9.27.2010

Four Things You Can Pray for Others Today

 "In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy."  
Philippians 1:4

Isn't it an encouragement when you know people are praying for you? Praying for others will do two things -- change your attitude and change them. Positive praying is much more powerful than positive thinking. People may resist our help, spurn our appeals, reject our suggestions and not listen to our suggestions, but they are powerless against our prayers. 
When you say to somebody, "I'll pray for you" what do you say? What do you pray?  Most of us are good at praying in a crisis but on a normal basis, what do you pray?  God, bless them?  That's so general.  The more specific you are in prayer the more specifically you get an answer.  We serve a God who hears and answers prayers.  Let us carry on supporting others with our prayers, in times of crisis.

Let us also be in the habit of praying generally for others.   In Philippians 1:9-11, Paul spells out exactly what he's praying for people. "And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God." (NIV)

These verses give you four things you can pray for people today -
1.     "Abound in love ..." Pray that they will grow in love.
2.     "Discern what is best ..." Pray that they make wise choices.
3.     "Be pure and blameless ..." Pray that they will do the right thing.
4.     "Filled with the fruit of righteousness ..." Pray that they will live for God's glory.

8.09.2010

A Strategy for Tackling a Passage of Scripture

Over the years I have participated in many Bible Studies in which we used a manual or workbook with prescribed questions. Recently I have heard an increasing sentiment to get back to the basics and just... READ THE BIBLE without a lot of bells and whistles. But it's also good to have a method or strategy to aid the process of "unpacking" the Scriptures. I was so happy to learn from one of my pastors of some suggested questions prepared by one of her seminary professors at Trinity School for Ministry in Pennsylvania. These questions make sense and can be tucked in your Bible for use whenever you pick up a passage of Scripture to read.

Rod Whitacre’s Suggested Questions for
Scripture Reflection and Study

1.​
A.​How does this passage offer comfort?
B.  ​How does this passage challenge?


This first set of questions starts with our own gut-level reactions.  This is a very good place to start, though we must recognize that our answers may come more from our own experience than from what the text itself is trying to say.  These questions help us bring the text into contact with our own lives and not merely play intellectual games.  Other question, on the other hand, will help us avoid merely hearing our own voice in the Bible rather than God’s.

2.​
A.​How does this passage encourage faith?
​B.​How does this passage encourage hope?
​C.​How does this passage encourage love?


This second set of questions focuses on the three “cardinal virtues,” faith, hope and love.  St Paul says these three are eternal (1 Cor. 13.13)—they are what we can “take with us.”  It makes sense, therefore, to build these qualities into our lives as much as possible.  The way to do so is by focusing on God, revealed in Scripture and in our lives.  So in this section we are not just looking at these virtues as such, but using them as filters for reflecting on our response to the God revealed in the Scripture passage.
These questions are more specific than the first set.  They help us focus on the content of the passage while continuing to bring the text into direct contact with our lives.  Insights gained in this section can often give direction in sermon preparation.  Each of these terms refers to two distinct ideas:

​Faith
Faith refers to trust and belief.
Does this passage give us reason to trust God?  Does it give us some truth to believe?
​Hope​
Hope refers to future expectations and to expectation of help now.
Does the passage give us something to look forward to?  Does it offer us encouragement in the midst of difficulty?
​Love​
Love refers to a heartfelt sense of concern and to sacrificial self-denial?
In this passage do we see God’s love?  People loving one another?

3.​What does this passage teach about God’s work in history?

We now move to question that are even more directly focused on the content of the passage.  This third question is put in a very general form in order to include the fruit of both historical and organic study.  Reference works are helpful at this point.  What exegetical details (literary, historical, cultural) are especially important?  What themes of the Christian Faith are touched on in this passage?  What patterns and echoes of material elsewhere in Scripture are present here?

