March Debrief

Well, blog-wise, March was a very good month. Most of the time I had enough posts written and scheduled for a week by Wednesday the week before, which is a good feeling. It's nice to keep up so well. During the last week I started to trail a little in that, though; I think I scheduled the last two posts by last Tuesday, but I still managed. So all in all, it was a good month. Hopefully I can keep it up in the future.

Interestingly, I found myself with a lot more to write about outside of the catechism series. This doesn't mean I neglected it; I'm trying to write at least one post about the catechism a week, if not more. But I thought of other things to write about as well, which I really enjoy because it's much easier to write posts when I don't have to do intensive study while writing; the text just flows out a lot better. But I want to keep up the series and not lose interest, so I'm thinking of trying to focus on it more this month.

Personally, I have a massive life update: I got hired for a new job last week! I start in the middle of this month. It'll be a new location, new schedule, and new line of work for me. I'm not entirely sure how this will impact my blog output yet though; I've managed to get into somewhat of a decent rhythm with my current schedule, which has enabled me to keep a regular level of blog writing. I may have to change the days or frequency of my updates; we'll just have to see how it works out.

So, here comes April!

Any Time the Ground Yields

Many of you probably know that I have a baby on the way. In fact, not only is she on the way, but she only has a couple months until she’s born! It’s hard to believe she’s arriving so soon, but it’s true, and I’m very excited about it.

Also, as I’m sure most young parents would, I find myself wondering and worrying about how we will be able to support her. Right now my wife and I both work full-time. Pretty soon my wife will be on maternity leave, meaning that we’ll only have my paycheck coming in, which doesn't seem like enough to provide for a family by itself. Now, some people I know would read that and instantly categorize me as a bad husband, as if income is the only measure of how well someone meets the standard of “husband material,” but that’s an issue that I think is worth its own post.

So, like I previously said, I keep wondering about, and even being anxious over, this question of where the money to support our child will come from. Mathematically, it makes no sense to me. I know how much I make a month. I have a general idea of how much we pay in bills per month. Add a baby onto that and we’re in the red. Right?

Well, not necessarily.

Doesn’t the Bible say that God will provide (Gen. 22:14)? Didn’t Jesus command us to pray for God to give us our daily bread (Matt. 6:11)? And didn’t Jesus feed thousands of people with only a few pieces of food on more than one occasion (Mark 6:30-44; 8:1-9)? Compare that with my salary providing for three people and suddenly I find that I have absolutely no excuse to be worried.

I also need to remember that, no matter how much money I make per month, our provision ultimately cannot and does not come from me. The ground is cursed because of the fall, and it will refuse to yield to me no matter how much I work it. But I know exactly who takes care of us. Any time the ground does yield, it is only because the Father who created it commands it to do so. It is only due to the blessing of God in the life of my family. I’m not saying I should just kick back and do nothing, for to do that would mean directly disobeying my Lord (2 Thess. 3:10; 1 Tim. 5:8). God provides through my work. God takes care of his people far more abundantly than they can imagine. And ultimately, no matter how much money or stuff we have, God works all things in order that we be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28).

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (Matt 6:25-33)

February Debrief

Before I begin, don't worry; I don't plan on doing monthly debriefs forever. But since I've been trying to be more serious about blogging, I want to do a debrief each month just to summarize what's happened and how I feel the month went.

So, this month I started my series on The Baptist Catechism, which so far is going pretty well I think. It definitely gives me more ideas of what to write and, if I finish it (remember, no promises), will take me through several core doctrines of Christianity. The difficulty about it, as compared to other posts, is that I have to do some serious study while I write, which takes longer. With most posts, I already know what I want to write about before I write them; not so with this series. I don't have all the questions memorized. I don't necessarily know where writing about and analyzing the questions and answers in light of the Bible will take me. But it's been good to get into some focused personal study. I haven't done that a lot lately, and I've missed it.

So far we've gone through five questions in the past month; there are 118 in the catechism, just to give you an idea of how long this will probably take, especially since I only update three times a week and thus far have only averaged two questions a week. Not to mention that I'm sure I'll have to split some questions into multiple posts again, like last week. But hey, there's no rush, right?

As for keeping my schedule, I've still managed to do it somehow. There were plenty of times when I felt like I simply wouldn't be able to, but somehow I managed to write enough posts to make it through February. I don't plan to do more than three posts a week anytime soon; trust me, I've considered it. I even thought at one point that, if I keep up my Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule through February, maybe I'd add in Saturdays as well. Yeah, that's not happening.

Speaking of scheduling, however, I should remind you (since you probably know me in real life anyway) that I have a baby on the way. When the baby is born, I'm planning to take a hiatus for a week or two, maybe more. Maybe I'll have enough posts stocked up to keep things going for a little while, and maybe by the time those have been published I'll have been able to write more and there will be little to no gap. But we'll see what happens. I have priorities, and as important as this blog is to me, a lot of other things (like babies, for instance) take precedence over it.

Also, this month I finally wrote an About page! I've been dying to write one for a while now and I'm happy to say that it's up. Right now it's really a doctrinal distinctives page, but that's important; people should know what they're in for when they read my blog.

As for the future, we'll see what happens content-wise. I've considered writing some posts about books I'm reading, and if I feel so inclined I probably will at some point or another. But who knows? The catechism has taken up a lot of my writing time and focus to be honest; that's usually what comes to mind first when I think of what to write next. But, considering how long it is, that should give me plenty to write about if I really can't think of anything else.

Well, I think that's about it for February. Let's begin March! Although, you know, this is the second post this month since I thought Friday's post went well with the other posts last week...but yeah! Let's go, March!

We Also Need Someone to Snap Us Out of Our Illusion of Independence

Have you ever stopped to think about how very dependent we are? We here in America view independence very highly. But even those who we hold up as our greatest examples of independence still fall vastly short of true independence.

Think about our bodies for a minute. Every few hours or so, we need to eat food and drink water in order to keep our strength up. Not only that, but every few seconds, we need to breath in oxygen which our bloodstreams carry to our muscles to keep them functioning properly, and to keep us conscious in the first place. These three things - food, water, and oxygen - are things that exist apart from our bodies.

I'm not saying we aren't self-sustaining in a sense. We grow and manufacture the food we eat. We purify the water we drink. We plant plants which expel oxygen so we can breath. We can create systems to sustain ourselves, but the fact remains that we still need these external objects in order to keep going. We even make multi-vitamins with our essential daily vitamins and minerals because of that fact. Our bodies do not recreate them. Our bodies cannot sustain themselves.

