We are a Christian

This past weekend, our church held its annual marriage retreat. It is generally one of my favorite weekends of the year; I get to have a weekend off of work, I get to spend time with my wife, time with friends, etc. With our life in the midst of transition and craziness, we were unsure if we'd be able to attend this year. We committed to trying to make it work into our schedule, and I'm so glad that we did, the time to focus on us and God's plan and design in marriage was a soul-satisfying salve.

The overarching theme that has stuck in my mind as we have moved through the teaching of the weekend and re-entered real life is the reality of the description of marriage found in scripture. We find it first in Genesis, and again in Ephesians, this image of a man leaving his father and mother to be joined with his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 

As we pressed deeper into this reality, what became apparent to me was that my wife and I, through the covenant bond of our marriage are very truly bonded together to the point of being a single flesh. We are a Christian. We are still unique individual persons, we have our own unique thoughts, responsibilities, and lives, but nonetheless we also exist as a singular entity in the sight of God. As such, it is possible to read through the covenant promises found in the gospels and throughout the New Testament as relevant in a marriage relationship, just as much as they are in an individual life. As a biblical, covenantal married couple, we reap the benefits of God's sovereignty to bring to pass our sanctification unto glorification in our relationship to one another, and to our God. We find that we have been brought into a triune relationship: God(fully manifest in His own triune glory), husband, wife. Within this relationship, we find that we can cling to the promises that are generally only applied to individual believers as being true within our marriages as well.

I'm challenging myself, moving forward, to read my Bible for not only my individual growth and sanctification, but to see and feel the promises of God for my marriage as well, knowing that God does not fail to bring His work to completion in His children, be they singular individuals or dual-flesh combined, covenantly-bound believers.

Be fed

A simple conversation with my soon to be 5 (no way can that be right) year old son during the Lord's Supper at church this morning created a connection in my mind that had never occurred to me. I'm awed at the ability of the Holy Spirit to speak truth into our hearts and minds through these kinds of moments. While I was focusing on helping him to better understand the importance of the Supper, the Spirit was using my son's childlike understanding to reveal to me a new facet to a familiar story. A brief snippet of the conversation we were having:

Me: so, why did Jesus allow his body to be broken?
Son: so He could give Himself to all of His friends.
Me: just His friends at that table with Him?
Son: No! All of us here too!

As we talked about this, brought to my mind was the miracle that we generally refer to as Jesus feeding the 5000. During a long day of teaching a vast crowd, Jesus disciples have asked if a break should be taken, and the people sent away so that they can go home and eat. Jesus tells the disciples that the people don't need to go home, and tells his followers to give them something to eat. Ultimately they are given a boy's small lunch consisting of a couple fish and a few loaves of bread. Jesus prays over the food, breaks the bread and tells his followers to take it to the people. As the people began to take of the bread, they found that there was still more available. Everyone who desires to take of this food was given their fill of food, even more than they could've wanted. After the crowd of 5000 men (and who knows how many women and children) were satiated, the disciples gathered the leftovers, filling multiple baskets with food that wasn't eaten.

Thinking of that story in the context of my son's response that Jesus allowed His body to be broken like bread so that He could give Himself to all of His friends, I'm simply blown away by the sign Jesus gave in this miracle feast. Having offered Himself to be broken, crushed for our iniquities, He calls out to us to take of His body and blood. He promises that any who find in them a hunger or thirst to come to Him and find their desire fulfilled by the bread of His body and the fount of His blood. His followers carry with us the miracle bread of life, broken and offered to any who will take of it, and we are commanded to take it to the people of this world who are dying of starvation for want of an unending feast. Jesus gave himself up that he would not only satisfy the needs of His people, but that they would have an abundance, that the grace could be gathered back up to continue to fill new needs. His call to the thirsty, the hungry, the weak, and the dying is to come, feast at the table of the Lord.

