The Protestant Work Ethic and You

"Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ. Don’t work only while being watched, in order to please men, but as slaves of Christ, do God’s will from your heart. Serve with a good attitude, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good each one does, slave or free, he will receive this back from the Lord." -Ephesians 6:5-8, HCSB

I have issues with authority. Anyone who knows me will tell you that while I generally do as I have to, it isn't always with a good attitude or in the exact manner that my superior wanted it done. I am independent, stubborn and tend to think that I know the right way to do things. I find trivial tasks stupid, and dislike being put in a box, given parameters in which I must accomplish my goal. In a sentence, I like to be my own boss.

Yet, I am not. I have a job at Kroger, a grocery store chain in the United States. I am often responsible to do certain tasks, and do them with a smile. Yet, menial tasks (which are common in a grocery store) irritate me. I don't like to do them, and if I have to do them, it will be in my own way or I will dislike that. I'm guessing many of you probably feel the same way in your jobs-- you do you job because you have to, but it isn't because you want to.

This is not how Paul says one should work in Ephesians. The context is that of a slave and a master, but if a slave should reflect this attitude, how much more should a paid employee?! Colossians 3:17 talks of doing everything as if for Christ, which is almost the same message here: we work as if for Christ Himself. Think about your job: if we did our jobs for Christ, what would that look like? If Christ wanted me to clean the floors, how would I clean the floors? How would I cashier or push carts or stock milk? I'd wager my work ethic would look much different.

There's an old phrase called the "Protestant work ethic." This concept probably came from people living out this passage. They served with a good attitude. They didn't work only when watched, but even harder when not watched. They did everything out of an overflow of their heart, a heart that loved Christ and wished to do the will of God.

We must bring this back. We must, as representatives of Christ in this world, show His heart in the workplace. We must work with a good attitude. There is no qualifier; we don't do this "if our boss doesn't suck." No, we do this as evidence of the new heart Christ has given us. Let us show this! Let us prove our remade selves in the workplace!

Jesus Believed in Hell

"And if your eye causes your downfall, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, rather than to have two eyes and be thrown into hellfire!" -Matthew 18:9, HCSB

I chose the picture above for a reason. So often, when people think about Jesus, they picture happy Jesus. Soft Jesus. Lovey-dovey, gentle Jesus. And He certainly is loving and happy and gentle, do not hear me wrong. I'm simply stating that He wasn't like that at all times.

A common claim against Christians who are "hardcore" or "fire and brimstone" is that they are not loving. If you preach a gospel that includes a literal Hell for the person outside of Christ, you will be considered unloving by many. After all, it isn't loving to tell people they are headed to Hell, right?

Jesus did. In fact, Jesus spoke of Hell more than any other person in the New Testament. Not that He wanted people to go to Hell; Matthew 18:14 clearly states that God does not want any to enter Hell's gates. Instead, Jesus preached a literal Hell because He actually believed in it.

Jesus actually believed that if someone were to sin and never repent, that person would be in Hell upon death. He believed in a literal, fire and brimstone Hell. This belief, this knowledge of the very real punishment of sins, is something that propelled Him to preach repentance of sins and salvation in Himself. This compelled Him to look upon crowds with compassion, knowing their status before God and thus their eternal fate if nothing changes.

And we don't ever mention Hell.

We have become so afraid of talking about the punishment of sins that we won't hardly mention the fires of Hell. We don't want to seem mean or old-fashioned or weird, so we just leave that part off. We don't ever discuss the extent of punishment for sins, that Hell is a place of eternal darkness and flames (not sure how that works, but it sounds horrifying), a place of gnashing of teeth. Sometimes, people will make Hell into a place of temporary punishment, like time-out for a toddler.

We've lost our belief in Hell. If we actually believed in this Hell, a literal place of eternal suffering and punishment, then we would do something with that belief. We would not sit by, afraid to saying something to the person outside of Christ. We would preach the gospel to all we could, fueled by the desire to see people escape the punishment.

Our indifference towards Hell and those headed there is at best unloving and lazy, and more likely hateful and damning. We quite literally hold the gospel of Christ in our hands, the way out of eternal punishment, and we never preach it. Our silence will be paid for by our friends for eternity, as they cry out our names, wondering why we didn't care enough to share the gospel with them.

Jesus believed in Hell, and did something about it. Do we?

Our Silence Makes No Sense

"Then He touched their eyes, saying, 'Let it be done for you according to your faith!' And their eyes were opened. Then Jesus warned them sternly, 'Be sure that no one finds out!' But they went out and spread the news about Him throughout that whole area." -Matthew 9:29-31, HCSB

So, one day Jesus was walking around when a pair of blind guys walk up to Him, wanting to be healed. They had heard, no doubt, of His healing abilities. Perhaps they even heard that He had healed other blind people. Regardless, they walked up behind Him and yelled for Jesus to have mercy on them.

His response? "Do you believe that I can do this?"

Their answer: "yes."

A repeating theme in the Gospels is faith. Almost anytime that Jesus healed someone, it was a result of their having faith in Him to do what they believed He could do. And really, the same should be true for Christians.

We were once blind when Jesus, by grace through faith, opened our eyes to Him and our salvation in Him. When we are awakened from our sin-induced death and brought into the new birth in Christ, we are healed by Him, like the blind men here, "according to our faith." With that, our eyes are opened.

 For both us and the blind men, Jesus made a command and that command was/is disobeyed. And that's when the similarities disappear.

In the case of the blind men, Jesus told them not tell anyone of what He had done for them, as the time had not come for His awesomeness to be revealed. Yet, overcome with gratefulness and excitement, these men could not keep the news of their Healer to themselves. They felt an overpowering compulsion to share about Jesus with everyone that they came in contact with.

Inversely, Jesus has commanded us to "go, therefore, and make disciples," telling them all about Him and what He has done for us. Yet, we respond in the exact opposite fashion of the blind men. We hold in the news of Christ to ourselves.

