The Church as our Mother???

I believe John Calvin rightly stated, "to those whom God is father, the church must also be a mother". Now, I will confess that this line does have some things that we can misunderstand in it. In the life of a child, both mother and father carry equal weight and equal power in shaping their life. In the life of a Christian, one who does call God Father, God alone carries the supreme weight and power to sanctify them (shape their life). But God in more ways than one uses the church to shape the lives of His children. And this line by Calvin can also be misunderstood in that the father and mother both have equal part in bring the child to life at conception. In the life of a Christian, the Father alone brings the child to life. It is God and God alone who converts and saves us. But getting past a few misunderstandings, this line by Calvin should truly make us stop and think.

Just like a child must have equal respect and submission for both their father and mother, so too must a Christian give equal respect and submission to the God and the church. A Christian can't say they respect and submit to God without also respecting and submitting to the church. The church is the arm of God in the world today. The church is the place that God's Word speaks the clearest (in teaching), God reveals Himself the most visible (in the sacraments of Baptism and Communion), and declares His will to be supreme (worship). To say that God is Lord of one's life, must also include a submissive approach to the very body that He is the head of, the church. Submission and respect must be equal to the Father God and the mother church or else respect and submission will not be had for either. It is a both/and, not a either/or in regards to God and the Church.

Just like a child can and does learn from both their father and mother, so to a Christian must also learn from both God the Father and His body, the church. God teaches us through His Word. God shows Himself to be faithful in instruction through the very words that He has written to us. We will never learn from God apart from His Word. But the clearest and best place to learn from the Word is in the church as it teaches and shows it. An individual Christian is not a Christian at all. A Christian does not have the corner market on anything, especially the learning and teaching of God's Word. A Christian needs to in the church to apply and receive instruction in the Word. So a Christian needs the church to teach them the Word just as much as they need the Father to impart and teach the Word.

And lastly, just as the father is the highest authority in the home and the mother is the greatest nurturer in the home, so too God is the Christians greatest authority in life and the church is the place they receive the most nurture. Since God the Father is the only God and also Savior of the Christian, that makes Him the highest, greatest, and at times, the only authority in the life of a Christian. What God says in His Word to the Christian, a Christian must obey perfectly or else they sin. But also the church gives the clearest and most intimate nurturing and care the Christian needs. As God says, "weep with those who weep, rejoice with those who rejoice". There are so many more commands than this that place the life of the Christian in the genuine, compassionate, forgiving love of the church. Without the nurture and care of the church in the life of a Christian, the Christian will become hard, callous, and walk away from the faith.

So here is just 3 examples of how the church as our mother plays out, just as God as our Father also plays out. This illustration by Calvin is not perfect becasue there is not true perfect image for how important and vital the church is to the Christian. But this illustration should make us stop and think. It should make us ask, do we really love, care for, and take responsibility for the church like we should be? Do we really give the church the place in our lives, that God demands it to be? Do we really treat the church like we treat our mothers? If we can't say we do treat her that way, then we must truly evaluate our understanding and love for God and His/our church.

Lordship of Christ

The Lordship of Christ is an interesting term. Books have been written on it, debates have been engaged around it, and controversy and division have sprung from it. To fully understand the Lordship of Christ, we would need a large thousand page book along with a concordance and understanding of the original languages. I know I believe in the Lordship of Jesus and understand it to be a Biblical truth, set down by God's Word. So I want to define it a little today in answering a few questions. This will help me understand its clarity better and maybe answer a question that others might have on the Lordship of Christ also.

What does the Lordship of Christ mean?
The Lordship of Christ means that Jesus is Lord. Claiming Jesus to be Lord first puts a focus on the fact this means Jesus is King. Secondly, when it uses the term Lord in capital form, it is saying that Jesus is King God, Yahweh. So this phrase not only means that Jesus is King of a kingdom, but He is on par and equal to God the Father in His Kingly office and role. And this all makes clear that Jesus is not only a Savior but He is also a King.

Who is Jesus Lord of?
To understand that Jesus is a King, we must also understand who He is King of. In one form, Jesus being equal with His Father means that He is King with His Father over all creation. Jesus being God, means that He has total control, power, and reign over all the universe and ever single molecule in it. But the term the Lordship of Christ has a more specific meaning (in my understanding) than the general reign of Jesus. The Lordship of Christ connects to the salvation of Christ and the people of Christ. In the specific sense, the Lordship of Christ is referring to His people that He saves. So we would say that Jesus is King over His people. That is why we as Christians should call Jesus our King.

