3rd day of Christmas

Hopefully for the next 12 days, I will blog about Christmas looking at the good gifts that God gives spiritual and physical. This idea comes as I think about church tradition and the lack of celebratory element that this time deserves. Now, I know that Jesus was not born on Christmas but it is a good time to think about the impact this event has on the world. It is the one of the few days that has complete impact the world.

This third days is based off what I meditated on this morning. It is about the speech and knowledge that God has given to me. Now I am not as wise as Solomon was but I know more that I did a year ago. One thing about knowledge is that sinful humans use it to justify themselves as better. Yet, my missions professor showed us that knowledge without worship is prideful sin against the One that gives the knowledge. Knowledge should drive a better worship of God because we get to know him better, whether from the Scriptures or watching the world around as it displays His glory and majesty. 

2nd Day of Christmas

Hopefully for the next 12 days, I will blog about Christmas looking at the good gifts that God gives spiritual and physical. This idea comes as I think about church tradition and the lack of celebratory element that this time deserves. Now, I know that Jesus was not born on Christmas but it is a good time to think about the impact this event has on the world. It is the one of the few days that has complete impact the world.

On this second day, a great gift given is my wife. I praise God that I received a wife that loves Him and desires to serve Him. There has been many times my wife has saw my sin and pointed it out. She has helped shape who I am now in now a short 3 years that we have known each other. As our vows say, I don't need her, I need Christ. God has provide a wonderful wife and I cannot think of a better person to be paired up with for ministry.

First Day of Christmas!

Hopefully for the next 12 days, I will blog about Christmas looking at the good gifts that God gives spiritual and physical. This idea comes as I think about church tradition and the lack of celebratory element that this time deserves. Now, I know that Jesus was not born on Christmas but it is a good time to think about the impact this event has on the world. It is the one of the few days that has complete impact the world.
First is God coming to earth in the form of a man. He entered the human body and lives among sinful people experiencing what sinful people experience. He went through the pains of losing people and the joy of marriage. He say true wickedness when He was sentence to die without committing a crime and yet showed true love by showing compassion to needy people.
As we celebrate the His birth, it looks forward to His second coming when He sets the captives free from all sin. He brings them into the new heavens and earth and they receive the upmost joy, peace, love, and hope that can only come through the Godhead when we dwell with Him forever.

Broken Down in Nashville

I have noticed people broken down on the side of the road. There are lots of emotions that people will feel while they figure out what they are going to do. It is even worst if you are no where near home. I have to say that we did not break down on the side of the road but in an airport parking lot trying to get a rental car because we wanted to assurance that my wife and the dog would be able to get home safely. So at least we made it a place to park the car. Here is the story of a faithful God in a bad situation.

My wife and I were on our way home from Florida this past June. We stopped for the night at her grandparent's home in Kingston, TN. We were ready for church early so we left to go to McDonald's for breakfast and we noticed a sound. After talking to her dad and grandfather, we concluded it could be a bearing. Since the bearing just started we concluded that we might be able to make it back to Louisville to get it fixed. Hindsight will prove that this was a wrong decision. So as we drove, the sound was getting worst. About 30 miles from the airport, the sound stopped. I was hoping that it started to roll without any problems. As we were trying to get into the Nashville Airport, the car started to catch. The bearing seized.

That night after my wife left for home, I stayed the night with the car. It was uneventful. That next morning, I was able to find a Christian mechanic and the tow truck driver was also a Christian. It was great working with these people. The mechanic got the car fixed after trying to get an entire housing and it working. I was able to drive to Louisville thanking God for the people that I meet.

What brought great comfort during this was knowing that God is sovereign throughout the whole matter. I received encouragement talking to the driver and mechanic. Everything was perfect for us to pay and not have a big set back in our finances. God showed us great strength in the middle of situation. Having a God in complete control knowing the future and orchestrating events is what brings comfort to any situation similar to this. The god of Open-Theism cannot be helpful because is only reacting to the situation. The God of the Bible knows the future and ordains all things so we could Him the glory when bad situations happen and He teaches us to trust Him more even when everything seems to be going wrong. That is where "Theology meets Life." 

