God's Math

Most of us live life according to this equation:

Life = Family + Work + School + Church + Relationships + Sleep + Fun + Friends + Sports + Entertainment + Vacation + Rest + God

Unfortunately, this equation is not valid. The Math does not work. Yet we live life according to this equation and wonder why we lack fulfillment, peace and joy in our lives. Every once in a while, the Math seems to work and we feel happy – so we ascribe greater reliance to the equation. But soon, the reality of the inequality of the equation proves itself and “Life” does not add up.

The only true Math in the world is found in John 1:4. Speaking of Jesus is says:

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.

In mathematical terms, this equation can be written:

Life = Jesus = Light of men

John 14:6 says that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

As long as we build our lives on an equation that makes God a part of life, our life will be less than it should be – because God should not be a part of our life. He is our life.

Specifically, Jesus is our life. It is through his Death that we can have life – and have a relationship with God. If we view life in any way other than being drenched with our relationship with God, then we are not seeing life for what it is. If God=Life, then everything in our life should be filtered through glasses that see God in everything. Our true Math, then should be as follows:

Life = God = Family + Work + School + Church + Relationships + Sleep + Fun + Friends + Sports + Entertainment + Vacation + Rest

God is not a part of life – He is Life. The “rest of life” cannot be separated from Him – because there is no “rest of life.”

Do You Remember?

With the passing of 9/11 and the 5 Year Anniversary of the attacks on our country, the theme of "remembering" reverberated throughout the country this week. It seems that many people had forgotten the intensity of the emotions felt that day, the lessons learned, the vulnerability etsablished, and the loss incurred.

It reminded me how fragile our human memory is - that, within 5 years, so many of us could allow such horrific events to fade in our memories. That's true also with wonderful events and developments in life. No wonder that after God miraculously brought the Israelites across the Jordan River, Joshua took the following action according to God's direction:

So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; and Joshua said to them, "Cross again to the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel. Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?' then you shall say to them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off ' So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever."

God had performed a miracle of nature before the Israelites - but knew the human tendency to forget. So they were instructed to build a monument to remember God's faithfulness and power. Note Joshua's words after they built the memorial:

"When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, 'What are these stones?'
then you shall inform your children, saying, 'Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.'
For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the LORD your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed; that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, so that you may fear the LORD your God forever."

God wanted His people to remember what He had done and who He is. How often do we forget what God does in our lives? How often do we forget who He is? Maybe it's still a good idea to make memorials to remind us of what God does for us....Maybe, in small ways at least, we should mark significant times in our lives where we should remember what God has done. We can each mark those times in different ways, but mark them we should. Simple reminders are powerful in sharpening our weak human memories.

What God does is worth remembering.

A Masterpiece

“Death is life’s defining moment. It is a point where the final touch is put on each person’s life’s portrait. The masterpiece is signed and the paint dries, never to be changed again. It is finished.” - Randy Alcorn in Deadline.

A Story:

“A slave and his master come to Bahgdad. Early one morning, in the marketplace, the slave sees Death in human form. Death gives him a threatening look, and the slave is terrified, convinced that death intends to take his life that very day. The slave runs to his Master and says, ‘Master, help me. I have seen Death and his threatening look tells me he intends to take my life today. I must escape him. Please let me leave now and flee on my camel so that by tonight I can reach Samara, where death cannot find me.’

His master agrees and the terrified servant is off to ride like the wind for the fifteen hour journey to Samara. A few hours later the master sees Death and asks him, ‘Why did you give my servant a threatening look today in the marketplace?’

‘That was not a threatening look,’ Death replies. ‘That was a look of surprise. You see, I was amazed to see your servant today in Bahgdad, for I have an appointment with him tonight in Samara.’

Death will come at its appointed time. There is nothing you can do to escape it. The only question when it comes will be this – are you prepared?” - Randy Alcorn in Deadline

The decisions we make and the actions we take in this life paint the Masterpiece of our life. The quality of that Masterpiece is determined by those decisions and actions. And the only paintings that will be worth anything after this life are those that are painted by the brush of Jesus Christ. We submit to Him and he paints His Masterpiece in our lives. We try it on our own, and the painting is garbage.

