Relevance of the Law

In a recent conversation I learned that a long-standing teacher in our church was concerned over how they anticipated one of the older adult students would comment in their class.  He knew he would be discussing the Old Testament and knew the student would comment on how the Old Testament was no longer relevant.  This position is necessary if you want to believe that somehow the Bible doesn’t actually say that sexually immoral people, particularly homosexuals, are sinning. 

God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. – Romans 5:20 (NLT)

All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. – Romans 5:20 (The Message)

I find it remarkable that people want to use the Bible like a buffet.  They want to choose what they want to eat (believe in).  The problem with this type of belief is you are still the god.  If I appoint myself as qualified with my what I believe to be superior intelligence and wisdom so as to be able to read the Bible, the Word of the Living Lord, and decide which parts apply to me in today’s society and which ones do not, then I am the god of my life.  The one true living God is not my Lord.  And as long as I am the god of my life, I will never be fully convicted of all the sin in my life and will therefore, not see the desperate need I have to repent.

In Romans 5:20 we are told that the purpose of the law was to show us our sin.  Isn’t it obvious then that the one thing someone who wants to dismiss the law wants is to not be shown how what they are doing is sin?  Rather than accept the Lordship of God in their life and humbly submit to His commands, they would prefer to simply say that a portion of His Words are not relevant.  The remarkable part of this conversation is that such a person will argue that they are following God!

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves Me will obey My teaching. My Father will love them, and We will come to them and make Our home with them.  Anyone who does not love Me will not obey My teaching. These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who sent Me.”  – John 14:23-24 (NIV)

Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the Law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose.  …  If you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.  – Matthew 5:17,19 (NLT)

A person who chooses what they want to believe simply does not love God with their whole heart.  No matter how convinced they are that they are doing what God wants them to do regarding accepting sexually immoral activity, they are really opposing the teachings of Jesus Himself.  It is very sad to see Pastors who are willing to do this.  Their purpose is to preach the Person of Jesus, who is the only Truth, to the world.  Yet they do not accept the Truth in His entirety, so they fail at their only vocation.  These are truly dangerous times. 

But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies … Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. … They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. – 2 Peter 2:1,2,19

They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that! – 2 Timothy 3:5 (NLT)

Pray today for those who are ruled by sexually immorality and those who are being taken off the path of following Jesus as a result to support them.  Pray for God’s Spirit to conquer them so that He can take His rightful place as the only Lord in their life.

Psalm 27:1

¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life—
    of whom shall I be afraid?

This first verse is pretty well known among Chrisitians.  At least the “whom shall I fear” part anyway.  Chris Tomlin has made it pretty popular with a song of the same name with the subtitle “lord of angel armies”.  

First, let’s not jump past the first segment which has two parts.  “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”  Can you say that?  Is the Lord and the Lord alone your light?  Do you receive your inspiration, the peace of your soul, and your purpose from the Lord alone?  The Lord is to be your “guide, teacher, comfort, and in every sense our light: He is light within us, light around us, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us (Alistair Begg).”  

David would later write in Psalms 119:105, “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”  The light of the Lord shows us where we are walking now and where we are to be walking.  That’s all the information we need to know.  With that information we can make adjustments and course corrections as necessary to walk where we are to be walking.  Jesus is quoted in John 8:12, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  He is the light.  If we follow Him we will never be in darkness, never.  He is the light of life. 

If we are in the dark, we seek a light so we know where we are to go and won’t stumble.  Do you seek the Lord’s light?  Do you trust in His light for your direction?  Today’s Christian seems to trust a lot in their own wisdom.  I listened to one Methodist pastor say that “we had evolved past Pauline teachings”.  To not believe in what the Word of God says is not to have “the Lord as my light”.  I believe we need to have serious conversations with ourselves and ask whether we completely truly believe in God and trust in God.  If we do we will experience God.  Otherwise, we are following ourselves and we are not a light in a very dark non-lit world.  We will stumble and the world will consume us.

“Note, it does not just say that the Lord gives light, but that He is light; nor that He gives salvation, but that He is salvation (Alistair Begg)”.  John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  “God didn’t so love the world that He saved the world; God so loved the world that He provided a salvation for sinners (J. Vernon McGee).”  That salvation is in a Person.  Peter said in Acts 4:12, “… There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”  Is the Lord your salvation?  Salvation is not found in anything or anyone or anywhere else.  You can be the most intelligent person ever created, you can be the best physically looking person ever created, you can be the most cunning person, or you can be the most fill-in-the-blank, and you will not be saved from an eternal separation from the source of all life.  Your salvation must be in the person of Christ Jesus.  It is found in Him and only in Him.  There is no other way. 

