Today’s title isn’t really the main point of what I would like to convey, but unfortunately I believe it is the biggest barrier to a question I would like to answer, “What is the chief end of man?”.  Why did God create us, and what is it that we are supposed to do?

The Westminster Catechism gives this answer:

Question 1: What is the chief and highest end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.

source:  http://www.reformed.org/documents/index.html?mainframe=http://www.reformed.org/documents/larger1.html

Now the answer given by the Westminster catechism is a good answer and true, however in modern American culture, we need to expound on that answer.  It’s not because of a deficiency in the answer given, but more because we cannot take for granted, something that the writers of the catechism could.  We cannot assume that the readers understand that God is more valuable than they are.  In a culture that promotes the idea of self as ultimate, where the end goal of man is to be made much of by others, and God is used as a means to that end, we need to give the answer some legs.

Here is a question to start us off.  If a man goes out and works all his life, for the purpose of having others think highly of him, would that be sinful?  Yes, of course, we would say that man is extremely prideful, and he is an idolater of self before God.  Now if God works all things together that others would know Him as He is, and think highly of him, would that be sinful?  No, God’s commandment in Exodus 20:3 is “You shall have no other gods before me.”  For God to exalt Himself is not sinful because He is God, it is the most loving thing He can do.

Let me say it another way.  If a man has a son, and the son’s greatest joy would be spending a day with his father, but the father instead gives the boy a toy and sends him on his way, would that be loving?  If a father sees his son ill, and instead of giving him medical care, gives him a toy and sends him on his way, would that be loving?  No, clearly not.  Now if God is a loving Father, and sees that our greatest good is to know Him and delight in Him, and doesn’t seek to exalt Himself, He is not loving.  He would be depriving us of our greatest good.

So then, God’s purpose in creation, is to make Himself known and exalt Himself above all things, and we have been invited in to that purpose, to enjoy God forever.  We were created, to have and spread a passion for the glory of God, and to enjoy Him forever.  It seems redundant (hopefully) to say this after explaining everything else, but to do this, we must first acknowledge that God is infinitely more valuable than any piece of His creation, including ourselves.  If you put the value of 6 Billion people on one side of the scale, and God’s worth on the other, the scale on God’s side is heavier.  It’s going down in a hurry… fast enough to launch all of those 6 Billion self-exalting, self-seeking persons into space.  You can’t compare the worth of God to all of creation, let alone an individual, and this is good news.  In heaven, none of us will be looking around for a mirror to see how great we look, we will be captivated by the unending, infinite glory of God.

Now I don’t want these to be my words, I want you to see this in God’s word.  Look at these scriptures, and ask yourself if God’s purpose is for His glory, and to be enjoyed forever.  Bolded sections are by me for emphasis.

Before creation – we’ll start in Ephesians 1:3-6 – “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved”

Isaiah 43:6 – “bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

Romans 9:17 – “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

Isaiah 48:9-11 – “For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.  Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction.  For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned?  My glory I will not give to another.”

Luke 2:12-14 (of Jesus) – “And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest,”

Romans 3:23-26 – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

What is sin?  We were created in the image of God to treasure and reflect His glory.  We sin when we do not do this, and everyone of us has fallen short.  God put forth His Son, because He loves us – yes, but first because of His namesake.  His glory needed to be seen as just.  His glory is never secondary in His mind, and I thank God that it is so.

I could go on forever with scripture, but my encouragement is to read through the Word yourself and see if you are convinced of these things as I am.

Now I don’t want to have people think that there is no way in which God makes much of us as individuals, He does.  I just want us to get the order right, and make our mission during our short short time during our lifetimes the same as God’s.  God delights in us, as redeemed creations, and is glorifying us already through the process of sanctification, and will fully glorify us when we see Him as He is.  But we are not ultimate, God is.  God’s delight in making much of us, stems and terminates in His glory being made known to us, and our enjoying Him.

