Embracing the Biblical View of Depravity, Part Two. God's Awesome Holiness: A Contrast.

     "And one called to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory,'" Isaiah 6:3.
     "And I said: Woe is me!  For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Isaiah 6:5.

     While volumes of books could be written about my depravity and ignorance, God has actually had volumes of books written about His holiness and wisdom.  He is all powerful, all knowing, all good and sovereign over all things.  Even more, He is perfect in all his affections as I've heard it put.  The constant thread running through all His perfections is His holiness.  God is completely separate from all His creation.  Sin has marred all of creation yet God is holy, He is separate and cannot tolerate sin in His presence or have any relationship to it at all as the Moody Handbook of Theology puts it.  This is why Isaiah was so terrified in the presence of God and why he had to be temporarily purified by burning coals to be in the presence of the Lord. 
     God's holiness is terrifying and illuminating.  Isaiah was terrified, Moses had to watch his step in approaching the burning bush and Peter knew that he was unworthy to be in Jesus' presence after the relatively minor miracle of a great haul of fish.  God is so different than we are.  We find it hard to understand God at all.  That is why God gave us His holy word, the Bible.  The Bible's description of God is awe inspiring.  He created all of everything out of nothing, with just a word of His mouth.  That is just the first line of the first book of the Bible.  The rest of the Bible fleshes out God's greatness, love and perfection against the backdrop of our weakness, evil and depravity.  We are told relentlessly, in this day and age, that we must see things through other peoples eyes.  We must try and understand things according to their culture, race, gender and background.  Yet, do we try and see things from God's perspective?  Do we want to see things as God sees them may be a more important question.  This is what we should strive to do every day of our lives as we seek God in prayer, ministry and His word.  This will be terrifying coming to understand God, who is holy.  Even more, the closer we come to God, the more His complete uniqueness and purity will illuminate even the tiniest sin we have.  Isaiah was likely the holiest man in Israel yet he could not withstand the purity of God.  This illumination will drive us to our knees and humble us.  There is no doubt that wherever you see a man, professing faith or not, who thinks that he is the stuff, he has not been in the presence of God recently.  Humility flows generously from a heart that is close to God.  Proverbs teaches that "Pride comes before a fall".  It stands to reason than that humility comes before a glorious resurrection.  Moses was called the most humble man in all the earth and God allowed him to see a portion of Him passing by.  Jesus humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross as His word so eloquently tells us.  God's holiness will humble us.  If we are not humble, we have not seen Him.
     While this seems unbridgeable, our depravity and God's holiness, we are instructed in Leviticus and in Peter's epistle to "Be holy for I am holy."  This is impossible!  On my best day, I am stuck in the world, apart from God more times than I can count!  I can hardly say that I have separated myself from sin.  Yet, the command is there and we must be obedient.  We are told to, "Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh," in Galatians.  Holiness is commanded and we must be obedient and God has graciously, unbelievably and fortuitously given us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to lead us into holiness.  Oh grace be to God, He is awesome!  We can be holy, not in our power, but in His and He gives us His word, His Spirit, His church and an awesome Gospel to preach.  Truly we must understand that while we are weak, He is strong and stronger is Him who is in us than he who is in the world.  God just wants us to surrender to His power and walk in His strength.  We have no strength in our depraved condition. 
     God's holiness truly illuminates our depravity and draws us closer to Him.  We need to abide in Him and He will give us the desires of our hearts and our hearts will be holy.
     God Bless you and learn, live and love the Gospel of our glorious Savior!
    

These Words Ministry: Have you hugged a depraved maniac today? Embracin...

These Words Ministry: Have you hugged a depraved maniac today? Embracin...: " 'Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil ..."

Have you hugged a depraved maniac today? Embracing the biblical view of depravity.

