Monthly Archives: February 2012

We are in the middle of our Missions Conference at our church this week. Tonight we have a special prayer meeting for the persecuted church. The church around the world suffers in various degrees and in various ways. There is such a thing as Christianity because Jesus came and suffered for His people. It is through that suffering that we have our sins atoned for. The call of the Gospel to all who claim to desire to follow Jesus is to take up the cross and follow Him.And where did He go? He first went to the place of torture and pain and suffering and death. Then He went to glory.

In North America we can now wear gold plated, diamond studded crosses on our lapels and around our necks, but you can be sure that the original hearers of Jesus’ words did not have jewellery in their thinking when Jesus said “take up your cross”. They knew what crosses were for. And they should have known what Jesus was calling them to. The indications are that they did not until after He left the planet. But they found out pretty quickly and they were willing to do it.

Christians are called to  suffer. And as Peter reminds us (I Peter 1:6), this suffering comes in all kinds of ways. What many believers often miss, especially in parts of the world where political freedom or power enable them to demonstrate the faith without official opposition, is that suffering for the faith is not something the New Testament says will happen to some. It tells us it will happen to all who follow Jesus. We have the blatant comment in II Timothy 3:12

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ

Jesus will be persecuted.

Of course we can point out that this does not say all those who profess faith in Christ or who wear gold plated, diamond studded crosses will suffer persecution, but those who desire to be godly. You have never suffered for the faith in any way because of your faith in Christ? No insults, ridicule, being left off the invitation list, being whispered about, missing the promotion, being abused at home, divorced, disciplined by parents? You have never been charged with being too narrow minded, too judgemental, too old fashioned? Nothing? Then you should get your wanters fixed and truly desire to live a godly life.

The church needs a better understanding of the call to suffer. Consider Romans 8:16-17

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

How many times have we heard the first part of verse 17 quoted in glowing words and a sense of amazement? And it truly is amazing. Believers in Jesus Christ are children of God and since they are children they are heirs of an unimaginably great inheritance (Colossians 1:11-12). Jesus has an inheritance too and we are co-inheritors with Him. It is too stunning a concept to grasp properly. But we do great disservice to the text and to real faith in Jesus if we stop there. The verse does not just say that we are inheritors of a great inheritance with Jesus, does it? It adds a condition to it. “If” is the word that the Apostle Paul utters next. We are heirs of God and co-heirs with God – IF.

Shoot.

We are co-heirs with Christ IF we suffer with him. This is our calling. We are called to suffer (I Peter 2:20-21, 3:9, 4:1-19). We are not called to wealth, prosperity and health. And what a travesty it is that that non-gospel actually sells.  Suffering comes in all kinds of forms and suffering, ever since the fall is just the default position of humanity. Believers in Jesus Christ will have the added suffering because of their faith. Sometimes it will be persecution that actually terminates lives. Sometimes it will be pressure to conform to ways of thinking and living that are contrary to the Gospel (Colossians 2:8). Sometimes it will be the inner struggles of the heart and mind that exist because of our faith in Jesus. Sometimes it is unrelenting temptation that makes us feel like we aren’t believers at all. (What an irony. The temptations that haunt us and make us feel like we aren’t even saved are the evidence that we are children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.)

Most of the sufferings of the saints do not make our normal prayer lists. Warren Wiersbe once commented that if everyone in the church were healthy and employed we wouldn’t know what to pray. I hope he was wrong on that but quite often church prayer lists are dominated by medical and financial concerns. Nothing wrong with praying for those but they are not all we need to be on our knees about.

Hebrews 13:3 reminds us to

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

We should make special prayer for those who suffer in this way while not neglecting to pray for the sufferings for the faith in other ways that mark all the saints.

The church is called to suffer. The early church counted it a privilege.

Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name. (Acts 5:41)

They could react like that because they took the call to carry their crosses seriously. And they knew their hope. Paul could comment about his sufferings this way

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (II Corinthians 4:17-18)

We are called to suffer. But we are also called to a glory that is beyond all comparison. Jesus calls us to follow Him. He endured His cross for the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). He will help us do the same.