Look at your life?  Do you exist to make much of God, or are you asking God to make much of you?  Realize that God would not be loving you if he gave you a mud pie, when there is a feast available.  My encouragement is to seek God, to ask Him to stir in your heart a passion for His glory, and to spread that to others.  There is no more loving thing you can do for someone.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

We all have times in our life when we look back at something “bad” that happened in the past, maybe it was a break-up of a relationship, and we thank God that it didn’t work out like we’d hoped.  Isn’t it funny that in looking back at the time when you initially broke up, you were praying to God to “make things work out”?  So what changed?  Why did you go from praying one moment for God to restore a relationship to a later point in time thanking Him that it didn’t work out?  Well obviously the answer is time, but more specifically, perhaps you gained some objectivity over time, perhaps your perspective change, your desires may have changed, or perhaps things that were unknown at the time, came to light.  If you then, being finite in your knowledge and understanding can see how a previous “bad” situation was ultimately for your good, how much more is God capable of this?  The difference is you only know your life up until today, but God is outside of time, able to see every moment of every day from that day, until you die.  His knowledge is not just the result of a slightly better perspective, He has perfect knowledge.

Now I’m going to switch gears, but I’m going to tie everything up at the end, so bear with me.  How do you know whether or not you trust someone or something?  Surely it’s more than just saying you trust someone.  You know who you trust because you have shared things with them, you may have entrusted your children to them for a weekend, or your home, etc.  Ultimately you have placed your well being, and/or the well being of those you love, into their hands.  Now you wouldn’t put your trust in just anyone right?  They have somehow, over time proven themselves to be trustworthy, by their actions, and perhaps the testimony of others.  Maybe you sent off your 3 kids with them for an afternoon, and 2.75 kids returned in relative health that evening (close enough, right?).  But the reality is that there is also broken trust.  There are those that you have placed your trust in, that have let you down.

Now what I’m not going to say is that we are able to understand God’s purposes in things.  Even in the Bible it tells us in Romans 11:33-34 – “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!  “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 

Again in Isaiah 55:8-9 – “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

I think a lot of Christians feel the need to comfort others by trying to “understand” God’s purposes in hard times, and in reality, it may be that we are never to know.  It’s better usually just to weep with those who are weeping, but I could go off on a tangent here, so I’ll save that for another day.  So we, in our finite ability to understand the limited things we do, will never fully understand the “reason” behind things.  If that’s true, why should we trust God?  God has given us commandments in His Word, as to how we are to live our lives, so that we will have a measure of joy in this life in relationship with Him, and a fullness of joy in His presence after.  Why should we trust that His way is best, when the pain that you feel is real?  When it is within your ability to reach out and grab temporary pleasure, why should you trust God, that His way, maybe a harder path is better?  What has God done to reveal His trustworthiness?

Romans 5:7-8 – “For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

2 Timothy 2:11-13 – “The saying is trustworthy, for:  If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.”

God has proven His trustworthiness in Christ.  How many friends do you know that would remain faithful, loyal to you, even while you mocked them, spat on them, and called for their death by the most humuliating and painful possible way?  God is faithful, because He is the essence of faithfulness, He cannot be otherwise.

If then God has perfect knowledge and is perfectly trustworthy, why do we struggle to listen to Him?  Why do we seek to run after what seems right to us in our own eyes, instead of walking in obedience to the One who knows all things, and loves us perfectly?  This isn’t easy, because we’re fighting our sinful nature along the way.  Our sinful nature tells us that we know better than God, that happinness is within our power to manufacture.  That voice, that urging is what we must kill, and the gospel is how we do it.  My encouragement is to dig deep into these truths, press them into your heart, and walk in submission to God.  Not blindly, but with eyes opened by the gospel to know the Truth.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

There is a reason that I push so hard on the idea that a believer’s health can be determined by his/her joy in God.  Namely, it is very easy to have affections for God because of what He has done, or what He can do for you.  It is also very easy, after a time of study, to maintain a very solid theology, to have correct thoughts about God, without any joy in Him.  God is not pleased when He is a means for us towards something else, nor is He pleased that we merely learn about Him, but find no joy in what we see.  As much as I love theology as a means to know God, it is very humbling and helpful to remember that Satan has more correct thoughts about God in one moment, than I will in my lifetime.  The difference of course is, Satan knows much about God, does not delight in Him.

You cannot manufacture by works or effort, however hard you try, delight in the person of God.  Now when I say that you cannot manufacture delight in God on your own, and that is true, that doesn’t relieve us of our responsibility to have it.

Deuteronomy 28:47-48 – “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.”

