Hawk Nelson "Live Life Loud" Music Video

This song is one of my new songs, I think. Its a great song. The video is humorous as well.

Transformation: God’s Will for Our Lives

I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God's grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I long for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best, so that on the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. -Philippians 1:3-11 NRSV

Context

Paul was thankful for the love the Philippians' Church had shown him and his work through their monetary gift, but he regarded it as only the beginning of a continuing journey toward greater works of love as they, by God's power at work in them, became more and more Christ like. Paul, through the Holy Spirit in his life, truly, truly loved these people and was excited by their growth and wanted to be with them. Since he recognized Christ as the source of the change in their lives, Paul prayed that God would continue to be at work in them until God was done and they were completely Christ like.

Bridging Contexts

The Philippians were saved by grace for works, and so is every Christian in the world today. The gospel demands action. Each person is gifted a different way, some are gifted towards helping others to grow spiritually, some are gifted to give monetarily to the work of other ministries, some are called to bring the gospel to a new location. Everyone, from the Philippians to now, has a mission that is given to them by God. But, not only that, there are those who are called to help others discover what God's purpose for their lives' are. That is what Paul was. Paul helped the Philippians discover their calling. In the same way,, church leaders today are called to help the congregations that they serve discover their gifts and use them to fulfill God's mission in the world.

Application

What are you called to do? What is your mission in God's plan?

For me, a few action steps came to mind from this passage. Like the Philippians, I need to be giving money to the work of advancing the gospel and I can do that by giving money to my church. Also, as someone who is called into church leadership, I need to pray for those under my charge like Paul did in this passage. It is easy to say that you are praying for someone, it is a lot more difficult to actually sit down and do it.

I would be interested in how this text impacts your life, please leave a comment if you would like to share.

Merry Christmas!

Enjoy a day with your families, opening gifts, going to church, and hearing the story of the birth of Christ again. Praise God for God's gift of Jesus!

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and the shall name him Emmanuel,"

which means, "God is with us." When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

-Matthew 1:18-25 NRSV

Rapture Theory...or the great crippling of the church...

Tonight, I wanted to talk very briefly about a bit of a touchy subject, the rapture. But, before, I hit on that subject, I want to back up and put it in the context of the end-times viewpoint that espouses that doctrine. Dispensational Premillenialism.

In her book, Left Behind: The Facts Behind the Fiction, Dr. Leann Snow Flesher defines Dispensational Premillenialism as "a theological system with the following key beliefs: 1) Israel and the church are treated differently by God, 2) God must literally fulfill every promise to Israel found in the Old Testament, 3) true believers will be snatched away from human history in a rapture before a seven year "Great Tribulation," 4) the kingdom of God was postponed when the Jews rejected Jesus, so Jesus will return after the Great Tribulation to set up his Jewish kingdom, and 5) the Bible can and must be interpreted literally." (Flesher, 28-30)

First of all, let me say that it seems pretty interesting to me that people of all denominations, regardless of whether they agree with all of the teachings of dispensational premillenialism, are embracing rapture theology. The church is truly being carried by every wind of doctrine, isn't it? But, moving on.

I would like to go through the list of features of dispensational premillenialism and discuss why it is not a valid system of belief, and how it cripples the church and prevents us from being salt and light to the culture around us. We will start with the premise that Israel and the church are treated differently by God. This is fairly easy to debunk. Dispensationalism argues that Israel is saved by the works of the Law, and Christians are saved by faith in Christ. This is easily debunked by one passage of Scripture:

Just as Abraham "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness," so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you." For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed."
For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law." Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for "The one who is righteous will live by faith." But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, "Whoever does the works of the law will live by them." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us--for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"--in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

-Galatians 3:6-14 NRSV

It is easy to see from this passage, that the law was never meant to save, faith in Christ, even before Christ's coming, was the requirement for salvation for Israel and the church. So, how does God deal with them differently?

