The rise of socialism in America today is a direct result of the churches failure to remain relevant, not its failure to express its disapproval. Anyone who is a part of a grace-based community will be repulsed by an institutionalized response to human need.
There is little difference between the modern religious charity and the government program in that neither one require relationship or change of heart for either the giver or receiver.
For too long morally upright Christians with a passion for leadership have shunned politics, and now the reverse over-response is a movement to impose Christian values on the populous. Instead of relationship, counseling, miraculous healing, and deliverance the church offers program, service, obligation and theological debate.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
True Restoration:
Janice asked me a long time ago to translate one of her books, "Reality Exercises to Develop the Inner Man," into language more engaging to the masculine heart. I have been eager lately to get back into the project, and its been going great.
So far I've uncovered a number of verses that support what we've often talked about as a Reality for us Christ followers. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. For a few weeks now, God has been saying to me, "I'm responsible for sanctification." I didn't know if this was a message to me, or for me to publish among people I know, or both. So now I'm reading Janice's verses, which are pretty common encouragement verses, and looking them up in context and in several translations, (so that I can state them from a man's heart.) Several of these verses, which are commonly truncated to mean God is on your side, are actually very out of context. Not that they aren't saying what people use them to mean, but that in context they rock even more.
I guess I'm trying to say that, if you are speaking to a "newb" Christian you might use them as they are commonly used but in context they are so much meatier. And its that meat which supports everything God has been laying on my heart. Here's one example:
Romans 8:28 says "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him..."
Romans 8:31 says "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
1 Thessalonians 5:24 says "The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it."
However, Romans 8:28-39 says "28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."[c] 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[d] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Emphasis added by me)
Now Combine it with 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24 really says, (NASB) 23Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
Maybe this is obvious and you guys have always read it this way, but to me this clearly says that God is taking responsibility for both our salvation and our sanctification. He is also promising to complete us (here and now) and preserve us unto the second coming of Christ. In other words 1 Thessalonians 5:23 is saying God will sanctify us so that we may be blameless when Christ returns, not one day we'll be blameless after Christ returns.
Now what is calling in reference to in verse 24? At the least it refers to God calling us out of sin, but isn't that also calling us into light. The writer here is blessing this church by saying may the God who called you bring it about. That means finish it, right? If He already called them but He's going to bring it to pass that means finish it, right? So John, at least, is presuming that God has saved us and he is faithful to complete it. I know other verses say just that, but this clearly says he is preserving our salvation and is sanctifying us.
Back to Romans 8, if we eliminate the "who can condemn you" theme, for which we know the answer, we are left with Paul's assumption that God is going to sanctify us. Romans 8:28, again the word calling. But what if we also eliminate the whole "predestination" theme for a second, because what they are predestined to is conformity to the likeness of His Son. In other words we were made in God's image, right? I think Paul is saying, before God made the world He designed us to be like Christ and that's what he's called us back to when He gave us Christ as our savior.
I know we've talked about this being true, and I knew there were verses somewhere to support the notion, but I didn't expect to find them as the context around verses we've turned into evangelical platitudes. Roman's 8:30 "Those He Justified, He also glorified." BOOM! You can't beat that. No can defend.
But it picks up the theme again in verse 32, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also...graciously give us all things? ...(35) Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." This clearly states (to me) that If God gave his only son for our salvation, then he wouldn't deny us the sanctification in his resurrection, or the authority of His ascension to the thrown. Bang! Its all right here.
It's all right there in one neat little package. I don't care how legalistic you are. Paul and John agree that Christianity isn't just guilt and graveling for forgiveness. It's the full inheritance of Christ--restoration to the glory God intended for each of us when he dreamed of us before He spoke the world into existence.
That's why men hate church. The act of contrition feels like a place we might need to go, but not a place we want to live in. Until Christians are willing to let Christianity be about more than just feeling bad for sin, it will never be appealing to men. It's not a man's fault that a message of guilt doesn't excite his heart. What men crave, what Christ REALLY offers is an answer to the question his heart has been asking him his whole life, "who am I really, and do I have what it takes."
When Christian's let sanctification be a gift too, men will join the church. Until then you are powerless to reach the stronger sex.
So far I've uncovered a number of verses that support what we've often talked about as a Reality for us Christ followers. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. For a few weeks now, God has been saying to me, "I'm responsible for sanctification." I didn't know if this was a message to me, or for me to publish among people I know, or both. So now I'm reading Janice's verses, which are pretty common encouragement verses, and looking them up in context and in several translations, (so that I can state them from a man's heart.) Several of these verses, which are commonly truncated to mean God is on your side, are actually very out of context. Not that they aren't saying what people use them to mean, but that in context they rock even more.
I guess I'm trying to say that, if you are speaking to a "newb" Christian you might use them as they are commonly used but in context they are so much meatier. And its that meat which supports everything God has been laying on my heart. Here's one example:
Romans 8:28 says "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him..."
Romans 8:31 says "If God is for us, who can be against us?"
1 Thessalonians 5:24 says "The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it."
However, Romans 8:28-39 says "28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
31What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."[c] 37No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[d] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Emphasis added by me)
Now Combine it with 1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24 really says, (NASB) 23Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
24Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.
Maybe this is obvious and you guys have always read it this way, but to me this clearly says that God is taking responsibility for both our salvation and our sanctification. He is also promising to complete us (here and now) and preserve us unto the second coming of Christ. In other words 1 Thessalonians 5:23 is saying God will sanctify us so that we may be blameless when Christ returns, not one day we'll be blameless after Christ returns.
Now what is calling in reference to in verse 24? At the least it refers to God calling us out of sin, but isn't that also calling us into light. The writer here is blessing this church by saying may the God who called you bring it about. That means finish it, right? If He already called them but He's going to bring it to pass that means finish it, right? So John, at least, is presuming that God has saved us and he is faithful to complete it. I know other verses say just that, but this clearly says he is preserving our salvation and is sanctifying us.
Back to Romans 8, if we eliminate the "who can condemn you" theme, for which we know the answer, we are left with Paul's assumption that God is going to sanctify us. Romans 8:28, again the word calling. But what if we also eliminate the whole "predestination" theme for a second, because what they are predestined to is conformity to the likeness of His Son. In other words we were made in God's image, right? I think Paul is saying, before God made the world He designed us to be like Christ and that's what he's called us back to when He gave us Christ as our savior.
I know we've talked about this being true, and I knew there were verses somewhere to support the notion, but I didn't expect to find them as the context around verses we've turned into evangelical platitudes. Roman's 8:30 "Those He Justified, He also glorified." BOOM! You can't beat that. No can defend.
But it picks up the theme again in verse 32, "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also...graciously give us all things? ...(35) Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." This clearly states (to me) that If God gave his only son for our salvation, then he wouldn't deny us the sanctification in his resurrection, or the authority of His ascension to the thrown. Bang! Its all right here.
It's all right there in one neat little package. I don't care how legalistic you are. Paul and John agree that Christianity isn't just guilt and graveling for forgiveness. It's the full inheritance of Christ--restoration to the glory God intended for each of us when he dreamed of us before He spoke the world into existence.
That's why men hate church. The act of contrition feels like a place we might need to go, but not a place we want to live in. Until Christians are willing to let Christianity be about more than just feeling bad for sin, it will never be appealing to men. It's not a man's fault that a message of guilt doesn't excite his heart. What men crave, what Christ REALLY offers is an answer to the question his heart has been asking him his whole life, "who am I really, and do I have what it takes."
When Christian's let sanctification be a gift too, men will join the church. Until then you are powerless to reach the stronger sex.
Friday, September 4, 2009
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