The Bible describes salvation, as a person finding a treasure, and delighting in that treasure greatly.  Matthew 13:44 – “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

“In his joy”, one gives us all that they have, to obtain a greater treasure.  Joy in God is a natural response to seeing the glory of God, and claiming all that He is for us in Jesus Christ as our own, through the cross.  If one does not delight in God, that very absence of delight is sinful.  If that does not make sense, look at the things in your life that you delight in.  The relative worth of a thing in your life can be measured by your delight in it.  That could be TV, money, new clothes, sex, family, or your home.  God is not against those things by any means, but if you can delight in the gifts of God, but not the Giver, how is God glorified?  Moreover, if faith is described as someone finding a treasure in a field, and in their joy selling all they have to obtain it – what does that say about our faith?  Joy is so much a part of saving faith, that in certain places the Bible almost makes joy and faith interchangeable.

2 Corinthians 1:24 – “Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.” 

Philippians 1:25 – “Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith,” 

Now some of you at this point might be asking yourself the question, “I don’t have joy like this, and if joy can’t be manufactured by my effort, what am I supposed to do?”

I don’t want to leave anyone hanging there, because while God wants us broken before Him, he does not want us to despair.  You cannot manufacture delight, but you can put yourself into the path of delight, where God desires you to be, and with prayer, eagerly ask God for it.  That is our burden.  That is how we can work out our salvation with fear and trembling, yet God is the one truly at work in us, giving us the gift of joy.

Philippians 2:12-13 – “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

We put ourselves in the Word of God, singing songs, surrounded by our Christian brothers and sisters, serving others, getting out into God’s creation, and we pray, we fast, and we wait.

Psalm 40:1-3 – “I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.  He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.  He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.  Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.” 

Joy may be spontaneous, but it must be pursued.  Joy in God is not a peripheral “nice to have” for a Christian, it is the essence of the gospel.  It is a fight, a fight for joy, and a fight for faith.  The gospel, and authentic faith may be more than just joy in God, but it is not less than that.  I pray for the day that the weight of God’s glory will press into our hearts so deeply, that joy overflows around us, at work, at home, among friends, and in our quiet moments.  I pray for the day when among professing Christians, God is not merely a concept to be known or a means to some other end, but that God is an end unto Himself.  That is my exhortation, for your joy, that you purpose your heart to pursue joy in God.  Be encouraged and hold fast, God may not grant joy immediately, but our Treasure awaits us, and our Treasure is great.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

From an early age, it was apparent that I would never be a good singer.  Oh, they let me into 5th grade choir, but later I realized they let everyone into 5th grade choir, I think the “try-outs” just let the music teacher know who should be put towards the back (me).  As the joys of puberty set in, and an awkward singing voice added “cracking” into the mix, I realize things were only going downhill from there.  Now you can find me in church singing because God loves me, despite my singing voice, but I have long ago set aside any aspirations of a public singing disply in the form.  Why do I share this embarassing tidbit of information with you?  Because it illustrates how God gives gifts to people.  Clearly, singing was not where my gifting is, but do you know that as believers, God tells us that each of us has at least one “gifting” that has been given to us by God?

1 Corinthians 7:7 – “I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.”

1 Corinthians 12:7-11 – “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to anotherfaith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.  All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.”

Now your gifting may be different from mine, and neither one nor the other is inherantly better, but God purposed to give gifts to each of us, so that we would use our gifts to build up the body of Christ in love.  Each of us needs the other.  Now I could go on here, about how there are ways in which we can use our giftings, that can actually be unhelpful, rather than helpful to the body (if the exercising is meant to bring attention to the individual rather than God), but I don’t believe most people struggle with that.  Some do, but most struggle with knowing what their gifting is, and exercising it.

That’s my exhortation today.  Do you know what your gifting is?  What things are you consistently good at?  What things do you have a passion for?  Can you notice areas that are not being done well around you?  If you can, that’s may be because that is a strength of yours; you were meant to fill that need, and that is where your gifting lies.  Maybe you just need to serve some in different areas, and ask others where they believe you might be gifted.  My encouragement is to pray and act, both for the revealing of your individual gifting, and then boldness and strength in exercising it for the good of your Christian brothers and sisters.  It’s beautiful to know that God made us all in a way that we are most fruitful when we work together in love, encouraging one another, and praising God for the gifts given not only to ourselves, but to others.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

If you work really hard, you can grow up to be whatever you want, and do whatever you want to do.  If you work really hard, you can grow up to be a doctor, an astronaut, even the President.  If you work really hard, you can have a good job, a good home, a good spouse, 2.5 children and a white picket fence with a wrap-around porch.  These are the things you were promised by a parent, a loved one, a teacher, or perhaps someone else when you were young.  This is what American society promises you.  This is what advertisements draw you into.  Happiness is within your grasp… or so you’re told.

