Dependence

11 Give us this day our daily bread, 

12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

I can speak to the faithfulness of God in answering this prayer. But I have been noticing something significant of late. The phrase "give us this today" governs the rest of the prayer. All too often I find myself limiting scope of this phrase to just daily bread. But that clause governs the entire second half of the prayer. Provide for our physical needs (daily bread) TODAY. Forgive us our sins (as we forgive others) TODAY. Lead us not into temptation TODAY. Deliver us from evil TODAY. Too often my prayers in these areas are long term and in this is revealed my sinful independence and pride. I want provision from The Lord so that I have enough for the rest of my life (and then some). I want deliverance from temptation forever so that I never struggle with lust, anger, dishonesty, or any other sin again. Why? So that I can life life how I want free from guilt. The Lord, on the other hand, calls us to daily dependence. I think this is because he knows my proclivity towards independence and long term deliverance would lead to independence (me thinking I delivered myself) rather than dependence on Christ for daily deliverance. This why we are told by Christ to "daily" take up our cross (Luke 9:23). This why in the wilderness any extra manna that was collected beyond what was needed for that day rotted (Exodus 16). This is why I feel encumbered by sin when I go days doing it on my own without daily dying to myself and depending on Christ. 

The Goodness of God

I ended my last post stating that all that we see, even the most beautiful things we see, are broken because of our sin.  And the story of God's redemption, both of of fallen humanity and the broken world we find ourselves in, is the story of the gospel.  But before I talk more about that, the issue of God's goodness needs to be addressed.  For all to often, when people consider the brokenness of the world, the fact that evil exists and the sheer magnitude of that evil, people have a tendency to blame God and/or question His goodness.

Evil is a perplexing issue with good reason.  Anyone who honestly looks at the world has to come to the conclusion that something is wrong.  Suffering and pain are real, and they hurt.  And the level of evil in the world at times reaches very dark low points.  When we look at scripture, we are told when evil entered creation (when Lucifer rebelled against God) but we are not told where it came from (i.e. how evil entered Lucifer's heart and where it was before that).  It is one of those things that God has chosen not to reveal to man.  But what becomes crystal clear is that God is sovereign, that He is in control of everything, and that He is good.

Now, that last sentence really bothers people.  The line of thought goes like this: if He is all powerful (sovereign) and if He is in control of everything, then He cannot be good because He allows pain, suffering, and evil to happen.  As someone who has been through quite a bit of pain and suffering (although admittedly not as much as many) let me tell you why that sentence doesn't bother me.  It doesn't bother me because the more I walk with God, the more I see the darkness and sin in my heart and the holiness and goodness of God.  My heart is a dark, dark place and I am capable of heinous things.  This drives me to the cross of Christ over and over and over again.  And the reality is, contrary to popular opinion, my heart is not abnormal.  The heart of every man, woman and child is heinously evil and capable of sin of monstrous proportions.  For me, the real question isn't, "Why is their evil?" the real question is, "Why is there any good in the world?"  We (humanity) are the problem with evil.  Our lack of understanding about (or unwillingness to acknowledge) our sin nature combined with our societies insatiable appetite for comfort clouds the issue of evil in the minds of most.

Combined with that is our lack of understanding about God.  I think Randy Alcorn puts it best when he says, "Behind almost every human expression of the problem of evil stands the assumption that somehow we know what God should do.  But unlike him, we are not all-knowing, all-wise, all-loving, all-powerful, and perfectly good - so how could we know?  As finite and fallen individuals, how can we presume to judge God?  Compared to him, we know very little, and even that is often distorted.  We simply lack the necessary qualifications to assess what God should or shouldn't do" (The Goodness of God, p 54).  This doesn't minimize the pain and suffering that are in this world.    But it should cause us to stop and think about the fact that we are the problem, not the solution.  Christ is the solution.  And it has been my experience that the presence of pain and suffering in my life magnifies the goodness of God rather than diminishes it.

