Leaving the crowd, they [the disciples] took Him [Jesus] along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?" And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still." And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" They became very much afraid and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" (Mark 4:36-41 NASB)
It is often so easy for us to look at the discples and giggle at their unbelief. We think, "Man, these guys live with Jesus, they see Him do miracles all the time, how could they be so unbelieving?" Remember, this is chapter 4 of Mark, so not much has happened yet in the book. No feeding of five thousand (ch. 6), no raising of dead babies (ch. 5), nothing huge. Sure, Jesus had healed some people and had defeated some demons.... but nothing on the size or scale of calming one of those nasty Sea of Galilee storms.
The disciples not only were suffering from a lack of faith... but the Bible says that they were afraid! They were scared of Jesus.
When was the last time you were actually scared because of God's power?
Check these passages: Matt 10:28; Ecc 12:13; 2 Cor 7:1; Prov 1:7. The Fear of God is a natural thing for believers. God is eternal! God is omnipotent! God is sovereign!
Why should we fear God?
God is Holy, set apart, and perfect.
God deserves our respect. Yet we often do not give it.
We do not believe God's word to be true, and we do not fear offending God.
Look at the Old Testament. The people of Israel consistently wavered from the Godly path. God just as consistently had to punish them. This was not some wrist slap. This was wholesale slaughter on nearly genocidal proportions.
We, as believers, often want to play the whore with our God. We sign our lives over to Him, then go play around with sin. We give God the proverbial spiritual "finger". And we never fear what God may do.
Gal. 6:7 says "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap."
When we look at farming, we know that laying corn seeds will produce corn plants. Same with apples, tobacco, and cotton. It is the same with sin and righteousness. If we keep planting evil deeds and slapping God in the face, He will not allow Himself to be mocked.
Fear God. Use this as a reason to keep yourself pure. Use this as a reason to love God, because He will never change, and you know you can count on Him. In a world of change where from one day to the next you never know who to trust, you know God will be there.
Merry Christmas
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
What a difference one "O" can make!
God is Good! Even when it doesn't feel like it.
The Bible often talks about hard times. Tribulations, testings, trials, temptations. Seems like a lot of "T" words, doesn't it? Sometimes it feels like life is nothing but this. Blessings have taken a stroll and I am right in the midst of the land of the T words. You know how this feels? Sure, we all do.
Life seems really crappy sometimes. We go through sicknesses, break-ups, deaths of friends and family, loss of jobs; we get made fun of simply for standing up for the truth, we are persecuted because we don't sleep around or get drunk; we simply lose our way sometimes in all the negativity out there.
Why does God allow hard times for people that are living as righteously as they know how? For example. My brother is going through a divorce right now. An acquaintance of mine just had to go see her dad in the hospital for heart troubles and he is a pastor. All of us know times when good people go through bad things. God doesn't seem so good at times like this.
Well, lets look at the Bible's reaction. James 1:2-4 says "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
When life sucks... we are to be joyfull? We are to be fulfilled and smile and be thankful for these things? How can you be thankful for a heart attack, or for heart break for that matter? How can you find joy in losing your job or your best friend to cancer? Because you will be lacking in nothing. Now, I know when I lose friends I feel like I am lacking. I am lacking in the love and the relationship I had that is gone now. But God says that when I am weak, I am actually stronger. (2 Cor 12:10)
God is so good! Even when things are bad, we know that He will work things out for us. All we have to do is rest in Him.
We also cannot forget that not only is God Good, but Good is God! Keep reading James 1 and you come to verse 17, "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. " All good that you see is a gift from God.
Praise Him!
The Bible often talks about hard times. Tribulations, testings, trials, temptations. Seems like a lot of "T" words, doesn't it? Sometimes it feels like life is nothing but this. Blessings have taken a stroll and I am right in the midst of the land of the T words. You know how this feels? Sure, we all do.
Life seems really crappy sometimes. We go through sicknesses, break-ups, deaths of friends and family, loss of jobs; we get made fun of simply for standing up for the truth, we are persecuted because we don't sleep around or get drunk; we simply lose our way sometimes in all the negativity out there.
Why does God allow hard times for people that are living as righteously as they know how? For example. My brother is going through a divorce right now. An acquaintance of mine just had to go see her dad in the hospital for heart troubles and he is a pastor. All of us know times when good people go through bad things. God doesn't seem so good at times like this.
Well, lets look at the Bible's reaction. James 1:2-4 says "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
When life sucks... we are to be joyfull? We are to be fulfilled and smile and be thankful for these things? How can you be thankful for a heart attack, or for heart break for that matter? How can you find joy in losing your job or your best friend to cancer? Because you will be lacking in nothing. Now, I know when I lose friends I feel like I am lacking. I am lacking in the love and the relationship I had that is gone now. But God says that when I am weak, I am actually stronger. (2 Cor 12:10)
God is so good! Even when things are bad, we know that He will work things out for us. All we have to do is rest in Him.
We also cannot forget that not only is God Good, but Good is God! Keep reading James 1 and you come to verse 17, "Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. " All good that you see is a gift from God.
Praise Him!
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
inclusivism in an exclusive world
The world is a scary place. Everyone has their beliefs, and they are willing to fight and even possibly die for them. If you don't believe me, name a teddy bear Muhammad (http://cbs13.com/national/Muhammad.Teddy.Bear.2.596986.html). The world will not budge. Just try talking to someone about Abortion, The best American Idol ever, or original sin - they will start throwing down if you don't side with them.
