The gospel of Jesus Christ is very important. In fact, I would argue that it is the most important news in the universe. I think many Christians don't see the gospel for the beauty of what it is. People just think "Jesus died for me and I believe in Him so I'm covered." That simple explanation of the gospel doesn't bring it the justice it deserves. The word gospel is defined as "good news." And it's more than just good news, it's the best news! In the first chapter of Romans, verse 16, the apostle Paul writes: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile." That verse sets up the premise for the rest of the book. In the book of Romans, Paul essentially walks us through the gospel multiple times over.
First of all, God is the creator, and he created us to be with him. However, our sins separate us from God. "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Romans 1:20-21). In the beginning, when Adam and Eve were in the garden, they were constantly with God, literally, and it was beautiful. God created them perfectly and they lived a perfect life. That is, until they ate from the one tree God told them not to eat from. From then on, they were separated from God. They were ashamed of what they had done, and they hid. God banished them from the garden and from then on, their lives (and ours) were far from perfect. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). "There is none righteous, no not one" (Romans 3:10). Adam and Eve were sent out of the garden and the ultimate punishment was given for their sin: they were now going to die. "For the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
Sins cannot be removed by good deeds, or anything similar. We see this theme all throughout the Old Testament. People everywhere would try to do things to atone for their sins, but nothing could do it. Perfectness is God's standard. In order to be with God, we have to be perfect. Obviously, this is not an attainable goal. God gave the Ten Commandments to the Israelites to show them that they could not live up to his standards; they had to rely on faith in him. However, many of them thought they could do things on their own and tried to impress God with good deeds. But "our righteous acts are like filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6) and there is nothing we can do to get rid of our sins.
BUT
"God demonstrated his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). While we were still sinners! No matter what we do, what we have done, what we will do, He loves us! He loves us so much that he sent his only son down to die so that we might have life in Him. (John 3:16). Continuing Romans 6:23 from above: "For the wages of sin is death, BUT the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Paying the price for sin, Jesus died and rose again. He was the perfect sacrifice. In order to pay the price for sin (death), it had to be somebody perfect. This meant that Jesus was the only way it could happen. And the best part is, He defeated death! He rose from the grave on the third day! "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you" (Romans 8:11). We are no longer chained by sin, we belong to Him. "You also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God" (Romans 7:4). This verse is not saying that we don't have to follow the law anymore; It is saying that, from now on, we should not focus on what we shouldn't be doing, but what we should be doing, and that is bearing fruit for God. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law" (Galatians 5:22). (I won't go into more detail on this, it is a topic for another time, but one of my favorite Bible passages is John chapter 15, look it up.) Everyone who trusts in Him and Him alone has eternal life. "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). And this is the good news of the gospel. Someday we will live with Him in heaven and it will be perfect, just as it was meant to be. Going all the way back to the beginning, God created us to be with him and it will be so.
I will leave you with this one truth today: "Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:13). There are no special religious rituals, no crazy practices. No matter who you are or what you've done, all you must do is call His name and confess that He is Lord and you will be saved.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Sincerity
What is sincerity? What does it really mean to be sincere? The dictionary defines it as "the quality of being free from pretense, deceit, or hypocrisy." In other words, sincerity is essentially unbiasedness (if that's even a word). In the third part of the excerpt, Confucius talks greatly of sincerity. However, I believe his definition of sincerity is more than the simple dictionary definition. It is more than just a synonym for genuineness. It carries connotations of righteousness, wisdom and heaven.
In the first part of the text, Confucius mentions a sort of axis or center. "Happiness, rage, grief, delight. To be unmoved by these emotions is to stand in the axis, in the center; being moved by these passions each in due degree constitutes being in harmony" (Page 101). What I think he is saying is that we need to be in tune with our emotions, positive and negative, so that we can be in harmony with the world. He says that the axis is the harmony that heaven and earth are built around. The axis is very hard to work toward. "The master man finds the center and does not waver; the mean man runs counter to the circulation about the invariable."
