Nobody likes to go through trials and testing. Those are challenging enough, but to be “sifted like wheat” is another issue. My pastor says this: “If you squeeze a lemon, what comes out? Whatever is inside of it.” We are going through a squeezing right now, so let me set the scene.
Peter went through several tests throughout his discipleship with Jesus. He was sent out with the 12 to go preaching. He walked on water, only to sink once he started seeing the waves. But Peter’s biggest trial came the night Jesus was arrested. He followed Jesus from a distance but quickly denied even knowing Him when identified by a servant girl. When it was done, Peter heard the rooster crow and he realized what he did. He left weeping bitterly.
What happened? Jesus told him beforehand that Satan was asking for him to sift him like wheat. Sifting is a process where the wheat plant is broken up so the pure wheat grain can be separated from the husk and chaff. The tool used for sifting is called a tribular, which is the source of the term “tribulation.” Peter was going to be hit and shaken down to where his true self was exposed, and all the cosmetics, façades, and masks would be removed.
John Bevere in his book The Bait of Satan brought an angle to this incident that I had not thought about. Jesus knew the trial was coming, and he didn’t stop it. He instead prayed that Peter might endure it. That is the total opposite of what most of us would ever say to someone going through a trial. We call to rebuke the Devil for causing us problems. We pray that God remove the trial or the thorn. I have not often heard people pray that God will teach us what we need to learn through this. Now there is a point where we must rebuke the Devil and not let him steal from us, however, most of the time, we are asking to not let our comfortable lives be disturbed. Yet when this sifting comes, God is going to simply hand us over and put us on display whether we are going to be faithful or not (He does know the outcome, for the record).
Job was sifted like wheat. He lost everything: family, wealth, health, and prosperity. Everything the “prosperity preachers” call for us to get today, Job lost. Why? Because God and Satan were making wagers in heaven. God put Job on display for the world and the hosts of heaven to see that there is a man who worships God for who He is, not because of what He gives. Job was stripped down to just his person, yet he never once sinned with his lips against God.
I have been sifted like wheat twice so far, and I expect it will happen again. The first time, back in 2007, I was at my last summer working at a grocery store and I wanted to see one of my co-workers get saved. But in the process, I stirred up a demonic stronghold which had been laying dormant in his life and it began to manifest itself through him. The story takes about an hour for me to tell, so this is hardly the space for that, but to cut to the chase, my faith was stripped down to its core and I came out of it more confident and stronger in it than ever before. I did not get the demon out but that’s another topic.
Another time of sifting came while I’ve been writing for Worldview Warriors. I was a substitute teacher for 6 ½ years, most of that at one school. I had applied countless times for full teaching jobs, had 20 interviews, and nothing came forth. Even when I taught physics for nearly a full year and applied for the opening 7 times, I got nothing. I only had one hint of a job offer in the whole time. It was clear that there was no interest in me being a teacher. And I had to wrestle through my heart and attitudes about the situation. It wasn’t easy. What was happening here? I could say the school and the district were exploiting me, but ultimately, God was preserving me, holding me for my current position. The process helped strip away my dependence upon total structure and to rely on God for when curveballs come my way. I’ve not mastered the lesson, but I’ve come a long way.
This nation has been going through the “tribular” for the last three years. No, I am not talking about persecution of the church. But I’ve noticed something since Trump’s election: the façade and the masks that people have been hiding behind are being stripped away. The United States has been through some major foundational changes in our lifetimes. Our Worldview Warriors president, Jason DeZurik, has been explaining some of that in blog posts this year. But regardless of what anyone thinks about whether Trump has been doing a good job or not, what has come out of his administration is a revelation of who really is who. Masks are coming off. People are revealing who they truly are. Take note that I am not saying Trump is doing it himself; God is doing it through Trump.
Little has really shown this more than the corona virus. Over the last few months, many people have had their confidence in their comforts shaken. So much fear is on display (often driven by the media) and panic toilet paper buying has only revealed what was already there: greed, selfishness, arrogance, and a total lack of dependence upon God to have control over things. Many Christians have bought into the hype as well, stirring up fear and warning everyone to take shelter. These people have been squeezed, and fear and panic came out. But not all have bought it.
There are many others who are showing their true hearts not of wickedness but of compassion. We are seeing people who were once divided coming together during this crisis. We are seeing Christians do what Christians do: go support people in this time of plague. I have read many biographies and a number of them deal with plagues. And one thing I did not see in any of them was a “go congregate with self” mode. Instead, I saw a “Lord, what shall I do?” mode. They saw a need and went out to do something about it. They didn’t try to solve the problem; they just sought to be Christ in the midst of a broken and hurting world. They were squeezed and Christ came out.
We are going through a sifting as a nation right now. We are being squeezed as a lemon. What is coming out of us? Christ, or something else? Let it be Christ. Are we going to pray that God remove the trial? Or are we going to pray that God take us through it? Let’s go through the storm, not try to skirt around it. When the winds and rains come, whose house will stand? These past three years have shown that only those who built upon Christ are staying strong. Let us turn to the Solid Rock so as we go through this sifting, we will be found faithful.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
At the end of Ecclesiastes 3, the Teacher reminded us that we are all mortal and we’ll all die someday, no matter what we accomplish in this life. Now in today’s passage of Ecclesiastes 4:1-8, he begins to talk about ambition and power.
While we are all mortals and going to die, some people are obsessed with having power over other people. In verses 1-3, the Teacher laments over being alive in such awful, oppressive circumstances. He implies that it would be better to have not been born than to see the awful abuse of power that was going on.
There are many types of oppression that we see in the Bible. Kings oppress their subjects, masters oppress their servants, the rich oppress the poor, society oppresses widows and foreigners, merchants oppress their customers, etc. We don’t know what type of oppression the Teacher is specifically referring to here in these verses, only that it was an awful situation.
The Teacher seems pretty depressed and that he feels there is no hope, even in eternity, for those who are oppressed. The Teacher likely didn’t have a good understanding of what would happen after this life, and this book is written from the perspective of “under the sun” - the things that happen in this world.
The Teacher reaches a conclusion in verse 4: “And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.” He is implying that the only reason people ever achieve anything is that they’re trying to be better than someone else. While that can be a motivation, we should also be motivated to achieve goals simply because God has created us to do so. He has created us with drive and ambition to accomplish great things, not only for our own good or the good of humanity but, most importantly, for His glory.
But if all achievement is meaningless, does that mean we should just sit back and do nothing? Nope. Verses 5-6 give us two proverbs. The first tells us that being idle is foolish, and the second tells us that we need to balance our drive and achievement with peace. It’s all about being at peace and balanced, rather than being too driven out of envy or selfishness or not having any drive at all.
In verses 7-8, the Teacher shows how this excessive ambition can turn into a miserable life. If we are driven by greed, we’ll accumulate more money and possession than we really need. We can easily become obsessed with our stuff. That can give us a feeling of power over others when we have nicer/bigger/better things than they do. This is not what we’re called to as followers of Christ. God didn’t create us to accumulate material goods; see Luke 12:13-21 for more on that.
The two overall themes of this passage are oppression and ambition. While they may seem unrelated, both are actually connected to the idea of power. If you oppress someone, you are showing that you have some form of power over them. If you are being oppressed, you are experiencing being under someone else’s power. Any ambition is a form of power - having the power to do or create something meaningful.
But is all this power really meaningless, as the Teacher suggests? It may appear meaningless in the context of this life, but it is definitely not meaningless in the context of eternity, especially eternity as a follower of Jesus.
Oppression is not a good thing and not ordained by God, but an oppressive situation can be used to bring people to Christ. If all is going great in our lives, we’re a lot less likely to see our need for a Savior. But if times are difficult, then we by nature want to make things better. If we are unable to do anything in our own power to better our circumstances, then we’ll likely begin to look outside ourselves - hopefully, right toward our Savior, Jesus. While oppression and the abuse of power are not good things, our good God will use them for His glory.
