the gospel according to a three year old

Just a quick story. No real profound thoughts, which is pretty much par for my blog.

So let me set the stage first. Our daughter, Olivia, is an absolute maniac at night. I don't know what it is about nights that make her just go crazy, running around the house like she has espresso running through her veins.

So last night, I was doing a fantasy football draft while my lovely, patient wife was taking care of getting Liv ready for bed. In the middle of my draft I hear my daughter screaming bloody murder. My first thought was that she got hurt but I was able to discern based on her cry that it was a "I was just disciplined" cry instead of a "I just fell and hurt myself" cry. So I come up to say good night her and she is still crying. I grab her and hold her in my arms and ask her what happened.

She proceeds to tell me the story of how she disobeyed mommy and now she can't watch a show before bed. Then, came the most remarkable and poignant moments I have ever had with my daughter. After telling me the whole story she says to me, "Daddy, I still have sin in my heart. Why hasn't God taken the sin out of my heart yet? I want to follow God and not follow sin."

Wow! I stood there speechless staring at my wife. Now I know she is too young to understand the gospel but I gave her a quick summary of the gospel and asked her if we should pray that God would take the sin out of her heart sometime. She said yes and I prayed for her as my wife and I wrapped our arms around her.

It is a night that we will never forget. It just made me wonder how much of the gospel she understands at the incredibly young age of only 3. I pray that one day God will remove the sin from my little girl's heart and that she will trust Him as her Savior and submit to Him as her Lord.

simple math: no healing > healing

So years ago I used to be very interested in "healing ministry". I read books upon books on how to heal someone, what prevents people from being healed, etc. The main reason I had gotten so into healing was that my grandpa was dying from cancer and I wanted him to be healed.

Fast forward maybe 7 years or so to the present. I am now realizing that healings do happen, however we can't just expect everyone to be healed as long as they have enough faith. It's just not the way God operates from what I can gather. However, I know that God can and has healed people.

So with that "prelude" if you will, I take you back to this past weekend. Steph (my wife) and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary 2 months early because our baby boy, Brayden, is due right around our actual anniversary so we were pretty confident we wouldn't be able to celebrate on our anniversary. Anyways, so Friday night we spent downtown going to dinner, going to a movie, etc and by the time we got home we were both pretty thoroughly exhausted. So I went through my normal bedtime route, floss, brush my teeth, mouthwash, shower and then crash for the night. The next morning we both slept in later than normal but around 9 am I got up and did my normal morning routine, brush my teeth, wash my face, put my glasses on and then head out to the kitchen to read my Bible some.

However, as I began to walk to the kitchen, I noticed something strangely different. I couldn't see very well. My first thought was there must be a smudge on my glasses, so I went and got my glasses cleaner but to no avail, still my vision was foggy. So I thought maybe I had some "eye boogers" but after a thorough examination, this wasn't the case either. However, when I took my glasses off to rub my eyes, I noticed something out of the ordinary, I could see the clock across the room. This was strange because without my glasses, I definitely could not normally see that clock. I don't have terrible eyes but I have bad enough eyes that I would be a hazard to the general public if I drove without my glasses or contacts. My thoughts immediately went back to those books I had read about healing and I thought "I am healed! God has healed my vision and now I can see without any glasses or contacts!" I began to walk back to the room to explain to Steph how our great God had healed my vision...then I began to think some more. I began to get suspicious and after one close look at my eyes in the mirror I realized that a miracle had not happened after all. I had left my contacts in all night. You can imagine my disappointment...

How different are we as Christians though? We all have "bad eyes" if you will in our Christian life. The fact is, we can't do things without Christ. However, how many of us either walk around life with "bad eyes" relying in our own strength to do things and not trusting in the strength that Christ can provide our eyes. Or how many of us say to ourselves, if only I was (fill in the blank with your "weakness" becoming a "strength") then I could do this or that? If I had perfect vision, then I would no longer need to rely on my contacts or glasses anymore, in fact they would be collecting dust while I walked around in my own strength with no need of them. This is one of the reasons I feel that God doesn't give us perfect patience, strength, knowledge, etc. He wants us to rely on Him.

