Earthen Vessel

A taste of Humanism from one of the greatest of his time, Charlie Chaplin.

If Humanism can be defined as man’s effort to know himself, to resolve his problems, and to find meaning in life apart from God and His revelation, then Christian Humanism would be to take the means in which the Humanist has attempted to do this and than to ask God to bless it.

Identity, purpose, self-esteem, relationships, gender roles, marriage, sexuality, are all issues that man has had to deal with from the beginning. The humanist has his answer and so do we but often it’s not the same. However, the Christian Humanist wants to hear harmony, he wants to bring two worlds together so that he can draw upon the virtues of both. But Humanism and Christianity in many ways are like oil and water. The very nature of their values conflict because one places man at the center of the world while the other recognizes God as who he is.

The humanist declares man is sufficient, listen to how Chaplin describes it, “Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers(racism), to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason. A world where science and progress will lead to all man’s happiness.” Humanism declares, “humanity is sufficient, not only to resolve his problems but to ultimately deliver happiness to all mankind through his own two hands.” The Christian says, “no, humanity is not sufficient to address the issues of man, because man is the problem.” The Humanist idealizes humanity while the Christian idealizes God. That is why the Humanist looks within himself to find answers to his problems, and that is why the Christian looks outside of himself, to another more capable to resolving the issues he faces in life.

This is the offense of the cross. It says man is depraved, not some men, all men. All are capable of murder, adultery, and evil, if not in practice than in their hearts. And this depravity is not just skin deep, it’s through and through, it penetrates our mind, will, intellect and affections and the worse part is that were often blind to it. Not only that but there is nothing within ourselves to address these issues. It is a mortal wound that cannot be healed. The heart of the gospel is that we must look to Christ and His death and resurrection to address these problems and until then, humanity will continue to struggle with his identity, his self-worth, his relationships, his purpose and all other issues of life which are in their very nature spiritual. No political action, or legislation, or self analysis, can affect the heart of man and that is where the problem lies. Because all of these issues mentioned here flow from the heart of man and the heart above all else is deceitfully wicked and there is only One who can deal with it.

The Christian Humanist convolutes the issues of life by trying to bring two kingdoms into one. Perhaps its an attempt to be more relative and acceptable to the world, to somehow lessen the offense of the cross so that he may be able to reach more people. What it boils down to is that he wants to find value and wisdom in humanity apart from God, he wants to find some redeeming glory in a system alienated from God, and there simply is none. As C.S. Lewis put it, “As mere biological entities, each with its separate will to live and to expand, we are apparently of no account; we are cross-fodder.” That is to say that nothing will remain that is outside of Christ’s redemptive work. All of the achievements of man, all the empires built, all the monuments and legacies left behind will one day be forgotten.

That is not to say that God will not or has not used people who don’t acknowledge or know him or other means to bring glory to himself. God has used burning bushes, donkey’s, invading pagan hordes, at one point Christ even said that the rocks would cry out Hosanna if the people didn’t, but His heart and desire is to be glorified in the people who know Him. And when they either fail or refuse to do that than He uses other means. But the hopes of the Christian Humanist to redeem this and redeem that for the purpose of using anything and everything as a platform to bring glory to God is like men digging for treasure in a grave yard. Redemption is no more in our hands than it is to breathe life into death because that is what true redemption is, it’s resurrection from the dead and only God can do it. The humanist attempts to find meaning and purpose, to discover answers to the issues of life in a system that doesn’t even recognize God for who he is; yet there is hope, that the Christian can salvage what the Humanist have built apart from God and somehow bring glory to Him in His church?

The Circus Is Coming To Town

Impressions are qualities which color our perceptions and influence our judgments. In other words what impresses us, often reflects what it is that we value or don’t value. Understanding this is crucial when putting on a successful circus, after all, the whole intention of going to the circus is to see something that you wouldn’t normally see on a day to day basis. Maybe it’s the lions and tigers, maybe it’s the flying acrobats, maybe it’s the bearded women. Whatever it is, it better impress or else no one will come. The fact of the matter is that the success of any given circus depends on whether or not they can captivate an audience.