Confucius doesn't seem to talk much about what this "master man" is until later, when he says "the sincere man finds the axis without forcing himself to do so" (Page 167-169). In this way, sincerity is like righteousness or perfectness. In my mind, it seems like Confucius is describing a Christian without knowing it. When a person has the Holy Spirit, they will find it much easier to love. As Confucius teaches about the sincere man, I believe that the sincere man is someone who loves others as themselves. And when you love God above everything else, it is even easier to love others. That's what a sincere man is. People will notice that person and like that person and trust that person. It's hard not to like someone who loves other people as much as themselves. Through their love, they will be a light to the rest of the world.
In addition to love, sincerity is about trust. A person who knows their identity in the Lord will be much easier to trust. They won't go back on their word, especially since they have love. When you love someone, and they trust you, you won't want to hurt their feelings by going against what you said. You will want to be truthful. When you have the love and the truth of God, people will tend to trust you. You can be a light through trust.
While their teachings don't fit perfectly with Christianity, I think it is kind of cool that so many ancient philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Confucius write about some very Christian ideas. To me, this is even further proof that God exists. Christianity technically didn't even exist at that point in time, so there is no way they could've gotten so many Christian ideas without the Lord guiding their thoughts. It is amazing how God can work through people.
In the first part of the text, Confucius mentions a sort of axis or center. "Happiness, rage, grief, delight. To be unmoved by these emotions is to stand in the axis, in the center; being moved by these passions each in due degree constitutes being in harmony" (Page 101). What I think he is saying is that we need to be in tune with our emotions, positive and negative, so that we can be in harmony with the world. He says that the axis is the harmony that heaven and earth are built around. The axis is very hard to work toward. "The master man finds the center and does not waver; the mean man runs counter to the circulation about the invariable."
Confucius doesn't seem to talk much about what this "master man" is until later, when he says "the sincere man finds the axis without forcing himself to do so" (Page 167-169). In this way, sincerity is like righteousness or perfectness. In my mind, it seems like Confucius is describing a Christian without knowing it. When a person has the Holy Spirit, they will find it much easier to love. As Confucius teaches about the sincere man, I believe that the sincere man is someone who loves others as themselves. And when you love God above everything else, it is even easier to love others. That's what a sincere man is. People will notice that person and like that person and trust that person. It's hard not to like someone who loves other people as much as themselves. Through their love, they will be a light to the rest of the world.
In addition to love, sincerity is about trust. A person who knows their identity in the Lord will be much easier to trust. They won't go back on their word, especially since they have love. When you love someone, and they trust you, you won't want to hurt their feelings by going against what you said. You will want to be truthful. When you have the love and the truth of God, people will tend to trust you. You can be a light through trust.
While their teachings don't fit perfectly with Christianity, I think it is kind of cool that so many ancient philosophers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Confucius write about some very Christian ideas. To me, this is even further proof that God exists. Christianity technically didn't even exist at that point in time, so there is no way they could've gotten so many Christian ideas without the Lord guiding their thoughts. It is amazing how God can work through people.
Monday, October 3, 2016
Joy and Happiness
What is happiness? According to the dictionary, it is the feeling of pleasure or contentment. Happiness is a main concept in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. However, because Aristotle originally wrote in Greek, happiness is not necessarily an exact translation. The word in the Greek language that Aristotle used was eudaimonia. The closest translation is happiness, but the Greek word also carries the meaning of success and fulfillment. "'To live well' or 'to do well' is the same as 'to be happy'" (Aristotle 5). In the Greek culture, that was mostly the case. Everybody wanted to be successful, own land, and have lots of money. Their lives were closely tied to the city-state in which they were living. There wasn't as much of a division between private life and public life, as there is in 21st century America. Because of this, happiness was more of a public affair rather than a private one. Eudaimonia was tied to how well other people saw you were living. In other words, happiness is a feeling based on circumstances.
Joy is much different. Joy is an attitude that defines circumstances. Many people equate happiness and joy in the wrong way. They think happiness leads to joy, or they say things like "happiness is temporary, joy is forever." However, those comparisons are not accurate. Joy leads to happiness in that being joyful can turn a bad situation into a good one and make you happy. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote about three unalienable rights: "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." I think Aristotle was writing about the pursuit of happiness as well. Not just happiness, but the active pursuit of it. He uses the Greek word energeia, or energy to describe happiness as an action rather than a state. In this way, Aristotle is kind of describing joy. Joy in the sense that you work for your happiness. This definition of joy is not quite accurate. Again, joy is an attitude. It doesn't take work to happy. If you are joyful about everything, you will be happy.
