renrutkram

On the heels of our most recent Independence Day celebration I was contemplating the relationship between the Revolutionary War and the Bible.  Paul says in Romans 13:1-7:

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

Does America’s War for Independence follow these criteria?  Many have argued on both sides of this issue.  I see some serious problems with arguing that America was upholding the Biblical mandate during the Revolutionary War.  I understand all of the reasons for declaring independence from Great Britain, but none of them could have been more compelling than Paul’s reasons to rebel against the Roman government.

I think I learned a few important lessons from this miniature historical exercise: (1) Do not to glamorize America’s past, realize that God can still bring good from bad.  (2) Do not assume that every decision America has made in the name of “life and liberty” is perfect.  America is not the standard for right and wrong — that is reserved for the perfect and holy God of the Bible.

On the Desiring God blog, they had some advice from John Piper.  I was particularly impressed by what he said.  Read for yourself.

Hold fast to the Bible.  Base everything on the Bible.  If you are going to criticize, criticize from the Bible.  If you are going to affirm somebody, affirm them from the Bible.  If you are going to do a strategy, do it from the Bible.  Be a Bible saturated people.  That’s what will make for long term staying power for the gospel.

I know this is going to be called bibliolatry, and people will say, “You worship the Bible, not God.”  Bologna on that.  People who reject the Bible for God become idolaters.  The only God worthy of knowing and loving is the one we meet in and discover through the Bible.  I do want him to be everything and the Bible is secondary compared to Him;  but if we try to say Him or something about Him without stressing the foundation of the Bible, then we will lose what we are trying to preserve after a generation.

The Jesus Paradigm

In responding to Jesus’ call to follow him, I must ask myself what it is I can do to get serious about kingdom-focused living.  Am I really willing to seek the lower place at the table rather than the place of preeminence and respectability (Luke 14:1-11)?  Am I really willing to give to the poor out of my abundance (Luke 19:8)?  Am I really willing to touch sinners (Luke 7:36-39)?  Am I really willing to proactively use my possessions for the good of God’s kingdom (Luke 6:38)?  Everything in me balks at this kind of love and sacrifice.  I recoil at the thought of forsaking the world and its values — whether religious, political, social, educational, or vocational.  To be “sentenced to death,” to become a “spectacle to the world,” to be “fools for Christ’s sake,” to be “held in disrepute,” to go “hungry and thirsty,” to be “poorly clothed,” “persecuted,” “slandered,” “the rubbish of the world,” “the dregs of all things” — the apostle Paul might endure such suffering (1 Cor. 4:8-13), or maybe Ethiopian Christians.  But I, Lord?  Yet if I , as a Christian, do not practice what I preach, if I continue to major in the minors, if “poor in spirit” remains but a meaningless platitude in my own life, then I am merely an admirer of Jesus and not a true follower.

— David Alan Black

This summer I am teaching the young adults at Nansemond River Baptist Church about the “Mission of God” (Missio Dei for those of you who enjoy dead languages).  After a brief introduction discussing a Biblical Theology of mission (don’t worry, if “teenagers” can learn trigonometry they can learn Biblical Theology) we are spending the next few weeks in the beautiful book of Jonah.  The other night I taught through the first chapter of Jonah.

I don’t want to reproduce the entire discussion but God has really been working in my heart as I study this book.  Here are a few takeaways from Jonah 1.

1.  Jonah was a faithful prophet as long as God acted like he expected.  Jonah, in this story, is not just running away from serving God, he’s running away from serving God where it is hard.  This is a hard lesson for me to learn.  Jonah hated the Ninevites; they are the sworn enemies of his people.  For Jonah, the Ninevites did not deserve a chance to repent.  He was nervous that God might actually save them.  The questions I ask myself are sometimes hard to answer:  Where is it hard for me to serve God?  Who are the people that I feel don’t deserve the love and forgiveness of God?  Do I value my national loyalties more than the souls of the lost persons around the world?  Are their groups of people who I don’t want to hear the gospel?  Would I go to a hard place like Iran, Iraq or Indonesia to share the gospel or am I content to see these people die and spend eternity in hell?

2.  God sent, pursued, and saved His messenger but the messenger was never the point, it was always about the message.

3.  The point of Jonah is not about a whale, it’s about the God of the whale.  It’s about a God who rescued a messenger so He could rescue an entire people.  The story of Jonah is not about how much God loved Jonah, though He surely did; it’s about how much He loved the Ninevites.  The book of Jonah is about an upside-down God showing love and compassion to the last people on earth anyone ever expected.

4.  God does not just want to save you, He wants to use you.  When God confronts you with the needs of the world around you, it’s not just about Him pursuing you; He is pursuing the lost world through you.  When God calls you it is because He loves the world.  When He rescues you it is so that you might bring rescue to the world!