What motivates you and gives you ambition? Are you motivated by striving for more power - whether the power for money, possessions, or the ability to be in control over your fellow humans? All this is meaningless on this earth when compared to eternity. In a perfect world, all of the things we do would be motivated by bringing glory to our God who created us, loves us, and saves us. But, we don’t live in a perfect world.
Are you working at your job simply for a paycheck, and you feel that your work is meaningless? Every job has value, not just monetary value. Whether you create products or provide a service, both of those are valuable. Nearly every job is done in connection with other people. What relationships are you building in your workplace? Even if you are currently unemployed or not able to work for whatever reason, we all have people around us in some form of community. What opportunities do you have every day to share the love of Jesus with those around you?
I encourage you this week to take a look at the concept of power in your life. Where are you exhibiting power over others that you shouldn’t? What is your motivation for how you spend your time? Remember to put everything in the context of eternity to get a correct perspective on the only power that matters: God’s.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
A few weeks ago, my church simulcasted the XO Marriage Conference hosted by Jimmy Evans at Gateway Church in the Dallas area. During the conference he revealed a very interested, well researched statistic. In studying a multitude of marriages, for marriages that reported to be unhappy or very unhappy, the ones who chose to stick it out and not divorce reported just 5 years later to have a very happy marriage.
While not an intended main point of his message, the word “reconciliation” stuck out to me, sparking this blog post. The entire point and purpose of the Gospel message is to reconcile God and mankind. Christianity is living out the restored relationship between God and mankind. It’s not a religion indistinguishable from any other religion; it is God stepping into this world to make peace with a rebellious, treacherous, and sinful people.
When Paul describes us as ambassadors, he had the Roman ambassadors in mind. Because Rome dominated the known world, there were only loose tribes scattered around the borders of the empire. The ambassadors did not have to negotiate with other nations of power. Instead their job was to negotiate terms of peace because the Roman army was coming. If negotiations were successful, the tribe would become subjects of Rome, but they enjoyed freedom within Rome’s reaches.
This is the job of the Christian when it comes to evangelism. We are to reach out to people to make peace between them and God because they are totally unaware that God’s judgment is on its way. If peace has not been made when that day comes, it will be too late. Every person has broken God’s laws, crimes punishable by death, and God is a just and good God who will see that every crime is paid for. The only reason He holds back His judgment is because He knows how final and complete His wrath is. It will destroy us. It is His mercy and incredible patience that holds that judgment back. But that mercy and patience has limits. That limit is because He must execute judgment. The difference between making peace with Rome and peace with God is that Rome allowed their subjects to practice their own culture within Rome’s boundaries, and God requires a change of lifestyle in following Him, forsaking the old life for the new.
We have a limited time to present God’s terms of peace. We cannot take it lightly, and I sadly have been. Another thing God has been talking to me about is to love my enemies. I deal with apologetics and defending the faith and I get all kinds of rude, arrogant, mocking trolls who have no interest in truth and no interest in finding out that God will crush them if they don’t repent. As a result of this, I feel like Elijah did after his epic win at Mount Carmel, frustrated that no one wants to listen to the truth anymore. With this is a tendency of not bothering getting to the most important part of the message: that God came to save sinners.
Dealing with false teachers is worse. I’m not merely talking about those who believe false teachings, but actively promote them, after having been told the truth. I have no patience for a false teaching in my presence. I totally understand how Paul felt when he saw the idols of Athens and his spirit was provoked. But unlike Paul, I don’t often feel the pity he had for the lost and the desire to see them saved. God is stirring in me that pity, but my zeal for truth to be preached no matter who hears it, and no matter whether it chases someone away, has often stood in the way. Voddie Baucham describes “Bad Voddie” as the old-self’s attempt to defend Christ and the Biblical accounts. I can well related to that. Baucham says when he hears these arguments like I face, he has to grip “Bad Voddie” with all he has before he goes off and often he fails. I am the same way.
But God is stirring in me a need to love these lost people, knowing who they could be if they encounter Christ. A friend of mine, Charles Jackson, preached at my church nearly four years ago and he made a statement about praying for Richard Dawkins, an evil man who truly hates God and any of His followers. If he were to be saved, it would be like Paul and the world would have no response to it. It would be even worse than when Trump won the presidential election in 2016 and for months the media and the politicians were just stunned. If Richard Dawkins became a believer, he’d be the greatest evangelist we’ve ever seen.
Ray Comfort is an encouragement to me in this area because he is the most genuine person I have seen who truly loves the lost. When a heckler from his street preaching hounded him for days, including making sexual remarks about his wife, he thought Comfort hated him. Instead Comfort bought this guy lunch, then a new pair of shoes. I know I don’t have within me the ability to do that. Only Christ has that skill and it showed through Comfort in that moment.
When we reach the lost, one thing we must never do is change the message so that they might hear it. Sound doctrine is a primary issue because if we are not preaching God’s message the way He gave it, we are not being His messengers but playing our own game. The message of God is the most precious thing we have and yet it is the very thing we either hide, distort, or use as a hammer to bash those who reject it. James and John wanted to call fire down from heaven for rejecting the message and Jesus said, “I came to save them, not to destroy them.” But at the same time, whenever people walked away from Jesus, He never chased after them. He never backed from the truth, and often He presented the truth so hard that only those who really wanted the life Jesus offered stuck around to hear it. Peter said only Jesus had the words of life. Where else would he go?
I’ll never forget David Wilkerson’s statement that cut me to the heart: “There are some preachers who’d rather see people dead than saved.” Because I am so strong and convinced about the truth where I truly am unmovable, I can easily fall into the trap of if someone wants to reject the truth, I’ll let them have it or move on. Paul pled with people that they might repent. This is true of the majority of the well-known preachers like Wesley, Finney, Spurgeon, Whitefield, Edwards, and others. They plead and wept that people would repent, but they never made that decision to be the end goal. Their end goal was that God’s Word be preached and that it was God’s terms upheld. They never changed the terms so they might be accepted.
We must go to call for peace between God and man, because the day of Judgment is coming. The only way we can convince anyone of the judgment is to get them to see the weight of their sin. And we can only preach on the weight of sin if we know and grasp the weight of God in His full character. Let us get to know God and who He truly is. Then we will feel His heart and His burden for saving the lost before the day of their doom arrives. Let us be ambassadors to make peace between God and men that there may be reconciliation and that relationship lost by Adam be restored.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
Last week in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, we saw that God has a time for everything in our lives, and everything has its appropriate season. In this week’s passage of Ecclesiastes 3:9-15, the Teacher gives his perspective on this idea.
In verses 9-11, the Teacher is pondering the ultimate purpose of things. While we can understand that God has an ultimate plan, we as humans want to understand it! What is the point of everything? That’s the struggle the Teacher is having, and we have this same struggle today, too.
To try and discover that ultimate meaning, we see in these verses that we first need to take care of what we’re supposed to do each day. That is the “burden God has laid on the human race” (verse 10), and when we do what we’re supposed to do, then we see that everything works out beautifully.
The other interesting thing to point out here is in verse 11: “He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” People are the only part of God’s creation that even questions why we are here and that we must have been made for a purpose larger than just fulfilling the burdens of daily life. Animals don’t worry about that. Plants don’t think about such things. The sun and other heavenly bodies just do what they were meant to do. But we humans were created in God’s image, so we have that capability to think about larger issues, and to ponder how all of the little pieces of our lives fit into the Master’s plan for this world. We know that we have a greater purpose, even if we are unable to discern what that purpose is.
With all the pessimistic talk we’ve seen from the Teacher so far, it is good to see in verses 12-13 that he does have some optimism. There is much about life that is enjoyable. We can be happy and find fulfillment and satisfaction in our daily labors. But in all of those good things, we as followers of Jesus Christ need to be careful that we don’t miss what God’s will is for us by getting caught up in the pleasures of earthly things.
