Identities of a Christian Pilgrim in a Fallen World, Part 4

Manigong Bagong Taon sa iyo mula sa Pilipinas!  This is my first post from the Philippines, hopefully out of a few.  This has been my first time ever taking a vacation of at least a full week from work, and it is long overdue.  I have been here for about a week now.  The trip has gone well so far.  I've gotten some more ideas for things to do if I get to come back, most notably more island-hopping.

I was also pleased to see that December 2011 has been my highest-traffic month ever on this blog.  What a nice note for ending the year!  Whether you are a search indexer or a human - and I hope you are a human ;-) - thank you for reading this, and I hope you find that the posts here point you to the real gospel and push you to better know the God of the Bible.

Amidst sorting out the many photos so far from the trip, I have not had time to write an original post, so here is the next post in the "Identities" series.

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31.  I am hoping in Christ, not wealth.  The false prosperity gospel has taught that God will automatically rain expensive worldly possessions and a complete lack of illness on those who have enough faith, but some others, in reaction to this, have faith in God's salvation of their souls but not in God giving them any other sort of blessing.  But a God-focused faith teaches us that God does provide for what we need and He promises us many sorts of blessings.  Uniquely to us, this includes spiritual blessings.  "Our faith doesn't create prosperity, healings, and breakthroughs.  Our faith focuses fervently on God.  Biblical faith confidently - even ambitiously - asks God to act according to His promises.  True faith then accepts the answer.  Our faith stands on the unchanging character of God." - Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition.  (Ephesians 1:3; 1 Timothy 6:17)

32.  I am guaranteed persecution, at least to some level, for knowing Christ.  Yet God receives me even when others reject me.  "There is a great gulf between the Christianity that wrestles with whether to worship at the cost of imprisonment and death and the Christianity that wrestles with whether the kids should play soccer on Sunday morning." - John Piper, quoted in Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition.  (Psalm 27:10; 2 Timothy 3:12)

33.  I am confident to approach God's throne of grace, thanks to my High Priest, Jesus Christ.  The Lion of Judah is not even descended from Levi, but the Father has chosen Him to be my Mediator.  "Before the throne of God above, I have a strong and perfect plea: the Great High Priest whose name is Love, who ever lives and pleads for me!" - Charitie Bancroft, "Before the Throne of God Above".  (Hebrews 4:14-16; Hebrews 7:14; 1 Timothy 2:5)

34.  I am sure of what I hope for and certain of what I do not see.  This faith is in Christ, not misdirected to earthly things or wealth.  "We need an anchor to keep us sure and steady. Gospel hope is our anchor in the storms of this world. It is sure and steadfast, or it could not keep us so. The free grace of God, the merits and mediation of Christ, and the powerful influences of his Spirit, are the grounds of this hope, and so it is a steadfast hope." - Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible.  (Hebrews 11:1; Hebrews 6:11-20)

35.  I am disciplined by my Heavenly Father, as His legitimate child.  I should not shy away from it, but should learn what the Lord is teaching me through it.  As my perfect Father, God will not leave me to my own devices when I sin against Him.  He cares about my staying on the right path and aims to purify my heart and sanctify me.  In order to show that I am God's workmanship, His masterpiece, He must cut away at me and mold me to reflect Him.  "If You love me, God, then chasten me." - DJ Official, "Chisel Me".  (Hebrews 12:7-11)

36.  I am intolerant of false gospels, called to separate from false teachers (who differ from me on closed-hand issues, such as the deity of Christ) and not welcome them or help their ministries.  The Lord Jesus Christ suffered and died for my sins, and God commands me to turn from my sins, not to other sins, but to Christ - to love what He loves and hate what He hates, which is a work that He must supernaturally do in me.  Realizing something of the cost that the Lord Jesus paid for my sins and the truth of this gospel makes me deeply grieved when false teachers add to it by saying that there are any good works I can do to gain salvation, reduce it by saying "Pray this prayer to accept Jesus into your little heart", or twist it to say that Christ died to give me better self-esteem or health and wealth.  "Avoid a sugared Gospel as you would shun sugar of lead. Seek that Gospel which rips up and tears and cuts and wounds and hacks and even kills, for that is the Gospel that makes alive again. And when you have found it, give good heed to it. Let it enter into your inmost being. As the rain soaks into the ground, so pray the Lord to let His Gospel soak into your soul." - C.H. Spurgeon on sugarcoating the gospel.  (Galatians 1:8; 2 John 1:7-11)

37.  I am committing my way to the Lord.  The true believer finds the yoke of obedience to Christ light and can rest in knowing that they have obeyed Him.  My only job is to do what He says when He calls.  He knows what I need and promises to sustain me.  "The ploughman sows and harrows, and then leaves the harvest to God. What can he do else? He cannot cover the heavens with clouds, or command the rain, or bring forth the sun or create the dew. He does well to leave the whole matter with God; and so to all of us it is truest wisdom, having obediently trusted in God, to leave results in His hands, and expect a blessed issue." - C.H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David.  (Psalm 37:5)

38.  I am in first love with the Lord, whether I realize it or not.  All new Christians have a stage where they have great passion for the Lord and little knowledge of theology.  But many lose this first love as they tie themselves up in meting out God's law to others - and in some cases adding to it - without giving them grace or being sidetracked by this present world and its little pleasures.  "The sin Christ charged this church with, is, not the having left and forsaken the object of love, but having lost the fervent degree of it that at first appeared. Christ is displeased with his people, when he sees them grow remiss and cold toward him. Surely this mention in Scripture, of Christians forsaking their first love, reproves those who speak of it with carelessness, and thus try to excuse indifference and sloth in themselves and others; our Saviour considers this indifference as sinful. They must repent: they must be grieved and ashamed for their sinful declining, and humbly confess it in the sight of God. They must endeavour to recover their first zeal, tenderness, and seriousness, and must pray as earnestly, and watch as diligently, as when they first set out in the ways of God." - Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible.  (Revelation 2:2-4)

39.  I am guided as God sees fit to various geographic locations in order to make His name famous.  My Savior was homeless while He lived on earth.  Therefore, my happiness in Him cannot be tied to any earthly home.  "To me remains nor place nor time / My country is in every clime / I can be free from any care / On any shore, since God is there. / While place we seek, or place we shun, / This soul finds happiness in none. / But with a God to guide our way, / 'Tis equal joy to go or stay." - Madame Guyon, "My Lord, How Full of Sweet Content".  (Luke 9:58; Acts 1:8)

40.  I am dearly loved with an everlasting and unfailing love.  The love of the Lord for me is far greater than any love that I can have for Him.  "I find it very hard to sing about my love for God. ... For the most part you will just hear me sort of silent.  This puny thing I have, if you were to compare my love for God to the love that other men have had for God... I would be nowhere near the top. ... And then if I were to take my love [for God] and compare it to God's love for me, how could I even say, 'Oh, how I love You'?  But look what He says.  'How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!'  Love truly does cover a multitude of sins." - Paul Washer, "You Are Dearly Loved by God".  (Psalm 21:7; Song of Solomon 4:10)

Identities of a Christian Pilgrim in a Fallen World, Part 3

21.  I am differently driven.  Exhorted to do nothing out of selfish ambition, I must humbly seek to glorify God in everything I do.  This does not mean throwing away all ambitious dreams, but sanctifying them.  "Sometimes God brings our dreams to life; sometimes He doesn't.  But how we respond to His work creates an important intersection for change in our lives.  As we cooperate with Him, we discover that it's not ultimately about nailing the promotion, or raising well-behaved kids, or winning the Daytona 500 - as good as all of those things may be.  It's about something much bigger: how I become like Christ while I pursue these dreams." - Dave Harvey, Rescuing Ambition.  (Philippians 2:3)

22.  I am on the Lord's side.  This means that, particularly in times of distress, He gives me triumph over those who hate me and stand against me.  Nothing happens to anyone, believer or unbeliever, outside God's control.  But since I am His child, my Father in Heaven actively fights for me against my enemies.  "God will repay.  You cannot improve upon His justice.  He sees every angle of the evil against you - far better than you can see it.  His justice will be more thorough than any justice you could administer." - John Piper, Future Grace.  (Psalm 118:6-7, Romans 8:31-33).

