Sometimes Silence is Golden

I have a book on my shelf entitled "Well-Intentioned Dragons."  Of the same ilk many of us are well-intentioned encouragers.  But a hole we all can fall into is the "pit of pat sayings."   They are theologically sound and often shared with the hope of comfort and encouragement.  But they are empty clouds with no showers of blessings.   Job felt that way about his comforters:“Your maxims are proverbs of ashes; your defenses are defenses of clay.” (Job 13:12, ESV).

a. "Well, there's always tomorrow!"
b. "God is in control."
c. "Just look to Jesus."
d. "The pain will pass in time."

And so on; and so on!   Yes, I've used them too and they are theologically sound but practically meaningless.  Perhaps some people would like to say to us once and awhile, "Your maxims are proverbs of ashes."

Sometimes silence is golden and your presence is profound!

  

What Are You Spending Your Money On?

Subtitle: The Gospel According to Isaiah

Isaiah 55:1 (ESV) “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."  

The metaphor is that we are invited to enter the marketplace and purchase anything we want, even if we are penniless.  Not only are we invited to come and buy without money, we are encouraged to buy what is the very finest. “. . . Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.” (Isaiah 55:2b, ESV). 

To those who buy well, they will enter into an eternal covenant of grace with Christ Jesus (55:3). The redemption of God is beyond human comprehension, but those that seek Christ will find Him; and His promises are sure (55:6 & 10ff).  To those that buy well there is the promise of ultimate joy (55:12).  This salvation is for Jew and Gentile alike; all who seek the Lord (56:8).

“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” (Isaiah 57:15, ESV)

  

  

You will die ... but not a hair will be touched.

Is this double-talk?   "Some will be put to death."  "Not a hair of your head will perish."  There is only one logical response to this if we hold to the inerrancy and the inspiration of Scripture. God cannot lie.  God cannot contradict Himself.

 

So what's the answer? The ESV Study Bible notes: "In light of the prediction that some disciples will be "put to death" (v. 16), it is best to take not a hair of your head will perish as a metaphorical way of saying that God’s people will suffer no eternal spiritual harm."  I think that this is the only answer that is reasonable.

 

But this leads to a deeper issue ....

 

It seems that when Jesus gave promises, He gave them in light of time and eternity.  So when we read promises like “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” (Psalm 34:19, ESV), it is important to see this eschatologically -- encompassing all time.  Paul, when under Roman arrest could write confidently in Philippians 1:19 (ESV), ". . .

for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance."  Whether through life or death it was all deliverance!  They Jewish captives in Babylon understood this too.  In Daniel 3:16–18 (ESV), we read: 

  

¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. ¹⁷ If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

 

The three captives understood that God's care and deliverance encompassed all time and eternity.  So the deeper issue for Christians is to read the promises of God with that eye looking to the glorious future.   Christ does not promise your best life now!  He promises your best life now ... and forever.

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OUR FAVORITE SPORT

The whistle had already blown and the game had started, then the referee in my head called for a "time out."   I was involved in what has become "a favorite sport."   By the way, I love watching UFC.  Of course I get to do it alone in my house because no one else appreciates or shares my passion.   But there is something about MMA fighting that is good.  When an opponent cannot defend themselves the ref calls the bout. 

Yesterday I got into a favorite sport.  It's called "criticize the church."   But guess what?  It's worse than the fights on Saturday night!  My opponent cannot defend herself.  Nope.  I can just beat her and pummel her into submission.  Thankfully the "Referee" jumped in and convicted me of my atrocity. 

I also was reading a book by an outstanding New Testament expositor, Dr. D.A. Carson.  I soon learned that my favorite sport was also the favorite sport of missionaries and those involved in cross-cultural work.  People actually travel to other lands and then enjoy the sport of beating up on the North American church.  Carson writes,

"This sort of disorientation also accounts, in part, for the frequency and intensity of the criticism of Western institutions and churches uttered by many “Third World” leaders. God knows there is enough to criticize in the West. Nevertheless, in my experience, very few “Third World” leaders spend much time criticizing the West and stressing the need for properly contextualized theology until they have spent a few years studying in the West. Many, many of them no longer quite fit back home. Meanwhile, where have they learned their criticisms of the West? In the West, of course! To criticize the West is an extremely Western thing to do. In fact, to criticize wherever we are is an extremely Western thing to do. Very few of these leaders, for whatever reason, actually engage in much contextualized theology. Instead, they make their reputations criticizing the West." [1]

Do you want to be known for criticizing the Church, or being the means of help and encouragement?