Where is Jesus Kingdom?
This might be the hardest questions to fully grasp a hold of. If Jesus is King over His people, then the simple answer is Jesus kingdom would be the lives of His people. And in one sense this is correct. But in a more specific sense, the people of God as one body form the church. So we could also say, Jesus kingdom that He reigns as Lord over is the kingdom of the church. But the fact is, the church local is more like an embassy than it is a kingdom. So in one sense Jesus is ruling as King now partially but one day He will rule in full perfection when all that is around Him, are His people. Jesus kingdom is the church body right now spreading His kingdom out farther into the broken world. And Jesus kingdom is also coming in full one day in all its glory.

Why is this term important?
To answer that question is easy, yet hard. This term is important becasue it is all over the Bible. If we believe and hold to the Bible, we believe and hold to Jesus as King. This term is also important becasue it puts in perspective that Jesus is coming again as a conquering King to bring His full perfect glorified Kingdom with Him. So we, as the church must look towards that day. And this term is also important becasue it keeps in our mind the fact, we are not our own. Jesus bought us with a price as Savior and know rules us with that price, as our Lord. If we truly claim to love Jesus becasue He saved us, then we must also submit to Jesus becasue He rules us as King. We need to keep all 3 of these important truths in our mind and that is why this term is critical to the Christian faith.

More faith

Have you ever wanted to have more faith? I know there have been more times than I can count, when I have asked God to give me more faith. Whether it was a challenging situation or a down time in my life, I have asked God in prayer to increase my faith and give me more of it to deal with life. I have wanted faith at times that can move mountains and trees. I have wanted faith that will give me strength and courage. I have wanted more faith in my life at times that will give me more patience and peace to deal with the brokenness. And I know I am not alone. In fact, Jesus very disciples asked Him to increase and give them more faith. And Jesus has the most interesting of responses. The story plays out in Luke 17:5-10.

In Luke's Gospel, he records a time when the disciples ask Jesus for a favor. The disciples have come to realize by this point in their journey, that Jesus is truly the Messiah and the Son of God. So when the disciples want or need something, they know exactly where to turn. So one day the disciples come to Jesus with a simple, yet very deep and important request. The disciples ask Jesus to, "increase our faith". This is a great request. Who would not want the Savior Himself to give them more faith? Just like we have all the time, the disciples know they need more faith to survive this life spiritually. The disciples have even seen real live faith in action through all the miracles that the Savior has preformed. So why would the disciples not want more faith, so they too can do great works for God? I know I would love to have more faith in my life so I too could do great works for God.

But it is Jesus response that is shocking and where the teaching of faith plays out. Jesus first responds to the request by telling the disciples that if they had even just a little more faith, they would be able to move a tree with a command. Just like I bet the disciples are thinking, I would respond with, "that is exactly the point Jesus, I want more faith so I can make a tree move and do other great works in your name". But Jesus next response kills that thought immediately.

Jesus second response to the request for more faith comes in the form of a parable. Jesus gives a parable about a servant and a master. Jesus shows in the short parable that to be a servant is to do the will of the master. Jesus shows his disciples that a true servant of the master is one who obeys the commands to the point that they go about their business and obedience like it is normal activity. Jesus shows that the servant lives for the will and obedience to the master. And just like I bet the disciples are doing, I now am scratching my head with Jesus second response to the request for more faith.

But as every parable goes, the point of the parable is the point of the answer to the request. The point of the parable is the obedience of the servant to the will of the master. Jesus is telling His disciples that they are the servants and God is the master. Jesus shows the point of the parable of obedience, is the point of the answer to the request. Simply put Jesus gives them the answer of, "it is not about more faith but about more obedience". Jesus clearly tells the disciples with the parable that faith comes from obedience and more faith comes from more obedience. To desire more faith should desire more obedience. To obey God is to have faith. The more they obey God and His will, the more their faith will increase.

So to sum this thought and my desire up, would go something like this; I should not desire more faith, I should desire more obedience. It is good to want to have great faith. But greater faith comes from greater obedience. It is good to want to have more faith to do more for God. But the greatest good I can do for God is simple obedience to His will. So to ask for more faith, Jesus would answer me the same way today; obey my Father and you will have more faith. The greatest, purest, and deepest faith that we can have is obedience to the will of the Father. Obedience is true faith.