4.​What does this passage reveal of God’s delightful beauty?
The fourth question focuses on God Himself, whom to know is eternal life (Jn. 17.3).  What is taught about the Father, Son and/or Holy Spirit?  What do we learn of God’s character?  His heart, i.e. what He loves and hates?  His ways of dealing with us?
This question is the most significant of all, though the answers may be only a list of attributes.  Scripture reveals God and His ways to us.  The Bible is a glorious means to a yet more glorious end, the personal knowledge of God Himself through union with the Father in the Son by the Holy Spirit within the covenant People of God.

8.02.2010

What is Heaven?

I believe in God the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth;
I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell;
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father . . .

Jesus ascended into heaven—but what is heaven?  Most of you think you are going there at the end of your earthly life, so it’s probably good that we know something about it.  In the Bible heaven means 3 things:

First, heaven is where God is.  It is the endless, self-sustaining life of God.  God has always dwelt there, even before creation.  In as sense where God is there is heaven. 

Second, the Bible tells us that heaven is the infinite sky above us, an emblem in space and time of God’s eternal life.

Third, heaven is the state where angels or men share the life of God in his presence.  We see this most clearly in the Book of Revelation where the elders and angels surround the heavenly throne.  We, the church, ascend into heaven in worship where we get a foretaste, knowing that we will also experience the fullness of heaven in the future.  Heaven is our inheritance and our reward.  It is where our treasure and hope are to be stored.  It is where our true citizenship is, and therefore we should never confuse our earthly citizenship with it.

7.14.2010

What Do You Believe In?

by Rev. Reagan Cocke

If someone were to ask you, “What do you believe in?” what would you say? You might answer, “I believe in God,” but then where would you go? You’d probably talk about Jesus and about the cross. Pretty soon you’d be in a theological and doctrinal discussion, even though you never intended to go there! And sooner or later you’d be talking about anthropology as well.

Anthropology: are we humans good with a few faults that need fixing, or are we fatally flawed?

Paul in Galatians: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Jesus in Luke: “Her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” Then he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, “who is this who even forgives sins?” and he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
This woman was guilty of sin, and she knew it and she needed forgiveness from God—not some impersonal out there kind of God, but a God who knew her and her sins personally.

Retired bishop FitzSimons Allison says that exchanging the biblical categories of sin and grace for therapeutic categories of dysfunction and recovery represents pastoral cruelty. It also represents denial as to who were are as sinners. Listen to this fictional dialog from an episode of NBC’s ER from several years ago to hear what this pastoral cruelty sounds like coming from a supposedly Christian chaplain ministering to a man dying of cancer. As I read this, think about the Jesus’ response to the woman:


Lying in his hospital bed, a retired police officer confesses to this chaplain his long-held guilt over allowing an innocent man to be framed and executed. He asks, “How can I even hope for forgiveness?” and the chaplain replies, “I think sometimes it’s easier to feel guilty than forgiven.” “Which means what?” the dying man asks. “That maybe your guilt over his death has become your reason for living. Maybe you need a new reason to go on.” “I don’t want to ‘go on,’” he says. “Can’t you see that I’m dying? The only thing that is holding me back is that I’m afraid—I’m afraid of what comes next.” “What do you think that is?” the chaplain gently inquires. Growing impatient, the man answers, “You tell me. Is atonement possible? What does God want from me?” After the chaplain replies, “I think it’s up to each one of us to interpret for ourselves what God wants,” the man stares at her in bewilderment. “So people can do anything? They can rape, they can murder, they can steal—all in the name of God and it’s OK?” Growing intense, the dialogue draws to its climax. “No,” she responds, “that’s not what I’m saying.” “Then what are you saying? Because all I’m hearing is some New Age, God-is-Love, have-it-your-way bull! . . . No, I don’t have time for this now. . . . I want a real chaplain who believes in a real God and a real hell!” Not understanding she replies, “I hear that you’re frustrated, but you need to ask yourself . . .” “No,” he interrupts. “I don’t need to ask myself anything. I need answers and all of your questions and all your uncertainty are only making things worse.” “I know you’re upset,” she begins to say, provoking this final outburst: “God, I need someone who will look me in the eye and tell me how to find forgiveness, because I’m running out of time.”