In contrast, a car - which is a man-made machine - only needs to refuel about once a week or so, possibly less depending on things like the model of the car and how often one drives it. Our man-made machines can outlast us. They still need maintenance and refueling, but not nearly as often as we do. Not only that, but we build cars and then become dependent on them for our lives: we need them to get to work, to go grocery shopping, and so forth. We also become dependent on other man-made things: we rely on HVAC systems and clothing to keep us warm in winter and cool in summer. We rely on houses to shelter us from the elements.

I'm not even talking about other needs here. I haven't touched on our emotional or our spiritual needs. What about our need for companionship? Humans are not meant to live apart from other humans.

It seems to me that we are simply hard-wired to be dependent on something, like we weren't meant to be fully independent, like we weren't meant to think we can do anything and everything on our own.

Train Up Your Children

So I realized after I wrote this post that I referenced the wrong catechism! That is to say, I picked one catechism and started working on it before I discovered a more preferable one, known as Benjamin Keach's Catechism (also more commonly known as the Baptist Catechism). So I will actually be using that one in this series, though the other catechism seems to be a good one as well.

I've been thinking a lot about my upcoming fatherhood lately. That makes sense; Sarrah's due date is getting closer and closer all the time. A lot of what I've been thinking about is how we'll go about teaching our children the Bible. This thought has come to mind more and more as I read every day.

My daily Bible reading has taken me into Exodus. If you read it and remember it, you'll notice several times where God, after ordaining a feast or ritual of some kind, speaks of the Israelites telling their children what these feasts and rituals are for. One such example is Exodus 13:14: "And when in time to come your son asks you, 'What does this mean?' you shall say to him, 'By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery'" (see also Ex. 12:26, 27; Deut. 6:20-25). Then there is that famous verse that I'm pretty sure I hear quoted all the time when it comes to teaching children:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deut. 6:4-9)

All this leads me to the conclusion that God is very concerned with the proper training and teaching of children. I guess that isn't a very groundbreaking realization; I hear pastors talking about the dad's duty to lead his children in the fear of the Lord all the time. It's just interesting to me that I keep on coming across this theme in my reading.

One way I've considered going about this is by using a catechism. We commonly associate catechisms with the Catholic Church, but there is a long tradition of catechisms in the Protestant church as well. I commonly hear about the Westminster Catechism, which is overall a very good catechism for Reformed folks; the only problem with it is that it teaches Infant Baptism, something I do not agree with.

So I decided to find a catechism that fits with the 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith, the basic doctrinal statement of Reformed Baptists (basically Reformed people who practice only Believer's Baptism and reject Infant Baptism, like me and my wife). I think I found what I'm looking for in the Baptist Catechism.

So I hope to go through this catechism in-depth. When I was reading through it it seemed to be pretty doctrinally sound and deep, yet simple. I also thought that a study of it may make a good blog series, and I'd certainly like to memorize and learn from it myself, so I think I'm gonna do it.

I make no promises that the series will be organized or complete. This will not be a teaching series; rather, it will be a series of my thoughts and considerations of the various questions of the catechism. I may or may not finish it, but I hope to. I will also write posts about other things, so this will not be consecutive, though I do intend to go in the order of the questions themselves.

I also want to add, as a disclaimer, that I am fully aware that catechisms are not on the level of authority as Scripture. Anyone who knows me will already know that. I just think it is a good summation of Christian doctrine, and a way for me and my family to learn it and apply it to our lives. It teaches the Gospel, the Ten Commandments, and The Lord's Prayer, all of which are essential for the Christian life. Without the Holy Spirit moving, however, it will not convert them. It will help them hear it and may lead to them accepting it as true, but it cannot, by its own power, bring them to trusting in Jesus for salvation. So I pray that the Holy Spirit will move through our teaching the Bible and this catechism to our children.

So join me in my quest to learn this catechism and figure out if it is good for teaching. We'll see what we learn along the way.

Fatherly Discipline

We have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? (Heb. 12:9 ESV)

This verse stuck out to me the other day, mainly because it just makes sense. It causes me to think not only of myself, but also of the world.

It causes me to think of myself because I have found myself under what I would call God's discipline at times. Thanks be to God for those times, especially when I recognize what is happening. I realize I have been sinning in some way or have some particularly un-Christ-like attitude that needs to be done away with, and I begin to pray about it. I see it in myself and, by God's power, resist the urge to indulge in it. I think of God's discipline as one of the ways in which he sanctifies us. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers" (Rom. 8:28, 29). "All things" includes the things we would see as bad. Those things are meant to conform us more and more to the image of Christ. In other words, they are meant to sanctify us.

On the other hand, the verse makes me think of the world because the world, despite its general unbelief, so often blames God when bad things happen. What strikes me about this verse is the contrast between our reactions to our earthly fathers and our Heavenly Father; when the earthly father disciplines his son, his son respects him more. When an earthly judge punishes a murderer for his crime, we call him a just judge. When God disciplines people or brings punishment that they deserve on them, we spit on his face and call him evil. What sense does that make?

"God's kindness is meant to lead [us] to repentance" (Rom. 2:4), yet we think that, since he hasn't disciplined us, it's all good. There's no need to repent because he's so kind. But when he does discipline us, we yell at him and refuse to acknowledge that we deserve it. There's no need to repent because he's so cruel. How fallen are we?

Tabletalk Magazine

At the beginning of the year, I started reading Tabletalk magazine, a magazine of daily devotionals produced by Ligonier Ministries. It also contains several articles written by pastors and theologians. Thus far, I have loved working my way through it. It has two overarching themes per issue: one for the month and one that goes through the year.

The theme through the year spans all the daily devotionals except the weekends, which are standalone articles. This year the theme is all of the Prophets of the Old Testament in chronological order. That's one thing I really like about the magazine. We often think of devotionals as inspiring little things to read every day about how God is always there and he loves you. That is true, and I'm not criticizing those types of devotionals, but if you know me at all, you know they don't suit me very well. I like Biblical theology and teaching. I like learning and understanding the Bible. That is what Tabletalk offers: deep devotionals that I feel like I really learn from, things I can meditate on and absorb that help me gain deeper understanding of the Bible and God. They also do systematic theology; last year's theme was the Heidelberg Catechism.

Then there is a monthly theme that unites most of the articles. This month's theme is thinking, listening, and meditating, something that I have greatly benefited from recently. Past themes have included topics like the Five Solas, The Church and Israel, and so forth.

Finally, another reason I love Tabletalk so much is that it comes from a Reformed perspective. Some people may accuse me of making far too much of Reformed theology or making too much of a distinction between it and Arminian theology. But the only reason I care is because I earnestly believe that Reformed theology, as Spurgeon once put it, is nothing other than Biblical Christianity. It comes from reading and understanding the Bible. If I believed differently, then I would never subscribe to such a view.