Known

I remember a sermon I heard years ago that was titled something along the lines of "The most terrifying verse of the Bible." It was a sermon that was focused on the interaction between Jesus and different "followers" of His. The message was based on the text found in Matthew 7:21-23

 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.' - Matthew 7:21-23

The warning of this passage was voiced strongly from the pulpit and its intent was leveled with authority in the congregation.  The message is clear: what we do, what we say, any and all work we do on the name of Jesus will not save us. We are not guaranteed salvation because of any efforts we put forth. These men did, in their own estimation, great works under the power of Jesus' name, and yet the Lord of Lords told them in direct, calculated words that they had not made the cut. Their failing was not a lack of good works, it was nothing of their doing at all, it was that Jesus did not know them, thereby making their use of His name for the doing of works nothing more than a deceitful manipulation of power intended to make themselves great, and a seeking of their own name and glory by using the power that was never theirs to posses. The warning of this text hit its intended mark of causing believers to recount the path of their salvation, reexamine the sign posts along the way that point to the surety of their regeneration, and their walk as a new creation in Christ. It's a good exercise to undergo from time to time, and the warnings found throughout scripture should cause us to tremble, thus driving us back to our reliance on the cross for our sole hope of salvation. But these warning texts should also have further facets to be examined.

As I have begun reading and studying through JI Packer's work Knowing God, I think I am beginning to see the facet of this text that balances, and ultimately transcends the warning. The facet is cut through Jesus' words, "I never knew you." Jesus taught that the manifestation of eternal life is the knowledge of God the Father, and of Jesus Christ whom He sent. Our knowing God is predicated on His first knowing us, as He proclaimed to Jeremiah when God told His prophet that He knew him before Jeremiah was in his mother's womb. God knows His children from before they are, He creates us in His knowledge of us. God knew His children and named them before the foundation of the world, and wrote their names in His book. He etched the names of His children onto the heart of Christ, our names are graven on His palms.those whose names are known from eternity past are not forgotten by the Son. By this knowledge alone, when these men come to Christ proclaiming their works in His name, He identifies them as not being named among His children, and therefore are not workers of righteousness but of iniquity. The stand condemned in the midst of the Holy begotten of the Father.

We who have been called out of darkness into light by the familiar voice of our Good Shepherd can take heart and courage in our being known by Christ, and therefore we cling to the truth that no tongue can tell us thence depart. We whose names are known by the Father and given over to the Son for redemption in the Glorious Mercy of the eternal Creator will never hear the words spoken by Christ to these men. When we approach the throne of grace, ours will not be claims of works done on the behalf of His name, it will be the call of reliance on the righteousness of Christ alone and the redemption purchased by His blood alone. We tremble when first we hear and heed this warning of scripture, but we fall back to rest in the everlasting embrace that is found only in the arms of a God who knows His beloved.

To Seattle

Its been several months ago now, we were sitting around our kitchen table, playing games and having conversations with friends. Our Pastor, Tim, and his wife, Ashley, had come over for dinner and game night with their kiddos, and we were enjoying our fellowship. We have a loosely established rule for our fun times spent together, we don't talk church. I can't really think of a time that we have gotten together that Tim and I have actually followed this rule, but its there nonetheless. One of the reasons for our inability to spend an evening together and not start discussing the church is because of a deep, passionate love that we both share for our church. On this particular night, we were talking about things that we were hoping to see happen with the church in the next year or two. It was as we were having this discussion that Tim told us about a pastor that is the father of some friends. This pastor was going to be heading to Seattle to plant a new church. We spent a little while that evening just talking about the job to be undertaken, and the amazing impact a Christ-exalting church could have in downtown Seattle. It was an exciting and interesting thought.

The week that followed was filled with more of the same in my life, growing disillusionment over an inability to find advancement in my career, a desire to find a calling, and a desire to not waste my life (thanks John Piper). I found myself daydreaming about the thought of working with this church in Seattle. I kept it to myself, it was too crazy of a thought to share. My wife and I had been discussing for the last year thoughts of moving, going into missions work, my going to Seminary, or trying to find something. We had a strong sense that the stonewall I was running into professionally was to prevent me from getting into a position that would inhibit the work that God was preparing my family for. Even with these talks, it was one thing to play around with the idea of it, it was another to blurt out one day that I thought God was presenting us with an opportunity.

