A Dedicated Life

Posted on April 18, 2012 by JohnJ


“As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.”
1 Chronicles 28:9

The above quote is the voice of David to his young son who will very shortly take the reigns of Kingship of the nation of Israel. There are some verses I read in the Scriptures that just summarize how I should be looking at my life and the world. This is definitely a classic.

The first thing is that I really need to know God, that He is not just far off, but He is the God of my fathers, very close kin. He is family. Not impersonal, not uncaring, but He is close by and caring for me moment by moment.

Then if I have so ordered my mind to know Him, how better to know Him than to be familiar with every part of His love letter to me, the Bible, it is really only then that I can serve Him with a whole heart. Most of my life I’ve kept Him either far away, or, even after being born again, have too often kept Him at arms length. But David in the Spirit says the better way is serving God with my entire heart and mind. If you think that is easy look at how you ponder God throughout your day. Is He an afterthought? Do you think of Him at all? Do all the world’s cares and concerns push Him completely out of your mind? There are way too many built in distractions in the world today. And many if not most of those come from a career, where we spend most of our waking hours! But it is with heart and mind I should serve Him, regardless of how I occupy my time. With the heart is felt the love and delight in who He is and the care He shows me. With the mind I glory in the wonder of His power and majesty, in keeping my life together and the world and universe intact. With the mind I appreciate the deep things of His person called Theology, reason can be used, now that I have been enlightened through His grace, in all the characteristics of His being and behavior.

Since I can’t hide anything from God, I am laid bare before Him, He sees me exactly for who I am. I may be able to kid myself, but I can’t fool Him. But He sees me now through the resurrection of Christ, redeemed, forgiven, restored, justified, as His son through adoption. It’s often difficult for me to feel in this way though, still bogged down under this imperfect flesh, failing too often to want to admit. But loved by Him none the less, and still forgiven.

In His unfathomable grace He let me seek Him, and find Him, just as He promises to everyone. Such a gift is too marvelous for words. How can I express the amazing joy in being awakened to His life and love coming out out of a deathly stupor. Comparing it to emerging from a deep dark cave into the mid-day sun doesn’t begin to describe it. CS Lewis called “Surprised By Joy.” It is definitely all that.

But there are consequences for those who reject Him. Utmost consequences that are too terrible to think about. The Old Testament is replete with these warnings from beginning to end. Do not forsake Him or you will be wiped off the face of the earth. You will be blotted out. Your name will not appear in the Book of Life. Even for the believer the consequences are significant. Would you rather you had a joyous life, or be bereft of all that really satisfies? From whom else can you find meaning and purpose? “Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it.” (Psalm 127:1) If you don’t make Him first in your life the things you substitute will surely not last, and will vex you until you wake up to His quiet voice calling you back.

Too bad Solomon didn’t really take to heart David’s prayer for him. Oh, he did for the first part of his life, but after collecting so many wives, becoming so rich and famous, he grew fat and indeed ended up abandoning his God and building idols for his wives and ignoring the wisdom God gave him that made him famous in the first place.

That is my object lesson. If it can happen to Solomon, the wisest man in the world, what chance do I have? In truth I’ve got an even more excellent chance because I have something Solomon didn’t have. The indwelling Holy Spirit. Solomon had to maintain faithfulness by his own strength. I have the power of God. I just have to use it. His gift is worth it.

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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What the Bible Teaches, RA Torrey – Chapter 7

Posted on April 12, 2012 by JohnJ

Today Lex discusses God as the Know It All – but in a good way. Especially in the sense that He sees us and knows us even at our worst. But that’s not all bad. Read her here and tell what you know! We’re up to Chapter 7 in Torrey’s What the Bible Teaches

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The Passion of the Christ

Posted on April 6, 2012 by JohnJ


He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.
Isaiah 53:3-5

The last sentence in the above verse is the caption, the first frame in Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ. Since it is Good Friday it is time to say that this is a film that every serious Christian should watch. This is one Hollywood creation that is a masterpiece depicting the last hours in the life of Jesus Christ. Its probably not an understatement to say that most of us have an inadequate picture of what it took for our Lord to endure the gauntlet that resulted in His death. We read in all four Gospels that He was mistreated by the Roman soldiers, and that the implements of torture could seem brutal. But until we have to visually face the depiction of scourging with our own eyes and not just some cold text on a page, it is just some abject event. The visual facilitates a direct and powerful impact on the soul.

Personally I think the brutality seen in the film is perhaps a little overdone. That is, if a human really was so brutalized as the movie shows death would have come well before He had to pick up His cross. But maybe not. Maybe it really was as bad as seen in the film. In either case the flogging, beating, and whipping were more than any mortal would have voluntarily endured. And yet from inception He knew what would be the final act in His earthly ministry. And knowing all this He walked with self-assurance, though with a great amount of trepidation, towards what the writer of Hebrews calls “joy,” “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Heb. 12:2

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. Isaiah 53:7
In the Garden of Gethsemane He was so distraught He asked His Father if this cup could pass. “And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.” Luke 22:44 That amount of distress is inconceivable to us. But still He kept to His path to attain to His objective. There is no evidence that He wavered in the slightest other than this prayer. Because He knew what would be the fruit of this act.

