1 Chronicles 2 and the Glory of God

I had a day where a lot of work was done in the important but not urgent category. I hate to sound sacrilegious but reading genealogies can be the same way. They don't necessarily feel redemptive, yet they are Holy Scripture and they are part of the full counsel of God. So much church work is administrative in our era and it to has that quality of not feeling redemptive.

But remember that the genealogies follow God's chosen people. The people of Israel where the cradle into which the Christ was born and by his blood we are all redeemed. Today's church work was the means by which we cradled the message of the gospel at Royal Redeemer so that it would be heard and would change lives.

Remember when you realized that God had taken hold of your heart. Where you at camp, church, or some function. Did you pray with a co-worker. Some one did the seemingly humdrum work of praying for you, tithing to keep that church open, landscaping at the camp. These are the 1 Chronicles of church life, unsung, misunderstood even, but essential to God's mission, to display his Glory through the sacrifice of his Son.

Sola Christus

When the a Holy God ordains it, the Holy takes place.

So as I finished up with the Gospel of John (you may have noticed I never blogged on St. John's passion feeling wholly inadequate for that portion of scripture.) I decided to use the reading plan in my Bible to give the next season of my devotions some organization. Even though it is 8.25.2014 I started with January 1's reading. The first reading was from Ecclesiastes. 

A Time for Everything
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 ESV)




For wise King Solomon, all the things listed above have a time and place in the history of man, which is wrapped up in God's salvation history. I admit that I come to the text for a Calvinistic view point so as I read I felt the Holy Spirit tickle my reformed intellect and communicate this; these things listed above at shown to be equal in the text. Birth, death, planting, reaping, seeking, losing, peace and war. All have been ordained by our Holy God and are therefor all part of his Holy plan. For the display of His Glory, His Grace, His Holiness. Do I enjoy death? Nope I shed tears. War? Never, I continue to pray for peace? Loss has even been a part of my daily life now that I have a growing family, career and a shrinking pool of independence and free time. I morn the loss of those things even as they are sparked by celebrated life events

God has ordained it. The Muslims pray "En Shallah," "God wills it." Its not often we say together amen, but to my Muslim neighbor I say a hearty amen, then in the next breath, explore what the Koran says about "Isa," for if he is God then we need to also pray "Jesus wills it."

The events of your life are initiated for the display of our Holy God's glory. Cry when it is time to morn, weep at loss, dance at celebrations. Sow fields and reap harvest but do not despair. God holds you close waiting too show you in his Heavenly courts so that he will be more fully revealed to you, what Saint Paul calls "... the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:7 ESV)

That is the kind of God we serve!

Sola Scriptura!

ISIS, Resurrection, and bringing home a new baby.

Today I brought home a new baby. I was so pumped. But on the ride home I kept thinking about what would happen if I were gone, or one was taken from me. That got me to thinking about what I have been reading about Iraq today. There was a lump in my throat. That very fear I had was the reality of those folks in Iraq. Then I began to think about how this violence has been with us for a while. The reality that violent death has been in the news a lot and I have been ignoring it. I had been reading about it hearing about it dispassionately because the victims where not of my religion, or on my continent or I was too selfish to let the problems of other humans ruin my day.  I felt shame, suffering people may not believe in Christ as Lord but the Lord Jesus Christ made them preciously and wants to be in relationship with them.

Then I remembered how I pulled out of this guilt spiral the last time I was burdened with these feelings. The last time I caught myself turning off the radio because I did not want to know what what going on. There is hope in the Resurrection. There is hope that Heaven will come here. We pray in the church "Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again." When he returns Jesus will right all wrongs. There wont be martyrdom anymore. Hunger and oppression will cease, the world will be border-less for it will all be under his rule.

Sleep tight tonight Samuel and Isabel. God does not delight in the death of his people, and when death comes to take one of us, both of us, all of us it will only be temporary.  For we believe in the Resurrection. We will rise from the grave victorious in Jesus. So will those who died in faith in Iraq today. So will every person who ever lived. We will all stand before the Judge and those whose names are written in the lambs book of life, will enter in to eternal Glory.

Final thought. From time to time I read the Voice of the Martyrs web site (http://www.persecution.com/) and they end every story of atrocities against believers this way, "let us also pray for their persecutors, that some of those hunting believers today will become believers themselves in the days and months to come." 