The Apostles’ Creed tells us of the real God who got us out of a real hell by the real death of his real self in his real Son. There is real grace and it is not real cheap, but it is real.

4.15.2010

What Negative Thoughts are Running Through Your Head?

You say, “It’s impossible”. God says: “All things are possible”. (Luke 18:27)
You say, “I’m too tired.” God says: “I will give you rest”. (Matt 11:28-20)
You say, “Nobody really loves me”. God says: “I love you”. (John 3:16 - John 13:34)
You say, “I can’t go on.” God says: “My grace is sufficient.” (II Cor. 12:9 - Psalm 91:15)
You say, “I can’t figure things out.” God says: “I will direct your steps.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
You say, “I can’t do it.” God says: “You can do all things in Me.” (Phil 4:13)
You say, “It’s not worth it.” God says: “It will be worth it.” (Romans 8:28)
You say, “I can’t forgive myself.” God says: “I forgive you.” (I John 1:9 - Romans 8:1)
You say, “I can’t manage.” God says: “I will supply all your needs.” (Phil 4:19)
You say, “I’m afraid.” God says: “I have not given you a spirit of fear.” (II Tim. 1:7)
You say, “I’m always worried and frustrated”. God says: “Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)
You say, “I don’t have enough faith.” God says: “I’ve given everyone a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3)
You say, “I’m not smart enough.” God says: “I give you wisdom.” (I Cor. 1:30)
You say, “I feel all alone.” God says: “I will never leave you or forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5)

3.26.2010

Keeping the Sabbath: The Fourth Commandment

O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The word Sabbath means a day set apart for God and for rest, a day of spiritual refreshment and reverent worship. The Sabbath points us forward to our eternal rest with God.

Q: What does the Fourth Commandment say?
A: Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.
This can be one of the hardest commandments to keep. Except for "necessary works or acts of mercy" we are supposed to devote our Sundays to worshipping God both publicly and privately. But no one seems to have informed the sports teams or the shopping malls about this! God allows us six days of the week to take care of our own affairs. He claims the seventh day as His own. He set the example for us and blesses the Sabbath.

Exodus 31:13-17-"You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, 'Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the LORD, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.

Isaiah 58:13-14-"If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the LORD honorable; if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the LORD,and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Mark 2:27-28-And Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath."

If the Sabbath was truly made for our physical and spiritual good, then Jesus, who calls himself the Lord of the Sabbath, can interpret what it is for. Our rest is in Him because he did the work of new creation for us.
________________________________________

Devotional Questions:
How do you keep the Sabbath and why do you keep it the way you do?

If you pay attention to Jesus' healing miracles, you will notice how many are done on the Sabbath and how upset the Pharisees get. Why do you think Jesus chose to heal on the Sabbath?

Does the answer to the previous question help you understand why the Christian Sabbath is now on the first day of the week and not on the last?

3.07.2010

The Truth About Idols

by Reagan W. Cocke, Associate Rector at St. John the Divine Church in Houston

So, what is the truth about idols?—about God’s warning to us in the second commandment: You shall not make for yourself any idol. Paul doesn’t want Christians to be ignorant about our breaking of the second commandment. That is why he is writing to our all time favorite brothers and sisters in Christ, those getting-it-all-wrong-and-lovin’-it Christians in Corinth. You may be thinking, “I’m not ignorant like these Corinthians,” but if you are a Christian living in 21st Century America, then you are. Our collective ignorance is inescapable, and God’s word acts as a warning and correction. Like the Israelites wandering in the wilderness, we aren’t living holy lives. I see it day after day in this church. So often God takes a back seat, and we set our hearts on evil and participate in evil things.