This is a rant. If you don’t like rants then proceed no further. If you don’t like rants and do proceed don’t blame me. You were warned.

It’s Lent. The very fact that I as a Baptist even know that is quite an accomplishment. I have never kept track of the church calendar very well beyond the biggies (Christmas, Easter) and even then it’s more because it is expected. I don’t know if there are blogs every lenten season by evangelicals and others that talk about Lent’s dangers but I have come across a few this year and I thought that before I give up sarcasm as my sacrifice for lent, albeit a week late, I would weigh in on the subject.

Lent has never been a part of my life. When I was young and knew everything I used to argue fervently about its great lack of biblicity and legalism. I was raised in a Fundamentalist Baptist home where Lent would have been seen as a works oriented attempt to score points with God and reduce the amount of time one had to spend in Purgatory. No way we were going to insult the doctrine of free grace by giving stuff up for forty days. There were so many other ways to insult it, like never having a drink for a whole lifetime and believing that is what really scores points with God. But I digress.

There are dangers in lenten observances, which one blogger has aptly pointed out here  and there is little doubt that Lent is poorly understood and poorly practised by some who are faithful in observing it. But as a lifetime non practising lent observer allow me to point out just a few dangers that those of us on the sidelines need to be careful about as well.

We live in a culture that does not know very much about self denial. And much of evangelical Christianity has bought into this concept. Giving up the burrito referred to in the above blog wouldn’t ever be on the radar of most people in our culture other than those wicked Catholics and ignorant participating Protestants during Lent. We can wax eloquent about the evils of alcohol, tobacco, and in the good old days would have added dancing, movies, rock music and pretty much anything that smacked of fun, to the list as well. But in all the years of my purgatorial life in fundamentalism I cannot remember gluttony being preached against. (As I heard one pastor say “It’s hard to preach on self control when you bring your bagels into the pulpit”). It is the allowable protestant vice. One can preach against smoking because it destroys the temple of God and at the same time have a “temple” that is approaching the size of an amphitheatre. God gives us all good things to enjoy after all and the thought of excusing ourselves from such things for the sake of preparing to commemorate the death of the Son of God paying for our sins, is too horrifying to contemplate.

A little lenten practise for just forty days might be just the thing to teach us that fasting from something is good for us, if not spiritually then certainly physically. Let’s give our pancreases a break for a while. We are called to a life of self denial for the sake of following Christ – as a mark of following Christ.  If we can’t surrender up a legitimate thing for a month and a quarter then we are in serious trouble. And trying to defend the non-participation on the basis of spirituality rings somewhat hollow. Is the man who shouts on the street corner “I fast two days in the week” a worse sinner than the one who yells back “Oh yea? Well I stuff myself silly for seven!!”? I know that there are great dangers in finding merit in our religious practises and observances. But that hardly means we shouldn’t have any. Does the fact that an evangelical thinks his church attendance means that he is better than his neighbour mean we should do away with going to church? What if he brags about how much money he puts in the plate every Sunday? You can be sure no one in evangelicalism will suggest surrendering up the offering.

The concern for many evangelicals seems to be that observing Lent will lead to pride along the lines of the Pharisees. But bragging about what we give up is not the only way to demonstrate pride and deny the Gospel. Some who give up for lent are no doubt guilty of this kind of self exaltation. And they no doubt have many other things that they do not give up that they should, and not just for forty days. But those of us who do not observe lent can brag just as much about not doing it. Here’s an idea. Maybe we should just shut up about a good long list of things that we either do or do not do. It surely cannot be any more spiritual to avoid a practise and brag about it to the world as it is to participate in one and do the same thing. Perhaps the whole matter of Christian humility is not just a matter of whether we observe lent or not. Perhaps it’s possible to be proud without ever observing lent. Perhaps pride is a matter of heart. Visit any number of evangelical websites of churches, missions agencies and individuals and you will not be long in discovering how generous they are to the poor, how faithful they are to the Scriptures, what revolutionary programmes they have devised and how you should join them in on it (sometimes for only a nominal fee) if you want to be closer to God. You can discover how influential and popular and educated and godly their pastor is, how many people attend their church, how many people would be in hell now if it weren’t for them, how many chapters of the Bible they are reading every day, how many people read their blogs, how much growth they have experienced in the little while they have been turning the world upside down. They will push on you what book the author, or pastor, or organization head has recently written and which you cannot afford to be without. They will show you their massive libraries and let you know just how much reading they get done despite their frantic schedules. But they don’t observe the liturgical calendar. Wouldn’t want to let pride slip in.

