My value is not in who I am

February 5, 2014 by Leave a Comment

I recently read of a person who was struggling with how he would “respond” or as any self respecting American man would never say, how he felt, when someone questioned whether he was right.  Yes, he knows this is an issue of pride.  But the problem is where does that come from?

I too have fought this problem in my own heart.  I have found myself wanting others to respect me and think great thoughts about me.  And when that was not the case, I was hurt.  The problem was I was looking for the impossible.  Anyone can tell you that “you can’t please everybody.”

Bottom line is whether a person is trying to determine their own self worth by what others think of them, or by what they think of themselves, both are damaging to the individual.  Neither others nor the self can determine self worth.  Why?  Because there is no base line.  No starting point to determine self worth within the person themselves.

But just like a piece of jewelry, an automobile, or a piece of land is worth whatever will be paid for it, your value is determined the same way.  So how much are you worth?

… you are not your own.  For you have been bought with a price… – 1 Corinthians 6:19b-20a

The idea that there was a price paid for you comes from the Bible.  Your value has been determined.  Jesus said of Himself in Matthew 20:28 that He:

did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

The price, is His life.

knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or Gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.

So your value is not determined in what someone else thinks of you, or even in what you think of yourself.  You are worth whatever God will pay.  The price God paid for you was the life and blood of the God the Son, Jesus Christ.

No longer allow anyone to make you feel worthless.  You are not.  You are of great value.  And I thank God, so am I.  Why?  Because He said so, and backed it up with His very life.

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Satan or not?

January 7, 2014 by Leave a Comment

So today I read an article about how the Church of England will no longer be asking parents to repent of sin and reject the devil.  Also today I read an article about how a satanic group are working to put a 7 foot monument to Satan in the Oklahoma capital.  Talk about getting some things messed up.

Peter wrote to the Church to remind us that we are to, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8 ESV)

I have often found that some of the greatest lines are found in fiction.  So to fiction I go:  “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” -Keyser Soze.

Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.
– Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:20

 

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God calls us to a Selfless life

January 6, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Less than six hours after giving an emphatic plea to the church, that part of the very definition of being a follower of Christ is to be selfless, I found myself hearing what I thought were very selfish words I almost did not believe.   Actually I did not believe them.  I convinced myself that I had misunderstood the words that were spoken and that I should be silent so as not to create a problem where none existed.

I had spoken just that morning on the cost of discipleship.  I had included Matthew 4:17-22, where Peter, Andrew, James and John all leave their jobs, their lives behind them to follow Jesus.  James and John even had to leave their own Dad.  In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 we saw, “… you are not your own, You were bought with a price, therefore honor God with your bodies.”  And then also Luke 14:33.

Those statements are pretty clear.  If you give your life to Jesus, then you have given your LIFE to Him.  All you have and are now belong to Him.  At least it seams clear to me.

Is it clear?  Does Jesus have supreme authority over all you and I have?  If so, why would we deny it being used by the church?  Do you have family?  Have they been taught to surrender all they have to Christ?  Do you have land?  What if the church needed even a very small section?  Could they use it?  Do you have a vehicle?  Do you have a heater?  Do you have clothes?  Do you have money?  What do you have that you have not received? (1 Corinthians 4:7)

This is hard even for me.  But I believe this is the call of Christ.  Nothing we have is our own.  It all belongs to Christ.  We were bought and paid for with the blood of Christ.  He gives us life.  Nothing we have is worth telling Him no.

“So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions.”
– Luke 14:33

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God is Just

January 3, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Many times people question is God a moral monster for his judgments on humanity. A good example here is how God dealt with the Jews in the book of Jeremiah. They were entering into judgment and most bible students could tell you that is because they entered into idolatry. Now you and I suffer from this world where betrayal is an almost everyday event in some way. So we need to consider how idolatry looks from this side of the super natural.

“For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it.  And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire,which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.”

– Jeremiah 7:30-31 (ESV)

Now simple minded thinkers might say, see religion is bad. And then conclude that any form of worship is bad. But what they are missing here is that it was humanity who had fallen into a devious practice of false worship of a false god.  It was God who intervened and stopped the slaughter of the innocents.  It is God who did the right thing.  His judgment is just here as it is every time.

The people involved in this practice didn’t know God was right before He stepped in. His actions revealed the truth to the people and hence he was not only just but also merciful.  Our judgments of God are so wrong.  We even confuse His judgment to be like our own.  It is not.  With absolute knowledge, goodness and power He has the ability to see what is really just and really merciful.  Not just one side of an argument (your side) but He sees the whole truth.  He sees the greed and malice of all sides of an issue.  He knows the flaws in my heart and desires as well as what is in the next person.  But he loves me anyway.  The Bible says it this way, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  (John 3:16, ESV) God is the one who loves.  He is the one who really loves humanity.