Lord I pray for ISIS. Send them your Holy Spirit, to convince them of righteousness and judgment. Firmly convert them to belief in Christ. Show them their sin and you Grace displayed on the cross." Make them our brothers and sisters in Christ through the power of repentance. Lord it seems impossible but I believe that you do the impossible. I pray for those whom they persecute, let there blood be a witness to you blood, the blood I will claim when I stand before your throne

Amen

John 16 and the Holy Spirit

The Work of the Holy Spirit

“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
(John 16:4-11 ESV)

It would seem that often people in the church would trade any moment of their current experience to be with Jesus and his disciples in those moments recorded in the New Testament. I admit as a Christ follower and as a historian I would trade functioning parts of my body to witness the events of the Gospel in real time. In contrast to that desire Jesus tells us we are better off now for we have access to the Holy Spirit. In the Spirit we will experience things that are bigger and better than those of the biblical accounts of the Gospel.

Even now God in then the Spirit is holding the universe together, molecule by molecule. Not impressed yet? He infects the hearts of those who would believe and turns them to Christ making his Glory so beautiful that they would forsake this world and say “Lord Lord.” Not impressed yet? He does an illuminating work in the hearts of believers that when they would read the Bible they would understand and be changed. Not impressed yet? Any time any where in the world the soundly converted pray to Jesus they are motivated by the Holy Spirit at work in them.

Any time we feel guilt from our sin and ask God to forgive, that is the Spirit, any time we see injustice and act, that is the Spirit at work in us. The work of Christ is now spread from the God man in Palestine to the hands of the many  Christians around the world whom the Holy Spirit uses as his means of Grace.

I have been following the Gospel of John Chapter by chapter for months now. From God's revelation of himself in Jesus to his first signs. I have followed him through the requirement of being born again to have saving faith, to saying so hard that all but the twelve leave him. Chapter seven he shows himself as living water and in chapter fourteen he tells us that to be in Heaven is to be where he is and now he is describing how he will empower us, the church, to make his a kingdom a reality here. He sends us the Spirit. It changes us, the Gospel in us will give birth to good works not because they are required but because to behold Jesus in the power of the spirit does something to us.

I would argue that the Gospel of John is proposing that conversion and sanctification is all the work of the Spirit. How then do we act in helping to bring His kingdom here? Pray, pray that the Holy Spirit unbind hearts, that he would make Jesus so wonderful to our eyes that we would forsake yet again the pleasures of this world and desire his will to the display of his Glorious work in the Son.

Sola Deo Gloria

Where I am you will also be.

Where I am You will also be. When asked about heaven I hear almost no one quote this verse, but it is the reality of our eternity. Jesus explains to His disciples that being with Him is Heaven. Being in Christ enjoying the love and fellowship of the Trinity is the only all satisfying reality that could hope to hold our attention for eternity,

Think about eternity. Doing any thing or any number of things for eternity. The culmination of your earthly experinces would eventually get boring. Heaven only escapes being a devine torment in that it promises the infinite ability to be interesting or satisfying. Being with the infinitly satisfying God is our only hope to not falling into dispair.

Hell's infinite nature conversly makes it threatening. Tim Keller encourages an audience to think of the worst part of themselves having for ever to cultivate and isolate. Heaven is Jesus forever, hell is us forever. The same people who have had either 6000 years of millions of years to think up new ways to torture each other will get eternty to continue this unbroken streak of attrocity against fellow man unless redeemed from the outside.

Look to the map! "I am the way the truth and the light," He promises. The only way to the father. Cling to that promise or cling to despair those are our options. Unless you truely believe we can self invent something that is all satisfying for eternity? Excuse me if I am a skeptic.

Sola Gratia

Look the whole world goes after him!!!!