I think maybe I will give up something for lent. I just might give up snooping around those who do and stop inventing reasons why they are wrong until I can get the beams out of my own eyes. Maybe I’ll give up reading the guys from my team and always assuming that this is what true spirituality is. I may find it so helpful that I won’t take it up again after Lent.  But then I’d have to find something else to give up next year. Gossip maybe, or incendiary blog posts like this.

I have a dear friend who many years ago left the Anglican Church to become a Roman Catholic. And unless I don’t make it I fully expect to see him in glory when the kingdom is consummated. (Don’t panic. I haven’t forsaken the doctrines of the Reformation). He’ll be there for sure. I hope he can survive heaven if I am not there to help him in his encounters with some evangelicals who will find it so surprising that he made it. No one will be surprised if they don’t find me. I think I’ll send this off to him. Maybe it will give him a smile as he groans under that ungodly hardship of going without his burritos for another month.

I hardly ever do two posts in the same day. But I just came across an absolutely marvelous interview featuring the Rocker Alice Cooper regarding his Christian faith. This is simply one of the best testimonies I have ever heard. You don’t have to like his music. You don’t have to support everything he does. But this is a man who knows Jesus Christ. He is my brother in Christ. What a work the grace of God is. Give this a listen.

Jeremiah 1:9-10 – Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me,
“Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.
[10] See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”

So, God calls Jeremiah (1:4-5). Then He promises Jeremiah that He will be with him in what He has called Jeremiah to do (1:7-8). What we see next is that He follows through and actually does what Jeremiah needs Him to do. Jeremiah’s complaint has been that he does not know what to say or how to speak (verse 7). So God takes him and puts words into his mouth. God calls, God comes, and God equips for what He calls to be done.
Do we believe this is how God works for us as well? We should. There is a call to service and holiness and faithfulness. And God has not asked us for superior gifts and talent. He will supply what we need. He wants faith. He wants us to look up and leave our fears and pride behind us. He wants us to hang on to Him and attempt the things He calls us to without first analyzing to see if it can be done. The only time we need to do that is when we are not sure if this thing is a calling from God. If it truly is, then we go with great confidence. If it is not, then we should hold on to it not one minute longer. What He calls us to He equips us for.
Many Christians get this whole thing all twisted about. They arrogate to themselves great gifts and then seek to explain how it is that God has called them to use them. They use the sovereignty of God to attempt things that are more a reflection of the desires of their own hearts than the call of God upon them.
And how many Christians are into gift analysis? They think they need to find out what their gifts are so that they can use them for the glory of God. They reason that they cannot serve God until they know their gift set. It seems that the more biblical method is to determine what God is wanting from them and then attempt it knowing that if God is really in it then they will have all the gifting they need to accomplish it.

The so-called prosperity Gospel is a horrible piece of work. It is based upon bad theology, bad interpretation of the Scriptures and is often accompanied by other errors that are quite often even more serious.  It is amazing how often the doctrines of God and salvation get twisted out of shape right along with the teaching that God’s desire is for all His children to be rich and healthy.

I came across this video yesterday and no matter what you think of it, you certainly cannot fault IV His Son for being a coward. He stands in front of the churches of Creflo Dollar and Eddie Long and calls them heretics.

