ResponsiveReiding

Cult-proofing your kids (AND yourselves) Part 3

May 26th, 2010

So far we’ve looked at 2 “slogans” from the Reformation period. Sola Scriptura points us back to the ultimate authority of Scripture above a persons, experiences, writings or groups – be they Synods, Councils, Denominations, Popes or anything else. Everything and everyone but Scripture, can err. Then secondly we looked briefly at “Sola Gratia” – that salvation comes to fallen mankind solely through the grace of God as a gift. Forgiveness of sin and eternal life are NEVER the product of any human merit whatsoever. Else, (as Paul notes so well in Rom. 11:6) “otherwise grace would no longer be grace.”

Thirdly then, we want to consider the idea of “Sola Fide” – that salvation is through FAITH ALONE. And in this one consideration, we have THE sticking point of the Reformation itself. Indeed, once again, EVERY false system falls at this point. If we lose this reality, we lose the Gospel. Fallen human beings are justified (declared righteous through the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us) solely on the basis of believing the Gospel. Once again, as Scripture declares: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph 2:8–9)

Beloved, we cannot make this point strongly enough. The Bible emphatically, undeniably, and unequivocally posits our justification before God as through the means of faith, and that, in direct opposition to human works, or effort. It does not mean the Redeemed will not exert effort in following Christ – we invariably will. It does mean however that we do not obtain our right standing with God by any of our efforts. We obtain it by faith alone.

Let me make one brief comment before we close, since many fear that to call men to believe the Gospel, to repent of their sin and cast their hope upon Jesus alone is somehow “a work” – look again at the passage just quoted. However one may conceive of faith – the Bible says it does not qualify as a “work” – and thus pits faith specifically against works here. The eye sees, but it exerts no effort to see. It simply drinks in the light and images proposed to it. Faith is like that. It sees the truth of the Gospel, and believes it. There is no merit to be assigned for only believing what is true, and no effort in believing what is evident. Thus no merit accrues to the Believer, and the Believer has done nothing to save themselves – but to believe what is true and declared under the command of God to be believed.

Through the authority of the Scripture, we come to know the person and work of Jesus Christ, and are called upon to Believe it. By God’s good grace alone. We are saved BY grace, THROUGH the agency of faith. A fire hose can put out no fires. Water is needed for that. Faith is the fire hose through which the saving grace God sends extinguishes the fires of Hell within our fallen souls. Keep to this, and no cult or false religion will suck you in. Look to some other means, and you will lose your own soul.
Margin notes for 5/25/2KX

May 25th, 2010

James 1:2–4 (ESV) “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

Christians count the meeting of their trials joy – NOT because the trials are “joyful” in and of themselves. We do so because the unpleasant trials, due to Christ’s redemptive work, will make them useful to us in joyful results. If our single goal for our lives is our Father’s – Christ’s likeness – then everything in life can be co-opted to that end. Even if what we suffer comes from the World, the Flesh or the Devil. In Christ, “all things are []ours” (1 Cor. 3:21)

But we MUST remember this: Only one who remains undeterred (steadfast) and single-minded in pursuing Heaven and the likeness of Christ will gain the “full effect” – the “completeness” referred to here.

There are things which DRAW us off the road, things which BLOCK the road, things which DRIVE us off of the road, things which make the road HARD and things which make the road DANGEROUS. We must be ready to face them all if we will persevere and obtain.

So, what is so enticing that you are DRAWN off of the path today? What lures you away from holiness and the love of God as supreme in your heart and mind? What is it that you perceive as an imovable block to making progress? What have you been struck by, what disaster has plowed into you which has knocked you off course? What seemingly innocuous attention grabber steals you away from keeping on course, from keeping focused on the goal and active pursuing the goal? What difficulty ahead seems impossible to overcome? What seems to threaten your safety and well being if you continue?

Only steadfastness will serve to bring you to completion. DON’T GIVE UP NOW! “THIS” is what we are after, and thus we build our lives around “THIS”. That we may be like Him!
Off to the F.I.R.E. Conference until 5/21

May 16th, 2010

I’ll be in Wheaton with my fellow F.I.R.E. brethren Monday thru Thursday – and hope to be back in the office on Friday!

