Is God surprised by...evil...uh I mean Obama care?

Obama care is the prevailing thing in the news. There seems to be a lot of stress and concern about it. Anytime something like this comes along I get the feeling that people especially Christians forget that God is in control. I was reminded of this last night as we discussed the issue of evil at an apologetics class one of my sons is a part of. Romans 9:22-23 says, "What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— " (ESV) In this passage we see that God is far from being surprised by sin and evil. As a matter of fact He uses that very thing to reveal more about Himself to the vessels of mercy. Think about it. What if there had never been any sin and everything was perfect? We are walking with God in the garden in the cool of the day. God is revealing what He can about Himself to finite beings as we commune together. He mentions that He really hates sin. He tells us that even though He hates sin that He is a God of mercy and grace. He says that He is long-suffering and patient. Remember there has never been any sin in this scenario. How could we begin to understand what God means by hate and sin if we have never experienced it. We would have no framework for understanding mercy and grace if we never needed it. Who could comprehend patience in a world that is perfect with everything happening according to God's perfect plan.
You see because God allowed Adam to fall and allowed sin to enter into the world we will know God far better for all of eternity. Because Pharaoh refused to let the enslaved children of Israel go we saw the power of God to change the course of history. God was not surprised by evil. He could have stopped it but then there would have been less revealed about God's nature to those who come to know Him. Obama care is no different. I don't know what God is doing. But I do know that He is not surprised by it. I am praying for Obama that God will use him to magnify His name and exult Jesus. He may use Obama like He used Pharaoh. I don't know His plan, but I know that Obama care is not outside of it. We can trust God in the midst of this. My prayer is that I will come to know Jesus better because of it.

A Hitch in the day

Today is Monday and it is the official pray for Christopher Hitchens day. I would encourage anyone to pray for Christopher Hitchens. I personally hope that the Lord convicts him of his sin and changes his heart on his deathbed just before he dies.

I don't want other Christians to know if Christopher Hitchens came to Christ in the end. Why? Because too many of us cannot be trusted with that information. There would be smear campaigns geared at discrediting his books and his atheistic thinking. Far too much time would be spent on discussions of Mr. Hitchens deathbed conversion. No instead we should be taking the time that we would spend on something like that and spend it on sharing the gospel with other atheist and unbelievers that need to know Jesus.

The other reason I don't want us to know if he ultimately comes to know Jesus is that his logic is already faulty. In an article on today's prayer vigil for Christopher called, "Atheist Christopher Hitchens to Skip Prayer Day in His Honor" there are several quotes that point to the reality of what is missing from his base arguments. The article says:

As for his work, Hitchens says he would be happy to be recalled simply as one of those "who are attempting to uphold reason and science against superstition."

Where his logic breaks down is that I too would like to uphold reason as well as logic against superstition. You see we both look at each others belief as superstition. He would denigrate my belief in God. I would point to his belief in evolution and faith in the infallibility of science and say that that belief is faulty.

As late as the 16th and 17th century spontaneous generation of living things from non living things was believed by all scientist of any merit. One scientist even published directions for creating mice from dirty underwear and wheat in 21 days. This idea of spontaneous generation of life from non living matter had been in existence from the time of Aristotle. Oh yea I almost forgot Evolutionist still believe this one. I guess I need to find another superstition that they no longer hold to.

While this might bring a chuckle from some and groans from others the point is that this is what Hitchens and others like him do. They set Christians up to look superstitious or like nut cases and then they lampoon them in the name of science. What I am wanting you all to see here is that they think that they are doing the world a service. The reality is that they are living out what Paul said in Romans 1. They suppress the truth and become futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts are darkened (Romans 1:18, 21). We must have grace toward them just like God had toward us when we were like them.