As you can tell, I very much disagree with a lot of Aristotle's writings. Probably the part I disagree with most is when he writes "Again, we conceive happiness to be the most desirable of all things... It appears then that happiness is something final and self-sufficient, being the end of all action" (Aristotle 14-15). In this he is saying that the goal for everything we do is for the final goal of happiness (pursuit of happiness). While this may be true enough for many people, I believe that our top goal should be to pursue a relationship with our Savior. When we do that, joy and happiness will be the result.
Joy is much different. Joy is an attitude that defines circumstances. Many people equate happiness and joy in the wrong way. They think happiness leads to joy, or they say things like "happiness is temporary, joy is forever." However, those comparisons are not accurate. Joy leads to happiness in that being joyful can turn a bad situation into a good one and make you happy. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote about three unalienable rights: "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." I think Aristotle was writing about the pursuit of happiness as well. Not just happiness, but the active pursuit of it. He uses the Greek word energeia, or energy to describe happiness as an action rather than a state. In this way, Aristotle is kind of describing joy. Joy in the sense that you work for your happiness. This definition of joy is not quite accurate. Again, joy is an attitude. It doesn't take work to happy. If you are joyful about everything, you will be happy.
As you can tell, I very much disagree with a lot of Aristotle's writings. Probably the part I disagree with most is when he writes "Again, we conceive happiness to be the most desirable of all things... It appears then that happiness is something final and self-sufficient, being the end of all action" (Aristotle 14-15). In this he is saying that the goal for everything we do is for the final goal of happiness (pursuit of happiness). While this may be true enough for many people, I believe that our top goal should be to pursue a relationship with our Savior. When we do that, joy and happiness will be the result.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Enlightenment
What is enlightenment? What does it mean to be enlightened? Merriam-Webster dictionary defines enlightenment as "the state of having knowledge or understanding." In Plato's allegory of the cave, he plays with the idea of enlightenment. Of course, the person being enlightened is the person going outside of the cave. This implies that Plato believes that to be enlightened a person must work for it themselves. It doesn't just happen on its own. The person on the outside of the cave must have realized at some point that the shadows on the wall aren't reality and there is more out there in the real world. From Plato's point of view, this "leaving the cave" or "enlightenment" represents pure knowledge. Knowledge like mathematics, sciences, arts, language, etc. Personally, I am convinced that true enlightenment comes not with plain knowledge, but from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.
Enlightenment is all about "knowing" rather than "learning." For this reason, I disagree with Plato about what enlightenment is. Enlightenment is not about the pursuit of information, it is about the obtainment of knowledge. Plato, in the rest of The Republic text, seems to believe that pursuing knowledge is a choice; however, the person being let out of the cave is using help to come into the light. They are drawn to it, they want to see what lies beyond it, but it is painful. In the same way, we are drawn into the knowledge of our Savior. We cant come to Him on our own; we need help from Him. He leads us to himself. Other believers help us in our journey to know the Lord. And once we finally know him, we want others to know what they are missing out on, just like the man who escaped from the cave. While I very much agree with Plato's allegory, I understand it in a different way, a way that I think makes a lot more sense.
From Plato's point of view, enlightenment is the training of the mind. However, just as the man in the cave needed to do, people must train their body in addition to the mind. In the Timaeus, Plato writes about the problems that come with training the mind without training the body, and vice versa. "From these conditions there is one way to preserve oneself, and that is not to exercise the soul without exercising the body, nor the body without the soul, so that each may be balanced by each other and be sound" (Plato 84). In the allegory of the cave, the man who escaped must have had to train both his body and his mind extensively to be able to live outside of the cave.
This idea also has spiritual implications. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” Wisdom is also mentioned in the bible many times, and it is portrayed as a very positive thing to have. Many people in the bible are working towards wisdom. So you must train your body and your soul. However, Plato is missing one key aspect of the human being: the spirit. The three parts that we all are made of are: body, soul, and spirit. It is obvious what the body represents. The soul represents the essence of who a person is, how they think. And the spirit represents a person's conscience, for lack of a better word. The spirit is where true enlightenment comes from. As Christians, our sinful spirit has been taken over by the Holy Spirit. While we still make bad decisions due to our sinful body and soul, the Holy Spirit helps us make better ones because we know and are aware of God. We want to please the one that loves us so much that he sent his only son to die so that we can have life.
