Friday, November 28, 2008

Can you give me directions?

A while back I was on a run and I had a car stop and ask me directions. The directions were quite elaborate and I made sure that the girl understood what I was telling her. There had been some recent construction in downtown so I wanted to make sure that she understood why I was telling her to go the way that I was telling her. If she had gone the way she had wanted to, she would not have gotten to where she wanted to go. She actually took notes and I feel quite confident that she ended up where she wanted to be. This reminded me of another time when someone had stopped and asked me directions while I was out running and I would like to share what I learned that day with you today.

Ask someone who knows
If you are not sure about how to get somewhere, the best way to find out is to ask someone who knows. A few years back, I had a car with out of state plates ask me how to get somewhere while I was on a run. They followed the first step very well, for if I was running in an area, I was probably familiar with it. I knew exactly where they wanted to go, so I gave them directions. They then proceeded to drive off in the opposite direction of what I had told them. This left me dumbfounded. Why had they not turned around? Did they not believe me? Did they not listen? Were they just unwilling to turn around? Or maybe they decided that they weren't lost after all and they knew a better way than I did.

Be willing to turn around
One of the hardest things to do in life is to admit that you have made a mistake. But once in a while it becomes obvious to everyone includin yourself that you are on the wrong path. Are you willing to admit that you are wrong and if necessary to turn around? If you ever want to arrive at your destination and you are lost, you must be willing to turn around.

Listen
It is very important to listen to directions if you ask someone who knows. Otherwise what was the point of asking the directions? Take notes if you need to, but make sure that you clearly understand what they say. You may even have to ask a question or two to make sure that you understand them. Stopping to ask for directions while you are lost and not listening is no better than not stopping at all.

And Believe
I went running in Detroit one time and decide to run around a lake. I thought I could see the other side of the lake and the streets appeared to be in squares so what harm would a few left turns be? About an hour into the run, I met some people standing in their front yards and asked them how to get back to my motel. When they told me to turn around I did not believe them. I thought I knew better than them even though I had never been on that road before. A couple of hours later when I got back to my motel, I was wondering why I had not believed what the people had told me. Did I have too much pride? I am not sure, but if you stop and ask someone who knows and they tell you something that you do not want to hear, you should probably believe them anyway. Especially when you do not know the way.

No other way
In the case of the lost out of state driver, he could not get where he wanted to go unless he followed the directions that I gave him. I wonder how long he drove in the wrong direction before he turned around. You see, I was familiar with the area and I knew that he must turn around to get where he wanted to go. There was no other way. I do hope he figured it out before he hit Canada.

I was tempted to stand by the road and wait for him, but I realized that it took 27 years for me to figure out that I was on the wrong road and I would be pretty hungry long before that. Do you know that you are on the right road? I hope that you are not too proud to stop and ask directions if you are lost. I know a pretty good map if you need one.

Peace, Bruce

Thursday, November 27, 2008

What are you thankful for?

As we celebrate Thanksgiving today with friends I can't help but think of what I am thankful for. Usually, for me at least, my list is mostly things like family, friends, health, my job, etc. I am very often superficial in my thankfulness on this day. In other words, I say a prayer thanking God for these things in my life without giving it too much thought. I want to today to be different.

I want to truly appreciate my family and be thankful and deeply grateful to them. For they know me better than anyone else and yet they love me anyway with all my warts and everything. I want to be thankful that I have been blessed to have this family and not focus on our disagreements or differences. I want to thank God for my wife and my kids not just today but every day. 

I want to be more thankful and appreciative of my friends. I am not the most considerate person that I know. Yet, I still have some friends that can put up with my silliness. These people are true saints and I want to be appreciative of this. I want to thank God for bringing them into my life and allowing me to know them.

I want to be thankful for my health. I often complain that I am sore or broken down or getting old, but I am really in great shape compared to so many other people and I take that for granted every day. I want to thank God for my health and give Him the praise for it. I want to be truly appreciative for the health that I do have.

I want to be more thankful for my job. I don't want to have to wait for when we are in economic meltdown to be appreciative of my employer or the blessings that I have been given to have the job I do. I want to thank God for gracing me with the wisdom I needed at the right time to end up where I am today.

More importantly though, I want to thank God for his grace. Without Him in my life, I do not know where or what I would be today. I know that it would not be good and I am thankful that He saved me before I went too far from home to be called back. 