By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? Isaiah 53:8
And because He was faithful (Heb. 3:5-6), He has purchased for us in the most extravagant and expensive manner what is a completely free gift – our redemption. And this gift which cost Him everything, is made available to everyone, if only they reach out and take it. This gift the result of unspeakable suffering which rightly should have been ours to partake, instead of a perfectly innocent man, but ours none the less because God so loved the world.

But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. Isaiah 53:10
I suppose pleased is a word that pertains only to knowing the objective of the death and resurrection of His only Son, and not to to the physical act itself. The objective, rescuing humanity from the bondage of sin, is what was foreshadowed ever since Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden. All the suffering, terror, and horror of these thousands of years have their terminus in the passion of the Christ, which in itself is a foretaste of the final glory when creation itself is set free from its bondage. And that is something to rejoice about. “So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.” Heb. 13:13

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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What the Bible Teaches, R.A. Torrey – Chapter 6

Posted on April 5, 2012 by JohnJ

This the 6th installment of a review of RA Torrey’s 1898 publication What The Bible Teaches. See all of Lex’s posts here. A PDF copy of the book can be downloaded here. You are welcome and encouraged to join the discussion.

Chapter 6. THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD

I. GOD IS OMNIPOTENT
Proposition: God can do all things; nothing is too hard for him; all things are possible with Him. God is omnipotent

This may seem self evident, but since God created everything that exists there is little room for argument. Torrey gives some basic verses in support such as Genesis 1:3, Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light; and Matthew 19:26, “And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” I won’t raise the absurd questions like “can God make a rock that is too big for Him to lift.” Suffice it to say if God can design and create the basic building blocks of matter, the atoms in all their glory of exotic sub-atomic particles, then use these basic elements of matter, electromagnetic energy, to engineer the inexhaustible variety of animate and inanimate matter, of life, love, and all that living on this planet entails, surely we can agree that God indeed can do anything He intends.

All nature is absolutely subject to God’s will and word
But it isn’t just a matter of God winding up His fancy toy and watching it spin around His room. He is intimately involved. Torrey mentions a verse from Psalm 107:25-29, “For He spoke and raised up a stormy wind, Which lifted up the waves of the sea. They rose up to the heavens, they went down to the depths; Their soul melted away in their misery. They reeled and staggered like a drunken man, And were at their wits’ end. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, And He brought them out of their distresses. He caused the storm to be still, So that the waves of the sea were hushed.” That’s just one simple example, that God works in and through His creation. It is all at His command and control. He stands not afar off, but is close at hand. Just as He was in the Garden when He walked beside Adam and Eve. He didn’t make everything and abandon us. He is interested, He loves His creation and His creatures. How would you explain the Exodus if not for God’s personal guidance through the Red Sea and the Wilderness? Or the conquering of Jericho? Or the hundred other ways God led and protected and fought for His people as depicted in the Historical books of the Old Testament?

All men are absolutely subject to God’s will and word
Torrey chooses a verse from James to elaborate, but there are many others. James 4:12-15, There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor? Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” Our daily living should be guided by the principle of staying in His will, because outside of it we perish.

Other verses that can be used in support of this proposition that men are subject to God’s will:
Ex. 4:21 The LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.”
1 Sa. 26:12 So David took the spear and the jug of water from beside Saul’s head, and they went away, but no one saw or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a sound sleep from the LORD had fallen on them.
1 Kings 12:15 So the king did not listen to the people; for it was a turn of events from the LORD, that He might establish His word, which the LORD spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
Prov. 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, But its every decision is from the LORD.
Zech. 14:13 It will come about in that day that a great panic from the LORD will fall on them; and they will seize one another’s hand, and the hand of one will be lifted against the hand of another.

Angels/Satan are absolutely subject to God’s will and word
Torrey offers a few verses to indicate that even the angels and Satan are under His control, I suppose to give us reassurance that our Lord is fully able to protect us from the most powerful and scary of His creation, those incorporeal creatures we can’t usually see, but, while far less powerful than God are a whole lot more powerful we. But we are reassured by Paul’s comfort in Rom. 8:31 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”

II. THE EXERCISE OF GOD’S OMNIPOTENCE IS LIMITED BY HIS WILL
Proposition: The exercise of God’s omnipotence is limited by His own wise, holy, and loving will.

Finally, Torrey mentions the one limit to God’s power – that He can’t go against His own will. He states a verse from Isaiah 59:1-2, “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.” I suppose this is meant to imply that God can not be unjust, is not evil, and has no imperfection. He is incapable of denying His holy nature, unlike the human race, which practices this disparity of nature daily and destructively. That is, though created in God’s image, man prefers the profane rather than the sacred, and darkness rather than light.

