Category Archives: Gospel

Can You Tweet The Gospel?

06 Monday Jun 2011

Posted by in Christianity, Confession, Cross, Deception, Doctrine, Evangelism, Faith, Gospel, Gospel of the Kingdom, Jesus Christ, Kingdom of God, Repentance, Rob Bell, Salvation, Trusting God, Twitter

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Ted Olsen‘s piece on CT’s liveblog inspired this question. He offered two separate ‘tweets’ from Rob Bell regarding the latter’s understanding of the gospel: one is a cheat tweet (more than 140 characters long) and the other is a retweet:

I would say that history is headed somewhere. The thousands of little ways in which you are tempted to believe that hope might actually be a legitimate response to the insanity of the world actually can be trusted. And the Christian story is that a tomb is empty, and a movement has actually begun that has been present in a sense all along in creation. And all those times when your cynicism was at odds with an impulse within you that said that this little thing might be about something bigger—those tiny little slivers may in fact be connected to something really, really big.

Here’s Rob Bell’s ‘retweet’:

The gospel is the counterintuitive, joyous, exuberant news that Jesus has brought the unending, limitless, stunning love of God to even us.

I do not have a Twitter account—I can barely cope on Facebook—but I might tweet something along the lines of:

The gospel is the announcement that the Kingdom of God has been inaugurated in Jesus Christ through His Life, Death, Burial and Resurrection and all who will repent of their own godship, embrace His Lordship and live by the faith of the Son of God will become  bona fide children of God and inherit eternal life.

I would love to add Rob Bell’s words “exuberant” and “joyous” in there too, probably before “eternal life”.  His retweet kind of leaves it open-ended, like a good story without a proper wrap-up. I mean, who wants the Wizard of Oz to end before Dorothy gets back to Kansas, or the Prince never finding Cinderella‘s foot?

How would you tweet it?

Fly On The Wall

31 Tuesday May 2011

Posted by in Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, Church, Cross, Doctrine, Gospel, Heaven, Hell, Jesus Christ, John Piper, Leadership, Ministry, Repentance, Rick Warren, Salvation, Sovereignty of God

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John Piper and Rick Warren, two of the most influential pastors of our day, sit down to a small round-table and have an hour and a half chat. Piper does the asking, and, according to his stated purpose (pun intended?), desires (another pun?) some clarification from Pastor Warren regarding the doctrines he is most known for, made popular in his book, The Purpose-Driven Life:

My aim in this interview is to bring out and clarify what Rick Warren believes about these biblical doctrines. In doing this my hope is that the thousands of pastors and lay people who look to Rick for inspiration and wisdom will see the profound place that doctrine has in his mind and heart.

This is a marvelous dialogue; it allows us the chance to be flies on the wall as these men pick each other’s brains about such matters as Larry King (24:14), Election (27:00), the Gospel (38:53), and Hell (61:03). For my dollar, Piper’s charge to Warren at the end is priceless and insightful (88:10).

For the entire interview (98 minutes), click here. Here’s a sampling:

The Christmas Story

15 Wednesday Dec 2010

Posted by in Birth of Jesus, Christianity, Christmas, Gospel, Gospel of the Kingdom, Jesus Christ, Kingdom of God, Reign of Christ

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This is a re-post from an earlier Christmas—

Its message is THAT important…

“The great difference between present-day Christianity and that of which we read in these letters (The New Testament epistles) is that to us it is primarily a performance; to them it was a real experience. We are apt to reduce the Christian religion to a code, or at best a rule of heart and life. To these men it is quite plainly the invasion of their lives by a new quality of life altogether. They do not hesitate describing this as Christ “living in” them. These early Christians were on fire with the conviction that they had become, through Christ, literal sons of God; they were pioneers of a new humanity, founders of a new Kingdom. They still speak to us across the centuries. Perhaps if we believed what they believed, we might achieve what they achieved.”
J.B. Phillips
Letters To Young Churches

“Do not forget the meaning of the Incarnation. It was the invasion of human history by One who snatched the scepter from the usurper. It was the intrusion of forces into human history which dissolved the consistency of the works of the devil and caused them to break and fail. Incarnation was the coming of the Stronger than the strong man armed to destroy the works of the devil…”
G. Campbell Morgan

“Jesus’ incarnation was much more than just a kind visit from the Creator. It was the launching of God’s full and final counteroffensive against all the sin, death and destruction that had entered the world when Adam fell.”
Greg Gilbert
What Is The Gospel?

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed…”
Jesus, 1st Century

“The Kingdom is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened…”
Ibid.

In the fourteenth century King Edward III of England encroached upon France and took the throne he claimed he had a right to, and took back the territory lost to his realm. The year was 1337 and thus began the “100 Year War”… Continue reading »

Reductionist Salvation (Or, Half-Off Gospel)

09 Thursday Dec 2010

Posted by in Christianity, Gospel, Gospel of the Kingdom, Repentance, Salvation, Surrender

≈ 9 Comments

re-duc-tion-ism—the practice of simplifying a complex idea, issue, condition, or the like, esp. to the point of minimizing, obscuring or distorting it.

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“Now I would remind you brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day…”
(1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

“For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His Life.”
(Romans 5:10)

“In recent years [baby-boomers] have been opposed to organized religion but now make up half the born-again population…they are consumers…and we offered them a deal they could not turn down: for a one-time admission of weakness and failure they got eternal peace with God. That was the deal. They took it and went on with their lives as before…”
–David Wells, Professor, Gordon-Conwell Seminary

“”Believing, then, is directing one’s attention to Jesus. It is lifting the mind to ‘behold the Lamb of God’ and never ceasing that beholding for the rest of our lives.”
–A.W. Tozer

“If all we value is the salvation gospel (i.e., forgiveness gospel), we tend to miss the rest of Christ’s message. Taken out of context of the Kingdom, the call to faith in Christ gets reduced to something less than the New Testament teaches…”
–Rick McKinley, Imago Dei Church

“…The reverse is also true: if we value a kingdom gospel at the expense of the liberating message of the Cross and the empty tomb and a call to repentance, we miss a central tenet of Kingdom life. Without faith in Jesus, there is no transferring our lives into the new world of the Kingdom.”
–Ibid.