I have been blessed too many times to count by the riches of God's mercy. I love you Lord and I lift my song to worship you my King. Lord, let me be thankful.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Acorns anyone?

1 John 1:5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

In my front yard, I have two very large oak trees. Every two years they drop thousands of acorns in my front yard. There are so many acorns in my front yard every other fall, that it is difficult to walk in my yard without slipping on the acorns. Not only that, but if I do not remove the acorns from my lawn, thousands of little oak trees will begin to take root and grow choking out my lawn. If I do not care about my lawn or about slipping on the acorns, then I can just leave them there. But if I want my lawn to be healthy and I do not want to slip up every time I walk out my door, then I must go through the process of removing the acorns.

This is a tedious process. Mowing the acorns does not work and using a normal rake only scatters the acorns around. I have found that if I use a rake that is only about eight inches wide with teeth that are very close together, I can get all of the acorns raked to the bottom of my yard. Once they are all raked down to the street, then I must pick them all up and put them in the trash to be carted away.

I have a problem though. If I wait until all of the acorns have fallen, then some of them may begin to take root. But if I rake as soon as they begin to fall, then more acorns will fall in their place and I will have to rake again. The only good way to get rid of the acorns is to check every so often during the fall and get rid of what is there. If more acorns fall later, then I need to go back and remove them again. It is almost a continual process. Every time that I think that I have them all, more acorns fall and I am out there again, removing them.

And so it is with sin in my life. If the Word has truly taken root in my life, I must be willing to check every so often to make sure that there is nothing that might be preventing the Word from flourishing. Sin can creep into our lives and create pitfalls that can trip us up if we are not careful. If we do not examine ourselves frequently, this sin could take root and choke out what God has intended to grow there.

If we claim that we have not sinned, we are like the man that is oblivious to the acorns falling in his yard. He has no care for his lawn and no care for the potential dangers of tripping on the acorns. This man will not have a lawn but his yard will be full of trees and he will not even know it.

Okay, so let me speak plainly. If we claim that we have not sinned, then the Word of God has not truly taken root in our lives. We are not yet walking with Christ and sin (even though we claim otherwise) is what we have chosen to worship. I urge you today to examine your life for sin. It is a tedious process. You will have to repeat it often. Once you have removed the sins, throw them away and don't look back. This will allow God's Word to grow you into the person that God has always intended for you to be.

Peace, Bruce

Friday, November 21, 2008

It Is Well With My Soul

1 John 1:5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

When I was 27 I decide that I wanted to follow Christ after certain events took place in my life that convinced me of the truth of scripture. I had a problem though. I recognized the perfection of God and the demands that He made of me to be perfect. So I tried to rid myself of all sin in my life. As each temptation arose in my life, I would sometimes have success only to find two or three more temptations that had taken the place of the previous one. After a couple of months of genuine effort, I came to realize that my efforts were futile. I could not do it.

As I examined scripture, I found more and more ways in which I fell short. I longed to be made right with God, but I could not find a way to cover over my sins that I had already committed and I could not overcome many of the sins that I was struggling with. It was then when I was at my most broken that I read something in scripture that captivated me:

Romans 3: 21But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

You see, I was trying to make myself righteous through the law. But the law was the very thing that was condemning me. How could that thing which was condemning me possibly ever justify me? But what if the law was there to point me to Christ? What if it was there to convict me of my sins so that I would know that I was a sinner and that I needed a savior? It was then at my lowest that the message above was made clear to me as if directly from God in answer to my very prayers. The righteousness that I could never attain by works was available to me through the redeeming blood of Christ. His righteousness could be credited to my account and I could be made clean if only I would trust in the sufficiency of His grace.

Oh, what a savior to come and rescue me when I was condemned in my sins! Have you trusted in His promise? Have you nailed your sins to the cross? Can you join me in singing this verse from the beautiful hymn It is Well With My Soul?

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Peace, Bruce

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Compassion anyone?

1 John 1:5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.



I think that there is a common misconception amongst non-Christians that the Christian thinks that he is perfect. We have in scripture here a verse that tells us quite the opposite. The Christian has not been made perfect and will continue to sin until he makes it home to glory. There should be a difference though. We should be humbly striving toward the goal of becoming more Chist like every day. We should be desiring Christ and pursuing Him every day. We will still slip up, but we need to make sure that we recognize when we have slipped and turn away from that behavior.