Pray for me – I’m traveling with Tony Bartolucci.

Trust me, I NEED prayer!

OK – so maybe Tony does too.
Cult-proofing your kids (AND yourselves) Part 2

May 14th, 2010

There are certain crystallizations of Biblical truth, which if thoroughly understood, believed, and made a part of one’s world-view, will enable Believers to easily assess other truth claims. These are not substitutes for knowing the greater body of Scripture – but useful digests; a sort of theological short-hand.

That God has spoken in His Word, the Bible, and that having done so has provided us with an ultimate authority on truth from which to proceed is our very first place to go. This is what the Reformers referred to by advancing the slogan: Sola Scriptura. But, by God’s grace, they did not stop there. They went on to help us get a grasp of some of the central truths taught in the Bible, in a form that once again is extremely helpful in weighing the most important issues of life – those which impact our souls and their eternal destiny.

This brings us to our second great slogan in cult proofing our kids and ourselves – Sola Gratia – by GRACE ALONE.

Once again, the basic message is exceedingly simple. And, it is inestimably profound. One is delivered from their guilt before God and thus saved from His just wrath – by one means ONLY – by His grace. By God’s unearned favor poured out in the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and applied to those who believe by the Holy Spirit.

Grace, by definition is unearned. And in this regard, the Reformers coined this slogan so as to pit it in direct opposition to the idea that one can MERIT – can be good enough in any way to deserve and thus obtain salvation because of earning it. Grace is grace, when it is given to the undeserving. This is how the Apostle Paul unpacks the issue for us in Romans 11:5-6: “So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.” Those last words expound the key concept. If one’s salvation is earned by some one, or mass of works – then salvation ceases to BE by grace, at all.

Every cult or false religion proceeds precisely on this point. “Good people go to heaven.” Be a good enough person (though no one can say exactly HOW good one has to be to out-weigh their sin) and you’ll be fine. The false premise upon which this is built is obvious – no amount of doing good things in one place, mitigates the evil done in another. A person is not less guilty of murder, because when they DID kill their victim, at the same time they didn’t kill all the people they could have. The two ultimately are not related. It is a logical fallacy. No number of good things, no matter HOW good, somehow erase the guilt of my sin. It can no more do so any more than all the times I do drive under the speed limit somehow builds up a bank of miles per hour I can trade off against the ones I spend when I DO go over. No system of justice works like that anywhere. And yet when it comes to salvation, millions are ready to sign on the dotted line. And every false religion and cult adopts this point of view in one way or another.

Beloved, salvation is by grace alone. It is a gift. It is unearned in any way, shape or form. It must be received as a gift and as a gift only. Nor is it given to those somehow more deserving than others. It is given to the very lowest of human debris. It is given to us in the preaching of the Gospel. Unearned. Undeserved. Never forget that, and no cult, no man-made religion will ever suck you in.

It is in the Scripture alone, that we are told authoritatively that salvation is by grace alone. Sola Scriptura. Sola Gratia.
Cult-proofing your kids (AND yourselves) Part 1

