God is our treasure, not stuff

"And a ruler 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 commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your mother and father.' And he said, 'All these I have kept from my youth.' 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.' But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich.' - Luke 18:18-23

These verses can be so convicting and so motivating at the same time. These verses sometimes make me want to sell all of my stuff, move into a small house or perhaps move to a different country and just live radical. I begin to think that if I don't, then I am not doing everything I can to obey Christ and follow hard after Him and being more like Him.

Is God not happy when we have stuff? What about flat screen TVs? What about nice houses? What about a brand new car? What about the latest gaming system? Does God not want us to have these things? Or are those questions being worded wrong? Perhaps the way we should word those questions is "Are we glorifying God and are we making it plain to those around us that our stuff, our TV, our nice home, our new car, our Playstation 3 is not our treasure and they are not where we find our security and contentment but in Christ alone are we content and satisfied?"

I think that is a much better question to ask ourselves. Everything we do should be for God's glory, so how are we using our stuff to glorify God? How are we using our stuff to make much of God so that those around us will realize that He is our lasting treasure and we hold our possessions so lightly, so loosely that if God calls us to sell our flat screen TV and give the money to someone in need, we do it without any questions asked or justifications made.

Paul says in Philippians 4:12 "I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need" and here is the key "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." I think that is the key to it all. Paul didn't say that he was content when he was poor and not content when he had "abundance". Paul's contentment was in Christ who gave Him strength. Christ is our constant when everything in this world is like shifting sands including how much money we have and how much stuff we have. We need to find our contentment and our treasure in Christ and Christ alone so that we "count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus (our) Lord" (Philippians 3:8).

AMWAY and the Gospel

So I was at Best Buy the other day looking at the Wii games and this guy (coincidentally named Bryan and he even spelled it right which is a rarity) started asking me questions about Wii (what games are good, etc). So we struck up a normal conversation. Where are you from? Are you married? Do you have any kids? What do you do for a living? And then he said, "I work for a marketing company that is part of AMWAY." Instant brick wall came up in my mind. My initial thought was, "Oh now he is going to try to convince me to join AMWAY." He could have told me how it is free to join and you are guaranteed a million dollars in the first year but it didn't matter. Of course the rest of the conversation went about like a normal conversation, no sales pitches, no twisting my arm, nothing. He was genuinely just trying to have a genuine conversation.

That is one reason I was never a fan of sales. First of all, I don't like to try to convince people to buy something from me. Also, I probably assume that most people are just like me and once they realize they are in the middle of a sales pitch, they check out.

So on the drive home, I just couldn't get the conversation out of my mind and how it mirrors how my attitude was in the past and still is at times when it comes to sharing the Gospel. For so often, I used to think that I needed to convince people to "invite Christ into their lives". I remember one specific time when my grandpa was dying from cancer. We didn't know how long he had to live so one day, I made up my mind to witness to him. I remember sharing the Romans road with him. I remember after going through everything, I asked him if he wanted to be saved. He told me that he really wasn't sure. He didn't feel that God would accept him because of all of the sin he had committed. I told him that it didn't matter because Jesus' blood covers all of our sins once we are sins. He still seemed hesitant but I was determined, so after asking him several more times if he wanted to pray to be saved, he said yes and we prayed there in the motor home he had driven up from Florida in. Did my grandpa get saved that day? I like to believe he did. He went on to read the Bible when he got home to Florida which is something he didn't do before so it seems like there was a heart change. But my point is, I felt like I had to convince him. I felt like I needed to be a good salesman and sell him on Christianity.

I hadn't realized that as Paul says in his letter to the Romans that the gospel "is the power of God for salvation. (Romans 1:16)" God's power wasn't in my "lofty speech or wisdom (1 Cor. 2:1)" but in His Word. Man, if we truly embrace that, if we truly embrace the fact that God works through his words and through human vessels like us who proclaim Christ, how would that change or witnessing? If we realized that it wasn't dependent on us but dependent on God. That it was God who causes the heart change by putting his Spirit within someone and then and only then does a person call out "Abba Father". If we came to grips with the fact that it is our responsibility to be faithful in proclaiming Christ to a lost and dying world but not our responsibility to win people to Christ. Why? Because salvation is a work of God that only He can do. But praise God that he uses horrible salespeople like me to do so.

accountability: smooth as a baby's bottom

So one thing that has really had me perplexed is the "age of accountability". Like, at what point do children become accountable for their sin and therefore if they died without Christ, they would spend eternity away from His presence. There is one school of thought which believes that once a child is born, they are with sin and therefore would go to hell even if they die a day after they are born. Another believes that even if they die in the mother's womb, they would be in hell because they do not know Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Yet another, which is the category that I fall into, is that there is some "age of accountability" where up until that age, they are covered by God's grace and mercy because they have not had the mental capability to understand the gospel. But what is this age? Is it the same age for everyone or do some have the ability to understand the gospel before others? It is something that I struggle with now because I have a daughter who will be 3 in May. We pray with her and read the Bible with her all the while praying that one day God will open the eyes of her heart to His love and His word and that He will draw her to Himself.

