Filling the Gospel Gaps

Our Wednesday Night Bible study have been on Unity in the church, I found the section on Encouragement both convicting and helpful. Here is the section on "Gospel Gaps". Enjoy!

In Colossians 2:8. “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” To use this terminology, we are all philosophers. We all, all the time, are creating philosophies of meaning in our lives. What matters? Why do things happen? What’s worth living for? And though we usually know what the right answers are to those questions, we are easily deceived and easily taken captive through philosophies that are human and worldly rather than infused with the gospel.

I am also thinking in context of 1 Cor. 3:18 which says, "Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise." It is almost impossible to get someone to see that they are self deceived. So often, we foolishly believe that we are immune to the message that this world is blaring at us day after day—through the words of our friends, the incentive plans at our jobs, the behavior of our neighbors, not to mention the prevailing assumptions of media. But the world’s ideas of meaning and purpose so often gain a foothold in the desires of our hearts. Our guiding philosophy should rest on the truth of the gospel—but even as Christians, our lives are often inconsistent with its truth. In their book “How People Change,” Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp call this the “gospel gap.” And they observe that such gaps don’t stay empty. We—and the others in our church—are often operating with a mix of gospel truth and philosophies that, though they sound biblical, have at their core the values of this world. In their book, Lane and Tripp lay out seven of these substitute philosophies. I’m going to walk through them—and as I do, I want you to think of where you might recognize these as being true of your own heart—or that of others you know in this church. Being able to recognize the gospel counterfeits is incredibly important.

1. The first is “Formalism.” I participate in regular meetings and ministries of the church—and so I feel that my life is under control. I may always be in church, but it has little impact on my heart and on how I live my life. And I may become judgmental and impatient with those who do not give it the same commitment as I do.
2. The second is Formalism’s close cousin “Legalism.” I live by rules—rules I create for myself, rules I create for others. I feel OK if I can keep my own rules. And I become arrogant and full of contempt when others can’t meet the standards I set for them. There is no joy in my life because there is no grace to be celebrated.
3. Next is "mysticism"—the incessant pursuit of an emotional experience with God. I live for the moments when I feel close to him. And I often struggle with discouragement when I don’t feel that way. I may also shift churches often, looking for one which will give me what I’m looking for.
4. Activism is the worldly philosophy that might be particularly dangerous in this town. I recognize the missional nature of Christianity and am passionately involved in fixing this broken world. But at the end of the day, my life is more of a defense of what’s right than a joyful pursuit of Christ.
5. Then there is Biblicism—reducing the gospel to a mastery of biblical content and theology. I know my bible inside and out, but I do not let it master me. And so I am intolerant and critical of those with lesser knowledge.
6. Sixth is the Therapeutic gospel. I talk a lot about the “hurting” people in our congregation. And how Christ is the only answer for that hurt—for real help and healing. Yet without realizing it, I have made Christ more therapist than Savior. I view the sin of others against me as a greater problem than my own sin—and I shift my greatest need from my moral failure to my unmet needs. Again, another gospel all together.
7. Finally, what you might call “social-ism.” The deep fellowship and friendships I find at church can become their own idol—the body of Christ replacing Christ himself. And the gospel is reduced to a network of fulfilling Christian relationships.

Seven anti-gospel philosophies to which we as Christians are particularly prone. Incidentally, remember what I said earlier about not just working for happiness and fulfillment? These seven are one reason why that is so dangerous, because they are all roads to fulfillment—at least for a time. I think that because fulfillment in this fallen world is so difficult, we often think that it must be synonymous with the gospel. But it is not. I know many non-Christians who I honestly think are leading wonderfully fulfilling lives. Yet that means that they merely travel the road to destruction with less emotional burden than the rest.