May 11th, 2010
Slogans find their way into every culture. Webster’s 11th Collegiate states that a slogan is: “a : a war cry especially of a Scottish clan; b : a word or phrase used to express a characteristic position or stand or a goal to be achieved.” Such slogans can be merely catchy, or motivating like Patrick’s Henry’s famous “give me liberty or give me death” – or even vitally useful. It is this last category that our graphic above falls into. For during the Protestant Reformation, a series of slogans were used both to motivate, and to crystallize some of the key concepts being fought for. Sola Scriptura is the first of five of the most important of those Reformation slogans. And if they are digested and stood upon, they can serve a most extraordinary role still. If one embraces these slogans as a part of their world view, they can, all alone, serve to keep one safe from nearly every form of false religion, and Christian cult.
- Sola Scriptura. What does it mean? In the first place, it is simply the way of saying “Scripture Alone” in Latin. But what was meant by its use then? Above all other things, it meant that the Reformers, held that Scripture – the Holy Bible – stands uniquely, unerringly and supremely above every other authority. It serves always as the final court of appeals in terms of its revelation of God, our world view, and thus in defining faith, morals and ethics. No, The Bible will not teach you quantum physics, nor how to fix your motorcycle. It will teach you how to be reconciled to God in Jesus Christ, why you NEED to be reconciled and how once you have been – you can DO quantum physics and repair your motorcycle in godliness and to the Creator’s glory. Scripture does not contain all information on every subject. But it is the ONLY authoritative source of the necessary information God has revealed concerning who and what He is, who and what we are, the saving of our souls, the meaning of life and how to live it.
- Every false religion, or even false expression of true Christianity errs on this point. It will either make some thing or some one equal to the authority of Scripture, or above it. It cannot rest with man being brought supremely under the authority of the Bible above all else.
- We must be clear here – Scripture itself teaches that other authorities DO exist, and that by God’s appointment. As such, we are responsible to them. But every other authority, be it familial, civil or ecclesiastical has these inviolable parameters: NO authority, under any circumstances has the right to require one to do anything the Scripture forbids them to do, nor the right to forbid them to do anything Scripture requires them to do.
- Every Christian cult follows suit in this regard. It will have as its final authority some other text or texts, personalities (who themselves are the final interpreters of Scripture irrespective of all others) or another source either equal to or above the Bible.
BEWARE!
- Beloved, when God speaks, all others must shut their mouths. And God speaks, infallibly, only in His Word. Listen to Him. Do we listen to the Church as well? We had better. It is arrogant to ignore the gifts God has given to His Church throughout the centuries for our edification. But we do not mistakenly forget that churches, pastors, theologians, synods, councils and ecclesiastical powers of all kinds not only can err, but do. Not so God. Not so His Word.
- Remember this, keep to this, and you cannot go far afield.
FOUND! Jean Luc Picard. Thank you Science.

May 10th, 2010

Its in today’s on-line issue of Discovery News. The caption next to this picture reads: “Homo neanderthalensis.”

“The “Old Man of La Chapelle” was recreated from the skull and jaw of a Homo neanderthalensis male found near La Chapelle-aux-Saints, in France in 1908. He lived 56,000 years ago.

His relatively old age, thought to be between 40 to 50 years old, indicates he was well looked after by a clan.

The old man’s skeleton indicates he suffered from a number of afflictions, including arthritis, and had numerous broken bones.

Scientists at first did not realize the age and afflicted state of this specimen when he was first discovered. This led them to incorrectly theorize that male Neanderthals were hunched over when they walked.”

Then I saw this –

I had NO idea Patrick Stewart was a day over 30,000 years old. Go figure.
My Mother’s Day Poem for 2010

May 9th, 2010

Every year I do one for my Mom – sometimes humorous, sometimes, serious, sometimes just plain weird.

I’ll let you decide which one this year’s is.

Enjoy! (BTW, this can be sung to the tune of: My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean – verses only)

Of all of the Moms in the Bible

We all know there’s plenty, not few

I’m confident that you could find one

(SOMEwhat like your own Mom)

A lot like the one that raised you.

One first thinks of Eve in the Garden

The first Mom – that God created

But giv’n her problem with apples

(Fruitsalad was NOT her best dish)

Should really have been sedated

And then there’s that awesome Mom, Sarah

THE first Jewish Princess for sure

Though still quite a Babe in her 80’s

(She WAS a tad rough on domestics however)

She led Abe on quite a detour

And then, there was Lot’s “salty” dear heart

Saline-a’s her unwritten name

Her mineral make-up went drastic

(A bit of a “hard” look you know)

While her townhouse went all up in flames

And who can forget feisty Tamar?

She killed off two husbands in youth

Then gave birth to Zerah and Perez

(NOT Perez Hilton you know)

But her methods were way too uncouth!

Whatever your Mom’s been, or is like

And no two are just quite the same

God wisely assigned you each other

(For better or for worse)

So both of you share all the blame

My own Mom is most like sweet Hannah

Who’s prayer-life was known far and wide

Her request for a son was a doozy

(She definitely DIDN’T have me in mind)

And STILL thinks that she got Shanghaied!