Death will come. Who is painting your Masterpiece?

Being a Non-Conformist

Romans 12:2: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

So what does it mean to not "be conformed to this world?" Seems pretty important, since that is key to proving "the will of God..." - demonstrating "that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

Four Parts to this answer:

1) Part 1 is found in the verse right before this one - Romans 12:1. We are to daily present ourselves as "living sacrifices". We are to submit our will to His. The first step in not conforming to the world is that we conform to His will. Being a sacrifice means that we submit even in areas where we do not feel like it. We submit only because He calls us to. Sacrifice inherently implies that we give up what we want - otherwise it is not sacrifice. It means that our lives are not driven by our "feelings" - but by our commitment to Him - regardless of how we feel.

2) We recognize that we are aliens in this world. 1 Peter 2:11 says that "as aliens and strangers" we are "to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul." We are not to love the things of this world. Yes we are "free in Christ" - but that freedom is freedom from sin. We are still slaves - slaves to Christ. This world is not our home. So, we should always be careful to not abuse our "freedom in Christ" to justify making this world comfortable - to do anything that makes this world more "home-like". That is conforming to the world. Our lives should be marked by seperating from the world. Anything that betrays our true citizenship only puts us "undercover" - the antithesis of what Christ has called us to be. So, as we exercise freedom in making practical decisions, a driving question should always be - "does this decision more closely associate me with the world or with Christ?"

3) We exercise discipline. Somehow, many Christians today have decided that freedom in Christ means a freedom from discipline. But that is a foreign concept to the New Testament. Paul talks of "buffeting his body" with regard to discipline. There are 18 passages in the New Testament regarding how we are to discipline ourselves - or that God will discpline us. We are told to be discplined about study, doctrine, fasting, praying, giving, exercising spiritual gifts, refraining from certain activies, acting in others, use of judgement, etc. Many Christians will say, though, "What if I don't feel like doing something? Shouldn't I wait until my heart wants to first?" That's a lazy, unbiblical response. Jesus says that where our treasure is, there will our heart be also. We must put our treasure where we want our heart to be - before our heart is even necessarily there. That's what discpline is about. We do what God has called us to do. Because He's God. And we are not. Obdience is about volitional love. Not love based on what we "feel" - but love based on the fact that we decide to love and honor the Lord because we must - because of who He is - and that He has called us to love Him and honor Him as Lord. "Not being conformed to this world" requires a dicsipline to live and do as God calls - regardless of feeling. Conformity to the world is marked by a living by feelings.

4) Non-conformity to the world requires commitment to a local church. There is no such thing as a Christian outside of a local church in the New Testament. We are to not forsake the assembly of believers. Within the church we are to "stimulate one another to love and good deeds". We are to be as iron sharpens iron. The body of believers is to work toward pushing each individual towards being Christ-like. This likely means pain. But God uses that pain to sharpen us. But there is also joy, fellowship and love amongst believers that the world can never understand (Philippians 1). This pain, joy, love, etc. is all found within the local body through fellowship, service, and accountability - and draws us to our true citizenship, keeping us from conforming to this world.

Not conforming to this world is a conscious decision. We sacrifice our lives, we recognize we are aliens, we excercise discipline, and we subject ourselves to a local body of believers. God has so much for us beyond this life - why would we want to cling to this world anyway?

Fight!

Stolen from Randy Alcorn's Website for Eternal Perspectives Ministries (www.epm.org):

"The true Christian is called to be a soldier, and must behave as such from the day of his conversion to the day of his death. He is not meant to live a life of religious ease, [laziness], and security. He must never imagine for a moment that he can sleep and doze along the way to heaven, like one traveling in an easy carriage...If the Bible is the rule of his faith and practice, he will find his course laid down very plainly in this matter. He must 'fight.'"