Secondly, dispensational premillenialists say that God must literally fulfill every promise made to Israel in the Old Testament. Now, as most of my readers probably know, I'm not an Old Testament scholar. In fact, I really struggle with the Old Testament, so I'm not overly familiar with these promises. But, it does seem arrogant to me for a mere human to say that God must do anything a certain way, and secondly, many of the promises made in the Old Testament are fulfilled in Christ and by the church. Perhaps someone who is more knowledgeable than I could provide examples in a comment.

Thirdly, dispensational premillenialists argue that believers will be snatched away in a rapture before the "Great tribulation." It seems interesting to me that there is only one passage of Scripture that can be used to support the idea of a rapture, and it is in 1 Thessalonians, not the book of Revelation. Moving from there, God has always made the church endure trials, tribulations, and persecutions, because in our sinful human state, the only way we learn to be Christlike is by struggling. So, based upon that alone, I find it difficult to believe that God would snatch us away at such a key period in history. However, I do believe in the concept of a rapture. In his book, A Case for Amillenialism, Kim Riddlebarger defines the rapture as "the catching away of belivers who are living at the time of Christ's bodily return to earth, When they are caught away in the resurrection, they join those who have died in Christ." (Riddlebarger, 20) The rapture, then, is not an escape from tribulation, but simply a part of the general resurrection, when those who are alive at Christ's return will receive their glorified bodies along with those that have died in Christ.

Fourthly, dispensational premillenialists argue that the kingdom of God was postponed until after the Great tribulation. The kingdom of God is when heaven invades earth, the kingdom happens on this earth anywhere where things are becoming as God would have them be. The church is the visible expression of the kingdom of God on this earth. We are the vessels that advance the kingdom as well. The kingdom is when the good news that Christ transforms sinners is preached, and sinners are transformed as a result. The kingdom comes a little more with every soul saved. In politics, the kingdom advances when we, as Christians, stand and fight for justice in our society, its when we stand up for the least people in society and advocate for their needs to be met. In the church, the kingdom advances when we love one another, and lift each other up and help each other with our burdens. Finally, in our relationships with those outside the church, the kingdom advances when we love people in general, and then because we love them share the transforming message of the gospel with them, and see them become citizens of the kingdom as well. How can that it be postponed when our all-consuming purpose on earth is tied in with the kingdom?

Finally, dispensational premillenialists argue that the Bible can and must be interpreted literally. C. Welton Gaddy speaks to this in his book Why Bother with the Bible: Understanding the Book of Faith after a discussion of the different types of literature in the Bible, Gaddy asks the question: "Is this material meant to be taken literally?" and says, "Accurately identifying the kind of literature that appears in a biblical text goes a long way to helping answer the second question to be addressed to that text. Not every verse in the Bible invites (or demands) a literal interpretation. In fact, to attempt a literal understanding of certain Scripture passages greatly obscures the meaning of those texts or altogether misses essential truths contained in them." (Gaddy, 56)
As an example, we have the Old Testament book Song of Songs or Song of Solomon depending on your translation. If read literally, this is just a love story between two people. Reading the text this way would make one wonder why it is even in the Bible in the first place! But, if you look at this book in an allegorical sense, it is a wonderful story about how God pursues us like a husband pursues his wife, and it becomes a great picture of God's love for his people!
Another example is the book of Revelation. Although we often try to take this literally today, it was written in order to give hope to persecuted believers in the first century, so the imagery is designed to confuse those who wouldn't get it, and bring hope to the people it was written to, it cannot be taken literally!