The problem

I think that the biggest problem we have in reaching out to the lost is our attitudes. The reflection of our attitudes can be seen in the misconception I noted above. How did the non-Christian come to the conclusion that the Christian thinks he is perfect unless he was led to believe that by the Christian? Have you ever led someone to believe that you are above temptation? That maybe sinning was beneath you? Do we not still struggle with many of the same issues that others struggle with? Certainly through Christ we can overcome temptation, but we should not be looking down our nose at it as if we have never had the same problems.



The solution

We should be reaching out to the lost with compassion. This means that we should be suffering with them. Do you have sorrow over your own sins? Then why would you not also grieve over the sins of your brother? Do not pretend to be above it all. Reach out to them in compassion and understanding and they will recognize the love within you and get a glimpse of the love of the Father.



Our attitude should be like David in Psalm 51:

1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you are proved right when you speak
and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts ;
you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will turn back to you.
14 Save me from bloodguilt, O God,
the God who saves me,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.
18 In your good pleasure make Zion prosper;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then there will be righteous sacrifices,
whole burnt offerings to delight you;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.



If we took this attitude perhaps more people would understand that we are not condemning them. Or maybe you are condemning them? Think about it.



Peace, Bruce

Monday, November 17, 2008

As you are in the light


1 John 1:5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.




My dad likes to take pictures of lighthouses. The one above is on Bodie Island in the Outer Banks. The purpose of a lighthouse is to guide the traveller and to keep him safe from any perils. However, in order for a lighthouse to work, the light must be present and the traveller must pay attention to the light. If the light is not there, the ship is sure to crash and death and destruction are likely to follow. The same is true for the traveller who ignores the light, for he does so at his own peril because the light is evident even in the darkest of nights.

The psalmist in Psalm 104 tells us about God: 2He wraps himself in light as with a garment. Light is an essential part of God's nature, in fact the apostle tells us that there is no darkness at all in God. In the Old testament during the Exodus, God appeared as a pillar of fire to guide the Israelites. It was always before them when it was dark so that they would always know which way to go. The light represented God and His nature, the Israelites were instructed to follow the light, and they would be safe if they did exactly that. This is a beautiful picture of salvation that we can compare to what the apostle is telling us in the verse today.

The heavens declare the glory of God
It is in fact from the heavens that we get the light by which we can see. This light allows us to discern the perfection of God that is revealed in creation. It is interesting to note that without the light, we would be lost and unable to discern anything. The apostle in his Gospel referred to Jesus as the "logos" which is often translated as the "word". This same word is often used for logic and Heraclitus established the term in Western philosophy as meaning both the source and fundamental order of the cosmos. It is only by Him that we can know anything. This light has been given to every man, as Paul tells us: Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. This is how God has revealed Himself to us, in the light by which all other things can be revealed.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
It is by the light of God that has been revealed to us in scripture that we can know the path on which to walk. It is through Jesus Christ, the word made flesh, that we can understand what it means to walk along the path that the light shines upon. His ordinances or divine commands have been laid out in scripture. They are the moral guidelines that we are to walk according to and that we are to follow. It is interesting to note that when something is brought into the light the imperfections are revealed. The same is true for us. When we examine ourselves according to God's Word, our imperfections come to light.

The Lord is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear?
This same light that reveals our imperfections leads us eventually to the cross. It is there that all the darkness of humanity has been crushed. It is there that the true light of God has been revealed in His Son Jesus Christ. It is only there in the true light of the cross that we can confess our sins and have them forgiven. For all has been laid bare at the cross. God's holy nature has been revealed in the wrath poured out on His Son. His intolerance for darkness has been confirmed once and for all.

My hope for you is that you recognize the light that is God. My hope is that you will investigate the claims of scripture so that you might see the paths in which you are to walk. But most of all, my hope is that you will allow yourself to be laid bare at the cross and that you will trust in the one in whom God has shown His approval by raising Him from the dead. My hope is that you will trust in Christ for the payment for your sins, for in God there is no darkness at all. I don't know about you, but I need someone else to provide me with light for I am covered in darkness.

Peace, Bruce

Saturday, November 15, 2008

I wanna be in the light...