23.  I am a hyper-conqueror through Him Who loved me.  The Lord gives me a most glorious victory in any trial, whether tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or sword.  Nothing can separate me from His love, as He is sovereign over all as the Creator and Sustainer of all things.  "They [trials] have the effect of making us super conquerors because in those times of weakness we are infused with divine strength.  Those trials work to our greater good.  They work to our eternal glory." - John MacArthur, "The Challenges to Christian Invincibility".  (Romans 8:37)

24.  I am looking forward to a different world, whose architect and builder is God.  Rather than living for this world, I look forward to another world and lay up my treasures there, not here.  Rather than looking to this world for ultimate satisfaction, I look forward to another world that is uncontaminated by idolatry, misdirected ambitions, and other forms of sin.  To me, heaven is wonderful because God is there; I would not want to spend eternity in a wonderful place without Him.  "Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness, in the other world, as I possibly can, with all the power; might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of." - Jonathan Edwards, "The Resolutions of Jonathan Edwards".  (Matthew 6:20; Hebrews 11:10)

25.  I am growing in God's grace and knowledge, aiming to have a faith in Him that is both zealous and intelligent.  Far from a call to put rational thought on hold, God calls me to discover more of the truth about Himself that He has spent 66 books revealing.  In addition to commanding me to love Him with my heart, soul, and strength, Christ also exhorts me to love Him with my mind.  "God's gift of understanding is through thinking, not instead of thinking." - John Piper, God's Passion for His Glory.  (Luke 10:27; Philippians 1:9-11; Romans 12:11; 2 Peter 3:18)

26.  I am forgiven of much, and I must forgive much.  My sins, regardless of their presumed severity and impact upon others, helped make the death of Christ necessary for my salvation.  Even a wayward thought, which no one sees and no one knows that I have had, is a sin against a holy God if not taken captive outright.  Even the smallest misdeed, when set against the background of a great Savior's tremendous sacrifice for it, is something that screams out of my life, "I need a Savior!"  How can I then say that I have the right to not forgive another person's wrongs against me?  "But even if he is absolutely fully to blame we still have to forgive him; and even if ninety-nine percent of his apparent guilt can be explained away by really good excuses, the problem of forgiveness begins with the one percent of guilt which is left over.  To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian character; it is only fairness.  To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you." - C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory.  "No prayers can be heard which do not come from a forgiving heart." - J.C. Ryle.  (Luke 7:41-48; Colossians 3:13)

27.  I am rejoicing when I see my brothers standing firm in the Lord.  Though it needs to be self-focused in the sense that I need to watch myself regarding sin and spending time with and obeying the Lord, the focus of my faith does not stop with me.  Even when my walk with Christ shows little progress, seeing others' faith not waver, particularly as they endure trials, is an encouragement to my faith.  (1 Thessalonians 3:8)

28.  I am finding Christ in common with other believers, even when their other interests do not match mine.  Such friendships are possible because commonality in Christ takes precedence over all worldly interests.  Even when I cannot speak the same languages that they speak, our devotion to Christ marks us out; as many missionaries can attest, they can tell when they are in the presence of brothers and sisters in the Lord.  I am hopeful that God will make my godly fellowship with other believers possible on a more worldwide scale.  (1 Thessalonians 3:11)

29.  I am a Jew under the new covenant.  In the old covenant, Jews had to be Jews outwardly through circumcision.  The new covenant changed our understanding of how the law is fulfilled because Christ fulfilled the law.  Many Jews in the outward sense opposed Christ and His ministry.  The true circumcision is not of flesh but of heart.  "... Christ Himself is 'the seed' of Abraham (Galatians 3:16), so that being in Christ means being Abraham's 'seed', and, therefore, heirs of the promise (Galatians 3:29, 16). ... So knowing that we non-Jews are 'latecomers' to the covenant of Abraham and that we are nevertheless loved as full fellow-heirs should humble us and give us hope.  Humble hope in the Messiah, Jesus Christ, is the aim of all redemption.  For humility puts us in our lowly place of happy dependence, and hope puts God in His exalted place of glorious mercy." - John Piper, Taste and See.  (Romans 2:29)

30.  I am serving a perfect Master.  The world serves masters that will ultimately fail them: money, sex, power, pleasure in self, even family and goodwill.  These masters will fail them because the God over all, Who gave them life and breath and the ability to chase these things, will not allow them or anyone else to steal His glory.  He will be ultimately glorified in the end.  And no one can serve two masters.  He will hate one, even if it is something good that he is doing for the wrong reasons, and love the other.  Or he will hate the other and love the one.  "And I don't want to change on the so called spiritual level. I want to change in the inner chambers of my heart. That even His thoughts the deepest expression of who He is; it was his desire that they be according to the will of almighty God. The freest man on the face of the earth is the one who makes himself a slave to a perfect master. Where has God been wrong, and where has He wronged you? Has there ever been a time when listened to Him? When you obeyed Him, when you sought out His will that He has misled you somehow? "Never!" But have you ever followed your own ways and been mislead by your own devices? Always." - Paul Washer, "This Is War".  (Luke 16:13).

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This might be my last post before I go to the Philippines, depending on how much time I have to write on my upcoming trips.  In case I don't get to write again before or on Christmas, merry Christmas and happy New Year (maligayang Pasko, at manigong Bagong Taon!).

This trip is the first "vacation" I have ever prepared for by prayer and fasting.  I don't know whether to call it a vacation or a missions trip, or some of both.  My hosts and I will go do some fun stuff and sightseeing.  I also have a long Bible study prepared to present for the annual kickoff of my main host's Bible study group.  Last Friday, I did a test run of it for three other men in my Bible study who are also leaders in our church.  It was well-received, and their comments were helpful.  Lord willing, I will go verse-by-verse through a passage of 1 John and also look at Philemon.  I have a full verse-by-verse lesson on Philemon prepared too, but it does not align well with the topic of the study, so I will shorten it unless people want to hear the whole thing.  After I give the study lesson, I plan to post it here.  I'm sure I will also want to write about my trip.  So I don't know if the next post during or after the trip will be "Identities... Part 4" or something else. :-)

Lord willing, I will also see at least one of the children that I have sponsored there.  He is a college student, though he is taking some time off from that so that his parents can support putting one of his older brothers through college.  Please pray that I will minister well to everyone I get to meet in the Philippines, that I will live the gospel life before them and in private, that I will grow in the Lord and that I will set for them a good example of Christlike character and manhood.

