A word of peace

Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

Why is the Word of God so important to me? Why, each morning, do I read and meditate on it? Why did I read it every morning when I was so sick I could not comprehend nor retain it? (And I am not alone. When Francis Schaeffer lay dying of cancer, they only possession he asked for was his Bible.)

Because in this world only the Word of God working through the agency of Holy Spirit gives me peace. Apart from the Word of God, I would go mad. If the Word had not told me and showed me that all men, despite what they have done (e.g., Jacob, David and Paul), can be redeemed by Christ, I would have no peace.

Matthew 4, the temptation of Christ, tells us that people try to find peace in the wrong places — they try to find peace in the world and not in God. They try to find peace in work, in drugs, in sex, and in diversions. They try to find peace on their own terms, in everything but God.

Jesus was hungry — he had fasted for forty days and forty nights — and Satan tried to satisfy that hunger. At some level, we are all hungry — we all want a better paying job, a bigger house, a fancier car. A wise theologian from NJ, Bruce Springsteen, once wrote, “Everybody’s got a hungry heart.” The problem is that when we chase those things apart from God, we are never satisfied; we are never truly at peace.

Right now I am currently underpaid, but not overworked. In fact, I like my job, I like my colleagues, I like where I live, but if I moved to a different part of the country, I would double my salary. Years ago, I would have left in a heartbeat, but today I am content in God and content with what he has provided.

The constancy of the Word of God also gives me peace. We live in a world where men marry men, women marry women, children determine their own sex independent of biology, illegitimacy is commonplace, mass shootings are routine, recreational marijuana is ubiquitous, etc. If you think that strange; if you think that perverse; then the Word of God is an anchor of enduring truth in a cacophony of absurdities. “Yea, let God be true and every man a liar” (Romans 3:4). In the end it does not matter what the world thinks or how the world behaves; all that matters is what God thinks and what he has said.

But I would not have you to be ignorant

1 Thessalonians 4:13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

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There is a great difference between the believer’s and the unbeliever’s funeral. The unbeliever’s is one destitute of hope — there is no hope in the resurrection, no hope in the life to come. There is only sorrow and despair and misery and wailing and lamentation.

On the other hand, the word hope in the New Testament is almost always connected to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. For just as God raised Christ from the dead (which is the foundation of Christianity) so too will he raise the believer. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

There was once a time when running a sub-4-minute mile was thought impossible, but after Roger Bannister accomplished the feat in 1954, it has been done several thousand more times. The same can be said of the resurrection of Jesus Christ — God broke of shackles of death by raising Jesus from the dead, and he will do the same for every believer. And that is why the believer’s funeral is filled with hope and joy, not sorrow and despair.

Peace, safety, darkness, and destruction

1 Thessalonians 5:3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

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I remember watching an interview with the economic historian Naill Ferguson where he said that financial crises typically come without warning, like a thief in the night. After the fact, when a financial postmortem is done, the economists declare that the signs were there all along — we should have seen it coming, but invariably they never do. The same can be said of the return of Jesus Christ. The signs will be there, but people will never see it coming, and so the Christian’s job is to remain in the light, not the darkness, until that day.

Not chargeable to anyone

1 Thessalonians 2:9 For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.

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Over the years American attitudes toward work and welfare have dramatically changed. One of my parishioners, who grew up during the Depression, lost her father at the age of ten. The original Aid to Families with Dependent Children (ADFC) was designed to help such people — widows and orphans –, but her mother, like Paul, was too Christian and too proud to be chargeable (literally, burdensome) to anyone so she refused the dole. Contrast that with current attitudes concerning welfare and disability payments and you see how far we have fallen from our Christian roots.

Some people really need assistance (they are “widows indeed”) and should receive it, whether it be from the Government, the Church, or both. But Paul was a bi-vocational minister, not living off the labor and toil of others, but working with his own hands night and day as a tentmaker to support himself and not be a burden to others. Our nation has long since rejected this Christian ethic, but believers, who are called to be different and separate from the world, should not.

Vain deceits

Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

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I had dinner with a man who described the son of a friend who attends a university and now identifies as a woman who is also sexually attracted to women. Think about that for a moment — a man (who thinks he’s a woman) yet is sexually attracted to women. At some level, this is absurd — it is a vain deceit. Do not be spoiled (i.e., made captive) by today’s worldly wisdom — by modern psychology, anthropology, gender studies, LGBTQ studies, and the rest of the moral cacophony that is being taught as science at today’s western university. Rather be “rooted and built up” in Christ, and the absurdities and confusion of this age will be manifest, and your sanity will be secure.

