Reading Paul's Letter to the Ephesians

 I frequently tell people that I'm a "late bloomer," because there are multiple areas in my life where I feel like I matured or developed much later in life than the average person. I've had several breakthrough or "ah-ha!" moments in my late 20s and 30s that would have been useful earlier in life. I recently felt like I had one such breakthrough in regards to the epistles of Paul, but the book of Ephesians in particular. My mention of being a late bloomer is kind of a disclaimer saying that what I'm able to say may be super obvious info that most readers already understood.

The Problem

The first three chapter of Ephesians, and several other places in the epistles, have always been a little hazy for me to read... like they wash over me, but I don't absorb much. Or the sentences just go completely over my head. The first three chapters of Ephesians are rich and full of theology, but I've always found myself reading it, being encouraged by a sentence here and there, but mostly overwhelmed and clueless as to what it really means "for me." There are some obvious exceptions like the reality of our "predestination to adoption as sons," but large chunks have just felt like an abstract painting that looks cool but doesn't "speak to me."  Chapters 4-6 contain much more applicable verses to everyday living, so I can more easily remember the teaching in these chapters.

The problem was that I've always read these passages, one verse at a time, trying to find their direct application to ME and find the "eternal truths" and principles that I can immediately claim and apply, as if Paul was writing a theological how-to textbook. But by taking a microscope to these verses, I lost the forest for the trees. And it's ironic that in an attempt to understand with the microscope method, the result was a lack of understanding. Our problematic tendency in our approach to interpreting scripture is that we prioritize "archetypal principles" and "eternal truths," and immediately insert ourselves into the text with little regard to the original context of the writing. What's embarrassing is the fact that I've known "context is important!" for a long time, but only recently did Ephesians open up to me in a new way -- simply because of this idea of original context. Side note: when we're taught to consider the context of a passage, often we think that just means look at the few verses before and the few verses after. But the other things to consider are 1) who exactly was Paul (or Peter, John, etc.) writing to, and 2) what did those readers think/feel/experience that might necessitate a letter like this?

The Solution

When I recently read the book of Ephesians in its entirety in one sitting, as one cohesive letter to a specific recipient, the veil was finally lifted, and the mystery was revealed. In an extreme case of irony, the key to the "mystery" I had always struggling with, -- in terms of the meaning of all these rich verses -- is right in Eph. 3:6 when Paul reveals the mystery of Christ. The whole purpose of this letter was to assure the Gentile Christians that they had a seat at the table and were no longer outsiders in God's story! Now, rather than continue writing about the implications of that and what we see in Ephesians, I want to approach this another way. This may be slightly controversial, so please bear with me. In order to help you read Ephesians, I am going to write a fictional letter to Paul from the church in Ephesus. Anyone could write this letter in a number of different ways. All I'm trying to do is use a mirrored approach to highlighting the meaning of Paul's words in Ephesians. So what I encourage you to do is this: read my letter below, then immediately either listen to or read the book of Ephesians from start to finish. It's only 6 chapters, and it takes about 18 minutes to listen to the whole book.

Last thing I feel I should mention: many Bible scholars believe that the letter to the Ephesians was kind of a "general" letter that Paul wrote to Gentile Christians that was passed along to several different communities. Unlike the letters to the Corinthians, which was very specific in addressing problems of a particular congregation, Ephesians is more broad in scope. So this is very much pretending and "sanctified imagining" if you will, but I still believe it will be helpful.

Dear Paul,

We hope you are well, and we are ever grateful for your visit and preaching the message of Jesus Christ to us.

This is all so new, strange, and still sometimes confusing. We are reckoning with and wrestling with the scriptures, trying to remember all you told us, but still trying to understand. We've even been discouraged at times. You told us we need not be circumcised to be part of Christ's church. But that still seems to be such a divide between ourselves and the Jews -- not just for them, but for us as well. Our city of Ephesus is so full of pagan worship and sinful practices--it is the way of life here among our people. We're almost ashamed to call ourselves Ephesians, but that's what we are. Is there really hope for us to have a place in Christ's church? Can we be anything other than lowly, needy, outcast Gentiles? How can it be that we might in any way be included in God's promises to His Israelite people...the promises He made time and again for generations? We barely just arrived on the scene! What business do we have with God's covenants with Abraham, David, etc?