“And [Paul] stayed two years…preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ…”
(Acts 28:30,31)

“Christ will not die again on behalf of those who now commit sin because death shall no more have dominion over Him…therefore we should not be puffed up…but we should beware lest somehow, after [we have come to] the knowledge of Christ, if we do things displeasing to God, we obtain no further forgiveness of sins but rather be shut out from His kingdom.”
(Irenaeus, disciple of Polycarp, ‘spiritual grandson’ of John the Apostle)

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Chew on this: every person who applied blood to the doorpost in Egypt escaped the wrath of God, yes? What of those who died in the wilderness because of “unbelief” and willful rebellion in their hearts? Weren’t they “covered”? The writer of Hebrews would say, yes, they were covered, but they didn’t continue.

I had believed myself years ago that those who perished in the wilderness either (a) had not truly believed on that fateful Passover night, or (b) didn’t die and go to hell, but died as carnal, disobedient Christians, making it to heaven anyway.

But that is not the tone of Hebrews 3. The writer uses provocative language to describe their plight and destiny. God was “provoked” with them (v10) because they “always erred (strayed)” in their “hearts” and His punitive sentence was to disallow them entrance into His Rest. The context suggests an eternal rest, not just that they never experienced the victorious Christian life and still got in by the skin of their teeth. They didn’t get in. Period.

I ask again: were these not ‘blood-bought, saved, people of God’? Did they not break free of Egypt, at least geographically? Did they not make the necessary voyage through the Red Sea and pop up on the other side, dry as a bone? Did they not meet at the mountain of God, “make a decision” to obey Him, vocalize their assent (Ex 24:4), then follow Him all the way to the edge of the Promised Land?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes…and affirmative.

The gospel in the west has been reduced to a simple formula that offers the inquirer who accepts it a false security. Let me explain.

I was a fired-up-for-God teenager who couldn’t wait for Thursday night visitation in our church’s youth ministry. While the rest of my peers went into the benign neighborhoods, myself and a handful of “preacher boys” would hop into a beat-up church van and travel into Atlanta’s mean streets, like the Techwood projects. Imagine, a small gaggle of lily-whited, pressed-pants and dress-shirted church boys injected into a culture of drugs, sirens and prostitutes.

First thing I did when I jumped out of the van was to find a group of children because they were the ‘easiest’. It never took long in those summer months because kids were as plentiful as Georgia gnats, playing in the streets in perfectly apportioned ‘congregations’.

“Hey y’all!” I called out. They turned, eyes wide with puzzlement and wonder.

“Can I talk to you for five minutes?”

Tentative nods all around.

“How many of you would like to live in a mansion?” In the belly of poverty, amid the stench of burning asphalt and rotting vegetation, and flanked on all sides by worn-down bungalows, the response was obvious. Me? My own mansion? Spill the beans, mister!

In a promised five minutes I gave them the “gospel” by explaining to them that mansions crisscrossed by golden avenues could be theirs if they would only believe that they were sinners, that Jesus died on a cross for their sins and rose again, and if they would ask Him to come into their hearts.

“That’s it. It’s so easy,” I gushed. Their little eyes were locked onto mine, no doubt with the expectation with the likes that Santa would come early and tramp upon their rooftops on that smoldering summer night and change their fortunes before morning.

“How many of you would like to pray after me and ask Jesus to come into your hearts and save you?”

Hands shot into the air, attached to ramrod straight little arms, each locked at the elbow. I smiled and asked them to bow their heads, close their eyes and repeat a lyrical prayer after me. When the “amen” was pronounced, I lifted my head and asked how many had prayed that prayer—from their heart. The same number of hands dissected the heavy, stagnant air, some with fingers wiggling. With great satisfaction I counted the hands, kept a mental note of the score as I would my own points in a basketball game, and cheerily departed as they got back to their game.

There was no mention of repentance, nothing of baptism or even a promise to keep tabs on them in discipleship. I just wanted to tell the other preacher boys in the van “I got thirty-one souls tonight!”

I think of those precious ones and others I led to the Lord through the years, telling them they were forgiven but nothing about the exchanged life, abiding in Him and faithful submission to the Lord all the way to the end. Did they just think they were trading the mean streets for golden ones, or have they remained in Him (John 15:4-6)? I have often wondered.

Don’t get me wrong. I came to Jesus the same way. I was distraught over my life (not the promises of big mansions in the sky), prayed along with my Dad and gave myself over to Jesus. I applied the blood of forgiveness to the doorpost of my heart and, no doubt, His life entered mine. My concern is that we leave potential converts in Egypt, giving them a false security that they are in because they prayed a prayer and the matter of their eternal salvation is forever settled.

The Gospel that Jesus preached—and His disciples, by the way (before they ever knew anything about the death, burial and resurrection of Christ)—-was more than a gospel of forgiveness. THE Gospel not only saves from sin, but to full completion. A one-time prayer with no evidence of an abiding life is an incomplete, deceptive gospel.

I know what you’re thinking. Yes, Scott, I believe what you just said. But the fact such lives do not evidence His life and the “more, much and remaining” fruit of the exchanged life proves they never were saved. Right?

Wrong. I ask again: did those who obediently apply the paschal lamb’s blood to those doorposts in Egypt escape the wrath of God? Were they saved from His wrath? Were they, in fact, held unaccountable and forgiven?

Yes, yes and yes.

So, then, what is THE Gospel? Can you articulate it?

Let me start with mine: THE Gospel is that Jesus Messiah has come and has brought with Him His Kingdom, that is, His right to rule, and has secured that Kingdom (made provision for it) by His death, burial and resurrection (of “first importance”, 1 Cor 15:3), and is calling out to any who will come under His reign so they can become citizens of and populate His Kingdom.

