Of God and Country

It may just be that I'm not exactly the most nationalistic person in the world, but for the longest time, I've been wrestling with a strange attitude creeping into my thinking... something that feels foreign, not only to my past way of thinking, but to the thinking of those around me now.

What do you think about the importance of politics... of the government... of America?

By that, I don't mean "What's you're opinion of politics?" or "Are you liberal or conservative?" No, I'm asking about something more meaningful than that. What I'm really asking is, "How important is it?" And before you label me as an anarchist or even worse, a college student that doesn't vote... let me explain.

I grew up like every average American kid, and was born and raised in the south. As a result, my education taught me that there was glory in the American Revolution and every war since, that democracy is king (pun anyone?), and that freedom, justice, and the American dream are what we as Americans should strive for above all. While I understand how an American education leads to an American glorification, that's not even what I want to address. What I have really come to realize now is that... the church does it too.

What do I mean, you ask? Let me put forward a couple of examples. Growing up, I remember several points of debate within the Christian community concerned with faith and country. The highlights include the possibility of removing "In God We Trust" from currency, removing "Under God" from the pledge of alegiance, teaching evolution in schools, and just about every election featuring the godly conservative against the atheist democrat (during a debate in 2004, my siblings and i threw easter eggs at the TV when John Kerry showed up on the screen). Now it's true that these issues contain aspects of our faith and citizenship and must therefore be recognized. However, when the church gets up in arms while claiming that "God is being taken out of America," I believe we have crossed a line.

I spent the 2 weeks studying Acts 10 as a part of my Greek Exegesis course last fall. This chapter marks the beginning of the Gospel being preached to the Gentiles. Take a minute to realize what that means.Throughout the Old Testament period, God communicated with, protected, and disciplined the nation of Israel. He commanded his people to keep away from the other "Canaanite nations" so that the idol worship and immorality of the culture would not pull them away from the true God. In Acts 10, Peter shares the Gospel with these pagan "outsiders," and they come to belief in Christ. What a glorious turn-around this was, not only for the Gentiles, but for the apostles to realize that the whole WORLD could come to Christ!

While the apostles realized the glory of God's plan, some of the Jewish people were less understanding. Many held tight to their identity as a nation set apart, and reacted violently and maliciously towards any who thought otherwise. They saw God and Nation as one inseparable concept, and saw any change in that as heresy. Could it be that the American church does the same?

When we shake our heads in shame because the government wants to take God out of the pledge, are we doing so because less people will come to Christ, or because our country won't take up our Christian identity? When we groan as states legalize same-sex marriage (the number is constantly growing), are we saddened that so many in our country are caught in such a painful, entrapping sin that misses God's best for us, or are we simply upset that others are allowed to sin... even others that don't even know Christ?

When we hold America to a Christian standard, we tell hundreds of thousands of people that they have to obey a God that they don't believe in. We shove aside the Gospel and God's grace, and instead place commandments of God on those who don't even know Him. In fact, how contradictory to the gospel is that? So often we get frustrated and angry with those who don't abide by God's standards when we know they haven't even experienced his grace. In this we reflect our desire for moral conformity rather than the salvation of our countrymen.

America is indeed a blessing from God, a place to live and interact in great freedom, and for that I am thankful. But what if America wasn't the most important identity we hold? What if it were simply the context in which God has placed us to reach the world? Can we see the presence of sin as a need for God's grace and forgiveness? Can we pray for all the canidates, see votes as opportunities and not duties, and the increase in godlessness as an opportunity for revival?

Let freedom ring in the hearts of the redeemed, let liberty come to free slaves of sin, and let the justice of God come with His kingdom.

Brian

What We Learn from Ruth

            I studied and taught through the book of Ruth this summer in our college ministry at Grace Baptist Church in Chattanooga, TN.  It was a phenomenal experience for me in both the learning and the teaching aspects!  At the end of my studying, I wrote out a summary of the lessons that I believe God had us to focus on this summer from Ruth.  I hope that they are both encouraging and challenging to you.

What Do We Learn from Ruth?

            Now that we can see not only the individual scenes of the book of Ruth, but now also the book in its entirety, we must ask, “What does the Holy Spirit intend us to learn about God’s character, how He works in our world, and how we should correctly respond to Him?”

            In chapter 1, we learned that God is Sovereign over all events in all of history.  But not only is He Sovereign, He is also good and trustworthy!  In the midst of the most intense pain and greatest loss, God has not turned His back on us.   In the midst of dark, oppressive times, God is still working in our world.  Many times, however, when difficult situations come our way, we become bitter and miss God’s work in our lives – our Bitterness Blinds Us from Seeing God’s Blessings.  Even when we can’t understand what God is doing, even when it seems like God is against us, we must trust His Word and trust His heart.

