How Will We Know When the Bible Starts to Transform Our Lives?

How will we know when the bible starts to transform our lives? "Not when we enjoy lovely teaching, but when the teaching becomes so [convicting] that [we] walk away and do something about it.” | Bishop Festo Kivengere

The New Purpose of Marriage

When we choose to ignore, change or distort what God has called good (Genesis 1:31), we must brace ourselves for the consequences that will inevitably come with such a decision. This issue didn't start with "gay marriage". It started in the garden when the woman chose to circumvent her husband's headship and the man allowed her to do so. It grew with the egalitarian and feminist movements in the culture and the church and now we see the continued consequences in so-called same-sex marriage.

Don't like gay marriage? Don't get one. My gay marriage doesn't change anything about your straight marriage. We're not altering the definition of marriage; we're expanding it. These new rights don't take away yours. So don't try to deny them to us.

The startling rise in public approval for gay marriage depends on such simple appeals to intuition. Look at all these happy gay couples. Why not invite them to join the party and get married? It's not like straight couples have done such a good job of commending the institution. Besides, what consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedrooms is their business alone.

To our highly individualistic Western culture, only libertarian arguments make any sense, even to many Christians. Personally we might say homosexuality is a sin; but what right do we have to impose our values on anyone else? If they aren't harming anyone else, then who can deny their gay marriages equal protection under the law?

Such questions have put Christians and other religious and even secular moral conservatives on the defensive. So it's surprising that Liza Mundy in her new cover story for The Atlantic, "The Gay Guide to Wedded Bliss," would threaten to forfeit the tactical advantage of supposed neutrality. She argues that gay marriages tend to be happier and more intimate, so straights can learn from them. Mundy even acknowledges the critics may be correct after all that gay marriage will change marriage for everyone. All to the better, Mundy writes: "by providing a new model for how two people can live together equitably, same-sex marriage could help haul matrimony more fully into the 21st century."

What Changes?

What exactly does she mean by these changes for the better? She means most basically that gay marriages erode differences between the sexes. There are no gendered roles and responsibilities. Men who love caring for babies and doing the laundry should do what feels right. Women who don't like to cook should work late instead. She believes that when we unshackle marriage from traditional expectations, we'll make it more appealing to the growing number of young adults who forsake the institution altogether or delay it much later than previous generations. And same-sex couples are already making marriage cooler, she says, leading to "nuptial fever" and a rush to the altar.

Read the full article [HERE]

Emotional Blackmail

“Emotional blackmail happens when a person equates his or her emotional pain with another person’s failure to love. They aren’t the same. A person may love well and the beloved still feel hurt, and use the hurt to blackmail the lover into admitting guilt he or she does not have. Emotional blackmail says, “If I feel hurt by you, you are guilty.” There is no defense. The hurt person has become God. His emotion has become judge and jury. Truth does not matter. All that matters is the sovereign suffering of the aggrieved. It is above question. This emotional device is a great evil. I have seen it often in my three decades of ministry and I am eager to defend people who are being wrongly indicted by it.” | John Piper

Our Children Will Be Good Sailors, Well Equipped for the Voyage

"The discipline of parenting can be the road to an enlarged soul and the path to unimagined heights of spiritual development. That’s the way God planned it. [If parenting is done rightly] our children’s sails will be set to go with Christ, to buck the winds of culture, to follow wherever he leads — and our children will be good sailors, well equipped for the voyage." | Hughes, Barbara (2007-03-31). Disciplines of a Godly Family

God's Mercy in Messed Up Families

"The Bible’s main theme is God’s gracious plan to redeem needy sinners. It teaches us that what God wants most for us is that we 1) become aware of our sinfulness and 2) our powerlessness to save ourselves, as we 3) believe and love his Son and the gospel he preached, and 4) graciously love one another. And it turns out that the family is an ideal place for all of these to occur."

Read the entire article here: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/god-s-mercy-in-messed-up-families

No Plan B - On Discipleship.

Does Your Family Bring God Glory?

"The education of children for God is the most important business done on earth. It is the one business for which the earth exists. To it all politics, all war, all literature, all money making ought to be subordinated; and every parent especially ought to feel, every hour of the day, that next to making his own calling and election sure, this is the end for which he is kept alive by God — this is his task on earth." | Robert Dabney

How elevating it is to realize that your family is the divinely ordained and primary vehicle to bring glory to God.