So, for anyone looking for a devotional that is doctrinally sound, theologically deep, and hard-hitting, I heartily recommend Tabletalk. It's a great resource, and I thank God that such teaching is so readily available.

A Heritage of Faith

This week, Pastor Karl's sermon was on 2 Timothy 1:3-5:

I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. (ESV)

(For those who read that and realize it sounds different from what Pastor Karl himself read, remember that he uses the HCSB and I use the ESV. Both are great in my opinion.)

After this, he went on an exposition of how Timothy's mother and grandmother taught him and built a foundation, then how Paul built on that foundation and helped to bring us Timothy, pastor of the Ephesian church. I'm not going to go on an explanation or criticism of the sermon; frankly, I think it was great and perfectly clear by itself as usual. Rather, I just wanted to post my own thoughts about how some of those things have applied in my own life.

One thing Pastor Karl talked about was how parents build a foundation for a child's life, then it is often built upon by others later on. I've seen that in my own life; although I strongly disagree with several of the theological distinctions my parents have, and still do, adhere to (Pentecostalism, for those who are curious), they still built a foundation in my life. I was raised in Christianity, in the church. Most of my friends from the old days attended the same churches I did as a kid, so I was generally surrounded by a church culture. I wasn't sheltered, but I knew a lot of Christian families who I learned from in those days.

In addition, I was homeschooled because my parents we're simply fed up with the public school system. My parents chose to give my sister and I an education from a Christian worldview, which I think was the right and Biblical decision (see Deut. 6:4-9). In my teenage years when I joined various groups outside of the church, and when I got a job, and when I went off to college, when I found myself surrounded by people my age who held to very different views than I did, that foundation held.

But that foundation is not all that I have had in my life. Later on, my family and I simply could not find a church to call home. When I started dating Sarrah, I decided to check out her church, and found it to be great. Over time, however, I realized this church held to very different views than the churches I had attended in the past with my parents: this church was Calvinist, which was a byword to other Christians I knew. I remember in school reading about Calvin and not liking him much, which wasn't my Mom's fault; it was what the school program we had chosen wrote about him. It was because I didn't agree with some things I remember learned that he taught (like dancing was a sin). I probably read good things about him too, but I didn't retain them if I did.

While attending this church, I found myself surrounded by people who were doing this thing I couldn't remember seeing before: talking theology. Looking back, I realize I was around this for most of my life, but at the time it was a novel thing to me. I realized there were a lot of things that people disagreed over, like Calvinism and Arminianism, baptism, etc.

I also remember having a conversation with my brother-in-law, who told me he was a neo-Calvinist (which I still don't quite understand the meaning of). This was odd to me because I thought that Calvinism was some weird, horrible, fringe, un-Christian thing, but I certainly didn't think that of him.

Sarrah and I got engaged around this time, which would entail having children someday, which would entail raising them in the Christian faith.

All of this led me to the conclusion that I really needed to get myself straight. I realized I had possibly misunderstood a lot of things about Christianity and I needed to learn what was right. I needed to actually start reading that book I had never been good about reading - the Bible - and figure out what the heck it actually taught. In addition, I deliberately exposed myself to the teaching of the other side - the Calvinists - so I could understand what it was they actually taught and find out if there was anything to it. It was when I heard John Piper reference Acts 13:48 that I became convinced there was:

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.

After I heard this, I grabbed my Bible to see if this verse actually existed. As it turned out, it did. I felt an interesting serenity at this; there was the answer. It was so clear, so simple. Later on as I read the Bible I became more convinced, and to this day I have found no reason to reject it.

My parents built the foundation of Christianity in general, and then the particulars were built upon by others later, all of which led to the theological titan you see before you (please read the dripping sarcasm in that last part).

So what about my own kids? I'm gonna be a dad soon, so this sermon had other impacts on me as well. I particularly liked the term "heritage of faith" that Pastor Karl used in his sermon. I want to establish a Reformed heritage of faith in my family. As far back as I know, that hasn't existed in my family before now. I'm pretty sure any heritage of faith at all started with my grandparents, who are also Pentecostal, which is about as far from Reformed as you can get while still being Protestant. But I've been so convicted that Reformed theology is nothing other than Biblical Christianity that I want my kids to be raised in it and to learn it from the get-go. I want to instill them the love of reading the Bible regularly that I didn't have as a kid (which was due to my own laziness) so that they know these things to be true. I want them to read deeply and with understanding, and not only read but pray, and pray genuinely, realizing that there is a God who wants to save them, to justify them, to sanctify them for his work. I need to get to praying for all of that.

Listen or Be a Fool

Recently I've come to be convicted of an abiding sin in my life: the sin of not listening. I had already known about my tendency to do this; Sarrah has pointed it out to me some of the many times I've done so. But at the time I regarded it as more of a bad habit. I was later convinced that it was a sin when I read an article that cited two verses: Proverbs 18:2, which says, "A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion," and Proverbs 18:13, which says, "If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame."

When the Bible talks about hearing, it means much more than simply perceiving sound. "Hearing" in the Biblical sense refers to understanding. When Jesus says "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matt. 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8; 14:35; see also Matt 11:15; Mark 4:23; Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22), he is basically saying, "He who has ears to hear, let him understand." So what I'm saying is that I'm guilty of hearing that something is being said to me but not bothering to try to understand it.

I find the use of the word "fool" to be very interesting. It speaks volumes about just how bad not listening is. What else does the Bible say about the fool? "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'" (Ps. 14:1; 53:1). Because of these verses¹, I've always equated foolishness with unbelief. That's not to say that Christians never act foolishly, but rather that foolishness is unbecoming of a believer. That's because, I believe Biblically, foolishness encompasses all sin. It goes the other way as well; that is, all sin is foolishness. So to call not listening foolish is to call it sinful.

So what do the verses themselves say? Proverbs 18:2 describes a guy who doesn't care what anyone else says and only wants to talk more, to hear the sound of his own voice. His eyes glaze over when someone else speaks because he himself is not the one speaking. Rather than paying attention to what someone is saying to him and really trying to understand it, he is busy thinking of what he's going to say next. Proverbs 18:13 speaks of the guy who talks before understanding what was said to him. He either thinks or pretends that he understands, and so replies, only to put his foolishness on display. He probably doesn't care though, so long as he is still talking.

These are foolish. These are sins. And these are both things I have done and still do all the time.

So what do I do about it? First, I should pray, and continue to pray, for God's sanctification in this area. Jesus always heard what was said to him. Santification is the process of God conforming us more and more into the likeness of Jesus. Thus, as God works in me, I should become a better listener. Next, I need to actually take interest in what people say to me. I should try hard to understand. I should fight my tendency to just think of what I'll say next before I hear what is being said, or to mentally check out when other people are speaking. Then, I should write a blog post in the hopes of exhorting others to do the same.

