Who are you going to believe?

Is there such a thing as absolute truth? Can we know true truth? Writers for the Emergent Church would say no. According to them truth claims should always be viewed with suspicion. According to them we cannot know that any particular proposition of the Bible is really true truth. They reject any claim that Christ is the only way of salvation - because that would mean the claims of the Bible are more true than the teachings of other religions and traditions.

Meanwhile, these guys are prolific writers. Each of them produces several books a year and blogs without number.

Please pause to enjoy the irony with me. People who claim that there is no absolutely true truth and that all truth claims must be considered attempts to manipulate, are writing pages and pages of truth claims of their own (and expecting people to pay them for it.)

What a bunch of squirrelly snake oil salesmen! "You cannot believe the truth claims of the Bible, you must believe my truth claims about that."

Does this sound familiar to you?

(Genesis 3:4-5) Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

You know how that turned out! This is equally audacious and just as dangerous.

They say, "Jesus is NOT the only way to salvation. People of other religions will also be saved by God." But Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

I have trouble believing that they are sincere. If they believe truth is relative and one person's truth claims are not true for another person - how could they spend hours writing down such truth claims of their own and how could they sell such things in good conscience? It would be as immoral as it is illogical.

There is no question if you are going to believe someone's truth claims - because you are. The only question is - "Whose truth claims will you believe?"

I choose to believe the Bible.

Daydreams

This week I enjoyed the OARBC annual conference at Skyview Ranch in Millersburg. God blessed us with good weather, a beautiful setting, great attendance, wonderful fellowship, uplifting music and challenging preaching.

The speaker asked an important question. "What do you daydream about?"

Our daydreams can tell us what is in our hearts. He suggested that "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life" often reveal themselves in our daydreams. He pointed out that dreams of "success" (especially in ministry - church growth, acclaim, fame, praise...) are often a revelation of the pride of life.

He also talked about brokenness. We need to be broken before Christ and come to a place where we surrender completely to Him. If we do, we can be useful vessels. We can live to see God turn every hardship into a blessing. We can praise God at the top of our voice for a lifetime.

But what if we are not broken and surrendered to God?

We become bitter. We nurse our grudges and rehearse our wounds in a leanness of spirit that is always hungry for vindication. We are miserable as we replay our hurts blow by blow.

Our labor is not for the glory of God, but for our own validation - and there can never be enough success to satisfy us. We become grumpy and embittered. We might come to the place where we hate the work of ministry. Some are shipwrecked regarding the faith. Others are sidelined. Others cripple along, going through the motions with a grim determination but with little hope of joy.

Mercifully, God doesn't let us go unchallenged in our pride. He puts obstacles in our way to break us down. We are brought to the end of ourselves. We are presented with opportunities to put God in His right place and let go of our agenda for our own reputation. If we do that, we can get past our past hurts with joy because GOD IS GLORIFIED!

This message resonated with me. Praise God for His mercies! It is easy to think everything is about me. My success or my failure, my control, my reputation, my image, my ministry, my heritage - me, me, me. When we do this we are striving against God in the pride of life. But it is NOT about me. Everything is about God - that His name would be exalted as holy - that His kingdom would come - that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Glory to God in the highest!

(James 4:6-7) But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Slothful In Work?

(Proverbs 18:9) He who is slothful in his work Is a brother to him who is a great destroyer.

This verse reminds me of a book a read several times as a teenager. The book was about one man's experience as a prisoner of war during WWII. He wrote about the various ways the prisoners worked to resist their captors, escape if they could and keep their morale up during their long imprisonment.

Some of the prisoners worked to culture wood dry rot. Then they sneaked it up into the attic of the old fortress in which they were imprisoned and put it on the rafters there. They reasoned that the war might last a long long time. If it lasted long enough, the dry rot would destroy the rafters and cause the roof to collapse - having the same effect as a bomb.

Slothful work amounts to the same thing as destruction. If you don't produce for your employer you can cause him to go out of business. If your mechanic is slothful in working on your car he can cause your car to be destroyed or even cause you to wreck. If your contractor (or his employees) are slothful, your house might collapse.

What about a slothful pastor? Might people be spiritually harmed if I am slothful in my study and preaching of the word? If I don't do the hard work of 2Timothy 4:2? Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

Don't be slothful in your work!

Of Monks & Monkeys

In my recent reading I've run across several references to the resurgence of Christian mysticism and a related new monasticism. (The string of r words in that sentence alone might throw someone into a trance! Best to read it silently.)

What is this? Well - it boils down to people seeking a direct, unmediated, subjective experience of ecstatic oneness with God in which they might get a message from God. They practice ascetic deprivation and then "meditate" to empty their minds and free themselves of this world so they can be united with God on some new level.

