Songs that Teach

With my new job as a worship leader and after thinking about my last blog I thought that perhaps I would expound on the whole good writing and bad writing thing. We had a discussion about the lyrics and quite frankly this is great practice to do from time to time. I had another experience similar to the last with the song Jesus Messiah.  I am glad these kind of discussion are happening. Jesus Messiah has a lyric in verse two that says:

The body the bread, the blood the wine
broken and pour out all for love
The whole earth trembles and the veil was torn
Love so amazing
Love so amazing

Now at first glance the verse is totally fine and I would agree even after the second glance that it still is just that, but a pastor friend of mine pointed out that the second line wasn't theologically correct. I immediately knew what he was talking about.

He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.” (John 19)

As much as I agree that theologically none of Jesus' bones were broken and that this is actually really important to the fulfillment of scripture prophecies I do not think that is what Chris Tomlin was doing. In other words I have never understood this song to be communicating against scripture. I have always taken it as a a two-fold metaphor.  Let me explain.

The line of the song is as much a reference to the Passover dinner and what will later become our own communion ceremony as it is to the crucifixion. In this this account Jesus referring to himself metaphorically says:

26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”

27 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (Mathew 26)

Jesus says the bread is a picture of his body and then he breaks it. We are told to do this in remembrance of him. This brings up a similar issue if we want to be so wooden literal all the time. Would we say to a Pastor when walking through a line at receiving communion "Hey Pastor don't say his body was broken for me, didn't you know that none of Jesus' bones were actually broken?" He would probably just look at you and smile, hopefully, and later refer you to Mathew 26. Also in 1 Corinthians 11 when Paul recounts this story with teaching on how to receive the communion with the community he does say broken for you, some ancient manuscripts do say it that way and some do not, however I do not think Paul misunderstood the theology and made a mistake. So when this episode played out before me I wasn't too worried about the song but I understood the concern. We talked about it and in the end we came to the conclusion that the writing was fine. But this brings us a different issue. 

When we were talking about this I firstly said that I believed that the writing was poetical. In other words I believe that saying the body was broken is an appropriate picture albeit falling terribly short of what actually happened. But it is an apt metaphor that helps us understand the pain and suffering that Jesus went through. Poetical metaphor is simply a realty of musical writing and hopefully we as receivers of the music and lyrics understand this. This is why I don't demand my pastors say "given for you " instead of "broken for you" because honestly they both work. 

During our discussion it was said that music is so memorable that the lyrics should be correct. I would agree with this as well. It if often easier to remember the refrains from the songs sung rather than all the points of the sermon. This is the nature of music and why it can be so powerful. Sing something enough times and you have committed it to memory, when something is committed to memory your mind will go there as a foundation, so wouldn't it be wise if that foundation was a solid one? This is both the privilege and the challenge of any worship leader. To make sure the song selections both builds up in the faith and are true to the word of God. The third area is if they are musically pleasing, but this gets into many personal preferences and we have already gone that route before. Worship Wars

This is a task that I take seriously, the songs should be him focused not us focused. This can be difficult at times whereas songs sometimes are singing about God based on what he has done for us so the the cross-over is inevitable. But the question is where is the song going? Is it going towards offering honor and glory to him or is it more reflecting on how it makes us feel? This is a good question to ask as are all questions because we always have to come back to the goal. Honoring God. Because of the nature of music and the imprinting on our memories it can and often does develop into our theological understanding, people often just assume that the words in church songs are Biblically true. 

While I would try to teach away from this practice of relying on the songs to teach us, frankly, they do have a point. The songs we sing should reflect the truths of the Bible but we have to understand that there is a place for poetical license. Writers should be able to write poetically (this is how we get away from all our songs sounding the same) They after all are all taking from the same source material. So while we shouldn't expect our church music to be all Bible it should still be all true. As writers and singers let's have grace for the music to lead us to God without having to have a chapter and verse referent. Songs shouldn't need a bibliography at the end. 