The spirit is the most important part of the human being, over both body and soul. We must train our spirit in the Word. True enlightenment comes not from learning about the world, but from knowing the Lord. And once we know the Lord, It is much easier to pursue knowledge of the world. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). So to conclude, I will again say that I think Plato was right about the cave allegory, but wrong about enlightenment. Pursuit of knowledge can only get a person so far in life, but pursuit of the Lord gets one to an eternal life in literal heaven.
Enlightenment is all about "knowing" rather than "learning." For this reason, I disagree with Plato about what enlightenment is. Enlightenment is not about the pursuit of information, it is about the obtainment of knowledge. Plato, in the rest of The Republic text, seems to believe that pursuing knowledge is a choice; however, the person being let out of the cave is using help to come into the light. They are drawn to it, they want to see what lies beyond it, but it is painful. In the same way, we are drawn into the knowledge of our Savior. We cant come to Him on our own; we need help from Him. He leads us to himself. Other believers help us in our journey to know the Lord. And once we finally know him, we want others to know what they are missing out on, just like the man who escaped from the cave. While I very much agree with Plato's allegory, I understand it in a different way, a way that I think makes a lot more sense.
From Plato's point of view, enlightenment is the training of the mind. However, just as the man in the cave needed to do, people must train their body in addition to the mind. In the Timaeus, Plato writes about the problems that come with training the mind without training the body, and vice versa. "From these conditions there is one way to preserve oneself, and that is not to exercise the soul without exercising the body, nor the body without the soul, so that each may be balanced by each other and be sound" (Plato 84). In the allegory of the cave, the man who escaped must have had to train both his body and his mind extensively to be able to live outside of the cave.
This idea also has spiritual implications. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” Wisdom is also mentioned in the bible many times, and it is portrayed as a very positive thing to have. Many people in the bible are working towards wisdom. So you must train your body and your soul. However, Plato is missing one key aspect of the human being: the spirit. The three parts that we all are made of are: body, soul, and spirit. It is obvious what the body represents. The soul represents the essence of who a person is, how they think. And the spirit represents a person's conscience, for lack of a better word. The spirit is where true enlightenment comes from. As Christians, our sinful spirit has been taken over by the Holy Spirit. While we still make bad decisions due to our sinful body and soul, the Holy Spirit helps us make better ones because we know and are aware of God. We want to please the one that loves us so much that he sent his only son to die so that we can have life.
The spirit is the most important part of the human being, over both body and soul. We must train our spirit in the Word. True enlightenment comes not from learning about the world, but from knowing the Lord. And once we know the Lord, It is much easier to pursue knowledge of the world. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). So to conclude, I will again say that I think Plato was right about the cave allegory, but wrong about enlightenment. Pursuit of knowledge can only get a person so far in life, but pursuit of the Lord gets one to an eternal life in literal heaven.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Heroism
Everybody has a hero. Whether it be a parent, grandparent, teacher, coach, pro athlete, musician, actor, actress, or something else, everybody has a hero, or more than one. Growing up, one of my biggest heroes was my youth pastor, Nate. He was a very godly man and he guided me in my relationship with Christ. Your hero may be somebody similar, they may be somebody completely different, but to you, they're a hero. In Homer's The Iliad, there is an underlying theme of heroism, conveying feelings of the culture at that time.
During Homer's life, Greece was in a sort of dark age. The people looked up to the heroes of old, such as Achilles and Odysseus. Stories like The Iliad were told to give people hope. Achilles was a huge hero of the people. They looked up to him and wanted to be like him. In addition to having heroes, we want to be heroes. That is another part of what being human means. We all want our lives to mean something. That is a choice that Achilles faced in The Iliad. He had to choose whether he wanted to live long but not be remembered, or die and be known as a hero everywhere. Achilles, of course, chose heroism.