In one of the gospels there is story recorded by Luke about an encounter between Jesus and a group of religious leaders called the Pharisees. In it, Jesus begins to talk about the pitfalls of loving money and he basically states that you can’t love both God and money; that these two values are mutually exclusive because you can’t serve two masters. This seems absolutely ludicrous to the Pharisees, who began to mock Him, because in their worldview, as was the predominant view in their culture, they equated financial prosperity with God’s blessing and approval.

Then Christ drops a bomb on them, he states, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” Note here, Christ doesn’t argue with them, instead he goes to the root of the issue, their value system. The Pharisees valued money because to them it indicated God’s approval. Christ is saying that their whole worldview and value system and everything that they esteemed was completely wrong. In essence what he was saying is the things which impressed them and captivated their attention was based on a man-centered system of Godless values.

It’s worth mentioning again, that these people who Christ is talking to are the religious leaders of that time. They called themselves “teachers of the law” and they had a tremendous amount of influence and following among the people of Israel and yet their value system was completely out of touch with God.

One of the consistent themes that runs through the New Testament is the topic of judgment. There are admonitions in which we are both encouraged and discouraged to cast judgment. For instance Christ in John 7:24 warned, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. Two quick things here, he states

  1. that we are to judge and

  2. that it is not to be based upon superficial appearances.

This is a consistent strain of thought that runs throughout scripture. (1 Sam. 16:7, Proverbs 31:30, Matt 23:28, John 8:15, 2 Cor. 4:18, 2 Cor. 5:16, 2 Cor. 10:7)

Again the things which impress us reflect what it is that we value. That is why we either love clowns or they creep us out. That is why we either enjoy a circus or we prefer to stay at home.

Anybody who has followed Christ for a length of time has probably noticed the variety of Christian sub-cultures that exist within what we call the church. And I’ll be the first to admit that it’s really easy to get sucked into one of these. It’s subtle, you begin to walk around the church and see all the crowds gathering around the latest showcase of intriguing characters. So you sit down to see what it is that seems to be attracting all the attention. It sounds good, in fact, it’s very impressive, their talking about some really good things and soon enough you begin to join in the applause. And before you know it, you let your guard down and you start enjoying the show with everyone else. You find yourself beginning to talk to your friends about how fascinating the tightrope walkers are, and how much you enjoyed the flying trapeze artist, and how you don’t really care for the juggling Siamese twins. It’s all is very intriguing and impressive but sooner or later it hits you. You take a step back and you begin to realize what this place is really all about. It’s a stage, an exhibition for all the charming clowns and sensational characters involved. It’s a charade dedicated to attracting as big of an audience as possible and using whatever means necessary to keep that audience coming back for more. It’s about creating the Greatest Show on Earth and you’ve just been had because you bought your ticket to a circus.

What validates a work of the Spirit isn’t the ability of a talented circus monkey to draw a crowd nor is it the popular applause of some clowns antics. We need to be careful that were not deceived by the latest wave of disposable theology thats being produced by the various circuses coming through town. We must weight everything in light of the word of God. Content is everything, and appearances can be deceiving. We must ask ourselves who is being exulted, is it Christ, or is it a teacher? Is it the gospel or is it a man’s vision? What is being taught, is it the word of God, or the latest trends in popular Christian literature? What is it producing, true inward transformation, or a mere superficial conformity to what a particular group values?

In Christ’s time the religious leaders along with the majority of the population didn’t recognize the messiah when He came because He didn’t meet their expectations. He came riding into town on a donkey from a little town that no one had heard of and from a family who had no reputation. Isaiah described Christ in this way, “For he grew up before Him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” From all appearances he did not impress. And here is my point, we often make judgments based upon superficial appearances. We judge growth in terms of numbers rather than maturity. We judge success in terms of results instead of lasting fruitfulness. We judge leadership in terms of talent and bright personality instead of humility and proven character. We judge spirituality in terms of activity instead of love and if you put all of those values underneath a tent all your going to get is a really big circus.