We heard about the Messiah's conversation with the Gentile woman who told Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table.” We have these crumbs, and we are exceedingly grateful for them. But is this the way Yahweh will always see us? Are we hungry dogs forever? Will we be merely fortunate to receive whatever is left over after the Firstborn receives his inheritance? The Jews have all these promises of inheritance, glory, and communion with God. How can it be that we are part of the same community in Christ? Even some of the Jewish Christians that come through town seem to struggle with the issue of our uncircumcision, our dietary practices, and other cultural differences. What does Christ want from us? How are we to live? Which customs and laws should we make sure we are observing? We want to give Him thanks and praise, and we hope to be included among His people, even though we might not partake in the full inheritance that He reserved for the Jews. We know that God chose you, Paul, a son of Israel. A Hebrew of Hebrews. You are part of the Chosen People. We stand here, hoping to be so much as doorkeepers at the house of the Lord, rather than dwelling in the tents of the wicked (Psalm 84:10). Though we hesitate to even draw a line between ourselves and "the wicked" referred to in Psalm 84. "The wicked" was us.

In short, we as Gentiles know that we are akin to foreign slaves, spoils of war - products of the Victory of Jesus - who now live just outside of the house of God and thus reap some of the rewards and benefits of living among the righteous. But it is nevertheless difficult to be second-class and to have assurance of God's love and care for us. Do you have answers? When you were with us, preaching to us, you used the words "us" and "we" in a way that put yourself and us in the same category. Were you just trying to come down to our level out of hospitality? Was that a mistake? Do we actually share much in common beyond our allegiance to Christ?

Sincerely,

The Church of Christ in Ephesus

Standing Up to the Religious Authorities

When people make their comments about how Jesus “stood up to the religious establishment of his day” and try to use that as a parallel to the exvangelical/deconstructing practices of questioning the prevailing views on fundamental Christian doctrine today, they end up missing the actual parallel.

The religious establishment today is secularism.  The people in power right now are what fundies like me would call “modern paganism.”  They are the figures who laugh at and shame anyone holding to a 6-day view of creation, or a literal resurrection.  They react with shock and disgust at anyone who doesn’t hold to their doctrines of left-ward political activism and their humanistic liturgical calendar.  They are the Pharisees of today, and they pretend that Jesus is on their side — the Jesus that affirmed the authority of scripture, the Jesus that taught about a real hell, a real resurrection, a literal Adam, and affirmed and celebrated every jot and tittle of God’s Old Testament Law.  Wait, not that Jesus.

They push the virtues of government schooling, even though the classroom has been proven to be the complete opposite of an environment conducive to learning.  They accept darwinism by default, and then steal from the Christian worldview in order to legislate their morality — a morality that makes zero sense within an atheistic, evolutionary worldview.  They bully and guilt-trip people, exactly as the Pharisees of Jesus’ time did.  They ignore parts of the law they don’t like and enforce parts that don’t exist, all so they can claim to be the most virtuous.  Like white-washed tombs, they are clean and pretty on the outside, but full of death, toxicity, and self-absorption on the inside.

But I don’t say all this so that Christians can feel better about being “the good guys.”  Jesus never called out the Phrarasees in order to make his friends feel better about themselves.  He called them out because they should have known better.  And yet he told his followers, ”unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of God.”  Jesus’ followers knew better than anyone that they were sinners, and his life was spent teaching them how they would be saved.

Singleness

      A while back I read a piece by well-known blogger called “Singleness as Affliction.” I don’t remember the content in much detail, but I generally agreed with it, and the nice thing about catchy titles is that they help you retain the general point.  The basic point of that post was to yank the pendulum of how we treat and view “Christian Singleness” back in the opposite direction from where it has been leaning in the current culture of Christians in their 20s and 30s.