Without a doubt, the greatest hero of all time is Jesus. He dies so that we wight have life with him forever in heaven. His death was terrible. He was tortured and then hung on a cross to slowly perish. While extremely different, I couldn't help but notice multiple similarities between the story of Jesus and the story of Achilles, the main one being: Achilles loved his country, so he went in willingly, knowing he would die, just to help his people and avenge his friend Patroclus. Jesus loved us so much that he went in willingly, knowing he would die, to save us from eternal hell. Achilles love for Patroclus was great. When he learned Patroclus was dead: "A black cloud of grief came shrouding over Achilles. Both hands clawing the ground for soot and filth, he poured it over his head, fouled his handsome face... Achilles suddenly loosed a terrible, wrenching cry" (book 18, lines 25-27, 39). Jesus' love for us is even greater. The scene of Achilles screaming reminded me of a scene from Green, a novel from one of my favorite authors, Ted Dekker. Elyon, a personification of God, is looking down on the world from a vantage point high above. The people have turned against him and have into battle against each other. Elyon gives a display similar to Achilles (only with godly proportions) when he realizes many of his beloved people had turned to Teeleh (the devil) and were about to die. "The man [Elyon] lifted both arms and wept at the sky. His shoulders shook with his sobs and tears ran down his face, wetting his beard... And then Elyon screamed, full throated, at the sky. His hands knotted into fists and he trembled from head to foot with such wrath that Thomas [main character] could not stop his own body from quaking" (Dekker 327). Elsewhere, there is an earthquake. This scene shows the love that God has for us.
These sections from these two heroes' stories demonstrate that heroes are most definitely human. Achilles was human, and so was Jesus (although he was also fully God). Just because somebody is a hero doesn't mean they are above everybody else (exception: Jesus). We are all everyday heroes, performing works that people are inspired by, just like the Greek people were inspired by Achilles. We, as Christians, need to “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:5-6). We must be the heroes of the world because we have the greatest hero of all time, Jesus Christ, working in our lives. We will be a light unto the world while it is shrouded in darkness. I pray that we would all be heroes, just like Pastor Nate was to me many years ago. God bless.
During Homer's life, Greece was in a sort of dark age. The people looked up to the heroes of old, such as Achilles and Odysseus. Stories like The Iliad were told to give people hope. Achilles was a huge hero of the people. They looked up to him and wanted to be like him. In addition to having heroes, we want to be heroes. That is another part of what being human means. We all want our lives to mean something. That is a choice that Achilles faced in The Iliad. He had to choose whether he wanted to live long but not be remembered, or die and be known as a hero everywhere. Achilles, of course, chose heroism.
Without a doubt, the greatest hero of all time is Jesus. He dies so that we wight have life with him forever in heaven. His death was terrible. He was tortured and then hung on a cross to slowly perish. While extremely different, I couldn't help but notice multiple similarities between the story of Jesus and the story of Achilles, the main one being: Achilles loved his country, so he went in willingly, knowing he would die, just to help his people and avenge his friend Patroclus. Jesus loved us so much that he went in willingly, knowing he would die, to save us from eternal hell. Achilles love for Patroclus was great. When he learned Patroclus was dead: "A black cloud of grief came shrouding over Achilles. Both hands clawing the ground for soot and filth, he poured it over his head, fouled his handsome face... Achilles suddenly loosed a terrible, wrenching cry" (book 18, lines 25-27, 39). Jesus' love for us is even greater. The scene of Achilles screaming reminded me of a scene from Green, a novel from one of my favorite authors, Ted Dekker. Elyon, a personification of God, is looking down on the world from a vantage point high above. The people have turned against him and have into battle against each other. Elyon gives a display similar to Achilles (only with godly proportions) when he realizes many of his beloved people had turned to Teeleh (the devil) and were about to die. "The man [Elyon] lifted both arms and wept at the sky. His shoulders shook with his sobs and tears ran down his face, wetting his beard... And then Elyon screamed, full throated, at the sky. His hands knotted into fists and he trembled from head to foot with such wrath that Thomas [main character] could not stop his own body from quaking" (Dekker 327). Elsewhere, there is an earthquake. This scene shows the love that God has for us.