My definition likely is not “perfect” but I believe it hits more to the heart of the thing God is doing in the earth since the Garden episode. Really, long, long, looong before that!

The Father has been seeking a Bride that is worthy of His Son but the problem arises when there is “no one” who can qualify (Romans 3:10). So the Second Adam—Jesus—came, perfectly obedient to the will of the Father, to set the right order, introduce a heavenly kingdom, and call out of the race of Adam a people redeemed, chaste (not a Jesus-plus-other-lovers people), and peculiar. The “first word of the kingdom” (Mark 1:15) tells us how this exchange, transfer and transformation takes place: repentance and faith.

Here is where some of you will interject: Okay, I’ll bite. What is the problem? That sounds like my gospel, at least that last phrase. That happened when I prayed that prayer a long time ago.

Ah, but saving faith is ongoing belief, not one-time belief, no matter how sincere. Jesus, in John chapter three, tells us that the full work of redemption—

May I interrupt myself?

What most of the church has heard over the last hundred or so years is a ransom gospel, rather than a redemption gospel. When slaves were ransomed or emancipated, they were free to leave their plantations and live the lives they wanted. They became their own employer, their own boss, free to live and do as they pleased. Their debt was paid. They were “free”.

Jesus did not die to ransom us only, but to wholly redeem and create a new race of people. Why? Grace, beloved. Pure, pure grace! How? Again, by grace that empowers us to live this other life that is not our own (see Gal 2:20).

Back to my previous thought:

Jesus, in John chapter three, tells us (in a conversation with Nicodemus) that the full work of redemption (THE Gospel) accomplishes more than forgiveness, as good as that is.

As in all of scripture, it is necessary to read the context (the verses around the passage in question), and so we read that the passage just prior to John 3:16—without paragraph division—is the matter of Israel, their rebellion, fiery serpents and the bronze snake. Numbers 21 is the reference point and in it we see that those who were poisoned by the toxin of the snakes (hmmmm, Genesis 3:14,15 anybody?) were told to focus on the serpent on a pole (a picture of Christ being made sin on the Cross, poisoned by the toxins of Adam’s race) and they would be delivered of the sin and live (Numbers 21:8,9).

Another interruption, please—

What did John the Baptizer say when Jesus walked up to him at the River Jordan?

Here’s what I used to quote: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!”

(You: that’s right, isn’t it?)

Sorry. It got me too!

This is what was actually said: “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

Did you see it? Read it again…I’ll wait.

YES! He said the Lamb who would take away “THE sin (singular) of the world.”

Back to the suspended track of thought:

The Israelites were prone to go their own way (Isaiah 53:6), to rebel and be their own gods (see Genesis 3:5). This picture in Numbers 21 is not just a singular, historical, passing event of the wilderness. Jesus used it to put teeth to His impending work of the Cross. John, His cousin, saw it. The Cross would heal—heal!—those would “gaze” upon the Son (and never stop!) from going their own way.

“By His stripes we are healed.”
(Isaiah 53:5)

Sorry to you who use this as an ‘abracadabra’ for every matter of physical healing. Context, please?

The very next verse explains why His Passion was necessary:

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way…(that is why) the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity (singular) of us all.”
(Isaiah 53:6)

“THE iniquity.”

What, pray tell, is THE iniquity? It is to be our own gods. It is THE sin of the Garden. Adam’s downfall. In the church we are still preaching against smoking, cussing, adultery, pants on women and new translations of the Bible—and we should keep preaching against the first three!—but those are all “berries on the bush”, a bush that needs to be wholly cut down (see Luke 3:9)!

The whole tree is man calling the shots. The anti-Tree of Life. Man deciding what is best for himself. Man straying from God (“prone to wander, Lord I feel it…”). Man on the throne. The Good News is that Jesus Messiah came to destroy that tree and His work was gloriously “finished” (John 19:30; see also John 17:4).

Look around the Church and see: are most converts trusting in a ransom gospel? Has the Gospel of Jesus Christ somehow been replaced by a gospel that promises heaven to those who stay in Egypt?

The death, burial and resurrection of Christ is of first importance. There is no way into the Kingdom unless a man is born again by faith in the Son of God. But faith—hearing God’s word, believing it as from God, and obeying it—is not a one-time proposition. It is an abiding belief. The writer of Hebrews warns saved, blood-bought, blood-washed people that neglecting their salvation can lead to drifting, unbelief, hardness and ultimately, to apostasy.

He says that salvation (from first to last*) is, first of all an “escape” (2:3) from the wrath of God and the dark kingdom.

Second, the writer of Hebrews reminds us salvation (from first to last) is a journey, a race of sorts. We must “pay closer attention”, “share” in it, “hold fast” to it, be “firm…to the end” (3:14); have “earnestness…until the end” (6:11), to “not shrink back”, and to “(be having) faith” (10:39).

Lastly, we learn from Hebrews that salvation (from first to last) is a transport, not only from the dark kingdom, its curse and damnation, but to fullness and glory (12:18-24; see also Colossians 1:13 and 1 Peter 3:18).

Is your salvation like this? This is my burden for the church. I am glad to know this Gospel that saves not only from sin but brings a yielded soul to completion, a fit habitation for God, locked in an eternal embrace with the Son as His Bride, knowing it is only by grace that any of it could be possible, not by my human effort or religion.

When we share the Good News, let’s not reduce it to a partial gospel that promises the hope of eternal life to those who feel covered by a prayer they parroted once upon a time. Nor should we complicate it with an overload of theological gymnastics, linguistics and jargon.

A woman I dearly admire said, “the way I see it, the whole gospel comes down to ‘Trust and Obey, for there’s no other way…”

Isn’t this the gospel “that will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations…and then the end will come”? (Matthew 24:14)

Well, then, let’s preach it, brother! All of it!