Richard Bartholomew, always vigilant against religious hypocrisy (though for the wrong reasons), has helpfully pointed out the inconsistency of many “right wing” evangelicals who loudly decry homosexuality yet have no problem with divorce.  You can read the full article yourself which describes Washington State pastor Ken Hutcherson (vocal advocated against homosexuality and defender of “traditional marriage”) officiating Rush Limbaugh’s (yeah, THAT Rush Limbaugh) fourth marriage (one more than three and one less than five).

Hutcherson is also known for asserting a form a overt machismo.  Here is a quote on his view of gender roles.

During his sermon, Hutcherson stated, “God hates soft men” and “God hates effeminate men.” Hutcherson went on to say, “If I was in a drugstore and some guy opened the door for me, I’d rip his arm off and beat him with the wet end.”

I wonder how he felt that hired performer at the reception was Elton John?

HT:  Richard Bartholomew

I have recently heard the idea that “you can’t appreciate the highs without the lows.”  Most of the time it comes from well-meaning people trying to encourage someone who is going through a tough time or who has made some mistakes.  Other people invoke this expression justify why they have to “learn things the hard way.”

I think we should file the phrase “you can’t appreciate the highs without the lows” under “statements that have no meaning at all.”

Can I appreciate a good marriage without experiencing a bad marriage?  Can I be thankful for a good job if I haven’t had a bad job?  Can I enjoy sobriety unless I have battled addiction?  Must I experience bankruptcy to appreciate wealth?

Obviously it is illogical and unbiblical to think that bad is necessary to appreciate good.  Granted, the bad times can provide perspective to the good, but I am of the opinion that information can be as good as experience.  I, for one, prefer to learn from the mistakes of others.

The Bible teaches us to learn from tough experiences and mistakes, but it never indicates that we must experience these things to appreciate the blessings of God.  I imagine that the Bible would never warn us about sin if we could only “learn the hard way.”  Warning someone to avoid sin would be of no use because the only way they could learn that something is bad or has negative consequences is from experience.  Do you see where I’m going with this?

If sin was necessary to appreciate God’s goodness and grace, then God is deficient.  God either created sin or is in need of sin to accomplish his task.  Since this is not a Biblical or logical option, we can deduce that we don’t always have to learn the hard way (though we often choose to learn things the hard way).  I think that faithful obedience and simple trust in God is a more fulfilling avenue to joy than the highs and lows of experiential learning.

I’ve been having an interesting dialogue for the last few months with another elder at our church.  I am of the opinion that there is no such thing as a “cuss” word.  “Cussing” is merely a social construct.  Words are just arrangements of letters and sounds.  There is nothing morally wrong with a particular sound.  “Cuss” words are “bad” because of what they are intended to mean in a given statement.  It is one’s intended meaning that makes a “word” bad.

A word is “vulgar” because of intended meaning not a particular sound.  This is also why the Motion Picture Association of America and the Federal Communication Commission are dreadfully bad at rating and regulating entertainment.  Such organizations can only regulate action, not intention.  The result is a PG-13 movie that is terribly vulgar in content but does not indulge in some of the more forbidden “words.”  On the other hand, various movies are rated R when they portray realistic events (e.g., war, tragedy, etc.) in a non-vulgar way but include words that are off-limits (one might recall George Carlin pointing out the hideous logic of “curse” words in his “Seven Dirty Words” comedy routine).

While I am not naturally one to use traditional “cuss” words, I am not particularly offended when people use such language in a non-vulgar way.

The Biblical text is full of language that is particularly shocking (think of Paul’s σκυβαλα – “rubbish, dung, refuse, feces” – in Philippians 3:8, Isaiah’s “filthy rags,” or the various Biblical descriptions of harlotry).  A word has a usage (which involves context, intention, etc.) and not a meaning.  Words are not moral or immoral, good or bad.  Are the Biblical writers “cussing” in the above examples?  I think not.

David Platt recently spoke at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Beware, if you listen to this message you will likely experience the “holy destruction” that the Spirit of God can bring.  Be prepared for conviction.

Platt presents a clear and compelling message of “What the Gospel Does to Our Hearts.”  The truth of the matter, the gospel, when rightly understood, will ruin your worldly way of life.

Are you ready to have your life ruined?

Here are a few memorable quotes.  Please watch or listen to the entire thing.

Until the gospel invades our hearts, any efforts to help the poor will be shallow and short-lived; but when the gospel of a Savior who became poor that we might become rich radically invades our hearts, it will radically affect the way we live for the sake of His glory amidst urgent spiritual and physical needs around the world.