But we’ve been saved by Christ and given God’s word to know the truth about Him and about ourselves. What we read in the Bible is there for our instruction. God’s word is full of life and we are foolish if we ignore it, or worse, reject it. It is to those who have knowingly rejected God’s word that Jesus will one day say, “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. 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?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

We all participate in sin. Perhaps you think you are alone in your private issues, problems, temptations, and sins, but God’s word tells us something very different. We are all in this together. Satan wants you to think, like he got Eve to think, that somehow God’s word isn’t exactly for you and that your problems and temptations are different than everyone else’s. But, as Paul writes, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. God’s plan is for us to escape and endure temptation by fleeing from idolatry, by keeping the second commandment. What keeps us from fleeing from idolatry? Ignorance and immaturity and our continual participation in sinful behavior.

The mark of immature Christian thinking is that faith is all about me and my individual salvation and relationship with Jesus. Immature Christians focus on themselves and what they can get out of their faith and out of their God. Mature Christians begin to understand that the church is a community of Spirit-filled and Spirit-empowered believers, set apart by God for worship, proclamation, evangelism, and disciple-making. One of the marks of mature Christianity is to be fruitful, not busy. There is always a temptation to be busy in the church instead of being fruitful. Part of busyness is constant reaction. The church exists to react to things that happen. There is a need, we jump. There is a demand, we meet it. Somebody wants something different, we make it happen. The temptation of busyness is to let people drive the mission of the church. Busyness becomes a false idol. It is Jesus’ Great Commission that is to drive the mission of the church, anything else, especially the social gospel of inclusivity, becomes an idol.

Another temptation is to be people pleasers, to be golden retriever-like, co-dependent Christians, fetching all sticks thrown our way. The squeaky wheel drives the church. The demanding, loud, opinionated people get their way. They walk into clergy offices unannounced as though we are in our offices just waiting for someone to drop in so we can do something. Or, they go behind peoples’ backs instead of confronting them face to face as biblical ethics demand. And because our limited vision of Jesus is someone who always responds to other’s demands, we try to please all people all the time in all things. Here’s some news: Jesus was not a people pleaser—that’s why he got himself crucified. Therefore we can say no to the temptation of pleasing people because people-pleasing is a false idol.

A third temptation is to be independent. I can do whatever I like. I don’t have to be part of adult education and in a small group on Sunday mornings, that’s for others and not for me. I don’t care that the vision of our church requires that I am grounded in God’s word, that I learn in community, that I am called to commit to being in weekly worship and to serving Jesus through his church. People have their excuses, but the temptation at our church to be independent and non-committal is huge. People find excuses right and left to opt out of significant participation. I am not going to correct my independent nature because I don’t recognize authority. No one here has the authority to intrude on my life, tell me how, when, and why to read the Bible, and I can do what I want to do. If that is you, repent. You were bought with a price. You are not your own. Jesus is the authority of your life. Flee from the idolatry of being in charge of yourself. God is in charge. You are a slave to Christ. You want to know whose you are and how you should live, what you should be? Read God’s word.

Lent is the perfect time to focus on being intentional in your faith. Retreat from your daily unreflective life to focus on your walk with the Lord. The temptation is to be distracted from intentionality. Satan wants us distracted from reflecting on the root cause of our sins.
Here’s some truth: Idolatry is the underlying cause of all our sins and temptations. Martin Luther said if we didn’t break the first two commandments, we wouldn’t break the next eight. Bad fruit comes from bad roots. Idolatry is the root cause of sin. Even though you say you are a Christian, you have other gods you are following that lead you into sin. The way to overcome temptation that leads to sin is to flee from idolatry.

We were made to worship God, to enjoy him, serve him, love him, and engage with him forever. But because we are all born in sin we are tempted to worship created things rather than the Creator himself. Whatever you hold in highest esteem, highest regard, whatever person or thing, that becomes your functional god. It can be a car or a weekend house or your golf game or even education. We parents have taught our children to worship the god of education. We have, in a sense, sacrificed them on the altar of academia. Now, is education a bad thing? No, but it is when it consumes our children. It is when public and private schools give them a worldview that is not biblical and is actually anti-Christian. It is when they spend more time advancing in math than they do reading God’s word and learning discipleship. It is when they stay home of Sundays to do homework. It is when you care more about your child’s grades than their salvation.