May 16 2014
I just read the most interesting verse. In john 12 Jesus reenters Jerusalem. There is of course the hubbub of his triumphal entry. The account of John gives it less treatment than other Gospel accounts, but the end of Johns account, at least as the NASB writers edit, has this line; "So the Pharisees said to one another, "You see that you are not doing any good; look the world has gone after Him."
 When I read blog materials about the movment of the Gospel in the world I see two views at odds with each other. There are the champions of the American church who talk about its decline and the loss of younger people. They talk about the focus of the church on right belief over right practice as a turn off. There is merit to this if you are in a European mainline denomination. The numbers are not great. But even in the United States the statistics are not universally applied. There are main line church plants and independants that are growing through converstion.
If we get outside the United States the growth is even more significant. Asia and South America seem to be great bastions of Christian growth. Interestingly enough they do not seem to share the view the lower views of right belief are nessicary for greater expansion of the Gospel globally. I have one friend who I would often spar with (me a conservative Calvinist, he a progressive emergent,) when he returned from Uganda he was frustrated on two fronts. Like most progressives he thought the traditional church view on marraige was outdated, and was surpriesed that the churches on africa for the most part held the line on the ancient definition of marriage. The other thing he found frustrating was that most Christians he interacted with where tea todlers.
There are a lot of writers who have been writing about the decline of the the church. What they mean is the western church. Soon commeth the day that the minority of believers in the world are western. Christian thought will be driven by people who speak asian languages or South American spanish. Yes the church in America shrinks, loosing mostly nominal believers while those commited to the cuase of Christ seem to grow and get more innovative in reaching the unchurched or de-churched. This happens at a rate where we will soon see a minority of the population of the US claim faith in Christ. But the church is not thwarted. The Holy Sirit is not wandering around heaven wishing we would find new strategies to making Jesus famous.
God in Christ reigns supremem over his created order. All creation remains a stage to the discplay of his goodness. The only people who need worry are those who would complain with the pharisees, "look the world has gone after him."
Sola Christus

John 11, meaning and trials.

It is a little embarrassing to declare to the whole world that I was going to start blogging and then to suddenly stop. Yet I kept looking at John chapter eleven and could not figure out how to process it. I know what encourages me, but what do I want “out there” so that my kids can read it one day. Luckily I believe the Lord initiated my brain freeze. In the past couple of weeks I have heard this preached on twice and both time I was really encouraged by it.

This portion of scripture really shines a light on my theology of suffering. Suffering, as horrible as it is has a checkmate. That is resurrection makes it tolerable. Without resurrection I am not sure how people process the meaninglessness of suffering but I would have no categories.

Jesus hears that his friend Lazarus is sick. His response, he waits a couple of days. Here is where the text gets tricky. Is says “so he waited a couple of days.” He is waiting on purpose. He knows what the outcome is going to be but he allows the death and suffering to happen. I believe with all my being it was so that he could check that suffering with the resurrection of Lazarus.

Both theists and Atheists alike have to deal with suffering. For us it points to Christ and his redemptive work on the cross and the grave. For our detractors it is the accident that follows the other accident, life. I no longer hate atheists, I feel for them. Death is just death. Suffering has no larger meaning. I don’t see any way around it. As for the people of resurrection we still don’t know why but we do know how it ends. We don’t ask JK Rowling why Harry's Parents die but we rejoice at the proof of love in how Harry’s mom dies. We don’t ask why Gandalf died but we cheer when he comes back. God the ultimate dramatist gives us the ultimate thing to celebrate. His resurrection and that we share in it.

New bodies wait, untouched by cancer, depression, violence. Glorified bodies, the us we always knew we could be. Hallelujah, Christ is risen.

Happy Lent ;) 

Knowing the difference between noise and His Voice.

As I have been reading John Chapter 10 I confess I mostly see in the chapter what has been taught to me by mentors and commentaries. Jesus is the “good” shepherd. This was a culture that had little respect for shepherds, but Jesus says he is “good” one worthy of our respect. Jesus the gate, meaning he protects his flock from both the thieves and the strangers by laying before them. The sheep seem to supernaturally know his voice apart from the voice of others, often seen by us reformers as Jesus pointing to God’s electing work among the sheep. All of this I learned from others and am grateful for their wisdom. But I wanted to see this section with new eyes, and I truly attempted to wrestle with the text, arcing it and color coding it with crayons borrowed from the children’s wing.

Jesus is the central figure of this book and this parable, but I did decide to stop and list what the sheep are doing during all this. Finally I felt like I had found what the Lord was looking to show me in this verse. The sheep have a role in all this. They hear Jesus’ voice. They follow him, they don’t follow strangers. They flee the wolf and scatter. They know the shepherd. This for me was the application for today from John 10:1-18. Know Jesus voice. Pray for the Holy Spirit to make his voice distinct so I would know to ignore the voice of the enemy. The prince of lies is good at his craft. He knows what my deep fears and inadequacies are. He constantly whispers to tell me that I am who my past says I am.