Imagine if the blind men were healed, and then ran to an entire group of blind men and women. Upon their arrival at the group, they then proceed to act as though they are blind and refrain from telling anyone how they gained their sight. They have the same mannerisms, actions, words and everything that they had when they were blind. It wouldn't make sense!

And yet, this is us. We are healed of our spiritual blindness, and yet continue on in our lives as though we are still blind, keeping the news of our healing to ourselves.

It must not be this way. We must run to any and all the people that we know, proclaiming the name of Jesus! He has healed us; are we not filled with joy at this truth?! Are we content with our healing so much so that we ignore the blindness of others?!

We have had our eyes opened. It is now our job to do the same with our mouths.

Why is Good Friday Good?

"It is finished!" -John 19:30, HCSB

It is finished. Que se termine. 它完成. она будет закончена. Il est fini. Consummatum est. それが完了しました. يتم الانتهاء من ذلك. 그것은 완료. Está consumado.

One could say that these may be the most important words in the entire Bible. Out of everything that Jesus said in His ministry, these three words may just be the most impactful, the most loaded, the most beautiful words that came out of His mouth. This is the climax, the highest point, in the entire plot and story of the Bible.

As He hung on the cross, He was not only experiencing the physical side of the crucifixion. Yes, He was in physical pain, but the spiritual pain was much worse. As hung on the cross, He took the burden of the wrath of God on Himself.

I once heard Jesus' taking God's wrath like this explained like this: imagine that we are in a canyon. A small river is trickling through, the product of a dam upstream. That dam is holding back a massive river that would flood the canyon if the dam broke. Needless to say, we don't want to be here when it breaks. Regardless, we throw rocks at it. I mean, it's a huge dam. How could it break?

One rock we threw hit another rock in the wall of the canyon, which in turn caused a group of larger rocks to become unlodged and fall into the dam.

 A crack runs up the middle, splintering across the facade of the dam. Time has worn the dam thin, and it is breaking. Suddenly, the river behind blasts through the cracked dam. The pressure was too much, and the river busts through.

We have since walked a little way downstream from the dam. We hear a loud noise, and turn to see a wall of water headed toward us. This deadly, overwhelming flood will destroy us, and it is our fault that the flood is headed for us.

We start to run, but there really is only time to turn away from the water when we hear a massive roar. Afraid to turn, we run a bit, but then realize that we are not dead yet. We turn around and see that there is no more wall of water.

Instead, a massive hole has opened up in the ground, creating a waterfall. The ground took the death from us and absorbed it all.

This is our story. God's wrath was bearing down on us, punishment due us because of our provocation and rebellion toward Him. Yet, instead of the death we deserved, Jesus took the punishment. He took the full wrath of God: not just my punishment, but also the punishment for you, our families, our friends, the guy across the table from me at the library...everyone. He took it all. Sin and death were defeated forever, all because Christ took the punishment for them away from His people.

If you have believed in Christ and confessed in Him as Lord and Savior, it is finished. There is no more punishment due to you, and there is no more power that sin can hold over you. Jesus took care of that. It's over, it's through, it is finished.

If you have never put your faith in Him, do so today. Feel free to trust in Him as Savior. None of us deserved for Him to die, but out of grace, mercy and love, He did it anyways. He took the punishment. Now it is up to you to accept Him as Lord and Savior and follow Him.

They call today Good Friday, the day that Christ died. But why is today good? Because it is finished.

Jesus: Mocked and Dying, Ultimately Loving

"He saved others, but He cannot save Himself! He is the King of Israel! Let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He has put His trust in God; let God rescue Him now—if He wants Him! For He said, ‘I am God’s Son.'" -Matthew 27:42-43, HCSB

Jesus wasn't in the best spot here, y'all. He had been beaten, stabbed, dehydrated, whipped, slapped, pushed, shoved, and oh, by the way, nailed to a wooden cross. His breathing is becoming harder and more difficult. His legs ache, lactic acid in His calves building up from holding Himself up. His hands are throbbing in excruciating pain from the bones in His hands, shattered as a nail went through them.

Meanwhile, the crowds around Him are mocking Him. They are jeering at His condition, laughing at the fact that He is dying. They questioned His power, His authority, His trust in God, how much God loved Him and what exactly His relationship with God was.

And isn't that the case today? Do people not question His ability to save others? Haven't you heard people who doubt His authority as King of all? Don't people scoff at His power over this realm? Don't people question whether or not He was the Son of God, or even a deity at all? Could He have saved Himself?

Thank God He did not save Himself!

It wasn't that He couldn't save Himself, it was that He wouldn't, in order to save us instead.

It wasn't that God didn't love or want Jesus, but rather that God wanted and loved us, too.

It wasn't that Jesus wasn't God's Son. No, no it definitely is not because Jesus isn't God's Son. But, praise be to God above that He wanted and desired many sons and daughters, not just One.

"For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!" -Romans 5:7-8, HCSB

We didn't deserve the death of Christ. We are not good or righteous; we are sinners. Yet, to show His love for us, Christ, Jesus Christ, died for us. He died so that sinners could become sons and daughters of God.

So the next time people are mocking Jesus, praise Him. Praise God that He would sacrifice Himself, that He would kick His Son to the curb, that He would die for us. Praise be to God, the God who died in order to love the unlovable!

We're All Just Actors in God's Blockbuster

"So Pilate said to Him, 'You're not talking to me? Don't You know that I have the authority to release You and the authority to crucify You?'