"'I am going down into the pit; you hold the ropes', said Carey, the pioneer missionary. They that hold the ropes, and the daring miner that swings away down in the darkness, are one in work, may be one in the motive, and, if they are, shall be one in the reward. "

- Alexander MacLaren.

Identities of a Christian Pilgrim in a Fallen World, Part 2

11. I am fighting for joy as I face trials of many kinds. It is important for me to realize that earth is not heaven, so when living on earth seems unbearable it is merely making the many joys of heaven appear sweeter to me. No believer experiences a trial-free Christian life on this planet. Therefore, I see a need to fight for joy relentlessly in order to keep my desire transfixed on God and the reality of my future redemption constantly before me. "The fight for joy in Christ... is a fight for strength to live a life of self-sacrificing love. It is a fight to join Jesus on the Calvary road and stay there with Him, no matter what. How was He sustained on that road? Hebrews 12:2 answers, 'For the joy that was set before Him [He] endured the cross, despising the shame.'" - John Piper. (Hebrews 12:2)

12. I am trusting in God, not in my faith. My faith in God is a gift of His grace. Yet the gifts have imperfections. There are still times when, like doubting Thomas, I cry out to my Lord, "I believe! Help my unbelief." I display woeful inconsistency in my ability to trust Him to work out each detail of my life. If my faith were in my faith instead of in my God, I would be a goner. Yet He is a never-changing God. "Never try to arouse faith from within. You cannot stir up faith from the depths of your heart. Leave your heart, and look into the face of Christ." - Andrew Murray. (Mark 9:24; Ephesians 2:8-9)

13. I am representing Christ to this broken world. When someone who is not in Christ sees me and knows that I am a Christian, I reflect an imperfect picture of a perfect Christ to that person. Hence, I have a great need to live blamelessly and above reproach so that it gives Christ a good name to those around me. "Service in the name of Christ isn't a proof of salvation. ... Saying you represent Christ is not enough. I'll tell you, there are a lot of people who say they represent Jesus Christ, but when their life gets exposed, you ask the question... do they? Just because you say you do doesn't mean you do. Just because you preach Christ doesn't mean you really know Christ. There have been a lot of people, false people, preaching a true message, right?" - John MacArthur. (Matthew 7:14, 1 Timothy)

14. I am a tool in the hand of my God, like clay in the hand of a Potter. But the end is not in being used for something "great"; the end is Him. He will use me for what He will. "Don't overestimate yourself; glorify God. Don't think, 'That couldn't happen to me.' You're a clay pot. A clay pot could be discarded in a second. In and of yourself, no value. But the fact that God has placed the treasure in you gives you value and worth beyond compare. That's totally, totally tied into the treasure you have in Jesus Christ." - Larry Smith, "A Treasure in a Clay Pot". (Isaiah 64:8)

15. I am enjoying the Provider more than the provisions. When the provisions don't come, that cannot shake my faith or my joy. God has not promised me prosperity or guaranteed that I will have everything that I think I need. He knows what I really need and will provide for it in the time that He sees fit. And if He gives me much in the eyes of the world, chances are that I will not be able to enjoy Him because the things that He has allowed me to have will have stolen my affections. If He gives me only my daily bread - a dangerous prayer! - then He teaches me daily dependence on Him and a greater degree of trust in Him as my Father. "Money can’t give you any of the things you ultimately need. It can’t make you holy. It can’t make you righteous. It can’t save you from your sins. Wealth is a sign of blessing, but it’s also one of your biggest temptations because it entices you to boast in yourself." - Kevin DeYoung. (Proverbs 30:7-9)

16. I am sensitive to the sinfulness of my sin. Becoming a Christian means that the Lord has brought me to a point of realizing the sinfulness of my sin against a holy God and has granted me repentance from that sin - repentance, not to switch to another sin but to leave all sins and run hard after Christ. The Lord progressively increases my sensitivity to sin, and there are times when He makes me so aware of my sinfulness that my sinlessness in heaven attracts me more greatly than even the chance to continue living life in this world. "But in a sense, when a Christian sins / It's more sickening than sins of wicked men (why?) / 'Cause we've tasted His goodness as recipients of grace / So every time we sin, it's like we're spitting in His face." - Timothy Brindle, "The Sinfulness of Sin". (Romans 7:24-25; 1 John 3:6)

17. I am denying myself daily. Christ lives in me. He has taken all of me. This leaves no room for myself anymore. So self-denial follows from that. John Piper defines this in terms of Mark 8:35 as Jesus' saying, "What I mean is - My disciples, My loved ones - lose your life in the sense that you lose everything but Me. 'Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.' Die to the world. Die to prestige, die to wealth, die to sinful sex, die to cheating to get ahead, die to the need for people to approve you. Die, and have Me." (Luke 9:23; Galatians 2:20)

18. I am pointing my enjoyment of creation back to the Creator. I find "self-esteem", "self-fulfillment", "self-actualization", and so on to be idolatry. The answer to this is not to complain to God about how He made me, but to take a Biblical view of myself. Yes, in spite of my flaws, the Lord made me in His image, fearfully and wonderfully. But His glory far surpasses mine. I am, by far, not the most glorious human on the earth. The creatures on this earth are not as glorious as those in Heaven. Yet the creatures in glory never go on an ego trip. As holy as they are, they continue to play their part in praising the Creator: "All Thy works shall praise Thy name / in earth, and sky, and sea." - Reginald Heber. (Psalm 139:14; Romans 1:25)

19. I am becoming sanctified in stewardship. Rather than telling me to use my income to support an endless pursuit of the American Dream, the Lord is making me more aware of the needs of the global body of Christ and how materially rich I am as an American. At the same time, I wonder how the vast majority of American Christendom - who pursue these treasures that will pass away - will pass through the needle's eye. "My hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is going to take me to himself. To live is Christ and to die is gain. I'm here on earth to spread the gospel. I'm going to keep my life as wartime as I can in order to maximize my effect for showing Jesus as valuable, not things as valuable." - John Piper. (Matthew 19:24)

20. I am hoping in the second Adam, though I am of the first Adam's race. Since the first Adam brought sin into the world, I must leave sin - and self - in order to follow the Lord; a lifestyle of sin has no place in His kingdom. Praise God that there is a second Adam, a perfect replacement for the fallen first one! "We are like Adam now in weakness and pain, and we shall soon be like him in death, returning to the ground whence we were taken; but we shall rise again to a better life, and then we shall wear in glory and incorruption the image of the second Adam. Conceive the beauties of the risen Redeemer. .... We shall behold His glory, we shall be with Him where He is, and we shall be ourselves glorious in His glory. Is He exalted? you also shall be lifted up. Is He a King? you shall not be uncrowned. Is He a victor? you also shall bear a palm. Is He full of joy and rejoicing? so also shall your soul be filled to the brim with delights. Where He is every saint shall be ere long." - Charles Spurgeon. (Romans 5)

Identities of a Christian Pilgrim in a Fallen World, Part 1

"I give names in hope and prayer that my sons will become what their names imply. But God has the right and the power to cause anyone He names to become what the name implies. The names He gives are sure indicators of the destiny of those He names."

- John Piper, "I Am Who I Am".

"At the beginning of the 19th century, most obituaries made some mention of the character of the deceased. ... But by 1990 [a person's occupation] had become the key means by which a person was identified. This substitution of function for character is a unique mark of how the modern world now understands personhood."