5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

I was riding back from Pennsylvania this week with a good friend of mine. We got to discussing church and my friend shared with me that he did not go to church because of the hypocrites. I thought about this some and I think that most people are hypocrites. I even shared with my friend that I was not perfect and did not claim to be. I don't think that is what he meant though. I think what bothers him (about church) is not so much that I go to church and fall short, but that some people go there and think that they do not fall short or at least pretend that they are perfect.

When I read the verse above, I can read it in several ways. It is difficult to analyze standing by itself because it is so tightly related to the verses that follow it. I am going to suggest for today as a stand alone verse that we can read it as my friend reads Christians. Thou shalt not be a hypocrite and claim otherwise. Do not muddy the name of Christ by claiming you have been made perfect, but fully admit that you are still seeking after Him.

I am reminded that our attitude in this should be like that of Paul. In Philippians 3 Paul tells the reader of his desire to be more like Christ:

Philippians 3:7But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

If the apostle had stopped here, perhaps some would be justified in their behavior in following Christ, however Paul did not stop here, he went on to say this:

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

As the song goes, "We are not home yet". We need to keep this attitude in mind. We have not attained the goal to which we have been called, yet we should be persistent in pursuing it. We should desire Christ and should be pursuing after Him, not focusing on the mistakes that we have made, but only on the future glory we will share with Him.

So to be clear, the Christian should be wanting holiness, but he should not be claiming it because he has not attained it yet. He should be pursuing it without looking back, but I want to close with the next verses in Philippians because I think this is what my friend was talking about. Paul writes:

15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

My friends, this is my prayer for you and for me. Let us live up to what we have already attained while we are pressing forward.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Divisive Words

5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 8If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

I thank any of you who may have read my previous posts and I hope that I may have at least got you to think. Tonight I am going to be looking at the next verse. My message will be a bit more divisive than prior messages. Especially in today's relativistic world where truth has a different meaning for each person. Tonight I am going to talk just a bit about the nature of God and why the words above are divisive. They may not seem so at first, but I hope that I can communicate with you why these words are at the base of the most divisive verses in the Bible.

I was listening to Sean Hannity tonight and I was stunned to hear him have to argue several points with different listeners. I don't normally listen to conservative talk radio, but travelling through southwestern Pennsylvania has left me with few options.

The first caller was arguing in favor of the "Fairness Doctrine" and claiming that Obama was the second coming of Abraham Lincoln. This scared me, but I will stick to the listener's point which was this: Obama should have the right to silence his critics if they were creating division within the US. Hannity asked the caller if he believed in the 1st amendment and the caller said yes, but not in the case where it causes division. Well, do you believe in it or not? If you think that censorship is fine, then you do not believe in it. If you do believe in it, then you are not okay with censorship. These are black and white views, but today's world sees in gray.

The second caller felt that the government somehow owed people that had taken on mortgages that they could not afford. He felt that these people were tricked or misled and it was not their fault that they had to default. He compared it to buying a car from a used car salesman and went on to say that he felt if the buyer got a bad car it was the dealer's fault. Thankfully, by the end of the discussion, the caller seemed to understand the concept of accountablility. This brings us to the second question: are you responsible for your actions or not? This is yes or no, not yes but... I am not arguing that the car sellers or mortgage lenders had no part, but ultimately we are the ones who are responsible for the decisions that we make. Today's world does not undertand this. Everything is somebody else's fault and nobody is ever accountable.

Now before you think that I am going to spend my blog talking politics, I want to assure you that I am not. I merely wanted to set the stage for the divisive words that we will be discussing tonight. I wanted you to realize why this message is going to be divisive. You see the Bible speaks in black and white, not shades of gray. The Bible says that all men will be held accountable for their actions. These are not popular beliefs to be holding today.

John 14:6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
These may actually be the most divisive words ever spoken. Jesus does not say that he is a way or one of many ways. He says He is the way. This would indicate that if the statement were true, then it would be an exclusive claim. By an exclusive claim, I mean that it excudes other claims to other ways. However, we also have the words of Oprah "There couldn't possibly be only one way to get to Heaven." Why not Oprah? Why must your exclusive claim be true and not those of the creator of the universe? We can't both be right. I see this opinion becoming more and more popular on the internet all the time. There is an underlying assumption that is easy to miss and I will point it out for you. When you make a statement such as Oprah's, you are saying that you know better than God. That you are capable of judging your own creator and His actions and His decisions. Seems a little less than humble to me.