The Good Shepherd lays down his life so that we can be new again. To prove the devil is what the Bible says he is, a liar. Be blessed today, be new today, but most of all be immune to the voice of the strangers and the thieves, they have nothing for you but death.

Peace. 

John Nine: God's Self disclosures can be uncomfortable.

A couple of years ago I got into an argument with some dear friends over the soverignty of God is suffering. They did not share my calvinistic veiw of the world so it quickly began to look like a show down. Fortunatly this friendship has always been fraught with mutual respect and humility. At one point I pointed to the man born blind in John chapter 9. The disciples ask if it was this man or his parents that had sinned, and if that sin brought on the blindness.

Jesus response was that neither was the case, but the man was born blind that God's glory could be revealed in him. When I brought up this verse I was accused of proof texting an accusation I take quite seriously as I never want to be seen as mishandling the word of God, (which I see as inerent and inspired and all the other crazy things fundamentalists say about the Bible). Here is why I think the accusation was erroneous bordering on an error of philisophical categories:

First off I am still reminded that we are exploring the book of John, the one about the self revealing God (the word became flesh and moved in the neiborhood [John 1:14 the message]). What John is telling us about is what God is like when he is self describibed by being present in The Lord Jesus Christ, this is not a book about the authors perceptions that need far more in the way of decoding than any other sort of biographical work. I say that to counter the argument that John is simply responding to the needs of his local spiritual community. He is the method of Gods revelation to the church.

What kind of God is revealed? He is a God that turns thinking on its head even if it would be seen as unpopular. Jesus says in essence that the man born blind is blind not because of guilt or innocents. That is not the purpose of the created order. God is a the judge of the world but the Gospel of John is not a long episode of Judge Judy with God on the bench. The created order including this blind man is meant to point ot God that we may call him glorious. "And the Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood. We have seen his Glory like that of the Father to the son." (rough paraphrase from the message mixed with NIV all from memory so who knows if that is the exact wording).

"Andrew," my friends object, " you take this to mean that all human suffering is ordained by God? Are you an unfeeling turd?" Okay friends dont ask the second part they might imply it. I will say that at the very least some suffering is ordained by God. He is pleased to crush his son Isaiah tells us. He allows for the sacking of Jerusalem by Babylon even though the conquor of the city would have been horrible if you read about ancient warfare. He raises up Pharoh to display his might is destroying that same Pharoh. He causes a man to be born blind so that this encounter can take place.

Our Lord suffered, and it was the moment his love was most gloriously displayed. I may be wrong in the premise that all human suffering is ordained by God but to say that none was is equally hard to prove. As for the members of the church and thier suffering, we should seek it. We should set aside comfort to go and make his name known. We should desire to follow His suffering as his call is always a call to our death (I am guessing Bonhoeffer is correct in this assesment).

As for those who disagree, what will be the meaning of your suffereing? Proof that God does not exsist and is there for even more meaningless? Proof  that God is  non-interventionist akin to the man who lets his neighbors house burn to prove a point about his respect for human freedom? I am not saying that his authorship of suffereing helps us sleep better at night, I am only submiting that his allowing it out of defernce to human freedom is no more morally exusable than anyother explination.

In the mean time I gladly bow in worship of this self revealing author of all things, uncaused cause who cares for man and crys along with him. Sola Deo Gloria

Where you there when the sun refused to shine.

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last. (Luke 23:44-46, ESV)
I wanted to take a moment out of my journey through the Gospel of St. John to recognize Ash Wednesday.  Today we begin the celebration of Lent. It is not something the scripture commands so I would not say it is a requirement of church life. I would say that it is a healthy practice. We are six weeks away from Easter, the celebration of the resurrection of The Lord Jesus after he conquers sin and death. The next 40 day are to be spent calling to mind our own sin and brokenness. The new life bestowed on us who are undeserving came at a tremendous cost. God in the flesh put on a cross and killed by the very people his death opens a door for. We demanded our savior’s blood and for it we are offered paradise. Yet I will remember today that the death of the savior was a day of mourning. Creation stood still and recognized their creator’s death. “Where you there when the sun refused to shine,” the old hymn asks. I was not, yet I am responsible and I am grateful. For in that moment the veil separating man from the Holy of Holies was torn and the threshold of heaven unlocked to wretch like me.
Oh God that I would never take you for granted, that I would cherish new life, that I would tell the world of your love.
Sola Christus!

