Journal Challenge

For those of you who might be keeping track of my challenge, I am not posting all of this week's journal entries. I am currently visiting my sister and, though I will read and study, I will not take the time to update my blog daily. Look for a mass summation of the week on Saturday. Until then, God bless and stay in the Word.

Journal Challenge: Day 3

Today, during Sunday School, church, and the crusade service I went to tonight, I was reminded of several things. 1. What the term "accepting Christ" really means. 2. How messed up we really are (even as Christians). 3. Where our focus sometimes lies within the church.

1. We tend to, as Christians, throw out these phrases and words that most people dub "Christian-eze." These words turn people off from the truth of God because they don't understand them. I fall into this trap a lot myself, and one of the phrases I (and most pastors) use the most is "accept Christ." Now, this phrase isn't bad, or even unbiblical, but I believe that we have turned it into something it isn't. We say we need to "accept Christ as our Lord and Savior," but most people think that means "ask for forgiveness and ask Him to come into our heart." Sorry, you are wrong. (Here comes some toe-stepping.) As I have said in previous posts, we don't have to ask for forgiveness to be saved! It is a by-product of our understanding that we sin and our confession of Jesus as Lord. Remember, God is faithful to forgive us if we confess our sins, but He will save us if we confess Christ as Lord (1 John 1:9, Romans 10:14). Also, it isn't Jesus who comes into our heart (sorry kiddos); it is the Holy Spirit. When we confess Christ as our Lord, we receive the Holy Spirit in our lives and it is Him who lives through us. The person of Christ is seated on His throne in heaven awaiting the day that the Father says "Go get your bride."

So this term "accept Christ as Lord and Savior" is accurate. How do I mean? Well, He already is our Savior (He has already died for our sins) and He already is our Master (whether you want to admit it or not, God is sovereign), so we must accept that in our own lives and confess that He is both of those things in our lives. That produces forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

2. We suck. Plain and simple. (Man I'm full of fun stuff tonight.) In Hosea, we read how the Israelites kept turning away from God despite all that He had done for them. "My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore" (Hosea 4:12). God isn't happy with His people here. They have gone off and sought other things to worship and give their time. How different are we, really? Do we not seek after other things to satisfy us when God is the only thing we need? Do we not ask money, possessions, or relationships to fulfill in us what only God Himself can fill? So, yeah, sometimes...we suck.

The crazy thing is, though, God still loves us and wants to have a relationship with us! No matter how much we leave to "play the whore," God still has this promise for His people: "I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord" (Hosea 2:19-20). That's true love there! For those who are apart of His Bride (the Church [Christians]), we will be betrothed to God even if we slip up!

3. My pastor today preached on the passage in Luke about the rich man and Lazarus, where they both died and Lazarus went to heaven and the rich man went to hell. He used it to point out three things that not every church has: belief, prayer, and evangelism. Though I agree, I got something completely different out of this passage. Often times, we focus on evangelism too much and forget about our own discipleship, or vice versa. I believe our focus should be on doing what God has commanded us, regardless of what people think about us. Here's what I think Jesus was saying in Luke 16: there are those who have all the Scripture (Jews = Rich man) and there are those who wish to have it, but do not (Gentiles = Lazarus). Those who did not start with all Scripture are blessed, because it did not taint how they perceived Christ. Whereas the Jews have. In the end, the rich man wanted Lazarus to go back to his family to tell them, but he was not permitted because they had the law and prophets and because of that, they would not believe even if a man was raised from the dead. So, Lazarus is a picture of Jesus as well. The Jews did not believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, even though He showed Himself many times.

So, where is our focus? Scattered. Where should it be? The commands of Christ. Why? Because that is how people come to faith in Him and accept Him for who He rightfully is.