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*Romans 1:17—“from faith to faith” is translated ‘from beginning to end’ (from the shallow end of the pool—the starting point—to the deep end where the Water of Life carries you and you cannot stand on your own two feet!)

THE Sin and an Unregenerate Church

05 Wednesday Aug 2009

Posted by in Christianity, Church, Confession, Crucified Life, Deception, Discipleship, Doctrine, Faithfulness, Gospel, Gospel of the Kingdom, Hearing God, Jesus Christ, Kingdom of God, Obedience, Reign of Christ, Repentance, Salvation, THE Sin

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Pharisee_and_Publican

Here is an exercise for you aspirants of theology. Search out the significant differences between the sin, sin and sins in the Greek New Testament. I assure you, it has been the glory of God to hide these matters in plain sight. And it has been the glory of the sons of His Kingdom to search them out. What is found in such a search will deliver us from the incomplete gospel that would only save us from our sins…and the Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus, His disciples and Paul preached that truly brings Life.

Paul said “the sting of the death is the sin” in 1 Corinthians 15:56 (Young’s Literal). The definite article in the original implies a particular sin, the sin of all sins. It is this sin that men embrace all the way to hell. 

When Jesus came to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness, the Baptizer exclaimed, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” He did not say, contrary to how the verse if often misquoted “who takes away the sins of the world.”

Jesus didn’t zero in on sins when He went to the cross—although they, too, were rendered powerless, praise be!—He came to do away with, once and for all, the sin that brings about the death. Sins (plural, without definite article)  are, put simply, berries on the tree of rebellion, but God made provision through Christ to go to the root of mankind’s problem.

Which is…

…the nefarious nature to rebel against the authority of God and His Kingdom which is, ultimately, His reign. THE sin is man taking the throne. It is Adam casting his vote for himself and ruling God out of office. It is the created being casting himself in the lead role and leaving the Creator God on the cutting room floor.

Say what you wish, but the sin is not just evident in an unregenerate world of hell-bound men today, it is also the Great Plague of the professing church, mostly evident in those places on the map where there is little or no persecution, where abundance is greedily scarfed down by portly epicureans, and where the Gospel has been watered down from its original, robust recipe and abridged into the costless, cross-less, insipidly banal concoction it is today. Continue reading »

15:20

16 Thursday Aug 2007

Posted by in Brokenness, Children, Christianity, Compassion, Encouragement, Family, Forgiveness, Gospel, Hope, Jesus Christ, Miracles, Reign of Christ, Repentance, Revival

≈ 16 Comments

“And he got up and went to his father. But while he was still far away, his father saw him and was moved with pity for him and went quickly and took him in his arms and gave him a kiss.”

–First century parable from the lips of Jesus

Long about noon on Saturday a father and son will meet in a giant bear hug far from the horizon that once separated them.  And Mom will be there too, just the right touch needed to make a three-corded strand.  Perceptive onlookers might catch a glimpse of something arcane and otherworldly in this simple tapestry: a family wrapped, cinched and secured in the keeping power of the Strong-Armed One.  I’d call that an unbreakable family bond.

The son is, at long last, coming home.  Gone will be the rags and fetters of the far country and, though the memories of depravity and hellishness will linger, the air will be gloriously cleared of the demons that enslaved and harrassed. 

I noticed a subtle nuance about that story this afternoon.  I found in my Bible, the NASB’s translation of Luke 15:32 to be, “this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live…”  The translators took the verb anazoo and made the distinction in it’s aorist tense that a process or action has begun that, if it continues, will certainly end in a completed action or effect. 

That’s pretty technical sounding so let me dumb it down for you and me.  When I have told others of our son’s return, I (a) do not refer to Graham as a “prodigal” because he no longer wears that moniker by the grace of our Lord, and (b) advise them not to expect our boy to exude an ethereal glow and matching halo.  The boy has begun to breathe again the new air of the liberty by which Christ has set him free.  He is just now beginning to lay hold of that for which Christ has taken hold of him. 

Like me (and you), he will not have “arrived”.  He might break our hearts again.  (I sure wish there was a verse 33 in that chapter so we could see how it plays out six weeks, six months or six years from the banquet!)  He might revert.  I pray not, for the scriptural phrase “a dog returning to its vomit” is not such a good thing.  It’s deadly, in fact. 

All we have is today. 

And 15:20.

And verse 32.

And that’s got Mom and me giddy from the word go.

And go we will.  To meet our son on a hillside of grace, restoration, reconciliation and…

JUBILEE!      

Finally, let me end with this captivating story found in Philip Yancey’s book, What’s So Amazing About Grace?  The details might not mirror ours exactly and while it is about a young girl rather than a teenaged boy, you’ll see why I’ve done it.

A young girl grows up on a cherry orchard just above Traverse City, Michigan. Her parents, a bit old- fashioned, tend to overreact to her nose ring, the music she listens to, and the length of her skirts. They ground her a few times, and she seethes inside. “I hate you!” she screams at her father when he knocks on the door of her room after an argument, and that night she acts on a plan she has mentally rehearsed scores of times. She runs away.

She has visited Detroit only once before, on a bus trip with her church youth group to watch the Tigers play. Because newspapers in Traverse City report in lurid detail the gangs, the drugs, and the violence in downtown Detroit, she concludes that is probably the last place her parents will look for her. California, maybe, or Florida, but not Detroit.

Her second day there she meets a man who drives the biggest car she’s ever seen. He offers her a ride, buys her lunch, arranges a place for her to stay. He gives her some pills that make her feel better than she’s ever felt before. She was right all along, she decides: her parents were keeping her from all the fun.

The good life continues for a month, two months, a year. The man with the big car–she calls him “Boss”– teaches her a few things that men like. She lives in a penthouse, and orders room service whenever she wants. Occasionally she thinks about the folks back home, but their lives now seem so boring and provincial that she can hardly believe she grew up there.

