More love, O Christ, to Thee

I think if we are honest as believers we will all admit to times where our love for God seemed lacking.  It is not as if we denounced the faith or denied Christ, but we have all gone through times where it seemed God was distant and our love and worship of Him seemed stale.  Chances are we have all seen this season of life and we probably will see times of it again in the future.  So the question has to be answered, what do we do in this situation.  The answer I am going to give is not a catch all answer, as there may be unrepentant sin, etc. that you need to deal with, but I do think it applies to most, if not all of these situations in some shape or form.

First, let's evaluate how not to increase our love for God.  Often times people get in this stage and they immediately feel guilty about it and they want to try harder to love God.  They will make themselves busy in church and doing other things and think that a love for God will just develop from their business.  Or some look at John 14.15 where Jesus says if you love me you will keep my commandments and think that if they just start following all the rules that they will love God.  But here is the problem with this, they are all based upon you seeking to work for God's love, both in receiving and giving of it.  You can't work your way to loving God more.  So if we can't work our way into a love for God what are we to do?

To me, a large part of the answer to this question is found in Luke 7.36-50.  Here there is a sinful woman who falls at the feet of Jesus, amid much social mockery, and washes his feet with her tears and dries his feet with her hair.  In the midst of this situation Jesus, speaking to the self-righteous pharisees, says that her love flowed from the reality of her great sins being forgiven, whereas those who had been forgiven little loved little.  Jesus is not saying that some are really in need of forgiveness, rather he was pointing out the hardness of the heart in the self righteous.  From this we see the answer to growing in our love for God, this being that we dwell upon His great forgiveness for us in Christ.  We often lose sight of just how sinful and depraved and in need of grace we were when Christ saved us, and how sinful and depraved and in need of grace we are now.  We lose sight of God's great grace and mercy for us and the great work of Christ on our behalf.  May we all fall on our faces and pray that our Father in Heaven would draw us back to our dependency upon him and His great forgiveness for us in Christ.  Would the doctrine of grace and the reality of our salvation not merely be theological statements that we affirm, but may they be life changing truth that draws us deeper into a love of and worship to God the Father, through the Son, by the Spirit.

Recounting the great works of God

I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.  I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. 

Psalm 9.1-2

Give thanks to the LORD for He is good.  How many times have I spoken these words, either in reading Scripture or singing this truth in song?  It seems these words flow from my mouth and I often hear them flowing from the mouth of other church goers as well, as they should.  It is good for us to give thanks to the LORD and acknowledge His goodness.  But over the past few days the Spirit, through circumstances in my life, has been pressing me on this and my truthfulness and meaning in making such a statement.  Do I really trust that He is good?  Do I really, honestly take time to give Him true thanks and praise and to "tell among the people His deeds?" (Psalm 9.11)  

More times than not I find myself giving a generic thanks to God at appointed times and only reclaiming his goodness during certain times, yet we are called to always do this.  It seems more often than recounting all of his wonderful deeds I am more concerned with what I don't have and what I am seeking Him to give me.  Again, please do not misunderstand me, it is not wrong for us to make our request known to God, in fact we are commanded to do so, but as believers, those who have been blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1), may we not lose sight of what God has done for us in the shadow of what we are asking Him to do.  May we not forget His goodnes and grace for us.

Maybe this is just me.  Maybe I am the only one who seems to lose sight of this, but for some reason I doubt it.  May we who call upon the LORD take time to truly recount His wonderful deeds, and more than the surface level heatlth and family.  May we truly take time to sit and give thanks to God for what He has done.  May we rest in His faithfulness and goodness.  And above all else, as we recount the great things He has done, may they draw us into a satisfaction and dependency upon the good God who has given them to us, not the things themselves.

God will not give us more than we can handle....will He?