Journal Challenge: Day 2

Journal Challenge 2
Yesterday I went through Joel, and that was a bit confusing, but I came away understanding the need for true brokenness and not just faux brokenness before God. Today, I began Amos. Amos is a bit easier to understand (at least chapters 2-3 are), because it is all judgement. Amos helps us out by telling us when he was a prophet, which was during Uzziah's reign two years before an earthquake (1:1). During this time, the surrounding nations have not been too kind to Israel and Judah (no surprise there), and so God begins pronouncing judgement upon them. He mentions Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, the Ammonites, and Moab. All of which shared a border with Israel and Judah. Damascus is judged becaused they destroyed Gilead, which was a refuge city. This was a city of protection that was established for people to enter and not have to worry about being killed. So, because of their actions against Gilead, Damascus is reduced to nothing. The same is said about the Ammonite people. Gaza and Tyre are judged because they took Israelites and sold them to Edom. Edom is judged because "he pursued his brother with the sword." Edomites were the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother. Moab was judged because they "burned to lime the bones of the king of Edom." So, here we see, that even though he wasn't chosen by God to be His people, God still protected Esau's descendants because of the relationship between Esau and Jacob and Isaac.

But God also pronounces judgement upon Judah and Israel. Judah "rejected the law of the Lord" and they followed after false gods (2:4). Israel, though, they are some messed up people when Amos is talking to them. They take advantage of the righteous and the needy, they do not care about the laws God has given them, and, in fact, they get others who are committed to God to turn away. See verse 12 of chapter 2: "But you made the Nazirites drink wine, and you commanded the prophets, saying, 'You shall not prophesy.'" After this, God says that the strong, mighty, swift, and nimble will not be able to stand on the day of judgement.

So, here is my thought: who have I led astray? Have I made people go against their vows or not be used by God? The Bible says "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5). Do I think myself better? Do I think myself strong or mighty? To think such a way is to pharisaical and to think of myself as righteous, when I know that my righteousness is as clean as a woman on her period (Isaiah 64:6).

Just my leaving thoughts...

Journal Challenge: Day 1

This last week at Journey Youth Camp, I challenged my students to keep a journal for 30 days once we returned home. This serves multiple purposes. The first is it creates a habit of getting into the Word daily. The second is so that they can look back and remember what God taught them. Instead of writing mine down to myself, I decided I would keep a journal on my blog. As I was trying to decide where I should start, I felt I should look at the Old Testament minor prophets I had never previously studied. So, I am starting with Joel.

Journal: Day 1

The hard part with these minor prophets is that you get very little context to what was going on in the land of Israel or Judah at the time of the writing. Joel is one of those books where we just do not know when it was written. Best guesses put it somewhere between 800-835 BC during the reign of Joash in Judah. With Joel, God, again, is pronouncing judgment upon His own people for their disobedience and sin. However, he does proclaim grace and mercy upon His people once they return to Him. As I read this, I cannot help but draw parallels to Revelation. From the swarms and hordes of locusts to the sun being darkened and the moon turning to blood. If these events truly came to pass in Judah during this time, there would be a record of it in either 2 Kings or 2 Chronicles.

Alas, there is no record of this happening. This leads me to believe the words Joel received from the Lord were prophetic for a time 800 years in the future. My clues? After words of terror about earthquakes and the sun and moon being darkened, God says this: "'Yet even now.' declares the Lord, 'return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.'" Now, to understand this "clue" of mine, you must understand the word "rend." The word "rend" means to "tear apart." In the Old Testament, the Jewish people would tear their garments in moments of great distress and agony, whether physical or because of sin. What God is calling them to do here is to tear their hearts instead. Allow themselves to be fully broken inside, not just make a show of it on the outside. The next step in this clue, is when God says that after they come back to Him, His people will "never again be put to shame." He says that twice (2:26-27).

Now, we know that later on in history, both Judah and Israel were taken captive and spent 70 years in captivity, so, what is God talking about? Simple. Look at verse 28: "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those I will pour out my Spirit."

