Why This Blog Exists

We are living in a day when point of view is king.  People see what they want to see, and hear what they want to hear.  The internet has transformed the way we view information, a place where we decide whether the information is credible or not.  If you disagree with the "facts" presented, it can be explained away as irrelevant propaganda - despite any research or support for the view.  Whether it is news being reported on TV, books, magazine articles, or blogs, there seems to be a constant and growing suspicion of an underlying personal bias or political agenda.  We may not even notice that the one with the bias could be ourselves!  I wrote more on this point in a previous post in titled, "Particularized Trust."  The field has been leveled to such a degree that a claim substantiated from 20 years of research can be instantly debunked by a web surfer who doesn't know a test tube from a beaker.

I recognise this blog is one among hundreds of millions and is therefore of infinitesimal significance.  It is not possible for a blog to change a single person's mind concerning their established beliefs either of Christ, Christians, morality, or the Bible.  People may click on a post from this blog and before one sentence is read fully declare "Rubbish!" and move onto something they already agree with.  This also goes for Biblical doctrine and interpretation among Christians.  It used to be that people actually toiled over their own Bibles in prayer, seeking answers to life's questions.  Now prayer has been replaced by search engines like Yahoo and Google with millions of results to choose from.  More than seeking the truth for our questions, we can fall into the rut of seeking confirmation in our ignorance.  Find one person that agrees with you, and it would take more than the earth splitting in two to move us to reconsider.

I don't write these blog posts because I think I can do any good in this world.  I can't save a soul.  But I pray that God uses them for His glory in encouraging, challenging in a healthy way, and building up the Body of Christ.  The only power of this blog is found in the Word of God through the Holy Spirit.  He has the power to pierce, to reveal, instruct, to personally impact each and every person who reads looking for the Truth.  Over and over in scripture the words of Jesus ring out:  "He who has an ear to hear, let him hear!"  Most people have ears, but it is rare person who knows how to use them.  More than talking only of the functional aspect of listening, hearing in the sense that Jesus speaks of is "heeding."  Heeding is hearing and walking accordingly.  Hearing is when we actually listen and digest carefully what we have heard before we formulate a rebuttal in our minds.  Are you the kind who is chomping at the bit in a discussion, that while another person is speaking to you already you are working out what to say next instead of hearing what is being said?  Haven't we all been guilty of this offense?

From time to time I step back and examine why I blog and what purpose it serves in these treacherous times.  My answer to continue at this time comes from 2 Timothy 4:1-4:  "I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: ² Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; ⁴ and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables."  We are living in these days Paul predicted, when people will not endure teaching from God's Word.  People pick and choose what confirms their existing beliefs.  They will subscribe and follow teachers they agree with, and refuse any that raise contrary positions.  People will gladly choose fables or stories over the revealed truth of God's Word.  They will call the Bible a fable should it contradict their views!  People assert there is no god so they can in essence be one!  So what are the righteous to do?  Preach the Word.  Be ready in and out of season.  Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.  That is why God has me contributing to this blog.  I rarely see any fruit from it, but God will bring the increase in His time.  Since it's His increase, I don't need to see it to continue pressing on.  Even if there never is any measurable effect on the world or church from these posts, that's not my problem.

We Christians have been given the message of the Gospel as ambassadors for Christ in a world fully opposed to Him.  We must speak, regardless if people seem to listen or not.  The church has always faced obstacles, and always will.  Christ is the only one who can open the eyes of the blind, open the ears of the deaf, heal the lepers, or raise the dead.  Jesus has overcome, and we can only overcome through Him!

More Than Just Facts

Some people say their primary hindrance to sharing their faith in Christ is a lack of knowledge.  Faced with the prospect of arguments they do not feel equipped to answer, sharing Christian beliefs with others may appear a daunting task.  It is important to recognise Christianity is more than facts but a real relationship with God.  If we have Christ we can share Christ, even if we do not have the academic background to match others.  Knowledge is valuable and reasonable, and for Christianity it is an imperative.  Our minds are convinced of the truth by evidence in scripture.  Our hearts are moved to receive the truth, and our will responds to walk according to it.  These three things in that order - the mind, heart, and will - must unite together to be born again by grace through faith.