'You would have no authority over Me at all,' Jesus answered him, 'if it hadn't been given you from above.'" -John 19:10-11, HCSB

Allow me to set the scene: Jesus is standing before Pontius Pilate, the ruling Roman governor over the area. The Jews, out of their hate for Him, have brought Him to Pilate for execution. They have appealed to the governor, implying that Jesus' death would halt a revolution in the land. Pilate, of course, wanted to avoid such a revolution, but had trouble finding fault in Jesus. Besides going against the teaching of the Jews and causing trouble for them, Pilate saw nothing He had done wrong. And yet, as Pilate asks Jesus to defend Himself, Jesus stands silent. Pilate asks Jesus if He is from God, and Jesus stands silent. Pilate asks Jesus if He is the King of the Jews, and Jesus stands silent.

For those that know me well, you know I'm a pretty big Tom Cruise fan, and at this moment, I picture Pilate as somewhat like Jerry McGuire. I can almost hear Pilate yelling, "Jesus, HELP ME HELP YOU!"

And finally, Jesus speaks.

Jesus proceeds to inform Pilate that without God's giving Pilate his governmental seat, Pontius would have zero authority over Him. In all honesty, Jesus is still implying that Pilate lacks authority over Him in the grand scope of things, but in this moment, in Jesus' manhood, in Jesus' hour, the time had come.

It all had to happen. God had predetermined the time, place, and yes, even the people that would lead to Jesus' death (Acts 4:27-28). Pilate's authority over Jesus in this moment was merely the orchestration of God's grand plan to bring redemption to mankind. The death of Christ, with its purpose of providing freedom from sin for man, was planned from the beginning. Our salvation in Christ wasn't a coincidence or a fall-back; it was plan A and worked to a T.

Pilate would, in fact, help Jesus in the exact opposite way that he thought he could. By allowing the death of Christ, he was the man who ultimately made the crucifixion possible. Yet, without God's work, Pilate is nothing in this story. Without God's doing, Pilate may have never even been governor, much less the one with the decision to either kill or save Jesus.

All authority in earth comes from God. Let us not be blind to this like Pilate, assuming that our authority is self-made. God is the director of this show; we are merely actors playing our parts.

The Prize, Part One: What's In Your Rearview?

I have a few books in God's Word that really impact me regularly, and I'm bringing a passage of one of them today. Check out this passage from Paul's letter to the Philippians:

"...But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God's heavenly [or upward] call in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 3:13b-14, HCSB

What a great passage, right?! I mean, what an approach to life! Let's break this down and see how we can live this out:

1. Forget what is behind
-Your past doesn't mean a thing. I'm not saying to totally forget your past; I'm not one those types. What I am saying is this: no matter what is in your rearview, it is in your rearview. No matter what I see behind me when I am driving my truck, it is still behind me. Good or bad, I have driven past it and it is relatively unimportant to my further travel.

Yes, our past shapes the present and future. If I just drove through a rainstorm, my truck is now covered in water. If I just left the gas station, my tank is full. The events of our past often direct and effect the manner and appearance of our travels. Yet, we must also move on.

The bad things, the rain storms in your life, can be seen in a new light in Christ. I am not saying they will go away; if anything, I've found that the radar gets more shades of red and orange the further towards Jesus we go. However, our approach to these hard times can be altered by His guidance. If you are in a storm, trying to navigate on your own, it can be easy to get lost. Discouraged. Hurt. You may even veer off the road in the torrential downpours of life if you have no guidance.

With guidance from the Lord above, however, you are able to approach these storms with confidence. You can know that He will guide you through the heart of the difficulty. He will never abandon you, nor forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6).

In the end, we must forget the past. Our life before Christ is filled with not only storms, but rebellions, lusts, mistakes, lies, troubles... the list goes on. We cannot proceed toward the glory of God if we continue to carry all of this baggage with us.

In the book Pilgrim's Progress, our hero is loaded down with a massive load on his back. Before we come to Christ, we all have a similar load. Like the hero in Pilgrim's Progress, we must have that load removed before we proceed toward God and His purpose for our life. That load, that burdensome past of sin and troubled heart can only be removed by one Being: Jesus Christ.

He died and rose again to remove those burdens from our backs! Our past, no matter what has happened, can be and will be removed by your Savior the moment that you place your faith in His great gift of grace and salvation, calling on Him as your Lord and Savior. Put your past in the rearview! He can put it behind you; allow Him to do so!

Check back next week for the continuation of this passage. We've got the past behind us, so the question is: what's on the road ahead?

The Defeat of the Impossible

"For nothing is impossible with God." -Luke 1:37, HCSB

How many times have you heard that verse, right? It is a favorite verse of the underdog and athlete, the troubled and addicted.

 "There's nothing God can't help us achieve, and there is nothing that can stop us with Him at our side."

This is very true, but there is a definite asterisk next to this truth: nothing is impossible with God when He decides to do so. The passage that this verse comes from is the same passage in which the angel Gabriel is telling Mary that she will give birth to the Son of God. She is obviously flabbergasted and confused by this news, and so she asks (very humbly) how this could happen, considering that she was a virgin.

The angel proceeds to tell her of how her relative Elizabeth was currently preggo at an old age, and that "nothing is impossible with God." God is all powerful, but this verse is not meant purely to inspire us on fourth-and-goal with time expiring. It is showing that nothing will stop God on His mission. Nothing will prevent God from ruling the world, and nothing can stand in His way.

Old age? Nope.

Virgin? Not an issue.

Your past addictions? Nothing He can't overcome.

Your physical condition? Not a handicap in the working of God.

God can use whomever and whatever He so chooses to accomplish His plans. He's running the ship, and nothing can slow Him down.

You may wonder in this moment: "what role do I play in this? If God is in charge, and He is looking to accomplish His goals and plans, what do I do?" You do exactly what Mary did.

"'I am the Lord's slave,' said Mary. 'May it be done according to your word.'" -Luke 1:38, HCSB

We humbly accept God's power and lordship, and do as He says. We are His slaves, and He is our Good Master. He will accomplish great things through us, so long as we are humbly looking to accomplish His great things.