John 7:37-39: Jesus Disrupts "Christmas."

There are two things about this particular section of John that caught my eye. The first is how Jesus steps in and disrupts a religious festival being practiced as it had been for as long as anyone could remember. He "pops in," on the feast of weeks. This is a festival to remember God's provision in the dessert a thousand years earlier at the time of Moses. The people would basically have a camping party in the city of Jerusalem living in temporary structures. At the end of every day there was a water rite that was performed to remember that when they had no water in the dessert with Moses, God provided water from the rock. Of course I am giving a brief description and meaning here, there is centuries of meaning that had come to be embedded into the feast of weeks much like Christian Christmas.

Christmas started out as the feast day celebrating the birth of Christ. The church has added to that celebration over time, for example adding advent to the front end. Advent has candles and feasts. Believers in Jesus practice charity, and gift giving to remember that Jesus is the greatest gift God could give, the gift of himself. Over years I have found that these ceremonial obligations have become equal to the religious implications of the day and have even surpassed them. It is the Job of the Church to call attention back to what the ultimate most satisfying part of Christmas is, Jesus Christ who has come to dwell with his people.

In the same way Jesus interrupts the pageantry of the feast of weeks to call attention to the only truly satisfying water, himself. He is ruining their Christmas by reminding them of what is really at stake. I had known about this passage since writing a paper about it in seminary but I never considered this portion of it. In chapter four Jesus introduces living water to the woman at the well. In chapter six he puts himself up above Moses by reminding them that the food Moses directed the people to in the dessert parishes, and in this chapter the two messages collide. Living water is again discussed and it is while Jesus changes the meaning behind a festival celebrating the Mosaic era of Hebrew history.

The second point of significance here is that the rivers of living water refer to the as of yet absent spirit within people. Later in the book Jesus points our that the Spirit convicts the world of righteousness and judgment. This "pneuma," mentioned in chapter three as the one that makes us born again has not even begun that work yet. At least that is how verse 39 paints it. This has implications. As of yet I would not pretend to know what they are, but as soon as I have a theory you will know oh faithful few reader who would stick with me this far down the column. In the mean time be blessed today!

A little embarrased!

I have such a small following on this blog I know there is no requirement for me to go back and fix things but I did see a glaring error on my post for John 3:16. I talked about the word play Jesus uses between the words wind and spirit. I pointed out that in Greek He uses the same word for to compare the actions of the two. The mistake I made was instead of referring to the Greek "pneuma," I kept using the Hebrew "ruach."

Just so people know I am not fluent in either language and have a peripheral understanding from using some Greek and Hebrew tools available online as well as referencing commentaries. I do not believe the switch would have ever gotten me in trouble or was in any way dishonest but I would like to be a person who is careful about the way he handles the word of God, especially in a sphere as public as the interwebs.

Have a great "pneuma," filled week!

John Chapter 6 part one: The Crowd

John Chapter 6 is a lot like John 3 where much could be said about it and barley scratch the surface of what is there. So I wanted to focus again on the crowds. Again they are with Jesus because of the signs he was doing. The language here does not signify genuine faith it actually mirrors the language of John 2, where the people have faith (epistos) and Jesus does not trust himself to that faith. Again it would be easy to cry out "cynic." Especially when you see how this first part of the chapter ends. The people are so grateful at Jesus multiplying the loaves, Jesus actually fears they might try to make him king and he has to retreat.

But look at the end of the chapter. It says that all but the twelve stop following him and go away. There where probably 15000 people there and only twelve remain after he says something difficult. 0.1 percent stay. This would kill most movements and devastate most leaders. Not Jesus, he knew not to trust the crowds. He knew the hearts of men. The crowd is a fickle mistress, let us follow our Lord's example and be weary of their praise.

Sola Fide!

John Chapter Five: Jesus, God, Honor, Life and Judgment.

