"Let the good times roll"
This has been a song played over and over on a radio station playing in my office at work. And doubtless it is the theme of countless other songs. People, including myself, want nothing from life but happiness, euphoria, and freedom from any sort of trouble.
But "trouble" is inevitable. And what happens when life strips us of the ability to quench our troubled heart with more exuberant music and light-hearted banter? What happens when we are forced to discover that all of this ecstasy is nothing more than a sham?
Life is real. Entertainment is distracting. When people live for entertainment, they merely waste their life chasing a distraction, a lion that preys on the naivety of shallow souls.
Perhaps the purpose of trials is to do nothing more than to deepen the strength and maturity of our souls. Maybe it's not to learn a specific lesson, but to recover our childish dreaming from the sea of vanity. Maybe its purpose is to do nothing more than to free us from the suffocation of idle entertainment. To awaken our souls to real life...to the fact that life is more than eating, drinking, and merriment. To take life seriously. To grow up and claim responsibility while at the same time accepting inadequacy - that we are all "that guy who can't do anything right himself or protect those in his charge." This is all the Lord's doing, and it is precious. It just doesn't seem like it at the moment.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 27, 2011
What if you were asked to give evidence that you are saved? What would you say?
Take a minute and think about it. Chew on it. Perhaps you need to wrestle with this question. Take your time.
I believe that many people in our churches are not actually of the household of God. That is, they are given to a false gospel. Though not many will read this post, I believe if many were asked this question, they would give answers such as "before I was saved I drank, smoked, shot up, and slept around. But now I don't. I haven't done those things since I got saved 20 years ago. That is how I know I am saved," or, "I am different from those around me. I don't ___ and I ____."
While I whole-heartedly believe that Christ changes lives and makes us different from the world, to offer a changed or different life as the proof for salvation is to subtily (sometimes not so much subtle!) suggest that one truly relies on his own efforts for his salvation. The Gospel is life-encompassing. To say one can be saved by grace, and then mistakingly live sanctification by works because he is immature is to walk a dangerous line of possibly providing a false assurance for salvation. There is no fine line between grounds for salvation and grounds for sanctification. One may claim salvation by grace but prove with his life that he really believed in salvation by works. A catholic may believe in salvation by grace through faith and protect this belief militantly. But a discussion on purgatory will reveal what they really believe about Christ's sacrifice for sin. I believe many in our church believe in purgatory...only in life, rather than after death. We live like our acceptance before God is relative to our standards and lifestyle.
Check out 1 Corinthians 1:8-9. This passage pretty much sums it up. We are 1. Called to salvation according to the faithfulness of Christ, 2. Kept by Christ's faithfulness, and finally 3. Completed by Christ's faithfulness. Where do our works have a place? Check out Hebrews 3:6 - their part in this story is merely responsive to Christ's faithfulness. Christ is not faithful to us because we are faithful. Rather we who are in Christ are faithful because Christ is already faithful to us. We are proven to be of His household through our faithfulness only because Christ is faithful to His house and will not let any of us go. On these grounds does our salvation - past, present, and future - rest. It's easy to get this backwards in a world that teaches that we must earn anything good, or that good only comes to those who deserve it. But the Gospel teaches that salvation only comes to those who DON'T deserve it! What wonderful news, if we will claim our sin and then claim Christ's faithfulness! So why do we try to deserve it through our reformed lives and standards? Because we give ourselves over to a false Gospel. What evidence do we have for salvation? Christ's faithfulness. That's it. Not ours, not our church's, not an enduring legacy of goodness. Christ's faithfulness to us is our proof. The church needs evangelized just as much as the world does.
Take a minute and think about it. Chew on it. Perhaps you need to wrestle with this question. Take your time.
I believe that many people in our churches are not actually of the household of God. That is, they are given to a false gospel. Though not many will read this post, I believe if many were asked this question, they would give answers such as "before I was saved I drank, smoked, shot up, and slept around. But now I don't. I haven't done those things since I got saved 20 years ago. That is how I know I am saved," or, "I am different from those around me. I don't ___ and I ____."