- David F. Wells, God in the Wasteland; quoted in Tullian Tchividjian, Unfashionable.

"From now on, we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do it no longer."

- 2 Corinthians 5:16.

In my personal Bible studies over the past year or so, I have been asking myself, "What does the Bible say a Christian is? How can I express characteristics of all Christians in terms of 'I am [fill in the blank]' statements?" Originally setting out to find 100 "identities" in the New Testament, I have found over 150 in a search that has also spanned Psalms and Proverbs and called back to my mind other passages in the Old Testament.

I do not intend this to be an exhaustive list; and although my Reformed Baptist tendencies shine through in a few of the statements, I have tried to focus on and elaborate on areas where Biblical Christians from many denominations will find common ground. Some of these are not automatic "identities" but goals to work toward as a Christian. They are not organized by topic or passage, but only in the order that I thought of them. I'll continue to flesh these out and post these in many parts until the series is done, though I will probably take breaks during my upcoming trip to the Philippines and as I get ideas for more immediate writing.

1. I am a stranger in a strange land. Many people start to describe their identity based on the country of their birth. As a Christian, my identity properly begins with my standing in Christ. He transcends all boundaries built by man. Man's countries are strange places to me, since wherever I can go in this world, many people live as though God never gave them a law to obey. Ultimately, my citizenship is in heaven. And, unlike immigration processes in this world, my eternally permanent residency there will be certain. "Lord, I would not [want to] be a citizen where Jesus was an alien. ... My heart burns within me by the way when Thou dost speak to me. And though I be a sojourner, I am far more blessed than those who sit on thrones, and far more at home than those who dwell in their ceiled houses." - C.H. Spurgeon. (1 Peter 2:11; Philippians 3:20)

2. I am chosen for God since before time began. God has spent redemptive history gathering for Himself His elect - all those who repent of their sins and believe on Him alone for salvation. And He is not subject to their whims and fancies. He chose His sheep before the foundation of the world. He calls them; they hear His voice, and they come to Him. "Predestination we call the eternal decree of God, by which He has determined in Himself, what He would have to become of every individual of mankind. For they are not all created with a similar destiny; but eternal life is foreordained for some and eternal death for others. Every man, therefore, being created for one or the other of these ends, we say he is predestinated either to life or to death." - John Calvin. (Ephesians 1:4; John 10:27)

3. I am saved for the glory of God. He has chosen to glorify Himself by saving me by His grace, which I can testify in my life is completely unmerited favor. Yet He is glorified when He says that He can save an idolatrous wretch such as I. He operates for His own sake and has no reason to give His glory to anyone else. "God is the one Being in all the universe for whom seeking His own praise is the ultimately loving act. For Him, self-exaltation is the highest virtue. When He does all things 'for the praise of His glory' as Ephesians 1 says, He preserves for us and offers to us the only thing in all the world which can satisfy our longings." - John Piper, "Is God for Us or for Himself?". (Isaiah 48:11; Ephesians 1:11-14).

4. I am given a specific mission on this earth: to make God's name great in every area of my life. This includes both obvious spiritual activities, such as prayer and worship, and the common things of everyday life, such as work and leisure time. God, by His sovereign design, made the common tasks of life and work necessary. We ought not to regard these as barriers to ministry or other more preferable activities. "God is pursued as I play with my son and we talk. / As we play hide and seek, God is seeing my heart. / There's no separation in places where He wants worship. / From my church to my work, God calls me to service. / So I serve Him." - Dillon Chase, "The Pursuit". (1 Corinthians 10:31)

5. I am passing through this world, not here forever. Human bodies aging over time and dying only prove that God has created our earthly bodies as temporal and mortal. The fact that God has allowed us to be aliens in strangers in a world where Biblical Christianity is not popular merely reinforces that we do not have a home on this planet. Instead, we look forward to the eternal "home of righteousness". "Heaven is not here; it's There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for." - Elisabeth Elliot. (Romans 6:12; 2 Peter 2:13)

6. I am a slave to Christ, not sin. Rather than continuing to worship and serve the creatures of God as I once did, I am driven to obey Christ, the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, Who sustains all things by His powerful word and is sure to sustain me as He sees fit. His commands on me are not burdensome, and obeying them brings me greater joy. Shunning anything of this world that causes me to see Him as less wonderful is not legalism to me, because it ultimately causes me to see Christ as more beautiful and satisfying. "If Christ has died for me, ungodly as I am, without strength as I am, then I cannot live in sin any longer. I must arouse myself to love and serve Him who has redeemed me. I cannot trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend. I must be holy for His sake. How can I live in sin when He has died to save me from it?" - C.H. Spurgeon. "And like a bondslave, you have no will of your own. / Just follow the will of God until you kneel at the throne." - 116 Clique, "It's Yours". (Romans 1:25; Romans 7:25; Hebrews 1:3; 1 John 5:3)

7. I am gazing at the Serpent on a pole. The ancient Israelites had to look at a bronze snake to be saved from the snakes that were killing them. The Son of Man was lifted up on a cross - dying the most offensive kind of death, given at that time only to criminal, non-Roman citizens. There, He died to save me. "Fix your eyes on the cross. And never get beyond it." - Arturo Azurdia, "Cross Eyed Life". "You will need nothing to build strange fires in your oven, if you only catch a glimpse of what He did on that tree." - Paul Washer, "Ten Indictments against the Modern Church in America". (Numbers 21:4-9; John 3)

8. I am continually broken so that God may empty me of myself, conform me to His image, and fill me with Himself. Although unbelievers may also find themselves broken as they go through the struggles of life, they do not experience trials to grow them in their faith because God has not given them repentance and faith. "Just as water ever seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds you abased and empty, His glory and power flow in." - Andrew Murray. (Romans 8:29)

9. I am pursued by God. I began my life in this world as a lost person - like a lost sheep. I had, possibly, some remembrance of who the Shepherd was, but I did not know where I was supposed to be, how to get there, or where the Shepherd was. He had to leave the ninety-nine found sheep and find me. The ninety-nine found displayed an outward religious veneer that showed themselves as perfect, with no need for a Savior. Yet Jesus found me in my sin - in my great need for turning from that sin and trusting wholly in Him alone - and He granted me repentance and faith and saved me. "He continues his care of the sheep that did not go astray; they are safe in the wilderness. But there is a particular care to be taken of this lost sheep; and though he has a hundred sheep, a considerable flock, yet he will not lose that one, but he goes after it, and shows abundance of care, in finding it out. He follows it, enquiring after it, and looking about for it, until he finds it. God follows backsliding sinners with the calls of his word and the strivings of his Spirit, until at length they are wrought upon to think of returning. ... There is a world of holy angels that are as the ninety-nine sheep, a noble flock; yet God sends his Son to seek and save that which was lost." - Matthew Henry. (Luke 15:7; Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25)

10. I am a pursuer of God. Called to flee the evil desires that I have known since birth, I must shun this world's natural passions and instead pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace - characteristics of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Much of this life pursuing God must be a hidden life. "See what a hidden life the life of a good Christian is and how much of it is concealed from the eye and the observation of the world. The most important part of the business lies between God and our own souls, in the frame of our spirits and the workings of our hearts, in our actions that no eye sees except the all-seeing God." - Matthew Henry, Experiencing God's Presence. (Psalm 83:3; 2 Timothy 2:22).