 

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1.  Carson, D. A. (2004-02-01). Cross and Christian Ministry, The: An Exposition of Passages from 1 Corinthians (p. 133-144). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

How Should We Imitate Paul - Final

Again, let me remind you where we have been:  To live like Paul, or to imitate Paul is to live out the implications of the Gospel.   This is the final installment of a series of blogs on this subject.

1. Why I believe that statement to be true?  Click HERE.
2. What is the Gospel?  Click HERE.
3. Is it possible to imitate Paul?  Click HERE.
4. How should we imitate Paul?  Click HERE.

In this final blog on the subject we want to look at what that might look like.  Many people tend to go to 1 Corinthians 13 to talk about love (and that is certainly not wrong); but cross-shaped love -- the love that lives out the implications of the Gospel is better described for us in Philippians 2, in my opinion.

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:1–11, ESV)

From this passage I find these 4 principles.  A cross-shaped love is:

a)      Humble, looking to the needs of others;
b)      Service oriented;
c)      Obedient, regardless of the cost; and
d)      Identifies with the guilty and the lost.

This latter point is the least understood.  The Bible is clear that Christ did not avoid sinners. Someone has rightly said that there can be no impact without contact.  But when contact with sinners is done in a Pharisaic, judgmental way, it can be destructive.  But when Christians understand that apart from God's grace they too would be lost; and when Christians never forget their roots of depravity -- it makes our contact with unbelievers graceful and kind.

The challenge for us who have believed and obeyed the Gospel, is summed up in the question, "Are we living out the implications of the Gospel in our lives."   The good news is that we can. Because of God's mercy toward us, He has poured out His love into our hearts thus making us capable of loving others in a cross-shaped way.   Secondly he has given us His Spirit to enable us to do that. 

 

 

 

How Should We Imitate Paul? - Part 4

To live like Paul, or to imitate Paul is to live out the implications of the Gospel.   In a previous blog I attempted to show why I believe that. You can review that blog by clicking HERE.   But what is the Gospel?   I cover that point in this blog: HERE.   I also wanted you to know that this all was in the realm of possibility.  You and I can imitate Paul; we can live out the implications of the Gospel.  In this BLOG, I show by the New Testament that we indeed can.

What does this look like?

If you had asked me several months ago what I thought was central to Paul's idea of the Gospel, I would have answered, the Doctrine of Justification.  But a more careful reading of the Pauline Epistles has changed my mind.  (I'm not suggesting that justification wasn't important to Paul.)   My conviction today would be stated this way:

For Paul, God's love in the Cross was central to his Gospel and it was this love that shaped his life.

Notice with me a sampling of his words:

Romans 5:5 (ESV) ⁵ and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5:8 (ESV) ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 8:35–39 (ESV) ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 5:2 (ESV) ² And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

2 Thessalonians 2:16 (ESV) ¹⁶ Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,

It is almost with awe and amazement that we read these words of Paul, “. . .  I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20b, ESV).  This love of Christ in the Cross became the driving force of his life.  In 2 Corinthians 5:14 (ESV) we read, "¹⁴ For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died."

I'm going to call this love that so controlled Paul by the title cruciform love or cross-shaped love.  It was a love that Paul experienced on the Road to Damascus and never left him.  Notice what he says in 1 Timothy 1:12–15 (ESV)

"¹² I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, ¹³ though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, ¹⁴ and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost."

What does it mean to live out the implications of the Gospel? It means to love others through the lens of Calvary.  It means to love others through the Cross.

In the next blog I want to see what that looks like practically as we seek to love others through the lens of the Cross.

