically eliminate personal accountability from our levels of sin, but Judgment Day looms and guess what? You will give an account for every deed done in the body whether it is good or bad.

This is a fight worth fighting. It’s why Paul calls it the “fight of faith.” He doesn’t call it the “sit on your butt and do nothing of faith.” I suggest you start fighting your sin by any means necessary, even if it involves you doing something. The entire time you are praying and listening to Scripture. This isn’t some flesh overpowering the flesh thing.

This is the flesh being mortified by the Holy Spirit, it’s having our bodies walk in the Spirit and not fulfilling the desires of the flesh nature. Your body responds either to the flesh or Spirit. Your flesh wants you to sit and do nothing and let sin reign, wait for someone else to take care of my problems. The Spirit wants you to get up and fight with what Christ has given you in the Gospel. Go. Fight. Win.

How Your Speech Keeps you From Spiritual Growth

People talk a lot. The Bible consistently tells us to keep our mouths shut. Yet we keep talking.

The Bible also lets us know that talking is not what we are solely judged on. In fact, God seems not as much concerned with what we say as much as with what we do. Jesus tells a parable where two sons are told by their dad to go work in the field. The one who says, “Yes, sir” never goes. The one who said, “No,” ends up going. Which one did the will of the father? Not the one who said the right thing, but the one who did the right thing.

Christians are confused about faith. We know we are saved by grace through faith. God showed grace through Jesus Christ; our response is faith. Unfortunately, most think faith is the doctrines we believe. We think faith is believing the right stuff. And it is, in part, but it’s way more than that. The test of faith is what you’re doing. Doing things is hard. So instead we talk.

There are three wordy crutches that hurt our faith. Three things we say that keep us from doing what is right but feeling good all the same.

1. Right doctrine
We’re good at spewing out our accepted doctrine. We get our theological camp and get indoctrinated; we say what we’re supposed to say. We quote the right theologians. We use the right proof texts. We know how our favorite commentaries interpret verses. Because we say the right stuff about doctrine we assume we have faith. We know we’re saved because we’re Calvinist, or not Calvinist, or believe in sign gifts or don’t. I don’t know what your particular “anyone who doesn’t believe this isn’t saved” doctrine is, but that’s the thing that’s keeping you from actual faith. On the other side, some delve into doubt. They have unending questions about doctrine. Since they have questions they can’t be expected to do anything until they have no more questions left. Doctrine just becomes an excuse. “How can I listen to God if I don’t understand the nuances of the Trinity fully?” You’ll never do anything, but will sound intellectual in your laziness anyway.

2. Syrupy sentimentality
We use gushy words about God and Jesus, who is our lover and friend. We say the happy lovely thing about life. Always happy, always smooth, always nice. There is lovely sentimentality all over the place, sickly sweet. Your Christian language is a perpetual Contemporary Christian song lyric. It’s not realistic. It seems to miss any depth, nuance, or perhaps pain. But you know you’re supposed to “be strong,” so you keep saying the syrupy stuff. Maybe if you say them enough your doubts will go away. If you actually started living your faith, doing the hard thing, speaking the truth, the sentimentality would fade away because faith is a fight, it’s a long run, it’s hard. We can’t afford do anything that might make me look or feel not “strong.” Therefore, it’s safer to do nothing and feel sentimental than take a chance at losing it all.

3. Christian clichés
You have no idea what you’re talking about, but you know what you’re supposed to say. “God is still on the throne!” Great, what do you think that means? Is God on the throne a replacement for you being responsible? A replacement for you confronting someone over sin? An excuse for you to not apologize? What clichés do you use and why? Do they mean anything, or are they just band aids to cover problems you’ve deemed too hard to resolve? Cliches sound nice but mean little, but we flop them out there to fit in, to say the admirable thing. “Wow, if they say ‘the Lord gives and the Lord takes away’ when their mom dies, they must really have faith.” It’s possible, I sure hope so, but if not, woe to you when you reap the whirlwind from sowing hot air.

Words replace actions. People talk about going on diets more than they diet. People talk about exercise more than they move. People talk about reading the Bible more than they read it. We say stuff. We want our words to replace action. They don’t.

But since we sound good and fit in, we’ll leave faith at that. We’d rather fit in than do weird stuff like doing what God says and risk being the weirdo. Hebrews 11, the great chapter about faith, says at the front of each biographical sketch “By faith” and then it describes what they did. By faith Enoch walked with God. By faith Noah built an ark. By faith Abraham got up and moved. By faith Moses left the riches of Pharaoh’s house to suffer with God’s people. By faith they each did what God said.

Enoch didn’t talk about walking with God and go on about how wonderful it is to walk through the roses with his lover, Jesus. Nope, he just walked with God. Noah didn’t discuss ark building schemes and talk about blueprints and his intentions. Nope, he just built the ark. Abraham didn’t talk about the journey and make pithy self-help motivational memes. Nope, he just got up and walked. Moses didn’t say nice words about renouncing wealth and suffering with God’s people as a theory, a throwaway line. He just left the riches and moved into the desert.

Faith does what God says. Doing what God says is hard. Your flesh wants no part of it. Don’t be surprised if instead of obeying you just talk a good game.

“Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
–Matthew 7:20-21

Category: Life observations

Being Annoyed with Peter’s Denials of Jesus

How I Failed At Expecting Less From People Today

There Are Conditions for Getting Grace, Mercy, Love, Goodness, and Forgiveness

More Answers to Why Bad Things Happen to People

What Would it Look Like if You Did Offer Your Body as a Living Sacrifice?

Train Today for the Battles Tomorrow

5 Points about Seeking A Multitude of Counselors

The Gospel Has Power, But Where is It?

Doctrinal Debates and The Gish Gallup

The Great Commission is not Getting People to Say the Prayer

Many Christians Should Not Be Listened To

Taking the Kingdom by Force and Today’s Wimpy Gospel

Easy Believism, Sanctification, and Rebellious Children

Why Self-Help Advice Prevents Spiritual Success

How Does Stoicism Differ From Christianity?

Easter Cliches

My Resignation Sermon

Jesus Super Ad

The Only Real Response to Fake People

Are Fake Christians Your Problem?

Yes, Christians are Fake: Nice Job, Sherlock

Jeremiah And Christian Happiness

Bible Reading: Christianity’s Lucky Rabbit’s Foot

Is Your Soul a Weaned Child?

Was It God’s Mysterious Will, Or Are You an Idiot?

If God Is Doing All the Stupid, How Can We be Comforted By Him?

Eternal Perspective and Decision Making

Being Better than Others Doesn’t Make You Better Before God

Fighting Sin Through the Power of the Flesh or the Spirit

How Your Speech Keeps you From Spiritual Growth

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