I think about Paul and his thorn in the flesh. It says in 2 Corinthians 12 how he asked God 3 times to remove it but God's response was simply "No I will not remove this hardship from you because my grace is sufficient for you and my strength is made perfect in your weakness." Then Paul says "I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamity. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

We may want all of our hardships to go away and to have the perfect strength to get through all the trials and junk that life may throw at us, but instead of that, we should pray that we, like Paul, will be content regardless of our circumstances and regardless if we feel that in our own power we can accomplish this or that. We pray this knowing that when we are weak and cannot see clearly, with God as our strength, we can see 20/20.

acceptance or surrender?

"Say this simple prayer. Dear Jesus, I admit that I am a sinner. I believe that you died for my sins and I accept you as my savior, I invite you into my heart and I receive your gift of eternal life. Amen." That is the "sinners prayer" in a nut shell. I would suggest that most of us were "saved" after saying this prayer. We rest our hope in this one time decision and one prayer that we said. Perhaps the pastor that was preaching that day was talking about hell and the torment and begged anyone who is not sure of their salvation to come forward, walk the aisle and say this simple prayer and be saved.

Now let me preface this entire blog post by saying that my intent is not to bash the sinners prayer nor do I think that it is wrong. Let me also say that many people who are genuinely saved have said the sinners prayer (I am one). However, what I firmly do believe (as I have seen it time and time again with friends that I grew up with at church) is that this sinners prayer and walking down the aisle has led to many false conversions. The scary thing of it all is, those false converts truly believe that they are still saved even though they have no spiritual fruit which is the only true measure of a Christian (Matthew 7:20). They were taught to not doubt their own salvation even though the Bible clearly teaches that we should "examine (ourselves), to see whether (we) are in the faith. Test (ourselves)" (2 Corinthians 13:5) or to "work out our salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12). I fear how many of my friends that grew up in church with me will be the ones at the judgement seat saying "Lord, didn't we go to church and worship you and read our Bibles" and He will look them in the eyes and say "Depart from me, I never knew you" (Matthew 7:23). 

I think that there are a couple of issues that need to be addressed in our evangelism and discipleship. First of all, I believe that when we share Christ with someone, we need to share with them the cost of following Christ. We are so quick to share verses like John 3:16 "God so loved the world" or Romans 6:23 "The free gift of God is eternal life" or Romans 10:9 "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." However, just as quickly, we skip over verses like Luke 14:26-27 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple" or Luke 9 when 3 men come to Jesus saying that they will follow Jesus wherever he goes but Jesus tells them that in order to follow Him, they are guaranteed no basic shelter, they need to abandon their family and place Christ above them and abandon their old life and follow wholly after Christ and we can make the assumption that they decide not to follow Him after this. 2 Timothy 3:12 says that "all who desire to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted."

Second of all, when people make a decision to follow Christ, we need to disciple them. We are good at the "making disciples" if we equate "making disciples" with "making Christians" and we are good at "baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit" but we neglect that "teaching them to obey all that Christ has commanded." (Matthew 28:19-20). When we lead someone to Christ or the reality is, when God graciously and mercifully calls someone to Himself and uses us to be His instrument to proclaim His gospel, we need to immediately begin discipling them.

The sad reality is that with easy-believism and the health and wealth gospel, so many people are being led to believe that they just need to say this simple prayer and they will spend eternity in heaven and not only that, they will be blessed with good health and material goods from a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Sadly we have replaced surrender and dying to self with accept and have your best life now. What the world needs is less casual follows and more lifelong disciples and slaves to Christ who are willing to embrace the cost of being a disciple of Christ for the sake of His name and His glory.

unceasing anguish and great sorrow - part 3

This is the third and probably final post on Romans 9:1-3. So far I have discussed our state apart from Christ which in turn leads to our just punishment of eternal damnation in hell. And now we get to the good news. 

Ephesians 2:1 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked,” and then down in verse 4 come two of the best words in the entire Bible…”BUT GOD!”