The Grandeur of God

I just finished Matt Chandler's book The Explicit Gospel and there will be much to come on this blog about that book as it was amazing.  However, there was one point in particular that has been blowing me up a little bit the past few days.  It is a point that I have made on this blog before, but which has been hit home yet again since reading Chandler's book, and that is the immense glory and magnificence of God.  Consider this: man is by nature a creature that creates.  We like to build things.  We like to take raw material and make things that are unique and special.  Whether it is taking wood and making a cabinet or arranging a house in such a way that people say, "Wow," we like to create.  Yet we are limited in our creativity by the material we have present.  For instance.  I like to make things out of wood.  Despite the fact that I am limited by my lack of expertise, I am limited by the material I have at hand.  The same is true for "expert" wood workers.  They too are limited by the amount of raw material they have on hand.  Yet consider this (and this is the point Chandler made): God has no such limitation.  God created everything out of nothing (the technical term is ex nihilo).  This fact has been pounded home because my wife and I are currently on a vacation.  Today we took a drive along the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific" and then hiked (a legit, 2000 ft vertical in 3 miles hike) to the Napali Coast.  Cliffs soar out of the ocean and the pictures do not do justice.  For instance, find the helicopter in one of these three pictures... in fact, I'll even tell you it is in the picture that look looks like the Grand Canyon... good luck).  But everything I saw today was created by God out of nothing!!  It's not like He had rocks and said, "Hmmm, let's make a planet and then make a canyon." No, he created the rock itself, and then everything else that makes it look so amazing from nothing. Let that sink in a little and blow you up.  And then let this sink in.... everything I saw today (in the pictures below).... is broken because of our sin.  More to come on that later.

Thoughts on "The Explicit Gospel"

"The religious, moralistic, churchgoing evangelical who has no real intention of seeking God and following him has not found some sweet spot between radical devotion and wanton sin; he's found devastation.  The moralism that passes for Christian faith today is a devastating hobby if you have no intention of submitting your life fully to God and chasing him in Christ." ~ Matt Chandler

I have been reading Matt Chandler's first book, The Explicit Gospel, for the past few days and have been blown away and floored more than I can recount in this blog.  For those of you who have heard him preach, his writing style is very similar to his preaching, that is, blunt and to the point.  His book focuses on the gospel from two vantage points, the ground level (i.e. the individual) and the "30,000 foot level" (i.e. all of creation) and has a section at the end that has some practical implications and dangers of spending all of our energy focused on one aspect and not taking the entire, "explicit," gospel into account.

I am currently half way through the "30,000 foot level" section, but could not wait to finish the book to share a few thoughts, specifically about the "ground level" section.  Chandler focuses on the gospel at the ground level in terms of God, Man, Christ, and Response.  The quote above has really stuck with me since I read it.  Probably because I live and work in a sphere so influenced by moralism.  But this quote really got emphatically pounded home by two other points that Chandler made.  First, we don't properly understand the severity and kindness of God and second, we don't often realize or think about the fact that the gospel ALWAYS elicit's a response.  The Gospel always brings about either "hatred or passion" toward Jesus Christ (ambivalence towards the gospel is just veiled hatred, let's be honest).  

The severity and kindness of God "both come from his (God's) perfect and holy self-sufficiency, and they are both extended justly to his creation, but the chief difference between them - and the reason we don't talk about it as much - is that only severity is deserved" (Chandler).  We don't often think about God's severity towards our sinfulness.  We don't fear God as we should.  This is the only explanation for how people can play the moralistic religious game.  Also, we don't understand that the gospel ALWAYS elicits a response.  This is because it is God who elicits that response to His word.  People are either hardened to the gospel or drawn too it, there is no in between.

We must stop playing silly religious games.  Religion, our ability to conform ourselves to a social or behavioral norm, has never and will never save.  Christ and only Christ can save.  

Easter

For the past several months I have been hooked on reading the Puritans, primarily John Owen.  Although today at the book store I bought several other books in the "Puritan Paperback" series by authors other than Owen.  My reading of Owen, and my perusal of the others, has left me with two deep impressions.  First, the Puritans, perhaps more than any other group in Church history, understood the holiness and glory of God, and longed to see Him more than life itself.  Secondly, they had a better understanding of the natural state of man than most modern minds, especially most modern psychologists, for they understood the sinful nature of man better than anyone I have ever read outside of Scripture (for example, I just bought a 284 page, small font book entitled, The Sinfulness of Sin).

These two thoughts have converged for me this Easter season.  Everyone loves Easter.  Tomorrow most of America, with the exception of the staunchest atheists, will head to church.  Little boys and girls will be dressed up in their spring best, there will be flowers and hats and smiles all around, and meals will be shared with family and friends as kids pass out from a sugar buzz.  And I fear that for most of America, including professing Evangelical America, this will be the extent of it.  The implications of the cross and resurrection of Christ will be lost on most because we don't understand God, and we don't understand how wicked we are that the Son of God had to suffer and die to pay a debt we couldn't bear.

