Monday, August 29, 2016

Sometimes Traditions gotta go

When you come to appear before me, 
who has required of you
this trampling of my courts?
Bring no more vain offerings;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations--
I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates;
the have become a burden to me;
 I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even through you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
Was yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow's cause.

Quite a while back I did a series on communion. The reason for that was because on a Sunday an elder at the church I was attending got up in front of the congregation to pray for communion, and switched into praying for offering. He was not aware of what he was doing, it was tradition and habit for him. And it caused problems that many of the older congregation laughed off, while the younger generations were displeased with the slip up. Not because of a major reverence for communion like Catholics (which is fine) but because to us, it disrespected God. 

There was a story that I heard about an old church that had a division. They took communion every Sunday, and when they set it up front they placed a sheet of cloth over it. The older people in the congregation made a big show of it, revered the cloth, said that it symbolized the cloth that Jesus was buried in. Finally the pastor had enough of it and started a fight about it in the church. Eventually one of the previous elders was brought in to discuss when and why the cloth was used. He said that back in the 40's they didn't have air conditioning, and so they kept the windows open in the summer. The cloth then was to keep the flies off of the communion things.

How often do we do things just because "That's the way that they've always been done!" How often do we just follow those in front of us when it comes to religious practices? We forget why we do things and we begin to focus on the wrong aspects. And God hates it when we do that. 2 Corinthians 13.5 tells us to examine ourselves, to see if we're in the faith. Test ourselves. Galatians 6.4 tells us to test our own works. Be mindful of what we're doing and why we're doing it. Never be afraid to challenge why you do something.
Each week at CSF we take communion. Why? Because scripture says that every time we come together to take it in remembrance of Jesus. On top of that it's to refocus ourselves on why we're here. Not just here as in in CSF but in this world on this campus whatever it may be. It's to remember that Christ died so that we may live, and we must live according to the calling to which we have received. It's an intentional act. Not tradition, not because people before us did it. 

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

What are we called to?

One of my favorite quotes of all time is, "If nothing else at least you can be a bad example." We all have a story, we all can teach each other truths about God. This is all in the same train of thought that gives us the phrase, "If God can use me, he can use anyone."

A lot of the first chapter of Galatians is Paul defending his apostleship, his calling, his message that he preaches. This can be seen in the greeting, and also in verses 11-24.

First off he makes it known that the Gospel that we preach is not good news that comes from man. Yes, I said we. You're a part of this too. This good news isn't something that man can do; man can't fix the problem between ourselves and God. We're the offending party, nothing we can do will take back the offences we've made. It's only by grace that we can be forgiven and reconciled. This is not something that can be done by man. Paul even writes that he didn't receive it from man, but instead by a revelation from Jesus. This revelation was a calling from God, one given out of his grace.

How awesome is that? We are called to God, by God, out of his grace. He has no reason to call us to himself, but he does, because he is gracious and merciful. This tells me that God desires reunion with his children over satisfying his wrath immediately.

Paul writes that he was called to preach to the Gentiles, the undesirables to the Jews, continually telling us God wants all to come to him. What does this mean for us? We are called to desire that all people come to Jesus in repentance and humility that they may receive the same salvation we have. Easy to think about in terms of your annoying neighbor, that kid in your class that smells bad, or even a Patriots fan. you may not think so, but comparatively it is.

Comparative to what you ask? Kim Jong-Un. God wants him to be reconciled with him too. Too abstract for you? Too distant? What about Putin? Or Donald Trump? God wants them too. Or what about members of ISIS? Terrorists killing Christians in the Middle East? Or what about the terrorists that organized and execute all the attacks in France over the past year? Do you desire that they come to know Jesus? Do you want them to share in the salvation that we have?

It took Paul three years to come to terms with this idea (I think that's a lot of what his time in Arabia was). It took Peter 3 times to get that it's okay to evangelize to Gentiles. Is it going to take us a long time to realize that God wants us to pray for the evil people of the world? Will we ever? I sincerely believe this is something God calls us to do. And I want to challenge you with it. Right now, I want you to spend 5 minutes to pray for ISIS members to repent and come to God for salvation. No mention of them "Getting what they deserve" or "being vaporized by a missile" or killed slowly and painfully. Instead pray for their salvation.

Monday, August 1, 2016

The only Gospel there is

Yeah it's been like 4 months since I've written anything on here. I could make excuses, but I just lost my mojo and got lazy and burned out. Starting now though I'm going to be getting more serious about things.

Part of the problem is I kinda ran out of things to write about. Yes I could talk about politics, social issues, cultural changes, or whatever else. But I don't want to do that because that's not what I'm here for. I think that writing about those things will take focus off Jesus which is the last thing I want to do. I also don't want to do a cop out and just start in a book, and go through chapter by chapter about what's being said. But I think that's a place I need to start now. So be prepared.

Currently I'm working on my Thesis proposal. I've been reading a lot of different books looking for research, and I came across an interesting topic in one of them: What is to be believed in to be saved? Similarly the question of: What is the Gospel? was also asked. Some scholars and theologians say that Christ Crucified is the gospel and what should be believed in. Jesus himself though says that doing the work of God is believing in the one he sent, that is Jesus. Paul writes in Galatians 1.6-9 the only gospel is that of Christ. I almost wrote Christ crucified there because of notes that I made in my Bible, but Christ crucified I don't think is the gospel message. It's part of it I believe, but not the entire thing.

The entire gospel then is that of Christ. There is no other gospel besides this. Looking at the book of Galatians, this is one of the first things Paul addresses. "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting hi who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ."

There are some major problems going on in the Galatian church, and I think some of those problems can transition into today (not the Church exactly, but culture influencing church goers).

First let's understand what the gospel is: It's the Good News. What's the good news? That God died? No. That God died and came back to life? Closer. What about that through Jesus we can have a reconciled relationship with God? Bingo. That is the Good News. That is the Gospel. There is a narrative that explains how the possibility for reconciliation came about, and that's where we get the death and resurrection of God in the form of Jesus. And it's only through Jesus that we can partake in this good news. That's where things get controversial in today's culture.

Oh there's plenty of ways to get to what someone would consider heaven! That is if you believe in the afterlife. If not, that's alright too! When you die you won't go anywhere. All you gotta do though is be a good person in life and I'm sure you'll get to a positive afterlife. Thanks Oprah.

The Gospel says something different though. It's not just about "the afterlife." It's about reconciliation with God. It's about peace and love (not like hippy peace and love but peace after a war and reconciliation). And there's only one way to gain this peace and love, and that's through Jesus.

This is something today's culture does not accept, that there is only one God, and his name is YHWH, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It is only through repentance that we receive his forgiveness, and only out of his grace may we receive his forgiveness. And it is only because of his forgiveness that we can be viewed as righteous and come into a restored relationship with him. This is the only Gospel there is.

Anyone who preaches a different Gospel, let him be accursed for leading children of God astray. Does this make you upset? Doesn't matter to me. I am here to please God, not man.

Galatians 1.6-10