This isn't talking about some follow the rules and you'll be ok stuff. This is God saying that His Spirit will come and dwell with and within man. This is the reason why His people will never be to shame again. Listen, we WILL NOT be put to shame. Why? Look at Romans 5:5: "and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

There is the fulfillment of Joel 2:28-29. It is through God's Holy Spirit that we have hope, and that hope is a symbol of love which will not put us to shame. It is also through God's Holy Spirit that we have our spiritual gifts, which include all manner of prophecy (verbal prophecy, dreams, and visions).

So, this is my challenge, based on my readings and diggings tonight: rend your heart before God. Be broken before Him over your sin and call upon His name as your source of life and meaning, and you will not be put to shame.

Redemption: How sweet it is

"And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me 'My Husband' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.' For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord."

What a beautiful promise we have from the Lord! A promise, given in the midst of turmoil and unfaithfulness, to Israel and, by extension, to the Church.

How often do we run from Christ, the Husband of the Church? How often do we "go after [our] lovers, who give [us our] bread and water, wool and flax, oil and drink"? (Hosea 2:5) It is God who gives us those things, and yet we seek them in our new baals. These gods the Israelites worshiped were supposed to have power and control over the land and weather, so they would sacrifice and worship them, when all the while, God is saying, "I gave that to you!" Our modern society has grown technologically to where we no longer think that way, and yet, we still have our own false gods and our idols: money, success, pleasure, satisfaction, laziness, etc. We see these things and we chase after them because we think, "That is where I find my validation; that is where I find my joy," not know that God is saying, "No! You find that in Me!"

And, still, in the midst of this, God says that He will bring them back unto Himself and "betroth you to Me forever." In other words, the Church will be married to Christ, and we will no longer search for those things outside of Him. Just as Hosea's wife was a prostitute, so we are here. We leave Christ in search of things that we think are better. How miserable humanity is! We leave a faithful, loving, gracious Husband to whore with the baals and idols sin offers. But, God redeems us as Hosea redeemed Gomer. Check it:

"And the Lord said to me, 'Go again, love a woman who is loved by another manand is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.' So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barely." (Hosea 3:1-2)

Hosea bought his wife out of the life of adultery and prostitution and freed her from it! She never had to return to it again. Remind you of any other Husband you know?

Grace vs Forgiveness: Why grace saves and forgiveness doesn't

When it is 4 a.m. and someone is awake, it's either because they are in pain, don't want to sleep yet, have insomnia, or are getting up for work. Those that don't want to sleep are young and will grow out of it (I did). Those in pain or insomniacs take a pill. Those getting up for work have already slept. So that leaves us with me. I just can't sleep tonight. I'm tired, my eyes are heavy, but I just can't shut off. So, while all normal people in my time-zone are asleep right now, I take to the interwebs and I blog...

This is one of those good kind of "can't shut off nights." I've prepared (mentally), several possible teaching lessons that are in their infancy. The one I am most prepared to discuss (the one that takes the least amount of brain power), is a discussion of forgiveness and grace. In my last blog posting, I spouted possible heresy, saying that we don't need to ask for forgiveness from God to be saved, we only need to openly confess that He is our Lord and Master and that we will follow Him always. I made the point that it is our faith that saves us and not us wanting to be free from guilt of doing bad things. That is called easing your conscience.

So, I guess, this will be a continuation, since Ephesians 2:8-9 says "For it is by grace through faith that you have been saved..." Grace saves us when we put our faith in the Giver of Grace. So, what does that word mean: grace? I've heard it defined as "unmerited favor", "getting what you do not deserve", and other things along those lines. Now, I'm not saying those are wrong (they are actually decent), but as I study Scripture, I find that those definitions are incomplete. For instance, take Romans 12:3. Paul writes, "For by the grace given to me..." Here, the definition "unmerited favor" works decently. But that definition is a repeat of the other I gave you. "Unmerited favor", broken down, means "you didn't earn the standing you have." So, in light of the subtle deficeincies I see, I propose this definition of grace: "the power to do what you cannot do yourself." This power, when dealing with Scripture and spiritual matters, comes from God. Now think of Ephesians 2:8: "For it is by the power you do not possess that has been given to you because of your faith in Christ that you are saved." Or Romans 12:3: "For by the power I do not have on my own, which was given to me..." It just seems a more complete definition to me. But, more on grace later.