David wrote, “the Lord is MY light and MY salvation”.  It was personal to him.  He knew the Lord intimately.  Do you practice a relationship like that with your light and your salvation?  Is the Lord so important that you set aside time every day to focus on His Word and to be in conversation with Him?  Do you walk looking for Him at all times in your day?  How personal is the Lord to your life … really (as Andy Stanley says in the taking  responsibility for your life series)?

“The Lord is the stronghold of my life.”  Other translations say “strength of my life” and “fortress of my life”.  This is the third cord in this rope that builds the confidence to proclaim “whom shall I fear”.  The Lord is my light, my salvation, and He is my strength.  He is the might that protects me.  I do not depend upon myself, I depend upon Him.  God not only gives the light so we can see, provides the salvation so we have life, He gives the strength so we can live. 

“Whom shall I fear?” “Whom shall I be afraid?” John Knox said, “One with God is a majority.”  There is a strength to that way of thinking and most of us do not walk with that kind of confidence.  I wonder if it is because we are not one with God.  We agree with God and we desire salvation, but we do not want to submit our lives to Him.  Billy Graham said, “This then is our problem: to associate with and love those who are involved in the world without being contaminated, influenced, or swayed by them.  This distinction can only be achieved by a close walk with Christ, by constant prayer, and by seeking the Holy Spirit’s leadership every hour of the day.  God has provided us the power to resist the world and be separated from it, and it is ours to appropriate that power every hour of our lives.” 

It is very difficult for us to walk in confidence, believing and trusting in the Lord for everything when we do not seek oneness with Him, purposely reserving portions of our lives for own.  Whatever portion you keep for yourself to rule over, it is that portion that will eventually corrupt your heart.  Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other (Matthew 6:24).”  We must seek to be one with the Lord.

Another man (Cromwell) was asked why he did not fear anyone, he said “I have learned that if you fear God, you have no one else to fear.”  We have only one Lord.  We are to walk in His precepts.  We are to submit to his commands.  Jesus is quoted in John 14:21, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”  If there is a portion in your life where you either disagree with God’s Word or you just don’t want to let God in on it, you are not loving God with your whole heart. 

Jesus said the first commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30).”  If we want to walk in the confidence of having nothing to fear, we must love our Lord in every way we can, with everything we are, and at all times.

Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 11:12-13, “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.  Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning.”  Here we are taught that the Lord is to be our light, our salvation, and our strength.  Is He all of these to you today?  Solomon reflects that it would be better to be a pour youth than to be our wealthier older selves who are too foolish to listen to God’s Word anymore and hear the warnings the Spirit puts in our hearts.

At Calvary!

Years I spent in vanity and pride,

Caring not my Lord was crucified,

Knowing not it was for me He died

On Calvary.

Mercy there was great, and grace was free;

Pardon there was multiplied to me;

There my burdened soul found liberty,

At Calvary.

By God’s Word at last my sin I learned;

Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned,

Till my guilty soul imploring turned

To Calvary.

Now I’ve giv’n to Jesus everything,

Now I gladly own Him as my King,

Now my raptured soul can only sing

Of Calvary.

Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan!

Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!

Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span

At Calvary!

Am I mindful today of what God did for me?  Am I reflecting upon the fact that He so loved me that He came to live as a human in a physical body, so He could so us Himself, perform no sin, undergo pain and suffering and death on a cross, then be resurrected from the dead?  He did all of this so that I would be able to have the choice of accepting Him and spending an eternity with Him or not accepting Him. 

Can you imagine going to such a length for your child just so they would have an option?  What an incredible sacrifice!  Many parents spend decades living sparsely and saving money so they can give their child an option of attending good schools and going to college.  Some kids of those parents take full advantage of the opportunity, others waste it.  God has provided a perfect sacrifice to offer a simple choice.  The extent of that sacrifice is beyond my comprehension.

Those who have accepted that sacrifice and believe and trust that God is who He says He is should rejoice today.  I pray that I would dwell in joy today at being a child of God, the Creator of all that is or ever will be, the Author of Life.  I pray that I’d look beyond this world and take great comfort in my home with God, the essence of complete love. 

Celebrate today!  Rest in Him today.  Know that you are blessed beyond measure today!

A Foreigner

¹⁸ The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God.  ¹⁹ As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.”  ²⁰ So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters?  God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. ²¹ Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.  ²² It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. ²³ So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. – 1 Corinthians 1:18-23 NLT

I wonder if I really understand what Paul has written here.  I think I understand it when I read it, but as I walk and converse in the world I find that I am often confounded at why people do things and how it is impossible to have a conversation with them about it.  (I’m often confounded at why I do things, but that’s a different topic.)  I have personally experienced times when I just didn’t know how to say something any simpler or clearer, but they just could not understand it.  It was like there was a wall of misunderstanding and my words were changed into another language.  The whole conversation was beyond my comprehension at how there could be such an extent of confusion over a single concept. 