Verse 14 says, “I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.” We know that whatever God does will stand the test of time. His good works are permanent, and they have a lasting impact on all of eternity, from before time began until after this world has ended. We need to humbly follow Him, knowing that while we seek to grasp the larger picture of our lives, God indeed knows the whole big picture for all of humanity! But if a person does not believe in God and His good purposes, then their life will seem meaningless, and they won’t find their true purpose.
Perhaps we can find our purpose by looking at what God has already done, as the Teacher suggests in verse 15. History does repeat itself, which we can see both from the Biblical record of history and outside of it. God keeps showing us the lessons that His people should have learned throughout history in the hope that we will finally understand and live out our true purpose in life: to live our lives to give Him glory.
Every day we should be asking God what he has for us today. We can make our own plans, but we need to be ready for God's plans to intercept our plans. We are called to walk with God and to listen to Him in everything, even in the daily responsibilities that we have. We know that everything and everyone has an appointed purpose and time, but we may not know what that is until God reveals it to us.
We are all given a choice: will I let God be my focus today? Will I seek Him first? We don't always see the profit of each day, but God does. It may just seem like another day of ordinary routine, but maybe God has something exciting or extraordinary planned for you this day. Perhaps today is the day that we will grasp another small piece of the big picture that God has and our role in His grand plan.
We have the capacity to seek our purpose in this life, and we should ask God to reveal it to us. Perhaps He will give you a big piece of it, or maybe it’ll just be a tiny glimpse, but either way, if we’re not watching for it, we’ll miss it. When we live our lives in light of God’s timing, everything will be beautiful as a part of His perfect plan.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
Last week, we began to dig into Ecclesiastes 1, and we looked at how the Teacher tells us that everything is meaningless. He began by showing how nature is meaningless, and today we continue on and take a look at wisdom.
In today’s passage, we start out in verse 12 learning that the Teacher was king over Israel. As I wrote about in my introduction post, this gives more credence to the Teacher being King Solomon. We read in 1 Kings 3:1-15 that God told Solomon he could ask Him for anything, and Solomon asked God for a discerning heart to govern the people well. Because of his integrity in asking that, rather than asking for God to fulfill his own selfish desires, God gave Solomon that wisdom along with great wealth and honor. So, King Solomon was known as being a very wise king, having been given great wisdom by God.
But what exactly is that widsom we’re talking about? In Hebrew, there are generally considered to be 3 words for wisdom: sacal, da’at, and hokmah. Sacal has the idea of teaching, instruction, or knowledge, and da’at is an intimate knowing like how well God knows every detail about us. Hokmah is the word used here in Ecclesiastes (and in 1 Kings 3), and it has the idea of discernment and applying knowledge well to the situations of life. I’ve heard it said that knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, but wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. We have to have knowledge in order to have wisdom, which is the application of that knowledge.
So, knowing all of that, we see in Ecclesiastes 1:13-14 that the Teacher has much knowledge and wisdom. He has learned a lot over his lifetime, and his conclusion is that it is all meaningless! He acknowledges that over living things, like animals, don’t worry about meaning and purpose like humans do. Animals just go about their lives and do what they were intended to do without worrying about why they’re doing it, whereas humans strive to have purpose and understanding of every situation.
The Teacher equates chasing after wisdom to chasing after the wind. There is so much that we don’t understand, and our knowledge and wisdom will never equal God’s. We keep trying to fix things (verse 15) but we are not able to do so.
We see that even though the Teacher received so much great knowledge, it still did not satisfy him and give his life purpose (verse 16). Even when he applied that knowledge in the form of his wisdom as a ruler, it was still like chasing after the wind - a goal that can never be reached (verse 17). He ends this section with a depressing thought in verse 18: “For with much wisdom comes much sorrow; the more knowledge, the more grief.”
That thought makes it sound like we should all just give up. Why keep learning things if they just bring more sorrow? Why keep gaining knowledge about how the world works if that just gives us more grief? It does sound like all that is just a pointless pursuit that will have no benefit for our lives or for humanity as a whole.
But the thing that makes it more worthwhile is our intention and our purpose. No, knowledge won’t fix the things that are broken with this world, though our continued wisdom and application of that knowledge may make life a little easier at times. Our knowledge can help solve the inconveniences of this world, but only God can really solve what’s truly wrong; the real problem with this world is sin.
Let me give you an example. While this is not directly stated in the Bible, I would suggest that in the Garden of Eden before mankind sinned, the food there would never go bad. The fruit would never rot or have bugs that would destroy it. Everything was perfect, and there was no death, for humans or for anything else in nature. After mankind sinned and all of creation fell into sin, death now affected everything. Fruit would go rotten and spoil.
As humans have advanced in knowledge, we have applied that knowledge as wisdom and have come up with ways to preserve food for longer periods of time. I appreciate that some fruits or vegetables will last longer in my refrigerator, thanks to mankind’s knowledge on how to make refrigeration - the electricity to power it can get to my house, and all parts to a refrigerator that have all come about thanks to mankind pursuing knowledge and wisdom. But, even my refrigerator won’t make my food last forever. My food will still spoil and go bad. Even the amazing technological advances that we have learned won’t fix the real problem.
The only real solution is God. Someday, He will restore everything to perfection. While knowledge and the pursuit of wisdom are good things, they will not truly fix what’s wrong with this world. Getting an education is a great tool for making things in this world a little better, but ultimately, compared to the perfection of God, our wisdom is meaningless, as the Teacher points out here in Ecclesiastes.
Continue to pursue knowledge and wisdom as the Teacher did, but remember that the pursuit of wisdom is not our goal. Our goal is to praise God who has given us the ability to have that wisdom and who will one day fulfill all things to perfection.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
Last week, I introduced the book of Ecclesiastes, giving some background information on the author, the themes, and the purpose of the book. Today, it’s time to dig right into the text!
As I explained last week, Ecclesiastes is written by the Teacher, who is likely King Solomon, son of King David (verse 1). He gives the theme of the book in verse 2: “‘Meaningless! Meaningless!’ says the Teacher. ‘Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.’” Sounds nice and encouraging, right?
The word translated in the NIV as “meaningless” is hevel in Hebrew. It can also be translated as vanity (as in the NASB), vapor, or a breath. Essentially, this word has the idea of stuff that may matter for a very short amount of time but then really has no purpose. The Hebrew language likes repetition, and this verse is full of it. Of the 8 words in this verse, 5 of them are forms of the word hevel.
But what exactly does that mean that everything is meaningless? The Teacher begins to explain that further in verse 3: “What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?” Mankind is continually frustrated in their laboring. When sin entered the world in Genesis 3, mankind chose the path of disobeying God. This meant that all of creation fell into sin, and in Genesis 3:17-19 we see that even the ground became cursed because of mankind’s sinfulness. God tells Adam that work will now be difficult for him, and for every human being to come.
The phrase “under the sun” here in Ecclesiastes 1:3 is also significant. This particular phrase is used 29 times in Ecclesiastes, and nowhere else in the Bible. This phrase could refer to how mankind will sweat at his work, as under the heat of the sun. As we generally think of God being up in the heavens, “under the sun” refers to things of this earth, not heavenly things. This phrase also shows us that the content of this book is not limited to just the Teacher’s people, Israel, but all of the nations on earth, as all people are under the same sun.
So if all is meaningless, what is the point of this book? The Teacher begins his search for meaning starting in verse 4, and the Teacher looks specifically to nature for meaning in verses 4-7. He looks at the longevity of the earth, the continual rising and setting of the sun and moon, how the winds blow, and how water works. All of these things just keep on going with no intervention from humans. It’s the way God set up the earth to function, all by itself, with all of its systems and processes. These things by themselves do not give life any meaning, and anyone who doesn’t believe in God will not see them as pointing to God, but merely as scientific information on how the world functions.