Perhaps God's purpose in your defeat of the impossible is to win a football game and give Him glory for it. Perhaps His purpose in your defeat of the impossible is to overcome your physical limitations to show the love of Christ to others. Perhaps His purpose in your defeat of the impossible is to share your story of addiction and redemption in order to help someone else see the love and freedom of life with Christ.

You never know what impossible task God may want to overcome through you, but He already did one. Your salvation through the blood and resurrection is a miracle in and of itself; who's to say He doesn't have something else for you? Humble yourself, and look to accomplish His plans with His power and might.

Have a Heart

So, the world didn't end on December 21, 2012. Shocker. While I would have loved to have been able to go see Jesus, I'm not upset that the world didn't end. After all, "to live is Christ (Philippians 1:21)." Life is a good thing. In fact, it's a great gift of God.
The truth is, though, that the world as we know it will end. Some unknown day (Mark 13:32), the world will end. With that end of the world will come a judgment day.
Every person will be judged on their deeds. Since we are all sinners that have rebelled against our great God, the verdict for every single one of us, left to ourselves, will be guilty. Some, however, have received the gift of salvation in this life, and will be declared "not guilty" before God on judgment day (courtesy of the blood and death of Jesus Christ).
Unfortunately, not everyone will come to Christ. There will be lots of people who will die between now and judgment day, and those people will not have received grace. They will not have let Jesus' blood cover their sins and they will not have believed in Jesus as Lord. They will die, be judged guilty before the holy God of the universe, and will be sentenced to an eternity in Hell. That's a never-ending future in a literal Hell.
And you and I know what can keep them from this. You and I, fellow Christ follower, know the great gospel of Christ. You and I know the truth of Jesus. You and I know the sweet goodness of our Lord and Savior. Yet, like a kindergartner on the playground, we want to keep it to ourselves and fail to share the greatest gift we could ever receive.
Oh, that we would have a heart for the damned and doomed like is described in Ezekiel 21! Read with me please:
"Therefore groan, son of man! Groan before them with broken heart and bitter grief. And when they ask you, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you shall say, ‘Because of the news that is coming.'" -Ezekiel 21:6-7a, NIV

Oh Church, may we groan! May we groan before the lost with broken heart and bitter grief. We know that bad news is coming! Let us actually care! Oh Lord, please help us to have this heart for those who are hurtling toward destruction! Please let us legitimately have broken hearts, weeping for those who don't know Christ. Please let us bitterly wail into the night for those that do not know our Lord. Pray that we feel this way! We have the truth of Christ, let us want to share it and prevent this impending doom!

Do It All For His Glory

"Now this is what the Lord says—
the One who created you, Jacob,
and the One who formed you, Israel—
'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name; you are Mine.

I will be with you
when you pass through the waters,
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not overwhelm you.
You will not be scorched
when you walk through the fire,
and the flame will not burn you.

For I Yahweh your God,
the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior,
give Egypt as a ransom for you,
Cush and Seba in your place.
Because you are precious in My sight
and honored, and I love you,
I will give people in exchange for you
and nations instead of your life.
Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your descendants from the east,
and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north: Give them up!
and to the south: Do not hold them back!
Bring My sons from far away,
and My daughters from the ends of the earth—
everyone called by My name
and created for My glory.
I have formed him; indeed, I have made him.'"

-Isaiah 43:1-7, HCSB

 

This, my friends, is a beautiful passage. It was written as God speaking to His nation, Israel, but I believe it can be extended to His current nation, the Church (1 Peter 2:9-12).

 

There are a lot of great things in this passage, such as the fact that God is always with us, or that He redeemed us, but I want to focus on a line at the end: "everyone called by My name and created for My glory."

 

If you are called by the Name of God (which is another focus for another post), then you are created for His glory. Actually, everything is ultimately for God's glory, but we aren't going to get into that right now. Let's just focus on the fact that Christians, who are "those called," are "created for God's glory."

 

Christians, our task is to glorify God. Not to be a good Christian, but to glorify the God of the universe. We are to do everything with the goal of glorifying Him. When we do our jobs, it's to His glory. When we take finals (looking at you, college students like myself), we do it for the glory of God. When we do anything, it is all for the glory for God.

 

It is by Him and for Him that we do all things. Whatever we do, whatever talents and gifts we have, we do it for Him. So let's give Him the credit, gang! Let's do everything with the purpose of lifting up the Name of God and glorify Him!

Are You a Doulos?

After taking a bit of a break from blogging over the Thanksgiving holiday (hope yours was great!), I'm back this week to focus in on a single word that appears over and over in the New Testament: slave. More specifically, the word we are looking at is the Greek word "doulos." Now, I've been told that since I haven't formally studied Greek, that I should refrain from talking about it. Yet, I was listening to a sermon preached by Louie Giglio (pastor, Passion City Church, Atlanta, GA) on November 15, 2012, and one of his points from James 1:1 was about being a doulos for Christ, and I just really loved what he said. So, without further ado, I'm going to go against what I've been told at times and share a bit about what I've learned about this word.

Doulos is featured in the New Testament 120 times, most notably a combined 57 times in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Also, almost every Pauline epistle includes the word (all except the two Thessalonian letters). The word is typically translated into English as slave or bond-servant. The implication of the word is not necessarily one of just servitude. Often, the word is referring to a person who has voluntarily gone into the service of an individual.

This person may have had a debt or a some need, and the only way that they were able to get rid of their debt was to give themselves into another's will. Christians, this is us! We had a massive debt: our sin put us so far into the red that we'd never be able to work our way out. We could never receive enough wages for our good, as we aren't naturally good. We are, according to Romans 3, "unrighteous...no one understands...no one seeks God...all have turned away." It goes on to say even more, but the point has been made: we were born into a God-hating, sin-loving flesh that, as Romans 3:23 makes clear, was heading for death. Not even physical death, but eternal death. We had no hope.

