There Are Days

As a Christian perhaps one of the toughest things we do (or in this case don't do) is to get too wrapped up in this world.

We are reminded in John 18:3 that our home, our Kingdom, is not of this world, and are warned in Romans 12:2 not to conform to this world. Simply put, as the adopted children of God this world is not our home and, in fact, it will one day end and there will be a new Earth (Revelation 21:1).

Yet, we are existing now in this time and place and there are days when it seems to be spinning in a maddening fashion. From global issues such as climate change to personal issues like who took the garbage out last to the animals fighting and struggling to instinctively survive, this world is not a place at peace. It is a place of beauty, but not a place of peace.

So on those days when a "there are days" moment occurs, when this world just seems so overwhelming, it is time to go to God in Word and prayer and put your mind on Him and remember His "things above" (Colossians 3:2). Worship Him and this world fades away.

For His Glory,
Tom

12

Recently, I attended a "training" on suicide. It was an overview of how our culture looks at suicide and was very interesting, sad, disturbing, and convicting all at once.

One of the most disturbing was a statistical figure.

12 suicides have been attributed to the death of Michael Jackson.

Now statistics are just a gathering of numbers. Most often they are without context, sometimes they are wrong or in error, sometimes they speak for themselves. This statistic speaks volumes.

That someone would consider their life over because a singer died is hard for me to comprehend.

I can understand why someone would want to kill themselves when a close loved one dies, or a catastrophic event or getting in deep into a quagmire. They lose hope. But to pin one's life, one's hope on a guy who can sing and dance well, who does not even know you exist, who cares about you only in the broadest of terms...well, that is very sad but also gives us some insight into how we are different from animals.

If you are an evolutionist and believe that humans are just a higher order species (not unique as Christians believe) then consider this - man is the only animal that contemplates suicide. We are also the only "animal" that does a lot of things like not wait for nature to adapt us physically for the environment, build various types of shelters, have written and readable languages, create various tools, goes to war over ideas, etc.

The reality is that man has the image of God placed in him and so we seek God to see our own image. The problem is that sometimes we find a god that is not the real god and think we have found our own image.

12 people did that recently.

My hope is that you are not placing your hope in the wrong god. To find out more go to Need God.

What I Learn From My Personal Trials

I am in a "down" season.  

It is hard to put my finger on it, but there is a lot of things in my life that are askew right now, things I would rather not put out there for the public.  It is a time of some personal disappointments, some questioning, some reflection.

These are times when we lean heavily on our faith.  

God led me to John Piper's book "Future Grace" - full of wisdom about relying not on today but on what is coming, and that is what God reminds me through the trials of today.  This life is all temporary.  A few hundred years and very little will still be here.  Even the mountains erode and the continents are moving.

I can find peace in this or fear.  I choose peace.  Peace that it is God's hand that moves everything for His Will...His Good and Perfect Will.

I may experience tragedy, I may witness catastrophe, I may be swept away in a disaster, but it is really all about Him and every time I get into a "down" season, I am reminded just how much I am not God and He is.

For His Glory,

Tom

My Thoughts On "the homosexual issue"

I recently read a blog by Tony Jones, an emergent theologian (of sorts) who recently endorsed same-sex marriage (of sorts) (it is always "of sorts" with emergents).

His blog offered the opportunity to comment so here is what I wrote and it seemed the best I've been able to put down my thoughts on this issue:

Mr. Jones definitely is struggling with this issue, but it is based not on the
rule of God's law but on one's own experience.

We Christians tend to twist our role in the world as the policemen of God's Law to the world when, actually, we are to see the sin of the world and use that to police ourselves. We should not "hate" the person engaging in homosexual behavior any more than we should hate ourselves for our lusts of the flesh.

Sin is sin to God, and the difference is that we Christians are at war with our flesh through the Spirit for our soul. Those without Christ do not have the spirit so they are at war with their own image of themselves. So, to put homosexual behavior as any worse (or any better) than any other sin is ludicrous and we should be repentant about that.

However, to sanction a sin is another thing. I have seen this with heterosexual couples living together, in church, and no one saying anything in tacet approval.
We are called to be God's Ambassadors. That means we speak the truth, in love, about the sins of ourselves and others. We approach people as co-conspirators against God, the difference being that we know the Truth and want to share that Truth.

We cannot do that by screaming or by staying silent.