However, to a person who believes in God, all of these elements of nature point to the one Creator God! Psalm 19 and Romans 1:20 also indicate this to us, that the natural world points us to the one who created all of it. But, the Teacher is looking for some kind of concrete meaning to life. If all of these things just keep going forever, if they have been going on long before we lived, and if they will continue to go on long after we die, they don’t provide any meaning to our individual lives. Is there meaning to be found in nature?
The Teacher elaborates on this idea of things just continuing on and on in verses 8-10. “There is nothing new under the sun” (verse 9b). He emphasizes that no one can ever find something that is truly new; everything is just another version of something that has already been in existence. There is nothing that can truly be new in the sense of giving true meaning to our lives as humans on this earth.
Finally, verse 11 ends on this depressing note: No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them.” All people want to be remembered; it’s part of how we’re wired. We may not all strive to be famous for the whole world to remember us, but we all want to be remembered at least by those closest to us. But this verse implies that no one will ever be remembered at all! The idea behind this verse, however, is that we won’t be remembered because none of us will ever truly find meaning in the things of this world, in the things under the sun.
It has been said that the only way to know true joy is to experience true sorrow, and that’s kind of what Ecclesiastes does. It goes through all the bad and meaningless things of this earth in order to find the true joy of who God is and what He has done for us as His people.
God made this world perfect, and it was us humans who messed it up. We look for life to have meaning in all the wrong places. Maybe you are one who looks to science and the things of the natural world to find meaning, as the Teacher did in today’s verses. While the routine and consistency of many things in nature can be a comfort to us, we don’t find true meaning there. The natural processes all just keep going, no matter if any particular individual is alive or not. While we can and should always appreciate the beauty and rhythm of nature, true meaning is not found there.
I know the book of Ecclesiastes doesn’t sound like a very uplifting book so far, but stick with me. We’ll continue to go through all the places where we can’t find meaning, and as we rule out each one, they’ll bring us closer to where we really can find true meaning.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
“For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” ~Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:2
The Apostle Paul was deemed perhaps the most intellectual man of his day. He wasn’t just a Pharisee, but a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was to be the leader of them all. He protected his religion with fervent zeal until the day he met Jesus Christ. Upon meeting Christ and being born again, Paul became the most zealous evangelist ever. Yet in all that, Paul pushed all his knowledge and all his zeal aside for one thing: to know Christ and to proclaim Him.
Jesus is not merely the Second Person of the Trinity of the Godhead. He is not merely the Savior of the world. He is the Message to the world. John called Him “the Word.” In the Greek, the word for “word” is “logos,” which is the complete expression or message which is to be given. Jesus did not merely come to save and seek the lost. He came as the Message itself.
Everything, and I mean everything, in Scripture is written for one primary purpose: to reveal Christ. Genesis is given to lay the setting of this grand story God is writing. It contains the origins of the universe (Genesis 1-2), the problem when sin entered the world (Genesis 3), and the establishment of the peoples which this Message, this Savior, would come to rescue (Genesis 10-11). It zooms in on one man (Abraham) through whom God’s Message would come. It’s critical to remember that God intended His Message to go to the entire world, not merely one people group. The one people group was to be the vessel through whom that Message would be spread.
Exodus through Deuteronomy covers God’s standards and establishes why Jesus would have to come and die to pay for sin. The history books establish not just the historical data but give us examples, pictures, and types of what Jesus would come and do. The imagery only works if it is history showing it. The writings showcase God’s wisdom. The prophets show God’s sovereignty over history and the nations while also revealing how seriously God takes sin. The four Gospels reveal the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Acts gives us the history of how and why God wanted his Message spread to the ends of the earth. The epistles (letters) reveal the teachings and doctrines we are to follow in Christ, giving us the proper interpretation of both the Old Testament and the rest of the New Testament. Revelation brings the entire epic together in the greatest climax ever where Christ will come for and claim that which is His.
The entire Bible showcases and reveals Jesus Christ. The reason we can trust Jesus is because the Bible is reliable. But also, we can find out what the Bible actually meant to say by looking at Jesus. We can do that because both are the Word of God. The Bible is the Message in textual form. Jesus is the Message in living flesh. When Paul met Christ, he realized that everything he learned had to point to Him or it was false. He went to Scripture to show the Jews who their Savior would be. He occasionally went to the Greek poets to appeal to their history in how God dealt with them to showcase the True God. But his starting point and ending point was Jesus Christ. He was hyper-focused on his Savior.
When Paul went to Mars Hill and preached to the intellectual elite of the world, he not only told them they were all wrong in how they worshiped the “unknown god,” but he took them back to who God was and how He established the universe. Paul went to Creation. He declared that all people are of one flesh. That can only make sense if Genesis and Noah’s Flood and the Tower of Babel are true history. But his end goal wasn’t to get people to believe Genesis; his goal was to get people to believe Christ.
Here at Worldview Warriors, several of us have heavily talked about origins, but the primary reason for doing so is two-fold: 1) because that is where the front line of the battle over the integrity and authority of Scripture is being fought, and 2) because if Genesis is true, the need for a Savior is obvious. When you read the atheists, who are being honest in their reason for believing Evolution, it is nearly universally for moral reasons. They KNOW that the science doesn’t support their position, but because if the universe was created by the God of the Bible as described, then the same God holds man accountable for his actions and man will face Him on Judgment Day. They refuse to consider that, so they will believe what they know is foolish just to keep blinders on from seeing that day coming. All their arguments about “science” is just a façade to cover the true motivation, which is unbelief.
What I appreciate the most about the Young Earth Creation organizations is their focus on Christ. Origins is just their angle of approach, but their target is Christ. You cannot hear a presentation from Answers in Genesis without hearing some form of a Gospel message. Ken Ham is so clear that the Gospel is his focus. And while some of his apologetics can miss the mark, his aim is always heading the same direction. He purposed to share the Gospel three times with Bill Nye in his formal debate with him back in 2014. When I went to the Ark Encounter, while much of it was focused on defending the plausibility of the Genesis account, the central focus is clearly on Christ and the cross. I have not yet been to ICR’s new Discovery Center, but when they came to El Paso for a conference last year, again, the Gospel was the end goal.
As Christians, we must present one message: Jesus Christ. While we may speak about origins, the reason must be to get to Christ. While we may speak about politics, the reason must be that Christ be glorified and that His rule is supreme. While we may speak about sports, the reason should be to enjoy each other and Christ. While we may speak about science, the reason should be to pick the mind of Christ, the active Creating agent of creation and of Whom and for Whom it is all made. While we speak about history, the reason should be to see what Jesus Christ was doing through that time period. Everything should ultimately be about Christ.
People are so confused about Christianity today because the organized churches are focused on just about anything except that which unifies the Church: Christ. Let us get back to Christ. In 2020, let Christ be our focus and our sole desire. If we get Christ, we get everything that comes with Him. While all His blessings come, so do all the sufferings. The sufferings are temporary, but the blessings are eternal. And the greatest blessing of all is to simply be with Him. Christ is the Message. Let us speak only that Message, and let Christ be who He said He was in our lives and in our world. Let 2020 be a glorious new year where Christ is more central than ever before.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
Next week, many of us will be celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Last week, I wrapped up my series on characteristics of false teachings and tactics of false teachers. In between writing that series and working on a critique of an Old Earth Creation book in which the authors’ intention was to refute the possibility of a global flood (in my opinion, the 11 PhDs did a very poor job at it), I have been coming to realize something: exactly how lost the lost are.
We live in an academically charged society just as the Greeks were during the time of the early church. They are “educated” by the world’s standards, yet they truly know NOTHING. In this book I was reading, I noticed the authors directly quoting some Young Earth Creation comments and completely butcher them when analyzing them. As “educated” as these authors are, after all they have PhDs and have been working their fields for decades, I got the strong impression they literally cannot comprehend the Biblical Creation, even those among them who claim to be Christian.