            In chapter 2, we focused in on Ruth’s journey into Boaz’s field.  She didn’t think long and hard about which field to choose, nor do we sense any kind of pressure.  This was just a daily decision.  But this decision was essential to God’s plan of redemption! Ruth had to end up in Boaz’s field.  Since we can see the entire story and then the larger Story of God’s redemptive work, we get insight into how God interacts and leads His people.  Though we don’t see Ruth struggling with the decision, we do see her coming under the “wings of God” in chapter 1.  She made a decision that the God of Israel was the God that she would serve and love.  Just a few verses later we find her in Boaz’s field.  Ruth was simply doing life “under the wings of God.”  She was going to provide for herself and Naomi, not doing anything “spiritual,” so to speak.  Too often, in our minds, we limit God to the spectacular, the big, the weighty!  But the story of Ruth teaches us that God works in the small, the minute, the daily grind.  We said that the defining moment of our lives may come when we are simply being obedient and “doing life.”  Every conversation, every relationship, every accident is a part of God’s working in our lives.

            In chapter 3, we mainly focused on hope.  Naomi went from hopelessness in chapters 1 & 2 to finally catching just a glimpse of God’s kindness to her when Ruth relays her encounter with Boaz.  Naomi realizes that God is not against her, but is fighting for her.  As soon as she realizes this hope, she begins fighting for others.  

                We too, when we have hope for or in something, take the focus off of ourselves and onto the source of that hope.  This enables us to fight for people rather than ourselves.  The reality is that we have the greatest hope, the ultimate hope of eternal life with the God of the Universe because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross.  However, too often we live our lives as if we do not have hope!  We live to build ourselves up, live to secure earthly hope, earthly security, earthly pleasures for ourselves at the expense of others because we don’t understand the hope that we have.  Jesus secured all that we could ever want or need on the cross.  And His resurrection gives us hope and sends us out into the world.  As we come into a deeper understanding of the hope that we have, we are freed to love unconditionally, serve passionately, and give relentlessly because I am secure.  I don’t have to secure anything else for myself, but fight with God in His plan to spread His love and Glory over the earth.

            In chapter 4, we see Boaz as the redeemer of Ruth.  The whole idea of the kinsman-redeemer is a beautiful picture of Christ!  Ruth was a foreigner, she was hopeless and helpless, and had no way to redeem herself.  All that she had to offer was her broken life.  We see her at Boaz’s feet in chapters 2 & 3, her rightful position in that culture, but also her position of humility.  Boaz is a close relative of the family, he has the wealth needed to redeem her, and he was willing to do just that.  He does all that was necessary to secure for her a hope and a future with him, and takes her as his own to be his bride.  

           Do you see the picture yet?  

           Ephesians 2, as well as other passages, tells us that we were “dead in our trespasses and sins.” We were foreigners, not only non-Israelites, but sinners that God could not justly have anything to do with.  All that we had to offer were the filthy rags of our sin, and our dead hearts.   The only place that we can go is the feet of Jesus, who God sent down to earth to die in our place.  We cannot do anything to earn our way into the family.  In fact, we wouldn’t even know that we needed to be revived unless God’s Spirit had not revealed that to us!  We too were hopeless and helpless.  So, God in His mercy sent Jesus to be our redeemer.  Jesus became “like us” when He took on human flesh.  

          Not only was He human so that He could die in our place, He was fully Deity so that He was able to pay the infinite penalty for the sins of the whole world.  Lastly, and most unbelievable, He was also willing to do all of this for us!  Hebrews 12 tells us that Jesus endured the cross because of “the joy set before Him.”  That joy was glorifying the Father by redeeming a people from every tribe, tongue and nation to worship Him.  Jesus endured the cross to redeem you and me!  We are His beautiful bride; He is our Kinsman-Redeemer! And Boaz in the story of Ruth embodies Christ as the greatest redeemer.

            Every trial, every blessing, every encounter, and every seemingly insignificant decision is part of a much larger, grander plan of God.  God’s work in our world is to bring glory to Jesus, the great redeemer.  The book of Ruth shamelessly points to Jesus in both the concept of the kinsman redeemer and the Offspring of Ruth.  So, Naomi’s heartaches – they were about Jesus.  God leading Ruth into Boaz’s field was about Jesus.  Boaz’s work of redemption was a picture of Jesus’ redemption of all those who would trust in Him including both past, present, and future humanity.  Piper clarifies this in saying, “the blood of Jesus flows forward and backward in history.”  Jesus paid for the sins of Boaz, Ruth, and Naomi, just like He did for you and me.  They were trusting by faith that God would send a redeemer; we trust that He did send that redeemer – Jesus Christ. 