God's Love for People.

I have been reading The Joy of  Calvinism by Greg  Forster. In Chapter 2, he talks about the love of God as sacrificial, like the love that humans have towards each other. Now he defines love as how one behaves towards something. He mentions that this not a new idea of love instead we like it when people do or don't do things for us. He connects this with God's love for humans. Not in a general sense but in a particular sense. God love humans to save them. He says "(w)e all know that the test of my love for God is whether I'm willing to sacrifice other things I love for God's sake. But the test of God's love for me is exactly the same" 74. This is most evident when we consider the cross, as Forster notes. Jesus willing went to the cross (Jn 18:11, Matt 26:53-54) as God have gave His only son for our salvation (Jn 3:16). Jesus did think that He status as God was something to be used for His advantage but gave it up to become a slave and rescue his people (Phil 2:6-7).

This element of God's love to those whom He saved is really magnificent. God loved us  so much that we are His top priority to save us. This comes out in the promise that God works together all thing for good for the people who love Him. That God calls us to love Him in the same way that He has loved us. This is not so feeling based emotion. That is not true love, true love makes sacrifices for those they love.

This plays into how we treat God in our daily life. We show our love to God by obeying His commands because we sacrifice our own desires (Jn 14:15 c.f Matt. 16:24-25). This love is best seen within our hearts are we joyfully obey without any rebellion in our heart. Augustine makes this distinction in his treatise, The Spirit and the Letter (note that this is the title page, click next to continue to the text). God gave Jesus for our salvation and Jesus willing gave His live. We are called to do the same. Our love for God is not feeling based but is a reflection of our obedience to Him. The amazement of God's love for us should break our wills and force us to repent of our sins, our lack of obedience. We obey because of the the great love that God showed toward us in saving us through Christ. 

Ask for Wisdom

This is not normal for me to post about my morning devotional time but I needed someplace to collect thoughts. James 1:5 says "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him." What caught my eye was "without reproach." In the original language it is a participle connected to God. NASB adds an "and" which is in the original. So the thought is connected to God who is a generous giver. The word reproach means to exploit a fault to belittle a person or it could mean to find a fault because the person did something wrong. The text warrants the first definition. One reason the exploiting a fault works best is because verse 5 is connected to verses 2-4 which talk about trials in life. The people are suffering therefore it makes the most sense to understand reproach as the first definition. This means that God is not using the trial to punish a person for not having wisdom. Notice it that God "gives generously to all without reproach." God does not belittle us when we lack wisdom but gives it joyfully. He does not require us to pay for the wisdom that we receive. So next time when you are in the middle of a trial, pray for wisdom and remember that God will not humiliate you because you lack it. 

Meditation from Habakkuk 2:3

      For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
      it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
                  If it seems slow, wait for it;
      it will surely come; it will not delay.

Reread the verse understanding that it is talking about judgment. There verse is a scary verse to read. God's plan for judgment will come and it will accomplish. Starting in verse 6, 4 "Woe to him" against the army that God is building up for judgment of Israel.

Though this is for a particular people, it still speaks today. God has promised a final judgment of the wicked and of the saints. His judgment will not terry. Like a thief in the night, so will God come in judgment. That is why Paul tells his readers that today is the day of salvation. These verse should also drive us to start witnessing our faith. We do not know the day that Christ will return. We cannot share the gospel with people in hell so the time is now. Even when the apostles were focus on Christ's kingdom, he told them to be His witness throughout the land. That is the same call today. Will you go?

Meditation from John 2:19-28

19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. 