I am not insulting these authors, though they typical response from them is to be insulted if anyone doesn’t believe them, but coming to the realization that they are lost. They don’t know any better. They are products of the world’s system, wise by the world’s standards, and God simply calls it foolishness. All their knowledge is not built upon the Word of God, even though a few of them attempt to give Him lip service credit after the fact. Their knowledge is built upon the world’s system and the world’s way of thinking which is naturalistic and anti-supernatural (being defined as not merely miraculous but also not having any input from God). In the process, God is instilling into me a pity for these people who were taught a methodology and worldview that is a complete lie. I have to ask myself: “Do I see these people as enemies who need to be removed, or as a harvest? Do I seek their judgment for their rebellion against God, or as prisoners of false teachings needing salvation?” That is part of what this Christmas season is all about.
Jesus had one mission while on this earth: to seek and to save the lost. He described himself as a physician coming to tend not the healthy but the sick. The problem is that so few of us recognize we are sick. Many who have any history in Christian circles knows that Jesus came to die for our sins, but so few of us really have a grasp of how wicked that sin really is. Sin is much more than just telling a lie, murdering someone with hatred, stealing from someone, or even having an idol in our hearts. It also includes any worldview that does not view things the way God defines them. If at any time we use the lens of man, be it on ourselves or our culture or whatnot to do something, it is not in agreement with God and that is sin. And no one, except Jesus Christ, ever had a completely 100% correct worldview. So that means every single person, except Jesus, has participated in sin, no matter how sincere they are or how “good” they are. Every person is not in complete agreement with God and that, by definition, is sin.
When a geologist looks at the rock layers in the Grand Canyon and proclaims that there was no global flood and this took place over millions of years, he is denying God the record He gave of our history and thus calling Him a liar. That is sin. It came from a sinful worldview, and no matter how sincere this geologist is and how honest he is being to his worldview, his sin in this matter is believing a lie instead of the Word of God. The same geologists get incensed when a Young Earth Creationist comes around and proclaims the Word of God as having the authority on ALL matters in which it speaks, including a historic record of a Global Flood. Why do they get mad? In a word: pride. Just like the Pharisees in Jesus’ time, the Greek philosophers whom Paul addressed on Mars’ Hill, and the idolaters who lost their business due to Paul’s preaching in Ephesus, these scientists get on the defensive because they cannot handle the idea that someone might believe God over them. Just listen to them. When you question their claims, they proclaim themselves to be the “experts” with a “How dare you question me?” tone.
If you know the truth, the truth shall set you free. Jesus came to rescue the lost, the sheep without a shepherd. He came to save us not merely from the fires of hell, but from the false, enslaving teachings, whether they come from the pulpits of the church, the pulpits of the classroom, or the science lab. Biblical Creationists have a singular goal in their apologetic purpose: to point people to the Savior. There is no point to believing in a 6000-year-old universe created in 6 days without also pointing to where it all leads: the cross. Jesus came to save the people and grant them true freedom – freedom to discern the clean from the unclean, the holy from the unholy, and freedom to live their lives as unto Christ instead of as unto the puppeteers of this world.
But Jesus came to do more than just to save the lost people from the false teachings. He also came to save those lost and teaching those false teachings. Jesus didn’t hang out with the Pharisees because He wanted to show Himself to be better than them and to prove them all wrong. He did prove them wrong on many occasions, but why? To save them, too. Nicodemus was one of them. But in order for Nicodemus to be saved, he had to be born again. For his case, he had to scrap everything he knew, start all over again, and start with one singular volume: Christ. Paul had to be born again too. While he was perhaps the most educated man of his era, he realized that everything he knew was useless, pointless, and no more valuable that dung, when he compared it all to Christ.
While in my mind I constantly battle unbelievers’ arguments, one thing I am asking God for is the heart to seek and save the lost as Jesus had. As I battle false teachings, it is difficult to separate the enslaved person from the enslaved teachings. On the other side of the world in Africa and the Middle East, children are being captured and trained to be “soldiers” for the armies, and they will kill because that is all they know. They don’t know they are being used as pawns by generals who care more for their own ideas than their children’s lives. The same is true in the academic world. Satan plays dirty. He deceives people to not merely believe a lie, but to believe it so much that they will defend that which enslaves and destroys them. They don’t know they are lost and need saving.
I am reminded of Richard Wurmbrand whom in Tortured for Christ tells his readers that if the Communist could be saved from Communism, they would not be such evil people. I want that mentality. If those in academia today could be saved from the philosophical naturalism that dominates their minds and see the Truth, things would be so much better, and we would not be having the complete moral breakdown we are witnessing today. Paul is such a good example of this: the most zealous hunter of Christians became the most zealous hunter for souls for Christ. Imagine if Richard Dawkins became authentically born again. The entire academic world would not know what to do. It would be even worse to the political world still panicking over Trump’s election. It would shatter the world and the worldview it’s placing upon people. Just look at what’s happening with Kanye West; both the secular and Christian world are reeling trying to figure out what is happening with him. The same happened with Paul at his conversion: both sides didn’t know how to respond. May God use Kanye should his conversion truly be genuine (as the signs are currently pointing towards).
Jesus came to seek and save the lost, from the starving poor of Africa, to the jungle warrior of the Amazon, to the suburbia of the U.S., to the elite scientists, and even to the politicians. Let us not forget that every one of us was or still is lost. Jesus’ comment about being a physician were not to suggest that there are some healthy and some sick, but that all are sick and in need of a doctor. I still need that Doctor, because I’ve not experienced full freedom from sin yet and I won’t until my time comes. I have to remember that the only reason I have not been enslaved by the deceptions in this world is because of the grace of God. It’s not because I “got it figured out.” Anything God gives to me is meant to be shared and that includes the truth and how God has been training me to teach others to trust Him. We are called to rescue the lost as the physical body of Christ. Next week, I’ll address how we do that: by declaring the one singular message God gave to us, Jesus Christ.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
I believe that our relationship with God is the biggest paradox of the Christian faith. God is the all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the entire universe, and He is, of course, infinitely better than us in every aspect. Based on that, He should be unknowable to us - and to some extent He definitely is. But at the same time, this almighty God also desires to have a personal relationship with Him. He knows us more intimately than any other person ever possibly could, and that’s not because He “has to” as our creator but that He wants to as the loving God He is. It’s quite a paradox!
Psalm 139, which we’re taking a look at today, highlights that personal relationship between God and us, and the intimate knowledge that God has of us. The words that the psalmist writes are personal between him and God, but they apply to us as well. I’d encourage you to go read the entire psalm here before continuing on reading this post because it’s important to have the context of the whole psalm in mind.
The theme of verses 1-6 is that God knows His people. That’s not a knowing like I know someone’s name or maybe a few facts about them. This knowing is the most intimate kind of knowing that there is. God knows both our thoughts and our actions. He knows the words we’ll say even before we speak them! All of this knowledge is too “wonderful” for us; it would make our human brains explode. We can’t even begin to comprehend knowing any one person in that intimate manner, yet God knows us all.
God alone is capable of having this knowledge not only about a few people, but about every person who has ever lived, who is currently living, or will ever live! Just that fact alone should blow your mind, not to mention actually knowing every word or action of every person ever. Wow.
That shows us the paradox of our relationship with God. He is so amazing that He can have all that knowledge, and yet He still knows each one of us on such a personal, individual level that it truly is amazing.
We see in verses 7-12 that we can never escape God’s presence. Whether we go high to the heavens or low to the depths of the oceans, God is there. It’s not that the psalmist is trying to escape from God for some reason, but he is showing us the amazing presence of this all-knowing God. This just further shows us that God is so far beyond our grasp in His amazing presence and knowledge. God is absolutely sovereign and in control over all of creation; even darkness cannot overpower Him because He is light.
Now that we have established how well God knows each of us and His presence throughout the entire world, we now ask, for what purpose? What does all this mean and why does it matter?
Verse 13 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” We can be confident in God’s ability to know us because of how He created us. He didn’t just throw each one of us together without any thought, or create us like a copy-and-paste job, but He created our inmost being and knit us together in our mother’s wombs. That is a very intentional creating, showing how much God knows, loves, and cares for each and every person - even before we’re born.