Songs should accurately reflect the realities of God. The realities of God should then naturally lead us to the worship and praising of God. Our posture should be of one who recognizes our need to humble ourselves because we understand who it is we stand before. Let's worship God knowing that he is vastly superior to any of our descriptive language and far more deserving than us simply singing about how he makes us feel. This is a lesson from Job, he may make us feel good or he may cause us to go through a desert, he may allow us joy or allow a tragedy, do we recognize that despite all this he is holy and good? Do we bless his name anyway? because our music should always bless his name. 

Colossians 3:16 Let the words of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 

One purpose of having the music reflect him truly is because it would be easy to not sing. It would be easy to sit and think about all the tragedy and all the suffering and all the like that affects us personally. It is very easy not to sing, or perhaps to change the tenor of the song so that it reflects how we are feeling. Now the Psalms do recognize the reality of the individual but they always come back to praise. But this is a great thing about worship. We have the choice and the invitation to leave all that behind and come and sing to the one that there is nobody else like. To the one that causes all that to fall away. Who he is brings peace in the storm. He is that arresting, he is that resetting, he is that consuming, he is that rejuvenating, he is that Good! 

I don't believe that all the singing to God in heaven we hear about is because the only thing to do up there is go to a concert. All the singing is due to simply coming face to face with God. Standing or trying to stand before the being that has so much power so as to speak and cause a universe into existence, so much knowledge to know every single one of us intimately and the workings of everything in the created order and so much love to intervene into his creation and save us from our destinies in hell will be overwhelming to say the least. You cannot help but sing. After all we love him because he first loved us.  

God has told us what is true, so let us sing what is true, because one day we will be with him who is true. Truly. 

thanks

Chasing the Carrot

Theology of hope and blessing are an interesting thing. Always having hope is important. It is essential to the Christian life. Looking toward the future with expectation in Christ's return is important. Looking forward to the day of our redemption is vital to Christian health. Knowing where we are going is important to any journey.

When we read the beatitudes. We recognize that most of the blessings that come about are because of attitudes towards life that are not normal to the natural man. We have to re-frame our perspective about life according to the very real world changes that come about because of the Gospel. When we look at them closely we recognize that many of the resulting blessing are in a sense kingdom come blessings. As such they will find there ultimate fulfillment in the actual kingdom of God. It is about looking to the future. It has less to do about present and immediate tactile increase.

Blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the peacemakers etc. The blessings are inheriting the earth, possessing the kingdom, seeing God. All of these have there fulfillment when Jesus returns. There may be temporary comfort and mercy but the unending guarantee of them is when we are in heaven and the new earth. Jesus is calling for a change in behavior now for the promise of what is to come. The even better thing is that with the Spirit we get to experience some of this relief now but the truest fulfillment is yet to come.

But watch Christian television for any length of time and you get the feeling that God is always around the next corner waiting to shower you with blessings and prizes. Wow the Christian life is exciting! Now I don't doubt that God blesses his people in this way but this seems to lack balance and perspective. 

I don't say this because I believe he doesn't bless but often this message is that it is just around the next corner. God has something amazing! God has the fix you have been looking for! The solution is coming, always coming. It sounds very infomercial. 

So is my problem with buying or is there some issue with UPS, a strike perhaps?

My real question in this is how do we get perspective on the lack of arriving? Do we continually swallow this line that it is still on its way? I know that it is true that the destination is always still a ways off while we are still in transit. But don't we at some point check the route again? 

This is a hard question, but I want to wrestle with hard questions. Does even asking the question undermine my faith? Would this be easier to shut up, get in line and hold my hands open for the inevitable filling all the while feeling something is wrong? What do I do when it doesn't feel inevitable?

Worse yet what do we tell people in ministry when they experience this dissonance? The easy answer is have more faith, but this doesn't help. Is it perhaps some of us are just poor waiters? Perhaps, but might a continual message of carrot chasing need tweeking?

See I want blessings as much as the next person. I don't think rose colored glasses are the answer though. We are taught to pray "if it be thy will" this needs to be applied to that blessing that we want. If the message we are hearing is continual blessing around what seems to be endless corners then maybe we need to consider that crucial phrase "if it be thy will".  