Why is this viewpoint crippling the church? Good question! Dispensational Premillenialism cripples the church's witness to society by giving us an excuse to hide in our buildings and wait for the rapture to happen. It takes away any imperative to be salt and light in our culture, and gives us an excuse to allow God's world to go to hell in a hand basket. A friend of mine had a vision once. She saw the believers sitting in church, surrounded by light worshipping God. That's a great thing, right? Well, she also saw outside the church building holes in the ground, and people walking around surrounded by darkness, falling into the holes. And the only way these people could get light is if one of us came out of the church and gave it to them. The message of this vision was clear. The light was the gospel, the people in darkness were those who aren't Christians, and the holes were the traps of Satan that led these people to hell. The point is clear, we need to get out of our churches and bring the gospel to the people. And, dispensational premillenialism gives us an excuse not to do that.

But, if I don't believe in dispensational premillenialism, and I rip it apart in the preceding paragraphs, what do I believe? My beliefs about the end times are very simple. The kingdom is advancing through the work of the church, which is the new humanity on display for all to see, and, as we continue to pray and work for transformation in society, we will eventually see it, as heaven invades earth and it sphere after sphere of life, God transforms the kingdoms of this world into the kingdom of Christ. Simply put, my belief states that the world is transformed as the church acts like the body of Christ. I have hope that God will fulfill his promise of transformation through us!

Works Cited

Flesher, LeAnn Snow. Left Behind: The Facts Behind the Fiction. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 2006.

Gaddy, C. Welton. Why Bother with the Bible: Understanding the Book of Faith. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1998.

Riddlebarger, Kim. A Case for Amillenialism: Understanding the End Times. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003.

A Book Recommendation

I would like to recommend the book Why Bother with the Bible? Understanding the Book of Faith by C. Welton Gaddy. This book is a challenging introduction to scripture, and serious scripture study, feel free to check it out!

Sanctification: Human Effort or God's Grace?

“For through the law I died to the law, so that I may live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.” –Galatians 2:19-20 NRSV

The Context

The Epistle to the Galatians was written by the Apostle Paul to the Galatian Church during a time when a grave heresy had infiltrated the church. A group of people, the Judaizers, had come to Galatia and discredited Paul’s gospel of faith and proclaimed that Gentiles could only be saved and become Christians if they also obeyed the Jewish law and became Jews first. In other words, this particular group viewed Christianity as a sect of Judaism, and did not agree with its spread to the Gentiles.
In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul writes to defend his apostleship and to set the foundation that the Judaizers are heretics and are leading the Galatians astray. Paul says that there is only one gospel, and any attempt to “improve” upon that gospel leads those who heard it away from Christ and salvation.
The second chapter continues Paul’s defense of his apostleship, including how he had gone to the church in Jerusalem and shared with the other apostles what he had been sharing and received the okay from them to continue to preach it, they only added that he focus on serving the poor as well. Following this, there is a brief account of how Paul confronted Peter when he had been eating with Gentiles until the other apostles came to where he was, and then he retreated and ate with Jews only. And then the apostle Paul begins to discuss how both Jews and Gentiles are saved by faith in Christ. It is in this discussion that the passage we are discussing today can be found.