What should we do because of that? We should praise God! Verse 14 says, “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” We need no other reason than to praise God but that we are created by Him. We know that God only does wonderful things, and because one of His actions was to create each of us, we know that we are wonderfully made. We should praise Him because of that. We can be aware of God’s presence with us and the amazing knowledge that He has about us, and the fact that He still loves us; for that God is worthy of all praise.
Verses 15-16 go into more detail about how God made each one of us. Even when we were not yet born and God was creating each of us, He already had a purpose for our lives. He had already ordained all of our days - as many or as few as we get to live on this earth - before we even lived our very first day.
In verses 17-18, the psalmist is again amazed at God’s thoughts and how He is so knowable but yet completely unknowable. God’s thoughts are way too magnificent and wonderful for mankind to comprehend. They would outnumber the grains of sand if we were to try and count them - which, of course, is impossible.
In verses 19-22, the psalm’s tone changes from one of thanksgiving, praise, and amazement to one of anguish. The Lord has been good to the psalmist, but people in the world have not treated him in the same way. He knows that God is good, and he prays that God would remove all of the evil from this world that is messing up God’s perfect creation. The psalmist goes into detail about how he hates those who hate God; he cannot even be in relationship with them if they are against His God, the God who created him and knows every intimate detail about him.
It is only because of his love for God that the psalmist hates those who are evil. He knows that the goodness of God cannot be present around any evil at all. Coming off of accusations of those who hate God, the psalmist asks God in verses 23-24 to help discern his motivations. The psalmist wants to honor God by following His will no matter what, even if that makes him change how he feels about those who do evil in this world. He knows that there is an “offensive way” and a “way everlasting,” and he desires for God to lead him in the right way.
How does it make you feel that God knows every intimate detail about you? He loves you so much that He wants to know you that well. The amazing, all-powerful God who created everything wants to know every little detail about us!
Do you believe that God created you, and every human, so intentionally that He knit you together in your mother’s womb? What is your reaction to this? Do you praise God for it and live your life in a way that honors His creation? God has a purpose for you; are you living it out, or at least working on discerning what that purpose is?
Are you following the way of the world, or are you seeking God to lead you in the way everlasting? God knows us, God loves us, and God will lead us as much as we will follow Him and be obedient to Him. I pray that you will realize even a fraction of how much God loves you and that you would truly desire to live that out every single day that God has ordained for you.
If you want to dig deeper into Psalm 139, I encourage you to check out the devotional book Known: A Journey Through Psalm 139 written by my good friend Katie Wolfe. As a fun bonus, it's a coloring book too!
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song. For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care” (Psalm 95:1-7a).
When I read these opening verses of Psalm 95, my mind immediately went to church services I attended growing up in the Lutheran Church. We sang these words, almost exactly word-for-word, as a part of the weekly service liturgy, though I had to do a little research to determine exactly which part of the service it was. (In case you’re curious, I believe it was the Venite in the Order of Matins.)
It is fascinating to me how something that was put to music and sang over and over again really sticks in a person’s head! It’s been many years since I regularly attended that congregation, yet as soon as I read the first line of this psalm my brain immediately put the tune to this whole section.
God has given the gift of music to His creation, and one of the great uses of music is, of course, to praise our God who gave it to us. Many of the psalms in the Bible have been turned into the songs we still sing in our congregations today. Going through a number of psalms this year, I’ve ran across many lines that are lyrics to hymns and songs that I know.
Music not only gives us an avenue to worship our God, but it also helps us learn about Him. We are able to learn and truly remember many things when they are put to music; just ask any small child who learns to sing the alphabet song! I used to work with a man who was in his 50s then who would actually start singing the alphabet song anytime he had to search for anything in alphabetical order. Music really sticks with us!
This opening section of the psalm calls us to worship God (verses 1-2), praises God for who He is as our Creator (verses 3-5), calls us again to worship Him (verse 6), and praises Him again for the relationship we have with Him (verse 7). While we can (and should) worship God at all times and in all places, we are called to come together to praise Him. The primary purpose of this gathering is not to find out what’s going on in each other’s lives but to praise the God who created us all and has saved us from our sins. God is truly the great King.
These thoughts are not just relevant to when we are worshiping God through music in a Sunday church service, but we could use these words to praise our God every day of the week. He is truly always worthy of our praise and worship, every moment of every day!
The psalm changes its focus a bit starting at the end of verse 7. The remainder of the psalm expresses God’s judgment on the people and their response to it. The people have been disobedient, but they are given a chance to repent and start again. The story of the Israelites forgetting and being ungrateful for the works that God did to bring them out of slavery in Egypt is used here as an example of what the people of Israel kept doing - and we do it too. They tested and tried God and went astray from Him, just as we do. But just as God kept giving them many “second chances,” He does that for us too.
Where is your heart toward God today? Are you praising Him for the great things He has done in your life? Or have you gone astray and need to turn back to Him? Do you praise God every day, or just on Sunday mornings at church? What songs of praise are on your heart, or stuck deep in your mind somewhere that you need to bring back to the forefront to praise God again? Let us sing for joy to the Lord and come before Him with thanksgiving every day!
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
by Logan Ames
You may have heard of the old saying, “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach." It’s probably accurate in some situations in the world, but the saying simply is not compatible with being a Christian, especially a Christian leader or teacher. Nobody is perfect, but there is a certain type of moral character that must be present in the life of someone who wants to teach others about Christ and His way of life. When it comes to following Jesus, those who cannot do simply cannot teach!
I remember having an amazing professor when I was in seminary by the name of Dr. George Fry. He taught church history and other subjects, and he was by far my favorite professor and teacher during my three years of working toward a Master of Divinity degree. One day, he made a rather abrupt decision to leave his position as professor at the end of that trimester. I was close enough with Dr. Fry to ask him what was behind his decision to leave. I’ll never forget the heartbreak and frustration with which he told me that he had caught one of his students plagiarizing someone else’s work, presented the evidence right in front of the student, and then the student maintained that it was not plagiarism. Dr. Fry was dumbfounded that someone would try to cheat their way through seminary, and that others in that same class simply were not willing to do the necessary work to learn and get through the course. He shared with me that it was a pattern he was seeing and that he couldn’t give his heart and effort to students who were willing to find any shortcuts they could to get the degree.
Dr. Fry had spent many years not only teaching but also pastoring churches. He knew how incredibly difficult the work is and believed that anyone who was willing to cheat their way through seminary had no business teaching, preaching, or leading in the Church in any way. He would often say, somewhat jokingly but somewhat truthfully, that the work of a pastor is so difficult that people should be doing anything they can to get out of it! In his eyes, someone who would take shortcuts wouldn’t cut it in the real world where ministry is hard. Charles Spurgeon famously said in his lecture “The Call to Ministry," “Do not enter the ministry if you can help it." He would go on to suggest that if a person can be content doing literally anything else, he is not called to the ministry.
Being a Christian teacher is not as easy as it may seem from time to time. This is the basic sentiment of James in James 3:1-2. Apparently, some of the earliest believers to whom James wrote viewed teaching in the Church as a very prestigious position. It is only one department of church work, but it was the department that became the most popular. It seems that people were aspiring to be teachers without factoring in the counting of the cost that would be required of them. So, James is clear that those who want to be teachers should approach it with at least some level of trepidation. He writes, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly” (v. 1). In other words, for myself, any other pastor, and even those who write and speak and lead for Worldview Warriors, we had better take the responsibility very seriously.
We are accountable to God first and foremost, and He happens to see every single thing we do behind the scenes. We can put on a show and fool a lot of people, but there is no fooling God. People can assume that we are living according to Christ’s commands because we are so brilliant in conveying them to others, but God knows the truth and will judge us accordingly. Being a teacher of the Word is an honor and a calling, but it’s also a commitment to walk the walk rather than just “talk the walk." That’s not a typo either. Teachers do more than talk the talk; they actually talk the walk. True followers of Jesus walk the walk.