Our only way to avoid this fate is to give ourselves up to God and His will, becoming slaves to the Lord of the universe. And yet, through this servitude, we will find ourselves free. We are now free from sin, free from death and free from and eternity of punishment. Our servitude and giving in to the Lord God is precisely the way to become free.

Jesus says, in Matthew 6, that no one can be a servant of two masters. He says that you'll either love one and hate the other, or vice-versa. I would even argue, based on the book of Romans, that all of us are slaves to something. We are either slaves to sin, or slaves of God. Will you give yourself as a doulos to Christ and His will, or are you going to stay underneath the heaping trap of sin's slavery?

Be freed, and join the household of God, where it is better to be an outside doorholder than to be in the house of anyone else (Psalm 84:10)!

Hearing Doesn't Mean A Thing

"For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous." -Romans 2:13, New International Version

When you were a child, how often did your parents/guardians say "go clean your room?" Probably a lot, right? Every parent has to tell their kids to clean their room. I've yet to meet a kid that regularly just does his chores.

This is similar to how God's Word works at times. He tells us how to be holy in our lives, because we won't do it otherwise. Just like a kid with a messy room, we will walk around in our filth until our Father tells us not to.

There's a catch, though. How many times did your parents tell you to clean your room, only for you to ignore them? You see, it doesn't do a whole lot of good to just hear the direction from our Father; I can hear my boss at work give me things to do all day, but if the milk is never stocked, he may as well have never told me.

It's the same way with our righteousness. We can listen and hear God's righteousness all we want. We can attend Sunday morning, evening and Wednesday night church. We can attend conferences and simulcasts. We can bring a composition book to takes notes for all of those events in. Yet, if we never obey what God says, it doesn't matter; we're just wasting time and paper. We're killing off the rain forest, one wasted sermon note at a time. Simply hearing God doesn't mean a thing. He intends for us to obey.

Just like a good Father on Earth, there is punishment if we ignore His commands. At the end of this age, there will be a massive trial. Some people will be like OJ, getting away with murder. Literally. For eternity.

Some other people will have heard God's commands, including the one that says "follow me," and all they did was compose a clever tweet or Facebook status. A tweet with no action that acted as a smoke screen, blinding them to the impending doom.

So, let me ask: do you hear, or do you obey?

The Gospel

[This is the script from my October 8, 2012 speech in Communications 287-003 at the University of Kentucky. The assignment was to give a 4-5 minute informational speech with no persuasive element.]

Do you fear death? How do you cope with that fear?

That's a loaded question, isn't it? According to Hanson's 2005 article entitled "Fear of death and muddled thinking- it is so much worse than you think," the average American spends 15% of their total life wealth on medicines to make them live longer. That's an awful lot of money, all in order to push the limits of one's life span.

Fear of death, at least to some degree, is fairly common. It is also common to find ways to cope with fears, including this one. Many people trust in different things to deal with the impending end of life.

Today, I want to describe how Christians deal with their future death. I do not aim to convince you or persuade you; I want a good grade, and this is an informative project. Honestly, I'll probably still get some bad peer reviews for this.

Regardless, I'm here today to inform you on what Christians call "the gospel," which is their belief on how to deal with death. Specifically, we will look at why people are going to die, and what God does about that.

I will stating the rest as if it were fact, simply to save time from having to say "Christians believe" before every sentence. You can be the judge of the view; I'm just telling you what Christians believe.

In the beginning of time, humans were in a good relationship with God. All was good. God was running everything, and people were OK with that. Then, these people felt the need to go against what God had said. This feeling that people know better than God is called sin. More specifically, Wayne Grudem, in his 1994 book Systematic Theology calls sin "any failure to conform to the law of God in act, attitude, or nature."

Christians believe that God is the great King of the universe, ruling over literally everything. Trip Lee, in his 2012 book The Good Life, states that "there is no small sin against a great God." You see, Christians believe that not only is God the King and Ruler of all, but to go against His rule is to directly rebel against Him, which is sin. Just like an earthly government has punishment for rebellion and law-breaking, the eternal God has eternal punishment for people's sin and rebellion.

That punishment is called Hell, and every person that has ever done anything wrong in their life, no matter how big or small we may think it is, is headed directly for an eternal punishment. We are all, thanks to our rebellion, destined to die and go to a literal Hell. Fortunately, God wasn't cool with that.

Jesus came to earth, as Trip Lee says, "on a death mission." The entire point of Jesus, God's Son, coming to earth was, as 1 Timothy 1:15 says, "to save sinners." The entire point of His 30 years of sinless, rebellion-lacking life on this planet was so that He would qualify before God as a substitute for sinners. He died and took the punishment that sinners deserve before the Judge of the universe.

If the Son of God stayed dead, though, this ain't good news, is it? Instead, 3 days later, Jesus overcame the clutches of death and rose to life. Not like a zombie; I'm talking full. Normal. Life. And with that defeat of death, Jesus gives the same defeat to everyone who trusts and believes in Him.

I personally am convinced that I was a hopelessly doomed rebel, hurtling toward Hell. Then Jesus, my Savior, gave me a new life in Him, and I no longer fear death. Instead, I look death in the face and rejoice in my God that saved me.

So, to close, I ask again: do you fear death?

Earth (Remix) [Feat. God the Maker]

I receive news updates from CNN on my phone in the form of push notifications. Rarely are these updates "happy." Yesterday, a Sikh temple was shot up, multiple people dead. A week or two ago, a man burst into a movie theater in Colorado and shot a whole bunch of people. Even in my hometown today, the top headlines include "Fatal stabbing in Perry County," "Two found dead in Louisville standoff," and "Paris police arrest man on child porn charges." Wildfires are currently torching Oklahoma, unemployment rates rose in July, and droughts are drying up crops in the Midwest. There was even a person struck by lightning and killed at a NASCAR race in Pennsylvania yesterday. All of this is just the current news in the United States of America. Add in the Syrian debacle unfolding currently, the tropical storm coming in on Honduras, and a Pakistani attack on NATO vehicles (just to name a few events), and one thing is clear to see: something is broken.

