Christian Musings: 2016

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Fight For the Faith.

There is the Jesus of the cultural Christian and then the Jesus of the Bible. There is the Jesus of the modern, progressive liberal church and there is the Jesus of the Scriptures.

The postmodern church culture has placed doctrine and theology on the shelf to collect dust, while they hold up relationship and community as the all-in-all of Christianity.

The push of the postmodern church is to be less preachy, less sure of your own convictions, less sure of any absolute truth. Doctrine and theology is anathema and is to be avoided at all costs. Those in the new church place an inordinate emphasis on always being agreeable.

While Christians are certainly to avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, we should never avoid speaking truth and defending the truth of God.

We are called to fight the good fight...we are called to earnestly contend for the faith...we are called to proclaim the truth of the gospel to all people at all times.

What we are left with in these so called new churches is nothing but fluff and feathers. They have their community, but they have not the truth of the Scriptures as the glue to hold them together. They have their meetings, but they do not have the presence of the Holy Spirit to anoint and bless their gatherings.

In the end, they are no different than any secular, social gathering. They may have some Christian speak, but that's all it is, it is having a form of Godliness but not the power of God.

Here's how one great theologian of the past felt about God's truth:

A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent. John Calvin.

And another:

I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen. Martin Luther.

I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen. Martin Luther
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/martinluth403720.html

Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. Jude 3.

A dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent. John Calvin
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/johncalvin144215.html

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

The Fear of the Lord.

What does the Bible say about the "fear of the Lord?" The fear of the Lord is found throughout both the Old Testament and the New testaments.

One text that I have often used with my grandson is Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the LORD [is] the beginning of knowledge. I would explain to Caleb, when we fear God it brings us real, life giving knowledge.

How about Psalm 112:1- Praise the LORD! How blessed is the man who fears the LORD - We see that the man who fears the Lord is a blessed man or a happy man. The fear of the LORD prolongs life

And then Proverbs 10:27- The fear of the LORD prolongs life - Here we see that the one who walks in the fear of the Lord will live a long life. Think about this in practical terms. Think of all those who have died due to willful and immoral lifestyles: The man who abuses drugs and alcohol...the one who lives a sexual immoral life style...the man who lives in fear and anxiety because he has no fear or trust of God in his life.

There are hundreds of texts that point to the evidence of fear as being a hallmark of the man who walks with God. The fear of God in one's life is a certain evidence that God has given that man the "new life."

Here's a thought from an old timer- Charles Inglis (1734 – 24 February 1816) who was an Irish clergyman...he said this about the fear of the Lord:

TO fear God, is one of the first and greatest Duties of his rational Creatures.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/fear_god.html

"To fear God, is one of the greatest duties of his rational creatures."

Walk today in the fear of the Lord my brothers and sisters in the Lord.

TO fear God, is one of the first and greatest Duties of his rational Creatures. Charles Inglis
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/charlesing352988.html

TO fear God, is one of the first and greatest Duties of his rational Creatures. Charles Inglis
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/fear_god.html

TO fear God, is one of the first and greatest Duties of his rational Creatures.
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/fear_god.html

TO fear God, is one of the first and greatest Duties of his rational Creatures. Charles Inglis
Read more at: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/fear_god.html

Monday, October 3, 2016

“Simul Justus et Peccator.”

“Simul Justus et Peccator.” The Bible gives us many evidences to examine our life; and of all the evidences there has always been one that jumped off the pages of divine writ and spoke directly to my heart. The sense of my own sin. What I was saved from. How great is the depth of the depravity of my sinful flesh. The prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon sums it up so well with this comment:

“Evangelical repentance is repentance of sin as sin: not of this sin nor of that, but of the whole mass. We repent of the sin of our nature as well as the sin of our practice. We bemoan sin within us and without us. We repent of sin itself as being an insult to God. Anything short of this is a mere surface repentance, and not a repentance which reaches to the bottom of the mischief. Repentance of the evil act, and not of the evil heart, is like men pumping water out of a leaky vessel, but forgetting to stop the leak.
Some would dam up the stream, but leave the fountain still flowing; they would remove the eruption from the skin, but leave the disease in the flesh.”

The Christian lives in a dichotomy of sorts...while he is still a sinner, he is at the same time a saint. We struggle with our fallen nature daily. We live in a battle. We die daily to our sin. We die daily to our own self wills.

Our deep awareness of our sin drives us to the cross. We don't wallow in our sin, just the opposite, we run as fast as we can to the endless sea of God's redemptive love and grace.

One of my favorite authors puts it like this:

“For every look at self, take ten looks at Christ” Robert Murray M'Cheyne.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

Developing a Christian Worldview.

Developing a Christian worldview is absolutely essential for the Church of Jesus Christ.

First, we must understand what a Christian worldview is and what it is not. We can turn to many Christian theologians, authors and intellectuals for a definition of a Christian world view, but here is my definition.

A Christian worldview is having the mind saturated with and totally informed by the word of God. That mind will look at and interpret the world through the lens of Scripture. The individual who has the "mind of God" will have a constant thought process, and will not be influenced by the changing tide of culture and society.

Now, turning to the more scholarly James Orr, in his book, The Christian View of God and the World, he maintains that:

“A Christian view of the world cannot be infringed upon, accepted or rejected piecemeal, but stands or falls on its integrity. Such a holistic approach offers a stability of thought, a unity of comprehensive insight that bears not only on the religious sphere but also on the whole of thought. A Christian worldview is not built on two types of truth (religious and philosophical or scientific) but on a universal principle and all-embracing system that shapes religion, natural and social sciences, law, history, health care, the arts, the humanities, and all disciplines of study with application for all of life.”

We see that a Christian worldview is all encompassing. It takes in all of life and passes it through the filter of Scripture. Think about this: The Church of Jesus Christ has been given the very words of the creator of the universe as found in the canon of Scripture, why would we not be informed about all of life with this book?

When we add the adjective in front of worldview we are defining what kind of worldview it is. If we add secular in front of worldview we are defining what kind of worldview it is. Everyone has a worldview whether they know it or not, I've had some not to humble people tell me that they are independent thinkers and that they have no world view...well, they just defined their worldview and didn't even know it.

Let us as people of the book...as followers of Jesus Christ let’s take to heart our Master's very own words when he said, "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God"(Matthew 4:4).