Resource: Hughes, Barbara (2007-03-31). Disciplines of a Godly Family (Kindle Locations 190-193). Good News Publishers. Kindle Edition.

What Does God Exalt Above All Other Things?

"...you [God] have exalted above all things your name and your word."

Psalm 138. It's short, but the truth wrapped into this Psalm is wonderful. I think the entire Psalm is wonderful, but I've emphasized the parts which stuck out to me the most. I praise God for his word. His living, breathing and spiritually active word!!!

Q. If God exalts his name and his word above all things, then why is it so seldom that his people and churches do the same?


A. I think that generally speaking it's much easier (and more comfortable) for us to put value in some of the other attributes of God (i.e. his love, mercy, grace, forgiveness, faithfulness etc.) God's word says some hard and challenging things. Things that as individuals we will not always like. Things that for a church body will be challenging and difficult. Things that the culture in which we live, will be opposed to and will sometimes even hate. I think it's pretty easy, if we don't put value in God's word, to say, yes I know that such-and-such is a sin...but God is loving and his love covers a multitude of sins. While this statement is certainly true...a side-effect of this kind of thinking is that we tend to become complacent and apathetic to God's word, which this Psalm clearly tells us is one of the (2) things that God exalts above all other things. God cares about his glory. He cares about his reputation and how his name is glorified. Why? Is it because he's an egomaniac? No...it's because he knows the true condition of our hearts. If we are honest with ourselves, the reason that we typically run towards words like forgiveness, mercy, grace etc. is because we are sinners and those words bring us comfort. But God is Holy, He is Just and He is Righteous. Why do we find it so easy to disregard God's command for us to "Be Holy as [He] is Holy" (Lv. 20:26) when His Holiness is an equal part of God's character to his love, mercy, grace and forgiveness.

I believe we do a serious disservice to ourselves and others (both inside and outside the church) when we fail to acknowledge that the thing which God loves most is not us, but is instead his own glory. God alone is great and he alone deserves honor, glory and praise...and I believe that as Christians and as a church we need to start putting the same kind of significance, reverence and exaltation towards His word and His Name that he does.

Psalm 138 (ESV)

Give Thanks to the LORD:

I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.
On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased.
All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O LORD,
for they have heard the words of your mouth,
and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD,
for great is the glory of the LORD.
For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly,
but the haughty he knows from afar.
Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve my life;
you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
and your right hand delivers me.
The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.


For His Glory,

Jason

Biblical Interpretation and Why it Matters

I wanted to share some thoughts on biblical interpretation. How many of us have been involved in Bible studies where after a passage of scripture is read, the inevitable question is asked, what does that passage mean to you? While I commend the effort to study God's word, the Bible should not be approached this way. The Bible is not filled with subjective truths that can be finagled and twisted to mean whatever we desire for it to mean. Faithful interpretation of the scriptures doesn't ask the question, what does this passage mean to me...but instead asks the question...what does this passage mean and how can/should I apply this truth to my life.

We get into some serious trouble when we evaluate and interpret scripture based on our own feelings and/or our own inner-voice. We must be willing to admit that even our best efforts to interpret scripture based on our own thoughts and opinions are still subject to the simple fact that we are sinners. Pride, selfishness, sin, and many other things will always be working against us, trying to lead us to see things in scripture that simply are not there. To call good what God has called evil and to call evil what God has called good (Isaiah 5:20).

Because the timing of this subject is relevant, I'd like to use yesterday's passing, by the Minnesota State Senate, of the same-sex marriage law. Now, while I do commend the diligence and dedication of those who fought for their right to marry who they please, as a Bible-believing Christian I was not pleased with the results of yesterday's vote. I was saddened not only because as a state, society and culture this is where we find ourselves (morally speaking) but also because many of the arguments being leveraged yesterday by supporters of this bill were being passed off as biblical. We cannot fool ourselves. This battle, while it was painted as a human/civil rights discussion was clearly about the sinful desires of a secular world versus what God has called good (Genesis 1:31) and what he has called sin (Romans 1:26-27). While not all of you will agree with me on how serious yesterday's vote was for our society and our church...it was heartbreaking to hear how people in support of this bill continued to leverage twisted and out of context scripture as well as their Christian faith as the reasons why they must vote yes. 