Practical Application: Lecrae's "Rebel Intro"

Many songs are very rich with practical truth that needs to be applied, not just heard. It's easy to hear a song with deep truth and go fast over it from one song to the next. Maybe the song will get stuck in our heads, but sometimes it stays there because it is catchy.

So, because Scripture commands us in James to be a doer of the word and not only a hearer of it, I would like to dive in on a song that has affected me multiple times since I first heard it: Lecrae's "Rebel Intro". As Voice said in "Whatever It Takes", "So now let's make this thing practical, since I am convinced this is God's Word and factual / but not merely a list of facts and features; they are truths that inform for all [of] what belief is." He said this of Scripture, so I will not say that the words of a song are divinely inspired. However, the songs can show us how we can apply truth that is divinely inspired.

Whether teaching us in preaching, singing, rapping, writing, or ministering where life exists, teachers who teach falsely will come under greater condemnation than those who follow them. Similarly, those of us who have heard more truth and refused to live it out have committed more disobedience against God than those who have heard less of the truth. So let's dive in and apply this.

"I'm in rebellion"

What kind of rebellion? The rest will explain.

"Jesus was a rebel, a renegade, outlaw

A sanctified troublemaker but He never sinned, naw"

Jesus was a rebel because He never sinned. Most people define "rebel" by whether we rebel against cultural norms. Criminals are "rebels" because most people believe practically that people are basically good and criminals somehow act against their basically good nature when they break the laws of the land. More conservative people think that people with multicolored hair or a lot of tattoos are "rebels" because they rebel against society's definition of a clean appearance. But Romans 3:10 says that all have sinned and rebelled against God. Christ, as God in human flesh, was by definition a rebel against the society around Him on earth.

"and He lived His life by a different set of Rules

the culture ain't approve so you know they had to bruise Him "

Secular society's rules today tend to base themselves around either 1) living for yourself, or 2) living for others but leaving God out of it. The former are all about pursuing their own happiness by having as much money, power, toys, work, leisure, sex, and other treasures of this world as they can. The latter tend to gravitate toward causes of goodwill but emphasize service to their fellow man more than God. That is living for the glory of others, not the glory of God.

Let me spin it another way for Christians: Many church people (not all are Christians) do not have a Biblical understanding of their new relationship to law. One group is antinomians: "We are under grace now. Throw the law out. Let's do what we want." Another group is legalists, who make their own set of rules, usually starting off with Scripture but leading into absurd applications that don't really fit and forcing them on others. This has a strong moralistic component and often produces outward obedience without a change in heart.

Jesus' set of rules was different because the culture around Him focused on obeying the Mosaic law. Among religious people, obedience to that law was the norm. But Jesus revealed that the hearts of the culture around Him were sinful toward God; what they were doing to get close to God was not good enough, because they still had sin. Perhaps He showed this most notably in the Sermon on the Mount, in several concrete applications of "Love your neighbor as yourself", an old law from Deuteronomy that may have seemed vague. Hating someone was on the same level as killing them; who would have thought? And culture tended not to follow Him; most settled back into "This is how we have always defined and done righteousness", while missing the entire picture.

"that's the way they do man, they swear they so gangsta

everyone the same, everybody do the same stuff

tattoos, piercings, smokin' up and drinking, money and sex plus them extravagant weekends"

Rebellion against God is the norm in society. It is only expressed in different ways and to different extents. I'm not trying to say that getting a tattoo or getting a piercing is right or wrong; that is not my focus in writing this. But most of society rebels against God in ways that are culturally acceptable. They live for the weekends when they can get drunk and enjoy the fruits of their hard work. Or they spend themselves at work in order to become thought of as great in their field or just to have more money. Or they are too lazy to contribute anything to society. These are all different ways to rebel against God.

"man if that's the high life I'll puff puff pass that

you live evaporated like missing a gas cap

I guess I'm passed that; I am in rebellion"

A Christian should rebel against the world's standards of how to live life and live by God's. But do so humbly. "I'm in rebellion" does not mean "Look at how holy I am." It means "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. And the life which I lived in the flesh..." - even if that life meant looking to your own self-righteousness and using that to please God instead of repenting of that and having faith in the finished work of Christ to please God - "I live by faith in the Son of God" - and His present and future grace! - "Who loved me and gave Himself for me." Obey Christ and love Him because He is all you will ever have and all you will ever need.

"I'd rather have a dollar in my pocket than a million

I'm scared to worship money, and my wants over Elyon"

This line strikes me the most of any in this song right now. I'm a young professional with minimal bills and almost 5 years of working full-time. Even though I give more than ten percent of my income to my church and I also give to missions and charity, that giving is not sacrificial. It is out of abundance. I can't imagine being someone who lives for the kingdom of God as a full-time missionary and has to really trust God for their provisions. I like being able to go to the ATM, take more money out than I may need, and see that balance keep going up. Can it be said that I love money?

"I'll remain a rebel while the rest of them just carry on

this is what I live for, this the hill I'm buried on"

The rest are carrying on because they are opposed to the gospel message lived out in you. What you live for is not your own personal holiness, but for Christ Himself.

"if Jesus is the truth that means one of us is VERY wrong

think about it"

And it's not about winning an argument; it's about an absolute standard that God has established and expected us to live by, knowing full well that we can't do it. We will transgress His law. We do need a Savior several times over. We are children of the first Adam, who sinned. We inherited that Adam's sin nature. And we continue to sin each day. Does the depth of "VERY wrong" break you? "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin my mother conceived me." It did for King David. One of us is very wrong because one of us continues to follow the ways of the world. But the Christian was once an unbeliever and just as wrong.

"I know that in our day rebel means sinner.

But everyone is sinning, so it is no longer rebellious to sin!

Jesus was a rebel who was counter-cultural."

"No glory in me

all glory to the King on the throne (Jesus)"

Don't rebel to bring glory to yourself. The world won't give you glory. You might give yourself selfish pride if you rebel for this reason. But God's glory far outshines ten billion kings'. He will not allow any part of His glory to be stolen by His creation.

"you either love Him or leave Him alone, but you can't do both"

Being a true disciple of Christ does not leave room for indecisively waffling at the door. You can't be indifferent toward Christ as you may be able to be about a job or a country. You cannot serve two masters, and if you both love Him and leave Him alone - or to put it differently, accept part of Him and reject part of His character and commands - you are doing that and creating God in your own image, when you are really created in His image to give Him glory. Eventually, you will love Christ and hate the ways of this world, or you will love the ways of this world and hate Christ.

"yeah, I know you heard that once in song

I pray you hear 10 more fo ya gone

hey listen up, homes"

Every time you hear truth and don't obey it, your heart will grow harder. But many people have to hear the truth many times before it will change them. God must work at the pace that He wills, to bring Him the most glory. But how many times have I heard the commands of Christ and refused to obey them, thinking they were too radical for me? How many times have I been told to share the gospel with others or even given a specific person to whom I must share the gospel, and I wouldn't do it? How wicked am I?

"Stage is the corner and my crowd is the streets

And I rap the bread of life cause they dyin' to eat"

"The streets" - they are not in the church yet. Most of them don't want to go near it. A Christian has non-Christians in his audience who watch him perform each facet of his life either for the glory of God or for the glory of himself. The world is watching. And they're dying to eat, but they will only eat the bread of life if God gives them a taste for it. They are more inclined to eat what will not satisfy because that is what they want, in their sinful nature. But the sower sowed the seed on all ground, not only the ground that looked fertile; God saw to it that those who would be saved by that message were saved.

