Contending for the Faith

In Jude 3 we are told to earnestly contend for the faith. In this context Jude is referring to the false teachers that had crept in to the church unnoticed. As God’s children we are called to live a life that is faithful to God and His Word. After all, His Word is His revelation of Himself to mankind. In it God tells us who He is and the nature of His character. We also find precepts for our lives in the Bible. These are not merely divine suggestions, but are commands of design. God has created us. When we live our lives according to His design we are most fulfilled and are living within the purpose for which we were created.

If we are living according to God’s commands,  we will be contending for the faith at times. Whether we are struggling to keep the church pure or debating with nonbelievers for the purpose of showing them the truth of the faith, we are commanded by God to be ready to give a defense. But what does Peter have to save about how we should give a defense? He says, “but sanctify Christ as Lord in for hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who ask you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.” (1 Peter 3:15 NASB) You see we should be willing to earnestly contend and debate for the faith, but Peter ends that verse with a couple  of qualifiers. How shall we defend the faith? With gentleness and reverence. Far to many Christians have crossed the line between gentleness and cruelty. We all had a tendency to become frustrated with nonbelievers. We want them to understand. We want them to know the truth because it is a matter of eternal significance. But that is never a license to be cruel and arrogant. Remember, the Christian hasn’t come to know the truth because they are smarter or better than lost people. We know the truth by the sheer mercy and grace of a loving God, who is infinitely worth of our praise. And that is exactly what we want for them, to know Him.

So when you give a defense of the gospel, whether at work or in the church, do it with compassion and love, not a critical spirit. God does’t need us to defend Him. He can take care of himself. Why then should we be defending the truth? We are defending the truth so that people will come to Christ, not to prove we are right. God will take care of that in the end. Our job is the share the truth in love!

Sermon Series: The Biblical Family

Over the next two months we will be looking at the biblical family in the Sunday morning sermon series. The family is seeing a fundamental breakdown in western culture. This is in large part a consequence of the high divorce rate in the united states. Fifty percent of couples who marry today will divorce. The mortality rate of second marriages are even higher. Also, the push for same-sex marriage in our country is doing much harm to the traditional family. The problem with the disintegration of the family is that the family was God’s idea. God is the one that ordained marriage. He is the one that put man and woman together.  ”For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” (Ge 2:24 NASB) As such, God reserves the sole right to define marriage and its design. God’s perfect design for marriage as laid out in Scripture is the most beautiful expression of love and fulfillment, but society largely rejects God’s plan for marriage. To the natural mind it can seem limiting and “old-fashioned.” Over the next few weeks we will explore the pattern and roles for man and wife in marriage and how they should train their children. We will also look at the responsibilities of the children in family. I know that this series will be frowned upon by those who believe the Bible is outdated and out-of-touch with modern society, but God is the same as yesterday, today and forever. His plan has not changed, and from someone who is in fulfilling biblical marriage, it is the most rewarding human relationship of my life. I love my wife more today than I ever have, not because she meets my needs (and she does), but because I have chosen and committed to love her God’s way. Come and join us as we explore the biblical family!

The Silence of Religion

What has happened to religious ideas in our world? When someone brings up a religious or even moral idea in a conversation, interview or debate, it is instantly shot down. This is true of all religious ideas, but Christian ideas receive the greatest hostility. What is the rational behind this silencing of religion? The wise men of the world believe that religion must remove itself from the area of thought. They say that religion is fine, if you believe that sort of thing, as long as you keep it out of the area of real thinking. They say that religion only has a purpose in the mystical or spiritual life of the individual and in the practical life of the individual. If you have a religion, it is your business and yours alone. Keep it to yourself. Let it influence your practical life, but don’t bring it into the area of decision making. Only the logic of our own understanding can help us make political decisions and understand our world today. To impose your religious ideas on others is seen as intolerance and narrow-minded.

There is a problem with this line of thinking. I am a Christian. I worship the God who created everything that exists. As the creator, he reserves the right to govern that creation. Whatever He does and says it right and true. If God were to reveal Himself to humanity and tell us how we are to live, how we are to relate to Him and how we are to relate to others, then we should listen and obey. God has revealed Himself through the prophets and apostles in the Bible. In the Bible, God tells us that we are to live in such a way as to give glory to him in all we do. We are to be completely saturated with His love and that love is to flow from us to the world. It should affect how we live and how we relate to every part of the created order. We are also called to be salt and light in the world. We are to influence it! Why on earth could anyone think it would be appropriate for a person to call himself a Christian and not have their Christianity influence what they believe about abortion or homosexuality. I wouldn’t be a very strong believer if I didn’t believe what God taught in Scripture.