     "Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually," Genesis 6:5.
     There are countless stories of people playing with fire, figuratively, and then getting burned, often, to death.  Stories of people with crazy wild animals as pets.  They love these animals and often raise them from birth, as the only parents that the wild beasts know and yet, one day, the beast turns on them in a tragic and sometimes horrific way.
     The Bible teaches from its earliest chapters that man is like a wild animal even to the point of "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."  The Bible clearly teaches man's utter depravity yet we always seem to be caught by surprise at how wicked our fellow man can be.  We forget that "the heart is deceitful above all things and wicked, who can know it," Jeremiah 17:9.  We can get so caught up in a person or people in general and forget that in our heart, we are wicked.  How often do we see the neighbor of a horrific murderer interviewed and their standard response about their neighbor is, "He/she was a good neighbor and helped...."  Humans can be just like a wild beast who seems tame for even years on end but they turn into a vicious killer in a moments notice.
     This is the difficult thing about the doctrine of depravity.  99.9% of people seem to be nice most of the time.  Unless we are watching a horrific show like The Housewives of Insanity County or Bridezilla's we don't run into vicious, conniving people on a regular basis let alone a serial killer.  Maybe it is best to understand depravity for what it doesn't mean.  It does not mean that people are always seeking to rape, pillage and murder everyone they see.  We have a view of depravity that is reserved for the worst of the worst.  No, we are all depraved from head to toe unless... well, we'll get to that later.  Depravity, in its most concise understanding, means that in our fallen nature, we are completely sinful.  The Moody Handbook of Theology puts it this way, "A term(depravity) used to refer to the corruption of sin extending to all people and affecting the entire person-his intellect, emotions and will-so that nothing in the person can commend him to God."  That hits the nail on the head!  What does this mean?  Well Rob Bell, it does mean that Gandhi is in Hell.  Gandhi was maybe the greatest example of a wonderful do gooder ever.  He was nonviolent and loving and fairy dust and flowers showered him wherever he went(so the legend goes).  Yet he lacked any goodness in his soul.  Nothing he did pleased God.  Yes Mr. Bell, Gandhi's good deeds were as filthy rags before the Lord.  Gandhi did these things under his own power, his own righteousness, er, his own depravity.  Let me ask you a question at this point.  Who did Jesus reserve the harshest judgment for?  The Pharisees.  Why?  Did they love the word of God and let it have authority in their lives?  No, they did not.  They loved the traditions of the elders and often used those to nullify the word of God.  Paul, in a similar vein, warned us not to follow the vain philosophies of man.  Gandhi had no fear of God and never offered any sign of repentance.  Unless he repented of his sins and confessed Christ at his deathbed he went where all those who trust in their own righteousness go: Hell. 
     From Moses to David to Jeremiah to Jesus to Paul we are taught that we are depraved, unable to please God.  Our most righteous deeds done in our flesh are the most repugnant of all things to God because they do nothing to advance His kingdom and everything to advance our kingdom.  We become the most miserable, self important and inflated boobs that can be imagined when we do works in our own power.  We become like King Nebuchadnezzar and believe ourselves all powerful and wise.  God must take us down a notch.  No, He must takes us down, turn us upside down and turn us completely around.  We are useless to God in our depraved state and He must send His Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin and pride and bring us down to the dirt.  We must acknowledge our depravity, repent of our evil and confess our sins to Christ.  We must believe upon His death on the cross for our sins and trust in His resurrection from the dead and ask Him to Lord over our lives in every detail.  Only then can we turn our filthy rags into gold and precious gems that do not decay or rust.
     Not only this, but we must understand our the biblical view of depravity informs our lives in every way and relationship.  Especially in our own skin where we still continue to sin.  But more of this later.  We just need to make sure that we are, "as wise as serpents and as gentle as doves" when we are walking about in this world so that we are not devoured by the beasts all around us.  God Bless you all and learn, live and love the gospel.

