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what is faith?
1. Do I fear God? Yes. I believe I will one day give an account for everything I have ever done. So will everyone else who has ever lived. 2. How does my faith work for me? I think faith gets a bad rap. In most usages, faith is that which you believe subjectively without any objective reason. However, the Bible tells me that faith is "the evidence of things unseen, the assurance of that for which I hope". Thus faith is objective, not subjective. True, I cannot "see" the things that I believe; they are hidden from one's natural senses. Nevertheless, by revelation, I accept them. If a rich uncle had left me five million dollars, I would, in fact, be rich. However, if I never read the will, and was therefore unaware of the bequest, my riches would do me no good, and I would live no differently than I ever did. If I do read the will, it will tell me how to withdraw from the estate what is legally mine. So it is with faith. My Father in Heaven has indeed bequeathed me with riches beyond all comparison, and has left me a Book that will unlock those treasures for me. If I read it, faith "comes by hearing" and I begin to believe that which, apart from revelation, I cannot see.
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Is God impressed with us?
What does God require of man, but to walk humbly before Him? As I consider the state of the Western church, so much activity, but so little substance. I walked around the largest church on Maui last night. An impressive building, but definitely showing signs of disrepair. Now the church is not a building, nor, as some would suppose, is it the body of believers, but rather the Body of Christ living in us. He must alone be glorified among us. Nevertheless, who gets the glory now? Jesus tells the church in Ephesus to repent of dead works. She supposed she was doing well until the report card came in. Want to impress God? First of all admit you are nothing apart from Him. Repent of dead works, those done without His life flowing through you. Then wait. A year. Two years. Ten. It doesn't matter. Delight in the affection He has for you. Be His kid. Know of His unconditional love for you. When you are connected to the Vine in this way, fruit will appear, but you will not have done it.
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Barak Obama
Obama has been sighted in some strange places recently, such as Rick Warren's very evangelical church. Barak Obama is himself a believer, if indeed religious conservatives would wonder how that could possibly be. He is decrying the "slash and burn" politics of Washington, all the ad hominum attacks, the mudslinging, the division that this country has experienced. Well, I decry this, too. Does our struggle have to be to the death? Does the victory of one side of the cultural divide by definition mean loss on the other? So here's what it comes down to: Is that which unites us in America greater than what divides us? Barak Obama hopes so. I am not so sure I share his hope, though. Inspired by Evolution, secularists have long hoped for a total removal of the Divine from our world. Inspired by the Bible, evangelicals have hoped to preserve a culture that once openly acknowledged God. Evolution is the secularists "god"; any attack on Evolution is considered an attack on their core values. They will not allow, as long as they have the power to do so, any questioning of naturalism as the basis for input in the public square. Conversely, the evangelicals will defend the Bible, and will not be moved. So is there a middle ground? Maybe. Perhaps we could come to a consensus that Intelligent Design does suggest the likelihood of Divine involvement, and put that much safely in the public square, yet without endorsing any religion or philosophy that might be based upon such Divine work. I don't know if this would be acceptable to either side of the culture war, which is why I think it could work.
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Devolulution
What have been the philosophical effects of Evolution? We have debated whether or not an alternative to Evolution can be taught in our classrooms. The debate seems to circle around the "separation of church and state", with the Evolution crowd arguing that Intelligent Design is based on subjective "faith" which should not be taught alongside objective Evolution. The ID folks argue that ID is NOT subjective, but based on scientific evidence. In fact, they argue, the Evolutionist relies more on "blind faith" (his presumption of naturalism) than any religion ever could. I will not end this debate here. Though I agree that the evidence is overwhelming in support of Intelligent Design, I understand that the Evolutionist will NEVER EVER concede that his position is not scientific. But I would ask that he consider the PHILOSOPHICAL implications of Evolution, and whether or not he really would want to live in a society that publicly asserts either that there is no God, or that we can not know objectively of His existence. What would we expect from a society where God is not our center? If there is no God, what will the foundation of our law be? Can any action ever be deemed immoral? How can we ever judge anyone? If there is no God, there is no absolute truth, no value that can not be trashed. If there is no God, there can not be human rights, for there is no one to guarantee them. The result? Eventually such a society will devolve into anarchy. Evolution leads to devolution! But here's the rub: Deep down in the heart of every person is the knowledge that we are NOT the product of chance, that "all men are created equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights . . ." We all know there is something special about the human race, something not shared with any other part of our Universe. Even groups such as Animal Rights agree with this deep down - for the very concept of animal rights arises from a morality that cannot exist apart from a God who created humans, and who give them dominion over those animals! So the problem with Evolution is that it is counterintuitive, it just does not jive with the commonly held value of human rights, rights which the Evolutionist would assert should he be the victim of someone trying to cheat him, but which his naturalistic philosophy does not permit him to have! My conclusion is this: Can we come together in agreement that the teleological result of embracing naturalistic evolution just isn't worth it? Even if you believe there is no God, can you see that for a society to function, we must presume upon Divine existence? I leave this for posterity's consideration.
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NY Times bottom ten books
- A collection of short mysteries – by Cliff Hanger
- Effective Lawn Vector Control – by Dan D. Lyon
- Ride the big waves – by Sue Nami
- Fashions of the sixties – by Tai Dye; illustrated by Belle Bottoms.