The problem with what Oprah said is that it fails to ask the essential question. Why is Jesus the only way to Heaven? Why will no one come to the Father except through Him? I will give you a hint: it is in the topic verse of the night: God is light, in Him there is no darkness at all. I hate to tell you but gray is a shade of darkness. Just because you have done some good things, that does not mean you are worthy of Heaven. That does not eliminate the bad things you have done. This is why Jesus came. Because God is light and in Him there is no darkness, we can not be with God for we are not children of light. However, there is one who can make you clean, who can make you a child of light, who can bring you into the presence of His Father. That one is Jesus Christ, who died on the cross so that you could be with Him and with the Father.

I am afraid my friends that this truth will not be tolerated much longer by a world that loves the gray.

Peace, Bruce

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

WARNING! EPIC FAIL AHEAD!

1 John 1:1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete

Over the past week, I have been looking forward to this verse more than any other. I want to warn you in advance that the more that I thought about it, the more I realized that I would not be able to do the verse justice. I simply do not have the writing skills necessary to convey the power in that one simple sentence. Unfortunately for you (the reader) I am going to try anyway. Be aware as well that this post will probably be lengthy, for if I can not find the correct words, then I will throw as many words as possible at the subject in a meager hope that you might get a glimpse of the joy that I am going to speak of tonight.

The joy of the father

Luke 15:20 ..."But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

I do not wish to bend the text in 1 John to fit this verse and claim that John was necessarily including God the Father in the "our". However, I would like to claim the joy of the father (small f) as one of the joys I look forward to when proclaiming Christ. I long to see you still a long way off but heading home. I long to recognize that you have indeed chosen your heavenly Father. Do you know that the word compassion means to suffer with someone? I long to suffer for your salvation, to agonize over your decision. I want to cry with you as a father cries with his children. I want to hold you close so that maybe I can protect you. I want to tell you that everything will be alright. All is forgiven. The picture I have from the passage above is of an elderly man running down a dusty lane with his robes flowing behind him. Not caring about etiquette or what the elders at the church might think. With his arms out before him and a wide grin on his face and yes, even tears in his eyes. Oh, the joy he must have felt to see his once dead son returning home to him. I long to someday have the boldness to be this father, to run to meet with open arms a new child of God. To welcome him in and to throw my arms around him without a single concern for my own reputation. This is the joy of the father that I speak of but somehow can never manage to display. You see, I already have all of those feelings but I am reluctant to act on them. But the joy, the joy is real. And the reason I write this is to make our joy complete.

The joy of the son
Romans 8:1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

I hope that you realize that I am attempting to tie this all together. To back scripture with scripture. I pray that you remain patient with me. Imagine the look on the face of the prodigal son as his father came running down the dusty lane with robes flowing behind him. I wonder what was going through his mind at that time. I have some ideas that may be close from my own walk with God and my return to Him from a far off place. I imagine there was quite a bit of trepidation. Fear of punishment and judgment must have been in there as well. If we actually return to Luke we can get an idea from the son's prepared speech:
15:21...'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
Notice how the son felt that condemnation was both coming and deserved. He knew that he had done wrong and that his father had every right to reject him. Yet the embrace and the kiss and the banquet in his honor told him that in spite of all his shortcomings, in spite of wishing his own father dead, in spite of squandering his inheritance, in spite of all of this: his father loved him. Imagine the joy at that moment. When we recognize the truth of the passage in Romans above, the joy is overwhelming. We are no longer condemned for we are in Christ Jesus. This my friends, is the joy of the son. This is the joy I get to claim every day for I no longer stand condemned before my Father. This is why I proclaim Christ Jesus, to make our joy complete.

The joy of the brother
Philippians 2:1If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

The brother in the story of the prodigal son got it wrong. This was why he became angry and refused to go in. He refused to enter his father's house because he was jealous of the way the father had treated his brother. He thought he knew better than the father. Think about this for a while.