The Freedom of God

“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” – Psalms 115:3
Happy 4th of July everyone! I thought it fitting to stop and pounder on the freedom of God this month since we celebrate our freedom as a nation this month. When we stop and pounder the freedom of God, we see that He is the only truly free in the universe, because He cannot be hindered from doing His will. He is not constrained nor contained by anything outside of himself; his is completely free to do whatever he wants to do. God is not under any authority or restraint there is no person or force that can ever dictate what he should or will do. And while we can imitate God in his freedom when we exercise our will and make decisions, all those decisions are ultimately subject to God’s will. Proverbs 16:9 makes this biblical concept clear, “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” Even nations leaders are subject to God’s will, Proverbs 21:1 says, “the king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.” So let’s celebrate not only the freedom we have as US citizens, but let’s pounder the freedom of God. The only one truly free!

God is Love.

“…God is love.”
-1 John 4:8
As Valentines’ day quickly approaches, love is in the air. How are we to think about love? As 1 John 4:8 makes it very clear, love is not just one of his attributes it is his very nature. Many people like this attribute of God the best, and speak of it often. The tragedy is that many of those who speak of God’s love have no clue what they are talking about. I have often heard it taught that God loves in a special way, and there was a word invented to talk about this type of love: agape love. This is not the case agape is the transliteration of the Greek work for love. Agape simply means love. It is not from the word itself that we can gather any special information, but from the context of the Word of God. I would like to draw out three very important aspects of this attribute of God.
First, God’s love is uninfluenced. By this I mean that there is nothing in the objects of his love to call it into exercise, nothing in the creature to attract or prompt it. We love on another because of different reasons, we are attracted to one another physically, a person we love is like us, etc… In each case there is something that prompts us to love someone else. We see in Deut. 7:7-8, one sees that God chose to love Israel in spite of who they are, the fewest in number.
Second, God’s love is sovereign. That is since God himself is sovereign (meaning under obligations to none, a law unto himself, acting always according to his own pleasure.) God is God and He does as He pleases. Since God is sovereign and since he is love, it follows that his love is sovereign. So God loves whom he pleases. We see this in passages like Romans 9:13 where is says “Jacob have I love, but Esau Have I hated”. There is no more reason to love Jacob over Esau. Both were born at the same time to the same parents and it was written before either had done anything good or bad.
And finally, God’s love is holy. The fact that “God is light” (1 John 1:5) is mentioned before “God is love” (1 John 4:8) in 1 John. God’s love is not regulated by impulse, passion, or sentiment, but by principle. His holiness overshadows all his attributes. God does not wink at sin, even in his own people (Heb. 12:6). If God did wink at sin, Christ died for no reason. God has gone to great lengths to manifest or show his love for us.
Let’s not forget that God’s love is also eternal (Jeremiah 31:3), infinite (Eph. 2:4), immutable (James 1:17), and gracious (John 3:16 & 34). I recommend The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson for further study on this matter. God bless you all and have a Happy Valentine’s Day.

Romaina

May people have asked me how the mission trip was. I always say an eye opening experience. We stayed in Cluj, Romania. It is a large city, and as modern as any of our cities. We would get up every morning and drive out to the ROMA villages. You can see a picture of one of the homes above. Many of the houses where four room shacks, often times lacking doors. They told us in the winter time they put up a piece of plywood to keep the cold out. Being in these villages and in this country has shown me a few things. First of all, as Americans we to often mistake material possessions for wealth. There were many of the children who had never seen nor heard of a gameboy or a PSP, but were happy and wealthy in family and friends. Second, we to often mistake self-centeredness for self-fulfillment. We try to excuse our self-centerendness with excuses like "That's just who I am." God is not interested in who you are, he knows who you are. The bible says the heart of men is desperately wicked and who can know it. God knows that you are self-centered. It is time that we stop thinking in terms of what will comfort us and make us feel better, and start striving to be a son or daughter of Jesus Christ. And finally, I think we mistake an invitation to church for an invitation to a relationship with Jesus Christ. This point really builds off the first two. We need church members who don't just invite people to church, but who invite lost people into their homes. We live in a culture of experts. Many times our church family says, If we can just get time into the door to hear the professional, that is the ticket. But that is not the answer. We must all do evangelism!

Don’t Waste Your Family Tragedy!