That way if checking around each corner only reveals another boulevard to be traversed it will not bring more undo stress. Jesus has another leg on this journey huh? Well get back up on the wagon and let's continue on. Perhaps at some juncture we will realize we have learned to navigate the map better and learned to actually listen to the GPS. God's, Path, of Salvation, ha!

See I believe faith is more about believing the promises of God and not so much about receiving the next item of blessing. It is hard enough to keep myself in the love of God without worrying about whether my check is coming in the mail. Worrying about the check is a real enough issue but faith is about calling us to settled truth that we are loved and accepted in the beloved. It is about moving forward with a renewed sense of urgency because I have new sense of place in the world. I am loved and cared for and forgiven and my blessed of eternity with him gives me what I need to negotiate today. This truth helps me wait for the check without calling into question his character and provision when the mail seems to get lost.

I am a Christian for the relationship with God not for the personal benefits that may come to me. This is a truth that I have to remind myself. I don't want to get so caught up with petition that I forget adoration. The relationship absolutely brings about personal benefits but I want to seek his face. When it becomes about the carrots then I become a dissatisfied bunny.

There are so many advantages and benefits to being a follower of Christ that I never want to grow discontent because I feel short changed on some temporal blessing. I want to focus on Jesus forgiving nature that positions me for a relationship that I do not deserve. When we focus on this it gives such freedom to the Christian life that I cannot stop to mourn a loss of discontentment. Along with this truth we get to inherit eternal life and live in the presence of the maker of all things.

I get to befriend God.

No carrots are worth losing my center which interrupts enjoying the lover of my soul in the now. This is preparing for the coming storms that come and having that solid foundation in Christ. This is why Jesus taught us to look to the blessing that come with eternity because that is where the real fun begins. This is not pie in the sky and self denial this is recognizing the true joy of our salvation. This way God is free to bless and withhold as he sees fit in order to develop our hearts for him.

This is how we can say "The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away blessed be his name."

This way God is able to say "yes" and "no" if needs be. He gets to be God and I get to be a faithful member of his kingdom, a loving member of his family, and a happy bunny with carrot rations.

thanks

On God and gods

A new year but still an old theological debate. By the time I wrote this many had already taken the task of answering this question and thank God, more people need to speak up about this. But it is going around so I will still add my two cents. Of recent the question "Don't we all just worship the same God? The Jews, Christians and all their denominations and what about the Muslims? Isn't it all the same God of Abraham? Aren't we just looking from different vantage points reading slightly different descriptions? Haven't you seen that tolerance and co-exist bumper sticker with all the world religions represented on it? Geez! Are we all approaching the same God who just seems to give different and conflicting marching orders to different peoples? Well with the rise of Radical Islam this is a good question to ask. This is not simply the case of Christians trying to be different for differences sake, these truths have gravitas, they carry meaning. As a famous person once said, ideas have consequences. 

Well let's look at it. Let's get Biblical a moment. The word of God gives testimony about what we are supposed to believe, this is why we place such weight to what is written. This is why even the Qur'an calls Christians people of the book. So what does that book say? The Bible records for us the character and nature of God. It says:

35. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 36. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3:35,36

"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me." John 13:20

He who has the Son (Jesus) has the father, he who does not have the son does not have the father. 1 John 5:12 

No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. 
1 John 2:23

This is even foretold in the Old Testament.

13. I saw in the night visions,and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man,and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion,which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.  Daniel 7 

This is why Jesus frequently refers to himself as the Son of Man. The Father (God) is inextricably linked to the Son (Jesus). 

It other words there is a sense in which the Jews are approaching the right God but attempting to worship him wrongly. But can this be said the Islam? Does simply the idea that Isaac and Ishmael shared a Father in Abraham mean that a religion that rose literally hundreds of years later that pays lip service to that God mean anything? Well I think we have to seriously look at what the teachings say? How is God described what does he ask of his people? And finally, this is the linchpin, what do they say about Jesus?