Right now Christopher Hitchens is moving very rapidly into an eternity of bearing the wrath of God. This is something that I do not wish on anyone. Even if you missed praying for Hitchens on the official prayer day, pray for him now. We have an irresistible almighty God who can overcome and save even the hardest of hearts. Keep your eyes on Jesus and trust Him because He can save Christopher from the wrath to come.

Who's to blame?

Lindsey Lohan was big in the news a few weeks back as they sent her off to spend some time behind bars. One of the articles that caught my eye was on her father called, "Michael Lohan: I blame myself for Lindsey's demise". In our culture just about everything is justifiable and not the fault of the person that actually did it. As a matter of fact it is ok to be the cause of someone else's problems as long is it was unintentional and you can blame something else (Michael Lohan blamed stupidity and drunk driving).
Why do we do this? It goes back to the Garden of Eden. The very first man and woman shifted the blame for their actions as they stood condemned before God for their pride and rebellion against Him (Genesis 3:11-13). They went from being God's vice-regents ruling the Earth to the cursed rebels responsible for bringing the effects of sin upon creation. The blame game started because of the shame a pride filled being experiences when he sees his fallen state on display. Adam and Eve wanted to be like God and saw the evil of their rebellion in the light of our gracious God's glory. Shame is an understatement for what they must have felt.
This propensity to shame and excuse has been the all too normal response of fallen man since creation. There is an answer. That answer is found in the work of Jesus on the cross. He did not play the blame game. He did quite the opposite of Adam and Eve. He was without sin and blameless but He took our blame on Himself (2 Corinthians 5:21). Because He became the blame bearer we can stand without blame before God. The astonishing truth is that we are truly without guilt in God's presence because of Jesus. Fallen man's actions amplify our fallenness. In the midst of the deplorable state of man Jesus glory as our substitute shines even more greatly. He is truly deserving of all our love and affection.

Do you know legalism when you see it? (Part 1)

I have been accused of legalism often. Why? Because I seek to drive the speed limit. As far as I can tell there are three reasons that you could drive the speed limit.

1. You could drive the speed limit because you feel it is your duty as a Christian to do this. This would not make you any different then any other religion that places man made restraints on its followers. Obedience out of duty is ultimately cold and does not engage the heart.
2. You could drive the speed limit because you feel more spiritual if you do. In order to do this you are judging yourself as better than those that are passing you on the freeway. This would make you no better than the Pharisees of Jesus day. Are you more spiritual because you followed the speed limit? You might be but not if you think that you are. Because if you are doing it to be more spiritual you have just adopted legalistic righteousness as your guide.
3. You could drive the speed limit for the sake of bringing your heart into submission to the authority over you recognizing that Jesus is the ultimate authority. It is Jesus that has given the state its authority and as long as there is no conflict with my calling in scripture then I should submit to them. This only works if we recognize our fallen sinful state and are using this as a means of practicing bringing our flesh under the authority of Christ. In this case the action does not make us more spiritual. The action points out in practice the ultimate authority that we are seeking to know better, namely Jesus. This only remains free of legalism as long as I don't start judging others for not doing what I do. Why? Because this is clearly not stated explicitly in the Bible.

This is similar to Paul confronting Peter about refusing to eat with gentiles (Galatians 2:12-14). This was an issue of hypocrisy. Peter and Paul were wrestling with the issue of true Biblical righteousness and Peter was becoming legalistic. Making judgments based on his actions.