And since God is so holy and just Torrey asks why doesn’t He, in the power of His might, destroy the devil and remove the cause of man’s temptation and failing? Well, to be sure, that day is coming. Fortunately we have the Book of Revelation to paint a very vivid picture of his demise, and offer to us a great relief and hope that this misery we endure will have an ending. And not just an ending but a most glorious new beginning. But until then God’s purpose, though not clear to us as we look through a dark veil, will none the less prevail, as Paul hints, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.” 1Cor. 13:12

In a world that seems completely out of control it helps to know that the one person that can do anything about it is in complete control. Whether in world politics, or finances, or in one’s personal life when things don’t make any sense, and to be honest, that seems much of the time, there is a rock on which we can stand. “For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God, The God who girds me with strength And makes my way blameless? He makes my feet like hinds’ feet, And sets me upon my high places. Psalm 18:31-33 Our God is omnipotent. Let us not diminish His person or power or majesty by our inability to comprehend the incomprehensible One. One day it will all make sense and we will see Him clearly. “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.” 1 John 3:2

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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Free Will Is Far From Free

Posted on March 29, 2012 by JohnJ

Today Lex is hosting this week’s discussion, Chapter 5 of RA Torrey’s What the Bible Teaches – The Personality of God.

Join the discussion and read it here.

Torrey describes “the extent of God’s care and government,” but he uses the word government in the sense of being the governor of His creation. Some believe God is like a clockmaker, winding up the universe and stepping back and letting it run. But the God of the Scriptures is very different from this caricature. God plays an active role. That God is intimately involved in running His creation consider that everything even down to the atom and every subatomic particle, He is consciously holding it all together by his power, indeed, as Paul says of Jesus, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (Col_1:17) I certainly can see an explicit declaration for Jesus being that unifying theory the scientists are looking for in how atoms and all material holds together, as in gravity, electromagnetism, and weak and strong nuclear force. And since He is that intimately conscious of every particle of His creation, consider that if just for a second He forgets about any of it, then it will cease to exist. That is a comforting thought, that he will never forget about you, as He states in Isaiah, “Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. (Isa_49:16)

It is interesting that when Paul broaches the topic of God’s control of His creation in his own Institutes Institutes of the Christian Religion – namely the Book of Romans – he talks about Pharaoh. “The LORD said to Moses, ‘When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.'” (Ex. 4:21) Remember what Paul said to the detractors when asked (in Romans 9), “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” As if it is not man but God who should be blamed for everything: “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!” Paul’s answer seems to us very cryptic, “who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” (Rom. 9:20) That sounds like a cop out, but really, it is the perfect answer. He goes on to say “The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?” Just so, God has the right to do whatever He pleases to the things He has made, indeed He can do no other. But it takes incisive perception to understand how this could be. Could God really be God if there were things beyond His control? What kind of a God would He really if He could be surprised by anything that transpires on Earth or the rest of His creation? He knows the end from the beginning. He knew what was going to happen on earth, in all of its totality, and He still created us. Why? I think that some day we will know the answer to that question. Until then, it is something beyond our comprehension. As in, “what do you know that you can question God?” He told Job the same thing in His twenty-questions in Job 38. “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Who set its measurements? Since you know” “Have you ever in your life commanded the morning, And caused the dawn to know its place.” A very effective way to silence Job’s complaining, how small man is when considering just how big God is!

So where does free will enter this picture of God being in total control? Free will is a marvelous topic; just read Martin Luther’s “The Bondage of the Will.” (I know, this book can be very thick and plodding.) Or much better, read Calvin’s treatment of free will in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. (See Book 2, Chapter 2, particularly sections 4 – 12) In my opinion, after Paul, John Calvin is the most brilliant theologian humanity has yet seen, even over Augustine. And while I don’t always agree with his arguments (like he believes Romans 7:17-25 concerns the saved and I believe it concerns the unsaved, but that is for another time) his discussion of free will in his monumental Institutes is spot on. (See the Coffee with Calvin blog discussing Calvin and Free Will here.)

Are we fettered, merely doomed to play a role, unable to deviate from the script? The Scriptures indicate that this is so to a certain degree. But here is the catch. We don’t know the end from the beginning. We don’t know the next line in the play. As far as we are concerned and from our perspective, we are making the next step as we see fit. And we are responsible for what we do next, because ostensibly we have a choice, because we don’t know what we are scheduled to do next. And because we don’t know what our next line it, it is our responsibility when we make it.

So free will is one side of God’s coin. Heads, God has is in complete control and has preordained everything from the beginning, for His own purposes and His own good will. Tails, we don’t know what those reasons are or what comes next, so we make our own decisions and are responsible for them. Moses tells God’s people “that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.” (Deut. 30:19) And Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:44) But by the same token He pleaded with the people “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mat. 11:28) Two sides to the same coin. There is no conflict between the two sides, it is still one coin with the same dimensions and value. But we, in our limited vision, don’t see everything God sees. How could we? If we can’t figure out how atoms hold together how are we supposed to figure out the majesty of God?

I’m glad He is in control, even if sometimes bad things happen to good people. Remember when David was offered three punishments for the sin of numbering the people, he chose the punishment that was directly in control by God, saying, “I am in great distress. Let us now fall into the hand of the LORD for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.” (2 Sam, 24:14) That’s what trust is about. And His word speaks plentifully to that. What is greater in that we could place our trust?

[Scriptures taken from the New American Standard Bible © 1995]

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