Bridging Context

God saved us by His grace through our faith. God sanctifies us by His grace through our faith. The Scriptures are clear that we cannot earn our salvation, and we cannot earn our sanctification. God begins the process. This is an important realization as we look at these verses today.
The law is God’s standard of perfection and righteousness. It sets God’s standard of righteousness and it also shows how sinful humanity is incapable of reaching that standard on our own power. But yet, we still try to do so. I don’t completely understand that, but, here’s the thing, I’ve been there myself. I had a realization that my motivation for how much time I spent at church over the course of my Christian life was trying to earn God’s favor. I also found myself to be depressed because I would try to change myself and not wait for God to move and change me, and, when I didn’t see change on my time, I would give up and slide back into my old ways pretty quickly. Where did I get this idea? It is man’s natural religion. We tend to think we are better than we really are. I was no different. I finally broke under the pressure of trying to obey the law, and almost gave up on God and the church altogether.
God, through his grace, didn’t leave us without a way to obey His law. He sent Jesus, who came to earth and lived in perfect obedience to the law, and then he was crucified in order to be a perfect sacrifice to atone for sin, so that we didn’t have to attempt to earn God’s favor any more. That is where being crucified with Christ comes in. When Jesus was crucified, our sin nature was crucified with him. Think about that! God created us, we were disobedient and became sinners, and seeing that we could no longer obey his standard, he came down here to earth and took our sin nature to the grave with him. And here’s what’s really cool: When God looks at us from heaven, he looks at us through the lens of Jesus’ sacrifice, and already sees us as holy and complete, and obedient! Isn’t that amazing! We don’t have to earn his favor, because, through Jesus we already have it! But, what does that have to do with sanctification?
That’s a good question. Even though God sees the finished product, the process isn’t over yet. But, that doesn’t mean that we use human effort to attain sanctification. Like salvation, sanctification happens at God’s pace. The Holy Spirit within us speaks to us about one thing at a time and begins to change us, and then God moves to another aspect of our life. It’s like a house, and The Holy Spirit is like a housekeeper. When God saves us, He moves into the house of our lives, and finds it a complete mess. And so, he begins with a room, cleans it up, and puts it in order, and moves on to the next room, until the whole house is clean. Our house can get dirty again though, and it’s important to realize that the only way to keep it clean is to keep letting the Housekeeper work to clean it.
When we rely on ourselves for sanctification, we can look really good to the world around us. We can have the appearance that we are perfectly moral people. But, with the appearance comes spiritual pride. WE are moral, WE are right. WE don’t smoke, drink, or chew and WE don’t hang out with those who do. I personally believe that this is the essence of the holier-than-thou attitude, and it’s sinful. We cannot rely on ourselves. When we do, disaster is the outcome. I think that’s what Paul means when he says it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.

Application

May we all realize that we cannot save our sanctify ourselves; may we realize that our human effort to do so sets us back from the goal; and may we allow God to have control of the job.

Of Sunsets and Sermons

Friday evening, I read a sermon by Rev. Dr. Samuel DeWitt Proctor entitled "The Control of Life from Within." The topic of the sermon is self-evident from the title, I am sure. The message challenged me. In a very convicting manner, he discussed how easy it is for us to lose our way as Christians in society, especially when we are tempted to let external stimuli control us, but he went on to say that it is paramount that we do not let these stimuli control us but that we be "transformed by the renewing of our minds." (Romans 12:2) Thismessage made me realize that in many ways I have allowed myself to be controlled from without. By trying to be who my coworkers want me to be, and to live the party lifestyle that they live. (I'm not wired for that!) By walking away from my support network because they challenge me. And by living within my the grass is greener on the other side syndrome. Proctor challenged me to live a life that is controlled by the Spirit of God that lives in me. It was a great challenge.
Later on on Friday evening, I listened to a sermon by Rev. Ernest Florest of the Second Baptist Church of Germantown, PA, entitled "An Inside Man." In this sermon, Rev. Flores discussed how Jesus would never have been taken out if the religious leaders did not have an inside man, Judas Iscariot, to betray him. Rev. Flores set the scene, and then masterfully bridged the context to the struggles in the church today, he spoke of an evangelical leader who stole money from his denomination and ran off with his mistress, an evangelical leader who got caught doing drugs and soliciting sex from a gay man, and a few other examples. He spoke of how during these periods in their lives, these men had been the inside man to betray the cause of Christ. But he didn't just hammer these big names, he discussed how the way that we behave in our everyday lives can make us either an inside man or a true believer. If our sin is so major that it is on public display all the time then we are an inside man, betraying the cause of Christ. When the church is having battles within that are destroying us, then those who cause the battles become inside men betraying the cause of Christ. What a challenging message!
Both of these messages challenged me to live a life worthy of the calling, and to walk away from trying to be who my nonbeliever coworkers want me to be and to be controlled by the Spirit of God that lives within me, so that I will not be an inside man, betraying the cause of Christ.