This is the issue. If they acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the messiah come into the world, God's own son that shares nature with the Father then they are true, if not they are Antichrist. This is an explicit teaching of the Bible. No blogger can change this even if it wins friends and influences people. As creatures we have to come to God on his terms. 

If God condescended and humbled himself to take on the form of a human being in order to testify that he himself had the keys to death and eternal life and that nobody could approach his father, who he is himself one with, then apart from his known message and offer of redemption, are we really being intellectually and theologically honest in arguing that another religion that is hostile to that  truth is the same thing? 

If we have one math book that teaches that 1+1=2 and we have another math book that teaches that 1+1=3 then they cannot both be reliably teaching the same thing. Even if we were attending a conference on math solidarity and peace among mathematicians. I would hope that there would be enough integrity in the room for someone to stand up and say we have crossed over from math into silliness. 

The Bible is explicit. Paul specifically makes the case that even if it was an angel was to appear to you and were to preach to you another gospel that they should be accursed. Why? Because it would be messing with the very revelation from God himself, the very revelation that teaches how to have peace with God. In other words God is not going to contradict himself and confuse his people, but perhaps his enemies will...

Go and read Islamic history. This is exactly the story of how it happened. An angel from "god" appeared and gave new and conflicting testimony. A good follower of the God of Abraham would have recognized the revelation as new and quite different and thus not from the true God. They already had other books not included in the cannon. A good follower of Christ would have further asked and what do you say about Jesus? Is he Lord and God? Well the answer is clear from the Qur'an, No! He was just another prophet from (same god?) of which now Muhammad is greater.

The Bible records Jesus saying of himself from the Gospel of John:

"I am the way the truth and life no one comes to the Father but by me."

"I am the resurrection and the life."

"I am the gate, whoever enters through me will have eternal life."

and to prevent the idea of two Gods Jesus says of himself "I and the Father are one." 

This is how we get the idea of trinity along with the Holy Spirit, 3 in 1. These are exclusive Christian truths that no Jew or Muslim will claim or stand for. We have to consider theology here. If Jesus was just another one in line of people who at one time or another was privileged enough to speak on behalf of god for a bit, he really is no better than Moses, Isaiah , Jonah or perhaps even Mohammad. Jesus really should not be saying the kinds of things he said. We shouldn't be revering him the way we do and we should surely stop writing songs about the guy.

But God is a jealous God who will not share his glory with another. The writer of Hebrews writes:

The Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. 4 Thus he became so far better than the angels as he has inherited a name superior to theirs. For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my son, today I have begotten you”? Or again, “I will be to him a father,   and he shall be to me a son”? 6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God's angels worship him.”7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.”8 But of the Son he says,“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

So Jesus is quite different from other men. Jesus is quite different even to the angels who owe him worship. This is not another prophet in line of the prophets. This man is God's own Son who claims worship for himself. Jews recognized this which is why they put him on the cross. The Qu'ran cannot and will not claim this, in fact neither will the Jews. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says of him in Colossians 1:

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

If we want peace with our fellow man we need more than a bumper sticker understanding, we have to follow it to the source which is a man Jesus, we do not however pretend all our gods are the same. This is why Jesus came, anybody can use the word god and fill in the meaning. Hinduism literally has millions of them, our planets are Roman Gods fashioned after the Greek gods and Zeus, who was that thunder guy? We have lots of gods in our history, we are not short on gods. Just because someone in your ancestry has a common relative does not mean your gods are the same, especially with conflicting revelation.

This is why all the many denominations of Christianity share confessions and creeds. We hold that Jesus is the only begotten Son and that he and the Father are both one.  The spirit proceeds from them, their is one God with three persons we have a holy trinity. We have certain confessions that demarcate faith in God or something else. If we have these confessions in common so we can disagree on baptism and liturgy and music. This is why the counter argument that certain theologians also had different gods because they worship differently does not work. We have church history and heretic councils when their gods were actually different and wouldn't you know it, it was about the theology. 