    Just to summarize the popular view of the 21st century thus far: it is essentially the message that “singleness is a gift that should be prized” — this entails the strong message to not waste your singleness, to be totally content, and to remember that you're uniquely useful to the Kingdom as a single person.  But along with the truth contained in those messages has come (sometimes explicitly, many times implicitly) the message that there’s something wrong with “craving” that relationship…that marriage.  Then we have these warnings against “idolatry:” the “idol” of marriage, the idolizing of relationships.  And finally, smuggled into the message of "your unique usefulness as a single person" is the idea that you will be essentially less useful for the Kingdom once you have a spouse and kids to care for.  To parody an infamous and unrelated quote, Big Eva appears more to whisper about the virtues of marriage and seeking marriage compared to its shouts about feeling good and satisfied with your singleness.

    The popular American evangelical voices and "thought-leaders" (a big exception being Kevin DeYoung, God bless him) have - perhaps unintentionally - lulled many a young adult into this awkward state of trying to "put off" something that God put there to begin with.  While "Singleness as Affliction" was meant to be a splash of cold water to the face, snapping people out of this pietistic trance they may have fallen into, I want to distill it and very briefly repackage it in my own words.  The key thing to remember in all this ("this" being the Christian blogosphere and all its internal debates) is balance.  And in order to shift the balance back to wherever the Bible has determined is the center, we need to lay the weight of the virtues and normativity of marriage back on the scale.

So, to let the Bible speak:

Genesis 1:18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

Proverbs 18:22 He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.

Proverbs 31:10 An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels.

Titus 2:3-5 Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, 4 and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.

1 Peter 3:5 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands,

1 Corinthians 7:1-2  Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

1 Corinthians 7:9b For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

1 Timothy 5:14 So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.

I would argue that the only one of these that we NEED is Genesis 1:18 in tandem with the whole Bible's assumption of the normativity of marriage.

    Now I want to quickly shift to the idea of singleness as "affliction."  In the aforementioned article, some fun is poked at the notion of singleness being a "gift," as it is a "gift" that frankly almost nobody wants.  Here's what we need to remember: everything comes to us by God's hand, and that includes affliction.  We do not have to adopt these labels of "gift" and "prize" and "treasure" simply in order to preserve God's sovereignty over our situation.  We can call it what it is -- hard, painful, suffering, affliction -- without giving into sins of anxiety, discontentment, distrust, hopelessness, and faithlessness.

    Hunger, illness, and loss are afflictions.  A mature Christian will learn to find contentment in Jesus and peace with God in the midst of these afflictions, but Christians are never told to enjoy or even to ignore them.  We do have to be just a little careful here.  Paul speaks much of "afflictions" in the New Testament, and he rejoices in them, seeing their ultimate purpose.  But there is a difference between a) learning to kiss the wave that tosses us against the Rock of Ages and b) being guilted into thinking we must actually enjoy the situation or to pretend that the pain doesn't exist.  We mustn't think ourselves less holy for feeling the pain and praying God comes to our aid (even in the form of sending us a spouse).  We aren't to enjoy hunger.  We aren't to enjoy illness.  Likewise, while we find contentment in our Creator (and, in the case of food, are taught that man does not live by bread alone), unfulfilled longing is unpleasant.  We want something that we don't have, and that is not fun.  We need not pretend that it is fun, and we need not feel guilty for feeling that we are missing out on something.

I don't think I need to belabor this point any further.

    What are we not-so-happy single people to do then?  First, we give thanks.  We live a life of thankfulness to God for what He has given us and for what He is doing with us.  We rejoice in our salvation and live joyful lives in Christian community.  Second, we allow ourselves to feel the loneliness and pain without losing complete trust in God.  Third, we pray for and seek a spouse.  We also ought to allow our close friends to tell us if we are obsessing over our desire for marriage to the point of neglecting the tasks God has put before us.  But let's not kid ourselves anymore with language that suggests that God will surely use you more mightily in your single years than in your married years.  Nor should we allow our thinking to be influenced by the current culture's obsession with "identity" and, as a result, obsess over language of "completeness" or "wholeness."  You are in Christ.  HE is complete, and you are in HIM.  Who YOU are is not relevant in the common sense of what it means to "be."  