Now we shift our focus to forgiveness. This is easy. Forgiveness isn't saying, "That's ok" to someone who has hurt you. Far from it. We have taken this mentality of "forgive and forget" to an extreme and even applied this to God! I saw a video from Francis Chan the other day where he said we have the tendency to take God and make Him subject to our morality. Ouch.

I am here to tell you (super-fundamentalist, bring out your heresy book again) that God doesn't forget our sin. "But, then how do we get to heaven?" I said He doesn't forget, not that He doesn't forgive. Read the end of Revelation. Every man, woman, boy and girl who EVER lived will stand before the throne and give account for what he or she has done. EVERY SINGLE ACT, WORD, OR THOUGHT! However, Christ is there as our advocate and says, "I paid John's penalty. He followed me. He trusted me. He let me be his Master. He is mine." Then He will say, "Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into your rest." No where in there does God ever forget our sin. I think He will see it clearly (God is outside of time...different lesson), but it was placed upon Christ while He was on the cross. Therefore, we no longer face the penalty of our sin. We have been forgiven. Our sin is no longer held against us. That is my working definition of forgiveness: "not holding a past offense against someone." This is key in marriage and relationships.

Think of this: A man is walking home from work, when a mugger pulls him into an alleyway. "Give me your wallet," the mugger says, thrusting a gun at the man's chest. "Here, take it," the muggee replies. As the mugger takes it, he shoots the man anyway, killing him. After the investigation, the mugger is caught and goes on trial for murder. He is convicted. The man's wife is there in the courtroom. (Here is where the rubber meets the road, folks.) She walks down the aisle, leans over to the mugger and says, "I forgive you. I no longer hold this against you."

Now, will she EVER forget that this man killed her husband? NO! But forgiveness is not holding it against him. "Yeah, but this is murder!" It doesn't matter. It was our sin that forced Jesus to die, and, still, He forgives us. "Yeah, but that's Jesus! He's God!" Agreed. Yet aren't we called to live like Him? Luke 6:36-37,40 "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged. Condemn not, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven...A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher." We will be like Him if He is our teacher. From the mout of Jesus Himself.

Back to the illustration: The woman stands up, tears rolling down her cheeks. She looks at the prosecuting attorney, and then leans back down to speak to her husband's murderer again. "Also, I heard that you cannot afford an attorney, so I would like to help you pay for one."

Enter grace. The mugger didn't have the power to help himself. He didn't have the ability to hire a good lawyer. So, in a shower of grace upon a man who killed her husband, the wife paid in his stead.

Yes the event was ficticious, but the premise is not. The premise is based on Christ. If we are to show Christ in everything, how can we not respond the same way? That's my question to you reading this: which shows Christ more? Holding onto past grievances, or forgiveness?

"Love...keeps no records of wrongs..." 1 Corinthians 13

Forgiveness and Salvation Are Not The Same Thing

I must preface this by saying, please read the entire post. It will not make sense unless you do that. Also, do not let the title throw you.

You enter into this post with one of two mindsets: with a narrow viewpoint brought about by what you already "know" or a broad viewpoint brought about by not allowing your knowledge to interfere with what you will read. I pray that you have the latter mindset.