Then, one day, I got a call from Tim. We talked about a couple of things, and then he said something along these lines, "I can't tell you what you're supposed to do, or that I heard God say this, but I can't get this thought out of my head, what if your family is supposed to go to Seattle?" I was floored. The creeping sense I had been having about Seattle was being confirmed in the heart of someone else. If my mind couldn't get away from it, and the thought was gripping someone else, then it needed to be brought to light and discussed with my wife. I got off of the phone and found my wife working on dinner. She asked me what Time wanted, and I told her that we had discussed a couple of things, and also he asked if we would consider the possibility of moving to Seattle. I wasn't sure what to expect from springing this news on her, but she turned to me very calmly and said that that would be something to be thinking and praying about, but that we probably really could.

The pastor that is planting the church visited our church that next Sunday, He sat down in front of us, turned, and politely said hi before turning to our daughter and having a quick exchange with her. There was something comforting about this, seeing how easily my kids could interact with him. By the end of the service, it was clear to us, we needed to sit down and work through how we could get from where we were to making a decision on moving. As we sat that night, discussing between the two of us, my wife and I took turns discussing our fears, our encouragements, and everything in between. But two things started to become clear,
1) All of our "reasons" not to go were not legitimate reasons, they were excuses to not trust God.
2) We wanted to go

This all came through over the last couple of months. We have been working through telling family the news, and discussing it with friends, mentors, etc. But this much is known, we are moving to Seattle. We are getting rid of most everything we own, selling our house, taking with us only what will fit in the back of our car, and we are headed to the Pacific Northwest to help in any way we can with the planting of a new church in Downtown Seattle. Our house will be on the market in mid-January, I'll be signing on with a nursing agency to find work, and we will leave.

It is an overwhelmingly emotional process, but it is good. We are sad to leave our families, our home, our friends, our church, but we cling to the promise Jesus gives his disciples in  Mark 10:29-30 and Matthew 19:29 "And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life."

Pray for us.

Illusions of Free Will

I am firmly convinced that one of the crowning achievements of Satan's rule over mankind is the muddling of the reality of free will. We, as sinful men and women have bought into a free will lie. We have suppressed the truth in unrighteousness, and thus perverted the beauty of what free will really means.

We fervently affirm the reality that we have this free ability to do whatever we desire. To seek after that which brings us joy and pleasure. We cling tightly to a reality that God desires us to be supremely happy, and that He would never interfere with that which brings us fullness of joy. And here is the good news, those truths are pretty solid. The problem comes with the twisting that has been placed in our mind on the reality of this free will... We are free to seek after joy, but we do not control the source of that joy. We are free to seek after the desires of our heart, but that which holds the place of desire in our heart is not our choice.

The heart of the natural man seeks joy and fulfillment in the realm of the natural man. Thus, our free will to seek after that which we desire is irredemptively (which may not be a real word) directed away from God. We make choices and decisions, freely, that seek after that which we think will bring us joy, peace, happiness, and they do those things, they satisfy. We used to tell the lie that these things never satisfy the longings of our heart, but I think we should stop. The heart of natural, sinful flesh, is fully satisfied in the carnal joys of fleshly living. It is not a lack of satisfaction, rather a lust for further gluttonous indulgence that perpetuates sin in the natural man. And our "free will" will never break us away from this cycle. Our will is free to seek after our desires, but our desires are not ours to determine. We are hopelessly left in a self-seeking, pleasure-drenched, slow and eternal death, seeking deeper levels of fleshly satisfaction.

But God...

After the counsel of His own will, and according to His plan, desire, and grace, God intervenes. He does not interfere with our fee will, but He replaces the sinful desires of our heart of stone and places within us a new heart of flesh. Etched into this heart is a singular, new desire: the Glory of God. This new desire begins to permeate our very being. Our free will remains unchanged, we still are free to seek that which will most satisfy the deepest longings of our heart. But the desire of our heart has been drastically changed, not by an act of our will, but by an act of Sovereign Grace that sits well outside of the scope of human ability. We find that what brings us the deepest levels of joy, peace, happiness, and satisfaction is seeking after the glory of God. Our will remains as free as it ever has been, and God desires us to use that freedom to find new, creative, beautiful ways to display His glory for the world to see. This exchange of hearts brings us to understanding, opens us to the redemption of our souls accomplished by Christ, lights in us a desire to know Him and make Him known among the nations. The will does not change, but the desire does. And we see that the satisfaction we found in our old heart, though it felt so deep before, was so pathetically ill-informed of the depth of the glory of God.