If we agree, we can have many flavors on a Sunday morning as long as we honor Jesus Christ as Lord. When not? Well this is why Mormonism is considered a cult to Christians, they do not share the belief that Jesus is the unique and only begotten Son of God in the flesh worthy of all our worship. Interestingly enough their revelation was also given by an angel of which we were already warned about. This is why people who say they want Jesus or God but don't like theology unfortunately do not understand how it works. Jesus gave us specific testimony that we either accept or reject. The Father (God) sent Jesus because he does care and specifically want us to believe and act in a certain way, it does matter. People will always create other ways to god and even gods themselves but the Father only recognizes the way of his Son. Certain things can never be denied or else we have 1+1=3 and only silly people will agree to live in such nonsense. 

Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life no one can come to the father but by me. There is no other prophet who gives aid. This is why even Jews need the Gospel. This is why Christians who know their Bibles will never agree to a statement that we all worship the same god, it is not to be petty, it is not to be belligerent, it is because it is not a simply a question of method but of who is actually on the other end of those prayers. 

Let's stop arguing for solidarity when there is none, but gain a little understanding. Instead read the Bible and see who it is we actually are seeking or not. Find out who it is you are reaching for as Michelangelo painted. Because there are many gods out there, but there is only one true God. Maybe we should find out who he is. 

thanks

Come Let Us Return Unto The Lord

New York Daily News' provocative article about God failing to address our nation's violence. "God isn't fixing this". We hide behind useless platitudes. We call on God and he does nothing. I don't remember them printing their prayers for help, you know, in big bold print so God is sure to read it from the sky. When were they asking for his help? If anything I recall us as a nation telling God he was not needed or welcome anymore. So what do we have? People firing guns in the streets and in schools. People acting like there are no moral standards or higher power to be accountable too, hmm... Now sadly this wasn't lamenting God's absence, because that would be something. No this is a smokescreen, an obvious cover of the bigger agenda of gun control. Now control should be discussed, but not here. That should happen in times of peace when our heads are on straight not in the wake of mass human loss. This isn't a political blog, but they brought him up, so let's talk about God's part in this.

What they are doing here is a provocation for us to move on something that will have actual impact, you know, because God doesn't? Because everyone knows God doesn't exist and we are silly for praying to him, right? How empathetic we are to those in mourning.

I guess calling on God for help is so 2001. Even before 9/11 I remember 1999 with Columbine and the prayers that went out. But since then apparently science has solved us of our God problem and politics have delivered us from evil, or have they not yet? But it is a good question even though it wasn't a question of a truly agnostic heart. Why isn't God helping us?

So another tragedy has taken place on American soil and rather than call out to God for help, we use him to push an agenda. They mock those who call on the name of the Lord. They even took the time to highlight all the silly people who do call for prayer. This reminds me of 2 Peter 3:4-9.

knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.7But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

They mock and point out that God has not arrived yet. Where is God? Where is your deliverer? Where are your answered prayers? They say this and all the while they forget that God is delaying judgment so that more might repent. They fail to realize that while they mock they are being added to the very judgment, the very justice, they mock for not coming. 

Could part of the problem be we are more interested in politicizing this tragedy than calling for repentance? But Gabe isn't writing a blog about this doing just that? Well, no because I am offering real help to the real problem. We have lawless people running around in what is becoming an increasingly morally bankrupt America. We need a moral solution, one that is bed-rocked in something greater than ourselves. God. If we actually wanted God to fix this problem the place where we should start is on our knees. The direction of our culture however has not been one of seeking God's help. If we want God's help then why is our country going out of its way to remove him from public and personal life? Ah so he is probably not fixing this because we want no part with him. I am then reminded of Psalm 2

1Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,3“Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath,and terrify them in his fury, saying,6“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”7 I will tell of the decree:The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him. 

Now before we misunderstand, God does not sit and laugh at our tragedy he laughs at our plans to usurp him. He weeps at our tragedy, he beckons us to return and be made hold. He desires us to repent and be saved. He says I have set up my King in Zion, Jesus, go to him! He calls us to take refuge in him, but we have no interest in his blessing, we are busy with our prodigal living and show no sign of turning back to the ranch. This is on us, and maybe this is what the Dahli lama was trying to get at a few weeks ago, but we do need the welcoming arms of God to do it. We have run off, and we need to come back.

