Because everyone needs someone to love them when they are most unlovable. Some have blown it in life and thought, “I am such a disappointment to everyone who knows me.” Some have defiantly walked away from love rejecting the open arms of God who call us back to relationship. Some have given up, feeling unworthy to ever receive love again. Come find hope and restoration in the amazing love story of a man named Hosea.
Message 4 of the series.
The best writing coach I know is Roy Peter Clark. In his newest post, he notes how tracing an author or songwriter’s revisions can make you a better writer. Clark takes a few famous songs and shows their original lines and the final lyrics which you sing in your head. The original lines would have not allowed the songs to be nearly as meaningful lyrically. See the before and after.
Tartar hides deep under our gums. Even after brushing it has to be dug out. When I know I have to go to the dentist I brush with extra diligence in the days approaching the appointment. And yet all this junk still comes out from under my gumline when the hygienist cleans with her instruments. Arrrgggghhhh! I thought I got that out.
I am learning that it is the same with confession and repentance. Sometimes I have to be really still for a long period and reflect to allow the Holy Spirit to scrape the recesses of my hearts. A cursory brushing won’t do.
We all* limit the atonement. Some its effectiveness and its efficacy (Arminians), others its extent (Calvinists).
A Calvinist says the death of Christ on the cross actually did something in that moment to free all those from sin and death who had been elected by God (insert one zillion verses here). It didn’t simply create the potential for men and women to be saved, but actually saved them in that instant. In their time, God granted them gift of faith. In this view, God gives a totally dead person mouth to mouth and resuscitates us from a state of death.
An Arminian would say that Christ died for all (insert hundred verses here), thus not limiting the atonement’s extent but rather its efficacy. It gave us the potential to be saved as we come in by our freewill selection choosing to participate in Christ by faith, but did not as a proper act actually secure our salvation when He said, “It is finished.” He gave a severely injured person a wake up slap about the head to awaken them from near unconsciousness and said, “Medical help is here, do you give us permission to administer it?”
Each limit the atonement in some way.
*“all” meaning those who hold to a view of the atonement that Jesus was our substitute. I am aware there are models which say that Jesus was simply a good moral example on the cross, etc. Not smoking those pipes. That post coming soon enough.
Thoughts? Questions?
In his public apology, Tiger Woods stated, “Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught.”
Regardless of whether Tiger lost track of what he was taught or instead walked away from it in willing rebellion, the golfer’s prescription for looking only within himself to try to repel outward cravings opposes the true functioning of our heart. Looking within leads to the failure of self-attempted morality. The answers to reducing desires are not pieced within us awaiting assembly. Our hearts are passion vacuums, seeking meaning from outside of self. Our heart, by design, will always be a passion pursuer. A wrong desire or habit is not expelled from our lives by telling ourselves it is not to be desired. We will not give up a previous passion until a new passion is in its place that has a greater satisfaction to empower us to release the first. Tiger might have been able to self-medicate his sin, or as he calls them mistakes, if his escapades had curtailed his greater passion to be great golfer. Since his escapades seemed to not impinge upon his greater passion of winning tournaments, he allowed both to exist. It will be most difficult for him to release his sexual addiction until he finds a newer, more powerful passion–even than golf or maintaining his “brand” which failed him– to sustain his recovery.
What we learn from all of this.
The cessation of a all desire means the cessation of what it means to be human, despite the claims of Buddhism. Instead of denying that we should have cravings or calling the fact we have desire wrong, we should instead find a higher satisfier of our passions. Something that draws us so deeply that we gladly abandon our previously wrong cravings for the satisfaction of the new passion. Their are differing levels of passion that each outward object or pursuit generates within us. us. Objects with higher levels of pull can displace older ones. To find the highest “object” worthy of our passion should be our life’s pursuit. The highest object of passion that fills our heart’s vacuum is God, known fully through His Son Jesus Christ. Having this proper and good passion allows us to release lesser passions that are temporal and fail to truly satisfy.