The problem with bread and circuses is that they never really satisfy the hungry hearted. They may be able to draw an audience for the moment but it’s fickle, one minute they love you, the next minute their tired of your tricks and ready to leave and after they have left all that remains is a real big mess to clean up.   

Lewis on Glory, the Cross, and the New Creation

Excerpt from The Weight of Glory ~ C.S. Lewis

A rejection, or in Scripture’s strong language, a crucifixion of the natural self is the passport to everlasting life. Nothing that has not died will be resurrected. That is just how Christianity cuts across the antithesis between individualism and collectivism. There lies the maddening ambiguity of our faith as it must appear to outsiders. It sets its face relentlessly against our natural individualism; on the other hand, it gives back to those who abandon individualism an eternal possession of their own personal being, even of their bodies. As mere biological entities, each with its separate will to live and to expand, we are apparently of no account; we are cross-fodder. But as organs in the Body of Christ, as stones and pillars in the temple, we are assured of our eternal self-identity and shall live to remember the galaxies as an old tale.

This may be put in another way. Personality is eternal and inviolable. But then, personality is not a datum from which we start. The individualism in which we all begin is only a parody or shadow of it. True personality lies ahead- how far ahead, for most of us, I dare not say. And the key to it does not lie in ourselves. It will not be attained by development from within outwards. It will come to us when we occupy those places in the the structure of the eternal cosmos for which we were designed or invented. As color first reveals its true quality when placed by an excellent artist in its pre-elected spot between certain others, as a spice reveals its true flavor when inserted just where and when a good cook wishes among the other ingredients, as the dog becomes really doggy only when he has taken his place in the household of man, so we shall then first be true persons when we have suffered ourselves to be fitted into our places. We are marble waiting to be shaped, metal waiting to be run into a mold. No doubt there are already, even in the unregenerate self, faint hints of what mold each is designed for, or what sort of pillar he will be. But it is, I think, a gross exaggeration to picture the saving of a soul as being, normally, at all like the development from the seed to flower. The very words repentance, regeneration, the New Man, suggest something very different. Some tendencies in each natural man may have to be simply rejected. Our Lord speaks of eyes being plucked out and hands lopped off- a frankly Procrustean method of adaptation.

The reason we recoil from this is that we have in our day started by getting the whole picture upside down. Starting with the doctrine that every individuality is “of infinite value,” we then picture God as a kind of employment committee whose business it is to find suitable careers for souls, square holes for square pegs. In fact, however, the value of the individual does not lie in him. He is capable of receiving value. He receives it by union with Christ. There is no question of finding for him a place in the living temple which will do justice to his inherent value and give scope to his natural idiosyncrasy. The place was there first. The man was created for it. He will not be himself till he is there. We shall be true and everlasting and really divine persons only in Heaven, just as we are, even now, colored bodies only in the light.

To say this is to repeat what everyone here admits already- that we are saved by grace, that in our flesh dwells no good thing, that we are, through and through, creatures not creators, derived beings, living not of ourselves but from Christ. If I seem to have complicated a simple matter, you will, I hope, forgive me. I have been anxious to bring out two points. I have wanted to try to expel that quite un-Christian worship of the human individual simply as such which is so rampant in modern thought side by side with our collectivism, for one error begets the opposite error and, far from neutralizing, they aggravate each other. I mean the pestilent notion (one sees it in literary criticism) that each of us starts with a treasure called “personality” locked up inside him, and that to expand and express this, to guard it from interference, to be “original,” is the main end of life. This is Pelagian (the heresy that original sin did not taint human nature), or worse, and it defeats even itself. No man who values originality will ever be original. But try to tell the truth as you see it, try to do any bit of work as well as it can be done for the work’s sake, and what men call originality will come unsought. Even on that level, the submission of the individual to the function is already beginning to bring true personality to birth. And secondly, I have wanted to show that Christianity is not, in the long run, concerned either with individuals or communities. Neither the individual nor the community as popular thought understands them can inherit eternal life, neither the natural self, nor the collective mass, but a new creature.