Facts are like keys, but we must realise only God can fit them into a locked mind and turn them to open the understanding of an unbeliever.  That is why facts alone will not convince a person of the existence of God, His righteous Law, the desperate need for salvation, and furnish the desire to receive His free gift through Christ.  1 Corinthians 2:12-14 tells us, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. ¹³ These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. ¹⁴ But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."  We need the Holy Spirit to open our understanding so we might know what God has freely given us.  If only our natural mind is employed to consider spiritual truth, it will seem like foolishness.  Facts are a necessary means, but they are not the end.

There is a balance:  we must study to show ourselves approved unto God by rightly dividing the Word of Truth, yet we must be reliant upon the Holy Spirit to convince us and others of the wisdom of God.  A blind man may be very perceptive, but he is still without sight.  He could not possibly describe a picture of a simple object you hold in your hand, though it appears to a person with perfect sight clear as day.  We should not be impatient with a person who cannot see, but ought to show grace and compassion in carefully describing the picture in detail.  When we are harsh, easily frustrated, or abrupt without demonstrating love towards the person, the message we intend to convey will be lost.  Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.  Those who rely upon knowledge seek to use facts to bolster their own case, but love seeks to encourage and build up others.  "Winning" an argument is not the point, for if that is our aim we likely slam and bolt shut a door of interest and opportunity others could potentially enter at a later date.

Don't let mockery or the scorn of unbelievers cause you to waver from the foundation of scriptural truth.  When Paul preached in Athens, many of the intellectuals laughed and mocked his message.  When Jesus expounded on a passage from Isaiah in the synagogue, the religious men of the city tried to kill Him in their fury!  If you hold forth the truth in love, and both you and your message are refused with ridicule, you are in good company.  Instead of feeling forlorn, double your efforts in prayers for those blinded by the devil.  Seek the answers in the Bible.  Trust that God is able and willing to open the eyes of the blind and deliver the slaves from bondage to sin, for that is the purpose Jesus was sent and a primary purpose God chooses to leave Christians on this earth.  Don't preach yourself, but Christ.  It is Jesus who is being rejected.  Should you abandon all faith and agree with those who oppose you, you would be gladly accepted.  But it is better to be rejected by man and received by God than to be accepted by men and destroyed by God.

2 Corinthians 4:5-18 reads, "For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. ⁶ For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed-- ¹⁰ always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. ¹¹ For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. ¹² So then death is working in us, but life in you. ¹³ And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak, ¹⁴ knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. ¹⁵ For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. ¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, ¹⁸ while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

The Man at the Inn

I've been thinking lately about the parable Jesus told about the "Good Samaritan."  When tested by a man who sought to justify himself by asking, "Who is my neighbor?" Jesus told a story about a man traveling the road to Jericho who fell among thieves.  He was beaten, robbed, stripped, and left for dead.  A priest who walked by ignored his plight, as well as a Levite who passed by on the other side.  It was the Samaritan, a man hailing from a group of people despised by the Jews, who showed compassion on the man when he stopped, lifted him from the ground, anointed his wounds, and took him to an inn so he might recover - all at his own expense.

Perhaps it is more ironic still that Christ alludes to Himself through the care of the foreign Samaritan who helped the wounded man.  Jesus has done for us far more than the Samaritan in the story did for the wounded man.  Jesus was despised and rejected by His own.  He revealed love and compassion for all people through coming to earth as God-made-flesh, and paid for our healing and salvation with His own blood on the cross.  He has not merely left us with money as we recover, but He has given us the Comforter -the Holy Spirit - who dwells within us.  Jesus will someday return to settle all accounts, and His reward is with Him.