I noticed something strange a while back. I began to suffer with the teens at my church. When they hurt, I hurt. This is the meaning of compassion. I had not had this happen to me outside of best friends and immediate family before. It gets even stranger. I soon began to desire to have this compassion more and more. I had no desire that any of them hurt or go through difficult times, heavens no. But what I found was I wanted to care enough about them and be close enough with them that we were of the same mind. When they were happy, I was happy. When they were sad, I was sad. This my friends is the joy of the brother. When we walk together with Christ, we are of the same mind so of course your joy makes me happy and adds to my joy. It completes it. We should be there for each other and ready to bear each other's burdens. That is what a brother should do, not stand in condemnation. This is why I proclaim this message so that you may also know the joy of the fellowship of walking with your brother. This is why I proclaim Jesus to you, so that our joy may be complete.

We write this to make our joy complete.

I hope that you understand now. There is a very profound word in this verse that you may not have noticed. The word is our. The KJV actually uses the word your. Perhaps that clarifies it for you some. My desire for you is that you know the joy of the father. That you will desire the salvation of others and join our Father in calling those who would believe. My desire is that you would know the joy of the son and know that you are no longer condemned, that you will recognize that your Father loves you in spite of all your faults. My desire is that you will know the joy of the brother, walking in oneness of spirit and purpose and sharing in the compassion that comes with the love of a brother. I write this so that you may know this joy, so that your joy may be complete. And if somehow possible, perhaps my joy may be made more complete as well.

Peace, Bruce

Monday, November 10, 2008

Reason Number One

1 John 1:1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete.

I apologize for my delay in posting. I had a busy weekend with the boys at church and a long drive to Pittsburgh. It is kinda cool that we had a fellowship planned with the boys right before I got to the verse that I am going to look at today for we are going to talk some about fellowship. I also got to spend some very good fellowship time with my friend Rob and his wife Gigi on Friday night, and Saturday morning I got some extended fellowship time with Rob on a nice long run where we discussed the Word. In my last post I discussed what it is that the apostle wanted to proclaim and today we are going to look at the first reason that he wanted to do so according to the text. My hope is that you will be open to what the apostle has to say.

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard
At this point, I would like to throw my lot in with the apostle. I would like to identify myself with the "we" that is doing the proclaiming for I also have seen and heard. For those of you who may not know me, I did not grow up in the church. I did not come to know Christ until I was 27 years old. Prior to that, I had only heard in part or listened in part, but events happened in my life that forced me to examine the claims that were laid out in scripture. A close and critical examination screamed out to me "Truth". I could no more deny the Truth in scripture than I could deny my own very being. So this is what I have heard but what about what I have seen?

The changes in me have been pretty radical. Anyone who knew me then would probably vouch for my sincerity in saying I am no longer he. I know it was not me that accomplished this change for I tried very hard without success to make the same changes in me that I see now without success. It was only God working in me that allowed me to become who I am today (not that I have attained the goal to which He has called me). But I have also seen it in others. It is not just me. I have witnessed the transformation of many teenagers that I have had the joy of working with and it is more this evidence that I would appeal to as the visible, the "what we have seen". If a third appeal could be made, it would be to the oneness in thinking and spirit that I see so often within our church. Too many times to count I have prepared a lesson only to have the pastor, my Sunday School teacher, or the student minister use the same scripture for his lesson.

Okay, so maybe at this point you are saying you have seen and heard, so what? Why are you telling me about it?

so that you also may have fellowship with us.
The reason the apostle proclaimed what he did and was so willing to suffer for the kingdom was so that you (the reader) might join in this fellowship. The Greek word here is koinōnia and it can be translated both as fellowship and partnership. Both the apostle and I want to make sure that you are well aware that this offer is available to you. We are proclaiming the Word so that you also can partner with us. So many times the church is seen as some exclusive club where only a select few qualify for admittance, but the fact is nobody qualifies. Yet here the offer is extended (by grace- a topic for another day) for you to join with us.

I want you to think about something for a minute. What does the apostle have to gain by you joining in with this fellowship? What do I have to gain? There is no money being asked for here. There is no fame to be gained. I do not seek out any applause for having "won" you over (not that I could win anyone over). Dear reader, understand this: the reason we want you to join our fellowship is that we know what it is like to walk in darkness. This may sound harsh and my goal is not to offend you but an honest question deserves an honest answer. This is not condemnation, this is understanding from one who has been there.

So at this point you may be asking just what is this fellowship?