These sections from these two heroes' stories demonstrate that heroes are most definitely human. Achilles was human, and so was Jesus (although he was also fully God). Just because somebody is a hero doesn't mean they are above everybody else (exception: Jesus). We are all everyday heroes, performing works that people are inspired by, just like the Greek people were inspired by Achilles. We, as Christians, need to “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Colossians 4:5-6). We must be the heroes of the world because we have the greatest hero of all time, Jesus Christ, working in our lives. We will be a light unto the world while it is shrouded in darkness. I pray that we would all be heroes, just like Pastor Nate was to me many years ago. God bless.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Children of God
This week I will be exploring another aspect of what it means to be human. Last week I wrote about love and freedom of choice. Another part of the answer to the question "What does it mean to be human?" lies in the second book of the Bible: Exodus. In chapters 1-23, we are told the story of how God used Moses to lead the Israelites, God's people, out of slavery in Egypt. This passage shows the importance of following God's commands. As humans, we were created to be God's people, and He our King.
"This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son," (Exodus 4:22). Israel was chosen to be God's people because they followed Him, while everyone else followed false gods. God showed his dominance as the Lord, the one true God, through delivering His chosen people from the clutches of Egypt and slavery. He performed miraculous signs through Moses including, but not limited to, turning the Nile into blood, filling the land with gnats, flies, and locusts, and finally, killing the firstborn son of every Egyptian household. None of these plagues happened to the Israelites. Once the Lord established his sovereignty, Pharaoh eventually let the people go and they escaped into the desert. After a while, Pharaoh decided he'd made a mistake and rounded up his army to go chase after the Israelites and bring them back. They came to the Red Sea and Moses parted the sea with the help of the Lord so that the Israelites could walk across on dry ground. Then, as Pharaoh's army was crossing the sea, God let the waters fall back into place and the entire army was drowned.
While they were walking through the desert, the Hebrews needed food and water. They had many mouths to feed but no food. But they prayed to the Lord and He provided for them with manna and quail (Exodus 16). He also provided water that came from a rock (Exodus 17). The Lord provides for us because we are his people. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1). We are God's children. If we follow him, he will reward us. However, if we go against him, he punishes. Going further, in Exodus chapter 32, while Moses is up on the mountain, the Israelites create a golden calf and start worshipping it. When Moses came down the mountain, God punished the people by having them fight and kill one another and then sending them a plague.
As one can surely see, the Lord rewards those who follow him and punishes those who go against him. As humans we are His children. We are to follow our heavenly Father, and when we do, He will reward us. As you go about this week, I encourage you to act in a way that honors your Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died so that we might have life eternally with him.
"This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son," (Exodus 4:22). Israel was chosen to be God's people because they followed Him, while everyone else followed false gods. God showed his dominance as the Lord, the one true God, through delivering His chosen people from the clutches of Egypt and slavery. He performed miraculous signs through Moses including, but not limited to, turning the Nile into blood, filling the land with gnats, flies, and locusts, and finally, killing the firstborn son of every Egyptian household. None of these plagues happened to the Israelites. Once the Lord established his sovereignty, Pharaoh eventually let the people go and they escaped into the desert. After a while, Pharaoh decided he'd made a mistake and rounded up his army to go chase after the Israelites and bring them back. They came to the Red Sea and Moses parted the sea with the help of the Lord so that the Israelites could walk across on dry ground. Then, as Pharaoh's army was crossing the sea, God let the waters fall back into place and the entire army was drowned.
While they were walking through the desert, the Hebrews needed food and water. They had many mouths to feed but no food. But they prayed to the Lord and He provided for them with manna and quail (Exodus 16). He also provided water that came from a rock (Exodus 17). The Lord provides for us because we are his people. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" (1 John 3:1). We are God's children. If we follow him, he will reward us. However, if we go against him, he punishes. Going further, in Exodus chapter 32, while Moses is up on the mountain, the Israelites create a golden calf and start worshipping it. When Moses came down the mountain, God punished the people by having them fight and kill one another and then sending them a plague.
As one can surely see, the Lord rewards those who follow him and punishes those who go against him. As humans we are His children. We are to follow our heavenly Father, and when we do, He will reward us. As you go about this week, I encourage you to act in a way that honors your Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, who died so that we might have life eternally with him.