For my Mom on Mother’s Day 2010 – I LOVE YOU MOM!
Margin notes for 4/28/2KX

April 28th, 2010

“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” (Proverbs 28:13, ESV)

The most obvious application of such a verse is that we need to be a people who regularly and candidly confess our sins to God. One’s salvation (if they are truly in Christ) is not lacking in security in any way, but intimacy with God is to be cherished and preserved. Unconfessed sin injures our closeness to Him. When we fail to acknowledge our sins before Him, we begin to follow a thought pattern that treats sin lightly, and fails to account for sin being a personal affront to our Lord and Savior. We treat it like the World does – as some sort of mere “legal” matter. But sin is not first and foremost a legal matter. Sin, above all other things, is a personal offense to our God’s holy nature. We offend Him when we sin – personally. And that issue needs to be addressed. To let it go, is to ignore Him – to treat Him as though He does not matter. As though our slaps to His holy face are inconsequential. As though our denials of who and what He is by failing to display His glory – mean nothing. As though the cross, means little. That Jesus died for nothing, after all – sin is such a little deal, we don’t even need to make amends when we commit it against Him. Something’s wrong with that picture. It grows out of a low view of sin – which is absolutely tied to a low view of the cross. Heavenly Father, make our hearts tender toward you again – so that we see the sinfulness of sin. Not so as to depress us or drive us to despair – but so as to make us melt at the awe and wonder of your mercy and grace in the substitutionary death of Jesus for our sin at Calvary. That we might delight in you all the more.
Margin notes for 4/27/2KX

April 27th, 2010

Proverbs 27:5 (ESV) “Better is open rebuke than hidden love.”

Are you addicted to the kisses of sycophants? Do you need their profuse affirmations? then know that they are the enemies of your soul. People who will only tell you what you want to hear – hate you. They will destroy you.

Husbands, do you always need your wives and children to agree with you and pledge their unqualified support? Or at work, do you need peers and underlings to agree with you in order to feel secure? How about wives? Do you need your gal-friends to only sympathize or empathize with your point of view or hurt feelings? Children, must your schoolmates or friends always affirm your opinions and actions? Leaders, do you need those under you to pat you on the back at all times and sign on to all your ideas and views? If you breed those behaviors in others, if you create that culture in your home, marriage, relationships or workplace – you will do so to your own destruction.

If Jesus only preached and taught what found acceptance with all those around Him, if He catered to their opinions and viewpoints – He might have avoided the Cross. But then, you and I would have no salvation.
Margin notes for 4/22/2KX

April 21st, 2010

Lamentations 3:31–33 (ESV) “For the Lord will not cast off forever, 32 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; 33 for he does not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men.”

The Father would rather we not need discipline. He takes no pleasure in our afflictions. He stands ready to forgive, indeed He only afflicts that we might return and enjoy the abundance of His steadfast love. It is the “abundance” we are prevented from having while we remain in our sin. It isn’t that He does not love us, but that we cannot enjoy the freedom and depth and sweetness and the unfettered love that comes with nothing remaining between us to separate. He does not afflict willingly. He does so only out of love. Not because He has begun to love less.

Thy wounds, are good, and right O Lord

No ill attends Thy dealing

Who with each wound in life afflicts

Yet plots my sick soul’s healing

In faithfulness and charity

Thy kind hand works in blessing

Allowing, crafting, crushing more

Thine Image sorely pressing

A softer will I plead O Lord

‘Tis not Your work which harms me

The cold and hardness of my heart

Is what in pain alarms me

Break me, melt me, mold me fully

Spare not each needed turning

Apply the fire of perfect love

Thy loving, cleansing, burning

Till pliable, and yielded up

And stripped of sin’s resistance

The vessel made emerges wrought

Of Love’s divine persistence

O Faithful Lord and Master mine

Make me to show Thy glory

The work of Christ’s redeeming love

Will be my endless story

Thy wounds, are good, and right O Lord

No ill attends Thy dealing

Who with each wound in life afflicts

Yet plots my sick soul’s healing