And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
And this my friends is why the apostle used the words he did in verse two to let you (the reader) know that eternal life found in Christ Jesus the Son of God is available to you. This he knows. He has seen it, he has touched it, it has been shown to him beyond doubt, and he has walked with it. Eternal life in fellowship with God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ is available for you. This is why we proclaim what we do.

Well at least that is one reason.

Friday, November 7, 2008

The life appeared

1 John 1:1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete.

The Life
Often when I examine the Greek, I am left with the same meaning or apparent meaning of the passage as I had beforehand. This particular verse however, is a wonderful example of why the original language is so important. I love how the apostle here uses the definite artice translated as "the" in this case. I think that it is important to emphasize this word when reading this passage. We are not talking about just any old life, but the life. I am reminded of John 14:6 where Jesus declared "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." however, I want to focus on the verbs that the apostle uses after he defines Jesus as the life.

Appeared
The first one mentioned above is translated here as appeared and in the KJV as manifested. I do not like the softness of the word appeared, because it can give the impression that Jesus "seemed" to be the life when this was not the intention of the apostle at all. The Greek here (phaneroo) means to render apparent or to manifest and this is much clearer. The word manifest means to make clear or evident, to prove, to put beyond doubt or question. This makes these first few words a powerful declarative statement that the apostle had no doubts on this issue. This is key because we learn more from the following verbs.

We have seen it
The second one, translated here as seen (from the Greek horao) is also not fitting for what the apostle is trying to convey with the Greek. This word in its proper definition means to stare at or to discern clearly with a further note that by Hebraism it means experience. This means that John has seen clearly, discerned and experienced the life that is found only in Jesus Christ. This is more than a simple "ah, there He is". This is total bodily commitment to the truth expressed in these words.

and testify to it
The third word translated here as testify (Greek martureo from which we get the word martyr) can also mean to be a witness. I like the implications of the Greek having both of these definitions for it gives one a legal sense of what the apostle is saying. When combined together one could easily say that John was a witness that was testifying under an oath to God that he took very seriously. This was true of all of the apostles as the testimony of their marytyrdom bears out. Under penalty of death, they did not recant their testimony (or witness) thus we arrived at the word martyr.

and we proclaim unto you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
The final verb we are looking at is translated here as proclaim (Greek apaggello) and brings us to the object of the discussion which in this sentence is you. The apostle wants you (the reader) to know what it is he is proclaiming so he is announcing or bringing word to you. He has gone to every length possible to stress to you how clearly he knows what it is that he is proclaiming by using the Greek words that he chose. He is proclaiming eternal life that has been manifested or made beyond doubt for him by what he has clearly seen and experienced and is testifying in the legal sense and bearing witness that what he says is truth.

I wonder why he would want to do that, but that is a discussion for another day.

Peace, Bruce

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Why blog?

1 John 1:1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete.

When Dave suggested that I create a blog, I wanted to make sure that I did it for the right reasons. I have no desire that I gain credibility by posting here. My desire is like that of the apostle in the scripture above. I write this in the hopes of making my joy complete. My joy is made complete when others come into fellowship with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. This may seem strange to some who read this for why should I care about your knowledge of Christ? I want to focus today on the first verse of the apostles letter:

1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.

Beginnings
I love this verse. I love the way that it fits together with Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1. Of course the apostle here is referring to Jesus and His creative effort is referenced easily from the other two verses. Indeed there is an undeniable link between the creator and His creation. Paul tells us in Romans 1:20:
For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
I find this at work in myself as well. I can clearly see God manifesting Himself through His creation. Yet, the apostle proclaims that this Jesus who has been, is, and always will be, revealed Himself in the flesh. The apostle got to hear Him speak. The same One who spoke creation into existence spoke to John. What an incredible experience that must have been. To know your Creator and to hear Him speak and to see Him and to touch Him. No wonder the apostle wanted to proclaim to all this message.

But what about me? Surely I have not heard Him speak or seen Him or touched Him? So why do I desire to proclaim the same message to you? But I have seen Him. I have seen Him in creation. I have seen Him in the love shared between believers. I have seen Him in the changes in my life and the lives of others. I have heard Him as well. He speaks to my conscience, but He also speaks to me through His word. Have you heard the word of God proclaimed and listened with a humble attitude? Although I have not touched Him with my hands, I have been touched by Him, for I know that only He could have accomplished the changes in me. This is why I also proclaim to you the Word of Life.