Only three verses, but worthy of much contemplation!

Rom. 16:25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began 26 but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith— 27 to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.

It just makes me want to worship Him!

 "Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Nothing like exploiting the word for advertising!

I saw an add for Christian Mingle online today and it had the following verse quoted above a very happy looking couple.

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself also in the LORD,
         And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

The dating service evidently feels this verse in some way applies to finding a man or woman that will make you happy. Evidently, they think they can play a role in helping you find the one - assuming you are delighting yourself in the Lord of course!

A closer look at the context of the passage reveals it is dealing with the short term success of the wicked and their final destuction, contrasted with the ultimaite eternal deliverance of those who trust in the Lord!

Psalm 37: ¹ Do not fret because of evildoers,
         Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
 ² For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
         And wither as the green herb.
      
 ³ Trust in the LORD, and do good;
         Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
 ⁴ Delight yourself also in the LORD,
         And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
      
 ⁵ Commit your way to the LORD,
         Trust also in Him,
         And He shall bring it to pass.
 ⁶ He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
         And your justice as the noonday.
      
 ⁷ Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him;
         Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
         Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
 ⁸ Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
         Do not fret—it only causes harm.
      
 ⁹ For evildoers shall be cut off;
         But those who wait on the LORD,
         They shall inherit the earth.
 ¹⁰ For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more;
         Indeed, you will look carefully for his place,
         But it shall be no more.
 ¹¹ But the meek shall inherit the earth,
         And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. 

It would seem that rather than fretting over our lack of a mate, we should do as we find in this passage: not fret, nor be envious, trust in the LORD, do good,  feed on His faithfulness, commit your way to the LORD, rest in the LORD, wait patiently for Him, cease from anger!

These are just a sampling of what the verse shows we should do while we wait for the Lord to do the thing the verse is actually about - the defeat of His enemies and deliverance of His people - resulting in contentment now, because of our eternal life in Him!

¹¹ But the meek shall inherit the earth,
         And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Wow, it sounds like we should not only delight ourselves in the Lord, but also He, His righteousness, and His eternal kingdom should be the main desires of our hearts now!

Dating services may be OK, but it is no small thing to use a verse out of context to promote a business and  miss or even mislead regarding the incredibly important truth this passage was intended to convey!

"Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

Book recommendation!

I read quite a bit and like to recommend books when I feel they are very helpful. I just finished The World Tilting Gospel by Dan Phillips. I found it to be a very strait forward presentation of the gospel and how we should live in response to it. Phillips does an admirable job of keeping it on point, entertaining and theologically deep - all at the same time. I would definitely recommend it for someone who is having trouble grasping reformed doctrines on salvation and Christ's glory in all things. Here is a link for more information -

http://www.wtsbooks.com/product-exec/product_id/7927/?utm_source=dphillips&utm_medium=blogpartners

The connection between unity and theology

I will be preaching on Rom. 16:17-20 this week. As Paul addresses division in the church he suggests using doctrine as the tool for deciding what is truly divisive. This idea of using doctrine to define what "causing division" looks like is perfectly reasonable, but contradicts modern liberal ideas that would see doctrine/theology as the cause of division rather than the means for diagnosing and correcting it. Consider the following errors of theology regarding division and please share your insights or other examples of  this common and dangerous error.

We put people over doctrine!

We put unity over theology!

We love people too much to take some parts of the Bible literally!

We want to be graceful like Jesus, so we don't teach things that might hurt people's feelings!

Consider for a moment if taking scripture very serious on all matters, including the call to unity in Christ as taught in His word, would really be the cause of church splits, denominations and false churches? Or, is it more likely that where doctrine is taught and embraced true unity exists and it is the rejection of Christ's teaching that leads to division?

As the Apostle John suggested: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (John 2:19 KJV)

Thinking we could achieve true unity or love folks better by ignoring God's word and His definition of love is prideful, foolish and an act of idolatry!

Using homosexuality as the main tool for interpreting God's word and love?

The following line began an article on the same sex marriage debate by John Frank. It appeared in the News and Observer Sept. 18, 2001. Read the entire article here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/18/1497957/churches-speak-up-on-gay-marriage.html#ixzz1YgRbmjpt

"Before the same-sex marriage debate enters the voting booth next year, it will pass through the pulpit. Does the Bible dictate that marriage is a union between a man and a woman and that homosexuality is an abomination? Or is the Bible open to interpretation, and is God's love all-encompassing?"

I find the way his possible answers to the question of homosexuality/gay marriage are framed to be extremely bias at worst and ignorant at best. The error is a common one and I don't think it requires having to read anything into the language of the authors thesis to summarise it as follows -

Either the hate monger extremist Christians who take the Bible literally and think it actually says most things clearly and coherently are right. Of course this way of reading the Bible leads to belief in a God who is hateful towards Gay folk.

Or

You can be one of the moderate "Christians" who say the Bible is not really able to tell us things in an absolute way and it is OK to pick and choose. This way of seeing the Bible as "open to interpretation" leads to the conclusion that God's love is "all encompassing" including His approval of homosexuality and gay marriage.

Clearly we can work backwards in the author's logic here and see that the test of God's love being "all encompassing" is His approval of homosexuality and if that is what we are using as a test for God's love then any Bible teaching that seems to disagree must necessarily fall into the "open to interpretation" category.

I would like to propose the following analogy that, while imperfect, may get to the real point:

Suppose as a loving Father I tell my two sons that running in the street is wrong and dangerous and they are not to do it. I even command them not to do it - because I love them! My two sons both love to run and the younger one is especially good at it and sees it as the most important thing in his life. In conversation the younger son tells his older brother that he doesn't think their father could have really meant that running in the road was forbidden because it comes so natural, means so much to him and doesn't seem to be hurting anyone. The older son considers the argument and then responds by reminding his younger brother that the father's words were quite clear, that he loves them and surely he knows what is best for them. He, as a loving brother, encourages his younger brother to fight the urge and obey the Fathers commands about running in the street. He even tries to help his brother see that where you run is not the most important thing in life and some who don't run at all live joyful lives. This makes no impact as the younger brother who is convinced he was born to run in the streets and he could have no meaningful life without it!

The younger brother may conclude that his father and brother don't love him because they are saying he should not do the one thing that is most important to him. Further, when he does do it in spite of the father's commands, he feels a sense of guilt that takes much of the fun out of it.

The younger son eventually finds a group of people who affirm his suspicions about his father and brother. They tell him that they had once been told these same things, but had united together under the firm conviction that anything that said there behavior was wrong was unloving and could not be true. They even got members of the press to promote their view and help others be set free from the oppression of bad feeling rules!

After several years of running in the street the younger son is killed in an accident that also claims the lives of several others as the car swerved to avoid him. Unfortunately, he dies thinking his main problem was that his father and his brother did not really love him!

Using our wants and desires as the main interpretive lens for God's love and word would be fine if there is no God and the Bible is just a human book. However, if God has spoken and He says something is wrong, dangerous or even an abomination  - are we really being loving by trying to explain it away?

Something New Under Links I Enjoy!

I had heard of and even viewed videos form The Gospel Coalition before, but I had never fully looked into what they were about. I spent some time today milling around their website and was completely blown away. They have a great vision for the church and also a great many resources available for the edification of the church. I would encourage anyone to take a few minutes and look at some of the free books and educational courses available. They also have books to purchase and tons of sermons from current and past Pastors. I look forward to supporting their work financially and hope others will do the same so they can continue to make much of the Gospel!