You grow up.  Perhaps you start to get some of those things, that were promised to you, and yet the anticipated bliss is mysteriously absent.  That good job you wanted so much brings with it an overbearing boss, and long nights until 7, 8, or 9pm.  That good home you always wanted comes with it a mortgage payment, the strains of upkeep, keeping you from moving when you might want/need to.  Those children that you always wanted turn out to be the source of a neverending hum of crying/yelling throughout the house…. just like you were as a child.  And society, how does it respond?  It tells you that what you need to make it all work together for happiness, is just around the corner.  Will a new car make things better?  Will a new spouse make things better?  Will a new house make things better?
The payoff of the American dream isn’t the happiness promised, but bondage to playing a game that has no winners.

My purpose today isn’t to say that having all of those things is bad.  It’s not.  What I want to do, hopefully is paint a picture, whereby the worth of Jesus Christ is so magnificently superior to any happiness you could have in those things, that you break the cycle of pursuing happiness apart from God.  It’s a lie, and if you don’t put it to death, it will ultimately kill you.  It’s a funny thing to say – you will be infinitely joyful or I will kill you, but ultimately that is what God has told us.  The whole purpose of God in creation and redemption is that we would know Him, and enjoy Him infinitely forever.  Deuteronomy 28:47-48 – “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.”

Ecclesiastes 2:26 – “For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.”

You cannot separate saving faith and joy in Christ in the heart of a believer.  God has given us all of the fullness of Himself in Jesus Christ, and Christ is within us as the Holy Spirit.  (John 14:17)  In the presence of God, there is a fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11)

2 Corinthians 1:24 – “Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.” 

From above, standing firm in our faith is helped by the working to increase joy in God.  This joy that Christ invites us into is one of fellowship with Him in every way.  It’s not the kind of joy that sprouts from health, or wealth, or prosperity, but the kind of joy that is found in times of suffering, hardship, serving others at great personal cost, so that we might know Him who humbled Himself to the point dying on a cross and called us out of darkness into light.  It’s a delighting in the goodness of God in all things now, and a great desire to know the fullness of joy that is to come when we rid ourselves of all sin, and stand in His presence for eternity.

My exhortation is to ask yourself if you are daily striving to pursue more joy in God.  If joy in God is the means by which we will stand firm in our faith, how should you respond?  Secondly, maybe as an application to the first question, I want to exhort you to let your mind rest in the goodness and glory of God.  Colossians 3:1-4 – “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.  For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

You cannot have the American Dream and Christ, you must choose.  Let us help each other, to be co-laborers in the fight of faith in earnest for joy in Christ.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Every once in a while, I try to step back from my life and gain some perspective, and God willing, a vision for the future.  As I like back on my past 6 or 7 years, I see a sinner saved by grace, struggling to work out my theology, struggling with sin in my life, and struggling to develop a heart that truly wishes to serve rather than be served.  There are some struggles that have largely been conquered, some right away, some over time, and then there are others that I seem to have barely made a dent into.  All throughout, I can see a love by God that surpasses all understanding, that He would continue to love and pursue a sinner – truly amazing.  There are some things about living as a Christian that have gone from seemingly simple and clear to complicated and grey, and there are others that have gone from complicated to simple.  During my time, there has been one thing that has driven me towards God, and the cross, and that has been tasting and seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

Psalm 34:8 – “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” 

So if what has been helpful to me, is seeing more and more clearly the glory of God, and delighting in Him; I of course want to make it my task to lift Christ up as glorious, good, holy and mighty.  I want to present Him to others, so they can see Him clearly, and then tell them, everyone who wants to come, come… taste and see that the LORD is good.  For most of us, our greatest obstacle to Christ is not intellectual, but moral.  I think most people understand the idea of the gospel, but do not see that Jesus died to free us from sin, so that we might delight in Him forever.  I think most people never hear, or understand the “so that” part.  There are many people who want to take Jesus, but on their own terms.  That is tragic because these people are deceiving themselves to believe that is possible, and they are missing out on the greatest joy possible, knowing and walking with God.