Teaching through the Gospel of John can at times start to feel repetitive because John keep banging on the drum of Jesus equal status to God. For those of us who grew up around Christianity it seems like rehashing old issues while other issues await our attention, but for the audience of the time to ascribe Jesus an equal status to God was revolutionary. I also believe that as our culture becomes more post Christian it is again necessary to focus on Jesus' full God-hood.
There are certain things Jesus say that are culturally acceptable that he needs no higher authority to be right about. These are the "Jesus as a great philosopher" statements. Among those, "Give to everyone who asks." "Love your neighbor as yourself." The problem with these statements is they are vastly outnumbered by the statements of Christ that make him seem crazy unless he where to have some authority beyond being smart Rabbi influenced by eastern philosophy (by the way in my mind that is such rubbish and requires a blind spot to huge portions of the Gospel narratives to even pretend it could be true). Hippy eastern Jesus is also known to have said, that denying him before God will have eternal consequences. He claims that following him will put people at odds with their own families who will turn them over to authorities to be persecuted. Jesus says that following him means taking up a cross, the symbol of dissident torture, not sometimes, but daily. If Jesus is not up to his eyeballs with Godly insights then he out to switch to decaf, because he keeps ratcheting up the stakes, not softening them.
That brings us to chapter five of John's Gospel. Jesus once again asserts his authority as God's equal. Follow a few words through verses 19-29, "does," "life," judgement," and "honor." What the father does Jesus does. Certainly Jesus limits his actions to those that the father has given him to do but it does not limit his God hood, its God's own modeling of submission to us. The doctrine of the trinity gives us so many gifts. We see how God models so many essential parts of the human experience within his three-in-one nature so we can live them by example. Love, community, worship and yes submission. Jesus does submission the way only God could, perfectly.
In that submission Jesus is given a task. Judgment. Now in John 3 Jesus says he has come not to judge but to save, but this does not mean a contradiction. Jesus is saying that his primary role is salvation, not judgment. In salvation there will be judgment. Those who reject to wear Jesus' righteousness like a garment will be judged wanting. "Life," and "Judgement," are pitted against each other and like a resolving Chord Jesus finishes his discourse with this statement, "Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. (John 5:28-29, ESV)"

Sola Christus!

John 3:16 is no body's weapon!

There is no way around it, I am a Calvinist. I try to dress it up by throwing out words like "reformed theologian," but that is code for believing in predestination. This immediately inspires polemics, or arguments against from people who would disagree and want to protect mans freedom in salvation. Often they ask "what about John 3:16." Then I quote the verse out loud, and there is usually a long pause. We are both waiting for the other to engage and state why it may or may not fly in the face of Calvinism.

There are two verbs in the verse that need dealt with methinks. First God's love for "the world." D A Carson makes the astute observation that when John speakers of the world in his gospel it's under the pretext of worldliness, or the opposite of Godlieness. There may be an argument that God's love is for all people everywhere and fly in the face of the idea that God predestines some to not believe. I would only quickly answer this by saying that St. Paul argues against this in Romans 9. One can respond saying that it is a different author different book and different genre and I would have to concede that. Even after the concession Gods's love is still not proven inclusive or exclusive by either camp on the bases of John 3:16.

The second verb to contend with is "believe." Some how my free will friends look at this verse and assume it could only mean that the belief was chosen. That is not implied by the verse, and I don't think the previous or following verses imply it either. At this point I think it's a proof text.

The entire work of Johns Gospel is set up in the prologue. Thus prologue paints a picture of a self revealing God, a god who can not be known unless he so decides to be known. This sets up a God that demands in chapter three that salvation requires one to be born again, born of water and spirit and of that spirit Jesus says "The Wind (Gk:pneuma) blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone born of the Spirit (Gk:pneuma). He talks about the work of the Holy Spirit in being born again as a work of the Spirits choosing. This same God for whom nothing can be known unless he himself allows it to be known, then he drops the words "For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that who ever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Although I would say that in conjunction with what has come so far in the book and the chapter and along side what comes later in the book this verse is in sync with reformed theology it is by no means proof. But it is certainly less a proof for mans choice in the act of having saving faith.

As far as a "so what?" From this verse, it is a good reminder for those in my tribe (Calvinists) that saving faith is a miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and it should be begged for the same way one would beg for a cure to cancer or a secession to hostilities in brutal war. The work of the "pneuma" cannot be manufactured, he is as much God as God. Beg God for revival, in your hearts into e hearts of your families and in the hearts of the nations.

Sola Deo Gloria!

John Chapter two's set up of three and the set up to four.