She has a brief scare when she sees her picture printed on the back of a milk carton with the headline “Have you seen this child?” But by now she has blond hair, and with all the makeup and body-piercing jewelry she wears, nobody would mistake her for a child. Besides, most of her friends are runaways, and nobody squeals in Detroit.

After a year the first sallow signs of illness appear, and it amazes her how fast the boss turns mean. “These days, we can’t mess around,” he growls, and before she knows it she’s out on the street without a penny to her name. When winter blows in she finds herself sleeping on metal grates outside the big department stores. “Sleeping” is the wrong word–a teenage girl at night in down town Detroit can never relax her guard. Dark bands circle her eyes. Her cough worsens. Continue reading »

Left-Turn Jesus?

03 Friday Aug 2007

Posted by in Christianity, Church, Commitment, Crucified Life, Deception, Discipleship, Faithfulness, Gospel, Hypocrisy, Jesus Christ, Obedience, Persecution, Reign of Christ, Sacrifice, Surrender

≈ 14 Comments

When Jesus entered Jerusalem amid the cries of “Liberate us!  Rescue us!  Now!  Today!” He once again zigged when mob mentality preferred He zag and have done with it.  Our Savior who was there when beasts of burden were created, gently nudged the animal on which He was riding to go right when all of the Passover throng urged Him left.

Had He gone left, the road would have taken Him to the Fortress of Antonias, the residence of Pilate who was then governor of Judea.  You can almost imagine the egress of humanity as it parted to give their conquering king leeway to lead the revolution Rome-ward.  Get Rome out of our Home! signs, if there were such, would say.  The waving of palm branches and the rubbing of palms would intermingle buoyed by the hoots and hollers of antsy renegades long tired of Gentile occupation.

But He turned right instead.

“Wha–?”

“What the–?”

“Where’s He going?  Jesus!  Jesus!  Wrong way!”

“Left!”

“Left, we say!”

But the butt end of a donkey spoke volumes.  Its right flank told the fed-up malcontents that this King may not be their king after all.  Where was He going?  Oh wait, I know, some thought.  Optimism rising: He’s gonna do a victory lap around the city BEFORE He rides into the jaws of Gentile dominion.  But they were wrong.

Gently coaxing the beast onward through the thickening atmosphere of suspicion and burgeoning alarm, the Teacher wended His way past the curious and the quietened.  Mouths were hanging open and palm branches drooped, tips touching the stone and sand of the city.  Whispers carried over the tops of heads and more than a few voices raised in faltered protest, still not exactly sure what this quasi-king was up to.

The Temple.  Oh, sure, He needs to go into the Temple for a blessing before He confronts the enemy.  So they thought.

The outer court of the Temple proper was filled with turtledoves, pigeons, lambs and rams.  Moneychangers had their booths set up all over the area and as Jesus dismounted, a strange and deadly fire billowed in His eyes.  He looked upon the carnivalian sight with disgust and wasted little time finding some cords with which to fashion whips.  If no one had been watching and wondering up until now, they were certainly doing just that in this moment.  What was He going to do?  Wait!  The whips must be for the backs of the oppressors!

Hardly.

With zeal no one had seen until this time, the Christ’s arms flashed out tentacles of cord against the backs of the moneylenders and court shysters.  The tips never touched animal flesh but how they snaked and bit into the cloth and skin of those who were turning this sacred ground into their operations of greed and blasphemy.  How the Son of Man whirled in furious passion, a blur of blazing authority!  Howling out protests agains such unrequited insolence, these merchants of mayhem ran for the exits and straight into the waiting arms of the planners of the carpenter’s demise.

Fast forward several days.

Pilate stands before the mob, irritated and incredulous at their fickleness.  How could the same people who lauded and applauded this pitiful Man a few days earlier now want His blood to run down the sewers of the city?  Can anyone figure out these lunatics?  He called for a man named Jesus to be brought forward, a terrorist imprisoned for atrocities against Roman soldiers.  Standing him beside another Man named Jesus, he said:

“Which Jesus do you want?”

You see, One Jesus had said to anyone who would listen for three years that He had come from His Father and most if not all knew exactly what He meant.  He was saying quite literally He was the sent-One from God, God in human flesh, the One this nation had been waiting for, prophesied for centuries, and He was here, now.

The other Jesus was one who spoke their language and gave them exactly what they wanted.  Few know his first name was Jesus but most know him as Bar-abbas, translated: the son of his father, and both stood side by side before the world, as it were, and, except for a shockingly small number, most chose the one who would give them immediate satisfaction.  They wanted the freedom-fighter, not the Giver of Freedom.  They wanted the one who whipped the Romans, not the Jews.

And so Jesus was tried, convicted and crucified.  All because He turned right instead of left. 

There are so many ways to take this but I want to submit that much of what is called the church today, had it been living in that era, would, I fear, blend into that fickle mob, choosing a left-turn Jesus rather than a right-turn Lord.  Many do not want a Supreme King to reign over them but they are fired-up silly for a God who will give them what they want.

Peter himself, in a fit of schizonphrenia, told Jesus to turn left just weeks from Passion week, way up in the foothills of Mt. Hermon near Caesarea Philippi (see Matt. 16:21-22).  Jesus told the disciples ahead of time which way He would turn, but Peter said, “NO!  Not on my watch You won’t!”  You see, Peter couldn’t stand the thought of Jesus dying—for a variety of reasons, some of them subtle, some not-so.  I think that the impulsive fisherman innately knew Jesus’ death meant his own would surely follow.

That’s the church, or at least what passes for the church today.  We want left, left, left!  But Jesus is turning right.  See Him?  And if we are His people, we need to go that way too.

Must Jesus bear the cross alone
And all the world go free?
No, there’s a cross for everyone
And there’s a cross for me.

The consecrated cross I’ll bear
Till death shall set me free;
And then go home my crown to wear
For there’s a crown for me!