What causes one to have Homosexual desires is still unknown. It may be part of a genetic aspect and a developmental aspect, but most of the homosexuals I know have this preoccupation with sex (kind of like the rest of the world). It is an idol and holds bondage over them. The best response is to love but not endorse.

This is a fine line to walk, a difficult line to walk. Love is doing that which is in the other person's best interest. We should preach the Gospel while cleansing their wounds. We should heap coals that both burn and warm. Sanctioning will not change their hearts, but condemning will not save their soul. We should support their needs without supporting their sin. We should comfort them in this world while warning them of the dangers to come.

To do otherwise is to fail in our duty to love Christ.

Well, that last line about sums up my sense of it. We are to do our duty in the love of Christ towards others. Tell them the Truth about their condition but treat them with kindness, respect, dignity, and always with their best interests in mind.

It is tough, and I often fail to do so (and that is NOT a "sort of") but I still need to run that race.

If God is so powerful how come bad stuff happens?

Here is the powerful answer to this question by Rev. Voddie Baucham.

That Which The Lord Hates part 2

(Proverbs 6:16-19) There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

Last post on this I talked about how, with our modern mind set it is hard for us to see how a God who is Love can possibly hate. We see hate as the opposite of love, but it really is not.

Because the English language is not always precise in meanings, or at least people are not always precise in the use of the language, many words have multiple meanings. There is often a blending of definitions that, over time, expand the initial definition.

We have blended the terms love and hate with emotions. To many they mean strong like or dislike.

But the Biblical definition of Love is not a feeling or an emotion, it is a relational term. It is how we will think about someone in terms of them and not us. As a former pastor of mine defined it: "Love is doing what is in the other person's best interest". This does not involve "feelings" at all. In fact, out of love, we ignore our feelings and act in a way that is helps another person.

The real opposite of love is indifference. This is also about how we think of someone, or maybe how we don't think about others.

Hate, however, is a feeling. It is a strong dislike. It is not really relational, though it can be carried out that way. The Biblical definition of hate is focused not on people but on actions.

In this verse, we are told some actions that God really dislikes. In fact, they disgust Him. As a whole, they are acts we do towards others which reflect how we are inside. They reveal an indifferent heart. These are offenses not only to God but towards others.

I find that interesting that God finds it an abomination when we are rotten to other people. Abomination is a strong word that means a total disgust. It is something He really really really does not like.

I think this stems because God does not do these things to other people. They are opposite to His Character and since we are created in His image, we are distorting Him when we act in this way. His intent in creating humans was that we would reflect Him. Instead our sin has cracked that mirror and twisted His image in us. What was beautiful is now ugly. What was good is now evil. What was pure is now contaminated.

The other sense here is that it is also heartbreaking. These actions tend not to only hurt or harm others, they hurt the one doing them. As a dad, when my children act in any of these ways I am both angry and sad. Angry at the action and sad because my child is, ultimately, hurting himself. It may not be immediate, but those character flaws inevitably end up creating damage to himself. God knows this as well.

Our response to this verse should be one of taking a deep look at our actions and using them to measure our heart. Do we love, or are we indifferent?

That Which The Lord Hates part 1

(Proverbs 6:16-19) There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

We don't like to use the word "hate" much in our culture. It is such a "negative" word, and we want to live in a positive place - a place where we are affirmed and grow and prosper, where peace abounds aplenty and there is no conflict.

Much of the current view of God is that He is loving, which means to many that He will bring "good" upon us (meaning stuff we want). When we mention things like God's wrath, God's punishment, sin, God's anger - this can take one aback a little. Whoa, a kind, tender, loving God wouldn't get angry or punish - well, He might "time out" or "scold", but not bring down His ire like thunder on a mountain!

Well, He has and promises He will. Our vision of God is often this big, huggable guy - the friendly giant, the sweet old man next door (some even paint Him as the nice grandma, but that's another blog, another time). We fail to realize that God is as complex and multi-dimensional as we are and even more so.

Scripture tells us that He has emotions. Not the out-of-control, mind-of-their-own human-type emotions but perfect emotions (why wouldn't they be perfect, He is God?) So God reacts perfectly to every situation. He knows how to perfectly respond so that His attributes of perfect mercy and perfect justice are met as well.

God warns us about the things that make Him mad. The passage at the start of this is one of them. There are more.