Intruding into those things which he hath not seen

Colossians 2:18 Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

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I find it amusing and annoying when people who have never read the New Testament, never mind the entire Bible, have so much advice for Christians and the Church. They have much advice on how Christians should live and think, and how the Church should view salvation, marriage, divorce, abortion, female ordination, and any other issue in which the Church is at variance with the world. And all this advice is based on ignorance, not knowledge and spiritual discernment. Intruding into those things which he hath not seen.

Yet the Lord’s command is to let no man beguile you of your reward. That is, do not let these ignoramuses steal your crown of righteousness and your joy in Christ. Do not let them defraud you of your faith in the supernatural and personal God who cares for your soul.

The Gospel of the New England Patriots

Passage: Romans 1:8-17 — Thanksgiving and Prayers

Key thought: Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

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I grew up in Massachusetts and have been a fan of the New England Patriots all my life. Before Belichik and Brady, they were not a very good team, but they were always my team. That said, when they were down twenty-five points to the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI, I turned off the TV and went to bed. No team comes back from twenty-five points in the Super Bowl. It just wasn’t possible. Well, when my wife came to bed at around one o’clock, she woke me and said that the Patriots had won in overtime. I was in disbelief — this never happens and it was too good to be true.

That is essentially what the word gospel in the New Testament denotes — it denotes something that is too good to be true yet is. In the Greek, the word gospel (eu-angelon) literally means good-message. The good message of the New Testament is that there is life after death — just as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, so too will the believer in Jesus Christ be raised from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20-23). This is the essence of the gospel. But in a broader sense, it often means all the good things that Jesus Christ brought to humanity, of which the resurrection from the dead is foremost.

Prayer: Lord, never let me lose site of the true meaning of the gospel — the good-message of Jesus Christ.

Thanksgiving in the Church

Passage: Romans 1:8-17 — Thanksgiving and Prayers

Key thought: Romans 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.

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The other day we had friends from Florida visit us in Maine. They had never been to New England so we feted them with lobster, steamers, proper donuts, and fiddleheads (a noxious fern the people of northern Maine prepare and eat like Brussels sprouts). In short, we had a wonderful time of fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

It made me think that sometimes we take for granted the people in our lives, especially the people of the Church. Sometimes we grumble and complain about the shortcomings of others, especially those closest to us. Paul’s letter to Rome is a good reminder to be thankful for the brothers and sisters we have in Christ. These are the people God has ordained to be in our lives, and God often talks to us through them and their ministries. Our Christian lives would be empty, hollow, and lonely without them.

Prayer: Lord, never let me take my brothers and sisters in Christ for granted. Let met treat them like the blessing that they are.

Respectable offscouring

Passage: 1 Corinthians 4:1-21 — Apostles for Christ

Key thought: 1 Corinthians 4:13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

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When I was teenager, I worked at McDonalds and one of my tasks was to clean the quarter grill. At the time, I was lazy, not a great worker, and cleaning the quarter grill was back-breaking labor. I had to scrape and rub all the grizzle, all the filth, off that grill to the point where the it appeared new. I hated this task so much, I quit because scraping the offscouring was just too difficult.

We could say something similar about today’s Church and today’s believer. We are no longer the filth and offscouring of the world — we are comfortable and respectable because being faithful to Jesus Christ (v. 2) has proven too difficult.

In some circles, we may be treated like the filth and offscouring, but for the most part, believers in the Modern Church are respectable, and they go out of their way to create a church that is respectable. We want to be loved by the world, and for the most part we are. The Christian passing out pamphlets or holding a road sign has become an embarrassment to us. They are not respectable.

And now the Modern Church is virtually indistinguishable from the world. The people in the Church behave the same way, and in many cases, the people of the Church believe the same things (we have embraced evolution, promiscuity, divorce, perversion, feminism, and all the rest of moral modernity). That is why the testimony of the Church is so ineffective — we are not any different than our neighbors. (And I stress different, not better. We are called to be different, not better.)

I became a believing Christian because my childhood friends, almost all of whom were Catholic, went to church regularly, went to CCD, were confirmed, etc., but were no different than me. I didn’t want what they had because I already had it. We had the same morals, same ethics, the same view of the world, the same belief in God, which was not a belief in the biblical God, despite all the confirmations and Sunday schools. That Church was never going to provide the answers I was looking for.