First and foremost, we must look what the Bible says about forgiveness, specifically forgiveness of sin. I use the English Standard Version (ESV) in my study. In the gospels, whenever Christ talks of forgiveness, it is always in relation to us forgiving other people. We must forgive to be forgiven. Move onto Acts. In chapter 2 verse 38, Peter said to the crowds at Pentecost, "Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Spoiler Alert: This is the only time I've found in Scripture where asking for forgiveness leads to salvation. By the way, this was addressed to the Jews, alone, who had seen Jesus and knew who He was. Later in Acts, we find Peter again preaching, this time to Gentiles and notice the difference: "To [Christ] all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name." (Acts 10:43) Yes, he just said belief comes before forgiveness. Perhaps you knew that. Let's keep going.

Paul doesn't actually spend a lot of time on forgiveness in his letters. Why? He is writing to Gentile churches who didn't know who Jesus was prior to a evangelist coming. Instead, he says "righteousness" and "made righteous" and "justified". In Romans 4:5, he writes "And to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness." He does say that it is through Christ's blood that we are redeemed and forgiven in Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:13-14.

In Hebrews, which was written to Jewish Christians, the writer echoes the Old Testament and says in 9:22 "without the shedding of blood there is no forgivess of sins." And in chapter 10, she (I believe Priscilla wrote Hebrews) writes "Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins" (verse 12).

This brings us to one of the most quoted verses in all of Scripture, 1 John 1:9, which says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." However, even here this doesn't say it gives us eternal life or that we are saved.

Now we have to look at what Scripture says saves us. This is simple, in words, but very difficult in terms of actions and understanding. Faith saves us. More than that, our confession of Christ as Lord and Master saves us. It isn't asking for forgiveness that saves us, as we like to tell people. I would posit that we don't even have to necessarily ask for forgiveness to be saved. Most of you think I'm bordering on heresy, so let me hit the Scriptures.

Let's look at the most famous passage of Scripture, John 3. Here, Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again, which throws the Pharisee for a loop. He doesn't understand that. "How can a grown man go back into his mother's womb?" Silly Nicodemus. Jesus isn't speaking physical, he is speaking spiritually. Look at 3:14 and 15, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life." Did you see that? Jesus himself says its about belief in Him that saves us. He didn't say, "anyone who confesses their sins to me will be saved."

And here, you may be saying, "Yeah, but Jesus died for our sins." Well, duh. Sin still separates us from God, and we can't get past that gap. Forgiveness is incomplete, though. (Now I know you think I'm speaking heresy.) It's true, though. Forgiveness isn't enough to save us. Let's look in Romans 10. "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." What does this mean? Simply, We have to accept that Jesus is our Master and believe that He is alive and defeated death. You can believe in your heart and be justified. Literally, you can believe in Jesus in your heart and get forgiveness of sins, but do you see what actually saves us? We have to confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord!!! It's not all about the inward. We have to confess and tell the world that we serve Jesus. This is what is meant by "If you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Father." Uh-oh.

You may be asking, "Are you saying that we can ask God to forgive us, but if we don't live for Him and serve Him, we aren't saved?" YES!! That's exactly it! We have to tell people we serve Christ and we actually have to serve in order to be saved!!

"Are you saying that its our works that save us, then?" NEVER!! It's our faith in Christ that saves us (Ephesians 2:8-9), but we actually have to show we have faith by serving (James 2:14-26)!

Now, we combine these two. If we confess Jesus as Lord and serve Him, then He will forgive us! Jesus says in Matthew 7:21, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father in who is heaven." Jesus then speaks of those who did miracles and prophesied in his name that won't enter into heaven. He calls them "workers of lawlessness." They did those things for themselves, or because they wanted to, not because God commanded it.

Why did I spend all this time on this subject when the majority of people who will read this are already Christians? Because I want those who think that because they asked for forgiveness they are going to heaven, that isn't necessarily true. I don't want you to question your salvation, unless you are not actually living for Christ and acknowledge Him as your Master.

The other reason I write this is for those of us who spread the Word of God and the Gospel of Christ to those who need it. People need to understand it isn't the forgiveness of sins that saves us, its the faith in Christ and subsequent living for Him showing our faith. It's our acknowledgement of Him as Master.