You were dead “But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved”

We were “alienated from God” (Colossians 1:21) BUT GOD “brought us near by the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 1:13)

We were enemies of God (Colossians 1:21) BUT GOD made us “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19) and adopted us as sons by which we cry out “Abba! Father!” (Romans 8:15)

We couldn’t submit to God’s law or please God (Romans 8:7-8) BUT GOD “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify Himself His own special people, zealous for good works (Titus 2:14)

We were slaves to sin and the devil (John 8:34 and 2 Timothy 2:26) BUT GOD “freed us from sin and we have become slaves to God” (Romans 6:22)

We couldn’t understand the things of God, they were foolishness to us (1 Corinthians 2:14) BUT GOD gave us His spirit so “that we might understand the things freely given us by God” (1 Corinthians 2:12)

We were completely unrighteous and sinful (Romans 3:23) BUT GOD made Jesus “who knew no sin to become sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

This is good news! All of us who have trusted Christ as their savior and submitted to him as their Lord have had our current state and our future completely turned upside down by God!

There is nothing we could have done for this to happen it was only by a miraculous work of God. Romans 9:16 says “So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy”

C.H. Spurgeon once remarked: "If Niagara could suddenly be made to leap upward instead of forever dashing down-ward from its rocky height, it were not such a miracle as to change the perverse will & raging passions of men. Conversion is a work comparable to the making of a world. The labors of Hercules were but trifles compared to this: to slay lions and hydras, and cleanse Augean stables-all this is child’s play compared with renewing a right spirit in the fallen nature of mankind."

I think that these three points are key to Paul’s sorrow and anguish for the lost and should be key to ours. He realized his state apart from Christ. Even though he was “Hebrew of Hebrews and as to righteousness under the law, blameless” he realized that it was all rubbish and he saw himself as what he really was. Then he realized what his just punishment should have been and finally he saw that because of Christ, he was now a new creation and a child of God. I think those 3 things contributed to his anguish for the lost. Knowing where they were heading and knowing the joy they were missing.

So three quick applications that I hope that you take from this and I hope that I take from this. First of all, for those who are in Christ, I hope that reminding ourselves of what we have been saved from and what we have been saved to, gives us a renewed sense of awe and deep gratitude and thanksgiving to God. Second of all, for those who are in Christ, I hope that realizing the state of our lost family members and friends will give us "unceasing anguish and great sorrow" for them that leads us to action in sharing with them the good news. Finally, again for those who do not know Christ as their Savior and Lord. I pray that today is your day of salvation. I pray that God would open your eyes to the truth of His gospel and you will trust in Him today.

Finally, I want to end with two quotes:

"If God would grant us the vision, the word sacrifice would disappear from our lips and thoughts; we would hate the things that seem now so dear to us; our lives would suddenly be too short, we would despise time-robbing distractions and charge the enemy with all our energies in the name of Christ. - Nate Saint, two weeks before he was martyred by the Aucas

"Someone asked Will the heathen who have never heard the Gospel be saved? It is more a question with me whether we – who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not – can be saved." – Charles Spurgeon

unceasing anguish and great sorrow - part 2

Romans 9:1-3 - "I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit--that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh."

In these blog posts, I hope to unpack how we can have this unceasing anguish for the lost like Paul did.

 

Yesterday I posted about humanity's state apart from Christ. We are enemies of God, we can't please him, we are children of wrath, we are alienated and strangers, we are slaves to sin, etc. 

Today's point is because our state apart from Christ, our just punishment is eternal separation from Christ in Hell. 

We see in the gospels that Jesus taught that Hell was something to be feared. In Mark 9, Jesus says “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 'where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.'”

Then in Luke 12:4-5 he tells his disciples “"I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!”

Then throughout the Bible we see depictions of what Hell is going to be like.

1. Hell is going to be punishment: 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 says that Jesus will come “inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God” and they will “suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord.”And Revelation 20:15 says “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” which was described earlier in the chapter as a place where they will be “tormented day and night forever and ever”
2. Hell is being cast out of the presence of God forever: Matthew 25:41 – “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels”
3. Hell is going to be utter darkness: Matthew 8:12 talks about how they will be “thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
4. Hell is a place with eternal fire: It’s described as a “Fiery furnace” (Matthew 13: 42 and 50). It has an “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12 and 9:43). Revelation 14:10 says that they will “drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur”
5. And finally all of this will be eternal: Romans 14:11 “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night”

Thomas Watson: “Thus it is in Hell; they would die, but they cannot. The wicked shall be always dying but never dead; the smoke of the furnace ascends for ever and ever. Oh! Who can endure thus to be ever upon the rack? This word ‘ever’ breaks the heart.”