While I whole-heartedly believe that Christ changes lives and makes us different from the world, to offer a changed or different life as the proof for salvation is to subtily (sometimes not so much subtle!) suggest that one truly relies on his own efforts for his salvation. The Gospel is life-encompassing. To say one can be saved by grace, and then mistakingly live sanctification by works because he is immature is to walk a dangerous line of possibly providing a false assurance for salvation. There is no fine line between grounds for salvation and grounds for sanctification. One may claim salvation by grace but prove with his life that he really believed in salvation by works. A catholic may believe in salvation by grace through faith and protect this belief militantly. But a discussion on purgatory will reveal what they really believe about Christ's sacrifice for sin. I believe many in our church believe in purgatory...only in life, rather than after death. We live like our acceptance before God is relative to our standards and lifestyle.
Check out 1 Corinthians 1:8-9. This passage pretty much sums it up. We are 1. Called to salvation according to the faithfulness of Christ, 2. Kept by Christ's faithfulness, and finally 3. Completed by Christ's faithfulness. Where do our works have a place? Check out Hebrews 3:6 - their part in this story is merely responsive to Christ's faithfulness. Christ is not faithful to us because we are faithful. Rather we who are in Christ are faithful because Christ is already faithful to us. We are proven to be of His household through our faithfulness only because Christ is faithful to His house and will not let any of us go. On these grounds does our salvation - past, present, and future - rest. It's easy to get this backwards in a world that teaches that we must earn anything good, or that good only comes to those who deserve it. But the Gospel teaches that salvation only comes to those who DON'T deserve it! What wonderful news, if we will claim our sin and then claim Christ's faithfulness! So why do we try to deserve it through our reformed lives and standards? Because we give ourselves over to a false Gospel. What evidence do we have for salvation? Christ's faithfulness. That's it. Not ours, not our church's, not an enduring legacy of goodness. Christ's faithfulness to us is our proof. The church needs evangelized just as much as the world does.
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
I want to comment on a song by Red called "Let it Burn." Below is an excerpt from the song:
I watch the city burn
These passions slowly smoldering
A lesson never learned
Only violence
Is your world just a broken promise
Is your love just a drop of rain
Will we all just burn our fire
Are you still there
How long can you stand the pain
How long will you hide your face
How long will you be afraid
Are you afraid
How long will you play this game
Will you fight or will you walk away
How long will you let it burn
Let it burn
Let it burn
I will not condemn what was said in the song. I do offer commmendation, rather, for the honesty therein. I feel many of us feel these things without admitting it. We have family members that we've tried to lead to Christ for years with no steps forward. Friends continually push aside Christ's Gospel. Perhaps, like Red, we grieve for groups of people or the world in general, wishing that they might be reconciled to God. Tears are shed over these people and hearts are broken over lives and deaths disassociated from God. We wonder "where is God here? Doesn't He care about them?"
In these situations it is encouraging to think that though we love them, God loves them more. Though we grieve over their wandering, He grieves more. They torment us with their mockery of Christ, but God is tormented all the more. Can we honestly believe that the shadowy love that bubbles out of our feebleness, though genuine, exceeds the love God has for them? I don't know why some are saved and others are not. I don't know why I'm saved and not them. But I know God's love is greater than mine. Regardless of what we think needs to happen, we are merely to shuttle His love. Though He may seem absent in a persons life whom we dearly love, He is still there. God loves you. God loves them. Grieve. Weep. You are in good company.
I watch the city burn
These passions slowly smoldering
A lesson never learned
Only violence
Is your world just a broken promise
Is your love just a drop of rain
Will we all just burn our fire
Are you still there
How long can you stand the pain
How long will you hide your face
How long will you be afraid
Are you afraid
How long will you play this game
Will you fight or will you walk away
How long will you let it burn
Let it burn
Let it burn
I will not condemn what was said in the song. I do offer commmendation, rather, for the honesty therein. I feel many of us feel these things without admitting it. We have family members that we've tried to lead to Christ for years with no steps forward. Friends continually push aside Christ's Gospel. Perhaps, like Red, we grieve for groups of people or the world in general, wishing that they might be reconciled to God. Tears are shed over these people and hearts are broken over lives and deaths disassociated from God. We wonder "where is God here? Doesn't He care about them?"
In these situations it is encouraging to think that though we love them, God loves them more. Though we grieve over their wandering, He grieves more. They torment us with their mockery of Christ, but God is tormented all the more. Can we honestly believe that the shadowy love that bubbles out of our feebleness, though genuine, exceeds the love God has for them? I don't know why some are saved and others are not. I don't know why I'm saved and not them. But I know God's love is greater than mine. Regardless of what we think needs to happen, we are merely to shuttle His love. Though He may seem absent in a persons life whom we dearly love, He is still there. God loves you. God loves them. Grieve. Weep. You are in good company.
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