There is one other verse that should make us want to listen well: "The purpose in a man's heart is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out" (Prov. 20:5). If you listen, you can understand. If you understand, you know what to say. If you know what to say, you will be able to dig deeper to get to the heart of the matter. You'll get to know someone better. Maybe this will bring you into greater fellowship with your spouse, your children, or other believers. Or maybe it will enable you to reach the lost more effectively.

So we have two choices: listen or be fools. Which one is it going to be?

Footnotes

¹ Psalm 14:1 and 53:1 start with the same phrase, so I guess saying "these verses" is appropriate, even though I'm only quoting one phrase.

Drilling Prayer Into My Brain

I'm not sure exactly what day it was, but recently I realized something horrible: lately, I've been spending time learning about God without spending time with God himself. I have not been thinking about the relationship aspect of the Christian walk. The head knowledge is extremely important, but its end is to bring the heart closer to God.

But what was missing? I had been reading my Bible daily. I had been listening to good Christian teaching on a regular basis. I had even recently started reading a daily devotional on the Internet. I had started slowly studying 1 Thessalonians. I'm still doing those now, and those are all very good things I ought to continue in, but...something was missing.

So what's missing from that list? I'll give you a few hints.

This past week, Renewing Your Mind, a radio show I listen to daily, had a theme to its teaching. Monday's episode featured R.C. Sproul reading his children's book titled The Barber Who Wanted To Pray, which tells the true story of how Martin Luther's barber, Master Peter, asked him how to pray, and Luther taught him his personal method. The next two broadcasts were about God's providence and why we should pray, even knowing that God already knows what we'll ask for and has his plans. Thursday he taught how to pray, and the week concluded with an explanation on The Lord's Prayer. Along with all that, the chapter that we were reading in Wayne Grudem's book Christian Beliefs for Christianity 101 is titled "What Is Prayer?

In all this, I realized that God in his providence was trying to get something into my head. But what?

You get three guesses as to what it was. No, it wasn't the proper method of engaging in presuppositional apologetics. And no, it wasn't the Aristotelian rationale behind the Roman Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation (though I did learn about that this week, though that's a completely unrelated blog post I may write in the future).

Never mind, I'll just tell you. It's prayer. Come on, people.

That's right, that same old thing I still seem to have a problem with. Despite my desire to be as theologically sound as possible, despite my desire to lead my children to Jesus, my personal prayer life has been all but non-existent. And as any good (or average like myself) theologian could tell you, a lack of prayer is a serious hindrance to one's relationship with Christ and any semblance of Christian growth, both of which are essential aspects of the Christian walk.

In reality, I realized I needed to get back into the habit of praying on Monday while listening to the audiobook about Martin Luther and Master Peter. It was only on Thursday when I saw that this week's chapter of Grudem's book was about prayer that I noticed God's providence in the mix.

So I pretty much devoured every teaching on prayer that I heard this week. Despite that, though, it wasn't until Friday that I started trying to get back into the habit of daily prayer. Ever the lazy sinner, right?

As I wrote previously, it's a personal help to me to write down my prayers. It helps me focus and stay on track. I also decided to incorporate themes from my daily Bible reading and my devotional into my prayers. It's a way to meditate and really absorb the things I learn.

Last time I wrote about prayer, I made this boisterous declaration that I was done being prayerless. Now, I stand convicted of not even slightly living up to what I said. So rather than make some sweeping declaration, I think the best way to end this is with a prayer.

Lord, teach me to pray. Teach me to pray daily, without ceasing. Let me be a praying man, my family a praying family, and your church a praying church. Amen.

Learnings in America

Not too long ago I saw a political ad from someone whose name will not be mentioned here. That's not because I don't want to discredit him or her. It's because I honestly don't remember who it was or what position he or she was running for. All I know is that this person was running for a Washington position of some kind (I think). Apparently identity wasn't very important to me at the time, because I don't even remember what his or her gender or political affiliation were.

What I do remember, and what I'll be talking about in this post, is one promise relating to education in the future. This person promised to ensure that education would emphasize science, mathematics, and technology because that's the way of the future.

Now, I can agree with that much. I do believe that our children will need knowledge of science, mathematics, and technology because technology in particular will only increase in the future, barring some catastrophe that destroys it all and sends us back into Biblical times. However, I would agree with it more if I believed it wouldn't result in other things being less emphasized - or worse, excluded altogether - from our children's education.

I'm talking in particular about language, writing, and logic. These are the classes that teach people how to comprehend, how to think, and how to communicate.

What am I doing right now? I'm writing about an issue I believe in. I'm definitely not perfect at it, but still. Without the English classes I took in high school and college, I wouldn't be able to. If my parents and grandparents hadn't taught me how to read, I wouldn't be typing this up right now. And without logic and reason, how can we truly know and understand anything?

Sadly though, these are things that already seem to be getting phased out in education, at least in my opinion. According to this data, 14% of American adults (that's 32 million) can't read. 19% of high school graduates can't read either. These are students coming out of an institution claiming to teach our children what they need to know to go out into the world. Apparently they're not actually doing their jobs.

Then there is college. Colleges used to be about getting an education. Colleges today still claim to teach people how to think. Unfortunately, they leave out the part where they actually teach people how to think like them. Most of them are nothing more than indoctrination schools and job training nowadays (job training isn't so bad though).

Then there is grad school. So many people are in grad school that shouldn't be. I read an article earlier this year written by a guy named Ed Dante. He's a writer who many students - college and grad school students - have paid to write their papers for them. He quoted some correspondence between him and a grad school business student in this article: "You did me business ethics propsal for me I need propsal got approved pls can you will write me paper?" "where u are can you get my messages? Please I pay a lot and dont have ao to faile I strated to get very worry." "thanx so much for uhelp ican going to graduate to now". With golden quotes like those coming from graduate school students, it's no wonder our society is heading down the can.

But are reading and writing skills really that important? They have been in virtually every job I've ever had, and those jobs had nothing to do with essays. From reading and comprehending instructions in e-mail to knowing how to find information and connections buried in paperwork and even acting as a scribe for a man who couldn't type due to a disability, I've had to know how to read, understand, comprehend, and write to survive and not get fired.

Also, and this is especially true for you Christians who read my blog, how can we expect our children to be able to comprehend their Bibles, to truly know Jesus, without the ability to read? Of course they learn from us, but eventually they'll be out on their own. We can teach them for about twenty years, but the remaining sixty or so they'll be out in the world, making their own choices. Without an ability to read the Bible, how can they discern truth from lies? What's preventing them from falling into deep and dark heresy, or some place that claims to be, but is not actually, a church?