It seems in this case that legalism there and even now can be when we see ourselves as more pleasing to God because of something we do or don't do. Anytime our eyes are focused horizontally (i.e. man) instead of vertically (i.e. Jesus) we run the risk of becoming legalistic. I have an acquaintance out here that heard me speak on tithing and afterward confronted me about legalism. He said that there is no requirement to tithe. While I agree that there is no verbatim (and said as much in my talk) the bigger issue for me is that, if the people under the old covenant which had not seen the completed pouring out of God's grace could tithe then why would I who has witnessed the full impact of God's amazing grace not want to tithe (See my blog post on tithing from 8-9-10). This particular acquaintance has gone on to say that not only do we not need to tithe because of grace but that to tithe (even out of a joyful and grateful heart) is sin. He also told me that asking God to forgive our sins after our initial salvation is a lack of faith in God's completeness of forgiveness granted on the cross and thus to ask for forgiveness of sins is sin. So this acquaintance has separated himself from other believers like myself that simply want a vibrant relationship with God. We want it so much, that we take our sins before His throne and seek His forgiveness and help in eradicating them from our lives so that we might know Him better. This kind of demand where grace is used as a club to condemn the actions of fellow Christians is a form of legalism. In this case he sees himself as more right in God's eyes then me and so he condemns me and separates himself from me (and from a whole host of other Christians I might add). Can tithing become legalistic? Absolutely! Almost anything can. Helping the poor, wearing certain clothes, even evangelism can all become legalistic if the focus of our heart is not right. If we are doing it for appearance sake (i.e. being a man pleaser) then it is probably legalistic. There is only one person that we should care about ultimately pleasing and that is Jesus. The reason for doing things to please Him is simple. We do what we do for the sake of the love that He has placed in our hearts. It is the relationship with God that drives us to live a life that reflects a love for the things that He loves.

The scar death leaves

My oldest daughter and one of my middle sons have a bunch of chickens that they take care of. We have two roosters and have been talking for some time about killing one of them. Today was the day. I have been hunting and have killed several animals in my life. My daughter has never had to do that...until today. She took the initiative and started the process the way that her book said to do it. When I looked in her eyes I saw the pain that comes when you are suddenly faced with being responsible for an animals death. It took me back to a little boy with a new BB gun at the age of nine. He was headed out to scare the birds out of a cherry tree. Who wouldn't want to defend sweet juicy helpless cherries from the onslaught of vicious winged fruit eating birds. The problem was the BBs weren't scaring them off. So he took carful aim and an instant later a robin fell from the tree. Everything had been fine until that robin fell. Nothing could have prepared me for the knife of pain that stabbed my heart. I remember picking that little bird up and trying to get it to be OK. But it wasn't going to be OK. Tears flowed from my eyes as I asked God to bring it back...but it could never come back. Death and all of its pain and finality had entered my young world. That pain I felt as a little boy rushed back on me as I looked in my daughters eyes. She now understood that death is an abomination. There is something very wrong about death and we all know it. It stands as a blight on creation. Jesus even wept over its unholy impact on the world (John 11:33-35). John tells us that Jesus was troubled by what He saw the people going through as a result of Lazarus death. Now Jesus knew that He was going to raise Lazarus so what else could have been troubling Him except the impact of death on the world and its people. That impact continues today. It reminds us of how imperfect this world has become. For those who are seeking the Lord Jesus it makes one long for Him with a greater intensity. We know that when He comes He will put an end to death (Revelation 21:4). When we face death in the killing of an animal or the death of a loved one it should drive us to seek more fervently our Lord Jesus.

God's pours out grace in abundance

Tonight we were able to share our faith for several hours at a local street fair where God has graciously allowed us to have a booth. Our goal in going there is to simply spread the seed of the gospel and pray that the Lord of the harvest will cause it to take root and bring souls to Him. God was abundantly gracious to us. A great group of like minded people joined us as we proceeded to share the gospel through tracts and personal evangelism. God brought many to hear. The number of people coming to us was so many and so continuous that we were looking at 9PM and tear down time and it really seemed like almost no time at all had past. I am amazed at the overwhelming number of people that He brought to us tonight. We did nothing to deserve this or merit it. We did nothing clever. There was no advertising gimmick. We simply have set up a booth at the street fair like we have for the last four years. God sent the people. All I can say is the we serve a God who does so much more than we could ever ask or think. He is magnificent and merciful. Pray for the many people who heard the gospel tonight. Pray that God will bring a great harvest to Himself for His glory. Pray that God will protect our souls from pride. That He will help us to keep our eyes on Him the author and finisher of our faith. Pray that He would be the apple of our eye and that we would remain focused on Him and His glory.