That love is shown on the cross.  God is just, and any complaining of ‘that’s not fair’ needs to be met with a quick understanding that fair means we all deserve His judgment, because we have all sinned (we have all acted selfishly at one point or another) we deserve death as a judgment the Bible says.  But God, in his mercy sent His own Son to take your place and mine under judgment.  That was what happened at the cross.  People may ask, why did God kill his own Son?  But the real question is why have I been so self centered that the Son of God had to pay my penalty so I could live?  I am not deserving of this gift that Jesus stepped in to pay.  But I am thankful for it.  And so I praise Him, I give Him my faith and my trust.  Knowing that where as He is just… He is also merciful.

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God is Personal

January 2, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Most of the people I know who have wanted to argue against the existence of God (or against His goodness) have wanted to make the argument external, non-personal.  But God is personal and our need for Him is personal, our sin is personal.  So when we talk of God and the conversation is not about why we would personally need God, we overlook the nature of the relationship and knowledge of God that was intended in the first place.

So my conclusion is that any real conversation about God needs to be about why you or I need God personally.  Conversations about whether God is good or does God exist in general, where as the question my be legitimate in the mind of the questioner, it is misleading.  The question needs to be ‘can I know that God exists?’ or ‘Can I know that God is good?’  When we consider a possible relationship with Him we need to ask ‘how can I have a relationship with God and is that reasonable?’

What this does is eliminate the hypothetical bologna that gets in the way of honest questions.  Instead of allowing my mind to question how God can judge something I don’t see as a problem in another person, I then have to ask how God could make peace with me.  And even if I don’t understand the law of God, each of us are aware that we have done things that are wrong.  When we face those parts of our life that we know we have done wrong, then we free to consider if God is real and how He will accept us.  That will reveal our need for a Savior, and that leads only to Christ.

If we fail to make this personal than we become guilty of the greatest form of sin and arrogance.  When we start evaluating God in a hypothetical, non-personal way, we wind up judging God based on our presumptions concerning His actions in situations that we do not fully understand.

Verses to consider:

  • 1 Samuel 16:7 – But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”  (ESV)
  • Romans 3:21-26 – But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—  the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,  whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  (ESV)
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Christmas thoughts

December 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Christmas is about Christ

  • Claims that Christmas finds its roots in a Roman or Pagan holiday are a manipulation of the truth.  It is true that Constantine sought to replace a Roman Holiday with the celebration of the Birth of Christ with little to no basis for situating the date of His birth on December 25th.  But that does not mean that the idea of remembering the birth of Christ started at this point. In fact, as we read in the Bible books Mathew and Luke, the recognition of the Birth of Christ as a miraculous and special event was a part of the very earliest Christian beliefs and traditions.  So the only thing that has any connection to a Roman holiday is the date, not the event.
  • Gifts are an obvious part of the Christmas story.  You have only to look at God’s gift of Christ to the world and the gifts of the wise men to Jesus to see that gifts are clearly part of Christmas.  Even if the Romans gave gifts to one another at that same time of year, it shows nothing more than a clear example of why Constantine would choose that time of year as opposed to another.  Even if Christians did not give gifts to each other for the purpose of remembering the birth of Jesus (which I have not researched) it would show nothing other than the adoption of a practice that could easily be used to give glory to God.
  • Christmas in what we know in western culture has always been about Christ.  Even among those who do not believe in Jesus, the practices of love and generosity that are so often shown at Christmas time are glorifying to God no matter who shows them.

A note to Christians

  • If there is an offense that Christians may feel about what I have just said, remember God’s common grace.  We are all created in the image of God and in the book of James we learn that all good things come from the Father above.  In short, good things can and do come from non-believers the same as believers.
  • Remember that the only people Jesus ever used the word hypocrite towards were the religious people.  Those who were anxious to point out the flaws of all those around them and slow to admit, or even denying, their own short comings.  (See Romans 3:23)
  • Jesus was patient and kind with those who did not know or follow Him.  Remember the words ‘Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.’  Only those who claimed to know God did He call out specifically.  Beyond that He simply called all people to repent of their sins and come follow Him.
  • Lets try to live out 1 Peter 3:15.  Don’t just read it.  Live it… Gentleness and Respect.
A note to Non-Christians
  • First, I apologize for anytime someone has mistreated you.  Most of the believers in the world catch only parts of the faith and think they know far more.
  • They honestly do feel that their faith is under attack and most don’t know how to evaluate or respond to that.  Anytime a phrase involving Christ is not welcome, they feel they are not welcome either.  Anytime Christ himself or what He represents would not be welcome, they feel an outright rejection of the very thing that defines who they are.  Its not that they behave correctly at these points, but just like you want to be respected about who you are and what you hold dear… so do they.
  • Lastly, If Christmas really is about Christ and you are willing to accept that not all Christians accurately represent who Christ is, then please don’t judge Jesus based on those who claim to know Him.  Read about Him yourself.  Pick up a bible.  Read any of the four books found in that 66 book volume that are biographies of Jesus.  Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.  All four of these books were written by different men who lived during the life of Christ.  In short, judge Jesus by Jesus.  Just like you would not want to be judge by what someone else said about you, give Jesus the same respect you would want to receive yourself.
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What are you looking for? -Jeremiah 6:16

December 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; And you will find rest for your souls.  But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

– What about you?