As John Piper says: "God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him."

Drink black coffee

Coffee is an interesting little bean. When properly processed, roasted, and brewed it releases a complex mix of flavors and sensations that shine unique clues about where the bean comes from, how it's fruit was handled, and gives a glimpse into the nature of its cultivator. Everything you need to know about that bean can be found through the sipping of the cup.

This is what goes through my mind as we study through Revelation 17, as the great prostitute of Babylon sits with her golden cup. In the cup is a brew of immorality and abomination mixed in with a wine of the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, the blood of the prophets and saints. I'll admit, my mind took off in a different direction as I was thinking through this passage as it had been preached.

The prostitute takes pleasure from and enjoys the intermingled flavors of immorality and abomination mixed with the righteous blood of the followers of Christ. These flavors cannot come together naturally, they must be opposed to one another. From the perspective of the one drinking, immorality and abomination must be the sweet sugar and the smooth cream added to what has to be the comparatively bitter, astringent righteousness of the coffee of the blood.

From this view, the stronger, richer, and fuller the coffee is made, the more of her "sweetness and cream" must be added. She pours in more and more abomination, adds another heaping spoonful of immorality, trying to stifle the flavors of the coffee. She cannot stand the flavor notes of  the righteousness of the redeemed that she has killed and will continue to kill. But the cup is hers to drink. She must drink it in full. As the blood continues to build through her destruction, she pours out more destruction, creating the cyclic nature of the current age. The culmination of which will see her cup overflowing with such debauchery and decadence that many will taste of it and claim it to be delicious because the bitterness of righteousness is so muted that surely this brew is as it was always intended to be. The natural man is a sucker for a sweet drink, even if part of him feels it may be destructive to his reality.

The Christian, however, does not desire the smooth, sweet creaminess of the whore's brew. We desire the hot, black wonder of the righteousness of Christ which can only be found outside the cup of Babylon. We seek the undefiled, intricate, and subtle differences found in the pure cup. We desire for our lives to be poured out into a brew that is distinct to the soil we were cultivated in, that shows the care of the cultivator, and the richness of the love that caused us to grow. We look for our tree to bear a fruit that is unique, filled with a flavor that is singularly our own, yet that is united to trees that bear a similar fruit. We want to be filled with notes of flavor so significant that when the prostitute drinks of our blood, she knows it is from our veins and that it was born of the work of Christ. We want to be the reason she feels that her cup requires more of her "sweetner" and and extra dose of her "cream".

The righteousness of the people of God's innumerable multitude will and should taste bitter to those who desire the unrighteousness of the Babylonian brew. Our righteousness should be such that more immorality and abomination must be added to attempt to mute our flavors. And, if I understand Paul, this should see contradictory to those who desire sweetness, it should seem absolutely foolish to those who have not been given a desire for the taste of the pure goodness of God.

Christian, drink the dark, black coffee of the glory of God. Taste the notes of his goodness and beauty. Seek to be cultivated by His hand. Live your life in a way that will alter the taste of the cup being consumed by our adversary. You are not called to taste like the world.