The gospel demands radical sacrifice.

Hate your mom and dad, wife and kids; pick up an instrument of torture and give up everything you have.  That’s a lot different than admit, believe, confess, and pray a prayer.

Could it be that somewhere along the way we have taken the gospel, the very lifeblood of Christianity out, and put Kool-Aid in its place.  What it means to follow Jesus is to give up everything you’ve got.

Jesus is not a good teacher to be respected; He is a sovereign Lord to be obeyed.

‘That Jesus did not command all His followers to sell all their possessions gives comfort only to the kind of people to whom He would issue that command.’

If we take Jesus and twist Him into our image, then even when we gather together in our churches and lift our hands to sing songs to Jesus… we are not worshiping the Jesus of the Bible — we are worshiping ourselves.

The gospel, not guilt, is motivation for giving to those who are in need.

‘God always gives what He commands.’

We have found someone worth losing everything for… Do we believe [Christ] is worth it.

Materialism is not just wrong — it’s dumb.

The cost of discipleship is great… but the cost of non-discipleship is far, far greater.  It will cost us to give our resources, money, possessions, and lives in this world.  But what if we don’t?  The cost will be great for a billion plus people who will go on without  knowledge of the gospel while we spend our millions on our buildings, and our programs, and our stuff.  The cost will be great for our brothers and sisters in the world who will continue starving while our dogs and cats eat better than them.  But the cost will not just be great for them, the cost will be great for us.  For we will miss out… in this age and the life to come.

I got Johnny Cash’s posthumous recording release (produced by Rick Rubin) entitled “American VI:  Ain’t No Grave” (only $3.99 at Amazon.com).  The only ‘original’ release is the song “I Corinthians 15:55.”  The rest of the recording consists remastered, “pared-back” covers.

The purportedly final Cash composition (“1 Corinthians 15:55″) is a beautiful musical rendition of the famous verse: “Oh death, where is thy sting?  Oh grave, where is thy victory.”  Cash has his theology firmly planted in the Christian hope of a future, bodily resurrection (of which Christ’s resurrection is the first).

Relevant Magazine has profiled the “complicated faith” of Johnny Cash.  The article is full of memorable quotes and a fair look at Cash as famous sinner (e.g., drug abuse, spousal abuse, poor fatherhood, etc.) and famous saint.  The article quotes Cash as describing the spiritual toll that drug abuse took on him:

[The drugs] put me in such a low state that I couldn’t communicate with God.  There’s no lonelier place to be.  I was separated from God, and I wasn’t even trying to call on Him.  I knew that there was no line of communication.  But He came back.  And I cam back.

Here are some of the lyrics to Cash’s song “Redemption Day”

I’ve wept for those who suffer long / But how I weep for those who’ve gone / Into rooms of grief and question wrong / But keep on killing / It’s in the soul to feel such things / But weak to watch without speaking / Oh what mercy sadness brings / If God be willing

There is a train that’s heading straight / To heaven’s gate, to heaven’s gate / And on the way, child and man / And woman wait, watch and wait / For redemption day

In this recording (only months before his death) you can hear the sincerity and wisdom of Cash’s age.  His voice has a gentle tremble that comes with age, yet the lyrics and music display the perfect blend of insight, art, and simplicity.

I was rereading John 10 today (after hearing someone teaching this passage yesterday).  I wasn’t able to get past by vss. 10-11.  I noticed how the thieves throughout the chapter are trying to deceive the sheep.  I am reminded in my own life of all of the deceptions.  “Thieves” are often trying “steal, kill, and destroy” my joy, hope, and satisfaction in the true shepherd.  Jesus, however, has come to give me a full life, an abundant life.

Two questions:  What is an abundant life?  How does the shepherd provide such a life?

The more I read this section, an abundant life is a life in relationship with Jesus.  Like the psalmist, a person who lives a full life is able to say that “the nearness of God is good” (Psalm 73:28).  A happy sheep, is a sheep in the presence, protection, and care of the shepherd.  In the words of John Piper, “my satisfaction in Christ alone must run so deep that no pain can shake it and no pleasure can compete with it.”

How does such a satisfying and good life come to me?  Through a shepherd who is good (v. 11).  A shepherd who has sacrificed himself for me.  Jesus is both the shepherd and the sacrificial lamb.

I am reminded of the over-quoted C. S. Lewis line from “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe:”

‘If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than me or else just silly.’

‘Then he isn’t safe?’ asked Lucy.

‘Safe?’ said Mr. Beaver.  ‘Don’t you hear what Mrs. beaver tells you?  Who said anything about safe?  ‘Course he isn’t safe.  But he’s good.  He’s the King, I tell you.’