In fact (and I'm back to including non-Christian folk in the discussion), without an ability to read, think, and comprehend truth, how can we expect the next generation to be any better than us? It's this blogger's opinion that the general inability to think in our society is at least part of the cause of most of the problems we face in society today. Rather than engage in rational discussion, people just angrily yell at one another, trying to be louder than the other guy. How can anything get done in a lasting way with that "method"?

So, yes, I agree that we need to teach our children science, math, and technology because that is the way of the future. We are surrounded by the kind of technology that Leonardo da Vinci (who was also an engineer as well as a painter and pretty much everything else that everyone else has ever been) could have only dreamed of. However, we also need to teach our children how to read and how to think as well rather than lessen or eliminate those essential abilities. We cannot expect the next generation to be any better than ours unless they can think, reason, and understand truth. So much of our culture is enveloped in ideas that make no logical sense whatsoever (i.e. relativism, the idea that truth can be true for one person but false for another at the same time) because people don't think them through. That lack of thinking can only lead to worse things in the future.

The Treasury Had a Fake Coin

Yesterday I discovered (well, really more like witnessed) how someone, even when only using the Bible, can make some rather interesting mistakes. I also learned not to rely too heavily on man, although there are many very reliable men we can learn from. I also (re)learned the importance of context.

I've been going through The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, a giant book of about 500,000 cross references. I found myself in Genesis 1:2 (it's been slow going, but Lord willing I have the rest of my life to finish). That verse is as follows: "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (ESV). Alongside the word "Spirit," there was a reference to Job 26:14:

Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways,
and how small a whisper do we hear of him!
But the thunder of his power who can understand?

Do you see any reference to the Spirit in there? I didn't. I looked up a few words in the Srong's Concordance I had handy and found nothing in the original Hebrew. I finally wrote down that I had no idea why there was a reference to this verse here and speculated that maybe the reference to "whisper" had something to do with the Spirit, or how the Spirit has thundering power or something.

Knowing that The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge was based off of a commentary, I decided to find out which one. It turned out to be the Rev. Thomas Scott's Commentary on the Whole Bible. Surprisingly, however, I couldn't find it anywhere, at least not the Old Testament portion of it. I kept finding Matthew Henry's commentary though, and I finally decided to check it out. I skimmed through it to find the verse references in the section about Genesis 1:2-3 and I found a reference to this verse:

By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent. (Job 26:13 KJV)

One verse earlier. One verse earlier. Had I only looked one verse earlier I probably would have caught it. The Treasury referred to Job 26:14. The real reference was probably supposed to be Job 26:13. I looked up the ESV version, which replaces the word "wind" for "spirit," but the Bible regularly refers to the Spirit as a wind, so I probably would have caught that reference too.

This is supposed to be a corrected version of this. But I can't really blame them. When you're trying to sell a product, do you really have time to go through 500,000 cross references?

Note to self: next time, if I find a discrepancy like this, look around. It may be a mistake.

Despair

There aren't many behaviors and actions that people in the world engage in that really shock me anymore. I'm only 23, so I'm sure I'll eventually eat those words, but right now I, like all early-mid-twenty-somethings, feel like I've seen the idea of there being nothing new under the sun thoroughly enough, even in just the past few years alone.

I think what does surprise me, however, is just what people are willing to accept and believe if it keeps them away from the God of Scripture.

There are, and have been, various philosophical systems throughout history. I believe the current, overarching system in America right now is post-modernism, which denies any kind of real truth and says that multiple contradictory things can be true at the same time. Philosophically, it's completely illogical, but that's not the point of this post.

Some of these systems lack God completely, which doesn't surprise me at all. Some of these systems' only logical conclusion is that there is no ultimate meaning to life. This is what is called a "philosophy of despair." That fact also doesn't surprise me.

What does surprise me is that adherents of those systems openly and honestly admit, and even embrace, that fact. They are perfectly content with the idea that, once they die, their existence ultimately means absolutely nothing. There is no ultimate meaning to it all. Everything is pointless.

But people are happy to embrace that idea so long as it means the God of Scripture doesn't exist. People would rather live like nothing matters than face the possibility of judgment from God. This being, of course, despite the fact that God has provided a substitute, a covenant of grace. They'd rather believe that nothing matters rather than live like everything matters.

Sometimes it baffles me just how far people are willing to run from God. But then again, since I'm a Calvinist, I probably shouldn't be surprised or baffled at all. It's just proof of total depravity, isn't it? It's proof that mankind is morally incapable of turning to God rather than from him. It's not that mankind physically can't. It's that "everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed" (John 3:20).

Sometimes people do crazy things.

Olympianism

Having lived in Olympia for about two years now, I've met a lot of different kinds of people. I've met musicians and audio nerds. I've met computer geniuses. I've met theater folk (both actors and tech people). I've met caregivers and people who have them. Students, workers. Parents. Gay people, straight people, bisexual people. Alchemists (I'm not even kidding). Olympia is a very diverse place.

I think the most interesting thing about it is that, despite Olympia's characterization as a godless city (which I don't disagree with), most people here are actually very spiritual in some fashion. Interlaced with the list above, I've met pantheists, Buddhists, mystics, one Thelema adherent (I don't know what you call them), and even universalists.

The funny thing about it is that if you dare to make your Christian beliefs public (at least the part about how sin is bad), you may face a rather large backlash from it. People here do not like the God of the Bible, despite the fact that, in their minds, he doesn't exist. Despite the fact that, to them, everyone can have their own spiritual beliefs and that's okay.

So if they hate God, why all the searching for something outside themselves?

Why the idea that everything is god? If everything and everyone is god, is anyone or anything really god? Why does it even matter that everyone is god?

I saw a guy quote John 1:1 and take the idea of "The Word" to mean something along the lines of some spiritual law or philosophy that cannot be contradicted or something because "the Word was God." What about the whole context of John 1, which clearly shows the Word to be not only God, but also a person who came to earth to rescue people? Why even quote the Bible if you don't believe a vast majority of what it says? Wouldn't that be similar to me trying to make an argument for Christianity by quoting the Quran or the Upanishads?

And if Jesus really did claim to be God, but he wasn't, then how can we trust anything he says? Doesn't that put him in the same category as the psychopaths who falsely claim divinity to rule over other people as absolute dictators? Or, if he genuinely believed it, wouldn't that make him deluded to the point where, in our day, he would be in a mental hospital? Can we really consider him to be just a good teacher with the claims he made?