God has already said my help is available but we would have none of it! Verse 3 is telling of us when we as a people have said to God "let us break our bonds and cast the cords away from us."  How? Well we have made him unwelcome in our government, in our schools, he has become unwelcome at work, and we work to remove him from the streets. He is unwelcome in our morals, in our laws, in our speech. What's next, soon our homes maybe?  We are even taking steps to keep him away while making way for our false gods to take up residence. Our kings and rulers have said We will not have you rule over us! We have spit in the face of God but now we want to invoke him to make an impassioned plea and provoke a response from his people to make a political point for our system. We mock God but God is not moved by our ridicule or our arrogance, he laughs! But he is moved by humility.  If we will humble ourselves and return to the Lord and call on the name of Jesus that we have cast away, then and only then, will he rise from his position and perhaps help us.

But not while he while we continue pointing our finger in his face. We have thrown off the bonds of God and have the gall to wonder why a godless nation produces men and women who want nothing to do but steal, kill, and destroy. But rather than ask those questions about how we got here, why we are here? We focus on the symptoms. We make it about the particular instrument used in the incident. We pretend that the particular weapon is the problem rather than the people who do these things. Why don't we ask those deeper questions instead? What is wrong with our people, our souls? May it is because those questions will reveal a condition of the human heart that we all posses? Maybe a heart that we have fostered and coddled and paraded as virtuous. Oh I think we know and we don't want that curtain pulled back.

Well we pushed and wanted a godless nation and we got it. So much so that we will only bring God up to drag his character through the mud just to continue building our own kingdom of refuse. We have so little regard for God that we will jump on the first occasion to both undermine him, his followers and continue our world without him. Even while our nation crumbles. And we wonder why we are here? We dishonestly comment on his failure to help.

I don't say this gleefully, but...

Congratulations America, you are getting the utopia you purchased with your own sins.

But not all is lost! So do we pray? Yes we pray! We pray even when we are ridiculed for it. We pray in our times of want and in our times of plenty. We pray because we have a God who acts! We ask because we have a God who forgives, and not just that he does but he wants to! A God who will even forgive our mocking of him. Let us take him up on his offer. Seek refuge in the Lord!

It is not too late to return to the Lord, today is the day of salvation. Be warned O' Kings of the Earth. Kiss Son lest he be angry and you perish in the way. There is a warning and a call. He is calling to us. C.S. Lewis says that God is shouting to us in pain. He is saying Return and be saved! But to do this, well, that would require looking in the mirror once and awhile and bending our stiff necks.

thanks

My Dahli Lament

War, war never changes. To quote a modern proverb. With the recent attacks on Paris the world once again is reminded we have an enemy that will not relent, will not stop until we all convert or are killed. Shame on us for forgetting. These wolves will not go away.

The Dahli Lama is a great man who has suffered more than the most of us, but I will critique his theology on prayer. He spoke about the recent tragedies with terrorism. He challenged more people to love and spread the love, and quite frankly it is not a bad message. However in this instance thinking that more love will do anything in the face of this enemy is utterly misinformed. He continues on about the need for love and said that if we emphasize harmony and non-violence then we usher in a new era. Now I appreciate the sentiment but it really doesn't solve much in this instance. Failing to understand that we are dealing with demonically fueled hate from a false god will never help the situation. It would have been similar to John Connor trying to convince the Terminator not to murder him. Kyle Reece explained to Sara Connor what the Terminators do.

Listen, and understand! That Terminator is out there! It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. Terminator (1984).

This is not something we can win out with love and good intentions. This is not the case of religious differences but the kingdom of man wrestling with the kingdom of darkness. Powers, Principalities, Rulers, Authorities have raised themselves an army of darkness and now march on the earth to wipe out mankind. This is literally what Paul was warning about with the armor of God in Ephesians 6. But these demons do have foot soldiers. If we don't understand the enemy or their mission then any attempts at solutions will only fail or worse yet enable the spiral to continue, insert American foreign policy. Trying to reason against a growing army with an evil conviction committed to death and destruction is a failure to respond.

