The Word

One of my favorite modern day preachers, and one whose teachings I love is John Piper. He is also known as a renown theologian but the point of this entry isnt necessarily about reformed theology. And like all extreme sides and view points of Christianity and denominations, I'm cautious in study of extreme teachings of any theological viewpoint... That said, the articulation of Gods Word the way John Piper interprets it and the passions that he conveys resounds with me and convicts me in a way that I know God is using it to change me, to teach me and sanctify me. Specifically, John Piper's sermon at One Day 2000 helped changed my life in a way that it probably set a new tragectory of my passions and perceptions of God.

The Word of God IS living and breathing and though its hard to conceptualize in our mind of shortcuts and built in perceptions... the Word itself is power. If breathed into the born again heart, the reformed heart... it WILL cut and penetrate to the deepest part of our hearts and souls. For those that have experienced this change know then the value of Gods Word... it is a lifeline, it is a treasure which we hold dear to.

The way we perceive things in our sinful state without the wisdom and discernment of the Holy Spirit is vastly different from person to person. It can be based on our life experiences, our culture, our personality, our tendancies... our emotional states at the present time. It is constantly evolving... yet the Word of God in its essence resounds in the hearts and souls of a person universally all the same when accepted unguarded through the Holy Spirit. Because it is a message that is able to bear the weight of our deepest and most foundational question which exists in every breathing person. Every other answer, every other conclusion cannot bear that weight.

However, as vessels, sometimes fallen man mistreats and uses Gods Words to the detriment of others. And just as perfection can be tainted with even the slightest blimp of filth, the Word of God can be misused in a powerful way by selfish intentions and misuse of our free will. Churches are sometimes split, people disillusioned and sometimes nations of war waged and Gods Word is unfairly put front and center to be accountable for what are the actions of sinful man. However, the gospel of Jesus Christ to the born again Christian is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and will be through the rest of mankinds existence... it will never change, no matter the intention and interpretations of man.

As such as long as the main point is the main point, I've made it a point in my life not to argue about the dogmatic differences and the many delivery styles of Christ's body. There is a difference in standing up for what Christs asks us to stand up for, whatever the costs, and causing division in the body of Christ or even the harvest field in the name of a me-centered mission masked in Christian themes. There is a difference between studying theological points of contentions in attempts to strengthen our faiths and drive deeper our convictions to live for him and using them to create whole protests of hatred... to become pharisees of the law so to speak. It is a misnomer to think that Gods Word will not be served and proved effective if not used under the exact pretenses, dogmas, and interpretations that one believes is correct... especially when it comes at a detriment to actually putting to PRACTICE Gods Word. This is not to buy into some theory of relativity or to show no concern for those who may be being lead astray, but as mentioned before, the Word itself cannot be changed and when delivered through the Holy Spirit, WILL yield the end result, that which is a changed and joyous heart, and even more importantly a Glorified God. The difference in denominations and styles speak more to me about the fickleness of man than any suggested frailness of the gospel.

I recognize that there are many preaching heresy in these times, many false prophets as the bible warns of, many reasons to guard our hearts and lean on the wisdom and discernment of the Holy Spirit... at the end times, many will hear, "depart from me for I never knew You"... but those who hold close the Word of God will be transformed in His like image to stand firm in the end.

Beautiful Surrender

One of the hardest things to do for a Christian in America is to continually live a life of surrender to the Lord. No matter how much we are indoctrinated with the idea that "surrender" is the right thing to do, or the "Christian" thing to do, it is a hard task that requires the deepest yielding of ones own will. It goes against everything we feel we are required to do in life to succeed and survive... more so to thrive and attain the goal of the American Dream. Even at a young age, we are taught to be better than our fellow little leaguers, our fellow classmates.. to be stronger, faster, smarter, and more successful. By nature, mankind is a society that desires to construct their own tower of babel, to see just how high our respective pinnacles can be. While it is the reason for great human feats and accomplishments, it is also the evidence that mankind as a whole is driven by our pride and desire for attainment. That is how we are wired, ironically in the image of God, to seek the greater... a deep subconcious realization that there is "more" out there... What we can attain in this life is just not enough.

While we can tout the accomplishments of mankind and marvel at its great progression throughout history, I believe it also serves to give clues as to why at an individual level, we have such a hard time surrendering to a Great and worthy God. It is a constant battle of our sin nature, our natural inclination, encouraged by the structres of society and the pyramids it has built. Surrender itself has such a negative connotation. Surrender feels as if we are giving up... sacrificing what we've worked for. However, this also clues us to what it is that we have set as our goal and desire in this life. When a basketball team forfeit's and surrenders a game, it is giving up what they've worked towards achieving... victory. The yielding of the ultimate and sacred goal. In life, we feel as though surrender is the sacrifice of everything that we've worked hard for... because in that state, we are acknowledging in a way, the loss of control of all things... tangible things. In our minds, it is hard not to feel as if there is so much to lose.