I want people to see that the gospel is more than a get out of jail free card.  The gospel doesn’t terminate on you as an individual.  The gospel isn’t a means for God to make much of you, to show how important you are.  The gospel is a means to reconcile sinners to the one true Good in life, that they would know and make much of God, Jesus Christ.  The gospel is an invitation to salvation from sin, and to joy in God.  A Puritan, Thomas Watson, who wrote it this way in 1692 – “Would it not be an encouragement to a subject to hear his prince say to him, You will honor and please me very much, if you will go to yonder mine of gold, and dig as much gold for yourself as you can carry away?  So for God to say, Go to the ordinances, get as much grace as you can, dig out as much salvation as you can, and the more happiness you have, the more I sall count myself glorified.”

Christians, the whole world belongs to you.  Everything that has been created, was done so to reflect the glory of God that we would enjoy Him forever.  Every word of the Bible, every sunset, every mountain range, has something to say about the glory of God.  Dig deep.  Taste and savor the glory of God, and rejoice in your Treasure that has no end.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Many times life isn’t going to give you what you hoped for.  There will be times when people you care about hurt you deeply, there will be times when things at work go bad unexpectedly, and there will be times where you look around and can’t see much hope for positive change on the horizon.  What do you do when your life looks this way?  How will your relationship with God fare, when visibly, it doesn’t seem like you’re getting a fair deal in life?

Imagine for a moment that you are among friends, and one of those friends completely betrays you.  How would this make you feel?  Now imagine that this betrayal led not just to hurt feelings, but to your actual arrest, based upon false testimony?  Now imagine that you are wrongly convicted, and ordered to be beaten with whip that has bones in it, that rip your flesh open.  Now imagine that you, although perfectly innocent are condemened to die.  Now imagine that God tells you that this is His will, so that the very people who falsely accused you, watched your beatings, and mocked you during your execution could have their sins paid for by your death.  That is the story of Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Isaiah 53:5-6 – “But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” 

Clearly this was not a fair deal for Jesus.  He was wronged, so that we would be made right.  How did Jesus deal with His being wronged by others?  It would not be fair to say that Jesus was thrilled about the process of dying, nor being beaten, or spat upon, or seeing his friends be dispersed.  Yet, the Bible tells us that Jesus was joyful in going to the cross, despite all else.

Hebrews 12:1-2 – “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

What is the root of that joy?  Clearly it wasn’t the physical pain that was set before Him.  Clearly it wasn’t the humiliation of being stripped down and paraded through town.  Well, I don’t believe I can fully understand all of the joy that was with Christ in that moment, but I do believe we find some of it when just before being betrayed, Jesus prays to God the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Matthew 26:38-24 – ” Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”  And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”  And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour?  Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”

Jesus delighted in at least three things when going to the cross 1)  His fellowship with the Father through obedience  2)  The seeing and becoming the fullness of the glory of God displayed on the cross and 3)  His final disarming of the power of sin and putting to open shame Satan and his minions (Col 2:15).  Every one of those things that were a part of Jesus’ joy, as he endured the cross, should be what we strive for, as we deal with the day to day struggles life brings.  Now there are times when our sin is the cause of our struggles, and in those cases, my exhortation would be to turn to Christ, looking to the cross, to repent and believe that in Christ you have been freed from bondage to that sin.  For other times, when you struggle to see purpose in the hard times of life, press into the joy of Christ.  Press into the joy you have in relationship and obedience to Christ.