So what are the issues?

1. God has revealed Himself in the Scriptures. (2Tim. 3:15-17) People who want to know God need to find out objective truth about Him from the Scriptures.
2. The Holy Spirit of God instructs believers through the illumination of the Scriptures. (1Cor. 2:14-16) He revealed it originally and He illumines it to the mind of the regenerate person.
   
3. The meditation the Bible talks about is not like that of Eastern Mystics (Hindu, Buddhist, Yoga, TM, etc.). In biblical meditation people are to think about the revelation of God and it's objective meaning. (e.g., Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:2) Then they are supposed to apply that meaning (including directions for living) into their lives.
4. The practices of the new mystics and monastics are UNBIBLICAL!

So where does this come from and why?

1. Much of what is called Christianity has shallowed out into a religious themed party and/or celebration of a can-do attitude. But many people want something "deeper."
2. We live in an age where autonomy is the highest value. People are much more interested in a subjective experience and a private message than they are in the objective propositions of the Bible.
3. We are in a post-modern age where truth is thought to be relative and truth statements are viewed with suspicion. Many people will not submit themselves to the authority of the Bible or the preaching of it.

So what should we do?

(2Timothy 4:1-4) I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

Thursday Is Deadline Day

(Proverbs 16:5) Everyone proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Though they join forces, none will go unpunished.

Just last night at the W.A.Y. (Whipple Avenue Youth) meeting we were talking about pride being the prototypical sin. If we could get a grip on this, think how we would be blessed.

If we were not prideful -

1. We wouldn't care what other people thought or about real or imagined slights.
   
2. We would be free from other people's power to manipulate us through flattery or aggression.
   
3. We would not spend any time at pity parties. (They are unpleasant and just tempt us to give in to sin.)
   
4. Our angry outbursts (and revenge fantasies) would be a thing of the past. We could concentrate on driving better ourselves.
   
5. We could give ourselves to promoting God's glory because we wouldn't be worried about our own.
6. We could give ourselves to humble service with complete joy and be thoroughly satisfied.
7. We would be on God's side - and He would be helping us.

(Proverbs 16:18-19) Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
19 Better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, Than to divide the spoil with the proud.

Jesus is the solution to our pride problem. He condescended from heaven to become a man and die for our sins on the cross. By yielding to Him and giving Him the honor and glory due His name, we find ourselves in the right place... humbly bowing before Him and yielding up all our autonomy Him. Let Jesus rule ME!

(1Peter 5:5-7) ¶ Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.”
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,
7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

Praise God we can throw ourselves on Him! He cares for us better than we could care for ourselves. Besides, He is omnipotent while we are very weak.

To Love Jesus Is To Hate Our Sin

We don't take sin seriously.

We don't think sin is all that bad. Everybody does it. Nobody is perfect. Often we can blame someone else for pushing us into it. (e.g., I wouldn't have road rage if the other people would drive better...)

Sin is rebellion against our Holy Creator. It is a treasonous betrayal of our All Wise God. It is spitting in the face of our Loving Savior. It is thumbing our nose at our Eternal Judge.

Besides that, sin is antithetical to our hope of eternal salvation.

(Romans 6:1-2) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?
(1John 2:29) If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
(1John 3:6-8) No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

Jesus died to save sinners from their sins. If someone is not sensitive about sin in his life - in what way is he saved? If a person has no victory over sin in his life, but continues in the same patterns of sin - it is evidence that his profession of faith was just words - his supposed faith is dead.

(James 2:20) But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

We don't take sin seriously enough. Our goal is to glorify Christ! We will not get that done by repeating happy platitudes - suggesting we love Him and adore Him - while by our daily actions we dishonor Him and betray Him.

To love Jesus is to hate our sin - like He does.
God said, "You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy." (Leviticus 19:2)

Daily Blogging?

I have been caught (again) in the profundity trap. I didn't have anything especially profound to write - so I didn't write at all. Well that is stupid. What makes me think that I EVER had anything profound to say?

So, I've decided to try to write something everyday. So stay tuned. Totally random and probably inane blogging. You are now at the right place.

I've decided I need to get out of my office more and into the community. I haven't figured out how to do that - but I'm working on it. I'm thinking of setting up a street corner stand like Lucy in the Peanuts comic strip. Free pastoral advice... Maybe down at the Canton centre mall. I could drink coffee and talk to the mall walkers. (I wonder if they have wireless access down there?)

I also need to get back to teaching for the Red Cross (before I lose my certification to teach). There are always things to do instead... but you've got to make time.