As I was as I was getting ready to spend some time in John again this morning I was thinking about what I found out yesterday in a couple of commentaries I read about the end of John 2. Both Don Carson and John Calvin look at Jesus' refusal to trust the crowd's faith as a sign that the faith was fake, it did not lead to salvation. I thought this was skeptical, I wondered how they could know that. There was alternatives in my mind. I was thinking that there individual faith was genuine but Jesus knew that on a corporate level the same would demand his death on the cross later and that is was he did not trust. I checked in with the study notes in the ESV Study Bible (I know these are all Reformed sources but that is my spiritual bent so no apologies.) It made the point that the word for the faith of the people Jesus Lack of faith in them was the same Greek root, (epistos). Basically the author is showing Jesus skepticism in the faith of the people through a word play.

Why would this matter? Because the next chapter, chapter three of the book of John is all about saving faith. “For God so loved the world that whoever [epistos] in him shall not parish but inherit eternal life.” (I typed from memory, so sorry if there was some version switching in there.) What chapter three emphasizes as faith that saves versus faith that is bogus is this one crazy idea. “You MUST be born again.” The acknowledgment that Jesus is Lord is recognized even by his spiritual enemies (book of James said so [don't tell my Lutheran friends I am referencing James]). What is different between those enemies and the converted believer is being born again.

The born again are made into something new. Believing in Jesus is not a convenience that makes their life better only to be discarded when he goes after their idols. Chapter two shows us what faith without being born again looks like chapter three defines saving faith, but Chapter four gives us a clear picture of what happens to people when the Holy Spirit in His sovereignty decides to pluck people out of their collision course with forever death, when he gives the new birth. “Come and see a man who has told me everything I have ever done.” That is all the sermon the woman at the well preaches. And the whole town comes out to see Jesus and is soundly converted.

What about you, are you born again? Does your faith in Jesus ask to follow him into the dangerous, the irrational? Has your walk with God proven to be inconvenient because it exposes your idols? Are you changed, knowing you can never go back? To know if you are here is the simple test, do you desire this? The sinners heart is in bondage to sin, Luther tells us. It can only desire its own death and destruction. The heart made free to follow Jesus, the heart of the born again person desires God. Its opposite desires to be God. Let us hear the plea of the great hymn writer when he says “Let not conscience make you linger, or of fitness fondly dream. The only fitness he requireth is that you feel your need of him.”

Sola Deo Gloria!

Jesus at the Temple Part 2

After Jesus overturns the tables in the Temple area, the disciples are reminded of Psalm 69:9; “Zeal for your house will consume me.” I went and looked up that Psalm and give it a quick once over. This zeal for the house of God makes the Psalmist a reproach in the eyes of people around him. Interesting that John in the power of the Holy Spirit would quote this verse. As Jesus becomes the replacement for the temple or at least refers to himself metaphorically as a temple the disciples remember a verse about zeal for a temple being a reproach. Later in this same Gospel account Jesus reminds his disciples that “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

We live in an age where it is believed that the only time religion should be good is when its byproduct is that people get along better. The problem is that Christianity is a counter-cultural religion. Jesus brings people face to face with their idols and our hearts react as only a heart in bondage could; rejection. When we encounter Jesus he does to our lives what he did to the money changers, he overturns and makes chaos from our treasures. For some the Holy Spirit uses this event to break the bondage of sin and call us home. For others it makes Jesus and his church a reproach.

Let us never fool ourselves into thinking that our commitment to Christ will be well received by the world. We share the plight of both the psalmist and the Lord. We will be a reproach. “In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Have a blessed weekend!

Jesus Goes to the Temple

So today I spent time in John Chapter 2 with two reasons really. First, I was having my quiet time, and second I had not spent time with a text in a while for the purpose of exposition. I did not want to get out of practice so I though I would tug at the text a little and see what fell out. I use a web site called http://www.biblearc.com/ .  I would recommend it to any one who would like to do bible exposition for the purpose of devotion or teaching, for $10 a year I have been pretty impressed.

Today I was arcing and I noticed this, what is in the temple before Jesus and what is in the temple after Jesus. The temple was God's dwelling place just as the human heart is now God's dwelling place. I wonder if the inference here is that Jesus goes and clears the sin out of the human heart to make his dwelling just like he cleared the sin out of the temple. There is so much more that can be said here but for now I want to reflect on this point; the work of Jesus in order to prepare us for his taking up residence. In this story its the whip from chords and the violence of overturning the tables. In the end of the book its the whip of on his back and the violence of the cross. I am excited to compare this to what has been said by wiser men than I in commentary to see how close or far I have come to the historical interpretations of the church but for now this is what fell out when I tugged on the sweater.