Bible Quiz

     1) Which one of these common phrases is in the Bible?
          A. Cleanliness is next to Godliness
          B. The Lord helps those who help themselves
          C. Lord willing

     2) Which one of these common phrases is in the Bible?
          A. Idleness is the devils play ground
          B. By the skin of your teeth
          C. The devil made me do it

      3) Who were Isaac's son's?
          A. Shadrach and Meshach
          B. Judah and Benjamin
          C. Jacob and Esau

       4) Which two brothers(half) of Jesus wrote books of the Bible?
          A. Judas and James
          B. Peter and John
          C. Moses and Jonah

        5) Who didn't get to see the Promised Land because of his impetuous anger?
          A. Joshua
          B. David
          C. Moses

         6) Which one of these celebrations was not authorized in Leviticus 23?
           A. Purim
           B. The Passover
           C. Pentecost

          7) Who was Jesus' cousin?
            A. Peter
            B. John the Baptist
            C. Mary Magdalene





           Answers: c,b,c,a,c,a,b
           God Bless you and learn, live and love the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Back to Storytelling and the Dark Ages

     "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and come to know, that you are the Holy One of God," John 6:68-69.

      Everyone likes a good story.  That is why the entertainment industry racks up the billions they do.  As Christians, we have a great story and that is the Gospel.  The Gospel starts in Genesis and ends in Revelation and is the most amazing thing we can share with anyone.  Yet storytelling is not the entirety or even predominantly how we should share the Gospel.  For the Gospel is our power and our power is the word of God working with the Holy Spirit to convict and regenerate those who are lost.
     Peter understood well the power of the word of God as illustrated by the verses quoted at the top of this post.  He must have been incredibly confused and lonely at this moment in time because Jesus had just scattered a monstrous crowd by telling His story.  Not long before, the crowd, and probably Peter and the disciples, had desired to make Jesus an earthly King and carry Him off.  When everyone scattered, because of Jesus' hard teachings and difficult story, Jesus looked at Peter and said, paraphrasing, "ET Tu Brute".  "Do you want to go away as well."  Peter's answer, though born of desperation and confusion, was his greatest pre-Spirit filled moment.  The word of God and Jesus had drawn him in and their was no turning back.  We need to have this same hunger for the word of God that Peter had and the Psalmist and all of the great heroes of the Bible.  Are you washed in the word?  Do you let the word search your heart, dividing between soul and spirit, down to the marrow?  Does the word convict you and bring you to tears and repentance and exhort you to ideas and actions that amaze you when you look back?  These are just some of the things that the word of God will do when empowered with the Holy Spirit.  The word of God brought humanity out of Papal tyranny and brought enlightenment to Europe.  The word of God was the foundation of the greatest educational/literacy revolution in world history as God accomplished this amazing feat through Martin Luther, John Calvin and other reformers.  Wherever the Bible is held high, civilization prospers and progresses.
     Now for something completely different.  A well known(in Lincoln, NE) liberal pastor was preaching the other day and he had a different slant.  Now, I do not have his words directly in front of me but I can paraphrase and capture the tenor of his sermon.  He was bemoaning the advent of the printing press!  This is no joke.  This man, who I've heard previously state that he reads for a couple hours every day, was upset at the printing press.  He was concerned that the printing press lead to the idolatry of the written word, which we could readily infer was the Bible.  He waxed on about how the great tradition of storytelling had been lost and that previously people learned their Bible through the telling and retelling of stories.  Oh, how we lost so much richness in our lives, he complained, because of the advent of movable type!  Well, there is a good reason for why people told stories back then: they were illiterate!  He wants us, this pastor of a mainline protestant church, to go back to a pre-Reformation understanding of faith!  How sad, hypocritical and preposterous.  This doctor of theology wants to close books to the great unwashed. There was a name for those pre-protestant days in Europe: the Dark Ages.  Me, I'll try and think like Peter and hunger and thirst for Jesus and His word so that His light shines in the darkness.

     God Bless you and learn, live and love the Gospel.

Repent and Believe in the Gospel: Jesus and Confrontational Evangelism

     "...the time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel," Mark 1:15.