I encourage you to read this post by my wife.  It is wonderful.

http://www.eyvonnesharp.com/when-youre-looking-for-something-new/

 

 

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Doubt is a choice.

September 19, 2013 by Leave a Comment

I am seeing in my life and the lives of other believers that when we are tempted and when we fail, those moments are not moments where we doubt that God is real or powerful.  Those moments are moments when we choose to believe that we know what is better for ourselves than does God.  It is a rejection of His authority, and a doubting of His goodness rather than a doubting of His existence and ability.

18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him,“One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24 Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!25 For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26 Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27 But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” 28 And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” 29 And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”  – Luke 18:18-30, ESV

In this passage Jesus is affirming His own goodness and His own deity.  Just like the lesson of the rich young man, we must trust Him even when we don’t want to.

Filed Under: Personal Thoughts

God is good, so what about Jesus?

September 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

And as He was setting out on His journey, a man ran up and knelt before Him and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good?  No one is good except God alone.  You know the commandments:  ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.'”  And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
– Mark 10:17-21

Sometimes people like to point to this exchange and say that Jesus never claims to be God.  That is far from what is happening here.  Jesus recognizes the mans heart.  He is looking for that self assurance that we all want.  So He comes to Jesus hoping that he will be justified.  But Jesus sees that there is more to the situation than just the mans question.

The man wants eternal life, and once Jesus answers Him with some of the commandments, the man confidently says he has obeyed them.  Notice how Jesus only lists the commands that have to do with our relationships with other people.  He does not mention the commands that speak directly to our relationship with God.  This tells me that Jesus knew which commands were a struggle for the man.

Then we actually see a claim to deity.  After the man says that he has followed all the commands that Jesus has spoken, Jesus tells him to sell all He has, that he will have treasure in heaven and tells him to come follow Him.  These statements are ludicrous without the authority to back them up.   First, What gives Jesus the authority to tell the man to sell his property?  The fact that He is God and all things were created and given through Him to begin with.  What gives Jesus the authority to assure this man that He will have treasure in Heaven?  The fact the He is God and all things were created and given through Him to begin with.  And what gives Jesus the authority to tell this man to come and follow Him?  The fact that He is God and all things were created and given through Him to begin with.

This passage is actually a very strong case for the evidence of the deity of Jesus Christ.  So when Jesus says that only God is good, he is actually pointing out that this man has not come to grips with the fact that Jesus is indeed God.

The question is, have you?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

And the Word become flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  – John 1:1-5 & 14

Filed Under: Answers to Questions, Personal Thoughts

The Offense of the Cross

August 21, 2013 by 1 Comment

Galatians 5:11b “… In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.” (ESV)

I just listened to an audio blog online about some recent political events in the north-east.  One of the hosts comments were surrounding a statement made by a government official.  The statement was that there is nothing wrong with our [people] and they didn’t need to be fixed.  (I use the word people here in place of the actual words because this article is not about a specific group of people.)

This idea goes directly against the gospel and the faith.  All of us have something that is wrong, something that “needs fixed.”  To deny that is to claim perfection.  The offense of the gospel is not only the terrible way Christ is treated when executed, but has far more to do with the fact that the cross smacks against human pride.

The reason Christ dies on the cross is because human beings have to much wrong with them to have and maintain a relationship with God.  God the Father recognizes this and sends God the Son (Jesus Christ) to live a holy life, become and take our sin on himself and die for it, then to rise again all the while calling us to follow Him.

In short, the problem with the whole idea that ‘there is nothing wrong with me’ is that if you really believe that then you really believe you do not need a savior.  Which means you see no need for Jesus in your life.  Hence you have no relationship with God.

But the truth is we all have something wrong with us, an unholy, self-centered, arrogant bent to us that deep down shows, we want to be god of our own little universe.  In short we fall for the same temptation as did Satan so long ago.  We need to recognize these traits and admit our need for a savior in the first place.  Then as we learn who Jesus is and what He has done for us, deal with the offense of the cross, come follow Him and be changed.  Because that is exactly what we need.

Filed Under: Personal Thoughts
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