A Secular World

I was recently reading an article on preaching in a western world and I came across a very interesting line. The author wrote, "in three hundred years, western intellectual conditions have moved from impossibility of unbelief to an impossibility of belief". This line hit home to me and made me truly come to grasp with the fact that I live in a secular world today. 

For all of human history, except for the last few centuries, human culture had a belief in God. Human cultures did not all believe and worship the same God as Christian worship, but none the less every human culture had a system of belief and religion. For much of Europe's history the culture had a belief and religion that centered around the Christian God. This is not to say that everyone in Europe believed and worship God and Jesus as a Christian, but they all had a sense of belief and realization that there was someone bigger and transcendent above them. But all off this has changed in the last 300 years. 

What this line and author are pointing to is the fact that in the world and culture of today, belief in God is in the minority. More people today, more cultures today, have at the center an unbelief in God and worship is not even a question. And this makes very clear that our culture has gone from a Christian culture (even if there were people who practiced it, but did not believe it) to a very unChristain or secular culture. And this is an important point that every Christian needs to have in mind. 

Living in a post-Christian culture means that we are not able to go with the flow anymore. It means that in truth we must swim against the culture and current and have the strength and courage to be a fish out of water. 200 years ago it was normal to go to church, talk about prayer, carry a Bible, and claim to worship God. Today all of those aspect of life as a Christian are not only abnormal to the culture, but in many place they are even looked down upon and ridiculed. Today more than ever being a Christian is not normal. Like the author stated, today is a period of the impossibility of belief. So being a God delighter and Jesus lover means; going against the culture, being looked down upon, being in the minority, and making disciples in a culture that works against us. And this is what it truly means to be a follower of Christ and disciple maker in the world today. 

Stealing from God

I never want to be considered a thief. One of the early lessons I had to teach my four year old son was, "we can not take  a pack of gum from the store without paying for it". I had to teach him that stealing something is wrong and dishonors God. Being a thief is one of those horrible sins that we Christians think we will never do and we desire never to be labeled as. We hate robbers and condemn them for gross wrong doing in the eyes of God. But in this month's reading on generosity and giving to God, I came face to face with the truth that there are times I am a thief.

As God's chosen people returned from exile of 75 years in Babylon, they did not have much of anything. But God still commanded them to give to His work both materially and time wise. God wanted His children to give to the work of rebuilding Jerusalem and the Temple, and also to use their bodies in physical labor in the construction. This is where Malachi 3 comes into play. For some reason or another, the people of God had stopped giving to God for His work. They stopped being generous and had almost stopped altogether in giving to God's work. So God calls them out through His prophet and tells them to stop robbing God. God simply calls His children thieves becasue of their lack of giving to Him.

And here is where the rubber meets the road. If I am not giving to the work of God, I am robbing God; I am a thief. Simply put, if I do not surrender some of what I have, being my time, treasure and talent, to God, I am robbing God. So if I do not use my gifting in the church, even for  little, if I do not put a few dollars in the offering every time I gather with the body, and if I do not give a few minutes a week to the betterment of my church body; I am robbing God.

Do not be a thief. Give to God. Maybe it is only a few dollars. Maybe it is only 15 minutes folding bulletins. Maybe it is only making coffee for Sunday school. But we can all give to God in some form or another. And when we give to God we are not robbing God and in fact we are truly worshiping God. God gave us everything up to the point of the death of Himself. The least we can do is give a few bucks, a few minutes, and our ability to the work God is doing in the world.

Do not be a robber of God, be a giver instead. Let Malachi 3 transform our lives as children of the King!

More than I knew

This month in my Bible reading plan, I have been reading through the topic of generosity and its connection to giving to God. One of the things I love about reading in the Bible with a plan that is topical, is that it forces me to read through parts of the Bible I never knew included certain topics. This month when my plan laid out the readings on generosity I knew it would cover chapters in 2 Corinthians and in 1 Timothy. What I have come to realize is that there are many passages in the Old Testament that deal with the generous Christian life and its connection to giving to God and others. This has really given me a deeper appreciation for the Old Testament and a deeper love for the Word of God has a whole.

What I am finding even more amazing is that generosity is not the only topic that the Old Testament teaches on, that we can find serious application in, for this life, post Jesus death. This year I have discovered that the Old Testament has a lot to teach us about prayer, discipleship, faith, encouragement, money, love, and even worship. So I would encourage any Christian not just to read through the Bible, just to read through the Bible. But also to read through the Bible looking for topics that one can learn from and grow in for their Christian faith. By doing this topical style of reading, a person can find that the Old Testament has as much (and even more becasue it is larger) to teach us about the Christian life, as the New Testament as to teach us. So when was the last time we read through Genesis to learn more about our faith in Jesus? When was the last time we read through Leviticus to learn about true worship of the King? When was the last time we read through Judges to learn about a right faith? And when was the last time we read through Habakkuk to learn more about true joy? The Old Testament still has much to teach us, even on a daily applicable basis.