Have I offended everyone yet? I told you Jesus wasn’t a people pleaser, and you can bet your life that Jesus would never put education before salvation and the discipleship of our children. Education is an idol. I know because so many people spend more on private education than they do giving to the Lord. Look at where your money goes and you will locate your idols.
Idolatry is the taking of a good thing and elevating it to a place is does not belong. Idolatry is enslavement to someone or something we love. It can be our children, our spouse, our house, our job—it is something good that becomes more important to us than anything else.

So, how do we figure out what our idols are? Let me ask a probing question to assist you in identifying them: What is hell to you? Is it growing old, getting fat, becoming poor, being unmarried, being childless, being lonely? In order to be saved from these personal hells, we start worshipping and focusing on that which is not God. We say to God that we will not be content until we are rescued from this personal hell. Let’s get to the root of our idols by considering some more questions. What are you most afraid of? What is your greatest fear? That can tell you what your idol is. What do you long for the most? What motivates you? What are you most passionate about? Where do you run for comfort at the end of a long and difficult day? To time spent in prayer? Or to drugs, food, medication, despair, alcohol, TV, shopping, the internet? What do you complain about most? Your family, your spouse, your kids, job, boss, school, church? What angers you most? What makes you the most happy?

Idols are usually good things that we give ourselves to because they calm our fears, fulfill our passions, bring us comfort, soothe our anger and make us happy. Christians addicted to idols tend to be Christians who understand Christianity as doing rather than being. Doing something to have your best life now rather than being and resting in Christ. We tend to turn to idols because somehow God has failed us. We are ticked off at him. He is too slow to respond to our needs. So we turn elsewhere. God has not brought us a spouse, a child, a job, money, our specific prayer requests. He’s not working for us. He doesn’t answer our demanding prayers, and so we turn elsewhere. If you have unanswered prayers, consider that God may be holding back, not answering your demands, because he knows you don’t need any more idols in your life.

If you could have anything right now, what would you choose? To be rich, to have another spouse, a larger house with more closet space for your possessions, a new car, a better job, a bigger 401k; to be skinner, prettier, buffer; to be out of debt, to receive a compliment from your spouse, your parent, your teacher, your boss, your priest? How about righteousness, holiness, sacrificial love, a greater ability and more opportunities to proclaim the gospel? Did anyone think to ask for these? What do you want to master and control in your life? What do you want under your sovereign lordship? That will probably tell you where your idols are. We are all sinners. We all have idols. We do have to repent of them, but how do we turn away from them so that we can be healthier in the Lord?

John Calvin said that the human heart is an idol factory. Idolatry is the opposite of grace. It is about making us into something we are not so that we can become somebody. Idolatry functions as works righteousness. If you work harder, get yourself fitter, prettier, smarter, healthier, nicer, skinnier, more famous—let’s just say everything that Oprah tries to equip us to become—then you will become someone, but only if you do the work, buy the product, live the disciplined life, get off alcohol, cigarettes, prescription drugs, fattening food, and internet porn. Yes, you can do it if you only try; you can live your best life now. But this is the opposite of the gospel of grace. The real deception of idolatry is that it supplants our justification (who we are in Christ through grace) with our sanctification (the life-long process of the Holy Spirit making us holier). We then think God will love us more if we are holier and better. This is sick. It causes us to define our own hell and worship a self-made savior. If we fall short, we fall into despair and depression. If we accomplish what we think we need to do, then we are victorious and become prideful, Christian champions. The end result is that we are left with either pride or depression.

Instead, we are to be content. Christianity is about being, not doing. The good news is that we are saved by Jesus and not by ourselves, by our actions or choices or decisions or free will. Jesus saves us from idolatrous, works-based righteousness. He changes our hearts and turns us to himself that we may worship him and nothing else. He says to us, “Come to me all who are weary of works-based righteousness and I will give you rest. God sent me into the world to show the world real love, that I will die for you and that you will come to faith in me for salvation, finding it nowhere else. This is a true saying and worthy of all who God will draw to me, that I came to save sinners, not the righteous. And because you are sinners I am your Advocate before the Father, seated right next to him, interceding for you. I am the perfect offering for your sins, and not for yours only but for the sins of the whole world.” If we don’t raise our hands to Jesus, we will worship something or someone else. I guarantee you that people who do not regularly worship on Sundays are worshiping something else. It may be hunting or skiing or fishing or sleeping or shopping or eating or talking or studying or a weekend house.