The Ironic Demands for Consistency

February 2017

The world is not actually much different than it was 6 months ago (when Obama was president).  However, in America, and especially where you find diversity and government education, tensions are higher than I've ever seen them.  The election of Donald Trump has been treated like a national tragedy by many, and many within that group now find themselves having a war-like mindset -- "we, the people, must rise up and take action on a daily basis in order to prevent Trump and congress from taking away our freedoms and ruining the environment, the economy, foreign relations, etc. etc. etc."

The supremely unfortunate result of Trump's election is its impact on the state of the "Religious Right."  With an outspoken and controversial republican president who claims he wants to do SOME good things (like end abortion) -- and a lot of not-so-good things that are equally popular with today's conservatives -- we have a resurgence of confidence from the Religious Right, inspired by their quasi-messianic figure.  This may come as a surprise to some of my friends and family members, but as a very conservative and reformed Christian who loves God's law, the best thing for Christianity today would be the death of the Religious Right.  The so-called Religious Right has strayed so far from Christianity that it is nothing more than a joke -- a parody of the ideals it claims to believe in -- marked by compromise, abandonment of God's word, and inconsistency.

The reason I bring up the Religious Right is this: a trend among my frustrated friends and colleagues on the Left is to revel in pointing out inconsistencies that they see from the Right.  And most often, there is a religious component to it.   I can probably list a dozen examples.  I'll try a few:

"In the Bible, the people of God were commanded to open their borders to foreigners and treat them well, so how can conservatives be so anti-immigration??"

"Jesus was loving; Mike Pence is against same-sex marriage, so he's hateful.  How dare he be so unchristian."

"How can you be pro-life and support the death penalty?!"

"The Bible says 'do not judge!'  But you're judging!"

"Jesus said to take care of the poor and needy, so how can you republicans call yourselves Christians and want to take away welfare and free education?"

I'm not going to address these specific issues here, nor am I going to ask the question "well, if you don't believe the Bible, why are you trying to quote it to me?"   Because here's the interesting fact about all of this:  everyone desires consistency.  If you disagree with someone, you at least want them to be consistent in their beliefs.  It's almost endearing of radical secularists to be so quick to point out inconsistencies in people who claim to be Christian; to be honest, Christians need this on some level.  We need to be held accountable.  We need to keep rooting out the fake Christians who have never really opened their Bible and deep down deny scriptural authority.  I appreciate the left for wanting to point out inconsistencies, even though it's typically just a self-gratifying way for them to try to further convince themselves that they are right, that Christians are fake, and that there is no God, at least not one as we have traditionally thought of.  (Thank you, Rob Bell, Rachel Held Evans, etc. for creating more and more false disciples that follow this alternative god).

One extremely important thing that I wish my leftist friends would realize is that conservative republicans today do not represent Christianity.  "Republican" does not equal "Christian."  Mainstream conservatism today is an embarrassment.  And just because someone claims Christianity does not mean they ever open their Bibles, pray, or ask God for forgiveness...(*ahem*).

Now, what is the irony of the atheist's demand for Christians to be [what THEY deem to be] consistent?  Well, the reason it's endearing and the reason it's ironic is simply this: a secularist has no basis for even the concept of consistency -- much less a basis for an opinion on "right" and "wrong" -- without God.  I won't get into this in detail, because it should be obvious by now.  Without God, you resort to experience and your five senses for truth.  This gets you into circular reasoning for your own sense of reason and logic (I believe my reasoning is valid because I believe my reasoning is valid...).  Without an external foundation for truth, you're left with an unreliable one.  Morality is completely subjective.  What this leads to in today's word has been this trend of a somewhat abstract and subjective idea of "empathy" being elevated to a place of being the ultimate quality we should strive for in order to have peace and harmony with one another.  (....as if secular humanists can make an argument for why peace and harmony are even good in the first place....)