In his new book, The Explicit Gospel, Matt Chandler says, "The work of God in the cross of Christ strikes us as awe-inspiring only after we have first been awed by the glory of God."  Honestly, when was the last time you sat down and thought about the nature and character of God in an attempt to comprehend His glory?  When in life have you been awed by the glory of God?  Let me put that another way, consider for a moment how little you actually know about God and how big He actually is.  John Owen puts it this way, "Will not a due apprehension of the inconceivable greatness of God, and the infinite distance in which we stand from Him, fill our souls with a holy and awful fear of Him?"  Everyone loves the thought of Easter because rather than filling them with a good and holy fear (there is such a thing as good fear) it numbs them to the reality that Easter is all about how holy God is and how awful we are.  

Think about it for a minute, we are celebrating the fact that God came to earth and lived as a man, he suffered horribly and died substitutionary death because we are so wicked that we cannot be in the presence of God unless He did something to fix it.  We are so sinful that when the holy, perfect Son of God walked on earth, the righteous people killed Him.  We are so sinful that we celebrate the ultimate sacrifice of the Son of God while making light of the reason He had to die, our wickedness.  

The more I read scripture, and the more I read great saints of old, and the longer I live the more I am realizing that walking closer with God doesn't mean that I feel better about myself as a person.  No, all it means is that in the light of Truth, I will see more clearly who I really am, and when I the Truth exposes the darkness that dwells in me, the grace of Christ is magnified all the more.  Grace becomes tangible and Christ is glorified as sufficient for everything.  

May this Easter be one in which Christ draws you near and magnifies Himself in your life, that He may become more and we may become less. 

Self-Justification

"As long as your conscience is able to justify your [moral] failure, your soul will never vigorously attempt the mortification of sin." ~John Owen

The other day I was looking back over some past posts and realized that I was seeing a trend in what I have been writing about.  Due in part to a large influence by who I have been reading, I have noticed that many of my posts tend to deal with sin, and our fight against it.  In the past months I have come to the conclusion that American Christianity rarely, if ever, truly hates sin.  I have reached this conclusion for several reasons.  First, rarely is the "s" word ever mentioned in Christian circles.  Often times sin is treated like an ancillary problem that can be dealt with later after we have introduced teddy bear Jesus.  The problem is, no one ever seems to getting around to dealing with it.  Secondly, as I have pursued conversations about salvation, holiness and sanctification with people, the phrase I think I have heard the most (certainly in the top three), is along the lines of this, "I will never be perfect, that's why there is grace."  That is a true statement, but the context in which that statement is used the most is generally when people are making an excuse for a sin.  And I fear that it used to hide the fact that we rather enjoy the sin we are entangled in and don't want to give it up.  Finally, the fear of God is extinct in most churches.  A poor view of who God is, and our infinite distance from Him because of our sin, has bred a weird familiarity with God that lacks holy fear that He is God and I am a sinful man.  The fact that all of saints in Scripture who see God think that they are going to die is lost on us for some reason.

This has been crystalized for me in my reading of John Owen's The Mortification of Sin which has been abridged (and made easy to read thank goodness) by Richard Rushing.  I would recommend it to anyone who is serious about throwing off the sin which entangles us to easily and running hard after Jesus.  The line from the book that I quote above was kind of an "Aha" moment for me.  We are so quick to justify our moral shortcomings.  We are so quick to either look around us and find someone worse off than we are to compare ourselves to or to write off whatever is pressing on our conscience as just a byproduct of being human that will never be resolved.  And while I am not saying that we will be perfect in this life, I am saying that these excuses are silly because they do not create in us an appropriate hatred of sin that is necessary to run hard after Jesus.  Let me put it this way.  If my wife hates a television show that I insist on watching, I will be deprived of time spent with my wife while I watch that show because she will have nothing to do with it.  If we continually make excuses for indulging in something that Christ hates, what makes us think that we will not be deprived of His presence?  Stop making excuses for sin and start fighting it instead.  Or in other words, stop loving the things of this world and desire instead fellowship with Christ.  And if that last line creates in your heart a response of, "Christ cannot be more interesting than x, y, or z" or "Yes, but what about all that is good in life," repent and ask Jesus to reveal Himself to you and remove whatever idol has a grip on your heart.