     You may think, "why is he quoting John the Baptist yet his blog post is about Jesus and confrontational evangelism.  Really, John preached repent and Jesus talked delicately with people, gently showing them their sin."  Well, essentially, Jesus preached the same message as John the Baptist.  In fact, Mark 1:15 are the words of Jesus.  In fact, these are essentially the words of Jonah, who was essentially saying what David said who was reflecting upon what he had learned from Samuel who had learned this truth from  Moses and the first books of the Bible.
     Now, what is repentance?  "The call to repentance is a call to absolute surrender to the purposes of God and to live in this awareness.  This radical turning to God is required of all people," explains the Holman Bible Dictionary.  When John and his cousin Jesus tell people to repent, they are telling them that they are wicked(original sin, depraved) and they need to turn from the road they are walking on and turn onto a completely different road and go a completely opposite direction: the direction of God.  Jesus and John are talking about a total, radical change.
     Jesus even told a huge crowd that "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven," Matt. 7:21.  People will have a knowledge of the Lord and even do religious, pious things yet they will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven but be banished to Hell.  What is required then?  What can we do?  Jesus banished these folks because, "...I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness," Matt. 7:23. We must know Jesus!  It doesn't matter if we know about Him or have friends who know Him or a family member who knows Him.  We must know Him.  God does not have any grandchildren as someone once told me.  He only has children and to be a child of God you must know Him!  The Christian faith can be summed up by the popular saying, "It is not what you know but who you know."  Now, that statement has its limitations, but it does express a biblical truth and lines up nicely with what Jesus taught in Matthew 7.  Interestingly, once we know Jesus, we will hunger and thirst to know more about Him.  The what we know will be encouraged by the who we know.
     But, how do we know Him?  Repent and believe in the Gospel!  The gospel is our only power and it is all we need.  Confess your sins to Jesus and tell Him that you trust in His death on the cross for your sins and that you want to live your life completely surrendered to Him!  Ask Him to empower you with His resurrection power and tell Him that you love Him.  Then, go out and tell people, "Repent and believe in the gospel."

Is Harold Camping Jr. Smarter Than Our Lord, Jesus Christ

     "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only," Matt. 24:36.
  
     Everyone is talking about our Lord's 2nd coming, lets use this opportunity to spread the Gospel!  There is little doubt that Mr. Camping is an evil false teacher.  His condemnation has been considered for ages.  I doubt that he is smarter than a fifth grader, let alone the Creator of the universe, Jesus Christ.  Yet even in his apostasy we have opportunity.   It has been conjectured that predictions like Campings have been the undoing of the Gospel in regions of the world throughout history.  Particularly, the predictions by William Miller in the 1840's are said to have deadened the hearts of people in the northeast portion of the U.S. and awakening and revival have been next to impossible there since.  So, what do we do?
     1) Rebuke Harold Camping: we need to tell folks that Mr. Camping clearly violates the simple understanding of the Bible.  Matthew 24:36 could not be any clearer and Mr. Camping does not enjoy a closer relationship to the Father then His one and only Son.  Mr. Camping is a repeated false prophet, the world has not ended according to any of his predictions.  He is an evil man and Christ will deal with his apostasy in a most just and beneficient way.  We will not be mislead by this man for all eternity. 
     2)  Assure people that Jesus Christ is returning, but we have no inside information as to when.  Yes, justice is coming, evil will be dealt with and perfect, unprejudiced justice will reign for all eternity.  Do not spend a lot of time discussing world events, it should not be necessary.  Just share the word of God and that Jesus taught us, most significantly, that we must be ready.
     3)  Tell them how to be ready.  What must we do to get ready?  Well, nothing.  We cannot do a thing.  All of our deeds are like filthy rags.  We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God according to Romans and our sin deserves death.  Yet, Christ died for our sins, even while we were still sinners and we can be reconciled to the Father if we trust that Jesus died for our sins on the cross and if we repent of our sins and ask Him to be the Lord and Savior of our lives.  We have the glorious Gospel to share and now we have the perfect opportunity to do it. 
     4)  Once we have become a child of God's, now we have to watch and be ready.  Now we can understand the Bible because the Holy Spirit is enlightening our minds and our hearts are made of flesh so we can love our neighbors as Jesus told us to.  We can see the wickedness around us and not be engulfed in it and shine like a light in the darkness.  People should be attracted to His light and we can then share the Gospel with them and tell them of Christ's death for our sins and His imminent return to restore all things back to how they should be.
     God bless, learn, live and love the Gospel of our returning King!