The point is that I respect someone who has convictions based on something outside of themselves. A person without convictions doesn’t understand why they believe something is right or wrong because their beliefs are based on whatever feels right. They make themselves into god. The moral compass of a Christian is guided by God’s standard of righteousness. So please don’t tell me to keep my religious ideas out of politics or intellectual conversations. I assure you, your beliefs about the world influence all your decisions. I am a Christian to the very core of my being, and it should played out in every area of my life. The Christian should never compartmentalize their religion. God belongs in every area of our lives! But remember, God has also called us to love others, so while I believe sin should be called sin, we are also to love the sinner. We should always enter into intellectual talks with passion and a loving spirit.

Back from China

I had promised to blog on a regular basis, but as it happens, we have been going through a year long adoption process that has consumed my extra time. I intend to be more involved with this blog at least on a weekly basis. Last week we returned from China with our second adopted daughter. Her name is Zoey, and she is a joy. You can find information about our daughter and our journey at www.babysisterthesequel.blogspot.com. We are now a family of seven!

The culture in China is quite different from our own. It is a tough place in which to get comfortable . There are so many people in China that the rules are a little different when it comes to property and personal space. Also, the government influence over everything, including the internet is mind boggling. For example, on one day we could access our blog site and on the next it was blocked. Then we could access it on another day, and then it was blocked the remainder of our stay. I didn’t meet any Chinese Christians on this journey, but I talked to some Chinese people about Christianity and how it was practiced in their country. They talked about house churches that met in peace as long as they didn’t draw attention to themselves. It is the ones that make a stir and try to get involved in politics and aggressive evangelism that get in trouble. So in their minds Christianity was perfectly legal to practice Christianity as long as you keep it quite and to yourself. That doesn’t sound like the Christianity of the Bible. I hope to have the opportunity to contact a Southern Baptist Missionary that has been to China so I can gain a better understanding of what is going on over there. Regardless, it would not be an easy place to minister. The people are so set in their culture and the ideas of enlightenment and oneness that the teaching of the gospel would be somewhat difficult to grasp at first. I have thought much about it in the last week and the people of China have been on my heart… So many people that need to hear the truth… So many people that are placing their lives in the hands of religious ideas and not the living God. Pray for the Chinese people. And pray that the missionaries called to China will know how to effectively share the gospel with them to have the greatest impact for Christ.

What is Christianity?

One of the themes of my preaching ministry is the idea that Christianity is not a religion. What I mean by that is that we are never exhorted in the Scripture to be legalistic in our approach to God. We are called into a relationship with the creator of the universe. We know from the Old Testament calling of David as king of Israel that man may indeed look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. The language of the New Testament shows that believers are called out of their sin and into a family. We are “adopted.” We are “children of God,” and we are “sons of God.”

This plays out in a much different way than religion. Religion says you must prove yourself to God. Religion says that there are rules that you must follow. Religion says that we must participate in ceremony and ritual. But to be a part of a family is something different. We don’t need to prove ourselves to God. Jesus has already done that. We have been pardoned, justified and transformed. So the call of God then is not to be moral but to walk with Him daily. “But what are the call for holy living?” Holy living comes from a holy heart that is walking with God daily. So much of Christianity today is behavioral. It is about how we look to the outside world, but the Bible teaches that we are to be changed from the inside out. If the heart is right, then the behavior will follow, but you can fake the behavior like the Pharisees had grown accustom to in Jesus’ day.

I find it interesting that well-meaning people can read the Bible and come to a conclusion so radically different from the plain truth of Scripture. The idea that Christianity is religious in nature is not a new idea. In fact, it was and is a dominant belief in the church in many parts of the world. In reading Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Martyr, Spy by Eric Metaxas, I found that this was an important issue for Dietrich Bonhoeffer. While in Barcelona in 1928, Bonhoeffer gave a series of lectures. In the second lecture he dealt with this issue. He said that we have exiled our Christ to Sunday mornings. Instead of walking with God daily, we put him in a box. He goes on to say that we Christ a temple and go about living in our own houses. The problem with religion is that it becomes easy to separate our daily lives and our relationships from our religious activity. we do just enough to get by or to “please God.” Then we live our live separate from Him. The point of all this rambling is that we must decide that we are going to give God everything or give him nothing. We need to stop straddling the fence and live WITH God in a relationship. We must walk with Him daily and allow Him to transform us through the power of the indwelling Spirit. It is not enough to go to church and be religious. We must be devoted to the Lord with our hearts. Only then can we live the abundant life that Jesus refered to in the gospel of John!