Why where sin resides is important

Sin is never a thing outside of man. This is an important distinction to make. Sin cannot be an object that God has made. In a sense all objects of God's creation are completely neutral in regard to being sin in and of themselves. Where does sin come from? It issues from the heart of man (Proverbs 23:7a). Another way of describing the issue at hand would be that sin is man's abuse of something or being taken captive by something. Alcohol by itself is not sin in an object. Drunkenness or the abuse of alcohol is sin (Ephesians 5:18). Opiates were created by God and are not sin. They are used by the medical community to ease great pain without inducing other experiences or feelings. But opiates that are abused and used in other manners by man are sin because of how man uses them. In this case man is being controlled by the opiate instead of controlling it. This is an important principle because it is about living a God focused life.
Sin is an issue of the heart and as such true freedom is found when we see sin for what it is and where it resides. For example: (I am not super familiar with Alcoholics anonymous but I think this has a bit of application there.) In alcoholics anonymous they stand up and introduce themselves by name and say that they are an alcoholic. This can be good and this can be a potential problem for the recovering addict. You see alcohol is not sin. My experience with alcoholics is that they can easily start to view alcohol as sin. Their problem is not really an alcohol problem their problem is a heart problem. Their heart has come to be ruled by alcohol. This is no different than the sex addict whose heart has come to be ruled by sexual fantasies. The solution for the sex addict is not to mutilate the flesh so that they do not have to deal with the problem. The solution is to deal with the problem in the heart. The problem an addict has is that they have allowed their heart to be ruled by something. That something might be sexuality, alcohol, work, music, you name it almost anything can come to rule our hearts (Proverbs 23:7). The problem with seeing sin as a thing out side of us is that we never end up dealing with our hearts. We are called to love the Lord with all of our hearts (Matthew 22:37). If we would come to do this our hearts would begin to be consumed by God. This is what our flesh fights against. It will prompt you to be ruled by anything but God. But if an alcoholic or any kind of addict for that matter comes to be ruled by God and to see sin as an issue of the heart they will be freed. They will not go around avoiding an object out side of themselves but they will go to God seeking to be consumed by Him in all that they do. In this case they are freed to be addicted to God which frees them from addiction to sin (Romans 12:1-2). Let's prompt one another toward love and good deeds to the glory of God and it might be a really good thing if we became so addicted to God that we could not live without Him.

Why sin becomes acceptable

Roman Polanski broke his silence today. After 33 years from his Swiss Chalet house arrest he tells the world he just wants to be treated fairly. He sites technicalities that he believes gave him the right to flee. What is never mentioned are the facts of the case. He fails to talk about the crime of raping and sodomizing a 13 year old girl after giving her champaign and drugs. He was convicted of the crime. He underwent the evaluation at a psych ward and then split the country when they case was going to be revisited for additional sentencing. So now he says he wants to be treated fairly. Fairly!?! If it was my daughter that he did this to I would want him to be treated fairly too. Fairly severely for what he did. You see after time passes we start to add in all kinds of additional excuses and reasons that things are the way they are. The reality is that the unsaved world wants to do the same thing with God. I share my faith with people one on one on a regular basis. One of the things that always strikes me is how often people will say they are going to heaven without Jesus. When you ask them why the answer is almost always the same.
Well god is a good god right and after all I have done a lot of good things in my life...
Men fail to grasp the seriousness of their sin. The fail to look clearly at the facts of their case. There is a Holy God who cannot allow sin in his presence. They have sin. If the sin is not paid for there is no righteousness that can blot it out. We do not want to think about that. Just write the person off that is caring enough about you to warn you and then go your merry way in the safe haven of the fallen world. Our own extradition to stand before the judge of all men is coming when we die. At that point no justification or excuses will matter. At that point we will be dealing with facts. We made our own gods, we lied, we hated, we lusted and coveted things that were not ours, we violated the Lord's day and took His name in vain, etc.. The judge will judge righteously and fairly. Those who spurned the offer of salvation that was made available to them in Jesus will face a sentence that is based on their wages of sin that they earned. Let's realize that sin in any form is an abomination to our Holy God, Jesus the Christ. If we would know Jesus better we must come to grips with the awfulness of sin. A God focused life is the best way to become sensitive to the sin that so easily besets us.