A little abrasive… but I think Macarthur makes some great points about their movement having a “low view of scripture” and their meetings being more about them, and their ideas, insights and cleverness on culture than the centrality of the word.

Where is Waldo?

Sometimes the substance of life is lost in the distractions that overshadow and become more demanding of our attention. I think anybody who has planned a wedding can relate to this. If your not cautious, It’s easy to let the menial issues of any given moment dictate the enjoyment and meaning of life. I think this is true with following Christ too. Often when we read scripture apart from dependence on the Spirit we loose sight of the substance of what it is that we’re reading by the things that catch and demand our attention. I think this is really easy for all of us to do. Our backgrounds and preferences often distort the way we interpret scripture and provide a powerful bias that often dilutes the truth of scripture to fit our preconceived ideas and comforts.

Whats scary is that when this happens, it is often more apparent to others then it is to ourselves. That is why teaching in scripture is always subject to the scrutiny and judgment of the whole body of Christ and not just one or two theologians who determine what is true for everyone else. (1 Cor. 14:29, 1Thess. 5:19-211, John 4:1, Acts 17:10-11, Gal. 1:8) Redeemed man is vulnerable to error when it comes to the truth of the gospel, not even the apostles were exempt from this. (Gal. 2:11-14) That is why we are warned not to isolate ourselves. Whether that be by physically leaving the body of Christ or just alienating yourself from anybody within the body who disagrees with your own theology and preferences. When we fail to listen and submit to the body of Christ we find ourselves susceptible to self-deception and perhaps even worse leading others in the same error.

Each generation of the church is faced with the challenge to confront and defend the integrity of the gospel from the popular philosophies and spirit of the age it lives in. The tendency of most popular false teaching these days tends to gravitate towards a man-centered gospel and theology, where the imperatives (commands) overshadow the indicatives(what God has done) and our judgment of righteousness shifts from our position in Christ to our performance. Christ isn’t necessarily removed in this case, he is just put aside, regarded as a venerated hero but in terms of living in and through His people and being the head of the church, he has no place.

The problem with this kind of teaching isn’t that it never mentions Christ nor is it that it necessarily rejects Him or His resurrection. It just simply doesn’t affirm or teach it’s purpose in the believers life. The content of this message may even from time to time mention Christ as a good example to follow, which I might point out is no different from how most of the world judges Him, but as far as teaching what it means to abide in Him, or to be baptized with Him in His death and resurrection, or to walk in the Spirit; that is all reduced to impractical Christian mysticism and left for the theologians to work out.

The truth is we don’t bother to teach Christ as our life because we haven’t experienced Him as our own Life nor do we believe in His ability to truly transform our lives, let alone anyone else’s. Instead our focus is always on the external world and on what we can do to improve ourselves. We become like doubting Thomas, who refuse to believe in anything unless we can see it with our own eyes and touch it with our own hands. What we fail to see is how the spiritual indicatives in scripture impacts the practical and so we become consumed with our behavior and self-help methods and ultimately our focus turns from cultivating Christ’s Life in us to cultivating what scripture calls the old man. Whether it be through building self-confidence, self esteem, or self-strength it all remains within the realm of self and is applicable to both Christian and non-Christian alike. In fact for that matter, our sermons could be preached to a Jew, Muslim, or Deist with little to disagree with because our view of scripture is primarily focused on the moral lessons found in the narrative rather then it is to pointing people to the substance of it’s message, which is Christ.

Narrative in scripture is given to us to foreshadow the mystery of Christ and His redemptive work. I understand we can pull positive moral lessons from scripture but when we have to strain our eyes and ears to find where Christ is and what this has to do with the gospel then I think we have missed the point.

True Christian Spirituality works from the inside out. The strengthening and maturing of the inner man, the new man. It’s not a re-directing or re-fining of the old. We are told multiple times to put off the old and to put on the new by faith and thereby allow Christ to transform us from the inside out. This not only effects our behavior but it primarily effects our motives and desires. God isn’t satisfied with a loveless obedience to what it is right. He wants the heart of man. It’s not that He isn’t concerned with our behavior or the externals or the imperatives, he most certainly is but what He is primarily concerned with is the condition of the heart and soul of the man which produces these things. That is what he wants to transform into the image of Christ.