So, as Christians, are we standing up for our beliefs? Not in an angry way, but in an absolute sense. We must stand in love for what we know to be true. (For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures - 1 Corinthians 15:3-4) As Dr. John MacArthur says, "Not knowing what you believe is by definition a kind of unbelief. (The Truth War Page xi)" This lack of knowing what we believe in has caused a cancer to start to grow in our churches. This cancer is known as "inclusivism". But what does that mean? In a theological sense, it is the idea that all religions hold truth, just not as much as others may.
In other words, Christianity is true ... somewhat. But so is Islam, Hinduism, and Humanism. Christianity is just the best. Anyone searching for God will find Him... No matter where they look.
This is creeping into our churches. No joke. Let's look at some quotes from pastors who are well respected in many churches today.
"I must add, though, that I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts."---Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, p. 260
"going to heaven is like going to Philadelphia....There are many ways....It doesn't make any difference how we go there. We all end up in the same place."-Tony Campolo"Carpe Diem: Seize the Day", 1994, pages 85-88
"...what can I say to an Islamic brother who has fed the hungry, and clothed the naked? You say, "But he hasn't a personal relationship with Christ." I would argue with that. And I would say from a Christian perspective, in as much as you did it to the least of these you did it unto Christ. You did have a personal relationship with Christ, you just didn't know it."-Tony CampoloEVANGELICALS AND INTERFAITH COOPERATION, An Interview by Shane Claiborne
"...Isn’t God’s message to sinful humanity that He sees in each of us a divine nature of such worth that He sacrificed His own Son so that our divine potentialities might be realized? ... The hymn writer who taught us to sing “Amazing Grace” was all too ready to call himself a “wretch” ... Forgetting our divinity and over-identifying with our [Freudian] anal humanity... Erich Fromm, one of the most popular psychoanalysts of our time, recognized the diabolical social consequences that can come about when a person loses sight of his/her own divinity ...”-Tony Campolo"Partly Right" 1995
Do good works bring about God's grace? Did Jesus come and die on a cross simply as a good idea? If there are many ways to God, why did Jesus have to die? Jesus' own words should be a good commentary on this point.
John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me.
John 14:2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
John 14:4 You know the way to the place where I am going."
John 14:5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is the only way to the Father (God). He is also the truth. He is LIFE itself! Preaching anything less than this is doing a diservice to the ministry, to the people listening, to the lost world, and most of all to the Sacrificial Lamb that is Jesus our Lord and Savior.
Run from this kind of scary thinking. Naturally, this is how we want to look at God. We want Him to be some huge grandfather, looking down with forgiveness no matter what we do. This is sin affecting your thoughts. We must transform our thinking to match the Scriptures, not allow our thinking to transform the Scriptures.
"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
So, as Christians, are we standing up for our beliefs? Not in an angry way, but in an absolute sense. We must stand in love for what we know to be true. (For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures - 1 Corinthians 15:3-4) As Dr. John MacArthur says, "Not knowing what you believe is by definition a kind of unbelief. (The Truth War Page xi)" This lack of knowing what we believe in has caused a cancer to start to grow in our churches. This cancer is known as "inclusivism". But what does that mean? In a theological sense, it is the idea that all religions hold truth, just not as much as others may.
In other words, Christianity is true ... somewhat. But so is Islam, Hinduism, and Humanism. Christianity is just the best. Anyone searching for God will find Him... No matter where they look.
This is creeping into our churches. No joke. Let's look at some quotes from pastors who are well respected in many churches today.
"I must add, though, that I don't believe making disciples must equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in many circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu, or Jewish contexts."---Brian McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy, p. 260
"going to heaven is like going to Philadelphia....There are many ways....It doesn't make any difference how we go there. We all end up in the same place."-Tony Campolo"Carpe Diem: Seize the Day", 1994, pages 85-88
"...what can I say to an Islamic brother who has fed the hungry, and clothed the naked? You say, "But he hasn't a personal relationship with Christ." I would argue with that. And I would say from a Christian perspective, in as much as you did it to the least of these you did it unto Christ. You did have a personal relationship with Christ, you just didn't know it."-Tony CampoloEVANGELICALS AND INTERFAITH COOPERATION, An Interview by Shane Claiborne
"...Isn’t God’s message to sinful humanity that He sees in each of us a divine nature of such worth that He sacrificed His own Son so that our divine potentialities might be realized? ... The hymn writer who taught us to sing “Amazing Grace” was all too ready to call himself a “wretch” ... Forgetting our divinity and over-identifying with our [Freudian] anal humanity... Erich Fromm, one of the most popular psychoanalysts of our time, recognized the diabolical social consequences that can come about when a person loses sight of his/her own divinity ...”-Tony Campolo"Partly Right" 1995
Do good works bring about God's grace? Did Jesus come and die on a cross simply as a good idea? If there are many ways to God, why did Jesus have to die? Jesus' own words should be a good commentary on this point.
John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God ; trust also in me.
John 14:2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
John 14:4 You know the way to the place where I am going."
John 14:5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus is the only way to the Father (God). He is also the truth. He is LIFE itself! Preaching anything less than this is doing a diservice to the ministry, to the people listening, to the lost world, and most of all to the Sacrificial Lamb that is Jesus our Lord and Savior.
Run from this kind of scary thinking. Naturally, this is how we want to look at God. We want Him to be some huge grandfather, looking down with forgiveness no matter what we do. This is sin affecting your thoughts. We must transform our thinking to match the Scriptures, not allow our thinking to transform the Scriptures.
"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)
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