This post inspired by David Pawson’s teaching, “The Uniqueness of Christ”

800 Pacos

15 Friday Jun 2007

Posted by in Christianity, Confession, Conversion, Culture, Deception, Evangelism, God, Gospel, Healing, Hope, Jesus Christ, Kingdom of God, Reign of Christ, Repentance, Salvation, Suffering

≈ 12 Comments

old-typewriter2.jpg

He was a man’s man. A tough guy.

He lived hard, fast and free, with no discernible moral restraint or conscience.

His colorful life ran the gamut from fighting bulls and running with them to being one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. His resume popped and sizzled with entries like lion hunter, globe-trotter, war hero, womanizer, Hollywood celebrity, expert fisherman and he could drink you under the table. For a time he was the most well-known figure of the last century and though his oeuvres are canonized in modern literature, his philanders were legendary.

If I told you the man I just described was a miserable wretch, would you believe me? Before you answer, consider these plaintive words, spoken autobiographically:

“I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead, and there is no current to plug into.”

Alcohol-related depression plagued him and he received shock therapy to reduce the depression and paranoia. Tragically, the therapy caused him to lose his memory and thusly, his writing skills. He left Mayo Clinic one day in the middle of treatments and returned to his home in Ketchum, Idaho. In the early hours of a July Sunday, Ernest Hemingway, the man who had lived such a storied life, decided living was too painful, so he rose from his bed, went to his basement and carefully picked out a shotgun among his collection. When he returned to the upstairs foyer, he found a place to sit down and placed the barrel of the shotgun between his teeth and blew the top of his head off. It was just a few weeks before his 62nd birthday.

What is rarely known about Mr. Hemingway is that he was born to parents who were devout in their relationship with Jesus Christ. He was raised in a home that could adequately be characterized as evangelical. His dad, a doctor who practiced in the suburbs of Chicago, was a personal friend of D.L. Moody, and young Ernest was himself a dedicated churchgoer into his youth.

After leaving home to join the war, Hemingway abandoned his earlier professed faith. So much death and debauchery challenged his thinking about God and his rebellion showed in his writing. His earliest works so horror-struck his parents they returned the volumes to his publisher and all ties were severed.

It is interesting that one of Hemingway’s short stories The Capital of the World hints at the autobiographical. The story deals with the falling out between a father and his teenage son and the son’s resultant flight from home. Over time, the father was so distraught over the broken relationship he searched all over Spain for his boy but to no avail. Finally, he took out an ad in a local newspaper with the words: “Paco, Meet At Montana Hotel Noon Tuesday. All is Forgiven. Papa.”

On Tuesday at noon, as the story goes, over 800 Pacos showed up, looking to be restored to their father. Each had hoped the message was for them.

That story gets me on so many levels. Of course, it can address what Eldredge’s Wild At Heart calls the “father wound” that is found in so many men and boys in today’s society. It is true that men are tragically estranged from their fathers and consequently from the fullness of their own manhood. But in the context of this post, and my futile wish that the story of Ernest Hemingway could have played out differently, I wonder if “Papa” (his nickname) saw himself throughout life not as the main Paco of his story so much as the 800 Pacos who would not be given the satisfaction of forgiveness.

The demons he lived with were unpardonable tyrants. He saw no way out.

And so he reached for a shotgun.

And the blast could not drown the cacophony of 800 plaintive wails released from his dying soul with the single pull of a trigger.

I realize the whole of my limited readership are those who follow Christ but every once in a while someone stumbles across this page who has no idea why they did. Perhaps, just maybe (especially if you’ve read this far) you are not here by some random improbability. And so, before you click off, I want to say…

…Cry Out To Jesus.

Believe me, you are being lied to. That bottle sitting by your bedside. That strange woman you are bedding. Or want to. That next fix you are dying for. The invitation you received to that wild party. Even your vain philosophy. The code you live by: I’m the Captain of My Soul. The estrangement from your family. The penthouse, the pearls, the pools. The porn, the booze.

Lies. All lies.

Remember what this so-called modern man said of his own piteous life?

“I live in a vacuum that is as lonely as a radio tube when the batteries are dead, and there is no current to plug into.”

You feel like that, don’t you?

You will never find what you’re looking for until you give yourself completely over to the One who can silence the inner cries of your 800 Pacos and set them free. He will set you free and make you a son, a citizen of a new Kingdom. Until you allow the Son of God to reign over your life, you are subjecting yourself to the reign of another, and that is called bondage. Stop kidding yourself. You keep chasing the wind, you’ll reap the whirlwind.

Turn to Christ, not to religion.

Do it now.

800 Pacos are waiting.

Brothers, Something’s Wrong

24 Thursday May 2007

Posted by in Christianity, Church, Conversion, Discipleship, Evangelism, Gospel, Heaven, Jesus Christ, Kingdom of God, Reign of Christ, Repentance, Salvation

≈ 22 Comments

church-at-sunset.jpg

Theologically speaking, I am closer to Wesley than I am to Luther or Calvin, the same way ’3′ is closer to ’1′ than, say, ’10′ is. I’m sure this will surprise or even disappoint some of my fellow theologues out there but there it is. Once upon a time I was a strict dispensationalist. A cessationist. A fundamentalist (note the emphasis is on the last syllable). I still adhere to the fundamentals which include the virgin birth, the vicarious death of Christ, His victorious resurrection and visible return to earth and the veracity of the holy scriptures . If you notice from that list I have conveniently alliterated it, showing my homiletic roots from which I can never stray very far. Tragically, there are more than three points, however, and no poem.

Well, you can’t please everybody.