Sickening deception

Began a new study over the last couple of weeks reading through John Piper's "Let the Nations be Glad." I am eagerly awaiting each week of this study as I am currently in desperate need of deep wisdom regarding the supremacy of God as it relates to the missional manner to which we are each called to live. As we began our discussions this week, we were focused solely on the introductory materials in the book, in particular Piper's pleas to prosperity preachers. A discussion on the folly of prosperity, word-of-faith, charismatic "Christianity" is typically right up my alley. I can make fun of the hawkers of this perversion of the faith I love for hours.
But not tonight. Tonight, it hit me in such a different way. I think this is owed to a working of the Spirit on my heart over the past year, kindling within me a deep desire that none should perish without hearing the beauty of the gospel of Christ. None should go to their grave without the knowledge of the propitiating, atoning, rescuing life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Tonight, the thought of the deception of millions in Africa was nothing but heart-wrenching, sickening reality. This stirring in my soul and alignment of my desires to see the nations reached with the Word has been an ongoing work throughout our church's study through the book of Revelation. I find it impossible to glimpse into the vision cycles of the Apostle John as he sees the resplendent glory of the Lamb, and the full weight of the just wrath of God culminating as these last days come towards their close and to sit back and not let it change the way I see the world. Tonight as we watched videos of the charismatic Pentecostalism that is sweeping through sub-Saharan Africa, and watched men preach messages of promises of wealth, health, prosperity to those with enough faith. And imploring their listeners to prove the level of their faith with a monetary gift that shows sufficiently the size of the faith they posses, regaling their audience with the proof of God's faithfulness based on the cars in his own garage. The deception at hand made me want to vomit. The book of Revelation, and supportive texts throughout the New Testament, is clear that God will utilize Satan's propensity for deception in this current age as one of the tools of His harvest, We see that those whose names were written in the Lamb's book of life before the ages began will continue to hold to the commandments and testimony of Jesus, and that those whose names were not found will be deceived into believing the lie. We know that throughout this age, and until the culmination of this age, that deceivers, such as those who are spreading this false truth across Africa and other parts of the world, will continue to multiply and their words will continue to strengthen. We know that this horrendous deception will be used to achieve God's ultimate purpose in the redemption of His saints. We even know that on that last day, the great deceiver, Satan himself, as well as the deceivers of this earth, will be thrown into the lake of fire that burns for eternity. But tonight, none of that knowledge touched the reality that right now, in our world these deceivers are doing their work. Right now, in our word, people are believing the lie. And that these people, in their current state, will join the rest of the deceivers and deceived in that same eternal fire.

My soul despairs at the thought of so many people being led away by half-truths that are full lies while men who claim to be speaking truth (and I believe many of them believe that they ARE speaking truth, for they have been deceived in the same way) are becoming exceedingly wealthy at the expense of the eternal souls of millions. My heart breaks for the cycle of deception that is spinning wildly in our world.

So, what do we do about it?

We pray. We seek ways to help send truth into these regions. We ask for the powerful work of the Spirit to continue to awaken the deceived to the beautifully bright reality of the true gospel. We ask for the resurrection of dead souls in these regions. We do whatever we can to see the living breath of God breathed out onto dead, dry bones, bringing life where death previously reigned. We pray for the story of Elly Achok Olare to be multiplied in the lives of countless others who are ensnared in the prosperity teachings. Olare is a pastor in Kenya who spent many years preaching the messages of the word-of-faith movement. He had been deceived, and fully believed the messages he preached were true. Through much trial, torment, and pain, he was brought to his knees in realization of his deception. He now leads a mission effort in Kenya to establish and spread the true gospel to his people. He desires to rescue from this movement people like himself and those whom his teachings affected for so many years. Men like Olare are needed to continue to work we see laid out in the book of Revelation. We see not only the deceivers and those being deceived in John's visions. We also see the saints, those who hold to the testimony of Jesus and hold to his commands. Throughout this age, we see those saints continuing to proclaim and prophesy against the deceivers of this world that some might continue to come out of the darkness and believe. Saints like Olare and the workers of his ministry, and saints like each of us who are called to the proclamation of truth among a world of lies, we are needed to continue to purpose to which we were called. We trust that among those being drawn into deception exist individuals whose names have been written, whose eternity rests among the elect of God. We trust in the effectual, sovereign call of Christ to His sheep, cast out among all nations. We trust the words of the Good Shepherd that His sheep know His voice, and that we come when called. We trust that God knows exactly what He is doing as the age heads towards culmination. We trust that He will continue to do all according to His own will and counsel, working all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.


(for the full story of Elly Achok Olare: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/how-god-saved-me-from-the-prosperity-gospel )