Everyone here is searching for something, and it seems like most of them believe there is some kind of god out there, be it nature or philosophy or something. I don't know if they seek for their own pleasure, or because they feel there is something greater than all this, or because they just want there to be something more than all this. But the point is that everyone here is searching. But for what? And why?

DYF: The Law of Noncontradiction - My Thoughts

In this chapter, Dr. Sproul begins to talk about the law of noncontradiction, one of the logical rules that must be in place before we can know something. The most important idea is probably the idea of absolute vs. relative truth.

The primary argument for the law of noncontradiction in this chapter is that, without it, we have no way of knowing what is true or false, right or wrong (the moral relativists will love that). In Christianity in particular, without the law of noncontradiction, the entire Bible would be useless to us. If God commands us to do something, we can't disregard it. In the same way, if God commands us not to do something, we can't just go out and do it. That's a Biblical given. But, if the law of noncontradiction didn't exist, who's to say these are absolute commands? How do we know what God's commands are? How do we even know what He is like? Can Jesus have died and not died at the same time? When the Bible says He rose from the grave, could He have not risen from the grave? So we see the law of noncontradiction's necessity to our faith.

Now, the law of contradiction doesn't prove Christianity. All it does is give us a concept of how to think, how to view the world. It gives us a framework for understanding the universe. It's the law that states that I can't be both Sarrah's husband and not be her husband at the same time. To be both would be a clear contradiction. But without the law of noncontradiction, who's to say I can't do that? Or God can't not be God, or not fulfill His attributes. He is an absolute God and a God of absolutes.

This chapter also talks about the problems with relativism (believing something to be true or right for some people and not for others). Sproul also points out that one cannot be a consistent relativist, believing that all truth is relative. For one thing, the idea that all truth is relative (meaning there are no absolutes) is itself an absolute, and the whole idea behind relativism is that it denies absolutes. For it to not be an absolute, one would have to say that only some things are relative, which would mean that some other things are absolute. You see the dilemma? I suppose one could say that there are some relatives and some absolutes. But the fact remains that there are absolutes in our world.

This is also the law that allows us to make certain observations. Sproul gives the example of the phrase "All men are mortal; Socrates is a man; therefore Socrates is mortal." Logic allows us to add this up and see this to be true. This kind of idea could be applied to a lot of things, like "Heights scare me; the Space Needle is very tall; therefore going on the Space Needle would scare me."

Sproul points out that logic in general wasn't invented by man. When he talks about Aristotle's ideas about logic, he is careful to point out that "Aristotle didn't invent logic; rather he defined it. He argued that logic is a necessary tool for human thinking and communication, as well as a means for us to comprehend the rational structure of the universe." Aristotle did, in fact, affirm the law of noncontradiction in his writing Metaphysics, saying that it is "impossible that contrary attributes should belong at the same time to the same subject" (IV.3.8). The reason it is important to note that Aristotle didn't invent logic is because, back in those times (and still today even), there are those that argued that Greek philosophy and what they called "Aristotelian logic" should never be used in conjunction with Christianity. At the time the use of such things was commonly intended to try to prove heresy, and of course it should never be used for that. But why can't logic be used to prove Christianity? Is our faith irrational? Is it based on a blind leap of faith? Some Christians would actually say so. But doesn't the Bible tell us that the one who says there is no God is a fool? (Psalm 14:1, 53:1) Wouldn't the fool be more apt to follow the "irrational" idea that there is a God? By saying Christianity is inherently irrational, we are calling all of the church a bunch of fools! But, Biblically, it is the non-Christians who are foolish, not the Christians.

All in all, this chapter had a lot to absorb. I had to think and re-think about it to grasp it, and that fact means I may not be able to simply write about each chapter every day. There are still three more laws to cover, and this I understand, this one I've always agreed with. So I may be a bit slower in continuing to write about this book, but I'll get it done.

Re-Baptism?

Lately I've started wondering if I need to be rebaptized. I've been trying to pin down the time of my salvation and...I can't.

I was baptized before, a long time ago during my childhood. I've always attended church, except for a period in my life when my family and I just couldn't find one. So I was raised Christian. But I don't know if that means I actually was Christian.

See, about two years ago, I actually realized the truth of the Gospel. I truly felt my unworthiness and realized that, despite that, Jesus died to pay for my sin if only I would believe in Him and accept Him as my Lord and Savior. I had prayed for Him to come into my life a few times. But now I wonder if I was only looking for fire insurance, or if I really knew what I was doing. Saying a prayer does not necessarily equal salvation.

I already knew I was sinful. I already knew I was imperfect. I'd heard the Gospel preached before. But was I saved? That's what I'm having a hard time figuring out, because I don't know for sure anymore. I know I thought I was. I know I am now, but was I when I was baptized all those years ago? Was I just going through the motions, deceiving myself for so many years until I truly understood the Gospel?

Because if I wasn't a believer back when I was baptized, it means I wasn't baptized as a real, true Christian. And if that's true, I think I would need to be baptized as a real, true Christian as a matter of obedience to Jesus.

Perhaps I should talk to my pastor about this.

P.S. Mom and Dad, if you read this, then my wondering whether I was saved is not a reflection on you. Sometimes we kids are just slow.

Going to Church in Hippie-Town

Not too long ago, my wife and I had our hearts set on going back to our home county. We couldn't find a church or anyone we really related to here. For me, the biggest deal was church. I was tired of not being able to be part of the fellowship of believers. We both were. It's not like we didn't try; we'd been to multiple churches in the area, all of which had something that turned us away, and had sort of given up. Not only that, but we had also been clinging to our old church back home, our hearts fully set on getting out of this hippie-town as soon as possible. We just couldn't find the right combination of sound theology and community we needed.

Then we found the church we're currently attending, Hope Community Church.

Now, we had tried this church before. We knew they were theologically sound. But we had had a hard time connecting the first time around, which I think was primarily because we were expecting others to start the connecting with very little effort on our parts. So we left on our inevitably-doomed journey to find a good church.

I think on this journey we looked up every church in the county on the internet (which is a ludicrous amount). Each website annoyed me; either they were just wrong on some crucial doctrinal issue or they were unclear on everything (or both). They also saddened me, reminding me of the poor state of the visible church with all these groups of people learning from false teachers. We only attended three churches in total because they were the few that actually looked good on the internet (we'd found maybe one or two others that seemed okay, I think), but each one was a let down in some way. Either the preacher was just weird, the sermons were pithy and shallow, or they were impossible to understand. We also couldn't find a church with people in our stage of life.

All of that wound up with us coming back to Hope Community. I had become so skeptical of every church in Olympia that I figured they probably weren't really all that great theologically, or that the preaching may be sub-par (to be fair, I had only heard the pastor preach once before; during most of our first time, the youth pastor had taken over during the head pastor's sabbatical. He was great, but I didn't know anything about the head pastor).