George Whitfield used to speak with tears in his eyes of “the torment of burning like a livid coal, not for an instant or for a day, but for millions and millions of ages, at the end of which souls will realize that they are no closer to the end than when they first begun, and they will never, ever be delivered from that place.”

Jonathan Edwards in probably his most famous sermon “Sinners in the hands of an angry God said “thus it is that natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell; they have deserved the fiery pit, and are already sentenced to it; and God is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell, and they have done nothing in the least to appease or abate that anger, neither is God in the least bound by any promise to hold them up one moment; the devil is waiting for them, hell is gaping for them, the flames gather and flash about them, and would fain lay hold on them, and swallow them up; the fire bent up in their own hearts is struggling to break out: and they have no interest in any Mediator, there are no means within reach that can be any security to them. In short, they have no refuge, nothing to take hold of; all that preserves them every moment is the mere arbitrary will, and uncovenanted, unobliged forbearance of an incensed God.”

If this place is real, if there is a place that is full of eternal torment, weeping and gnashing of teeth completely in utter darkness away from the presence of God forever then there is no more urgent and important task than to tell those who are on a collision course with eternal damnation that there is hope! There is one who conquered death! By this “one man’s obedience, the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).

And if you are reading this and don't know Christ. Turn from your sin and repent. Ask Jesus to forgive you for your sins and accept his free gift of eternal life. Then, submit to him as your Lord, lay down your life in obedience to Him because your love of Him, knowing that His ways are far better than ours. 

unceasing anguish and great sorrow - part 1

Romans 9:1-3 - "I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit -- that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh"

These verses have been echoing in my head lately. I ask myself questions such as "Do I have unceasing anguish in my heart for my lost family and friends? Do I have great sorrow for the unreached people groups? Would I be willing to spend eternity in hell and be cut off from Christ so that they could spend eternity in heaven (if that were possible which I know it isn't)? I can't say I can honestly answer any of those questions with a resounding "yes". Sure I pray for them and I share Christ with them (though not as often as I should) but I can't categorize my prayers and my heart as one of great sorrow and unceasing anguish. So how did Paul get to this point? How do we get to this point?


I am going to split this blog into a couple different posts over the next couple of days to kind of hit a couple of points. 


First, we need to recognize humanity's state apart from Christ.


Before we really can grasp what Christ accomplished on the cross, we really need to realize who we were before a holy and righteous God prior to our salvation and who the lost are currently without this God that we worship. I think this can be downplayed in some if not most evangelical churches. It’s not popular to tell people how messed up they really are. It’s not popular to tell people that they are sinful and wicked people. People see that as “unloving” however, I firmly believe that the opposite is true. When we tell people they really aren’t that bad and to say this simple prayer and “invite” Jesus into their heart as if Jesus is this little boy crying in the corner just begging people to love him and “accept” him, that is unloving because it can send people straight to hell by producing so many false conversions in our churches for those who believe in Jesus as savior but do not submit to Him as Lord! So many people stake their claim to salvation on when they walked down the aisle and prayed to be saved and yet have no fruit of the spirit since.

It’s like say you had been having really bad head aches and have been getting dizzy pretty often so you decide to go to a doctor to get checked out. The doctor takes you back to get an MRI. After he takes a look at the MRI he noticed a large mass on your brain and determines it is more than likely brain cancer and without proper treatment, you will surely die. Now would the “loving” thing be to tell you, “Don’t worry, everything is all right. It’s not that bad. Just go home, get some rest and maybe try to live a healthier life by eating more fruit and vegetables” or for him to say “You have a tumor on your brain that is going to kill you if we don’t have a surgeon come remove it and I know just the surgeon for the job?”

Paul, preached pretty extensively on the state of all people apart from Christ. Paul talked about being “dead in the trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). We were completely dead, we weren’t dying, we weren’t terminally ill, we were DEAD! We had flat lined spiritually. I have heard the illustration of how it was like we were floating in the middle of the ocean and God threw a life preserver out and we just had to reach out and grab it. No! We were dead! We were face down on the bottom of the ocean and God had to come down in his mercy and love to bring us to life!