Some time ago, the Lord had me all in knots over Paul’s first missive to Timothy when he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the startling prediction that “in the last days some will depart from THE faith…” This taxed me to no end especially when I laid it alongside Christ’s sobering conclusion to His famous Sermon (“MANY will say to Me on that day…”), my neatly packed world began to writhe and sway. This tumultuous “sword drill” further rocked my world when God added more beef to the stew through this interchange between Jesus and a seeker:

“Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?”
“Strive to enter through the narrow door,” He replied, “for MANY, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able…”

I see little ‘striving’ these days. I garner that such a message has been deemed non sequitur by moderns and we evangelicals have retooled it so we can help God turn the “few” into “many.” Sorry, Lord, but we think we can get You bigger numbers with some favorable repackaging. Whaddaya say we tone down the Gospel a smidge, hide some of its dicier demands, and make it easier to get in? Hey, I know, let’s get people to pray a quick prayer, shake their hand and tell ‘em they’re saved? Forget the aisle or public confession, just have ‘em pray it silently in their seats with no one looking around! Wouldn’t want ‘em to feel self-conscious…even if they don’t connect with a faith family, no matter. They’re in. It’s all done.

If Barna’s right, then there’s not a whole lot more to do in America because 8 or 9 out of ten polled people consider themselves heaven-bound. Hooray! Our way has worked!

Oh, sorry, Jesus…uh, You’re still Lord and everything…

When it comes to evangelism, the church in our era is more like the proverbial hare, like a rocket out of the gate and hurry-scurry across the countryside, and Jesus’ style is more like the tortoise, plodding, purposeful and particular. And terribly effective.

When I was a teenager in the 70s, our youth group at church would go door-to-door witnessing on Thursday nights in area neighborhoods. I, however, would board a church van with three or four other guys and we would be taken into the seedier side of town, amid drug deals and shootings, to share the gospel on street corners. We were the ‘preacher boys.’ Our goal was to get as many saved as we could, so our presentation went something like this:

“How many of you want to go to heaven when you die?”

There was always a group of ten, fifteen, or thirty curious listeners, mainly children, and mostly puzzled by upper middle class white guys converging on their turf. When the question was raised, so were the hands. Even some adults lifted an arm to the air. Immediately, we knew we had them.

“If I could tell you that you could have a mansion one day, walk on streets of pure gold and live forever, would you be interested?”

They were hooked. Mostly by the mansion thing, but hooked, nonetheless. By now, some more children were filtering our way and they, too, were betaken by visions of fairies, angels and huge marble palaces. And gum. Not hard to see, really, when the streets we proclaimed this gospel from were not golden and lined by rows and rows of shanties. Well, anyway, I would hurry through the death, burial and resurrection part of the gospel because you couldn’t stay on these matters too long or you’d lose them. They were in it for bigger game. How do I get a mansion, mister? So, I would wrap up the “sermon” part and reel them in.

“So, if you want to live forever and have your very own mansion, repeat this prayer after me…”

Many did. We’d count the noses then report back to the van our great success. Never did know what became of those noses, however. The difference between our method and the first century understanding of the gospel was that we’d count noses and jump for joy! Those early disciples would make disciples and change the world.

Though the above scenario is absolutely true, I realize that I’ve caricatured to an extent and culled something from a different time, but over all I see very little in the western church that reflects the last sentence of my previous paragraph. Going back to those earlier texts, I am greatly burdened by a man-centered gospel that is powerless to save and weak against the kingdom of darkness. I fear for a people who are basing their salvation on “greasy” grace (slide in on a wing and a prayer), a little prayer and handshake, a raised hand during an invitation long, long ago, a gospel about heaven and not Him and who are unwitting targets for the great falling away.

Brothers, something’s wrong. And we’d better address it.

The Mane Thing

24 Thursday May 2007

Posted by in Beth Moore, Christianity, Compassion, Evangelism, Gospel, Hearing God, Humility, Ministry, Miracles, Obedience, Sacrifice

≈ 2 Comments

A friend emailed this story to me a few weeks ago and I’ve been waiting for a just-so opportunity to share it. It’s been all over the internet for a while now so I suppose that just means I’m behind the times as usual. For those who haven’t had the pleasure yet, enjoy.

HAIRBRUSH EXPERIENCE by Beth Moore

April 20, 2005, at the Airport in Knoxville, waiting to board the plane, I had the Bible on my lap and was very intent upon what I was doing. I’d had a marvelous morning with the Lord. I say this because I want to tell you it is a scary thing to have the Spirit of God really working in you. You could end up doing some things you never would have done otherwise. Life in the Spirit can be dangerous for a thousand reasons not the least of which is your ego.

I tried to keep from staring, but he was such a strange sight. Humped over in a wheelchair, he was skin and bones, dressed in clothes that obviously fit when he was at least twenty pounds heavier. His knees protruded from his trousers, and his shoulders looked like the coat hanger was still in his shirt. His hands looked like tangled masses of veins and bones.

The strangest part of him was his hair and nails. Stringy, gray hair hung well over his shoulders and down part of his back. His fingernails were long, clean but strangely out of place on an old man.

I looked down at my Bible as fast as I could, discomfort burning my face. As I tried to imagine what his story might have been, I found myself wondering if I’d just had a Howard Hughes sighting. Then, I remembered that he was dead. So this man in the airport…an impersonator maybe? Was a camera on us somewhere? There I sat, trying to concentrate on the Word to keep from being concerned about a thin slice of humanity served on a wheelchair only a few seats from me. All the while, my heart was growing more and more overwhelmed with a feeling for him.

Let’s admit it. Curiosity is a heap more comfortable than true concern, and suddenly I was awash with aching emotion for this bizarre-looking old man. Continue reading »

One-Sided Dialogue

22 Tuesday May 2007

Posted by in Christianity, Church, Culture, Discipleship, Gospel, Hypocrisy, Kingdom of God, Ministry, Sacrifice

≈ 7 Comments

Ever been in a conversation that could’ve gone on without your presence?