Do we love God???

Coming up on the weekend I thought a good question to ponder is, "Do we love God?" There is a legitimate reason to ask this question. Many of us talk about loving God as if it is an assumed reality if you are a Christian. The truth of the matter is that the command to love God and to love your neighbor or enemy is the most repeated set of commands in the New Testament. When I have to repeat something over and over again to my kids it is usually because they are not doing it. We have an incredibly strong propensity to be self centered as a people. This can be traced back to the fall. The lie of Satan was that we would be like God (Genesis 3:5). Since that time it seems like man is always seeking to be a god unto himself. And so we have this self-centered propensity in general in our society. We have in essence become god's unto ourselves. How does this impact our Christianity? Well lets look at our churches. What do they cater to? The perceived needs of the people usually. We spend a great deal of time focusing on creating programs and services that appeal to the people. We rarely ask the question, "Would this program or service appeal to Jesus?" Our main concern is not offending someone which is usually a euphemism for not ever confronting anyone or dealing with real issues. The main role of the Church is to gather people together at the feet of Jesus, to seek Him as our God and Savior. Jesus knew that we would struggle with giving up the god of self. What did Jesus call us to? He said that we should take up our cross daily and follow Him(Matthew 16:24, Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23). The cross is a symbol of death. Paul clarified the metaphor in Galatians 2:20 when he says that we are crucified with Christ but that it is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us. If that is not clear enough Paul defines what being crucified means in Galatians 5:24 when he says if you belong to Christ you crucify the flesh with its passions and desires. Now obviously if this happened instantly we would not have the commands to love God and our neighbors or enemies repeated again and again. The reality often is that we like God and all that Christianity has to offer, but all this other stuff well that’s for the really committed. I have even heard people refer to it as second level Christianity (Although I have never seen that in the Bible). These are the same people who will tell you they love the Lord. Do they? Do we? Just in case we were confused about the cross thing, Jesus said in Matthew 10:38 “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.” So the question to ponder this weekend is, "Are we willing to take up our cross and seek to love God?" Join me on this journey after God as we seek to live life focused on Him.

What makes something morally important?

Continuing the Sam Harris response (See previous post for more details). Sam claims that the following are real problems: nuclear proliferation, genocide, poverty and the crisis in education. He claims that these are issues that tremendous swings in human well being depend on. Then he goes on to state that, "Religion causes people to fixate on issues of less moral importance."
First of all I would like to know how he arrives at any value for Human life at all. His concern here is, "human" well being. What could possibly be valuable about humans over any other animal on a planet that in his mind has simply evolved. Man becomes little more than a happy accident, or unhappy as the case may be. You see Sam makes the case that man has value and all the people listening to him comprehend the argument without elaboration. For that statement to make any sense without explanation Sam is appealing to an unstated dignity that is resident in man. Something that all men see and understand. That resident dignity is the image of God in man. However corrupted that image may be man still sees and values it. He nurtures it because it is an echo of the lie that man betrayed God for. The lie that man would be like god. Sam wants to play God but never explains on what basis he can play god. No Sam appeals to the image of God in man from creation. Sam depends on the very tenants of the Christian religion to make his case.
I would argue that the true foundation of the Christian faith in the God of the Bible does indeed deal with issues that, "tremendous swings in human well being depend on." The Bible tells us that God the Father sent His only begotten Son to die in our place and satisfy His holy wrath against our sin. This was done to reconcile us back to God. In the transaction Jesus also conquered death and has given us eternal life that we might spend it with Him. We must repent of our sin and turn to Jesus as our Lord. If we reject the Christ our choice will leave us to pay the penalty for our own sin as we face a Holy God. Jonathan Edwards once said in a sermon that when a man has been in hell suffering torment for 10,000 years he will not be one day closer to the end then the first day that he entered hell. I would like to know from Sam what is more important: nuclear proliferation or eternity in hell, genocide or standing to face God's wrath unrepentant, poverty or eternal damnation, the crisis in education or the crisis in education about our eternal state. As a Christian I would love to see these inequities rectified. But I also want to see the people who are suffering them have the chance to hear about Jesus. Sam would like to wipe out the ability to know the truth of God. The only truth that can really set a person free is found in Jesus. I hope that Jesus changes Sam's heart. In the meantime I will continue to pursue a God focused life.