This is not to be mistakened with passivity. We are actively engaged in this process by recognizing and confessing our sin and then putting to death behavior that the Spirit convicts us of. Without which we have no right to claim faith in Christ. Obedience to the imperatives are a necessity but there produced by understanding and leaning on the indicatives in Christ.

As Christians there is this tendency to surround ourselves with people who won’t challenge us, who won’t question us, who will always pat us on the back and tell us how wonderful and great we are. They’re called enablers. They’re like the mom who tells their kid that they are the smartest kid in class when in reality their failing the third grade. Discernment is not having a strong and influential opinion about what sounds good and feels good to you. Truth is always weighed in the light of scripture. If scripture has no place in our dialog then we have moved to the realm of relativity where everything is judged by ourselves and from ourselves. In this arena, the man with the biggest stick determines what is true and what is false and whoever is willing to side with him is welcomed but whoever disagrees better stay within sticks-length away.

Joh 8:31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed on Him, If you continue in My Word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

Joh 5:38 And you do not have His Word abiding in you, for you do not believe Him whom He has sent. You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. And they are the ones witnessing of Me

This is why I like RC Sproul (and plus he kind of reminds me of master splinter.) I’ve never really wrestled much with the idea of free will and God’s sovereignty. I’ve always chalked it up to just being two irreconcilable ideas, a paradox far above our understanding. But lately the two subjects have been bothering me and as I stumbled upon Sproul’s website, I saw that he discussed the subject in the link I’ve posted above. I think it’s the best thing I’ve heard on the subject and if you can get pass the 80’s style of clothing and weird facial hair it’s worth a listen. If your interested…

“Free Moral agents always act according to the strongest inclination they have at the moment of choice.”

~ Jonathan Edwards

Resuscitation or Resurrection?


The longevity and strength of a building is often determined by the quality of its foundation. If it’s foundation is weak or compromised then the building begins to dilapidate and under the pressure of storms and with the passing of time it may even collapse. I believe this is true with our faith as well. There are foundational aspects of the Christian faith that must be laid if our faith is going to endure the trials of life that we face on a day to day basis. If not properly laid, we become vulnerable to the environment in which we live in and in the face of trial we may even suffer shipwreck.

Our Identity in Christ is one of the most foundational aspects of our faith that cannot be neglected or built upon without first securing an understanding of. That is not to say that our understanding of our Identity in Christ doesn’t grow with time as we study the word of God and the Spirit illuminates passages of scripture. Scripture makes it clear that just as we are born in the world as infants, so also we are born of the Spirit as infants. Peter instructs us to “desire the pure milk of the Word, as newborn babes, so that you may grow by it.” Yet as we mature in the faith we are also expected to begin to consume the meat of the word of God. This is the process of expected growth and maturity for all of God’s children.

I believe one of the major challenges that we face as infants in Christ is coming to terms with the assumptions that we make about our faith. This is especially true with those of us who come to know Christ at an older age and who have already developed a world view apart from the wisdom of God. It’s hard for us to let go of the wisdom that we have put our faith in and trusted in to get us through life. The reality is, we are all born in the kingdom of darkness and as we grow and mature in this kingdom, we come to posses a knowledge of life apart from God that simply will not transfer over to our new Life in the kingdom of His Son.

The problem is that a lot of our experience and wisdom gained from our old life colors the way we live our new life. This is most apparent in our understanding of redemption. Many people think of redemption in terms of a restoration project. Like your grandpa’s old 55’ Chevy sitting in the garage. It’s a really nice truck, it’s just a little beat up and in need of a new paint job. The problem with restoration projects is no matter how much time and effort you put in to them they are always prone to corruption. In other words you may have just re-built the engine but it’s just a matter of time until the transmission goes out.