These folks are wanting Christians to be consistent with the beliefs they claim.  Oh, if they only knew what that would really look like!  If they only knew that a loving and sovereign God is actually just and righteous to implement things like a death penalty on murderers, rapists, and kidnappers.  If only they could see a Christianity that truly adores the Word of God, that doesn't flinch at Psalm 119 (not because of the length but because of the content), and that supports everything we say, think, or do with scripture.  If only these indignant secularists could be faced with real Biblical arguments instead of traditions.  If only they could see the churches that are actually being Biblically consistent: caring for the poor, taking care of the young woman who was abandoned by her boyfriend after electing not to abort her baby, preaching the truth about Biblical sexuality, yet throwing away all the garbage traditions of creating an imaginary hierarchy of sin, ignoring fornication and divorce while demonizing same-sex attraction.  If only they could see past the "republican heroes" (who are no more Christian than the liberal secularists they claim to oppose) and find the real Christians in this world. 

The irony is that if these Christians were more consistent, they would be more hated by these secularists who are criticizing them for their inconsistencies.  And the hypocrisy is that not a single secularist argument can stand up to reason without crumbling, nor can they be shown to be consistent with their worldview UNLESS they finally confess Nihilism and completely cease their preaching of "right" and "wrong."

My generation of young Christians has such a huge task -- the task of NOT capitulating and conforming to the surrounding culture simply because it "seems right" or "feels right."  We must go back to believing in Biblical authority.

The Fragrance of Christ (II Cor 2:14-17)

“Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ.”

II Corinthians 2:14-17 NKJV

I went to Calvary Bible Church (Boulder, CO) last Sunday and was also graciously given the opportunity to play in the worship band for both morning services, which was a blast!  The sermon was on being ambassadors of Christ in our world and daily lives, according to II Corinthians.  Tom (the guest speaker) also talked about the above passage -- the fragrance of Christ, and how it's not up to us whether people find it a pleasant fragrance of life or one of death.  We are not 'peddlers' of the word of God.  We can't package the good news of the King and His Kingdom in such a way to convince certain people of its truth.  We are simply charged with delivering the message.  (That merits an entire sermon on its own).

I wish Tom had gone deeper into the "fragrance" metaphor, however.  I'm going to briefly expand on that part of it here.

Why does Paul use the metaphor of a fragrance/aroma/smell when talking about reactions to the good news?  Think about what happens in your body when you react to a literal smell.  If I walk into my parents' home after being gone for so long -- and let's assume mom is baking cookies or dad has been cooking steaks -- I'm going to be immediately hit with the fragrance, which might even have a greater impact on me and my body than just the mere sights and sounds of home.  When I'm exposed to this fragrance of life (the familiarity of home, the cookies, etc) I feel a release of tension in my body, an opening up in order to take it all in, a peace, and a different kind of breathing than I was previously engaged in.  My body says "this is right."

Now take the opposite situation, where you enter a room/house/space/building with a really, really bad smell.  You can use your own imagination.  Even keep it simple and let's say your brother's dog just did some serious business in your bedroom.  What's your reaction to this "aroma of death leading to death?"  It's totally the opposite -- your body tenses up, you close up, you hold your nose or your breath, limiting what enters your body.  You want to run away.  You don't even want to go near the source to eliminate it as much as you want to get away from it.

Not everyone has had this experience, but it's much more appropriate to imagine going to someone else's home and finding that the smell of the home itself is overwhelmingly unpleasant to you.  There is nowhere in that house you can go to get away from the unpleasant scent, so you "close up" even more than you did in the previous scenario.  But as unpleasant as it may be to you, this may be the comforting, pleasant smell of home to the people who live there!  The smell is not the "problem" -- it is the person being exposed to it.  To a degree, fragrances are subjective and depend on the receiver.

This is exactly what happens when someone encounters the good news of the Messiah.  If God has not regenerated their heart, they will react to it like a bad smell.  They will close up, tense up, wrinkle their noses, and try to get away.  It exposes the path that they're on, which they already know (to some degree) is a path of death.  When the good news hits the ears of someone whose heart has been softened by God, they open up and receive it the way they would receive fresh air, or the fragrance of home -- cookies in the oven, Yankee candles, burgers on the grill outside, etc.  [Great, now I really miss home!]

It saves us a lot of time we would have wasted trying extremely hard to package the Gospel in such a way that this friend of ours would finally receive it, when scripture says it requires the work of the Holy Spirit for them to finally open up and breathe in the message of truth.  The first commandment is the one that is most impossible for the unbeliever to obey:  Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.  It requires that one put away the idol of autonomy and trust in self over trust in God's Word.  If you can't get them past that first commandment, you can't ease them into Christianity by some other means.  It is the aroma of death leading to death for those who are perishing.