In Genesis 1, we see that God made everything. When it says that God made everything, that doesn't mean that He made everything in a shoddy, screwed-up way. No, when God made the universe, He "saw everything He had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31, ESV). Not just "aiight", not just "decent". He didn't even think that Creation was just "good;" no, Creation was "very good."

So, if God made everything, and said it was all splendid, how the heck did we end up with a world that looks like my opening paragraph? What happened? I'll tell you: Genesis 3.

In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sinned for the first time in human history. They decided that they knew better than God, and were proven incorrect. Thus, with sin in the world, everything got messed up. Pain, evil, and darkness entered the world. Corruption and brokenness spread out from Adam and Eve and went into not just every person (since there weren't other people yet), but the entire earth. Romans 8:19-23 shows plainly the state that we find not only ourselves, but all of Creation in:

"For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." -Romans 8:19-23, ESV

Creation is groaning in anticipation for God to restore everything back to the way that it was. It says that the intensity of which all around us desires to be restored is comparable to a woman in labor. That, my friends, is an object or being that desperately wants to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just like a pregnant woman, we and all of Creation are suffering right now. We have bodies that age and break and hurt and get oily and need food and water and shelter and numerous other issues; Creation has earthquakes and death and global warming and numerous other issues. All of this, though, will fade.

Just as a new mother's painful memories fade at the joy found in holding the newborn, all of Creation (us included) will be ecstatic at the new way of things when God remakes all. I will no longer need contacts, have a slightly messed up left ankle or even a tendency to develop tension headaches. Earth will not have hurricanes, volcanoes or disease-carrying mosquitoes. All will be made new through God, and I personally cannot wait for that to occur.

"For I will create a new heaven and a new earth;the past events will not be remembered or come to mind."

-Isaiah 65:17, HCSB

How to Be Made Right (And Others, Too)

This week, we're taking a break from Matthew to look briefly at a passage that has just been great to read this week as I woke up: Romans 10. Romans 10 is a beautiful chapter, and among my favorites that I have read and studied. Let's read it:

"1 Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. 2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

5 For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. 6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." -Romans 10:1-17, ESV

I know, that was a lot of Scripture for one blog post. I probably should have broken this down and gone over each part in my next series. Maybe I will, I don't know. But just look at these passages with me! Verses 1-3 talks about how Israel didn't put their faith in God, but instead in their good works. That's not good! Paul says he is concerned for their salvation! That means that your good deeds, your religious acts, none of that will save you. Not a bit of it.

Then Paul, in verses 4-5, says that Christ is the end of righteous from rules. What does that mean? Check out verse 6-8: no matter how dramatic we are and how hard we work, there is nothing we do. Instead, we hold the true message, the message of righteousness found by faith, which is in verses 9-13.

AHH! YES! The key to salvation is CHRIST! Putting your faith in Him is the only way! Confess that He is your Lord, and you won't be put to shame! How beautiful and easy is that?! There's no distinction between Jew and Greek, meaning that every single person, no matter their ethnicity or past, can be turned down for salvation. Everyone who calls on His name will be saved! I beg you call on His name, right now if you don't know Him! Yell out "Jesus is Lord!"

But that isn't all. Verses 14-17 asks how people will hear of this if we don't tell them. Guess what: they won't. You see, if you have this amazing truth and you can tell the world of the way to salvation, you MUST share it! I know this is hard at times. It's hard for me, too. But we are their way! It's on US to spread the good news!

So, my question is: will you spread this news? Will you tell people about your Lord? Or will you let their ears remain silent?

Thought from the Retro Bible: Team Captain

"15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” 16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” 17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.”" -John 21:15-18, NIV

The Lord is a master recycler. He can make something new and useful out of something that seems broken or used up. Just ask Peter. No matter how bad you've failed, Jesus offers you the promise of forgiveness and a bright future (Direct from Revolution, The Bible for Teen Guys).

Yesterday, we looked at Peter being a choke artist. The game was on the line and Peter air-balled. He struck out. But Jesus gave Peter another chance to hit the game winner. Isn't that great? If we miss the shot, the coach will still put us in with the game on the line. All we are asked is that we honor Him.

Jesus loves you. All He asks is that you believe in Him and return the love. So, will you step up?

The Original Dysfunctional Family

As the Christmas season rolls along, we all enjoy some of our favorite Christmastime movies. For me and my family, a couple movies stand above the rest:

-Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: Who can't love a movie that it so un-politically correct that it constantly informs the audience that its main characters are "misfits" and "nitwits," and "will never fit in!"? It's pure comedic gold.

-How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Either version, be it cartoon or Jim Carrey, will do. A hairy green dude busts on the scene, steals all the Whos' stuff, and then takes it back in the end in dramatic, save-the-sleigh-from-near-death fashion. He's a mean one, that Mr. Grinch.

While both of these movies, be it the reindeer with a glowing nose or the green...(man?) with a tiny heart, feature plenty of freaks and weirdos, they do not raise a candle to the movie that comes in next: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

The Griswold family Christmas is pretty much the epitome of dysfunction. The tree catches on fire, the cat dies, the crazy cousin in the RV shows up... Everywhere you look, there's a misfit trying to ruin Clark's "brilliant" plans. However, did you know that Jesus has a family tree that could beat the Griswolds head-to-head? Let's look at the Book of Matthew:

"2 Abraham fathered Isaac, Isaac fathered Jacob, Jacob fathered Judah and his brothers, 3 Judah fathered Perez and Zerah by Tamar, Perez fathered Hezron, Hezron fathered Aram, 4 Aram fathered Amminadab, Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, 5 Salmon fathered Boaz by Rahab, Boaz fathered Obed by Ruth, Obed fathered Jesse, 6 and Jesse fathered King David."