So I search the scriptures to the only place that I can think of where there was a distinct moment where people had their first sin, Adam and Eve.

Genesis 3:6-7 says "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths"

So here we see the very first sin. Before this, everything was perfect between man and God. The thing that I find interesting is that once they both ate of the fruit and sinned against God it says "Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked". So this got me thinking about my own daughter and how she has no shame when she is naked. In fact, I am fully convinced that if she had the opportunity, she would never wear any clothes regardless if we were in the comfort of our own home or in the mall or in church. But at some point during her younger years, she is going to want to wear clothes because she is going to be embarrassed to be naked. So is this the "age of accountability"? When we, as humans, know that we are naked and want to wear clothes to cover our nakedness?

Perhaps I am onto something (not likely) or perhaps I am completely off base (most likely) but it is something to think about.

Reverberation by Jonathan Leeman

I would definitely rate this book a 5 out of 5 stars. I thought it was excellent, challenging and convicting from front to back. I highly recommend this one!

The growing movement in the church seems to be moving away from the sufficiency of the Word and going towards the Word +. The Word + cool music. The Word + great programs and events. The Word + funny stories and illustrations. These are all ways to "grow" the church but is it biblical growth or simply numerical growth? Are these the ways that we should try to grow our churches or is there something else? Reverberation sums it up by saying "God's Word, working through God's Spirit, is God's primary instrument for growing God's church."

We need to come to the realization that God's Word is the only thing necessary to grow His church. Nothing more and nothing less. But yet somehow we have lost this reverence and this reliance on God's Holy Word to do what only God's Holy Word can do and that is to cause spiritual life and spiritual growth is sinful and spiritually dead human beings.

Our first thought always goes back to the preacher or the "hired professional" and how he is supposed to bring the Word and we are supposed to just take it and receive it. However, this is not God's design. God's design is for us all to make disciples and teaching them to obey all that he commanded us. Leeman says that the "ministry of the Word indeed begins in the pulpit, but then it must continue through the life of the church as members echo God's Word back and forth to one another. The word reverberates", hence the name of the book.

Part one of the book is titled "The Word"

The Word invites and divides. Christians will listen to God's word because he or she loves God but non-Christians do not listen to God's word because they do not love God. Sure, some non-Christians will do good things that God tells us to do in the Bible but they do not truly listen to the Bible. Jesus says "My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it" Leeman says "Jesus will identify Himself with those who listen to God's word, even more than his family and nation". However, so many preachers today want to water down the message and not really teach directly from God's word as much as they want to teach what will make their "audience" feel good. The problem is, when we do this "we will be tempted to unite people around something other than God's divisive Word, like music, or style, or acts of service." Leeman goes on to say "Bringing up the Bible can be like walking into a room waving a sword. People are going to fight or flee! So keep it in the scabbard, right? Of course not. When we do, we invite people to something Jesus is not inviting them to. Believe it or not, Jesus means to divide people through His call to repentance (Matt. 10:34). When we soften the invitation, leaving out the tough bits, we oppose His very purposes."

"You can measure a person's opinion of God by his or her opinion of God's Word." Wow, that statement really cuts to the heart. How lightly we take God's word and how much we spend time in God's word by studying, memorizing and meditating on it, is a direct reflection of our opinion of God and therefore a direct reflection of our spiritual state. I believe also it's not just that you read His word but that you desire to read His word because you desire to know Him because you love Him. So often, I know I fall into the trap of reading the Bible to get knowledge or wisdom because I in general like to learn things but we need to read God's word because we love Him and God's word is an extension of God Himself.

In all things that we do, the Word must play a lead role and "everything else, at most, plays supporting cast and is subject to other considerations". One trap some tend to fall into is that good works is a substitution for the Word. Perhaps they look to Matthew 5:16 when he says "Let your light so shine before men so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." They assume that that means that our good works can lead others to Christ but the Word and the Word alone convicts of sin and frees us from the bondage of sin. "You can proclaim the gospel without deeds, but you cannot proclaim the gospel without words."

Part 2 of the book is titled "The Sermon"


This is the part of the book that really encouraged me about the church that I call home. Leeman puts it pretty simply when he says "Just preach the point of the text!" and "God speaks through us whenever we plainly and modestly relate whatever He has already said in the Bible". The fault of some preachers is to try to preach there own words and not rely on the Holy Spirit to work though God's Holy Word. Some try to add things or take verses out of context in order to prove their point. This is one reason why I love our church and our pastor. He does preaches expositionally as opposed to topically. He "concentrates all his powers on reproducing the burden of the Bible in the hearts and minds of the people, and he avoids letting anything in his person get in the way of that goal. He'd rather risk boring or offending his congregation (both of which has happened) than depriving them of the opportunity to hear what God says."