James then gives the best example to show how easily we fail to walk the walk, and strikingly, he includes HIMSELF. He says, “We all stumble in many ways. Anyone who is never at fault in what they say is perfect, able to keep their whole body in check” (v. 2). Even though James includes himself among those who stumble (which is everyone), he doesn’t excuse the stumbling. He instead uses this reality to explain why being a teacher is so difficult. Not only are we judged more strictly, but we have far more opportunities to sin with words than those who are not called to be teachers. Think about the ways we can sin with words as teachers. We can use words to boast and be prideful. We can selectively report what God’s Word says and only give people a portion of the truth because we’re either scared to offend or scared that someone will take advantage of the grace we offer. Teachers, like all human beings, can also sin against others with words. We might slander, gossip, lie, harm, name-call, or insincerely flatter others for a purpose. It happens so easily that we must be careful and be cognizant of how easily we fall into sin as teachers.
Sinning with the tongue is so easily done that James goes so far as to say that conquering this sin means one is perfect. In other words, James feels that even those who are able to resist every other temptation and avoid sinning in any other way are still susceptible to sinning with words. Personally, I know the damage I have done with words and the damage I can still do with words. The sins of the tongue are possibly the most unrecognizable to us; we often do it without even realizing we are sinning. This is all the more reason to avoid becoming a teacher of God’s Word unless you are absolutely certain it is your calling and absolutely certain that you will strive for the rest of your life to do all that you can to make sure you are not a hypocrite when your words are measured against your actions.
With all of this being said, being a teacher of God’s Word is still an amazingly blessed calling. It may be difficult to always live out what we teach, but at the same time, we have even more motivation to live a Christ-like life than others. If I wasn’t a teacher, I probably wouldn’t care as much about my actions or be as bothered by my mistakes as I am now. Jesus said, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked” (Luke 12:48). I know that I am blessed and have been given much. In fact, I was told by Worldview Warriors that this is my 300th blog post for this ministry! It’s crazy to think that God has allowed me to do that much even though He alone knows every sin I’ve carried and every misstep I’ve made over those years. His grace is surely enough, yet it motivates me to constantly strive to do better. If you want to be someone who teaches and shares God’s Word with the world, then hopefully it will motivate you as well.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
Jehovah Nissi: The Lord my banner
I’ve never been the kind of person that does war cries or chants or pep talks or what not. I know their purpose and their intent to rile someone up, get them on an emotional high, and spook out the opponent. It doesn’t matter whether its in actual war, a sport, or even a business meeting. I’m simply not that kind of person. I find shouting at your opponent is a waste of energy while I simply stand there with confidence of “Watch out!”
There only time I’ve ever actually enjoyed a war cry is from Eric Ludy’s short sermon on the Israel’s war cry which I wrote about in one of my first blog posts for Worldview Warriors. RAK CHAZAK! Be strong and courageous! Do not give in to fear! That is the only one I’ve ever been able to buy into.
The purpose of war cries and chants is to get the people motivated, and there’s something about crowd mentality in that too. When you see a group of football players getting into their rhythm, you don’t want to interrupt that, because they are a force to contend with. When the group gets a high morale, it is tough to break. Likewise, when the morale is down, it takes a leader to raise the banner, the flag, or the symbol of what you fight or play for and call for everyone else to bring on their best. In the movie The Patriot in the final battle, the American lines fell before the British troops and Benjamin Martin, played by Mel Gibson, grabbed a U.S. flag from a retreating soldier and rallied the troops to where they soon claimed victory.
The Bible has such a moment too, and that is where the name Jehovah Nissi came about. In Exodus 17, Amalek rose up to try to stop Israel from crossing the wilderness and reach Mt. Sinai. Moses sent Joshua out to lead the battle while he climbed a hill to oversee it. Moses lifted his hands and as long as his hands were up, Israel won, but when they fell, Amalek gained ground. Aaron and Hur realized this and rushed to Moses’ aid, holding his hands up until victory was achieved. Moses’ raised hands was little different than raising a flag or a banner and as long as it was up, the people’s morale remained high. Moses knew he was nothing special in this, but it was God the whole time. So, he gave God the name Jehovah Nissi to commemorate that battle.
In each of these cases, we see a leader or a banner, some image that represents all the athletes and soldiers stand for. It is the rallying point, the signal caller, and the hope of the combatants. When a fort surrenders, they lower the flag. When a fort is in distress, they fly the flag upside down to notify those outside there is danger in the fort. When a fort or nation is in mourning, they fly the flags at half-mast.
What should be the most famous case of a flag flying can be found at Ft. McHenry in the War of 1812. This was the moment in which Francis Scott Key penned the Star-Spangled Banner. The British troops pulled their entire armada to shell the fort only to be stopped by surrender, as recognized by that flag on the fort ramparts. The people knew precisely what that flag meant and despite being shot down again and again, the people ran to that flag throughout the night and held it up in person. That is something we Americans don’t understand anymore: the courage to “rather die on your feet, than live on your knees” (quote from movie clip cited above). But it is also something missing in our Christian lives as well.
We have a banner, a rallying point, and a symbol that represents who we fight for and who we represent. That banner is God himself: Jehovah Nissi. He is not only the one we turn to for shelter, but He is the very symbol that brings us together, riles us up, and sends us charging back into the battle for souls. God is the one telling our souls to get up, to get back into the fight, to rise up, and engage the spiritual forces holding people hostage.
The problem is so few of us only turn to God for our immediate needs and not as a rallying point. We go to church mostly for the social gathering or for listening to a good talk, but church is meant to be so much more than that. Church is meant to be a place where the flag of Jesus Christ flies. It is a place where a pastor sounds the horn to rally the troops, give us our orders for engaging this world, and send us back to battle strengthened and encouraged. So few pastors see their role that way. Even though I lead a Bible study group at my church, I often don’t think of it this way either. But imagine the change of church behavior and attitude if we did.
Do we have someone calling to us to rally us together? Do we see the banner to be raised? In this sermon excerpt, Paul Washer says what costs him sleep is this: “To pace a room at night, saying ‘There is a place. There is a place, where He is not worshiped, where He is not worshiped. There is a place where He is not worshiped. I cannot sleep. There is a place where He is not worshiped. There is a place where the flag of Zion does not fly.’” Who thinks like that? It’s supposed to be Christians. Not super-Christians, not elite Christians, but everyday Christians. Our job as ambassadors is to not merely plead with people to come to Christ but to expand the territory of the Kingdom. Do we think that way?
To whom do we rally? To what cause? For which kingdom? Sadly, many of us fight for something other than Christ and His Kingdom, and especially when we do so under the guise of doing just that. It’s a clever trick of the enemy and he’s good at it. Instead, let us raise the banner of Christ high and let the world know that we proclaim the name of Jesus, Jehovah Nissi, the Lord my banner. He is our war cry. He is our rallying point. He is our motivator. He is our general who gives us His orders. Let us rally together at the banner that is Christ and see to it that His name be raised and glorified in every aspect of our lives.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
I started, as did you, with a moment shared between my mother and my father. All of us spring from those shared moments, whether they’re occasioned by brokenness or wholeness, violence or love. Nevertheless, they are the essential beginning of a brand-new human being. (I realize there are technical means to circumvent this normal way, but on the whole, those means hold a vanishingly small percentage of conceptions. Besides, this is a reflection not a technical manual.)
Every seed is full of information, and that information has a destiny. For example, an acorn must become an oak tree if it becomes anything at all. It cannot become something else. The destiny of the acorn is to become a mature oak tree, create acorns, and then having fulfilled its destiny, it dies. It is the same for humans.
The material supplied by my parents was rich with information and energy and when combined, produced a new entity—me. The latent energy in my newly formed zygotic self soon was expended; so, in order to bring about the destiny that was also latent in me, I had to consume energy and it has been that way ever since—matter, energy, and teleological information (DNA).