On cleaning cups

One of my favorite illustrations that Jesus used with the Pharisees is the cleaning of the cup. The story I am thinking about takes place in Luke 11:37-39. A Pharisee invites Jesus to come and eat with him. Then the Pharisee is surprised to see that Jesus did not wash his hands before he ate. (My kids would like that.) Apparently the Pharisee is being judgmental of Jesus. It seems like this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Jesus tells the Pharisee that they are so careful about these ceremonial things and doing all the things that are right on the outside but inside they are full of greed and wickedness. How does this happen? Someone does all these good things but they are corrupt. Jesus' metaphor of cleaning the outside of the cup is great. You can hold a cup upside down under a stream of water and clean the outside without touching the inside. The cup might look good but it is as filthy in the end as it was before it got the outside shine. If you take that cup and try to clean the inside first you will find it quite difficult to have a filthy outside. Why? Because your hands get wet and the outside starts coming clean while you clean the inside. This is like us. You see if we have a horizontal focus (i.e. our eyes are on men). We will have a tendency to begin to measure our own righteousness by comparison to others. There is nothing driving us to rightness on the inside. Everything becomes about appearances. Judgmentalism begins to set in. We work harder at the look and things get worse on the inside. The best thing we can do if we struggle in this area is to really begin to focus on Jesus. If we look to Him our heart's wickedness will be revealed in the light of His mercy and grace. It is in His light of acceptance that we will find cleansing. As Jesus brings about cleansing on the inside the outside will naturally follow. Luke 6:45 says, “The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” If we focus on living a God focused life our hearts will have an abundance of good treasure.

Sin nature vs. Pride

The immediate reaction to this title will be to say, aren't they the same? And in the respect that they are both sin you are correct. But as a Christian the fact that I am a sinful man helps me to have more grace with others. The biggest problem that the Pharisees faced was pride. Their faith had degenerated into one of externalism. All that mattered was what they looked like. This problem continues today. It's manifestation is different but it still exists. In the Christian community it might be performance pressure at church meetings. We may put the pressure on ourselves but it's often there. This can be a form of pride. Perhaps we want life to appear to be better than what it is. Are we fooling ourselves by thinking that we need to look a certain way? What about the tendency we have to try and please God through external actions? Remember Isaiah 6:1-7, here this prophet who would have been considered a great man in any of our churches calls himself a man of unclean lips. He sees the sin in his life and it humbles him. You see our sin when seen for what it is does humble us. It brings us up short and helps us to realize that not only do we not measure up we can never measure up. That is a good thing. Because when we really come to understand that WE truly cannot measure up we are closer to depending on God than at any other time. When we depend on God that is really when His glory can shine through us. Our pride must be put to death. When we realize that we only deserve God's wrath for everything then we will more desperately look to our Savior. Not that we go out and seek to sin, but the reality of our sin nature can become a catalyst that drives us more passionately into pursuing a God focused life.