I love when a pastor goes straight through books of the Bible because as Leeman says, "God sets the agenda. And the preacher learns along with the congregation."

The sermon should also announce the gospel and confront sin but unfortunately, as Leeman points out, some sermons could easily have been preached by a Jewish rabi or a Muslim imam. "There should be something distinctively Christian about a Christian sermon; namely, it should point to the person and work of Christ." He even goes on to say how one "Christian" book that claims that all men have a battle to fight and an adventure to live, is a required reading for a Mexican gang that is responsible for drug dealing in several nations as well as decapitating local police officers. That's pretty sad when a book that is supposed to be Christian, doesn't contain anything remotely close to the gospel and it is a required reading for gangs.

Most people, don't like to be confronted on their sin, especially from the pulpit. They would rather hear messages about how God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life than how the images they are looking at on the computer screen are rotting away their brain and tearing them from holiness or how they need to be more forgiving or humble or loving to their spouse or family or enemy. However, by preaching through books of the Bible and letting God's word reverberate in the hearts of men, true conviction of sin and life change can happen.

Part 3 is titled "The Reverberation"


There are four sections in this one; singing, praying, discipling and scattering to gather. Everything about our lives and church services should be centered and founded on the Word. Starting with the songs that we sing, "a church's songs should contain nothing more than the words, paraphrases, or ideas of Scipture." This section was especially convicting for me because a lot of times, as we sing old hymns in our church, I tend to get frustrated and perhaps roll my eyes because I want us to sing modern songs and more upbeat songs. However, I need to look more at the content of the songs than the beat of the songs. I need to focus on the lyrics and how God centered they are than the beat of the song and how good it sounds to my ears. "Singing, I'd say, is the medium by which God's people grab hold of His Word and align their emotions and affections to God's."

The section on praying was another one that convicted me. I tend to have trouble knowing what to pray or how to pray but the best way to pray is to pray scripture and as our pastor quoted on Sunday, the best way to get better at praying is to pray! "Praying is how God's people should grab hold of His Word and align their will and their hopes with His" and not the other way around. When we conform our prayers to God's word, "we will adore, confess, give thanks, and ask for those things which His Word tells us to. We are the people who delight ourselves in the Lord, and so He places new desires in our hearts, desires that He then fulfills when we ask for them through prayer (Ps 37:4). We tend to be so me-focused when it comes to prayers but if we look at the prayers of Jesus, Paul and others throughout scripture, they rarely prayed for their own needs/wants but instead prayed for others and God's glory above all!

Another thing that we should be doing as disciples of Christ is making other disciples and we do that by relationships. However, to effectively disciple, we need to be examples and so we are able to say as Paul says "imitate me as I imitate Christ." All of our discipleship should be centered on the Word and the gospel and this includes counseling. "The most useful tool in counseling is the gospel and the Word of God." We don't need more self-help books or counselors that try to help others without mention of the gospel and how ultimately, every reason for counseling that we may have comes down to the heart and only the Word is "living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

Finally, the word scatters, and, once again, invites. As we receive the Word through preaching, reading, singing, praying and discipling, our responsibility is to then reverberate the Word to others. Since we know that God's word alone saves and that God's word alone has the power to create true freedom from bondage, we should share it without reservation. We also need to realize that it is not our responsibility to save someone but instead it is our responsibility to be the means in which God uses His word spoken through human vessels to bring about salvation by the Holy Spirit.

As one pastor once put it so well, "does the word stop with you or spread through you?"

Book Reviews/Cliffs Notes

So one of the "resolutions" if you will, that I have for this year and hopefully for years to come, is to read more and to finish whole books. I think I should have taken stock in bookmarks (if that is even possible) because if you ever see my bookshelves, there are a ton of books and most of them have bookmarks half way through the books. I always pick up a book, start reading it and then see another book I want to read and move on to that one. However, my goal is to pick up a book and read it from cover to cover and then move onto another book.

Throughout my finishing these books, I am going to post book reviews/cliffs notes of the different books that I read. These will hopefully serve a couple of purposes. First of all, I hope that by writing a blog about each book that I read, it will help me retain the information that I read as opposed to just reading it and being done with it. I will also be able to go back and review what I read as I am sure I will forget things as I always do.

The second purpose is for you who read my blog. I hope that by my posts, you will either read the summaries I give and then decide to pick up the book yourself and read it or that you will read my posts and be encouraged and/or that God will move in your heart to do something with what these authors have said.