"Then King David fathered Solomon by Uriah’s wife,7 Solomon fathered Rehoboam, Rehoboam fathered Abijah, Abijah fathered Asa,8 Asa fathered Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat fathered Joram, Joram fathered Uzziah, 9 Uzziah fathered Jotham, Jotham fathered Ahaz, Ahaz fathered Hezekiah, 10 Hezekiah fathered Manasseh, Manasseh fathered Amon, Amon fathered Josiah, 11 and Josiah fathered Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon." -Matthew 1:2-11, HCSB

Now, I have placed in bold some fun character's of Jesus' lineage, going from Abraham's grandson, Jacob, down through the kings of Judah. Let's read about some of these people:

-Jacob, who would become known as Israel: Ah yes, the father of the twelve sons who went on to be the twelve tribes of Israel. Yet, further inspection shows some interesting things. He cheated his twin brother Esau out of the birthright (inheritance) that Esau deserved by lying to his blind, sick father. (Genesis 25-26) He was tricked into marrying a girl that he didn't love, so he all but ignored this first wife and their kids until he could marry the girl he loved and have kids with her. In fact, all kinds of craziness went on with the whole "multiple wife" deal (Genesis 29-30).

-Judah, fifth son of Jacob: Judah was one of those sons Jacob had with the wife he didn't want. However, Judah was one of the stronger personalities, and was a leader of the group. When the baby brother of the wife Jacob loved started having dreams about ruling the older brothers, they'd had enough and wanted to kill them. Judah had a better idea: sell the pest into slavery. That way, they'd escape the body being discovered, and make money off of it (Genesis 37).

-Tamar, Judah's daughter-in-law: Judah had some sons, but they died. The first one, however, had a wife named Tamar. As Judah needed both a husband for Tamar and a grandson to carry on the family name, he told Tamar to wait for the baby boy Shelah to grow up. She didn't like this idea. Instead, she opted to dress up as a prostitute. Judah, who was now a single man, decided to hire her- not knowing it was his daughter-in-law. He got her pregnant, and then had twin boys (Genesis 38).

-Rahab: Flash-forward a few books in the Bible, and the nation of Israel has multiplied to a bunch of people. These people were slaves to the Egyptians, freed by God through Moses, and then rebelled against God. They wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and then were ready to enter the Promised Land. They sent spies into the land, to check stuff out. When the spies got to the city of Jericho, they needed a place to hide. Who did they end up with? A local prostitute named Rahab. Rahab hid them, and they promised when the city was destroyed, she would live. Out of everyone in the city, it was a common prostitute that would save the day. (Joshua 2)

-David: Israel captures the Promised Land and makes it their own. Meanwhile, Rahab had a son named Boaz, who fell for a chick named Ruth. Ruth and Boaz had a kid named Obed, who had a kid named Jesse. When Israel's first king, Saul, got all self-absorbed and evil, God decided they needed a new king. David, Jesse's youngest son, was chosen. While David did many amazing and God-filled things, he had one major slip-up.

You see, David had this friend named Uriah. Uriah was one of David's best commanders in the Israeli military. Uriah also happened to have a smoking hot wife named Bathsheba. While Uriah is off waging war in King David's name, Bathsheba stays home. David, who had not gone to battle, either, decides to look around his city and winds up being a Peeping Tom on a bathing Bathsheba. He decides she's the most beautiful girl in the world, and thus uses his kingship to force her to sleep with him.

Unfortunately for David, Bathsheba winds up pregnant. So now, Uriah (one of David's best friends) is going to have a wife that his buddy got pregnant. How could David have done this? What could David do, so Uriah never knew? I'll tell ya: David has Uriah put on the front lines in a fierce battle, and orders everyone to withdraw from around Uriah so his friend would be ganged and killed. Uriah can't find out about that whole "baby mess" if he's dead! Bathsheba went on to marry David and give birth to the baby, which God allowed to die because of David's sin. David then went to comfort the obviously upset Bathsheba, and sleeps with her. Lo and behold, she gets pregnant again, and has a boy named Solomon (2 Samuel 11-12).

-Solomon: Solomon was also a pretty good guy, much like his dad David. He built the temple of God, and was super-rich and super-smart. However, he was like his dad in another way: he loved beautiful women. He had 700 wives, and 300 concubines. Many of these girls were foreign, and didn't believe in his God. So, instead of remaining true to God, he allowed these beautiful women to woo him and he quit listening to God. Because of his unfaithfulness, his kingdom (which he and his dad had worked so hard and trusted in God to build) was divided at his death, and would never return to its former state (1 Kings 11).

-Rehoboam: Solomon goes on to have a kid named Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the king of the half of his dad's kingdom known as Judah (sound familiar?); the other half was Israel. Rehoboam, unlike his dad and granddad, never loved God. He did more evil "than all that their [his] ancestors had done." He led Judah to worship false gods, set up temples to foreign deities, and even had male prostitutes at his shrines (1 Kings 14).

-Jehoram (Joram): Four generations after Rehoboam, and Judah has had some shaky kings. Abijah, Asa, and Jehoshaphat were all decent kings, but all messed up enough that Judah still wasn't coming back to God. Jehoram took it another level: he became king at age 32 and died only eight years later. He led Judah into many battles against nations where they got beaten repeatedly, and did all kinds of evil things. He eventually got sick, and died "to no one's regret" (2 Chronicles 21).