3 Types of Christians That Are Not Advancing The Kingdom of God

The general ideas I discuss in this post all tie in with things I've been learning and have been exposed to during 2015 -- things like Postmillenial Eschatology and Presuppositional Apologetics.  HOWEVER, you do not have do adhere to those beliefs/practices in order to completely agree with (and find scriptural bases* for) the things I talk about in this post.  It is my hope that God will spend the rest of my life using me to bring Glory to Him, advance His Kingdom, and encourage other Christians to do the same!

*bases: plural of "basis"   :-)

"Victim" Christians

I've been attending the same church here in Boulder, CO pretty regularly for a few months now.  My basic priorities when choosing a church are rougly something like #1. sermon quality, #2. community atmosphere, #3. worship quality, etc etc....   #10. is there free coffee? (kidding)  .... etc.

Even though I've been attending this one church consistently, I've been a little hesitant to feel whole-heartedly committed to it, and that has been primarily because of the worship experience.  In a nutshell: too many sappy songs and "me-centered" songs, and not enough victorious, Christ-centered, Kingdom-centered songs.

The songs that are problematic for me have multi-layered issues, but the one issue that ties in with and somewhat inspired my point here is the issue of seeing ourselves as victims -- victims of the world, of pain, of our own sin, of our own weaknesses, etc.  Now, before I harp on "victim mentality," I want to say that I believe there is a place in our Christian lives for retreat, and there are times in our lives when we're in need of healing and comfort because of loss or struggle.  And the Psalms show us plenty of examples of pleading to God in states of desperation, despair, and depression.  HOWEVER, those Psalms always end with something like "But You, O God..." where the psalmist proceeds to praise God and talk about His victory and faithfulness.  So, my argument here is that we need to approach our issues from a position of victory and not from a place of "we are victims ... this is our lot in life."  And I find that the most productive way of changing my behaviors in the past has been reevaluating my identity.

Jesus came as the long-awaited Jewish Messiah, established God's Kingdom, and ascended to His throne where He is currently "in charge" and reigning over the earth.  We are on the winning team, and it helps immensely when we identify ourselves in that way.  We are NOT a team that's going to be beaten down until all seems lost, at which point Jesus will come back and set things right.  We are on the team that is currently working to bring God's Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. We have hope: the hope of victory.  More importantly, we MUST stop thinking of the "Christian Life" as an individual, me-centered endeavor.  It's a communal experience.  We suffer together, we rejoice together, and we engage in the mission of God's Kingdom together, which is restoring creation, preaching Christ, bringing justice, loving His law, and loving people.  Your "personal" salvation (to use a term that is not mentioned in the Bible) was not the ultimate goal of Christ's advent, death, and resurrection.  Nor is your happiness on this earth a goal of the normal Christian life.  God is for GOD.  And Christ came to bring God's Kingdom onto the earth, innaugurate a new age, and begin the process of restoring and reconciling all of creation to Himself.  So please, can we stop with the "woe is me, life is hard, I need a hug" form of worship and remind ourselves of who we really are?  We are citizens of a powerful Kingdom that is already in existence here on the earth -- a Kingdom that will never be stopped.

Psalm 42:11

1 John 5:4-5

"House-built-on-the-Sand" Christians

Or "Christians with no anchor."

Some of us Christians fall into the trap that all non-Christians find themselves in -- that is, the trap of trying to be your own source for truth and your own moral compass.  We allow culture and our own experiences to be the determining factors for truth.  What if I told you that even your own life experiences do not trump God's Word??  By allowing ourselves to be the judge of what is true, what is right, or whether or not every word of the Bible is true, WE are trying to be the "anchor."  We're essentially putting the anchor into the boat and hoping that that's enough to keep us steady ... but the point of an anchor is to find solid grounding outside of oneself.  Whatever you use to determine what is ultimate truth IS your ultimate truth.  If you look within yourself to find truth, you're putting yourself in THE position of ultimate authority.  But isn't that God's place?