How should we imitate Paul? - Part 3

In a previous blog I made this assertion: To live like Paul, or to imitate Paul is to live out the implications of the Gospel.   You can review that blog by clicking HERE.   However before we can live out the implications of the Gospel we have to know what the Gospel is.   I cover that point in this blog: HERE.   So let's move on then and consider another important question:

Is it possible to imitate Paul?  The good news is that it is.   We can all live out the realities of the Gospel, even as Paul did.  The truth is that all the New Testament writers believed that Christians could live out the implications of the Gospel. This was fundamental to their understanding.   Let me give you some examples.  Turn to:

a)       Ephesians 4:32 (ESV).   We read, "³² Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."  The implication is that because God in Christ forgave us, we are then expected and empowered to forgive others; or notice,

b)       Colossians 3:1 (ESV), ¹ If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."  Again you see the idea.  If you have been brought to life in Christ, then it is part of our new nature to seek the things of God.

c)        Later in 1 Corinthians, Paul will say to this Church: “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.” (1 Corinthians 5:7, ESV).  You are unleavened now, so clean out any leaven in your life.  

Probably the most important verse that reminds us that this imitation is possible with all of us is found in Colossians 2:6–7 (ESV), "⁶ Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving."  My paraphrase would be, "As you believed the Gospel, now live out the implications of the Gospel." 

In the next blog I want to ask, "OK, so what does that look like?" 

Taking Every Thought Captive

"...Your heart is a fertile greenhouse ready to produce good fruit. Your mind is the doorway to your heart—the strategic place where you determine which seeds are sown and which seeds are discarded. The Holy Spirit is ready to help you manage and filter the thoughts that try to enter. He can help you guard you heart. He stands with you on the threshold. A thought approaches, a questionable thought. Do you throw open the door and let it enter? Of course not. You 'fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ' (2 Cor. 10:5, Phillips). You don’t leave the door unguarded. You stand equipped with handcuffs and leg irons, ready to capture any thought not fit to enter. For the sake of discussion, let's say a thought regarding your personal value approaches.  . . . as a Christian, you aren't your average person. You are led by the Spirit. So rather than let the thought in, you take it captive. You handcuff it and march it down the street to the courthouse where you present the thought before the judgment seat of Christ."  (Just Like Jesus, by Max Lucado)

Pray, Go!

Some passages of Scripture hardly let you catch your breath.  I noted in 2 Corinthians 5:17–18 (ESV), Paul didn't skip a beat from: you are a new creation; and (bang!) you have a ministry -- a ministry of reconciliation.

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ¹⁸ All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

 

I'd love to throw in some Bible School and personal development in there.   In Luke 10 your same breath is taken away.  Note:

 

Pray and go!   Isn't that the essence of true prayer?  Sovereignty and responsibility.  This causes me to evaluate my prayer life.  I wonder if the essence of my praying isn't a subtle way of getting God (or others) to do what I don't want to do?  

How Should We Imitate Paul - Part 2

In a previous blog I made this assertion: To live like Paul, or to imitate Paul is to live out the implications of the Gospel.   You can review that blog by clicking HERE.   To live out the implications of the Gospel requires that we know what the Gospel is.  So what is the Gospel?
 
There are a number of good ways to answer that.   The Bible, of course gives us a the best definition.  I love the summary of Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV)

²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

When I think of the Gospel, I think of Gospel terms.   They are:

 

1. Incarnation.
2. Imputation.
3. Substitution
4. Resurrection
5. Ascension
6. Glorification

When I discuss this with some people I find a confusion of ideas.  First of all, the Gospel is not our testimony.   Secondly, the Gospel is not the plan of salvation. (That is what I often get.)  The Gospel is not the Roman Road, or the A,B,C's of salvation.  No!  The Gospel is "good news".  It should be proclaimed that way.  It's like, "We won!"   "Victory".    It's transliterated from the Greek: euangelion (εὐαγγέλιον).  The English word "gospel," i.e. "good message," is the equivalence.

 

So what is the Gospel?