Guess what? We haven't left.

Not only was the preaching theologically sound, but it was clear and easy to understand; we'd been to a church where the Bible was extolled, but the pastor was nigh incomprehensible. The music was worshipful and meaningful; we'd attended a church for a while where the music, while rich with theologically deep lyrics, was more akin to a concert, complete with live auto-tune (which wasn't our reason for leaving, but that still rubs me the wrong way for multiple reasons). The sermon was rich and God-centered; we'd been to a church where we got a twenty minute self-help sermon.

We've also gotten far more connected with people. Originally we knew exactly two people, the couple who introduced is to this church, who are great and wonderful people whom we are very blessed to know. But now we know more people, we participate in events, we're excited to go to church every Sunday. We even met a couple in our same stage of life; recently married, same age, one's in school, no kids. They have a house though, but we're only slightly jealous of that.

You wanna know the result? We aren't so sad about living in hippie-town anymore. In fact, we actually like it here. Imagine that, huh? Actually liking where God has put you? We're also not in such a rush to go back. If that's where God takes us, so be it. But, we'd be happy to stay here for a while.

Put On Compassionate Hearts

Colossians 3:12-13 gives more practical advice on becoming more like Christ. “Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” We can see here even more about our relationships with other people because how we interact with other people is extremely important in our Christian walk. It’s part of our testimony to the world about the life-changing Gospel and the hope it brings.

These verses once again give us our reason for why we need to do this, and at the risk of sounding repetitive, I’ll say it again: we are to do this because we have been saved, not so that we will be saved. This verse tells us that we are to “put on” these things because we are “God’s chosen ones” and “holy and beloved.” Anyone who’s been reading my blog for a while already knows my whole predestination spiel, so I won’t go on about that here. I’ll simply say that “God’s chosen ones” simply means Christians; it means real, true Christians who are “holy and beloved” by God. Just think of that! This passage talks about being nice and forgiving to people. “But they did this to me!” we say. Well, guess what? We sinned greatly against a God who is perfect and doesn’t deserve to be disrespected, hated, and disobeyed like we do. We are evil by nature (Matt 7:11; Luke 11:13). God is good by nature. And He has forgiven us undeserving Christians for every sin we have committed, are committing, and will commit. We sin constantly. People sin against us sometimes, and it’s not nearly as bad. So why can’t we forgive and be kind to others who don’t deserve it when we really think about the fact that we have done nothing to earn the perfect love and forgiveness of God?

With that little intro in mind, let’s dive in. “Compassionate hearts.” I think this is pretty self-explanatory, especially with the other components in the text. I’ll give two Biblical examples here, the first from Matthew 9:36-38: “When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Jesus saw all these people, helpless to save themselves and undeserving of salvation, and felt deep compassion for them. They couldn’t save themselves, only He could do that. So he tells His disciples to pray for them to be saved even though they’ve done nothing to earn it. He’s saying, “There are so many people who need salvation, but so few people to tell them about the Gospel. So pray for people to be saved so we can send them out to bring more people to salvation.” Jesus knew He wouldn’t be on earth forever, and his disciples were few. In order for the Gospel to spread, they needed more people so that it could grow and be passed to the next generation and the next and the next. We can assume the disciples did pray, whether it was now or later, because the Gospel has survived for 2,000 years and has spread to virtually all corners of the world! Jesus asked for prayer for the masses because He loved them and wanted them to be saved, knowing full well they couldn’t do it themselves.

Another passage showing Jesus’ compassion playing out is Mark 8:1-10. I won’t quote the whole passage, but this is the story of Jesus feeding the four thousand men (not counting their wives and children, so the actual number is probably much larger). He has compassion on the people who have been following Him and listening to His teaching for three days without eating any food. He knew they couldn’t make it back to their homes because they are all very hungry and would “faint on the way.” He didn’t want that to happen, not after they’d traveled so far to listen to Him. So he tells His disciples to get the bread and fish and He feeds them all. He loved these people and just gave them food because they were hungry. How great is that? It’s such a simple thing to do coming from the compassionate heart of Jesus.

There’s a very important thing to emphasize here: Colossians 3:12-13 says specifically to have “compassionate hearts,” which I take to mean as this: we should not simply just be compassionate because it’s what we’re supposed to do (though it is), but we should earnestly desire to be compassionate because we want to. Our hearts should long for it. We’ve already talked about sin coming from the heart and manifesting in our actions. That’s the old self, the unsaved self. The new self has genuine, honest compassion in his or her heart manifesting in real, loving action. Jesus, in the passages we just looked at, wasn’t simply compassionate because He was supposed to be. He was compassionate because it was His nature to be, because He really loved these people who needed Him. The verses could have all just said “He saw this so he did this.” No, they go into what He felt. “I have compassion on the crowd” (Mark 8:2). “He had compassion for them” (Matt. 9:36). He loved these people! He wanted to fill their spiritual and physical needs and still wants that today. As His people, shouldn’t we desire the same? Doesn’t God work His plans through His people? So, rather than just begrudgingly and dutifully being nice or something, we should be genuinely compassionate because it’s in our nature to be, because God is compassionate and has made us compassionate. And remember Jesus’ ultimate act of compassion when He died on the cross to pay for our sins. Nothing we can do can measure up to that.

Somehow I expected to cover the entirety of verses 12-13 in one post, but I guess considering my previous posts, it’s not surprising that this is so long already. What's great about this is that I'm learning so much more than I expected through writing this series, and hopefully you're learning too! So next time we’ll talk about kindness. I think I’ll close this out with a great verse from Luke as a reminder to be compassionate:

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)

Read the rest of this series:

1. Introduction
2. Appearing with Christ in Glory
3. Put Off Sexual Sin
4. Put Off Sins of Anger
5. Obscene Talk
6. As Fits the Occasion
7. Christ is All, and In All (Part 1)
8. Christ is All, and In All (Part 2)
9. Put On Compassionate Hearts

A Response to One of Jon's Sermons, "Abide"

I should note right now that this is not a rebuke, a refutation, or any kind of response like that, nor is it an addendum, because honestly I agreed with everything Pastor Jon had to say and I think he said everything there was to say.

Anyway, I literally just finished listening to this sermon, mainly because two weeks ago my wife said it was really good and I should listen to it. After hearing her description (which involved the words "You can't be part of five Bible studies because that's just dumb and you can't apply all that to your life, etc..."), I wondered if it was subtly her trying to get me to listen because I needed to learn something. I also worried that the sermon would go to the other extreme of no Bible study at all because it's a waste of time. Thankfully it didn't do that. It turned out to be a very practical sermon about how the Bible is meant to save and to equip us with what we need to be on mission (a term I hear all the time used in many different ways that probably aren't all correct).