Monday, September 5, 2016
Love
What does it mean to be human? The answer to this question is not as simple as we might like it to be, or as some people make it out to be. To begin to answer this question, I will take you into the first chapter of the first book in the best selling book of all time: the Bible. Imagine that, after 6 days of work (creating the sun and moon, the plants and animals, the entire earth) God decides he needs something to have dominion over the entire earth. So he creates man. Genesis 1:27 says "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." We are created in the image of God. Now, you might ask, "Well, what does it mean to be created in the image of God?" One answer to that question is explained extensively in one of my favorite chapters in the Bible: 1 John 4. Multiple times in this chapter, John states that "God is love." One thing that humans have that no other living things do is the capacity to love. Love, I believe, is one part of what it means to be human.
What is love without freedom of choice? Without the ability to choose freely what we do and don't do, do we really have love? Imagine if God had not not created the forbidden fruit. He could've told Adam and Eve that they could eat from any tree in the garden whatsoever. They would never have sinned and we would all be living in the Garden and loving God unconditionally. Or would we? Would it really be love if we had no alternative? We'd be like robots, doing everything he told us without having the capability to choose otherwise? That's not love, that's slavery. We are given free choice because God wants us to love him.
In today's society, I believe that it is getting increasingly harder to love because we are not letting ourselves have free choice. People are letting the opinions of others smother their own free will, beyond mere influence. We need to learn to train our minds to resist the weakening of our freedom. According to John Dewey, author of "How We Think," "genuine freedom, in short, is intellectual; it rests in the trained power of thought." We must be able to "look at matters deliberately" and look at all the evidence, then decide for ourselves. How do we discipline our minds? The author of "The Liberal Arts: What and Why," Arthur Holmes, believes that an education, specifically a liberal arts education, "prepares a man for the wise exercise of the God-given freedom he can enjoy." We must use the intelligence God has given us to discipline our minds in the liberal arts and therefore retain our freedom of choice and our capacity to love.
While the two authors certainly weren't writing specifically about love, I couldn't help but notice the underlying theme of free will and think about our love for God and his love for us. We remain independent in our thoughts. We must remain loving toward God and others. And most of all, we must remain in the Word of God. "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). If we abide in Him and His Word, all these things will come easy.
We need to love. I cannot emphasize this point more. We were created to love, so that is what we should be doing. When we are demonstrating the love of God, others will notice it and wonder what is so special about us. We will be his light unto the world. And remember: "remain in me [Jesus], as I also remain in you" (John 15:4).
What is love without freedom of choice? Without the ability to choose freely what we do and don't do, do we really have love? Imagine if God had not not created the forbidden fruit. He could've told Adam and Eve that they could eat from any tree in the garden whatsoever. They would never have sinned and we would all be living in the Garden and loving God unconditionally. Or would we? Would it really be love if we had no alternative? We'd be like robots, doing everything he told us without having the capability to choose otherwise? That's not love, that's slavery. We are given free choice because God wants us to love him.
In today's society, I believe that it is getting increasingly harder to love because we are not letting ourselves have free choice. People are letting the opinions of others smother their own free will, beyond mere influence. We need to learn to train our minds to resist the weakening of our freedom. According to John Dewey, author of "How We Think," "genuine freedom, in short, is intellectual; it rests in the trained power of thought." We must be able to "look at matters deliberately" and look at all the evidence, then decide for ourselves. How do we discipline our minds? The author of "The Liberal Arts: What and Why," Arthur Holmes, believes that an education, specifically a liberal arts education, "prepares a man for the wise exercise of the God-given freedom he can enjoy." We must use the intelligence God has given us to discipline our minds in the liberal arts and therefore retain our freedom of choice and our capacity to love.
While the two authors certainly weren't writing specifically about love, I couldn't help but notice the underlying theme of free will and think about our love for God and his love for us. We remain independent in our thoughts. We must remain loving toward God and others. And most of all, we must remain in the Word of God. "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness" (2 Timothy 3:16). If we abide in Him and His Word, all these things will come easy.
We need to love. I cannot emphasize this point more. We were created to love, so that is what we should be doing. When we are demonstrating the love of God, others will notice it and wonder what is so special about us. We will be his light unto the world. And remember: "remain in me [Jesus], as I also remain in you" (John 15:4).
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