We “were by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). We were “alienated and strangers” to God (Ephesians 2:12). We didn’t seek God, we did no good, our throat was an open grave, our feet were swift to shed blood, we had no fear of God (Romans 3:11-18). We were slaves to sin (Romans 6:20). We couldn’t please God (Romans 8:8). We were enemies of God (Romans 5:10).

Oh feel the weight of our state apart from Christ prior to our salvation and the current state of our lost friends and family members. Don’t think too lightly on those verses and of what we were before salvation. This is HUGE to realize! We weren’t these cute little human beings that God couldn’t resist saving because we were just so cute. No, we were his enemies, we couldn’t please Him, we had no fear of Him, we did no good, we were children of wrath…to put it simply, we were the polar opposite of God himself.

CS Lewis said “The infinite value of each human soul is not a Christian doctrine. God did not die for man because of some value he perceived in him. The value of each human soul considered simply in itself, out of relation to God, is zero. As St Paul writes, to have died for valuable men would have been not divine but merely heroic; but God died for sinners. He loved us not because we were lovable, but because he is Love.”

weeping over cotton candy

"preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions" - 2 Timothy 4:2-3

I haven't blogged in quite a while. Maybe it is because I haven't had time lately or maybe it is because I haven't been passionate about something in awhile. I think it is a combination of the two honestly, but today I felt the need to blog.

We recently attended a church while on vacation. It was a rather large church with 3 different services. But what we experienced was shocking to say the least but at the same time in this generation of people with "itching ears" it shouldn't have been so shocking.

The sermon was out of Acts 6 where the apostles appointed men to "wait on tables" so that they could continue to devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word. His whole sermon which lasted about 10-15 minutes, probably 10-12 of those minutes were stories and illustrations, had the main point of caring for the poor. Not only that, he seemed to have equated caring for the poor with the gospel. Now those who know me know that I am all about helping the poor and the less fortunate. I have such a heart for orphans, widows and the poor but never to the neglect of the gospel. All "good deeds" need to be accompanied with gospel proclamation otherwise what is the end result, people have a more comfortable ride in this life on their way to hell in the afterlife?

His sermon was similar to cotton candy. It may be sweet and taste good but when you bite into it, you realize how fluffy and how much it lacks any substance. It is nothing better than a motivational speaker could have done. I was reading a book awhile ago (I can't remember which book it was) but he basically said that you know that a sermon is solid or not by asking yourself could a Jewish Rabbi or Muslim or Priest have preached the same message?

There was no mention of the true gospel. There was no mention of the cross. In fact, there was very little quoting from the very words of God.

To cap it all off, as we got out our Bibles at the beginning of the sermon as he began to read from Acts, we felt a little awkward and as we looked down the different rows, we realized that no one had their Bibles. Really? You come to the house of God, with the people of God to worship God and you don't have your own copy of the very words of God?! I was in shock! How could this be?

Then the sermon ended with an attempted presentation of a salvation invitation but it was very short and basically asked people to say a "simple prayer" that consists of "telling God you want to accept his offer of a home in heaven" and "ask God to take away your past sins". No talk of repentance. No talk of the Lordship of Christ over your life. No talk of Christ's atoning sacrifice at the cross in which the wrath of God was poured out on the sinless, Lamb of God.

And as I sat through this service, I just wanted to weep for the people of this church. For those who were Christians there, I wanted to weep knowing that under this type of teaching, it is likely that they will never dig deeper in their Christian walk than simple surface things such as caring for the poor and loving people unless they dig into the Word for themselves. For the non-Christians that thought they were Christians, I wanted to weep because they were never going to be confronted about sin or challenged to test themselves to see whether they are in the faith (2 Cor 13:5).

I thank God that the church that I belong to does challenge me in my walk. I thank God that we have a Pastor that faithfully brings the Word week after week. I thank God for his mercy and grace in my life that he has opened my mind's eye to His word and that the Holy Spirit has illumined it to me. There is nothing in me that is any better than the most wretched of humans on this earth except that God has intervened in my life and brought to life that which was spiritually dead. I have nothing to boast in except the Lord and the cross of Christ.

I pray that God will bring a new love and a new reverence for the Word of God in churches across the world that seems to be lost; for in it and it alone are the words of eternal life.