- Twenty miles to the outhouse – by Will E. Makit, illustrated by Betty Don’t
- How to prepare raw fish – by Sue Shee
- Eat Your Vegetables! – By Brock O. Lee
- Lover’s leap – By Phil Lander
- I was OJ’s lead Defense Lawyer – By Scott Free
- The world’s best tropical resorts – By Sandy Beach
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Emmaus Road
“ But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel: and beside all this, to day is the third day since these things were done.” (Lu 24:21 AV) Hello, brothers, the “promised redemption” is walking and talking with you right now. You later admit that your “heart burned within you” when He spoke, but you did not recognize Him until He broke bread with you. Then you remembered, “This is my body, broken for you”. And as soon as you realized who He was, He was gone. So indeed you are redeemed, even if not in the way you had expected. This is the mystery of the Kingdom. The brothers had all been raised hearing each of the scriptures Jesus read to them that day, yet they were still not looking for the resurrection. Why not? Because the Word may be read with the mind, and you can get a picture of what it says, unless you read with the regenerated Spirit, you will not get it. Father, I pray that when I read Thy Word I might be fully energized in spirit, and might receive revelation, by which I live day by day. Amen.
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Whose work is it?
John 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
The sufficiency of Christ I was in the jury pool the other day. As we were waiting to be summoned into the court room, I had the privilege of speaking at length with a brother in the Lord. Our conversation soon turned from the law of man to the law of God. My brother expounded on how, though it is surely hard to do so, God does expect us to worship Him by living the high standard of morality and ethics found in Christ’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. However, he observed that most Christians are lazy, and too easily justify themselves with “we are no longer under the law, but under grace” Romans 6:14.
I listened to what he had to say, for indeed I do agree that most of us in the body of Christ do not even attempt to worship Christ as Lord with our feet. With our lips, yes, we honor Him, but when it comes to costly acts, I believe most of the Church is asleep. Alas, I must admit that this described me far too well. In the Greek, the word for “worship” is proskuneo, which means to bow the knee, to submit to the will of one greater than oneself. Now the common understanding of worship in today’s church is emotional praise, and this is a good thing, but Biblically speaking, it is not, per se, worship. No, we worship God simply by doing His will. So, in this, my brother and I were in accord. However, though indeed God’s will needs to be done, (come thy Kingdom, be done thy will on earth as it is in Heaven) I can most assuredly say that IT DOES NOT NEED TO BE DONE BY US!
Yet, hold on. Didn’t I just argue that we worship God with our feet? How can I say, on the one hand that we do need to do His will, yet on the other hand God’s will does not need to be done by us? Strange as it may seem, there is no contradiction, at least not in the Heavenly system of accounting!
We must first of all start with an understanding of the message of the book of Romans. The first three chapters begin with an indictment of all humanity. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (3:23). However, God made a way for the penalty of our sin to be paid, through the blood of Christ. This much is I have always understood. But it does not stop there. No, for not only has Christ died, those who are in Christ have died along with Him! “ Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” (6:3). This is why we were baptized after we confessed Jesus as Savior, for we have died with him, and were buried along with him in our baptism. Of course, the gospel doesn’t end here, either. For indeed, that Christ is raised is the foundation of our faith, for when He was raised, we too were raised up with Him TO A NEW LIFE! The apostle Paul writes to the Galatians, “ I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (2:20-21) And to the Corinthians he writes “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Thus, it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us.
This is more than just semantics, my friends. This is reality, “Christ in us, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27). That is, though we are expected to do God’s will, we can not do it. Indeed, the ego, that which is self, was nailed to the cross, because we in ourselves could never please God. If we could, then we could claim the glory for having done so. But just as Jesus glorified His Father through working the works of the Father, so now we glorify Jesus when he works His works in and through us. “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of [his] good pleasure” Phi 2:13. So the will of God can be found working in me, but not by me. I am but a broken vessel, ready for the Master’s use.
All is Christ, Christ is all. Pride must be crushed. Who am I to suppose that I would do the will of God? No, for all that ever needed to be done was done at Calvary, and when Jesus said, “it is finished”, it was finished, then, now and for all time. Nothing more needs to be added. So we plead, not that we should do the will of God, but that Christ in us should already have done it! We enter into that which is already finished, our inheritance having been guaranteed. I shared this picture with the brother at the jury pool. Suppose you were to find out that there was a five million dollar judgement against you, that unless you paid it, you would go to jail. However, you also have ten million dollars in the bank, having inherited that princely sum from a rich uncle. Knowing this, would we try to pay this judgement off by working hard the rest of our lives? Were we to work 20 lifetimes, we would never pay it off. Who among us wouldn’t just draw on that inheritance to pay off that judgement? Of course that would be the only logical course. If we already have the resources at our fingertips, though indeed not our own resources, we would be fools to try to pay it on our own.
So it is with the will of God. Yes, we are to do His will, to keep His commandments, but never, ever according to the mortal man, that which comes from us. Tolstoy, having read the beatitudes, decided he would try to live according to that high moral standard. He went crazy in the attempt. Where he erred was not the correct understanding that Jesus expects us to live according to the sermon on the mount, but in assuming that we would do so by our own human effort. That was never God’s intent. We can only do His will when we get out of the way and let Jesus do the Father’s will through us. And when He does, guess who gets the glory? Hint: it’s not us! We yield and Jesus works the works of God through us. Ultimately, God gets the glory for working out His will on earth. What a radical concept!
Practically, of course, the works of men and the works of God will look the same to the world. If I went to the poor in India and ministered to them as Mother Theresa has, I too would be glorified by the world. But there it would end. I would “already have received my reward.” (Mat 6:16) Yet if I prayed to God that His works might be found in me, and went to the poor in India and did the same thing as above, yet not I, but Christ in me, then HE would be glorified, and my reward would be found in Heaven. Though the works might look the same to man, there is an eternal difference. Thus I pray only that I might abide more and more in the Vine, from which the eternal fruit that may be found on me flows. I have entered the rest mentioned in Hebrews chapter four, for “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that to which I’ve committed to Him” (II Tim I:12) I do not, as an expression of my self, even dare attempt to please God. But Christ in me pleases Him well, and I take my confidence in Him.
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