This is where the Modern Evangelical Church finds itself. We have diluted the Gospel enough to make it palatable to the masses, but now the believer is no longer discernible from the unbeliever. Both are ignorant of the God the Bible. Modern Pastors are more like CEOs trying to grow their business (which is the diluted Gospel) rather than shepherds and theologians proclaiming hard biblical truth and preparing people for the inevitable trials and vicissitudes of this life. (Last Sunday, my niece was baptized in a lake — she is still a practicing lesbian. In today’s Church, repentance is not a popular doctrine.) Unbelievers are no longer “lost,” they are “unchurched.” Man no longer needs a Savior, just a good church. We are in the process of renaming Baptist churches to community churches because the world finds the Baptist brand objectionable. (They also found John the Baptist objectionable — that is why they beheaded him. They also found Christ objectionable; that’s why they crucified him.) The Modern Church is tepid, lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, and the Lord has spued us out of his mouth.

And we are this way because we want to be respectable, we want to be loved and accepted by the world, just as the politician wants to be loved and accepted by his constituents. We do not consider ourselves as filth and offscouring, we do not consider ourselves to be spectacles (v. 9), and we do no consider ourselves dead to the world. And this should be a warning and a sign. We are on the wrong path and moving down the wrong road and that is why the Church has zero influence today. The Lord is judging us and he will continue to judge us. The Church is no longer the offscouring, and as a result it has lost its witness.

Prayer: Lord, give me the strength and courage not be lukewarm, to choose to be faithful even though this will make me a spectacle and the offscouring of the world.

Baptized by fire

Passage: Matthew 3:1-12 — John the Baptist prepares the way

Key Verse: Matthew 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: 12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

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I ran today. That is no great accomplishment, for I have been running for twenty five-years now. What distinguishes today from other days was the rain, cold, wind, and rawness of the day. I hate to run in cold rain and most of the time this is never an issue. Nine months out of the year I live in Florida and cold, raw, rainy days are a rarity. However, we have just started our summer vacation in Maine, and I have been indulgent with my diet, so when I got up this morning, even though I did not want to run, I knew that I would feel better and assuage my guilt if I did. We innately know that doing difficult things like running eight miles in the cold rain will make us stronger and better, but it is unnatural to embrace the discomfort and pain.

There is a disagreement among scholars as to what baptism by fire means. Some take it to mean being baptized with the fires of hell because of the following verse (v. 12), while others take it to mean that the Christian’s faith will be tested and refined through trials and afflictions, just as gold and silver are purified by fire (Malachi 3:1-3). I take it to mean the latter — a testing of one’s Christian faith.

Forcing myself to run in the cold rain is one thing, but the real test of my faith has been my debilitating IBS. Before I got sick, I was the VP of engineering for a small software company, earning a handsome salary, enjoying my work, and raising four kids — my version of the American dream. But all that changed with IBS. I had chronic fatigue (I could no longer get through the day without a nap; I had to force myself to stay awake until 8 PM), brain fog (I could no longer think, concentrate, recall simple things, write software, write English; once, at a gas station, I could not remember my zip code to verify my credit card), constipation, and host of other inexplicable ailments, for which the doctors could find no cause. (I was told that I was depressed or under too much stress… this is always the medical answer for maladies they cannot explain.) At one point, I lost 40 lb in two months because I was unable to eat solid food. My intestine ached, and I spent all day flat on my back on a hard floor watching TV. That’s all I could do.

It is easy to be a Christian when everything is going well. You feel blessed by God. That is certainly they way I felt until I reached thirty-five. The real challenge is remaining faithful while the life you knew is falling apart. But the illness has a purpose. In my case, it made me a better husband and father, and better human being. I am more involved in family life than I was when I was the VP of engineering securing the Internet. That said, it is not perfect. There are trade-offs. Although I spend more time with my wife and kids, I’m not all there. The brain fog keeps me distant, and I can barely remember the events of yesterday. (For five years, my brain was so addled, I could not recall a single dream. I’m not sure I had any.)

The point with all this is that every Christian, sooner or later, will be baptized with fire, and how you respond determines whether or not you are in Christ. The purpose of the testing is to make us grow. In our flesh, we don’t want to grow, just as I did not want to run in the cold rain. But in the end, running in the rain makes me physically better and stronger, just as being baptized by fire makes me spiritually better and stronger. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. (2 Corinthians 9:10-11)

Prayer: Lord, help me to overcome, and help me to endure to the end.