1. You will waste your family tragedy if you don’t understand God’s Grace is enough.
The Apostle Paul was given a thorn in the flesh. This thorn kept him humble all the days of his life. In many ways a family tragedy is a very humbling experience, the feeling of shock and disorientation. Then the grief sets in, it feels much like a thorn in the heart. Paul said this,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” –I Corinthians 12:9-10
2. You will waste your family tragedy if you don’t love your family through action.
It is one thing to say, “If you need anything, let me know.” But it is quite another to go to the home see the family needs their trash taken out and take it out. When you go to the home of the grieving, they need basic things still: trash taken out, food, paper products, etc… You have an opportunity to love your family by providing the most basic needs of the individual. Another way you can love your family is to listen to them. Listening is an active thing. You have to stay focused and watch when and how you say something. People are often overtired and emotions are running high, so many times it is better to listen than to speak.
3. You will waste your family tragedy if you don’t pray for and with your family.
The power of prayer must not be neglected at such a time. Pray for your family and prayer with your family. Pray with the family with as a whole and pray with individual members. It is one thing to say, “I am praying for you.” It is another to stop and pray with them. I am convinced that too often we say “I’m praying for you” and never give it a second thought. Doesn’t talk about it do it! Pray without ceasing.
4. You will waste your family tragedy if you don’t witness to your family.
Once I was asked if I liked doing funerals or weddings better. When I said I would much rather do a funeral, the person who asked me was shocked. The reason that I said that is because at a funeral, people are faced with their own mortality. They are ready to hear the Word of God. So take the opportunity to walk them down the Romans Road or give them a "Gospel Track” from our Church. Give them your love, concern, prayers, and service. Remember someone is always watching! God is going to bless your effort, His Word will not return void.

Letting Go

In 1 Kings 19:16-19, we see where Elisha is left by his teacher and friend Elijah. Elisha is letting go of one that he loved so dearly! Letting go is part of everyone's life. We let go of cars, homes, and even friends. We live in a throw away culture where letting go is a change to buy newer, better, shinier things. But this blog isn't about letting go of stuff. It is about letting go of people. It is about letting go of people through death and distance. Only two things in this world will stand the test of time: The Word of God and people. Over the past four years I have become close to friends, whom I dearly love. And the LORD has seen fit to take them home. One in particular was especially precious to me.

As C.S. Lewis rightly points out in his book A Grief Observed, nothing ever repeats itself twice. I know that my friend is better off and with the LORD. It just hurts. But with pain comes growth. I don't know how to expain it, but the death of Poncho changed me. I wanted him to hold my son so much. In a two week time span I held Poncho in my arms for the last time, and I held my son Asher in my hands for the first time. He had told me how much he was looking foward to watching after him. That he would be in the hospital waiting room, the day my wife went into labor. My son will never know Poncho on this side of glory. He will never know how he always took care of so many people. How he took care of our family when he was still in the womb. He will never know what he looked like singing in the choir at First Southern. He will never know how he lead the way in service to other brothers and sisters.

Then it hit me, I have to show him. I can't be Poncho, not by a long shot. But I can show him how to serve other people. I can show him how to make sure things are taken care of properly. I can show him how to love people like Poncho did. I suppose death highlights for all of us the things that truly are important. And it is not a career, not a nice car, not a fancy house: it is love. Love for Christ and love for family. Love for the gospel and love for people. Love for your wife and love for your parents. How do you measure the value of a man or woman's life? You can measure it in love. So I will try to love. Love in a way that I have never before. I resolve to tell people at every opportunity how much the LORD loves them and how much I love them. Why are we so afraid to tell people how much we really care about them? Can you really tell someone you love or appreciate them too much? I have never heard a wife say about her husband, "You know, that husband of mine just says he loves me too much and shows it in too many different ways." I do hear, "I don't hear you say it enough or you say it but you don't back it up." I resolve to love my Savior, my wife, my family, and my church family with more than words, but with service and action. May God be glorified in my loss as he molds me and makes me what he needs me to be: like Christ!

We have a way of talking about letting go of our friends, as believers we call it "trusting in God".

"When peace like a river, attendeth my way,When sorrows like sea billows roll;Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,It is well, it is well, with my soul."- AMEN

Baby Asher "The First Days"

Here is a link to all the Baby Asher pictures!