Here in verse 19, John moves to the testimony of John (the Baptist) as he connects it with 1:6. This is the first witness that John (the Baptist) would have towards Christ. D.A. Carson notes that the fact John did not deny shows a positive look towards Jesus as the Christ. The rest of the story unfolds as the priests and Levites question on who John is and why he is baptizing? John is showing us that John (the Baptist) is doing testifying towards Christ. He does not deny that the Christ is coming but that he is preparing them before he comes. Here is what we are called to do also. Christ will return and we should shout "[m]ake straight the way of the Lord" as John did. When Christ came after  John, he did not come to kill but bring peace. When Jesus returns, we will destroy the ungodly. The time is now to act. God will come like a thief in the night and we must be prepared for His coming. Like John, our testimony points to the one that is greater than us.

SO, what are you doing to spread the danger to come? Everyone that is without Christ will perish in hell. Yet God stands ready to save those that come to him in faith and repentance. So Christian, if you have failed to obey God now, (like I have) seek forgiveness and go out preach the gospel to a lost and dying world.

1 John 4:7-10

Beloved, we might love, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been begotten from God and is knows God. ⁸ Everyone who does not love is not known by God because God is love.⁹ In this the love of God is manifested in our case, because God sent His only son into the world in order that we might come to live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he has loved us and sent His son as a propitiation for our sins. (My translation)

John continues to drive home that love and the Christian's life are together as one. Verse 7 gives the substance of our own love. Those that are in Christ love because God loved them. His is the one that gives us love. Also notice that love characterizes the one that is "begotten" and "knows" God. This relates to John 14, where Jesus mentions that love for him is equal to obeying Him. The action of loving others identifies one as a Christian. Private devotion does not shows one to be a Christian. This is not to neglect these things because that is what God uses to help Christians grow in love. The negation in verse 8 just repeats what is said in verse 7.
Lets not move to quickly past this. The way we act towards others show much. In Lane and Tripp's book, "How People Change," they explain that how people react in situations reveal their hearts. Other people and situations do not case a person to act in certain ways. As Christians, when we act in a not loving way it reflects bad on the goodness and love of God. Now, this is not a excuse for those that do not believe. A life that is characterize as not loving shows that they are not really from God. This is noticed in the difference in verse 7 and 8. The verb "knows" and "known" are the same verb is different tenses. For the sake of simplicity, the first is present and the second is past tense. This difference in the tenses show a great deal. It is the difference is one knowing God and the other never knowing God.
Finally verses 9  and 10 starts with a common phrase in 1 John, "in this." John uses this phrase to connect different arguments. It is used 14 times in 1 John and it means from this past information this next set of information is also true. So here,  John is saying that we know this love of God because of He sent His son on earth. This was done so that Christians can have life. Verse 10 then gives us an explanation of this, using "in this." God's love is demonstrated in the sacrifice of Jesus as a "propitiation for our sins."
What does this mean for our life? We love as a continuation of His love to us. Our love reflects the love of Christ. This love is based on the new life that we have in Christ. Christ who acted loving all the time, is our example of what love looks like. It is not a self-seeking love but a love of others. Christian life is not about me but about Christ. As we learn more about God, it should cause us to love others more than self. It is seeing Christ as the one that bore our sin and then living accordingly to others. Love is not seeking revenge for sins committed against us but forgiving others. Love seeks to bring life and forgiveness restores the broken life we have with others. 

1 John 3:1

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Our circumstances don't cause us to act as we do. They only expose or true condition of our hearts, revealed in our words and actions." Lane/ Tripp's book How People Change.

Mediation for the day.

In my Greek class, we are working through 1 John. I started reading it more throughly from the Greek. I was in 1 John 3:14. The ESV reads, "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death."

The last part the verse struck me. I translated the Greek, "He who loves not remains in death."He remains there because he has not crossed over, or as the ESV reads pass over, from death. The one who does not love is still in their sins. Verse 15 confines the thought with "everyone who hates their brother is a murder." This connects hate with Cain. Those that hate are like Cain. This is a powerful statement and one that we should not pass by to quickly. As Christians, the way we treat other Christians show our devotion to God.
In what ways to we hate each other? This could be as simple was trying to be better then a fellow members. It could be seen as easily as not helping when someone is in need. Remember of you have hated, Jesus stands to forgive you (1 John 2:2).