"I'm a rebel, you know the kind that die in the street

Cause you refuse to conform, won't eat the kings meat"

Expect opposition from this world system today. Refusing to eat meat that has been sacrificed to an idol is not one of our issues today. But our cultures today have equivalents. And our rebellion against this world system can carry a high cost. Jesus was willing to die in His.

"Christ rebelled by shunning the culture

He eatin' with sinners, giving Pharisees ulcers

He never got married, he was broke, plus homeless

yeah that's the God I roll with"

Jesus Christ was willing to eat with unbelievers. That was significant because Pharisees only associated with their own and looked down on everyone else. When was the last time I sat down with an unbeliever and really talked with them, willingly? For me, evangelism is easier if I am in an unfamiliar place and I have met the person that I am witnessing to for the first time. But when co-workers who are not Christians talk to me, I tend to see it either as a bother from the task at hand or as a necessary break. In doing life, I tend to gravitate toward other believers to the extent that it may make me a Pharisee.

"ya boy gotta wife and no I never cheated"

Never cheating on your wife is by the grace of God. If you are a man with status, other women will want you. If you travel a lot (and rappers do), your wife could never find out if you broke your covenant with her. So this statement has to do with rebellion, but it is not just for status. Nearly every man goes through this form of temptation. It is only by God's grace that we stay faithful.

"I'm prayin for humility whenever I get heated"

Among other times, you can get mad or frustrated when you see the world living in a way contrary to Scripture or yourself not living to a high enough standard. In the former case, the temptation is to exalt yourself for beating the world's game. But that keeps you from standing for the truth with a tear in your eye and pointing the world to Christ.

"forget about the drugs; rebel against pornography"

Don't use sin, such as drugs, as a means of rebellion. Rebel against sin itself, such as looking at pornography, by refusing to engage in it and refusing to support or defend it. Christians should rescue those who are trapped in sins like that. But use wisdom, so that you will not fall. By the grace of God, I don't look at porn. But I have met many Christian men who do. And I don't want to fall, so I know there are some places I cannot go. Draw the line that you will not cross as far from the cliff as you can, and do it while in a wise frame of mind so that you will not have to try to do it in the heat of passion.

"this ain't how it oughta be, homie it' how it's gotta be

A rebel!"

The truth is not just a suggestion or one man's good idea. It is an absolute, worth striving hard for. Here, we have no lasting city. We seek a city that is to come. But that shouldn't stop us from seeking to bring others to that lasting city and using this life to long for that lasting city rather than our temporary monuments to human "greatness" that are passing away.

"You are just a conformist, if you are drunk and naked, driving around on a loud motorcycle, smoking cigarettes and breaking commandments, getting pregnant out of wedlock. Everyone has done that, it's so tired! If you really want to be a rebel, read your Bible, because no one is doing that! That's rebellion. That's the only rebellion left!"

-----

There is nothing better to do with your life today than to give Him glory. Have a passion for His glory and for your joy in that glory; "those two are one passion"!

"How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to lose . . ! You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place, you who are sweeter than all pleasure, though not to flesh and blood, you who outshine all light, yet are hidden deeper than any secret in our hearts, you who surpass all honor, though not in the eyes of men who see all honor in themselves. . . . O Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation."

- Augustine, Confessions.

"I have seen, when I was a boy, a juggler in the street throw up half-a-dozen balls, or knives and plates, and continue catching and throwing them, and to me it seemed marvellous; but the religious juggler beats all others hollow. He has to keep up Christianity and worldliness at the same time, and catch two sets of balls at once. To be a freeman of Christ and a slave of the world, at the same time, must need fine acting. One of these days you, Sir Juggler, will make a slip with one of the balls, and your game will be over."

- C.H. Spurgeon.

Lessons I Learned from Next 2011

Here are some lessons for my spiritual life that I took away from this year's Next Conference. The sessions did not cover these points, but I thought of them as a result of worshiping God and having fellowship with other believers there.

1. Do not think of corporate worship as a performance where you must be seen by God or others. After a couple sessions, the passion of the worship sets started to get to my head. Before one session, I went down the stairs of the hotel like an arena announcer was about to call my name to get on the court in the NBA Finals. And I had my hands in the air like a lot of other people, but no tears in that worship set. I could not really think about God. I wondered why I could not behold the beauty of Christ or really think about what I was singing. I was doing what I was doing not in order to be close to God and worship Him as I ought, but to get the emotional high and the general sense of euphoria first. Crying in a song is stupid unless the subject of the song means more to you than life.

2. If you see someone who you will probably never see again and you know that they also know the Lord, maximize that short time with them by pouring into their life and being a blessing. Similarly, lean upon and learn from the words of Scripture to a point where, as C.H. Spurgeon said, if people cut you, you bleed Scripture. This can be a great encouragement to others.

3. My "bachelor pack", as Brother Washer calls it, is a great help to me spiritually, but is not forever. Four of us made the trip to Next and stayed in two hotel rooms. My roommate, who has been a great friend to me during the several years that I have known him, will be married by the end of this year. One of the other men has been pursuing a young lady for a year. And the other one seems to meet a new young lady every other week! (Only an inside joke. :-) ) As a career-age single, I know that people get married and move on. Several men from my previous church with whom I used to spend a lot of time are now married and have been mostly or completely out of touch with me since their weddings. (It's almost comedic, the responses I may get from saying this. Even recently, someone told me, "You're 25? You're so young. You shouldn't be married yet!" And I'm sure many people from my old homeschool group would think I belong in a monastery because I am not married at my age. Silly culture! ;-) )

4. Thy bachelor pack is not sufficient for thee. There are times when I cannot continue hanging out in my bachelor pack; I must be alone with God. Spending time with them is very edifying but does not, in the end, leave me satisfied. Regularly, I just need to cordon off certain times in my life and say that only God can go there with me. And this does not come, necessarily, at a set time. I can't just schedule certain times in my life for God to reveal more of Himself to me and leave me undone. My schedule is subject to Christ's Lordship. Sometimes He just calls me to come away with Him, and I must do it, or else miss a time of deep and abiding fellowship with my Lord.

5. I was bolder in evangelism on this trip than I am at home. In my own town, I almost never witness, since my work is very busy and tiring and most of my free time goes to either the church or solitude with God. At Next, around many other Christians, I had a few minutes to explain to a Catholic man at the resort why so many people were there for the conference, and hopefully left him with a better understanding of who the God of Scripture is and why we should worship Him. The conference itself could be used as a means to witness to others in the host city.

6. Sometimes the best worship is just to sing the words of God back to Him. The song I will remember the most from this conference is Shane & Shane's "Worthy of Affection", based on Hebrews 1:

"We are the broken down, and we are the beaten up.

But what could stop us from a song of unending love?

Holy is the Lord!

You are a treasure, the hope, the bright and Morning Star.

You are the Lover of our Souls, and You've won our hearts.

We sing of Your great love.

So we sing. We lift our hands and sing:

"You are worthy of affection!

You're the radiance of all of His glory.

Let adoration fill this place.

You hold everything together

By the word of Your immovable power.