I am an old guy with old tastes and Rap music is not my thing. But I am becoming more and more impressed with the soundness that I am hearing from many rappers who appear to know their theology and aren’t afraid to stand up and speak biblical truth. Have a look at this in-your-face rap that pulls no punches in dealing with the awful teaching that the prosperity gospel is. If this video causes even one person to forsake a prosperity Gospel church then it is worth it. If even one person will take the exhortation at the beginning of this video seriously then it is a great accomplishment.

Were the police called on this guy? What are they doing in this video?

Sunday evening at church we were discussing II Timothy 1. Beginning in verse 8 Paul calls Timothy to be ashamed of neither the testimony of our Lord or of Paul, the Lord’s prisoner, but rather to share in suffering for the Gospel. Look at the whole verse

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,

Timothy is to suffer for the Gospel by the power of God. Reading the Apostle Paul is really an adventure. One cannot help but wonder what was going on in his mind as he wrote. Quite often it seems that when he mentions something it brings to his mind other things that he just can’t leave unsaid, so he goes off on a tangent that takes us to places too wonderful for words. We see it in Ephesians 3:2-13 and perhaps in II Corinthians 4:4-6, as well as others. And we see it here. As soon as Paul mentions the Gospel of God his thinking is lifted to the glories of the Gospel. Consider the next few verses.

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,  [9] who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,  [10] and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,  [11] for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher,  [12] which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me.

As soon as Paul says “Gospel by the power of God” it seems he gets lifted to some spiritual height.
He thought of what God did -  “saved us and called us to a holy calling”
Why he did  that - “not because of our works”
- “because of his own purpose and grace”
When this great thing began – “in Christ Jesus before the ages began”
How it was brought to pass – “now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus”
What Jesus actually accomplished “ abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”
And he reflected on the glorious fact that he was “ appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher”
And he knew that this was not a popular message but was why “I suffer as I do. ”
And in all his suffering he could say  with assurance and hope  “ I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. ”

Paul was an amazing man. But it was because he had an amazing Gospel. It is the same Gospel that we have. It should lift our hearts the same way that it lifted Paul’s and we should, like him, know that we are appointed to live it out and deliver it. And we should, like him, know that it will bring pain into our lives. And we should know, like Paul, that God will guard us and keep us, and guard and keep the Gospel He has entrusted to us until the great Day. The Gospel. It is worth it.

Martin Luther was an incredible man. There is so much about him that is both endearing and troubling. I have read a little, but not much, by Luther and about Luther. I have listened to many lectures about him and I find him magnetic. I want to know more and I found this article by Jeremy Taylor at the Gospel Coalition about Martin Luther’s home life fascinating. I hope you do too. It puts a real face to the man that we allow to become so very unreal, like we do with so many historical heroes and villains.

Several weeks a go a young man put out a video entitled “Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus”. It has now been viewed over 19,000,000 times. You might say that he struck a nerve.

Well, since producing that he has written a post regarding his thoughts, feelings, the responses of others and his relationship with the organized church. You can find it here and if you watched the original video you really should read this article.

This is a church web site, not my personal one. But it’s Valentine’s Day , so I take some liberties. My marriage works because of the woman I married. She has managed to stay with me for over thirty years and if that isn’t love then it doesn’t exist.

Last night as Heather and I were heading out for a coffee she asked me what my favourite love song was.

My first response was this:

but I was told that this is not a love song. I disagree. She found me and let me love her before it was too late. Sounds like love to me. But I had to think of another song.

Then I came up with this:

and that met with greater approval.

On the way back home I was still trying to think of what might be my favourite and Heather suggested that this might be the one:

I think I have settled on this next one. I dedicate it to the only woman who could love me like she has and has waited for me in a great many ways through all the times I fell behind.

Hebrews 13:3 (ESV)
Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

Ayaan Hirsi, author of the best selling book Infidel, has written an article in Newsweek regarding the persecution of Christians in Muslim countries. Have a look and then ask yourself, “What is the Christian response to opposition according to the Scriptures?” We’ll talk a little bit about it next week.