            Just like the lives of Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz were about Jesus, our lives will be to the glory of Jesus.  If we are believers, we will glorify Him by eternally showing and glorying in the work of His grace and mercy, and being ambassadors of His grace to the rest of the world. If we do not trust in the work of Christ, we will glorify Him by proving the justice of His character and wrath against sin.  God desires that all come to repentance, and if you haven’t ever trusted Christ, today is the day for you to do that.  Look and see the beauty of what Christ has done and the beautiful picture of it in the book of Ruth.  Your life, whether you are a believer or not, is not about you.  You are here to serve a much larger, much more significant purpose than to fill a spot on earth for 80 years.  Our lives are about the Kingdom of God.  

             Remember, Ruth teaches us that we can bear the weight of great loss because we know that God is a loving God, working for our good and the Glory of Jesus in every situation.  We can stop living for ourselves because Jesus has secured all that we need on the cross, enabling us to love and serve others rather than ourselves, regardless of our circumstances.  Ruth points us to the Gospel, and the Gospel reminds us that our lives are not our own, we have been bought, like Ruth, with a price.  Therefore, we live to honor Christ, not ourselves.

They Failed... We Are Failing...Will We Continue to Fail?

Right now in my Bible reading I have just finished Joshua and am several chapters into Judges.  It’s amazing to me how there is “nothing new under the sun” as Ecclesiastes puts it.  The same issues, failures, and inconsistencies have plagued us humans since creation.  I think you’ll find this to be true as you read. 

Let’s start at the end of Joshua.  As you know, Joshua followed Moses as God’s appointed leader of Israel.  Finally, Israel has entered into and conquered the majority of the inhabitants of the land.  If you know this story well, you know that the previous statement is already a problem.  They were to annihilate everyone who inhabited the land.  So, either God hadn’t given them the power to conquer, or they were disobedient.  Take a guess!!!

Nevertheless, they divided the land among the different tribes and begun to settle the land.  In Joshua 24, we find Joshua gathering all the tribes of Israel together, reminding them of God’s faithfulness in bringing them out of Egypt, rescuing them from the hand of kings, and God’s other blessings.  God promised many years ago to give them this land, and at this moment they stand in the Promise Land!!

After reminding them of these things, Joshua commands them to “choose THIS DAY whom they will serve” (emphasis mine).   They can serve this powerful, faithful God, or they can choose to serve something else, but TODAY was decision time.  It’s almost as if Joshua is saying, “Are you in, or are you out?  Because if you’re in, then act like it! And if not, then make it known so that you can be dealt with.”

The people respond: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods, for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (Jsh. 24:16-17a).  

In Judges 2:11 we read, “And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals.”  This begins the pattern of Judges: The people of Israel do what is evil in the eyes of the LORD Þ they cry out to the LORD for help Þ He rescues them Þ they do what is evil in the sight of the LORD Þ … you get the point.

Sound familiar?  I mean not just in your knowledge of the Bible, but in your own life!  Yeah, me too!  Over and over we declare to God that He is our satisfaction and identity, yet constantly run to and fill our lives with other things in an attempt to quench the desires that only He is able to fulfill.

Immediately preceding  2:11, the writer of Judges informs us of the next point that I think is applicable to our lives…

“And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great work that the LORD had done for Israel…And there arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD or the work that he had done for Israel” (Judges 2:7, 10b).

Can you see what happened?  There was a breakdown in the family structure of passing on what God had done in the lives of the Moses and Joshua generation!  How, when they had seen God so clearly work, could they have failed to pass this on to their children?  Was there anything MORE important that they could have told them?  Did they get so wrapped up in the daily grind that they forgot this?

Although this blows my mind to think how quickly this change took place, I think that we are in the middle of something very similar.  If you have read anything about the youth of our nation, we are not far off from the reality in this story.  Even the youth that have been in the church their entire lives are walking away from the church immediately after graduation.  I would encourage you to read The Last Christian Generation by Josh McDowell, or Battle Cry for a Generation by Ron Luce to see just how desperate we are.

Have we failed, as the church, to pass on our faith to the next generation?  Was the Gospel not evident in our lives to those younger than us?  Hundreds of years from now will books say something similar to what we have seen in Judges?  What are YOU doing to influence the next generation for Christ?  What is your church doing to set our youth on fire for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Let’s agree together as the people of Israel did in Joshua that TODAY we choose to serve the LORD, and to raise up a generation of young people who will do the same.