Here’s my point, biblical redemption isn’t a resuscitation of the old life. Redemption is a resurrection to a new life. It’s not a purging of the old creation like a restoration project. In other words it’s not a matter of God resuscitating the old man and the old heart and then re-directing and re-training his old passions and ambitions. No, redemption is a new creation, a new heart with new desires, a new man, an all together new dynamic. We are born again of an incorruptible Seed. All of which carry incredible implications that should be processed and worked out with a sense of fear and trembling.

Biblical redemption always involves two elements: death, and resurrection and as followers of Christ these two elements are always at work in our lives. The apostle Paul’s letters are filled with this idea. In Philippians 3:7 he put it this way, “I also count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them to be dung, so that I may win Christ and be found in Him; not having my own righteousness, which is of the Law, but through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death” See also (Romans 6:3-4, 2 Cor. 1:8-9, 2 Cor. 4:7-12, Galatians 2:20, Colossians ch. 3)

The beauty of Christ’s redemption is that as the cross of Christ becomes an active element in our daily lives, it transforms who we are from the inside out. It’s not a matter of God banging out a couple dents and giving the old heart and old man a quick little paint job; It’s a new heart and a new man composed of an entirely new Seed. This doesn’t mean that God does away with our individuality and personality, but as we undergo this process of sanctification (which is a process and is not instantaneous) he sanctifies us and empowers us with His Holy Spirit and it’s on this ground that we may offer ourselves to God as a Living sacrifice, Holy and acceptable to Him.

And this is the power of our testimony.   While we take pains to prove Christ’s resurrection to unbelievers through various means of reason and natural argument, if the power of Christ’s resurrection isn’t at work in our own lives then it’s all a sham. God imparting His Life into His children is the most powerful proof of Christ’s resurrection.  Our witness and testimony must be demonstrated in the power of His resurrection.

This is the new dynamic, rooted and grounded in our Identity in Christ without which there is no foundation to build on.  

Self-love

Self-love is one of the many false philosophies that we embrace as a means to bring glory to God. The thing about self-love, is that it is often easy to point out in other peoples lives but what’s so deceptive about it is our blindness to it in our own lives. Here’s a great quote from Tozer.

“To be specific, the self-sins are self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love and a host of others like them. They dwell too deep within us and are too much a part of our natures to come to our attention till the light of God is focused upon them. The grosser manifestations of these sins–egotism, exhibitionism, self-promotion–are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders, even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy.

They are so much in evidence as actually, for many people, to become identified with the gospel. I trust it is not a cynical observation to say that they appear these days to be a requisite for popularity in some sections of the church visible. Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice….”

2Tim 3:1  Know this also, that in the last days grievous times will be at hand.  For men will be self-lovers, money-lovers, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unyielding, false accusers, without self-control, savage, despisers of good, traitors, reckless, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it; even turn away from these. 

Used Missional Jesus For Sale

“God created man in his own image and man, being a gentleman, returned the favor.” —Mark Twain

There has always been a longstanding temptation and effort to take the offense out of the gospel. Whether it be through eloquence or artistic beauty we often attempt to try and take the sting out of the gospel by either portraying Christ in a light that we think will attract certain types of people to Him or by minimizing certain aspects of the gospel that we know will offend them. In so doing, Christ becomes our medium in which we shape and mold Him into an image that we are comfortable with. You see the evidence of this in the feminine Christs portrayed in various paintings of the past and perhaps more relative to our times, the macho tough-guy persona that Christ and His disciples are often painted in today. Here are a couple of actual quotes that I think epitomize what I’m talking about it.

“Jesus is a prize fighter with a tattoo down His leg, a sword in His hand and the commitment to make someone bleed. That is a guy I can worship.” ~ Mark Driscoll

“Paul doesn’t just run with a group of good guys. He runs with ferocious, Godly, missional men. They’re not just neat Christian people. These men are beasts. Gospel beasts!” ~ Matt Chandler

I actually really like and respect both of these guys (especially Chandler) even though I don’t agree with their characterization of Christ or His disciples, the point I’m trying to make is that there is this temptation to fashion Christ into an image that more often then not reflects ourselves rather then Christ as represented in the gospels.