"God will not put more on you than you can handle." This is a saying that we have all heard more times than we can possibly count. I was even in a conversation the other day when the person conversing with me made this statement. This is a statement that has always rubbed me the wrong way, if for no other reason because it is a cheap cliche that people seem to say just to try to make themselves feel better in the moment. However, lately it has been rubbing me the wrong way theologically. It gets me thinking, is this true? Is there biblical text that teaches such a statement, or does the Bible proclaim a truth that actually teaches the exact opposite? II Corinthians 12.1-10 is a key text in seeing a biblical view of this statement, but it is not the only one. In this text Paul is referring to a "thorn" that is in his flesh. Paul is not referring to a literal thorn that is irritating his skin, but rather some affliction that is upon him that he cannot overcome or bear. The identity of this thorn is highly debated, and for the sake of time and relevance I will not go into hasing out my interpretation of the thorn. Rather I want us to focus on what takes place between God and Paul regarding the thorn. Three times Paul pleaded with God to take this "thorn" from him. The ability to overcome or "handle" this thorn was beyond Paul's ability, so he was pleading with God to take it away from Him. So how does God respond? Does he tell Paul, "Don't worry, I will not give you more than you can handle?" No. He says, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is make perfect in weakness." (emphasis mine) Christ Jesus, not Paul, is the one with the strength to handle the situation. If you look at the context, God gave Paul the thorn to keep him from getting boastful in the first place. God placed the thorn in the side of Paul to show him that he couldn't do it on his own strength and to draw him into a deeper realization of his need of Christ Jesus. God's power, grace, and goodness are displayed, not in keeping us from more than we can handle, but rather showing us we can't handle it and bringing us to Him through Christ Jesus. Think about the mindset that truly lies behind the statement that God will not give us more than we can handle. On the surface it seems that we are putting trust in God that he wouldn't do something harsh to us. But the main heart behind this statement is one of pride. Ultimately, we are saying that we don't need God's help, because after all we can handle it. So let us be sure of this, God will give us more than we can handle, but he will not leave us in the midst of it. May we embrace our inability to be God and therefore our inability to have the power, wisdom and strength to overcome all things. May we rest in the truth of the Psalmist when he writes, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling." May we stop resting in our strength and may we rejoice in our weakness. May we cling to the power of God whose weakness is stronger than our strength (I Cor.1.25). May we trust in Christ as our strength and righteousness.

My response to the Jesus>Religion debate.

It seems that the video of the guy performing a poetry piece about how Jesus is greater than religion has spread like wildfire, and has caused some to promote it and some to stand against it.  I think both sides (at least the ones I have seen and talked to, can't speak for all) are coming from the same heart, it is just a matter of what they mean by religion.

First, let me clarify something.  Are there guidelines that God has clearly laid out for life and worship? Absolutely.  Do performing these have anything to do with our righteous standing before God?  Nope.  These are performed out of who we already are in Christ, not in hopes of earning salvation.  So if what you mean by religion is that God is holy and has laid out guidelines for worshiping Him and that as those who are in Him through Christ, we are to seek to live out through the Holy Spirit, then yes I will agree with you that this "religion" is not different from the gospel.

However, this definition of religion is not what the majority of society, nor from what I can tell, the guy in the video have in mind.  The guy never says in the video that it's just you and Jesus so who needs the church.  He never said if you've got Jesus it doesn't matter how you live so don't put any guidelines on your life.  What he does speak against is doing things laid out in Scripture or things we make up for ourselves in order to cover up the truth of who we really are, which is a dead, rotting corpse in our depravity.  We have people enslaved to the mindset that God loves them because they show up and sit in a pew every week, or because they wear a suite and tie (or because they don't), or because they sing songs a certain way, whether that be hymns or contemporary.  This needs to die, and Jesus is greater than this. We often fear that if we promote the doctrine of grace to much that people will live an immoral life with no regard to holiness before God.  Grace does not lead to rebellion, moralism does.

The gospel, nor the poem mentioned above, promotes a life without restraint, accountability, or fellowship with a local body of believers.  What the gospel does it put to death any hope we have in our own ability to please God and atone for our sins by any act or duty, and point us to the righteousness that is found in Christ Jesus.  I pray that many will become convicted of their striving to earn their salvation and reconciliation with God through their own merits, but instead will be overcome by what Christ has already accomplished on their behalf.