As I grew, I consumed more energy in various forms; my cells split, regrouped, and repeated the process. My body appropriated nutrients from everywhere it could absorb them in order to grow larger, become more complex, and sustain life. Like an acorn growing into an oak, I absorbed matter and energy into my body, appropriating it in order to fulfill my own latent purpose.
But what is that purpose? That question has completely absorbed 20th century philosophy. Is there “something more” to our existence than just eating and reproducing?
The bond of matter, energy, and information (DNA) in the case of humans is more than the sum of its parts. It is more than just an entity capable of consuming and appropriating energy. After all, a plant can do all of those things, and a human being is so much more than a plant. For instance, I have consciousness and the plant does not. Animals have consciousness and have a higher form of existence than plants, but a human being is more than even an animal.
For example, I am self-aware. I can grasp cognitive of concepts like algebra, history, and the future. I can do more than react to present stimuli. These separate me from even the highest animals. I have abilities in my conscious mind that an animal can never have; an animal never wonders if he has done the moral thing, for instance.
Human beings have a higher form of existence than plants or animals. I am much more than an entity that consumes energy and produces matter according to a preordained pattern of information (DNA). I am more than the sum of my parts—and, constant reader, so are you. This is the synergistic reality of the human being.
In philosophy and theology, the soul is the thing that is greater than the sum of its parts. My composite parts cannot explain who I really am. I am not just a body, an eating machine. I am not just a domino in a cosmic chain of events. I am a soul and I have a body.
Not surprisingly, this is what we find also taught in the Bible. It says that in the very beginning “God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).
This remarkable act of God confirms that I truly am more than just matter, energy, and information. God imparted something additional to Adam once he was formed. It was the addition of a rational soul. No other created thing received such a soul, making you and me unique. Adam and Eve reproduced according to their kind, and so on, all the way down to me. I am a conscious, enfleshed soul and accordingly, I will never cease to exist.
Because of this reality that deep down we all know about ourselves, the naturalistic story lacks appeal. It seeks to classify us in terms of eating and reproducing mammals, saying that we are just matter and energy accidently joined for no reason or purpose.
Even though the naturalistic story lacks appeal, many have bought in to it because they have been schooled only by naturalism. The details of the creation story are characterized as a fairy tale, never mind that the naturalist story doesn’t account for very many of the details of our real lives.
The naturalistic story is less than the total story, and because many today have built their mental lives around it, they have shunted their lives. They try to cram all meaning and value into just this life—the eating and drinking and being merry. The problem is that after all the eating and drinking is done, we still feel that we are missing out on something. Is this all there is to life? If you answer “Yes,” you will eventually come to a crisis of meaning and value.
But if you believe there must be something more to life, a spiritual dimension or something, I have good news for you. We live in a thick world full of spirit, soul, and body. It is a world that is charged with spiritual beings great and small, good and evil. And over it all is a good God, a maximally perfect God, who loves His creation so much that He does the unthinkable to keep it connected to Him. But that is for another time. Blessings, constant reader.
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.
Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.” (Psalm 1)
As I start digging into the Psalms for my blog posts in 2019, what better place would there be to start than at the beginning? There are 150 psalms in the Bible. Doing a nearly 3-year series on all 150 psalms seemed pretty overwhelming, so over the course of this year I’ll be writing on about a third of them. If you have a favorite you’d like me to write on, leave a comment to let me know and I’ll see if I can include it, or it may even already be on my list.
Psalm 1 is one of my favorites because of its stark contrasts and imagery, and how it gives a great overview on how to live our lives in relationship with God.
In verse 1, we see that we are blessed when we follow God. We are warned of a three-fold danger of things that will pull us away from God: walking with the wicked, standing with sinners, and sitting with mockers. The original Hebrew more literally says “walk in the counsel of the wicked,” meaning taking their advice to do what they do. This is following the ways of the world that go against God. Standing in the way of sinners doesn’t mean standing against them but rather agreeing with them. We generally become like those we hang out with. Sitting in the company of mockers means we’re joining in with what they do.
Notice the progression in verse 1, from walking to standing to sitting. As we move from walking to sitting, it gets more difficult for us to change course. If you’re walking, it’s pretty easy to turn around and go the other way - away from sin and toward God. If you’re standing, turning around is still pretty easy, but you don’t have the same momentum you had when you’re walking. If you’re sitting, it’s much more difficult to change your direction. By that point, we’re firmly entrenched in the ways of the world and going against the blessed ways of following God.
Verse 2 starts with a strong contrasting conjunction (“but”), showing the major difference between a person fully following the world versus one who is following God. As a Christian, we should have delight in the Word of God, not the ways of this world! God’s Word should be exciting, delightful, and inspirational to us. We must move against the tide to make God’s Word our delight. We have to intentionally work on this in our lives, lest we get sucked into the world we live in. We should study the Word, pray on it, hear it preached, and have faith in it - day and night!
In the English of verse 2, we see the phrase “meditate on it.” In the Hebrew, that verb means to constantly mutter it under your breath. We should always keep God’s Word in our hearts and minds, even muttering it to ourselves so we don’t forget.
Verse 3 gives us a picture of what that looks like - being like a tree planted by streams of water. The tree reaches its roots down into the stream drawing life from the water. We were planted like that tree when we became believers in Jesus Christ, and we need the water of the Holy Spirit to keep us nourished. The tree here bears fruit - just like the fruit of the Spirit we see in Galatians 5:22-23, which the Spirit produces in our lives. It’s not the fruit of our own actions; we’ll fail if we try to do all these things in our own power. But if we’re living with God’s Word as our delight, we’ll be filled with His Spirit and the fruit will be evident.
This verse doesn’t necessarily refer to prosperity like the world sees it with material possessions, but as God sees prosperity - furthering God’s Kingdom and being obedient to what He wants us to do.
So after 3 verses of descriptions of what it looks like to live a Godly life, verses 4-5 are much more abrupt in describing the judgment of the ungodly. The tree of the Godly person is strongly rooted, whereas the chaff of the wicked is very light and will simply be blown away. The chaff is with the wheat until the wind blows, just like the righteous and wicked people are all together here on earth until the day of judgment.
In Biblical times, if you went before a judge after being accused of a crime, you had to either stand or sit. If you stood, it meant you believed you were innocent. If you did not stand, you believed you were guilty. Only the righteous can stand to declare their innocence. The wicked will not be able to stand in the day of judgment, because they know they have gone against God’s ways. You don’t want to be one of those ungodly ones who are judged, and don’t let your friends be those either! There is only bad in store for them, even if it seems they may have happiness for now in this lifetime.
In verse 6, we see in the English, “For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous.” In the Hebrew, the word for “watches over” can also be translated as “knows,” and it’s the most intimate, close way of knowing someone. God doesn’t just know your name, He knows YOU! He knows everything about you - everything you’ve ever said or done, your deepest longings, and your greatest joys. If we have faith in God, then we are considered righteous and God knows us that intimately, but if we are wicked then our way leads to destruction rather than God.
How can we approach this almighty God so easily? It’s only through His Son, Jesus. It’s only because of Jesus that we can stand on the day of judgment and declare our innocence, and it’s only because of Jesus that we as sinners can approach our perfect God and not be destroyed.
Do you see the difference between the blessed man and the ungodly? The ungodly are not blessed by God; they do not have delight in God's Word, and they will not bear fruit by the Holy Spirit. The ungodly shall not stand in the day of judgment. But those of us who have faith in Jesus and who are covered by His blood, we will have blessing from God! We will stand in the day of judgment. We will study His Word and bear fruit.
Take a good look at your life this week. Where do you see yourself at in this psalm?
This forum is meant to foster discussion and allow for differing viewpoints to be explored with equal and respectful consideration. All comments are moderated and any foul language or threatening/abusive comments will not be approved. Users who engage in threatening or abusive comments which are physically harmful in nature will be reported to the authorities.