The paradox of it all is that surrender to our creator begins the process of restoring us back to our initial relationship with Him... our natural state. When we declare that we truly need God, that despite our percieved competence, our percieved riches, that we need God to truly fulfill our purposes and ultimately discover the deep joy that our souls desire... we find rest in him. There are very few crises in life. We become like David and declare that earth has nothing we desire but Him... a true declaration of surrender, love and worship. Despite the troubles of David a joy fills his heart like an elixir that life cannot offer.

In a word of brokenness and sin, hardships will befall our lives and that brokenness will serve as a necessary bridge toward true surrender to God. Even still, God will never force surrender like it is often the case in life... He will wait patiently to allow us to use our free will to decide which is truly greater. If life is about choices and decisions, I believe the decision of surrender will be one of the most important that we can ever make.

Perfect Love Drives Out Fear

Many acts of bravery have been performed during war... almost always by average people with average abilites. People much braver and much more noble than I can probably hope to become. Among many motivating factors, a soldier who sacrifices his life by jumping on a grenade to protect his nearby brothers, does so out of love. This, a person who undoubtably lives with the same fears that would plague any normal man. Fear of rejection, fear of hurt, and fear of death. God's word says "perfect love drives out fear". Love is the most powerful and most influencial force that exists and I will always believe that it can overcome fear and death in any circumstance. Christ proved this on the cross and thus we as Christians can now claim the power of love.

For those willing to learn and grow, every life stage teaches us about love. As a parent whose primary weapon in parenthood is love, it becomes an absolute revelation of fact that a child cannot function without love. Orphans who grow up in neglect are the biggest victims and stories of the human disability that is fear. Without love, without trust, without a safehaven, life becomes for them a mountain of fear, coming in waves of circumstance masked as rejection, insecurities, and abandonment. Rather than exploring life from a launching pad, time is spent avoiding pain, neglect... acting out... or altogether sucumbing to the lie that noone wants you. It is a powerful disability that has become an epidemic to the human race, regardless of background or upbringing. It is the breeding grounds for Satan to build up his Kingdom. In a globalized world where information is at anyones fingertips, it doesnt take much digging to see the effects of lives lived in fear... the hatred, devestation, and destruction that can result. Am I being a bit dramatic here? Perhaps, but those of us fortunate enough not to have experienced it to a large degree sometimes choose to continually build up our bubble, to detract that reality from our tangible lives. The fact remains, this world is hurting and broken(the harvest is plentiful), and fear still reigns mascarading through sinful man.

Even still, LOVE can and does conquer fear. LOVE, as the word says, is what defeated death yesterday, today, and tomorrow when Jesus returns. Love cannot be conjured up by good intentions... that is at best fabricated and unauthentic love. True love cannot even be conjured up by human encouragement and rally. Love must be UNDERSTOOD... BEFORE you can love. A child learns love through their parents and this is why parenthood has such a critical role in this world... yet even more so, we learn love through God. "We love because He FIRST loved us". Love is not the result of evolutionary development, or because it biologically benefits our ability to survive and coexist... it isnt an innate, randomly existing altruistic force. Love derives from God as God IS love... he is the author and love was/is purposefully shown for us to see and replicate. Love is an absolute. Christ displayed it to the fullest example to date for us to see. While we were yet sinners he died for us. All of us. Understanding love is so closly tied to our ability to understand identity and purpose. They all fit together like a perfectly formed jigsaw puzzle that creates a bigger picture.

Our biggest weapon against hate, brokenness, fear, and death... is love. We must know Him to know love. And thus, it is simple to me... at the risk of sounding exclusive, I believe a home without God is a home without true love. As a parent it is scary to think that one day, I'm going to release my own flesh and blood out into this broken world. I know that my biggest contribution is to equipt them with love... and to do so, to equipt them with an understanding of the author of love. It is a command given to us by Christ himself.. to raise up disciples.. to baptize them in love... and release them because there is much work to be done. As Christians, my hope is that parents would be ambitious for their kids, dream big for their kids... and rather than settle for surviving (and living selfishly) in a world of fear, that we would through the love of Christ, equipt them to conquer a world of fear ... as we ourselves are hopefully brave enough to do.