From this perspective then, the picture of the man who was beaten, stripped, and robbed represents all people who have inherited the sin nature of Adam.  Man was stripped of his standing before God because of his sin, robbed of his innocence, and if left in his sinful condition faced certain death and eternal punishment in hell.  Those who respond to the Gospel by grace through faith are born again and receive new life through Christ.  We have been raised from the grave and restored to fellowship with God again.  Having been washed in His blood, He has placed upon each Christian a robe of righteousness.  He has provided a place of lodging for us in this world and a role in His Body, the church.  Jesus has promised to someday return for us and will set all things right.

The aspect of this parable which has captivated me is the attitude and thoughts of the man during his recovery at the inn.  I'm sure the healing man was thankful for the sacrifice of the Samaritan who helped him.  Yet is there a potential that the man had bitterness toward the Samaritan for not coming sooner and driving off the bandits?  Maybe he nursed a grudge against those who passed by and refused to help him.  Or perhaps he was annoyed with the fact he had to share a room with someone he didn't know or the toilet was too far away.  Maybe the healing process took longer than he would have liked and it was a growing source of frustration.  There are potentially thousands of complaints the man may have had even though his life had been saved!  How would we view someone who had nothing but complaints after being saved from certain death?  We might call him forgetful, self-centered, ungrateful, and foolish.  Before we judge him too harshly, let's remember that when we look at him we are looking at ourselves.

This is how we can be as Christians, even after all Jesus has done for us.  We can be frustrated with our circumstances, pain, or limitations.  The church is a place God has provided for healing and fellowship.  But we can be filled with criticism or complaints rather than grace and thankfulness.  Colossians 3:12-17 describes well the attitude we ought to have as we go through the healing process of our near-death experience while Christ tarries:  "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; ¹³ bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. ¹⁴ But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. ¹⁵ And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. ¹⁷ And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him."  Hasn't God been good to us?  Let us remember how Christ has saved, restored, and reconciled us to God by His grace.  Let us demonstrate our thanks and gratefulness to God through loving one another.  In light of all God has done for us, our complaints ring hollow.  Instead of a critical spirit, let us praise God with thanksgiving.

The Pitfall of Slackness

"Then Joshua said to the children of Israel: "How long will you neglect to go and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers has given you?"

Joshua 18:3

God had brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the Land of Promise.  He also provided victory as the people drove out the inhabitants of the land.  The tabernacle had been set up in Shiloh, and the land was subdued before the people.  But a point came when 7 of the 12 tribes had not yet entered the land God intended His people to dwell in as their inheritance.  Joshua rebuked the people for their slackness.  The words of Joshua in verse 3 in the KJV read, "How long are ye slack to go to possess the land, which the LORD God of your fathers hath given you?"  The word "slack" in the Hebrew means, "abate, cease, fail, wax feeble, forsake, idle, let alone."  Once the people became established in the land, they seemed to lose the motivation to expand the borders God ordained for them and were slack to drive out the enemies which remained.  Free from enemy assault and able to dwell peacefully, they became idle.

Isn't this a potential pitfall which Christians face today?  When we are free from overt resistance or satanic assault, we can fall prey to a more subversive, more sinister attack.  We can be content with our justification by faith but cease to press on in sanctification and growth.  In not labouring to progress we lose ground as the strength of the enemy builds.  We would never be so foolish to suggest "We have arrived!" but are we heading anywhere?  Are we doing anything?  In God we have potential for perpetual growth and fruitfulness, but we can be content with last season's harvest.  The enemies we co-habitate with are not too bad or threatening at the moment, meaning they do not make our lives too inconvenient or uncomfortable.  We can lose sight of the fact that those enemies, those hindrances to our spiritual growth and fruitfulness, are occupying the very ground God intendeds us to take, having claimed it as our inheritance.

When a threat of certain attacked is understood, the men within the city would feverishly prepare.  Weapons would be sharpened and protective armour prepared.  The fortifications of the city would be strengthened, and watchmen would remain vigilant in their duties.  But when the people of the land are established and enjoy a season of rest and peace, slackness creeps in.  The same can be true in our lives as Christians.  Godliness with contentment is great gain, but contentment without godliness is a sin which the flesh prefers.  May we not be slack to enter into all that God has ordained for us.  He is our Inheritance, and there is much land yet to possess!