If my dad said to me, "Tom, stop talking" guess what, I shut up. If I didn't I would "get in trouble". This could be any number of options, but if he said "Tom, stop talking or I will spank you" then that pretty much cleared things up. I would usually shut up.

That is how God has done this. He has warned us (pointed out that which is a sin) and given us the consequences (usually eternal time out - death by separation from Him, which also means that we are no longer under His protection from pain, suffering, etc.).

If you are a true Christian, one who is repentant of sin and under the Lordship of Christ, meaning that you are no longer living for yourself but living for Christ, then that means someone else did your punishment for your sins, which is a pretty wonderful thing to me, personally.

So my attempts at obedience to Christ is out of love for Him for what He did rather than out of fear of God for what He says He will do because I sin. This is the essence of the Christian walk - to love Christ more through knowing Him deeper by obedience to Him. That is our response to the Cross.

I will get into the specifics of "That Which The Lord Hates" in more blogs as I look at our response to Proverbs 6:16-19

For His Glory,
Tom

The Sense of Christ's Death

Clostridiophile said...

Also, Christians are never very explicit on how God having himself killed by us (which makes no sense) makes it easier for him to forgive sins that he knew in advance we would commit. Care to explain?

We don't really say that it makes it "easier" for Him to forgive our sins, we say that it DID forgive our sins.

For example, my step-son recently got a ticket for not wearing a seat belt. $65.

Now, he could have whined about how unfair that was. He was only not wearing his seat belt. It wasn't hurting anyone else, etc. But he didn't - because his dad paid the fine for him. His dad took on the punishment for his child. His dad was out the money so his son was free from the burden of the ticket.

This is what Christ (God) did on the cross. He paid our $65. The punishment for our sin was "paid" by someone else.

Now, my step-son had been told by driver's ed, told by us, most likely told by his dad, that he should always wear a seat belt. It was a good idea for him to do. It was safer. It was the law, and there was a fine if you did not wear it and got caught. He knew all this in advance, but still refused to wear his belt. In fact, we (his parents) all knew that we was not wearing his belt.

You're right, though, in that it does not make sense.

My step-son's dad should not have paid the ticket. It would have been a better lesson for him to have paid the fine himself.

The problem was that he did not have the money. Ignoring the ticket could result in a license suspension, larger fines, bench warrant, an arrest, even jail. His dad loves his son, so it was not "easier" but it was out of that love that he paid the fine for his son.

Now, as a result, my step-son should have with a greater appreciation for his dad, who sacrificed his own money for the benefit of his son. This should also help him to remember to buckle up, because of what his dad did for him.

It is out of love for us - even though we have broken His laws, we have spurned Him, we have opposed Him, we have been His enemy - that He sacrificed Himself on the cross.

If not for Christ would I have to kill Homosexuals?

Clostridiophile said...

"Now, why am I not running out stoning or executing men who have sex with other men or adulterers or my children who curse me? Because in Matthew 5:17 Christ tells us He is the fulfillment of the Law."

Oh, so if it had not said this, and you only had the OT to go by...you would kill homosexuals..or anyone for that matter due to something a book tells you?

Well, since I committed adultery, I engaged in homosexual behavior myself, I participated in the murder (through abortion) of my children - so I would not be doing the stoning, I would be stoned.

It is interesting that so many focus on the punishment or consequences, trying to make them seem extreme or unfair - and they are - from our point of view since we are the ones who could be the recipients of the punishment. Unfairness is always unfair in the eyes of the person on the short end of the stick, even if they chose that stick themselves. The guilty either proclaim their innocence or the injustice of their punishment.

Now, when we, meaning people, make laws, we don't usually make the consequences based on how we would feel if we had to serve that punishment. No, we based the punishment on how severely we view the crime, so, obviously, God views these "crimes" - adultery, homosexual actions, etc as very severe.

Why? because they pervert His image (we are made in His image) thus smearing His Name.

This may not seem like a big deal to you, but to God, it is very important.
This may seem tyrannical. This may seem petty. This may seem like overkill on God's part, but we cannot possibly see something totally from God's perspective.

We close our eyes, though, to the evidence. The pain and suffering that is brought about by our sins, not only to others but to ourselves.

In love, God says do not do these actions. In justice, He says these are the consequences and they must be exacted (or it would not be justice). In mercy, He "became sin for us" and took the consequences Himself. In charity, He offers the choice to each of us - repent of our sins and receive Christ - or - take the punishment on yourself.