Lord willing, over the next few days I will be sharing some of what the Old Testament has taught me about the topic of generosity and giving to the Lord.

Addictions and Idolatry

Yesterday I wrote an opening post on the topic of addictions. I unpacked the broad nature that addictions are and wrote a little about the truth that all addictions have eternal implications. I want to honestly say that to fully cover the topic of addictions would take more than a few post, in fact would take a volume of books. So none of the post of addictions are very deep, I simply want to begin to think through the topic of addictions. Today I want to think through what the Bible says about addictions and also some of the consequences that Bible spells out on the topic.

Did you know the Bible, God's Word, has much to say about addictions? Now, the Bible, that I can find, does not use the word addiction. The Bible uses the word idolatry in place of the word addiction. The truth though is that idolatry is the same thing as addiction. Scriptures essential insight into addictions is that addictions are about a god and in truth, the wrong god. As I wrote yesterday, addictions are when our mind gets into a compulsive habit bent on doing something. Addictions then are when our mind has a god that it is bent on worshiping, and it is so bent on this god in worship that it has become a compulsive behavior we all of a sudden can't seem to control.

The reality is that life is hard and broken. We as humans know in our base core that something is wrong and out of place. So our minds begin to search for ways to fix the brokenness and solve our inside problem. The Bible says that the only answer for this internal brokenness and feeling, is God. But the sad problem is we fill this brokenness with anything we can find. This then is where addictions come into play. Addictions are things that seem to fill and fix the brokenness. Addictions come from our desire to fix the problem but get it wrong by focusing on the wrong god to fix the brokenness.

For example, I know that in the brokenness of this world I lack financial security. At any moment I could lose all my money and become financially broke. In this brokenness I have 2 choices. I can fill this brokenness with trust and security in God. Or I can find a pleasure and place that has a god to fix the problem, a god, like shopping. So when I find the god of shopping to fix the brokenness, the way God has made me, I begin to worship this new god of shopping and all of a sudden it becomes a habit I need to do, that makes me feel secure and happy in the brokenness. My addiction has become my idol. And this is what I mean by the Bible speaking a lot about the topic of addictions.

The Bible teaches that as human creatures, we were created to be addicts. The Bible makes it clear that we as humans were created to be addicted to God by delighting and worshiping Him forever. But becasue of the brokenness and sin in our inner core, that we are born with, we fill the design of addiction to God with idolatry and addictions to other gods. So as we read through the Bible, any thing about idolatry speaks into the topic of addictions.

What is even more sad then is the consequences the Bible speaks about when it comes to idolatry are the same consequences that come from addictions. The first major consequences that the Bible shows about addictions and idolatry is the truth that over time an idol worshiper will become like the idol. The Bible is clear for Christians that the more they worship Christ and remain in Christ, the more they will become like Him and look like Him. The truth is the same in the opposite negative way. The more an idol worshiper worships the idol, the more they will become like the idol. That means the largest and most deadly consequences of addictions is that the addict will be transformed more and more daily by their god addiction.

A second serious consequences the Bible gives for idolatry and addictions is slavery. The English word for addiction comes from the Latin word meaning "to give oneself over to or surrender". The Bible, specifically Paul, speaks much about the metaphor of slavery. Slavery shows that we become mastered by something. The Bible clearly says we are designed to be mastered by someone. But the Bible shows this someone must be God Himself. Because of our slavery to sin, we tend more than not to be mastered by another god or someone. This is the base of addictions. In addictions we become slaves to what we are addicted to. And the sad reality is that once we become slaves or addicts, outside of some serious help from God, we will continue to stay slaves and in fact go deeper into the slavery of the addiction and become more and more mastered with it. So the only way to avoid the consequences of slavery to an idol, is to be rescued by the Divine God who wants you to be mastered by Him.

So the Bible has much to say about addictions when it speaks about idolatry. This has also shown us that the Bible has much to teach about the consequences of addictions. So the questions to ask now are, which idol are we addicted to rather than God? And how can we surrender ourselves to be an addict to the right God, so that the wrong addiction can be removed?