More to come on Judges – I believe it’s a very applicable book to us.

Scott

Usurping God's Throne

Sorry about the long drought, but life gets busy.  Here are some thoughts that I think will be healthy for you to hear...

I have been reading a book for a Theology class by A.W. Tozer entitled, “The Knowledge of the Holy.”  I would highly suggest this book for all of you who desire to think rightly, and therefore act rightly before the God of the Universe.  I realized as I was reading that my thinking about God directly affects my actions in daily life, and that my thinking concerning God’s nature was severely distorted.  Prepare yourself to be humbled because nobody leaves a time of deep thinking about God in a spirit of arrogance, rather it always leads to humility and worship.

This one quote really grabbed my attention...

“Sin has many manifestations but its essence is one.  A moral being created to worship before the throne of God, sits on the throne of his own selfhood and from that elevated position declares, ‘I AM.’” – A.W. Tozer

What is your reaction to this statement?  Read it again.

Tozer claims that every time you and I choose to sin this is what we say: “God you have no place to rule in my life!  I’m calling the shots! I am hitting the “ejection button” so that you are catapulted off of your throne and now I will run my life.”

How does that sound? Stupid? Arrogant? Like suicide?

Yet we do this multiple times every single day!

I don’t know about you, but I know that I “sugar-coat” my sin.  After all, I look around me and see all those around me doing much “worse” things than I am doing. 

You see, the point is not what “kind” of sin we are committing; it is against WHOM we are committing it.  We have to understand that God, who created us and sustains every minute detail of His creation at this very moment, is an infinite, holy, righteous, self-sufficient Being.  He was perfectly happy in Himself before He created you. 

So when you sin you say to this gracious, majestic God: “Though I am finite, dependent, and have a desperately wicked heart, I will rule my life!”

Is this starting to sink in?  I hope you see how this is absurd on every level!

God’s Commands Are Good

What makes this even more absurd is that He is not asking us to obey Him for no reason.  We don’t obey God’s commands because we do not believe that He is Good.  Let me explain why I believe this to be true.

As Creator, God created the world to function in specific way; therefore He knows how to live life here on earth to its fullest.  The commands that we are given in Scripture are NOT restrictive! We hear this taught and preached constantly, but we still don’t get it.  God is not trying to limit our lives or our pleasure.  Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor of The Village Church, states it this way, “God’s commands align us with how He created the universe to function.”

When God tells us to do sex inside certain guidelines, He is not restricting our pleasure, but teaching us how to experience sex to its fullest – the way He created it to work.  Any other way is a perversion of sex, and is only a partial experience of the fullness of it.

When God tells us to do family roles this way, He is not limiting our freedom (male or female), but instructing us on how we can experience the fullness of joy in our family relationships.

These are just two examples, but the principle can be applied across the board.

The question is, do we believe this?

I think that this is how David could write how much he loves God’s law in Psalm 119; he understood that God gave His commands to show His children how to live in the world that He created.

1 John 5:3 states, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” 

Obeying God should not be “burdensome,” but should be joyous as we deny our fleshly desires, obey God’s commands, and therefore align ourselves with how He created the world to work.

The Gospel

Too often we talk about sin without talking about the Savior.  Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, we have access to the Father through repentance and faith in the blood of Jesus.  When we truly repent and believe, Biblically we receive a new heart and new nature that desires to follow after the commands of God. 

However, on the “dirt path” called sanctification, we all choose to usurp the throne like we discussed earlier.  Because the blood of Jesus has forgiven us from all sin, when we realize that we have sinned against God and elevated ourselves rather than God, we can run TO Him because our righteousness is based on what Jesus DID, not what I DO!  Too often when we sin we run away from God instead of running to Him.  This is a sign of Spiritual immaturity, and exposes an incorrect understanding of the Gospel.

Instead of usurping God’s throne, we desire to “promote the honor of God and the good of our fellow men.”  Commit, along with me, to magnify and bring glory to God’s throne and rule in my life rather than constantly ruling my own life.

So in closing, I want you to realize the gravity and disgusting nature of your sin before a Holy God, while remembering that we do not get better by “trying harder” not to sin, but by focusing on the Savior and what He has purchased for us.  That is the glorious Gospel.

I hope this makes sense. I could have developed some of the ideas more fully, but ran out of time, and it was already getting lengthy.  May God bless His words and my humble thoughts.

Scott