And then, I thought about how the vote yesterday affects me as an individual and also how it will affect us as a church body. No doubt there are people within our body who affirm the work that was accomplished yesterday in the Senate and what will inevitably be passed by Governor Dayton in a matter of days. But what concerns me most in all of this is, how have these Christians moved towards this conviction, in light of what scripture clearly says about homosexuality? The only thing I can think of is that either these people don't understand how to rightly handle (interpret) scripture...or worse yet, they simply don't care. While there is very little that we can do about the second option, there is plenty that we can do about the former. We can ensure that we are rightly interpreting scripture..and we can also encourage others to do the same.

Why Does it matter?

The results of November's Marriage Amendment as well as the vote last Thursday (house) and yesterday's vote (senate) are a clear reminder that there is a battle going on for our minds. The church has clearly lost the influence it once had on the culture, but what is even more alarming is that it seems the church is also losing its influence on its own people. While God has given the world his infallible and inerrant scripture to be our guide...if we are not rightly handling (interpreting) the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15) then our efforts to be a faithful and obedient church will always fall short of glorifying God. Only when we are willing to submit our lives and our leadership to the absolute truth of God's Holy and revealed word, will we be able to faithfully reflect God's image and his gospel to a world and a people who desperately need to know and receive both.

When (we interpret Scripture by focusing) on our inner voice, we risk losing the original voice of Scripture, the historic anchor that has given the church its foundation and faith, and the uniqueness of a moment of historical revelation without parallel to anything we may experience. And evaluating our own experience risks confusing what is subjectively true for me with what is objectively true. Truth (does not) reside in my own temporal experience (but rather in the correct interpretation of the Scriptures.) | Gary Burge

For His Glory,

Jason

Our Feelings vs. God's Truth

“My feelings are not God. God is God. My feelings do not define truth. God’s word defines truth. My feelings are echoes and responses to what my mind perceives. And sometimes―many times―my feelings are out of sync with the truth. When that happens… I plead with God: Purify my perceptions of your truth and transform my feelings so that they are in sync with the truth.” | John Piper

God's Approval is Infinitely More Important Than the World's

"The church at Ephesus faced a culture characterized by immorality. We, too, live in a culture tolerant of [immorality]. It is popular to be open-minded to many types of sin, calling them personal choices or alternative lifestyles. But when the body of believers begins to tolerate sin in the church, it is lowering the church's standards and compromising its witness. Remember that God's approval is infinitely more important than the world's. Use God's Word, not what people around you are willing to accept, to set the standards for what is right or wrong." | Bruce Barton

The Essence of Male and Female Corruptness

"The essence of sin is self-reliance and self-exaltation. First in rebellion against God, and then in exploitation of each other."

So what is really described in the curse of Genesis 3:16 is the ugly conflict between the male and female that has marked so much of human history. Maleness as God created it has been [distorted] and corrupted by sin. Femaleness as God created it has been depraved and corrupted by sin. The essence of sin is self-reliance and self-exaltation. First in rebellion against God, and then in exploitation of each other.

So the essence of corrupted maleness is the self-aggrandizing effort to subdue and control and exploit women for its own private desires. And the essence of corrupted femaleness is the self-aggrandizing effort to subdue and control and exploit men for its own private desires. And the difference is found mainly in the different weaknesses that we can exploit in one another.


The Different Weaknesses Exploited in One Another

As a rule men have more brute strength than women and so they can rape and abuse and threaten and sit around and snap their finger. It's fashionable to say those sorts of things today. But it's just as true that women are sinners. We are in God's image, male and female; and we are depraved, male and female. Women may not have as much brute strength as men, but she knows ways to subdue him. She can very often run circles around him with her words and where her words fail, she knows the weakness of his lust.

If you have any doubts about the power of sinful woman to control sinful man, just reflect for a moment on the number one marketing force in the world—the female body. She can sell anything because she knows the universal weakness of man and how to control him with it. The exploitation of women by sinful men is conspicuous because it is often harsh and violent. But a moment's reflection will show you that the exploitation of men by sinful women is just as pervasive in our society. The difference is that our sinful society sanctions the one perversity and not the other.

(Note: There are societies that do just the opposite.)



John Piper - Manhood and Womanhood: Conflict and Confusion After the Fall