Press into the joy you have in seeing and savoring the glory of God, displayed in the cross – His love, His justice, His mercy, His sovereign power, and know that as an adopted son/daughter of God, all that God is for us in Christ is our inheritance for now and eternity.  Lastly, press into the joy of your triumph through Christ over sin and the schemes of our enemy.  It’s because of these things that you can know that God loves you, will bring you through whatever you’re going through now, and has a good purpose to use these hard times for our good, and His glory.  Don’t lose the opportunity for the glory of God to be revealed through you during hard times.  Turn to God, and let the world see that Christ is more valuable than anything that the world might offer or take away, and in Him, we have a joy that surpasses understanding, that pierces the most difficult of times.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

There’s a measure of mystery that we are not to understand in how God uses the things around us, other people, and even our own actions, to affect change within our hearts and minds.  Many times, intellectuals want to debate the theology of how man can make “free” choices, God can be sovereign, and God can be altogether good while evil is in the world.  My answer to those all those questions is “Yes”.  It never gets old seeing the first reaction of someone when I say that.  I can see their mind straining, thinking there is a mountain of theology out of my one word answer… I usually stop them fairly quickly.  It’s not that we cannot make headway to understand how those seemingly contradictory things are actually compatible, but the reality is that we’ll never completely understand those things.  I humble myself to recognize that I cannot, as a simple man, understand the mind and ways of God fully.  All that being said, the reality is that our choices do have positive and negative consequences both externally and within one’s heart.

What I try to quickly encourage people with, is that while it’s not a bad exercise to pursue those deeper theological questions some – they are largely separate from the day to day experience of life we all share.  For example, as I’m writing this, I’m not pondering the magnificent purpose of God in my choosing one word verses another, debating the eternal impact of my choice to use the word “the” in a sentence; I simply am trying to lead the life God has given me to live, as His adopted son, and follower to encourage others towards Him.

I say all of this as a backdrop to my encouragement in today’s WFTD to seek after wisdom in how you live your life.  Your works will not save you, but to deny that they will have an impact on you as a believer is a misunderstanding of scripture.  As a follower of Christ, you are completely free to do whatever you wish.  That freedom can be used one of two ways, one, to pursue God’s will and bring more of Him and His joy into your life, or alternatively, to pursue things that gratify your flesh, ignoring God’s will.  The latter if habitual and unrepentant might give cause to encourage someone’s introspection as to why they believe they are a follower of Christ, if indeed they have no desire to follow Him fully?

Turning our attention to our works and without wanting to get into a theological debate, let’s assume that drinking is not inherantly sinful (I would argue that it is not).  We are still called as Christians to use wisdom in how we exercise that freedom.  Meaning that while I can enjoy a glass of wine or a beer amongst friends over dinner, I have decided that it is not wise for me to go out to bars and pound back drink after drink with shots.  I tried that whole – I’m going to witness to people at the bar justification back in my early twenties.  You know what happened?  I got drunk a lot…  Not a good plan.  Likewise, while there is nothing inherantly sinful about being surrounded by attractive women, I’ve decided it is not wise for me to accept invitations with co-workers to go to Hooter’s or the like.  Here’s what I want to encourage everyone with; the world, and all it’s temptations will bring to bear enough of a struggle on our lives without our shooting ourselves in the foot.  Arm yourself with wisdom in how you lead your life, so that you might enjoy victory more often than defeat.

1 Corinthians 10:23 – “All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.” 

What is helpful to you, may look different from someone else.  I may say it is unhelpful for me to go to certain bars, whereas other Christians can tell me they have a peace about going there.  My goal today isn’t to give you a list of do’s and don’ts.  My exhortation is to seek in prayer over God’s Word what is helpful to you personally, that grow your affection for God, and help you walk in obedience to Him.  What are the things in your life, that you can do, but maybe shouldn’t do?  What are the things that you have in your life that maybe aren’t helpful to growing closer to God?  What are the things you don’t have in your life, that maybe you need in your life?  Get a peace about what those things are in prayer, and then act on them.  Surround yourself with others who are likewise committed, to encourage one another in love.  We have freedom, but without wisdom and the love of God to guide it, it will never result in the God honoring joy that is prepared for us.

Colossians 3:1-5 – “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

Grace and Peace,
Adam

Knowledge can be a very good thing, or a very bad thing depending on how it is used.  Increases in man’s knowledge have brought cures for diseases, increased the speed of travel and communication, and continually increased the standard of living overall worldwide.  Knowledge has also brought with it a greater capacity for evil, namely it has been used by someone like Hitler or Sadaam Hussein to systematic murder hundreds of thousands of people with chemical weapons, it enables greed from someone like Bernie Madoff to steal money from thousands of people on a large scale, and it has facilitated the suppression of people in North Korea by a combination of modern weapons, world banking, and communication advances.