We have to turn from our idols, break them, smash them, abandon them and repent and turn to Jesus, to Him alone. If God has changed your heart this morning, you will become a Christian today and abandon works righteousness and false idols and turn to Jesus who died for your sins and receive him by grace through faith. You are repenting right now of your idols and believing that Jesus is the true Savior. If you are a Christian like me, we can repent today of our idols and return to our first love. You don’t need to earn righteousness and your salvation. It has already been given to you. Jesus has already given you all things. He dwells in you and you dwell in him and that is all you need, period. Worship him and him alone. Quit worshiping false idols. Quit worshipping yourself, thinking that you somehow chose Jesus and participated in your own salvation through your own free will. You did not and cannot. Jesus chose you before the foundation of the world and loved you before you ever loved him and died for you even though you don’t deserve it because he is the definition of love and he is grace and he is God.

Father God, thank you that you don’t tell us to jump on the treadmill and work ourselves into shape, but that you placed us in Jesus where we find our real shape, real satisfaction, real comfort, real happiness, real contentment, real peace, real beauty, real salvation, real rest, and all of this by His grace. Thank you that grace flows from Jesus’ throne, and that through the power of His Spirit, we can repent this morning of the false idols we have been following, and we can acknowledge that in Jesus we find rest and contentment and peace because in Him you have given us all things.

3.01.2010

Rosemary and Michael Green: A Passionate Christian Couple

I just returned from coordinating an annual conference for Wycliffe Hall, the Anglican, evangelical theological college (seminary to those of us in the US) at the University of Oxford. Our main speaker was Rev. Dr. Michael Green, aged almost 80, who spoke along with his wife Rosemary. The Green are the epitome of a passionate Christian couple. Michael, with a spark in his eyes and lightness of step, spoke with boldness and challenged us to live with the daring of the early Christians. Everything Michael does is bold, from his hugely outstretched arms lifted in worship to his loud laugh. And Rosemary is no shrinking violet-- she once decided she should join the men's Bible Study at the church Michael was pastoring in Raleigh, North Carolina. When I am with the Greens I want to be more like them-- always keeping their eyes on Jesus, and living with great joy and strength through the power of the Holy Spirit.

2.14.2010

LENT: An Ash Wednesday Devotional

by Rev. Ted Schroder, Amelia Plantation Chapel
reprinted from www.virtueonline.org

The image of ashes is a moving reminder of the human position before God. Job's initial cry of mourning, "I have become like dust and ashes," later becomes a prayer of confession, "I repent in dust and ashes." (Job 30:19;42:6) When Abraham interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah he prefaced his prayer: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes." (Genesis 18:27) Ash Wednesday and the forty days of Lent remind us of our human condition: that we are sinners in need of redemption. What does that mean?

A theologian friend of mine (Paul Zahl, in his book, Grace in Practice, from which this article is extracted) maintains that there are three ways to empty a room. The first was to mention 'original sin.' The second was to refer to 'total depravity.' The third was to say that he did not believe in free will. Each of these expressions, especially the third, which is a negation, was sufficient to give him all the elbow room in the world. They have the same effect on his listeners as a diagnosis of cancer would from an oncologist.

Original sin is the idea that every woman and every man who has ever been born is infected in their DNA with a tendency to think the wrong and to do the wrong. Original sin is the universal tendency in people to look out solely for themselves to such an extent that when they are on the defensive they become violent and libinal (lustful). Jesus repeatedly described human beings as someone from whom evil proceeds, rather than someone who is the victimized object of outward influences. He traced the problem of sin to the human heart. (Matthew 22:15). Sin is a disease that is never healed in this life. It is forgiven. By God's grace it is robbed of its total power. But it is never healed or eliminated until death.