We sing a song of praise!"

-----

"1:1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

5 For to which of the angels did God ever say,

“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”?

Or again,

“I will be to him a father,
and he shall be to me a son”?

6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says,

“Let all God's angels worship him.”

7 Of the angels he says,

“He makes his angels winds,
and his ministers a flame of fire.”

8 But of the Son he says,

“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

- Hebrews 1:1-9 (ESV, emphasis mine).

This Entertaining Truth, Part 5: Having Great Theology Does Not Equal Repentance And Belief.

I mentioned in a recent post that I visited a Biblical megachurch for their Easter Sunday service this year. The church had a baptism for three people that morning. In at least one of the testimonies, I saw a theme that seems common in youth who grow up in Biblical churches: Kid grows up attending Biblical church with parents. Kid gets old enough to make their own decisions, falls into a sinful lifestyle, leaves the church, gets into all sorts of trouble. At some point, kid hits rock bottom and God saves them, and kid returns to the church they grew up in - but this time, as a true believer.

Reformed churches tend to stress catechizing children - doing this, not with the guarantee of "this will save them", but in hopes that through diligent plowing, the truth will take root in their hearts and they will be genuinely saved. This is a great thing. But it often backfires as God shows us that we are not saved by our own effort or the effort of our parents - "born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13, ESV). Parents can be raising the "perfect" children, discipling them well at home, having them sit under the preaching of a modern-day Spurgeon Sunday after Sunday, training them like Pavlov's dog to come up with the right answers to every theological question whenever you ask, and have them not really know Jesus Christ. And as they sit under true Biblical preaching week after week, they will search for more and more loopholes around that truth. And if they are listening to a preacher who knows how to close all of those loopholes, they will learn to appease their parents by continuing to hear it while, all the while, deeply hating that truth in their hearts and seeking every possible way to rebel against it.

I grew up as one of those kids who would fire off a whole chapter of Awana sections every week. As a wee lad, I was good at word-for-word memorization. I would finish my books with half a school year left to spare, then complete Scripture memory packets and, at least once, started memorizing a whole book of the Bible. I was the Awana leaders' dream, but I couldn't say much about what the verses actually meant. I wasn't much of a Christian - if I was even one at all at the time. "Repent" was just a word that sounded cool and spiritual. "Application" in sermons that I heard was a foreign language to me. In the background, I wanted to be in another world, whether an imaginary world or a real world where Game Time never ended. And in high school I just wanted my music and my movies. My desire wasn't for God; it was for fun. I didn't want to be part of any small groups where people would actually hold me accountable for growing in sanctification; I just wanted to hang out with my friends and do the minimum to appease their desires to see me bear fruit. And in college, when I started to listen to internet radio, fun meant listening to mostly disgusting comedy routines for hours on end with the excuse that a good clean routine would come on once in a while. Through headphones, you can deceive a lot of people. "What are you laughing at?" "Oh, nothing." Christ had to die for that "nothing" - and for the lie that it was "nothing". You can live casually until you see sin's gravity. But a blind eye can't even begin to see the infinite severity of even one sin against an infinitely holy God.

There is a huge danger in wanting to bear only a minimum amount of fruit for the Lord. It is quite possible that, in effect, in this desire, someone is really saying, "I'm really bearing thistles, but let me spray-paint them to look as much like figs as I can, in my fleshly power, so that, from a distance, more spiritual people will glance at me and say, 'That guy is doing his job for the Kingdom', and they will want me to be their friend. But, oh, how I fear the scrutiny of those who want to look closely at my heart. They will realize, 'He's saying the right words, but his heart is far from Christ. If he were to leave this world right now, God would look on him as his Judge and sentence him to an eternity of eternities in hell, while this hero of deception has everyone, most of all himself, believing that he would be in heaven.' I must do everything I can to keep people from judging me like that." And all the while, they say loudly to others, "I am a five-point Calvinist." They carry a big Bible in a word-for-word translation. They know how to evaluate preachers: "He is a talented exegete and sesquipedalian, but I do not listen to him because we differ on infra- versus supralapsarianism. I would much rather listen to sermons by [fill in the blank]." They sing worship songs only to affirm, "That's... correct. That's... correct. Hey, that ain't right!" But where is the genuine fruit, the genuine rejection of your own sin (not only other people's), and the genuine affections for the Lord?

You can believe in your head without believing in your heart. The more advanced an unconverted person becomes in theology, the more they might become able to trust their own knowledge and say, "Look at me. I read Edwards. I'm definitely in." But that is not trusting in the finished work of Christ and realizing deeply that He had to die even for the pride of propping up your own religious accomplishments. God alone is capable of doing that in the heart of an unconverted person, who by nature hates Him. The Israelites did not have to speak of their own qualifications to look at the bronze serpent on a pole. They only, in their desperate condition, had to fix their eyes on that frightening creature that looks like the same thing that killed their families and friends, and they would be saved from death. And today, you cannot save yourself from spiritual death by knowing which theologians to quote when. Godmust open your eyes and turn your head to look on Christ in His frightening perfections, frightening because Christ is everything you are not and the Lord is thoroughly offended by even the good things you do in your own flesh. But the Father sent His Son, who laid aside His glory to die a gruesome death for your sins on this earth. The unconverted crowd looked upon Him with ridicule, as if to say, "He is not our King! We were expecting dashing good looks and the end of Roman rule, and instead we got this donkey-riding man from Nazareth. Whatever good ever came from there?" But the poor in spirit know: "In this Savior, who died for me, there really is a certain salvation, 'certain' in the surest sense of that word. And, as Spurgeon said, 'How can I [even] trifle with the evil that killed my best Friend?'" Forget yourself; look on Christ and live. Seek Him while He may be found. Turn away from your sins, to Christ, and believe in this gospel.

I do not write this with anyone in particular in mind. If I saw someone in my life acting like this, I would go to them privately and tell them rather than blogging about it. But maybe God will use this to wake someone up. The Lion is not tame, and His truth is not a toy.

Godly Fellowship: Part 9: A Barkada, Pan-National: The Greatest of These Is Love.

"Be not proud of race, face, place, or grace."

- Charles Spurgeon.

The cross of Christ levels the playing field by truly eliminating all boasts of man before God. The Lord saves poor and rich, educated and uneducated, criminal and self-righteous. He created us equal, and as Christians we really cannot name any factor that sets us in a "better-than-equal" position before Him. He does this to show his all-surpassing power to save even the most unlikely man and, ultimately, to glorify His name. God glorifies Himself as much when He saves an uneducated serial killer from a poor background as He does when He saves a suburban church kid who has dotted every "i" and crossed every "t" for twenty years. Both have repented, and thus both cause a remarkable amount of joy among the angels in heaven, who have no need for the gospel for themselves because they lack the sin nature of fallen man.

About “race”: The construct of "race" to mean anything other than the human race is largely societal. If anyone could lay claim before God to be closer to God because of their race or ethnicity, it was the Jews in the Old Testament. Yet in Christ, there is no distinction between Greek and Jew. In surrendering this part of our identity, we can see more of how God has glorified Himself by saving people from many different backgrounds from, for, and by Himself. To put it another way, most of my Christian friends do not look like me. Some of them do not speak my native language most of the time. Yet, by taking the time to know them and look at their lives, I have seen God's hand working in and through them - in different ways than I have seen in my own life. Doing this has encouraged my walk with the Lord and enhanced my worship of Him.

