persecution = preservation for the Christian

I might as well publish these thoughts while I’m here meditating on God’s Word.  Micah has stirred me up to continuing this process by reminding me of salts preservative quality.  This has led me to think about faith, grace, and testing through persecution as having preserving effects as well.  Not only for the believer but also for the moral values of the culture in which we live as well.  Not only does God’s grace give us the hope that makes up our faith but it also creates in us the kind of life that produces the works that shine like a light in a dark place. 

So now I have worked into a system of thought that places radical faith in the face of suffering as a necessity for being saved (in the end) because it is the salt of grace through faith that produces works.  James agrees that trials aren’t strange for the Christian and that the purpose and outcome for them is the crown of life.

James 1:2-4,12

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, [2] when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.  12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Now I am left wondering how does one who lives in post-modern, relative, subjective, believe what you wanna believe and leave me alone America preserve and shine?  I see the outcome of Stephens persecution and the effects brought about by the death of many in the mission field and I desire that for my country, for my state, for my city.  I want the Sav’h Morn News writing an article about some radical Christian whack job who trusted God enough to stand up for the truth and made some waves doing it.  But it must be done in a way that is radical yet glorifying to God.

Titus 2:7-8

7 Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, 8 and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

1 pet 3:13-17

13 Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, 15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, 16 having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

I’m tired of just thinking about it and talking about it, I want to do something, but what?

What a Wonderful World

I love this song and this video is sure to put a smile on your face.

The importance of pondering the wrath of God

Sin.  Everyone of us at some point in our life have loved to do it.  We ignore God and His providence and His promises and His love shown to us through His law and have done life our way.  We want our best life now when He has promised us our best life then (in Heaven with Him).  God has taken great pleasure in giving us blessings and guidelines to live our life.  God has kept everyone of His promises and has never let anyone down.  God works everything out for our good as we remain in His will, doing what He wants, loving what He loves, desiring the same things He desires.  And He desires to spread the fame of His name around the world and bring the knowledge of His glory to everyone.  This is what He deserves.  This is what we are called to do.  And yet, there are things we would rather do than to remain in His will.  We love so many other fleeting pleasures at the expense of forfeiting eternal pleasures.  Who’s fault is that?  Ours.  How could God be so forgiving?  How could He overlook such foolishness?  Why doesn’t He just destroy us in our own folly?  What we have earned with our sin is death.  And God’s wrath burns against us because of our offenses.  How intense that wrath must be!  The punishment and consequence of an offence is equal to the worth of the One who has been offended.  In the case of all sin, the One who is offended is Almighty God.  The fair punishment for our sin is unending separation from His presence and torment beyond comprehension.  I say beyond comprehension because His greatness and worth is beyond comprehension.  It (His worth) is without end and our offenses deserve a punishment that is as endless.  This is what we deserve, no less.  Yet there is good news.  There is one who never sinned, never made any offence against God, did what He wanted, loved what He loved, and desired what He desired.  He lived and died to spread the fame of God’s name and the knowledge of His glory around the whole world.  He was perfect.  Perfect beyond comprehension.  From the thoughts in his mind to the desires of his heart He was perfectly tuned to the will of God.  In fact He claimed to be God in the flesh.  So He was murdered by men for claiming to be God.  He died a shameful death on a cross and he died to save us from our sins.  God’s wrath was poured out onto Jesus, God’s Son, even though He had done nothing wrong and committed no sin.  Jesus took the wrath that was directed to us upon Himself and gave us His perfection in the sight of God. 

 

Many people since then have accepted Jesus as their Savior and placed their trust in Him for salvation and yet, with the lack of holiness among those who claim to belong to Him, how many people actually pondered what we have been saved from.  I’m afraid there are a lot of believers that have confessed belief in Christ in order to make an okay life a little better.   They say “My life wasn’t the best before I met Jesus but now things are getting better and I’m becoming a better person”.  People think, “Hey, my life could be better maybe I should believe in this Jesus guy too so that things could be better for me, too”.  This is a tragedy!

 

What we have are people who have never pondered the weight of our offenses against a holy and vengeful God and in so doing have never come anywhere close to an understanding of the breadth of the sacrifice that Jesus has made on our behalf.  People that hope to be saved from their quasi-happy lives and given super-happy bliss with no remorse, repentance, guilt, or reflection on our sin and the wrath that it creates toward us.  No thought to being hated by everyone and salvation being given only to those who endure. mark 13:13 And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.  No thought to holiness being a requirement to see God. Heb 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. No thought to fear and trembling in obedience before our Almighty God. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, Phil 2:12

I’m afraid these may be the ones whom we read about in Matt 7:

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

I had an up-close and personal example of this with one of my boys.  He had deceptively disobeyed one night and received a spanking for it.  After we embraced for a time and we began to talk about how much God and daddy hates deception and yet we love my little guy, so we don’t want him to practice things that are disobedient and deceptive.  My four-year-old little theologian and philosophy major looked at me in my face and said:  “daddy, I remember when I was deceptive one time before and you didn’t spank me but you forgave me instead”.  Of course I told him that I forgave Him this time as well but that there are ALWAYS consequences for our misbehaviour.  It took some time but eventually it sunk into my head the concept here.  No punishment, no understanding of the weight of the offense.  No understanding of the weight of the offence, no tendency to repent or change our ways. 

 

I pray that God gives us a deeper understanding of the weight of our offences so that we may embrace Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf more fully and glorify God in the abundance of His grace and mercy ever so much more.

worship: to give or take?

I read this in our church newsletter today and it made me ponder what worship is:

“So if you attend church for what you can get, (to get a blessing or to be entertained) you’ve missed it!  When we gather together to worship the Lord, our focus is to be on giving to Him, not getting from Him.  Worship is a consuming desire to give to God, …”

-Charles Stanford

As I read, I remembered reading something by John Piper that gave me the impression that the above is haughty in the presence of God:

“the one who actually sets himself above God is the person who presumes to come to God to give rather than get. With a pretense of self-denial he positions himself as God’s benefactor-as if the world and all it contains were not already God’s (Psalm 50:12)! ”

Ch 3 Desiring God by John Piper

So which is it?  Do we go to church and gather together to worship to give something to God or to get something from Him?