If you say "I sought after God and found Him," but the Bible says "No one seeks after God," who are you going to believe?  If the Bible says something that you're uncomfortable with (which is does), are you going to try to let God be the anchor and shape yourself around it, or are you going to try to be your own anchor and attempt to shape God's Word around yourself?  If you hold onto your Christian faith merely because "it makes sense to me" or "I'm comfortable with it" or "it may not be true, but look at all the good that comes from it," you are putting yourself in the position of judge over what is true.  And in order to do that, you must put yourself in the position of God Himself.  Either He is the source of all truth and knowledge, in which case, you must start with Him in order to know anything, OR He is not, in which case, you can't know anything unless you know everything.

The reason this type of Christian has trouble advancing the Kingdom of God (or may even be a hindrance to it) is because they have not acknowledged that all authority and truth is God's alone.  This Christian is trying to obey their own heart, their own mind, or the culture around them instead of being an obedient citizen of God's Kingdom, anchored in His unchanging Word.

Proverbs 1:7
Proverbs 1:29

Colossians 2:3

Job 38:4

"Lazy" Christians

Lazy....bland...ineffective... I'm having trouble coming up with an appropriate adjective for this one.  But here's what I'm talking about: Christians have the responsibility and opportunity to hold themselves to a higher "standard of living" than the secular world.  I'm talking about quality of work, work ethic, creativity, art, raising our kids, relationships with others, recreation, and more.  We advance the Kingdom of God by being a light to the world and by actually behaving as participants in His established Kingdom.  When we become so adept at working hard (without creating idols), working well (without saying "look at me!"), creating excellent art (to the glory of God alone), raising the best kids in the neighborhood, and loving others fiercely, the world is forced to look at Christians and say, "We have to imitate that in order to succeed as well as they are."   THAT is being salt and light to this earth!

I'm lucky to have a handful of friends that set this kind of example for me.  These are people who make excellent grades in college (if they happen to go that route; I understand college is not for everyone), go above-and-beyond in their responsibilities, do amazing work, and somehow manage to maintain incredible humility and Christ-likeness.  (Looking at you, Aaron Hendrix, as well as many others).  These people will eventually be in positions of authority (college professors, for example) and will have tremendous potential for influence, especially if they have established themselves as a respected person in their field of work.  What an opportunity to advance the Kingdom!

We must not excuse poor art or poor work, nor should we lower our standards of excellence merely because "well, he's our brother in Christ, so we should just be nice and not critique his work... It's the effort that counts...etc."  On the contrary, we must maintain high standards for others and for ourselves so that they can withstand the harshest criticism.  When we settle for mediocrity under the guise of "my value is in Christ, therefore why do I need to work hard and achieve a higher status in this fallen world?," we miss the point.  Being all that we are capable of being is not an end in itself -- it is a means for bringing God glory.  So, whatever it is you do -- singing, drumming, painting, writing, teaching, raising children, chemistry, computer science, carpentry, or the dishes -- do your absolute best, because you are a participant in God's ever-expanding Kingdom on Earth, and your job is to bring glory to His name.  Poor work does not bring Him glory.    (And this is the motivational speech I give myself every time it's time to do homework or practice or do projects for school.... It is very difficult, and to say I've mastered this stuff would be laughable).

Proverbs 12:24
Proverbs 22: 1
Proverbs 22:29
Luke 16:10
Colossians 3:17
Colossians 3:23-24
Romans 12:11-12
Philippians 2:14

The Goodness and Glory of God in His Creation

As usual, the things I have to say are elementary...things I've been taught long ago but am still learning to understand.

The thing that has been on my heart for the past couple of weeks is the idea (or the fact, rather) that every good thing on this earth is a reflection of God and is meant to point us to Him so that He ultimately is glorified and His people are drawn to Him.

EVERY good thing...every single good thing that we come across is a hint, a shadow, a reflection of Him.

If we really believed that, we wouldn't be so attached to the good "things" in our lives.  It's not wrong to love good things, but the result should be looking to God and praising Him for His awesomeness and goodness.

