the gate

I found this and thought I would post this here. It is of utmost importance to our reading of Sacred Scripture. May it help in our understanding of who we are and most importantly Who God is. To God be the glory.

There are two ways to read the Bible. The one way to read the Bible is that it’s basically about you: what you have to do in order to be right with God, in which case you’ll never have a sure and certain hope, because you’ll always know you’re not quite living up. You’ll never be sure about that future. Or you can read it as all about Jesus. Every single thing is not about what you must do in order to make yourself right with God, but what he has done to make you absolutely right with God. And Jesus Christ is saying, “Unless you can read the Bible right, unless you can understand salvation by grace, you’ll never have a sure and certain hope. But once you understand it’s all about me, Jesus Christ, then you can know that you have peace. You can know that you have this future guaranteed, and you can face anything.”
Tim Keller

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1 thessalonians 4:30-33:  what shall we say then? that Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. why? because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. they stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, “BEHOLD , I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

it’s a little difficult for me to think of Jesus as a stumbling block.  but here it is, plain as day.  it goes hand in hand with Jesus’ teachings on how He would turn son against father in matthew chapter 10.  it’s almost counter-intuitive given what we know about God.

but i think this particular teaching is a lot like peter walking on water.  peter was fine as long as he was focused on Jesus.  as soon as he took his eyes off of Him and placed them on the water, physics took over.

jesus is only a stumbling block if our focus is in the wrong place.

is the Law bad?  did God get it wrong when he penned the Law through his prophets?  did He regret His teachings and admit that somehow the wisest being ever to have existed, the alpha and omega and creator of our universe, made a mistake?

nope.  the Law is and always will be God’s words, and furthermore, His truth and wisdom.  the reason that Jesus is ever a stumbling block is that we have our eyes fixed in the wrong place.  we can look at the Law without any understanding of faith, and suddenly we trip over Jesus.  but when we look at the Law through the eyes of faith, suddenly we walk on water like Peter did.

why did Israel fail?  was it that they had bad information?  no.  it was because they did not pursue the Law through faith.

we should all be striving to live lives worthy of our calling as adopted sons and daughters, but it must be through faith and not law.  otherwise, we’ll fall flat on our face having tripped over Jesus Himself.

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There is an oft-neglected principle taught in the New Testament. I call it the principle of “graduated responsibility.” This principle is taught by Jesus in Luke 12:48: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded” (NIV).

This saying is part of the parable of the faithful steward. It underscores the terms of the judgment the lord in the parable renders to his servants. The punishment meted out is given in direct proportion to the prior knowledge each servant had:

“That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.” (vv. 47-48, NIV)

Here we see that judgment and punishment are rendered according to knowledge as well as action. The greater the knowledge, the greater the accountability.

Are you a faithful steward over all that God has entrusted to you?

For Further Study

Luke 12:47-48: “And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he who did not know, yet committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.”

1 Corinthians 4:2: “Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.” 

– R.C. Sproul - Accepting Graduated Responsibility

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i’ve always thought that is we took the Law and Grace side by side and voted to see which life is harder, i would vote for grace.  i’m not referring to salvation necessarily, because fulfilling the Law to “earn” salvation is not just hard but impossible.  but in the sense of “lifestyle” for lack of better terms, i think grace is much harder.

see, with the Law, we had clearly drawn out rules and expectations that we could enumerate and follow.  for example:

• do not murder - pretty easy (for me at least)
• observe the sabbath - pull up your bark-o-lounger (sp?) and a coke and watch football all day.  what a sacrifice…
• give a tithe of your money to the Lord - grab your calculator and checkbook, not too hard

however, with grace, we have to listen to the Holy Spirit.  we have to consider our character and our values and what is truly important to us.  consider the opposite of the above passages:

• do not be angry at your brother - not so easy is it?
• live in community and fellowship with your brothers and sisters - that can get messy and difficult, right?
• give generously - i don’t necessarily consider 10% generous, it’s more like a calculated expenditure

in 2 corinthians chapter 8 paul teaches the Church about giving generously.  he uses the example of the macedonian churches that “in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality”.  they gave “according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord”.  and trip on this:  “…begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints”.

i’m pretty sure that the macedonian churches had moved on from the tithe at this point.  they were looking for ways to use their earthly resources to support the work of the Gospel and to support the saints.

paul uses a reference to the days in the wilderness where He fed His people with manna in v15 as if to remind them that the Lord will provide for them.

we shouldn’t be storing up our treasures here on this earth.  that stuff rots by morning.  but we should be living in a way that allows God to give us our daily bread, figuratively and literally.

i’m not speaking against all posessions necessarily, i own a house myself.  but our value to support the Gospel work and the saints is evident in how we choose to spend our money.

in v8 paul says “i am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also”.  how we use our money says alot about what is truly important to us.

giving according to the Law = not so hard.  giving generously according to grace = not so easy.

where are your treasures stored?

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what is the criteria for mercy?  do we need to ask for it?  do we need to deserve it?  do we need to have remorse for our offense?

last thursday, famed member of the “manson family” and cold blooded murderer of sharon tate and her unborn baby (among others) was denied parole yet again, close to 40 years after her conviction.  this time, her case was one of medical mercy as she is dying in a bed from brain cancer, a paralyzed amputee.  she will die very soon it seems.  all she wants to do is die somewhere other than prison.

lemme start off with a susan atkins quote.  speaking of sharone tate, atkins says:

“She asked me to let her baby live,” Atkins said. “I told her I didn’t have mercy for her.”

suffice to say that this woman is cold, evil, and showed no mercy to sharon tate and her baby.  so does she deserve mercy?

i think to begin with, we cannot speak the words “deserve” and “mercy” in the same sentence.  mercy is never deserved, it is granted.  it does not require us to even want or request it.  mercy lies solely in the giver.

the Bible tells us in the same breath to “do justly and love mercy” in micah 6:8 as a requirement from our God.  in the case of susan atkins, wouldn’t justice and mercy lie in opposition?

i believe that the entire message of the Scripture is like that verse, to do justly and love mercy.  as ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything.