Tim Tebow / Peyton Manning

I can't help myself.  All day long, and really ever since Peyton Manning was signed and the Tebow countdown clock started, I have been reading facebook and twitter posts from Tebow-ites raging that God will bless whichever team picks up Tebow and curse the Bronco's.  I'm sorry, I'm laughing at you and not with you.  I will play along with your train of thought and ignore the fact that Peyton Manning also claims to follow Christ (ouch, turns out Timmy and Peyton are in fact on the same team, looks like you can't hate the Bronco's anymore...), and address what I see as the silly premise at the base of a lot of this internet tough guy hate.  I think most of these statements reveal the truth, that many professing believers root for Tim Tebow because they see a man living his faith out in a way that makes them feel guilty because they don't live their faith out at all.  And they are rooting for his success because then the paradigm through which they see God is fulfilled: Do good for God and He will give you earthly blessings.  When that paradigm gets blown up, and the truth that has been proclaimed throughout scripture and history, that those who follow Christ adamantly and without reservation usually end up getting the brunt end of the stick, people get angry because they can't handle the idea that God's ultimate good for a person to get him to the place where he does not hold tightly to the things of this earth.  Thus the promises of a hard life, not an easy one.  I work in college athletics at a Christian University and so I can say this pretty definitively: I rarely see anyone interested in the hope we as Christians have after we beat them senseless at a game.  But when we bust our butts and get a raw deal, or when we give it everything we have and lose when we aren't supposed to, that's when people see something different.  Our hope isn't in a game or success in a game, it's in Jesus Christ.  Tim Tebow got a raw deal.  He was busy busting his butt to be the best he could be and got displaced by a first ballot Hall of Famer (who, once again, professes to believe in the same God).  Stop whining about it and start checking your gut to see what you hope in so that when life does the same thing to you, you run to Christ.

Home

Driving a bus from Lakewood, Colorado to Winona Lake, Indiana offers a person quite a bit of time to contemplate lots of things. That is a dangerous proposition when your brain already refuses to shut off. During this week long road trip with the CCU Women’s Basketball team I found myself often contemplating this question, “What am I doing?”  This was not a question arising from the obvious query regarding the sanity of one who voluntarily and joyfully drives a 37-passenger bus across the country (with help of course).  No, this is a question that I have been found asking myself for the better part of three years. Often the question arises during times of contemplation and reflection and serves as a way to, for lack of a better term, recalibrate my bearings towards Christ. Almost as often the question arises out of frustration with surroundings and circumstances. “The grass is greener” mentality is a struggle that I fight with at times. I think job statistics and the number of times a person is likely to change jobs backs up the premise that many people struggle with this, but that may just be me hoping that I am not the only one who struggles with that.

Regardless of what precipitates the question, my answer almost always leaves me longing for home. Not Alaska, where I grew up and still think about often, and not Colorado, where my house and bed currently reside. I find myself longing to be in the physical presence of Christ. I use the term “presence of Christ” instead of heaven on purpose.  Too often people speak of heaven and what they mean is a peaceful utopia where their sinful desires are met without resistance from conscience or fear of judgment. I long to be rid of my sinful flesh and look into the face of Christ for eternity. The more I ask myself the question, “What am I doing?” the more whatever it is I am doing holds less and less appeal. The more I look at my life and the world around me the more I find myself longing to see the face of Jesus.

Home is not here.  Home is in the presence of Jesus.  We are pilgrims.  We are sojourners.  We are here for a moment and then gone.  Why do we waste our time on anything that does not point us towards or bring us closer to home?

Hope pt 3

Last week when I preached I challenged people to test themselves to see what they put their hope in.  The two tests were these: First, if you knew you were going to die or that Jesus was coming back tonight, what response would that elicit?  Often, I think the response is, "That's great, but... there is so much I want to still do in life.  There is (fill in the blank)."  I know this because this was my response for the longest time.  While it is innocent enough, it belies the fact that we are actually hoping more in whatever we feel sadness for missing in life rather than in Christ.

The second test is one I have used on here before. If you got to heaven and it was everything you ever dreamed of, the streets of gold, the perfect bodies that never decayed or died, past friends and family, all the gifts of Christ you could imagine but Jesus was not there would you miss Him at all?  You see, it is possible to hope in heaven and the gifts of God and not in God Himself. 

These two litmus tests have blown me up this week.  I have an idolatrous heart and the world is an endless idol factory.  Thus the admonitions in scripture over and over to hold loosely to the things of this world and cling tightly to Christ.  We cannot serve both.  It is one thing to have mental conviction, and many have it.  It is another thing to have hope in Christ, and I am finding more and more that fewer and fewer people have it.

New Sermon

Got to preach at Westwood church this morning.... here is the link... it starts with a Three Amigo's sound bite, so don't think you clicked on the wrong link... about 25 minutes long.

http://www.westwoodscommunitychurch.org/web-storage/2012_Spring/12.03.04.mp3