As a good friend of mine once said, “Christ is not some commodity to be sold for the benefit of those who buy him…” and furthermore the gospel message at it’s very core is offensive. We need to be ok with that. We need to realize that there is a cost that comes with following Christ and being ridiculed for your faith is really the least of these expenses. And I realize that these days there is a lot of unnecessary foolishness that is often added to the gospel that doesn’t help our cause and needs to be eliminated but when we begin to buy into the idea that people will respond to the gospel or to Christ by the way that we present Him or because of our eloquent or artistic way of explaining the gospel then our confidence begins to shift from the Spirit of God to ourselves.

John Piper once said,

(The) “flesh is what you are minus the Holy Spirit. And what we are as a church minus the Holy Spirit. That is the flesh. And he says in Philippians 3:3 we worship in the Spirit and put no confidence in music, or preaching. Can we get to that point? We are so nervous about music and style that I wonder if we can hear this word. We worship in the Spirit of God and put no confidence in the flesh. Amazing! If this church hangs ultimately on my articulation of truth on Sunday morning or the choir or so and so putting together some musical things we are not a Christian church. We must ultimately be reliant on the Holy Spirit, who may be pleased, in any given culture, at any given time to express himself in certain ways that suit certain groups of people, but the Spirit is the only hope here.”

At times I think were all guilty of calculating and scheming of ways to get people to believe and follow Christ as if regeneration were a simple math equation where you just add this factor with that factor and then you get faith. When we do that, we dilute the gospel into a powerless man-centered message. We aren’t to market and neatly package Christ as if He were a product that was up for sale, we’re to simply speak the truth in love and live out what we proclaim to believe ourselves. Sometimes this will be with great fear and trembling words that seem to clumsily stumble out of our mouth and sometimes it will be with great boldness and artistic eloquence, so long as it’s done in simple obedience and dependence upon the Spirit then it will be in great power.

1Co 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those being lost, but to us being saved, it is the power of God.

2 Cor. 2:14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. 15For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, 16 to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?  

Tension

Tension is not something that I really enjoy, but at times I do appreciate what it produces. I hope I never come to a place in my life were I refuse to be challenged either through isolating myself or merely refusing to engage with those around me that don’t think exactly like I do. But if I do wander off into oblivion like so many others have, it will be because I no longer want to be challenged by those who have been placed in my life for the purpose of growth and maturity. The truth is being apart of the church is hard. There are hard people to deal with, there is tension, there is frustration, and there is pain, but along with that there is unity, there is encouragement and there is refreshment and this is a great joy to be experienced. I can’t really think of to many things in life that are of value that don’t come at a price and I believe this is especially true with Christian fellowship. The bottom line is that growing pains are an essential part of the Christian experience. If we aren’t willing to embrace the discomforts that come with community then Christ won’t benefit from the growth and glory that comes from community. We are designed to grow not as individuals but as a body composed of many members, and as we come into maturity by corporately drawing upon the life of Christ we begin to reflect His character and His image. This doesn’t happen apart from Christian fellowship. This is my point, we are given so many reasons to walk away from the church. Maybe we don’t feel like we fit in, maybe we don’t like the worship band, maybe we don’t think the pastor really likes us. We can come up with countless reasons to not be apart of the body of Christ and I’m not saying there aren’t legitimate reasons to leave a church but to forsake the body of Christ…

If you look at the relationship that Christ had with His disciples you will see that at times it was very tense and hard. He was constantly offending and confusing them and as a result many turned away. I understand not being satisfied with the status quo, I understand the frustration of apathy within the church but I wander if those who choose to walk away from the church because they are offended by the church would of continued to follow Christ when he told His disciples “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever will save his life shall lose it, but whoever will lose his life for My sake, he shall save it.” We are sheep sent out amongst wolves, the only hope for survival is to stay close to the Shepard and the true Shepard’s Joy is always in the midst of His flock.

Job 2:10 

Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?

Proverbs 18:1-2 (Amplified Bible)

He who willfully separates and estranges himself [from God and man] seeks his own desire and pretext to break out against all wise and sound judgment. A [self-confident] fool has no delight in understanding but only in revealing his personal opinions and himself.