So, with greater knowledge comes the possibility of greater good, but also of greater evil.  Which direction knowledge will be used is a matter of the heart in the individual who weilds it.  That’s the focus of today’s WFTD.  Most people today are religious consumers.  They will listen on Sundays, they may belong to a small group, gaining a large amount of knowledge about God and His desires for us, but without doing much about it.  Here is what I would say to that group of people – stop going to church and stop reading the Bible.  It would be better for you not to clearly see the commands of God, than to see them, understand them, and ignore (reject) them.  It may seem like passivity when a Christian goes to church, but doesn’t do anything with what is heard, but something actually is happening – their heart is hardening against God.  Whenever you hear the commands of God, and do not do them, you may deceive yourself into thinking that “I will get to obedience in that area later”, but what you’re really telling God is “No, I rule my life, not you.  I’ll use you God as I see fit, take what I want, and leave the rest”.

For someone who goes to church on Sunday, maybe reads their Bible some, but to where it never results in a passion to obey God, this is how God will judge them – Revelation 3:15-17 – “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot.Would that you were either cold or hot!  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”

2 Peter 2:20-21 – “if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.  For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.”

James 1:22-25 – “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.  For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” 

I do not believe those receiving this message are hearers only, and not doers, but I say these things as a way of reminder to always be vigilant to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, knowing it is God at work in you.  A passion for God that results in obedience, is something we must all pray and ask God for daily.  Christians can not “coast”.  We are always moving closer to, or further away from God.  Our hearts are always softening, increasing in joy in the Lord or hardening, pursuing joy in the world.  My exhortation is this – do not read the Word of God lightly nor take your time amongst Christians in community casually.  Claim for yourself these as a gift from God, a means of grace to transform your heart and mind into the image of God.  Be doers of the Word, and so prove yourselves to be disciples of Christ.  May God grant mercy to each of us in our failings, give us grace to know Him more, and grace upon grace as we follow in the footsteps of Christ as His ambassadors into a fallen world.

Grace and Peace,
Adam

What is the means by which God calls someone to salvation?  Leaving room for a Damascus road experience (Acts 9), every single written account of salvation occurs by someone presenting the gospel, and another person hearing (personally I believe this could be reading as well), believing, and responding in action.  For the record, I am not aware of anyone in the Bible who looked upon the good conduct of another person, and was spontaneously saved.  Therefore, while our life can support our message of the gospel of Jesus, it can never be a replacement.    This is the whole task of a true Christian, to live and preach the gospel.

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 – “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.  From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

Evangelism isn’t the work of pastors alone.  Don’t be lazy and just invite your friends and family to church and assume your pastor will do the heavy lifting.  Does your pastor know your friends and family as well as you do?  Will your friends and family trust someone else more than you?  (hopefully not!)  Many people are afraid to share the gospel because they feel unequipped to answer questions – don’t be.  Jesus didn’t call us to be professional theologians and apologists, he called us to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.  Every Christian should know that intellectually, and as a matter of the heart, because it was that good news that saved them personally.  If you ever wanted to know where you can take someone to share the gospel, go to 1 Corinthians 15 1-8 – “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you— unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.  Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me (Paul).”

What do you think your purpose is on Earth as a Christian?  When was the last time you shared the gospel with someone you knew?  How about with someone you didn’t know?  If you don’t feel compelled to share the gospel with others, do you value it as much as you think?  If you truly believed the gospel, and being reconciled to Christ was infinitely more valuable than anything else the world would offer, wouldn’t you want to share that with everyone around you?  As Christians, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we carry Christ with us wherever we go.  My encouragement is to purpose your life to be ambassadors of Christ.  Bring the message to the world that there is a Holy God who judges righteously, that we all fall short, but there is hope through God in Jesus.  Jesus Christ, is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to God apart from Him.  Trust that we are not alone when we share the gospel.  God has given us the ministry of reconciliation, and He will add the increase to our labor.  We do not need to be clever, we don’t need to have all the answers, we simply need to be faithful to deliver the Truth.  Each of us is a witness to the goodness of God through Jesus Christ and the gospel.  As witnesses, we deliver a message to all who would hear, and pray earnestly that God will call many to Himself.

Grace and Peace,
Adam