Paul continues in chapter 2 verse 14, “people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.”  My Bible reference tells me the term spiritual as used here means having the Holy Spirit.  People without the Spirit of God in them simply can’t understand the wisdom of God or accept that His ways are the ways that are best for them. 

A pastor once preached that the only message from God an unbeliever can hear is “Come to Me.”  This is the only message that God has for them until they experience Him, believe in Him, and trust Him.  Any other Biblical wisdom is confounding to them and confusing as if it is spoken in a different language.  I have found this is true for what an old Baptist preacher would call “backsliders”.  Once a Christian starts walking away from God’s clear truths and falls into a lifestyle of not loving God and therefore, not obeying God, they also stop hearing God’s wisdoms.  To speak to them about what they are doing while relating to God’s Word is speaking a foreign language to them.  My experience is that they will not recover until they answer the call, once again, to “Come to Me.”  I do not believe that they are lost, but I do believe they are isolated, confused, and wandering very far away from God’s path. 

I should stop being astounded at what the world does or says.  It does not know God or His precepts.  It does not accept that there is one Truth and His name is Jesus the Christ.  In fact, it is an absolute wonder that the world isn’t very similar to hell itself, but then maybe it is.  I am a new creature the Bible says.  Therefore, I should never be surprised when someone treats me like a foreigner, because I am.  This world is not my home.

I pray today that I’ll begin to live in the reality that this world is not my home.  When I speak to someone who can’t understand why we do what we do or why we live the way we live or talk the way we talk, then I can be sure my citizenship in a different reality has been noticed.  Hopefully someone I meet will also want to go too.

Gaping Wounds

I was in a bad jet ski accident on Sunday.  In it and through it I realized that there are many parallels and some very noticeable differences to being physically injured and spiritually injured.  It is an interesting comparison.

First, I drove the ski to the wake to jump it.  I drove it there, no one else drove it there.  I hit the wake and I landed badly.  I did it.  The ski didn’t drive itself there.  It hit the water exactly how the controller told it to using direction and speed.  The only reason it was bad was because I, as the controller, did a bad job and the result was a very bad injury.  It was no one else’s fault and it is ludicrous to even think that it would have been someone else’s fault.  No one would ever debate this.

When we have bad accidents spiritually, why is it so hard for someone to admit that they are there because they did it?  They made the choices to be where they are and it is no one else’s fault.  Yet, when someone tries to tell another that they are where they are because of bad choices to sin when they had been taught by God the right way and had simply not obeyed, they turn on you like a raging lion.  No one made the choices for them.  They made their choices and controlled their direction and speed the way they wanted to.  It is their fault and no one else’s, but getting someone to take that responsibility is incredibly difficult.  But, it is necessary for there to ever be repentance.

However, it is possible to convince people that my injury is not my fault.  I could say that if my cousin had not wanted to go ride the ski then I wouldn’t have gone and wouldn’t have gotten hurt.  So, really it’s his fault.  I could say that if that boat hadn’t been there then I wouldn’t have been tempted to go jump the wave, so it’s the boat’s fault.  I could say the ski handlebar should have been rated to a higher limit and it shouldn’t have broken, so it’s the jet ski manufacturer’s fault.  See how easy that is?  Even with the stark reality that the only reason I have a gaping wound in my leg is I drove the ski into a wake at an unreasonable speed beyond my capability to control, I am able to not take responsibility for it.

Doesn’t everyone do this spiritually?  We are there with an injured spirit and we can “spin” our situation to anyone anywhere that it is because of this person or that person.  If only they’d have done this or that we would not be there.  We can so spin it, even to spiritually discerning people, that they sort of understand how we could choose sin over faith and even condemn those who try to show us the real reality.  This is an alarming failure of the modern church and of Christians who would rather not accept their reality of who they are over any kind of make believe that lessens the reality of the corruption in their heart.

Second, if I was to not get my physical wound attended to by a doctor, people would be quick to call me crazy.  I mean, if I was to walk around with a 4”x3” open wound with exposed inner leg people would be quick to offer help, to offer a ride to a doctor, to even provide immediate care until proper care could be given.  I could refuse such help, but everyone would work overtime to convince me to get the wound cared for.

If only the spiritual church worked like this.  People walk around us daily with gaping spiritual wounds.  If we only allow for God to show us these wounds we would see them.  It is remarkable at what someone can have going on in their life and we will refuse to show concern spiritually.  We will not even offer immediate care, offer to the spiritual hospital, or enough concern to try to convince them to get help and not remain as they are.

We as a walking, talking church in a world of spiritually damaged people must become more aware of people’s injuries.  There is only one physician for the damaged spiritual condition and His name is Jesus.  I pray that God would help us to see those hurting around us and that we’d be willing to care for them.  I pray that we’d take responsibility for our sin problem, in that we are the one who did it and it is no one else’s fault.  Then may we turn it over to Jesus to heal us and make a way.