But this is not a political blog, the bigger issue I had with his statement apart from a misunderstanding of extreme Islam, was the obvious one that the media have latched onto, him urging the people to stop praying for Paris. Part of his thought was fine because I think that he was trying to say that more than simply prayers were needed. Now this is true, our governments should step up. But his other reasoning was that God's answer would be "No, solve the problem yourself, because you caused it." Well perhaps Buddha may respond saying something like that because he is quite incapable of doing anything, but God is.

The problem with this is that this is not God's nature. He is loving and compassionate. He encourages us to humble ourselves and pray and to repent. God encourages interaction with himself. If God cannot and will not help then get a new god. This is why Paul speaks about the armor of God. This absolutely has a spiritual element to it and we need God's help.

2 Chronicles 4:14 teaches this principle.
14if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

I think the problem is we have gone on long enough without the help of God. 

The other issue is God is not a pacifist. He raises up kingdoms and brings others to the ground. God gives the power of the sword to the governments for the very purpose of curbing evil. The governments of the world are supposed to rise up and topple this evil, that is their very purpose. They in a sense hold the peace until true justice returns. 

"But Gabe, Jesus was a pacifist!" You are right, he was for his purpose in his first coming and he requires it of his followers as well. That is why he has governments in place to handle the wet work. They are not expected to handle this task with protest and peace vigils. God raises up governments and kings for this purpose. They maintain order and they and bring the sword when it is necessary. As Ecclesiastes teaches there is a time for hate and a time for war, also read Revelation.

When these neo Nephilim reek havoc on the world then God's avengers must stand up. I already wrote about God's avengers though. If God expects his avengers to do something then do we expect him to turn a deaf ear at our prayers? In fact sending in governments from around the world to combat this evil may very well be one of his ways of intervening and answering prayer. God raised up armies to do that very thing in the Bible all the time. God judged his own people with Assyria and Babylon. God used his own people to judge the Philistines, Canaanites, the Ammorites etc.  

So go read a Psalm about calling on God to intervene on the world stage. He does it all the time.

Psalm 94 is a psalm calling on God to act on the enemies.
Psalm 10 is calling God stop the wicked.
and this from Psalm 58   

O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
    tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away;
    when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,
    like the stillborn child who never sees the sun.
9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
    whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!

10The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;
    he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
    surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

God cares about justice. This is not to say do not pray for your enemies though. Jesus does tell us to do this. So while I pray for them to turn from their wicked ways and come to the Lord I hope in the meantime their violence will be stopped whether by a solider doing his job or a missionary doing his. 

So while he meant well, the Dahli Lama only caused me to lament at having missed this one. So I want to end by offering a prayer. Thank you God for being a God who hears, a God who acts, and a God who cares. We have indeed made a mess here of your beautiful creation. We are in need of help from the enemy of creation. Delivery us oh God from evil and if this be a judgement, keep us oh Lord during it and let all people return to you. God help us, oh Lord and continue to bestow your grace on France and anyone else suffering at the hands of this regime of evil.

thanks

Temptation to Ashes (brothers part 2)

 I read the story of another "christian" that turned away to atheism. It makes me sad. It should make us all sad. Why? Because this whole believers versus non-believers thing is not a popularity contest.  It is not even an "us" versus them, it is an "us", every single last one of us, versus eternity. It is about the very destination of our souls.  It is about whether or not they make it into God's presence in an active relationship or a passive one.  Rest assured they will meet God. I know the non-christian especially the atheist wants to parade these individuals as brave for leaving the oppressive system of religion. 

I have read the wiki guide for how to lead a Christian away from God. The steps are so simple! I have also read Richard Dawkins's God Delusion and Christopher Hitchens's God is not great.  These people so want to convince others that God is not there. They have so much animosity towards him and religion, why? I think Paul answers that question in Ephesians 6.