The first "thing" that I was thinking about when this topic started creeping into my heart was people.  God takes pleasure in showing us His good qualities by pouring a few of them into every individual He has created.  We all enjoy people and relationships with those people -- but how awesome is it that God is the culmination of all the good things we see in each other.

I'm going to pause briefly to say that there is one key that unlocks the ability for this concept to alter the way we think, live, and look to the future:  belief.  Belief is a struggle.  Many Christians still struggle with the belief that God really is GOOD and that truly He loves us.  Some of us still subconsciously believe that God is boring compared to this vivid, "real" world we live in.  And some of us still continue to struggle with the belief that God is even real and that Jesus the Messiah is really divine.  I still haven't fully figured out how to effectively combat doubt.  But I know it's not a bad idea to periodically step back and tell oneself, "If I don't believe that God is real and good and present in our lives, then I don't believe in the whole Bible or the gospel; and if I don't believe in the Bible or a personal, good God, then what exactly do I believe?

In times of doubt, sometimes one must simply make a decision to believe that there is a God, that His Word is pure, that His covenant with His People has been opened up to the entire population of the world via Jesus, and that the fullness of God dwells within each person that has Christ.

Back to the fun news: the God that created us wanted to show Himself to us by reflecting Himself off of us.  As you walk through life, you will encounter so many different people.  Some of these people will cause you to want spend more time around them.  There are even non-believers that have been given qualities that reflect God, and we're meant to admire these qualities in such a way that points us back to the Source.

How much better is something when we find it at its source?  How much more fresh, healthy, and tasty is food found at its source than something that has been shipped around or tampered with.  If you're a seafood person, you know it's better to get seafood in Houston than it is in South Dakota.  Houston is next to the source.  Walking around Leipzig, Germany last Summer -- though it may not be now what it was in the 1700s -- I was walking around the source of so much great music that is fundamental to what I do and study today.  Naturally, it was surreal to walk by the house of Robert Schumann and sit inside Bach's church.  To cut back to food analogies, if someone offered you the choice between 1) a fruit that was picked two weeks ago, frozen (or otherwise preserved), and shipped across the country to you and 2) the same fruit, except that you picked it off of the tree yourself at the moment it was most ripe, what would you choose?  God is the tree.

We tend to idolize the "thing" and forget about the Source.  God is the source of all pleasure.  But do you really believe that?  "We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, of Your temple."  "In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."  These words are coming from a king -- someone who had it all.  Riches and power were his.  If David wanted land, all he would have to do is give the command.  If he wanted a wife, it was done.  That's a touchy subject considering his infamous sin, but the point is: despite having power and having a whole country at his feet, he knew that the only real goodness and pleasure was in the presence of God.  Like us, he certainly didn't adhere to that knowledge 24/7.  If only we could!  Then, we could avoid the huge pitfalls into which our idolatry and lusts draw us.

If I remembered the goodness of God -- that all good things proceed from Him and that the best qualities I see in a person are just a drop of Himself that He put there, how much more will I be drawn to Him?  Everything lines up properly when we recognize these facts.  Are you jealous of this particular person that is gifted in ways you aren't?  Remind yourself that these are qualities of God and that He is sharing them with you through this person.  Or, instead of being jealous, maybe you're idolizing this person.  Again, be reminded that this person is merely giving you a glimpse of the goodness of God.  Are you prideful because of your own good attributes?  Know that all good things come from Him and that you have been given the responsibility to reflect your God.  Once you take credit for His goodness in you....let's just say I don't want to be around when God teaches you a lesson!  Are you saddened by the loss or absence (or knowledge of future absence) of a good thing/person in your life?  I know I am!  But no matter how good those things are (the love of a family member, the companionship of a best friend, the regular encouragement you get from an acquaintance at your workplace, the inspiring wisdom of one of your teachers) this stuff is just frozen food compared with the fresh and vivid goodness that you will always and forever find in God through Jesus.  I'm praying that I can simply remember to tell myself these things every day.  It's so difficult, because from the time that we're children, we're trained to experience the world through our 5 senses instead of through the lens of belief in our Savior.  Now is the time to remove our normal lenses and see things through the lens of Christ, the source and creator of all goodness and pleasure.