My regular readers (a rare bunch indeed) will know that I love the Bible and that I talk about Bible study a lot. They may recall my many posts about reading the Bible, studying the Bible, and even the Bible studies I've written out on this blog. But I can't help but feel like I may have neglected a few things, or that perhaps when Jon talked about people going to too many Bible studies, someone (my wife maybe) may have thought of me. (Although to be honest, I have yet to actually find even one decent Bible study in Thurston County to go to that fits with my school schedule, and I certainly would not go to five.)

The reason I talk so much about Bible study is because no one actually reads their Bible anymore. You have no idea (well, you might actually) how many Christians I know who have Bibles and never open them except on Sunday. I'm not angry about it, just sad.

Why is this even an issue? Why do I care so much? Jon mentioned a verse, one of my favorites, 2 Timothy 3:16-17: "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." (If that sounds different than what Jon said, it's because I'm using the English Standard Version of the Bible and I'm pretty sure he uses the NIV). I'd personally never thought about the fact that the training and reproof and whatnot aren't the point. They are the means through which we are equipped to do the good work of spreading the Gospel. So it follows that, if we don't read the Bible, we aren't taught, reproved, corrected and trained to do the work. We are supposed to do it of course. But the Bible is God's means to teach us how. It's how He corrects and reproves us so that we can not only say we are Christians, but actually live out a Spirit-filled life. That life is the evidence to people that there is something that has changed us, a reason for our hope and joy. God uses the Bible to convict us of sin so that we will avoid sin in our lives. Avoiding those sins shows that there's something different about you. The Bible is how we know what needs to be done for people to be saved!

Another reason I talk so much about Bible study is because without the Bible, Christians are weak. So many Christians are spiritual infants although they've been saved for years. They are deceived by false teachers, "tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14), and long for spiritual milk rather than real, solid food (Heb. 5:12-14). In a world full of deception and lies, where even the church itself is full of false doctrines and teachings that are un-Godly and un-Biblical, we need to be strong. We need to be able to distinguish good from evil. We need powers of discernment. That's actually why I started reading. I don't want to be deceived. I want to teach my wife and kids so that they aren't deceived either. When we aren't deceived, we're more effective in evangelism in my opinion. There's a such thing as just reading and not being effective, but to be more effective, we need to know the Bible.

But what about those who use the Bible to advance bad things, like killing God? Jon mentioned that too. That's why we need good Bible teachers, which are a tragic rarity in the world now. Even Timothy had a teacher (2 Tim 3:14). I'd personally recommend John MacArthur or John Piper. I'd also recommend Jon Needham (clearly all the good pastors are named John in some spelling or another), although since everyone who reads this probably already goes to Coram Deo, you already probably listen to him. You don't need to listen to all of them, mind you. But if you have no idea where to find good teaching, those are good, Godly people who you really can't go wrong with. And obviously just listening to sermons is not being on mission (again with the Jon reference). But it is good to have a good, Biblical, Godly teacher to go to.

So yeah. I just really wanted to write a response to that sermon. Again, I'm not trying to add anything to it, because frankly it's spot on. I just wanted to share my view, and why I care so much that people actually read the Word of God and grow and become effective. And it's not that I am (oh no I am not). I'm growing too. I'm still learning how to talk about Jesus and salvation to people. But if I want to be able to speak the Word of God into people's lives, I'd better know it, right?

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:14-17)

Christ is All, and In All (Part 1)

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

(Colossians 3:1-17 ESV)

I’ve decided to stop putting the series title in the title of these posts. There’s no real need to continue that.

After my last couple of posts, this is all probably beginning to sound like a lot of legalistic jargon. “Put off this” and “don’t do this…” are probably ringing in your ears (or eyes, since you’re reading this right now). But don’t worry, now we’re on to the reason behind all of this: Jesus! Like I said at the beginning of this series, this passage of Scripture is all about Jesus. It tells us the proper response to the salvation that He has graciously given us.

By the way, if you want to study this topic of putting on the new self a bit more, I recommend reading Ephesians 4:17-32. It’s somewhat different from Colossians 3:1-17, but it’s also incredibly similar.

Now we’re on verses 9-11: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”

So I’m going to skip over the part about not lying to each other for a moment. For one, it’s pretty clear what that means: don’t lie to each other. You can’t get any clearer than that. But also, I think it has a reason that it fits into this passage and particularly this sentence, so I’m gonna get back to it in the next post. As for putting off the old self…well, once again, I’ve already gone through that quite a bit.

So after we’ve taken off the old self, we put on the new self! What is this new self? We’re gonna get into that in this and the next several posts (yes, there are more to come, please bear with me). One thing you’ve probably already inferred is that it’s not everything else I’ve talked about: sexually immoral, angry, and hateful. Sounds like a vast majority of the world, right?

But what’s the first thing that we learn about the new self? It “is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” Notice a few things about that sentence.

One, it hasn’t “been renewed.” It is “being renewed.” It’s an ongoing process. It’s not just a one-time thing, like we just stop sinning one day and never sin again; it’s something that will go on for the rest of our lives. It’s a real sign of our salvation, because the unsaved are slaves to sin and have no choice but to give in to it (Rom. 6:20). We have the option to fight it, to shed sin like filthy old clothes (which is, incidentally, the idea that “put off” has in the Greek) and put on the new, clean clothes of our new selves. But we will never be perfect at it until we are in Heaven with Christ.

Two, we are “being renewed in knowledge.” Colossians 1:9 talks about being “filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” By knowing the will of God, we can walk in it and bear fruit for the Kingdom of God. This is how we grow spiritually. The new self is a spiritually mature self. We come to know the will of God, and God Himself, by reading His Word. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17).

Three, it’s being renewed into the image of something. It’s not just made into a brand new, totally original thing. We are being made into the image of Jesus Christ, the creator of all things (Col. 1:16). That’s our calling. That’s our purpose, to reflect the glory of Jesus Christ to the world by our words and actions. The new self reflects God’s glory to the world. Why? So that others may glorify God as well. “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12). That visitation could be either the judgment that comes. But it can also be that the Gentile will be visited by God and His saving grace and so glorify God when he remembers your testimony. Reflecting the glory of God can lead people to Christ! So, get reflecting! We’ll talk more about reflecting God’s glory in the next several posts.

Read the rest of this series:

1. Introduction
2. Appearing with Christ in Glory
3. Put Off Sexual Sin
4. Put Off Sins of Anger
5. Obscene Talk
6. As Fits the Occasion
   
7. Christ is All, and In All (Part 1)