-Uzziah: Five more generations passed, and five more morons tried to run Judah. Only one (Joash) came close to following God, and that was because he spent much of his life being guided directly by a priest. Uzziah, Joash's grandson, was almost a success. He decided to follow God, and while he did, he was prosperous. As fate would have it, though, he couldn't handle success. As seems fairly consistent with this family, he got arrogant about his abilities. He decided that he, despite the Law that God handed down to Israel in the wilderness, was holy and righteous enough to go into the temple and burn incense directly to God. This was in direct rebellion to God, as only God decided who was holy, and Uzziah subsequently broke out into a serious skin disease. He lived the rest of his short days in quarantine. (2 Chronicles 26)

-Ahaz: Uzziah's son Jotham wasn't a complete failure, and tried to follow God, kind of. Jotham's son Ahaz was a different story. Ahaz completely rejected God, and instead followed all kinds of religions from the local people. He even burned his children and passed them through a fire, all to worship some random pagan god. Burning your kids? That's messed up! (2 Chronicles 28)

-Manasseh: Ahaz, for all of his evil, did produce one good thing: his son Hezekiah. Hezekiah loved God thoroughly, and it paid off. Judah prospered, and Hezekiah may have been the best king to come after Solomon. His son, Manasseh, was a different character. Instead of loving Godlike his dad, Manasseh decided to try out all kinds of other things. He, too, burned his sons. He practiced witchcraft, divination and sorcery. He consulted mediums and spiritists. He even invented his own idol, and made a statue of it. Because of his evil, Manasseh was captured and shackled up by enemy forces. As he was chained to the floor, Manasseh had a change of heart, and turned everything around. He was set free, started loving God, and tried to fix everything he screwed up before (2 Chronicles 33).

-Amon: Manasseh's son, Amon, was an idiot, though. Amon was such a jerk and rebelled against God and everything his dad tried to fix so much that he only lasted two years. It was on his second year of reign that his servants conspired against him and killed him in his own house. Talk about a sorry ending. (2 Chronicles 33)

After Amon, there were a few more kings. Some of these kings loved God; most didn't. Eventually, the people of Judah were captured by the kingdom of Babylon (modern-day Iraq) and oppressed. They eventually went home and were almost immediately taken over by Rome. It was during this time that Jesus was born.

I find it amazing, as we look over this list of misfits, that these are the people that God chose to have as the ancestors of our Savior. I mean, come on, look at the people in Christ's family tree: prostitutes, sorcerers, murderers, adulterers, liars... the list goes on and on! This tells me one thing: God can use anyone.

Much as I touched on with my post "Are You Talking About Bread?" (http://freedbug.blogspot.com/2010/12/are-you-talking-about-bread.html), God can use anyone to accomplish his goal. We all have sinned; that's a given. Who knows? You may be just like one of these people I mentioned above. But that's the great news that Christ gives us: we can still be made to accomplish God's Will. You may be doing evil, but God can still use it for good. Isn't this amazing?

This isn't to encourage you to sin; rather, I encourage the opposite. You see, this is also proof that you don't become the product of your past. By putting trust in Jesus and the Word of God, you can be made righteous. Look at Rahab: she was a prostitute, and yet was saved from the destruction of Jericho. Not to mention, she was also the great-grandmother of King David.

And King David himself is also a testament to the redeeming powers of God. He was a murdering, back-stabbing, Peeping Tom-turned-wife stealer of a man, yet he changed his ways for a loving and gracious God, and was rewarded; we know that David was the greatest king, in terms of morals, that Israel ever had, and wrote most of the Book of Psalms as prayers to God. Not a bad turnaround, if I must say so.

Are you stuck in your sins, or focusing on a screwed-up[ past? Stop! Put your faith in the redemption that Jesus can offer, and start over. Everyone likes a do-over. I urge you to accept the Lord as yours.

Are You Talking About Bread?

Have you ever felt like you just didn't have the patience to wait on something? I know that I have, that's for sure. It just happens. We, as human beings, just are not very patient beings. Yet, the Bible teaches us directly to be patient.

Never mind Job, who many know is the epitome of a patient human. One only needs to read the Book of Job, which I strongly encourage, to see the stuff he dealt with, and yet remain patient. No, instead, I ask that we look today at Jesus.

Jesus was patient, obviously: He is, after all, the Son of God. It's the manner of which His patience was tested that has struck me today. Just look at this passage:

6 Then Jesus told them [the disciples], "Watch out and beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Saducees [trouble-making hypocrites of the Jewish leadership]." 7 And they discussed among themselves, "We didn't bring any bread." 8 Aware of this, Jesus said, "You of little faith! Why are you discussing among yourselves that you do not have bread? 9 Don't you understand yet? Don't you remember the five loaves for the 5,000 and how many baskets you collected? 10 Or the seven loaves for the 4,000 and how many large baskets you collected? 11 Why is it you don't understand that when I told you, 'Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees,' it wasn't about bread?" -Matthew 16: 6-11, HCSB

I don't know about you, and how much you have read the Books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (the "Gospels"), but I can tell you from my readings: the disciples were not the brightest Easter eggs in the basket. In fact, they were borderline dull. Over and over, Jesus would give them a teaching, and they simply wouldn't grasp it at all. Clearly, He was not discussing the literal bread that the Jewish leaders made (I doubt they were very good bakers). If I were Jesus, I would have gotten new disciples. I simply wouldn't have the patience to deal with those dim-witted buffoons. Yet, these were the men He entrusted when He left the Earth to spread the good news of the Gospels. I mean, really?

It would be one thing had Jesus put up with the disciples for a little while on Earth, and then found some men more intellectual for the task at hand of spreading His name. Instead, He left them in charge. Guess what: it worked.

-Simon Peter, who was about as stubborn and brash as they come, went on the minister to the Jewish people for the duration of his life. He wrote two books of the New Testament. He is considered the founder of the Church. He was killed for his faith.

-John went on to write five books himself, and was the only one that was not killed; he only died in exile on a tiny island.

All in all, these eleven men (we won't count Judas as he was dead before Christ was resurrected), most of whom were not very intelligent, tactical, or verbose, were able to use the guidance of the Holy Spirit to take the truth of Christ to the world.

If Christ was able to use these guys for such a big job, how much more can He do with you? Are you focusing on bread and other Earthly, meaningless focuses, or are you allowing Christ to teach you something bigger? Do you have a job ahead of you, and just haven't found it? Maybe you should find out.