 

God, in Christ, took on human flesh and lived a perfectly sinless life.  Freely, by grace, God the Father gives to all who believe, the credit of the righteous life of His Son.  Jesus was crucified on a Roman cross and there in the place of all who would believe He bore the wrath of God for all our sin: past, present and future.  On the third day He rose again as evidence that God the Righteous Judge approved of His work and the curse of sin was forever vanquished. After many days the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect God-Man, ascended as triumphal King and Lord of All.  He granted to all who believe the gift of the Holy Spirit as a deposit for an eternal inheritance reserved for them. The Holy Spirit work is to prepare the saints for Christlikeness.  This semblance of the Lord Jesus Christ will be accomplished in totality when He returns and all the saved will be forever glorified and reign with Him forever in His eternal kingdom.

 

Now that's good news!  So knowing that, how are we to live?  I will deal with that in the next blog on this subject. :-) 

 

The First Daily Task

“According to my judgement the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you, the Lord's work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself! Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life. This has been my firm and settled condition for the last five and thirty years. For the first four years after my conversion I knew not its vast importance, but now after much experience I specially commend this point to the notice of my younger brethren and sisters in Christ: the secret of all true effectual service is joy in God, having experimental acquaintance and fellowship with God Himself.”
― George Müller

How Should We Imitate Paul? - Part 1

1 Corinthians 4:16-17

 

Paul does not send Timothy to simply lay out doctrine.  He sends him to show the Church how to apply doctrine -- how to live it out.  Don Carson writes, "This suggests that the Christian leader today not only must teach the gospel, but also must teach how the gospel works out in daily life and conduct. And that union must be modeled as well as explained." [1]  The most important application of Scriptural truth is apply the truth to practical Gospel living.  This is why Paul would write to the Church at Ephesus and encourage them, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,” (Ephesians 4:1, ESV).

 

Therefore, when Paul calls the Church to imitate him, he has a specific function in mind.  He is saying, "Just as I live out the implications of the Gospel, you do the same thing."   

 

So what does that mean in practical terms?   What does it mean to live a life consistent with the Gospel?   Part 2 will continue the conversation.

 

 

 

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1.  Carson, D. A. (2004-02-01). Cross and Christian Ministry, The: An Exposition of Passages from 1 Corinthians (Kindle Locations 1800-1801). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

When Will The End Come?

There's a massive prophetic promise of amazing magnitude in the Prophecy of Isaiah.  We read it in Isaiah 2:2–4 (ESV)

² It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, ³ and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. ⁴ He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

 

Most contemporary teaching sees this prophecy as being fulfilled in the literal millennial kingdom. Many would agree with this commentator: "This points our attention to the millennial future when Israel’s kingdom shall become a reality only during the time when the Messiah shall rule after the church age." ^[1]  To arrive at this conclusion is complicated; and in my opinion requires a great speculation amount of fanciful speculation.  The Bible is clear.

 

Jesus the installed and reigning King of Israel, the Lord of the Church, is today ruling from the "highest of mountains."  The "highest" of mountains need to suggest altitude but rather honor and glory.  In these latter days when people repent and turn to the Messiah they indeed come to that mountain so prophesied by Isaiah.  “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22–24, ESV).

 

"Christ himself is the ultimate “house” or dwelling place of God (John 1:14; 2:19–21). Through him the church becomes a temple (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:20–22), and through Christ’s exaltation the nations are drawn to him (Luke 24:47; John 12:32).^[2]

 

This latter day of Isaiah is already here, yet not fully culminated.  Christ has a day that is here and not yet here.  He has inaugurated His Kingdom upon the resurrection and ascension of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Temple in Zion was and is the hope of the world.  It is the place of righteous reign.  To look for a physical building on a physical hill would be vain.  Look to Christ and His Church.  They are real, literal and present.  “The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies!” (Psalm 110:2, ESV)

 

Paul informs us in Ephesians 1:20–23 (ESV),

 

²⁰ that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. ²² And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, ²³ which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. [Emphasis Mine]

 

What must we expect before the end of all time?   Paul answers the question clearly: “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (1 Corinthians 15:24–25, ESV).

 

Christ is and will continue ruling until all those oppose Him will be defeated.  He then will hand the Kingdom over to the Father.  Then the end. 

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^[1] KJV Bible Commentary. 1994 (E. E. Hindson & W. M. Kroll, Ed.) (1303). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

^[2] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (1243). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.