** my opinion ** is that we should send her home.  i just came to that conclusion mind you, i’ve been thinking about it since i read the article last week.  we can never love mercy if we do not, on occasion, put aside justice.  and in this case, she is no longer a threat to anyone.

it’s a hard lesson, and a very “grey area” matter.  if you think we should leave her in her cell to rot, i can respect that.

let’s just be grateful to our God that He is rich in mercy and lavished it upon us.  let’s be grateful that He set aside justice (I know, I know - He fulfilled justice on our behalf - go with me here) and chose mercy for us “while we were yet sinners” and “enemies of God”.

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another major christian denomination has chosen to set aside clear Biblical teaching on homosexuality and voted to allow openly homosexual people to be ordained and act as clergy.  this is a steady spiral and I don’t really see this being the last of it.  this quote sums up my thoughts pretty well.  it’s a sad day for God’s Church.

“Those who have been actively campaigning for a change of this sort in the other mainline denominations will see this as a sign that they should intensify their efforts,” Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, said in an e-mail. “For those of us who have opposed this on Biblical grounds, it is bound to reinforce the sense that we are no longer welcome in the mainline.”

check out the whole article in the l.a. times

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we’ve been studying the book of acts in our house church.  i thought i’d share something that seriously impressed me.

all throughout acts, paul gives defense after defense of himself and his ministry.  he’s been defending himself to the jews as well as the romans, been imprisoned and stoned, beat and persecuted on what seems to be a regular basis.  he knows that his days left on earth are limited and he is saying his good-byes in some sense here in this passage:

“and now, behold, I know that all of you, among whom I went about preaching the kingdom, will no longer see my face. “therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.  (acts 20: 25-27)

i purposely didn’t include the surrounding text so that it would be clear what my focus was.  read the whole chapter and the surrounding chapters for more context if you want.  paul’s ability to say, with confidence, that he had never missed an opporunity to share the Gospel of Christ, is impressive.  and i mean impressive in the dictionary sense, as in leaving an impression on me, not “wow, paul’s really cool”.

it has left an impresison on me.  paul could say he was not responsible for any that would perish without Jesus because he had given them an opportunity to hear about salvation through Jesus.

can you say the same?  me neither.

we need to take opporunities as they come.  perhaps these opportunities are included in the “good works” that God has prepared for each of us to do in ephesians 2:20.  but we should take each opportunity , and then we can be like paul, innocent before God of the blood of all men.

i want to be like that.  do you?

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not quite pentecost, but very interesting:

the setup (john chapter 20):  Jesus is crucified -> Jesus’ body getting funky for 3 days -> Jesus comes out of the tomb -> mary sees Jesus and runs back to the disciples to tell them -> the door is locked because they’re scared of the jews - > Jesus comes in anyways :)

and when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side.  the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came in and stood in their midst, and said to them, “peace be with you”.  and when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side.  the disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  Jesus therefore said to them again, “peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”  and when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “receive the Holy Spirit.”  (john 20:20-22)

we all know about pentecost as it is told to us in acts chapter 2.  but the precursor of pentecost came when Jesus went back to see His disciples, some seven weeks before pentecost.  this is, in some sense, the passing of the mantle from Jesus to the Holy Spirit.  Jesus was not in teacher mode anymore, He was not interested in sitting down with the disciples and saying “see, i told you guys” or even further clarifying any of His statements that they still didn’t understand.  Jesus’ mission was complete.  it was now time for them to receive the Holy Spirit.

that’s it.  just an interesting passage i thought i’d share.  enjoy.

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For Christians the worship service has top priority in the church, but it is not a high priority in the Bible we preach from.  An interesting phenomenon has developed.  In most churches in America, the people are encouraged to join small groups.  These groups are like small spiritual families where all the “one another s” of the New Testament are practiced.  This is indeed the church.  But participating in such groups is usually considered optional, whereas most Christians feel they must attend the Sunday morning worship service.  They think it is the biblical mandate.

The truth is that the New Testament clearly makes mandatory participating in the spiritual family, the small group.  The larger gathering is optional.  This is the very opposite of contemporary practice.  There are many mandates in the New Testament directing people to come together as a church, but it is for service to one another, not a worship service that includes preaching.  We are so immersed in the current forms of ministry that when we read these verses, we read into them an understanding of church that is not contextually accurate.

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Let me be just state it clearly; attending a church service is not the same as being in a church family.  The church, according to the New Testament, means being involved with one another in an open, vulnerable, and interactive relationship.

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I hope that I have been clear in this, I am not against weekly worship or the church.  I am not saying in any way that it is wrong to gather together weekly for worship.  I do question, however, the high value we place on the Sunday morning service, often at the expense of practicing the New Testament “one anothers”, which are indeed the true expression of the church.

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I am not saying that coming together to worship God is wrong or a mistake.  Not at all.  I believe it pleases him when we do, but I also think we can please him as much (if not more) by interacting with one another intimately and personally.

(Neil Cole - Organic Leadership)

** note: i’ll post the “one anothers” in a separate post for more info

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