About "face": I am currently reading through 1 Chronicles after completing 1 and 2 Samuel and 1 and 2 Kings. King Saul - the ruler that the people picked - was famous for his dashing outward appearance. God, by His sovereign hand, ordained that he be the first human ruler of Israel. Yet He was not pleased with Saul. A shepherd boy who killed a lion, a bear, and a nine-foot-tall Philistine giant spent his life with his heart overjoyed in God's presence and enthralled with the Word and the will of God. He did not look like much when he was called to succeed Saul as king. And Christ did not look like much when He came to Earth. He laid aside His glory and took on a physical frame with physical needs. Rejected by religious and civil authorities and possessing no good looks or noble birth to cause men to esteem Him, Christ lived the truth that "God looks at the heart". It shows me the importance of not allowing human culture's preoccupation with the outward appearance to dictate my thoughts about a brother or sister in Christ. Outwardly, they may look like a fringe figure in society. But if I dig deep in examining their life inwardly, I may be able to see how much they love God more than I do.

About "place": We use "place" to mean several things, such as a place in society or a geographic area. How many times have I thought that God could not save someone just because they work in Hollywood? How many times since September 11, 2001, have my fellow Americans thought that Muslims were beyond saving? "Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save", as Isaiah, inspired by God, gloriously wrote.

And about "grace": I have seen several definitions for this: "God's Riches At Christ's Expense", if you like a memorable acrostic... "God's unmerited favor towards us"... either way, it is driven by God's desire to magnify His own name in us. My church has a very faithful servant who cooks very well for us and participates in many ministries. One of our pastors said that if we were justified by works, this man would be at the front of the line going into heaven. But not even he trusts in his own works. He leans fully on Christ.

Our effort to please God is driven by grace and a heart that He has caused to love Him. Matt Chandler said, "The law was given to show me I can't be perfect, that I'm going to fall short, that I am in desperate need of a Savior (Romans 1-7). When we stumble and fall, the Spirit reminds us of the Scriptures that promise that there has been a death for those failures and that there is a new covenant resting on Christ now and not on my ability to obey the law. This allows me to pursue Christ without fear and by 'beholding His glory I am transformed'." There is no right, biblical way to be proud of ourselves for that. Oh, may I boast in God!

"When you do talk about race, root the conversation in the Gospel."

- Thabiti Anyabwile, “Thabiti’s Top Ten Tips for Talking About Race”.

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“Thou our Father, Christ our brother,

all who live in love are Thine;

teach us how to love each other,

lift us to the joy divine.”

- Henry Van Dyke, “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”

I take issue with how many larger churches handle the matter of cross-generational fellowship among the brethren. In many large church settings, children grow up in Sunday school, where they change classes from year to year and rarely spend time with anyone outside their own grade. When they become junior high or high school students, they attend their respective youth groups and, again, try to figure out matters of maturity with each other or with young adults leading them who usually are telling them that their parents are not cool.

And there are groups within the youth group of kids with common interests and/or common dislikes who often only spend time with each other. When I was growing up there were cliques in my youth group of kids that either were preps, were jocks, or hated both. (Being hated by both, I hated both and started a group of “freaks” that I called the “freakish brotherhood”… separate rabbit trail.) Generally, there was exclusivity between the groups; and friendships were usually not lifelong – just the typical friendships in my area of the US with an attitude of, “This is where I am right now. I’m not staying. But I might as well have a few friends here, and then I’ll find some new friends after I leave.”

I think the Philippines, with its concept of the barkada, has a huge advantage over America in regards to how people in the two countries treat friendship. I had read about barkadas in several books about the Philippines, but there is no true English translation for the word. Basically, a barkada is a group of friends that feels like a family. Loyalty runs high, and they remain friends after they move away. Some of them have reunions. The friendships can legitimately be lifelong friendships.

And shouldn’t we think of our church family this way? Let us replace our surface, Facebook-level friendships with ties closer than blood brothers and sisters. Blood is thicker than water? Our identity in Christ is thicker than blood and stronger than steel.

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To me, a church like mine is sort of like a larger-scale barkada that is not constrained by age. Sure, there are groups-within-the-group of people who do things outside church together. But I can freely fellowship with almost anyone there, whether we are chopping up divine truth, praying together, discussing work, or playing with cute babies.

And the local church is “a microcosm or a small-scale example / but it is the Church, even though it’s just a sample / invisible, spiritual, physical, visible / not a brick temple, never that simple” (Lecrae, “The Bride”). In heaven we will see the full-scale barkada, comprised of untold numbers of people representing every tribe, language, and nation. This tells me that we have no reason for racism or xenophobia in dealing with our Christian brethren, even those who come from countries with which my country is at war. Here on this earth, we have no lasting city; we seek the Celestial City, which is eternal and far better (Hebrews 13:14).

Let me clear up something: Jesus and Allah are not the same God. Islam is a religion of works, where its adherents work their way to God by keeping the Five Pillars of Islam. Islam sees Jesus Christ as a prophet and has no savior or means of forgiveness. And it does not allow any kind of assurance of salvation. It’s just, “I think I’ve been good enough that I will probably go to paradise.” On the other hand, Christians become saved by repenting of their sins and trusting in Christ. God alone can give them the faith to do that and the assurance that they have been born again. And Christians are called to suffer for the cause of Christ as much as necessary, even to the point of death. These two gods are not the same god. The scandal of the Christian gospel is that the Bible says that Christ is the only way to be saved.

But if I met a brother in Christ who came from the Arab world, grew up in the Islamic faith, and left that faith in favor of Christ, should I not seek to have meaningful godly fellowship with him? And similarly, most of the people that have spoken God’s truth to me through song recently have been Christian rappers, most of whom are from the inner city, and many of whom have a lot of scars in their past. They still minister for God in their cities, and with the changes in their lives they can point to the power of God! Similarly, if I were to meet a man from, say, Venezuela who had converted from Santeria (a Catholicism/animism/Satanism hybrid) to Christianity and displayed a desire for God, should I not discuss the things of God with him as well?

Yes to all of those questions, even if they do not have all their facts about the faith correct – and even if you think there is little or nothing for you to gain from being friends with them. The Bible is a very rich book, and no one aside from God knows the correct answers to every question about theology, soteriology, Christology, eschatology, and so on. However, the biggest item that postmodern thinkers misunderstand or outright deny is the truth that we can know the truth. Jesus Christ Himself even said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). And the more of the truth you know – even by wrestling with it – the more that you can pour into other believers, so that they may use it in better imitating Christ.

“If your theology’s bangin’, I hate to offend you.

But where are the faithful men you’ve been pouring it into?”

- Json, “Run”

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To sum up, my favorite Christian bumper stickers out there (no, they are not all kitsch) says this:

Every Tribe, Tongue, and Nation – Or Bust.

And God’s Word says He’s going to do exactly that.

But you don’t just need to spread the gospel wide. Spread it deep.

Paul planted the seed. Apollos watered it. God made it grow. (1 Corinthians 3:6)

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“ ⁷ The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. ⁸ Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. ⁹ Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. ¹⁰ Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”

- 1 Peter 4:7-11

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For further reading, please check out the prayer at the end of David Legge’s message, “Sins We Have Sanitized, Part 4: Cultural Sins”. Indeed, as he says well, “our love should mark us out”.