One of the best writers on this is Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847) in his work, The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. I am almost finished with a modernization on this which I will post this week. It is a great reading.
Beta-ing this standard theme and just realized some bugs in it. (IE7 users, i apologize). Also pdf inserts are not working on some computers where they can pull them up. If they get the bugs fixed this will be a killer theme. If not, well. I’ll give it a go and if they get worked out stick with it. Otherwise, off to thesis or another theme. I have faith John the Standard guy will make it happen. HELP HIM JESUS!
Pastors, stop doing weddings. Instead launch marriages.
It is joked around here that my agreeing to do someone’s wedding is a bit brutal. I don’t apologize. At the ceremony, I stand in front of God and say to all listening that I sanction the marriage by the power vested in me by Him (and the Great State of Texas but that is another post). That is not a statement I make lightly. It has adjusted my approach.
Two things influenced me formulating this view.
1. A trip to Abba Love Church in Indonesia where they have a rigorous process that must be completed before the church will allow a wedding. The singles there joke, “It is easier to get into heaven than get married at Abba Love.” Another single said, “It is the second most important decision in your life. Shouldn’t you take it seriously?”
2. People asking me to marry them that know me pastorally at NorthWood but not as deeply personally. I don’t know their story or life situations in detail all the time.
Here is the document. Steal it and hack it anyway you want as long as it is for your own ministry use.
pre-marital-counseling-covenant-jordan
Do me a favor, if you have problems accessing this pdf, leave me a comment telling me what OS and browser you are using.
Style: Happy Pop
Why you should listen. Songs that make you want to dance with an upbeat strange blend of great melody, synths and real instruments. Very different sounding. It will draw you in where you find yourself humming them all day long. Click here to listen on itunes. Suggest starting with Little Secrets.
Years ago a friend gave me a personal challenge that I have never forgotten. The acronym is TBN, ironic, I know. Speak only if something is:
I am going to focus on this over the next several weeks. In some ways, it might mean that I become much quieter. However, I have found quieter people are usually perceived to be wiser. To be thought of that way would be just fine.
The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John H. Walton
Why I read it? I was looking for a strong non-concordist (meaning, not everything in Genesis 1 was written to be a metaphysical blow by blow account) defense after reading some works from a different viewpoint by Edgar Andrews in Who Made God and Christ and the Cosmos . Many of the defenses of the non-concordist position claim the Genesis account is poetic but don’t go on to give why the account is recorded with the structure of days.
Why should you read it? If you have struggled with wanting to take the Bible account in Genesis 1 seriously yet not discount scientific findings, this book offers a way through.
Cliff notes for the lazy or uninclined. Walton argues that we read Genesis 1 wrong when we read it as a metaphysical blow-by-blow account of how God created. It is this “how God created” reading that sets Genesis 1 in opposition to current scientific creation models. Walton argues that reading Genesis 1 this way is not to read it like a Hebrew. A Hebrew would have been concerned not with the how to of creation but with its function. What purpose did the things God made serve? What was the light for? What was the land for? Walton uses parallel text from other Ancient Near East cultures to show the question of function and purpose was their prime concern. He contends that Genesis 1 reveals God setting up a cosmic temple in which He would dwell with man.
What remains to be seen. Walton’s book is a new argument for non-concordists. I am not aware of any work that takes this strong of a position as to the why of Genesis 1. Walton’s vast knowledge of Ancient Near East culture and parallel texts is undisputed. The functional view is so new that it is yet to be be debated or refuted. I am looking for to the dialogue it will create. If the argument holds, it offers a clear way through for those taking the text and science seriously. Frances Collins, the genome mapper says, “Walton elevates Scripture to a new level of respectful understanding, and eliminates any conflict between scientific and scriptural descriptions of origins.” To date, it is the closest published position to my thoughts on Genesis 1 that I have found.