Weird: Because Normal Isn’t Working – A Book Review

In the hustle and bustle of daily life, we are constantly struggling to fit in and relate well to our culture. For the Christian, the problem with fitting in is that God has never called us to be normal. That is the theme of Craig Groeschel’s book, Weird: Because normal isn’t working. His premise for writing the book is that the believer is to be easily distinguished from the world. Their lives are to have a different priority. Their relationships should be others centered, their time should be structured to bring glory to God, etc. Groeschel says that the Christian should be weird.

The book is divided into five sections that deal with different areas of the Christian’s life that should look a little “weird.” Groeschel addresses each section in three chapters that approach the topics from a separate angle. He deals with the believer’s time, money, relationships, sex, and values. Perhaps my favorite idea that Groeschel presented in the book was in the section on relationships, but the idea can be applied to the all the topics he addresses. He said that many times the believer is working hard to hit the bullseye in their relationships. We feel like we are doing well in an area, and we are tireless in our effort. The problem is that many times, we are aiming at the wrong target. “So you mean all that work I am doing is fruitless because I am working toward the wrong goal?” That’s it! We become consumed in so many areas of our lives thinking we are doing the right thing, but are we putting God first? Are we following His plan? I remember that Adrian Rodgers once said that he could love his wife better as the second priority in his life than the first. The truth is, when we put God first and stop trying to write our own destiny, we find that he directs our steps and leads us down rewarding paths of spiritual growth and abundant living.

Groeschel does a nice job of cutting through the rat race of the Christian life and showing us how the Bible says we should live. I found the book to be encouraging and straightforward. It was hard to put down. It deals with practical areas of the daily walk and will touch every life with a need to reflect and reevaluate. I have bought another copy of the book to loan out to young people who are trying to establish their identity. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had an army of young Christians that were more worried about bringing glory to God than fitting in. I may not agree with every single area of Groeschel’s theology, but this is a great book. Pick up a copy, read it, and pass it on to a friend!

Erasing Hell: What God said about eternity, and the things we made up – A Book Review

Recently, the media has focused attention on topic of God’s love and Hell brought about by the book, Love Wins, by Rob Bell. In that book Bell supports the idea that all people will eventually go to Heaven. He also goes as far as to challenge the existence of a literal Hell. In light of these very public developments, authors have been scrambling to offer rebuttals to Bell’s view of the doctrines of universalism and Hell. Erasing Hell: what God said about eternity, and the things we have made up by Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle is one of these rebuttals. 

The traditional evangelical doctrine of Hell is that all people are condemned to hell because of their sin. They are culpable to God in a very real way and each deserves the penalty of eternal death. (Romans 6:23) Hell is the place reserved for punishment of the wicked (those who have not repented and turn to Christ for salvation). The traditional doctrine also views Hell as eternal punishment that is retributive in nature and not for the purpose of rehabilitation. In other words, Hell is punishment not rehab to be released once a certain level of penalty is paid. Universalism is the idea that all people will go to Heaven and is based on the assumption that a loving God would never send anyone to Hell.

Erasing Hell is a short but effective defense of the biblical doctrine of Hell. It is a quick read and easily understood. It is great for the layperson or the pastor who needs to do some quick research. If you are confused about the doctrine of Hell or just want to learn what Scripture teaches, this is the book for you. There are much more involved defenses of the biblical view if you are looking for something more academic. Contact me, and I can give you a recommendation.

Book Reviews and Blogs

I am always looking for books to read that challenge and inspire me to strengthen my spiritual walk. I also want to be current with the Christian literature scene. I have church members that come to me and ask, “Have you heard of this book?” Not only do I want to know what books are out there, I want to know what’s in them. That way I can guide the people that God has given me to shepherd to good books that will meet them where they are. With that in mind, I have started this blog. While there will be other posts on this blog, like spiritual reflections, devotional thoughts, political commentaries and cultural hot topics, the main purpose is to provide short book reviews for my flock and other Christians to help them find books for growth and lesuire reading. I hope this is helpful. I do have a pastor’s schedule, so I can’t promise that I will blog every week. But I will do my best to provide book reviews at least twice a month. Enjoy the blog