Total depravity does not mean that every human being is as bad as he or she could be. Total depravity means that none of us is as good as we could be. There is good and bad in each of us, but there is some bad in every part of us. We are tainted with sin in every part of our lives, even our unconscious. Because of this tendency in each of us without exception, we are vulnerable to the temptations of the devil and the forces of evil.

Martin Luther wrote a most important book entitled The Bondage of the Will. In it he responded to the arguments of Erasmus who contended that the free will of man enabled the sinner to choose freely to serve God. Luther said that Erasmus reduced Christianity to morality which did not need Christ for salvation. If the will is free, and we can choose in our own power to serve God, then we do not need someone to save us - we can save ourselves. We may need some help from time to time but we do not need a savior. In other words, our religion is that of Poor Richard's Almanack: "God helps those who help themselves."

But human experience shows how little free will we have. Ask anyone who suffers from addiction or other emotional afflictions. People try to tell you to change, to stop drinking, or smoking, or some other compulsive behavior. All you need is a little will power, they say. The only way to change behavior is to acknowledge that you are in the wrong, and that your life is out of control. Unless you admit your powerlessness in this area you are hopeless. Repetitive compulsion afflicts everyone unless they seek a higher power than themselves. Recidivism is the rule and not the exception. Reversing obesity or anorexia is not possible unless sufferers can admit that they are powerless over their eating problems. The same can be true for worry, grieving and depression. Poor choices in life are inevitable unless we are saved from the bondage of our wills. The answer is not to judge and chastise others but to have compassion on them and introduce them to the good news of the salvation of Jesus.

The human will is in bondage. It is determined and conditioned by forces outside itself, as well as forces within. Our wills follow our hearts, the seat of our desires; and the mind, or reason, tags along behind finding rationalizing reasons to justify what the heart has already decided. That is why people can almost never be talked out of an emotional course of action once they have decided to do it. The will is tied to the heart, with the mind as a sort of 'face-saving' caboose. The reasons the mind devises to justify the heart's needy desires are always pathetic. That is why we need the one person in the world who does not suffer from original sin, total depravity, or the bondage of the will: Jesus, his sacrificial atonement for the forgiveness of our sins, and the life-giving grace and power of his Holy Spirit to give us new life.

1.21.2010

2010 Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, Florida Winter Conference - Powered by RegOnline

2010 Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, Florida Winter Conference - Powered by RegOnline

Please join me for this wonderful conference, Rediscovering the Authentic Jesus, with members of the faculty of Wycliffe Hall at Oxford University. February 26-27 in Orlando. Click the link above for details!

1.05.2010

God's Wonderful Promises

It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ … he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. Ephesians 1:11 (The Message Bible)

You say, “It’s impossible”. God says: “All thing are possible”. (Luke 18:27)
You say, “I’m too tired.” God says: “I will give you rest”. (Matt 11:28-20)
You say, “Nobody really loves me”. God says: “I love you”. (John 3:16 - John 13:34)
You say, “I can’t go on.” God says: “My grace is sufficient.” (II Cor. 12:9 - Psalm 91:15)
You say, “I can’t figure things out.” God says: “I will direct your steps.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
You say, “I can’t do it.” God says: “You can do all things in Me.” (Phil 4:13)
You say, “It’s not worth it.” God says: “It will be worth it.” (Romans 8:28)
You say, “I can’t forgive myself.” God says: “I forgive you.” (I John 1:9 - Romans 8:1)
You say, “I can’t manage.” God says: “I will supply all your needs.” (Phil 4:19)
You say, “I’m afraid.” God says: “I have not given you a spirit of fear.” (II Tim. 1:7)
You say, “I’m always worried and frustrated”. God says: “Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)
You say, “I don’t have enough faith.” God says: “I’ve given everyone a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3)
You say, “I’m not smart enough.” God says: “I give you wisdom.” (I Cor. 1:30)
You say, “I feel all alone.” God says: “I will never leave you or forsake you.” (Heb. 13:5)