I get the feeling that is what the Sovereign Lord bemoans when He enters into dialogue with His church. He’s wanting the church to ‘zig’ with Him but all she seems capable of doing is a nice little ‘zag’ maneuver and then aumoney-on-our-mind.jpgdaciously pats herself on the back thinking the Lord Christ is wowed by her suaveness (yes, it’s a word) and dexterity. The things that are on His heart have not seemed to be captured in the weekly homilies coming from our pulpits. We’re on a whole ‘nother plane altogether (as in: get your seat cushions ready, we’re in a nosedive) and though God is wanting to talk about His Kingdom, we want to checkmate Him with ours.

So there I was on a recent Saturday night, while all other pastors are on their faces begging God for a sermon or on the internet getting a “ready-made” one, I was taking a different tack altogether. Because I had the Sunday “off” I thought I might see what the religious channels might be serving up (warning, heavy satire ahead). First up was a pastor from the midwest and he was talking about “seed” and “prosperity.” I actually heard him say this:

“Wouldn’t it be great if all we had in our church were millionaires and billionaires?”

Okayyyyy…that’s quite a dream you got there, sir.

And then:

“I’ve always taught that God wants you to be wealthy, but now I’ve changed that. God needs you to be wealthy.”

So, God has fallen on hard times? Hey buddy, can you spare a dime? Guess that’s to be expected after millennia of blessings pouring out of the windows of heaven. I mean, really, just how long can His coffers hold out? Let’s be serious…

“It’s been true that the wealth of the nations is laid up for the righteous,” he continued, ramping up his argument because, obviously, papa needed a new set of golf clubs, “but that is changing. The wealth of the nations is now in the hands of the righteous!”

Really, now? Tell that to the little old lady who has given fifty percent of her fixed income to the Lord for years and keeps the carpet in her prayer closet warm with her arthritic knees for missionaries around the world. I found it interesting that as the camera panned over the crowd, many of the faces it found were puckered and tired as if this dead horse had been beat on one too many times. Time to go… Continue reading »

Sacred Seduction

25 Wednesday Apr 2007

Posted by in Bible, Christianity, Creation, Gospel, Jesus Christ, Loving God, Worship

≈ 3 Comments

God loves love. He is love. Ever notice how the Scriptures contain so many references to this subject, not only with regard to the concept of love but love as the core foundation of romance. That’s right, our God is a romantic and delights in the affair of the heart. He is the ultimate Suitor and Seducer, and for those who just got a little uneasy at that last comment, take a moment to read among one the Bible’s many love stories these words:

“Israel, I, the LORD, will lure you into the desert and speak gently to you.”
(Hosea 2:14, CEV)

The word translated “lure” has the meaning of ‘deceiving’ for good purposes, to lure away from (other lovers) by seduction. We’re not talking Desperate Housewives stuff here. No, this is love pure and square. The story in which it is found involves a prophet, a whore and unconditionalhe-loves-me.jpg love. This is God enjoining the stuff of heaven, stuff of earth for our benefit, showing us He is a God who pursues, who loves, who romances, and, according to Genesis, even takes pleasure in matchmaking.

Right out of the gate, we learn how marriage, romance, union and procreation are really important to God and endemic to the human experience. In the True Account of the Origin of Man we have God creating and setting His Man in the earth and, in time (a week? day? minutes? years?) bringing forth from Him a Woman, a Bride, and Man says upon seeing her, “Aha!”* In modern vernacular, it would sound something like this: “Whoooo-boy!” or “Boo-ya!” She’s like me and yet there are some obvious differences…Me likeee…May I have another? (that last bit’s the Joseph Smith version, BTW)

We know that the First Adam and Woman began the humanesque cycle of lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and the pride of life, bringing upon the whole of the human race the seedy issue of fallenness: spirits dead and unresponsive to the Creator. Tumbling out of the sacred pages henceforth are the symptoms of the fall: greed, jealousy, murder, incest, rape, polygamy, sadism and a litany of other lawless deeds, all of them pointing to the capital ‘S’ Sin which was the First Adam snubbing God and opting to rule himself instead.

But there’s still a Tree of Life. There’s still a Garden.** And God still loves love. So He sets to work refining His Love Story by inserting two young kids into the narrative who are head over heels in love with each other. Forget that a scandal tries to tear them apart. No, not these two. As a foreshadowing of the Love to come, theirs was a delicate melange of justice and mercy.*** As their married life starts out, amid all the whispers and prejudice, they happily raise a Child who is the Last Adam, the Lover from whom will come His “Aha!” And, as the Second Man****, He is the progenitor of a new race, a heavenly race.

The whole of the Bible is the telling of this Sacred Romance. It starts out with God’s Man from whom will come a bride (guess who?). There’s a whole book dedicated to the art and act of marriage and its call for monogamy in a world of polygamy. Perhaps after a few readings of the Song of songs, the dutiful reader will discover its bigger picture, the ethereal Love of One who will not relent, and His Bride who will save herself for only Him.

Yeah, Scripture is chock-full of the good, mushy amore. There’s the tryst between Hosea and Gomer, as I alluded to earlier, which is a killer-good love story if there ever was one. Isaac getting his bride and Jacob working for his. David and Abigail. Ruth and Boaz? Are you kidding me? Harlequin only wishes for a storyline like that one. And there’s the not-so-subtle inclusion of Christ’s first miracle taking place during a wedding. There’s Paul, raising the bar on what is expected of a husband in the Roman world. Then, as the canon of Scripture closes, we find a Bride making herself ready for her Husband and making an entrance surely powerful enough to elicit an “Aha!” from her Bridegroom (Rev 21:9-ff), even though I somehow believe the Bride’s “Aha!” will reflect far more wonder.

Well, there you have it. Not exhaustive by any stretch, but adequate to swoon in the facets of such Love. Put yourself in the stories. You are Gomer. You are Abigail. You are Ruth.  And Rachel. Rebekah. The Shulamite with brown skin and longing heart. They’re not just good stories. They were meant to tell THE story: God is love and His eyes have found you across a crowded floor.

And He’s not looking away.

*Gen 2:23
**Rev 22:2
***Matt 1:19,24
****1 Cor 15:45,47

 

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