- J. C. Ryle, Holiness

Crystal Clear

A scary trend among many Christians today - even "evangelicals" - is the idea that Scripture is not necessarily clear. The philosophy promoted by many usually says one of the following ideas:

1) God's Word may be interpreted in multiple legitimate ways; or
2) God has left His Word intentionally unclear for His purposes (i.e. discussion of unclear direction from God causes Christians to learn to practice grace between differing perspectives and to muzzle our pride by keeping us from thinking that we, as people, could have the audacity to actually interpret God's Word with conviction and finality.)

Both of these perspectives are unbiblical and lead us down a road that invites a diminution of our view of Scripture. Consider the following:

1) "....no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God." (2 Peter 1:20-21)

Scripture is not open to multiple interpretations. It is actually God speaking - with a specific intention as to the message He wants to convey. It's not open for men to interpret how they see fit. God has a specific meaning when He speaks.

2) Consider 2 Timothy 3:16-17 --> "All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work."

Scripture is not only inspired but is sufficient to present every man adequate and equipped for every good work. In order for this to be true, Scripture must be understandable. God has a message for us. God gives specific standards. God gives direction. He means what He says - and it is eminently possible for us to understand it. Granted, there are certain passages (although relatively rare in the scope of all scripture) that maybe we are not supposed to be able to fully understand. However, such passages are not with regard to content specific to how we are saved, how we should live, how the church is to function, etc. In other words, scripture relating to how we are to be adequate, equipped for every good work should be understandable. Sometimes proper understanding requires work through context, grammar, language, history, and culture - but work does not negate understandability.

We must always hold scripture with the highest view. It's our bread - let's not allow it to be de-valued.

While on Your Way to Church

I stole this from James White's Blog. It's his post from today (http://www.aomin.org/) and reflects so much of what I am thinking about these days:

"Sometimes I take a little trip through a residential area to avoid a bad corner on my way to the office. This morning as I went through this area I glanced at the thermometer and saw it was reading 111 degrees at only 10am. The thought crossed my mind, "I wonder if Jehovah's Witnesses are out in this furnace?" I turned a corner and what did I see? An entire group of JW's. And there, rolling up to someone's door, three JW's led by...a man in a wheelchair. Remember, it's 111. I know, the "official" temperature was probably only 107 or so, but, that's in the shade, and that man in the chair was not in the shade. I looked down the road and saw the inevitable van heading their way. They were at the end of their "service ministry." I wondered when they had started.

In case you are thinking I am going to try to do the "look at what those trapped in false religion will do for a lie while so many blessed with so much truth in Christ waste their lives satisfying their own personal desires" thing--while that is all quite true, that's not where I'm going. Instead, my thoughts turned to a phrase I have used a number of times on this blog, "Theology matters." I look at those folks going door to door spreading a message of...what? They do not believe they are "in" Christ. They have no heavenly hope, they are not in the New Covenant, they do not stand justified in the righteousness of Christ, they have no sure promise of final salvation. They truly have nothing more than a second-class salvation system.

What about you? Most of my readers have been blessed to be part of a sound, biblical fellowship of believers. You may be going today, or just now returning from, a church where the gospel--in purity, in truth--was proclaimed this day. So let me ask you, because I know all too well how it is: how much did you rejoice in that gospel this day? Did you consider the glory of being redeemed, forgiven, freely, so that you are the blessed man or woman of Romans 4:7-8? Or were you distracted by...so many of those things that get in our way of rejoicing in what is truly important? Got cut off on the way to church? Got a late start because [fill in the blank] just can't get out the door on time no matter how early he/she gets up? Upset because Mr. X or Mrs. Y said something snippy to you on the way into Bible Study? Thinking so much about duties next week you could not even hear the sermon after the first 90 seconds? No, I wasn't following you around. Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

The ease with which we are distracted from worship says a lot about how much we really love the gospel. If we treasure it so that it defines us and has captured our hearts, will we not rejoice in its proclamation, revel in contemplating its truths? How often we lose so much blessing because we are so earthly minded!

So as you go to church today, rejoice that you are not enslaved to a system that would have you proving your worthiness to Jehovah in a wheel chair in the Arizona sun. And pray God's Spirit will aid you in worshipping God in spirit and in truth this day."