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. ¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

There is a battle going on. There is war going on. Just because we may stop paying attention does not mean that the assault stops. This is similar to the wars across the world that we do not know about; unless it is fresh on the news we may be tempted to think it was resolved or no longer happening.  C.S.Lewis reminds us about this idea in the Screwtape Letters. The experienced demon Srewtape informs Wormwood just let them think that we aren't there. I am not sure if Sun Tzu used this war tactic but it does seem easiest to fight a war if one side is completely unaware. I believe that this is our temptation, to simply just muse and wander why some people, certain people are so evil? Why do they want to destroy God and tear down people?  

We have probably all heard the cry in frustration "I hate people!" If we as Christians are not careful we can fall into this trap of thinking that people are the real problem when they are in fact the mission.  Paul points out that the people are not the problem but the demons. Why do they do this? All we can do is speculate ultimately, but perhaps since they have lost, the only thing they can do is take as many people down with them. The whole not going down without a fight thing, is not so virtuous after-all.

If we forget we are in a war then the call to be strong in the Lord loses urgency. If the call to be strong loses urgency then our shield of faith gets lowered.  As this passage continues on to mention. When the shield of faith is lowered we begin to rely on our own strategies or more realistically not make any. But this is guaranteed to make us fall as the passage mentions; we get hit from the arrows of the enemy.  This is what happens if we do not realize we are in a war. We start to think that perhaps their is no fight, perhaps no faith, and perhaps no God, and perhaps nothing to hold on to. And perhaps we should just walk away, and thus another article is written about a brave soul leaving religion.

When we make this mistake for whatever reason we become a casualty of the fight that we weren't paying attention to.  Sadly a common reasons tend to be "I wanted to stop fighting temptation"  This however has made the battle about something that Christ has already won.  Temptation is very real but we misunderstand when we seem to think that since Christ died for our sins, that holiness means we now have to strive to be perfect. Temptation will always be there, our goal is not to achieve a sinless life, that is part of the blessed hope. Our conduct is important because we are in love with Christ and we want to be like him but we have a different nature and a different advocate now.  The difference is now the Spirit aids us and Christ welcomes us when we fail. If we are doing it for any other reason than we are holding our sword backwards and swinging with the blunt end.

I really think the problem is as Christians we fail to understand balance. This passage is a good example.  It tells us that people are not the enemy but that spirits are, yet we are still to dress in the armor of God. Doesn't the battle belong to the Lord?  Isn't the outcome settled?  Yes and Yes, then why do I need to care about the battle?  Because the Lord calls us to join him in his kingdom. Being in God's kingdom means being a participant.  Yes God died for our sins and we are forgiven and we need to pay attention to our conduct. But if we let one overtake the other we get in trouble. If we only focus on the grace we can slide into license, but equally if we only focus on sin management then we become discouraged and wonder what the point is.  If we can't understand biblical theology in balance then we will always be at odds with some other passage. 

This has sadly left some in a place where they walk away from the faith.  They say I was tired of being somebody I wasn't. It's as if Christianity is about being perfect and they were tired of being a hypocrite. They are half right.  They are hypocrites if they think they should be perfect, because they will never attain it, but the answer is to fall into Christ's loving arms once again after we fail.  Not to walk away. They really just reveal that they did not understand the Gospel.   

But...

Because if we forget who the actual enemy is, we can tend to let the story end here and it is our temptation to quote only verse 10 from Proverbs 24 when this happens.

¹⁰ If you faint in the day of adversity,
    your strength is small.

But let's not forget the counter that God gives in verse 11.
 
¹¹ Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
    hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

We are at war and so are the soldiers next to you, watch their backs. Are we going to leave our soldiers to burn or we will realize we are in a battle and Christians don't leave men behind.

When we hear stories like this we shouldn't shake our heads in judgement but we should return to our knees and fight the fight where the battle is.  Remember Paul's encouragement to the Galatians.

6:1Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 3For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. 4But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. 5For each will have to bear his own load.
6Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. 7Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

This is a big part of that laying down your life for a friend thing that thing that Jesus says there is no greater love than. If this doesn't make sense to you go and watch Saving Private Ryan. Let's not leave our brothers to ashes. 

Band of Brothers is also very good. 

thanks